“You Might Be Hired But We Need To Log In To Your Facebook Account”

I’ve been hearing a lot this week about employers asking potential employees to provide their Facebook log in information during the interview process. This has obviously stirred up a lot of controversy, especially surrounding the 1^st Amendment and raised concerns over how it would affect equal opportunity employment; personal information such as sexual orientation and religion could be used to discriminate against job seekers.

I understand the desire of state or correctional institutes to want to use social media to investigate a potential candidate, but do you really need access to their personal account? Can’t you just friend the person? (Even that would probably be taking it too far because of EOE rights, as stated above).  Why not just ask for personal banking information while you’re at it? Anyway, I would hope that a state or correctional facility would have resources to do background checks on personnel beyond logging into their Facebook page.

Being in the marketing industry, I can’t imagine working for an employer who thinks it’s ok to ask for this type of information let alone giving my username and password to anyone, especially in a job interview. However, I can just imagine recent college grads that are so anxious to land that perfect first job giving up their rights to personal privacy. In this recent Mashable article, Facebook has taken a stand against this practice, citing their own privacy policy, potential for discrimination and the responsibility that falls upon a potential employer who comes across illegal activity. Of course, they have a vested interest in protecting their users, but good for them anyway!

What are your thoughts on this controversy? How far would you go to land a job? As a hiring employer, where do you the draw the line between vetting new employees and invading their personal privacy? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Photo Credit: Alessio85 via Flickr Creative Commons license

Google Ads Based On Your Phone Calls – Is This Too Much?

It’s hard not to think this story is just creepy in so many ways…

But, Google filed a patent on a technology that essentially serves ads based on the background noise of your phone calls. The abstract from the patent explains:

Information about an environmental condition of a remote device is received, the environmental condition being determined based on a signal output from a sensor of the remote device or a sensor coupled to the remote device. An advertisement is identified based on the environmental condition, and the advertisement is provided to the remote device.

So, if I am speaking to someone on the phone about the horrendous heat down here in South Florida, am I going to receive some type of advertisement for air conditioning or fans? It appears with this technology, I just might.

Because this patent is just merely a submission, that doesn’t mean this is definite. But, can you imagine what this could mean for advertisers? How far could this really be taken?

Just playing devil’s advocate for a moment, could we also say that this is another means for receiving highly targeted (perhaps even helpful) ads based on our current environmental needs? Maybe I do need to buy a fan to ward off the heat.

Nonetheless, I still don’t think it will be accepted by the masses without extreme resistance.

Image credit: Duchamp

Is Facebook becoming a prison for web traffic?

According to this insightful article by Anil Dash, Facebook is "openly attacking its users ability and willingness to navigate the rest of the web." For instance, Facebook is removing the capability of syndicated content to be posted via Facebook Notes and forcing users to post notes individually. He also goes on to speak about how privilege is given to captive content on Facebook after only one approval from a given user (Yahoo! News is a good example) over outside links - that is, content like this will always be higher on the news feed. Facebook also creates an atmosphere of fear for users by deeming even websites that it has indexed to be unsafe, displaying warnings about outside websites and security.

What does all of this mean? It means that despite the fact that Facebook remains one of the greatest internet marketing tools that a business can utilize that it may also present barriers to the very users you are trying to attract to your website or landing page.

Tell us what you think in the comments section of this blog post.

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents: 4 Types of Paid Traffic

For this Wednesday's weekly webinar, we're excited to present Ten Golden Rules founder and IMC lead man, Jay Berkowitz. Jay discusses the paid traffic market and why it's so vital to your business. In this special presentation, Jay will also highlight paid Google traffic, Facebook, display advertising and the 3 Rs of paid traffic. If your business is struggling to generate sales from Internet traffic, this course is perfect for you.

