Employers using Facebook for recruitment purposes. Have they gone too far this time.

With over 750 Million active users on Facebook, it is becoming a preferred platform for employers to look for potential candidates for job openings in their companies and it seems to be working in favour of them in finding one ,one of the companies being Oracle. In a recent post on computerweekly.com an article was posted regarding Oracle using social networking sites like Facebook and twitter to recruit 1,700 new employees for its European expansion. And Facebook is also supporting this cause after the success of LinkedIn by promoting employers to use Facebook as a recruitment tool.

At the same time employers have been looking into Facebook profiles before hiring a candidate to try and get some information that can be used to scrutinise the number of applicants a photo any comment’s or any fan page’s that they have liked. Even worse, an employer could unearth inaccurate information which might cost someone their career. And another scary thing is in recent news article on CBSNEWS it says that employers have learned how to access profiles which have privacy settings. What makes all of this even more interesting is, in an article posted on Forbs.com on 20th of June it said, that federal Trade Commission has given a stamp of approval to a background check company that screens job applicants based on their internet photos and postings. The FTC determined that Social Intelligence Corp. Was in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This means search of what you’ve said or posted in social networking sites and the internet in general may become a standard part of background checks when you apply for job.

And all this leads us to one question- have employers gone too far by invading into people's private lives and attempting to either make or break their career based on the content found on social networking sites.  Is the border between personal and work life been crossed by the employers?  What should companies care about more, the professional skills and merit of an employee or what his/her favourite beer is and what they were up to during their university days?

Business and their tricks in social media

     Social media has provided an amazing opportunity for businesses to improve their brand awareness, market to a niche demographic and much more. The opportunities provided by social media are unlimited. In saying that, not enough businesses are aware of how to leverage of the many social media tools that are available. This led to the rise of a new industry of social media marketers or experts, who advice the companies what to do and what not to do in social media, and how to create an impact and increase their brand awareness without spending a huge amount on an ad campaign.

     There are many strategies employed by companies to make use of social media. One of the many used strategies being used to improve their fan base is to create a situation where as many people need to be tagged in the photos, and by tagging themselves they win something. The trick to this is that, on Facebook for example you need to first ‘like’ the page, thus making you a fan of it, in order for you to tag a photo. This increases the amount of fans the page gets, therefore leading to an increase in brand awareness, product awareness’s and word of mouth. With all this said and done, Will this kind of trick help the company be sustainable and would it help/assist in its sustainability strategies? With all the fan profiles getting over crowded with all the fan page updates what new strategies will the companies come up with to keep the fans interested in their daily posts and updates. Any views on the new ways that companies will use or have already been using to keep fans interested in their updates and attract new fans.....

what is that makes social networking sites unique and addictive..???????

Hi every one, my name is Leo Praveen and this is my first attempt in writing a blog. For the next 3 months this will be my diary of all the different experiences that I have had and how I feel about social media.............

What are social networking sites? Is there a clear answer to this question? Is it a place that allows us to share all our thoughts and experiences with our friends and family or is just a place that we have created outside the real world to have some fun and interaction?Or is it a channel which allows us to meet like minded people and get to know them better which might not be possible or easy in real life............if all the above is true what is it that makes certain people feel that it is unsafe......????