Click here to register (Wednesday March 21, 2012)
http://bit.ly/paidtrafficregister

About Jay Berkowitz:

Jay Berkowitz is an author, an educator, an International keynote speaker and an award-winning thought leader. A senior online marketing professional with over twenty years of marketing experience, Mr. Berkowitz has managed marketing departments for Fortune 500 brands: Coca-Cola, Sprint and McDonald's Restaurants, and he has developed online and offline strategies for AT&T and leading health and fitness website eDiets.com.

Mr. Berkowitz is the author of The Ten Golden Rules of Online Marketing Workbook, the Founder and CEO of www.TenGoldenRules.com, a strategic online marketing consulting business based in Boca Raton, Florida. He is the host of the Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing Podcast, an Adjunct Professor with the University of San Francisco Internet Marketing Course and he has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal, The Business Journals and he was interviewed on FOX Business TV.


Click here to register (Wednesday March 21, 2012)
http://bit.ly/paidtrafficregister

Get More Out of LinkedIn for Your Business

In the later part of 2011, LinkedIn provided an update to company pages, allowing them to communicate and network better with employees, customers, prospects and industry peers. Now companies can post status updates, similar to Facebook and can also interact with individual and company status updates.

Here at TGR, we suggest you follow the 3 “E’s” when posting status updates:

1. Educate
2. Engage
3. Entertain 

Keep in mind that status updates can support URLs with multimedia, which add a nice visual element to your posts instead of being all text. Many companies are using the status updates to advertise job openings and for recruitment. However, you can post about anything that pertains to your company or industry. It doesn’t always have to be a sale pitch, either!

The new company pages also encourage you to showcase your products or services within your profile. You have the option to include an image, description, list of key features and a URL to your web site or a landing page (great for tracking!) You can also embed a YouTube video on the Product/Service Overview page as well as the individual product or service page. 

Be sure to take full advantage of your new company profile, and above all, keep it classy. Remember, LinkedIn has a more educated and affluent audience than most other social media sites.

Has your company taken advantage of company status updates or the products & services showcase? Tell us how in the comments below.

Overview of A Few Google AdWords Basics

Last week I provided some details on a new Google webinar series that recently premiered. While watching a video from the Google AdWords Classroom, I jotted down a few highlights from one of the lectures that I would like to share with you. This information is ideal for someone who is just getting started or wanting to brush up on AdWords basics.

What is AdWords Optimization?

Optimization means taking steps to get the results you want by improving the quality and performance of your AdWords account.

The Benefits of a Good Structure

It provides a positive impact on:

• The overall performance of the account
• Makes account management easier and more effective
• Makes tracking and analysis easier and more effective

In the end, a good structure allows you to get more clicks for less money.

Campaigns vs. Ad Groups

Campaigns:

You should create separate campaigns when there is a need for different focuses such as:

• Daily budgets
• Adapted to country and language
• Start and end dates

Ad Groups:

You should create separate ad groups when there is a need for different focuses such as:

• To advertise different products or services
• To set different cost per conversion limits

A Few Key Factors to Keep In Mind:

• Organize campaigns by topic
• Create highly specific ad groups
• Avoid duplicate keywords across ad groups

To learn more about selecting optimal keywords, writing compelling ads, etc., check out the below video:



What did you learn from the video?

Foursquare for Business

Foursquare doesn't just allow users to be 'mayor' of a coffee shop they frequent - it's also a great tool for business. Foursquare allows users to 'check in,' every time they visit a venue in real life, and records it both on Foursquare and other social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter (if these accounts have been linked). Brick-and-mortar businesses can offer specials through Foursquare, like rewarding the number of times a customer checks in, making it a great tool for customer loyalty. Venues can also offer other types of discounts, like coupons, to their Foursquare followers. For brands who don't have a brick-and-mortar presence, Foursquare does offer a few options, like check-in specials for when the brand partners with a brick-and-mortar retailer, and badges, which allow customers to complete real-world check-in quests that can get them rewards from the brand.

To learn more about Foursquare for your business, you can visit the Foursquare for Business website, or you can watch this awesome video.