Social Media vs Social Networking and How to Find a Job Using Them

Hey Everyone!

This week I focused on Chapter 4 of David Meerman Scott’s, The New Rules of Marketing and PR.  This chapter is titled, Social Media and Your Targeted Audience.  There were so many good topics in this chapter so it is hard to pick one that really stands out.  I think it is important to review Scott’s definitions of social media and networking and then focus on the points he made about how to use social media for job searching.

Scott starts out by briefly mentions all types of social media sites, all of which we are most likely familiar with at this point (2013).  He makes it a point to mention; social networking, blogs, photo sharing, chat rooms, wikis, mobile applications, etc. (Scott, 2013).  He defines social media as a way for people to share anything from their ideas to their relationships (Scott, 2013).  Social media allows people to interact on a different medium than was ever done in the past.  A point that I found particularly interesting is that Scott differentiates social media and social networking.  In my experience the two phrases have been used interchangeably.  According to Scott social media is defined as, “…how we refer to the various media that people use to communicate online in a social way (2013).”  This is referring to all of the sites I previously mentioned.   Social networking is, “…to refer to how people interact on sites (Scott, 2013).”  He believes networking occurs when people develop their own pages and begin to share information with each other (Scott, 2013).  We see how quickly these pages can grow and create interaction with Scott’s example of the Singapore tattoo show.  Due to the Facebook page that was created for this tattoo show, it had three times the amount of people come than were expected (Scott, 2013).  People with similar interests become instant friends on sites like Facebook and allow people around the world to connect.

Scott then goes on to teach us how to use social media for job searching.  Social media allows for us as job seekers to interact with potential employers, something that has not been done in past years (Scott, 2013).  LinkedIn is one of the business oriented sites that allows people to directly connect with other business professionals.  Scott gives advice that I find particularly important, “Create information that people want.  Create an online presence that people are eager to consume (2013).”  He is not asking you to be something you are not but more so to put your best foot forward.  Scott mentions two different people that used social networking professionally and succeeded.   One of his mentions even found a job through Twitter that had not officially been posted yet (2013).   This is the power of social networking.  You can put yourself out there and people will come to you.

As a side note, I found this book, at right, Job Searching with Social Media for Dummies, that I thought tied into Scott’s chapter this week.  I did not know this book was out there and it is amazing to see that there is a whole book dedicated to helping people use social media to find a job.  I thought that this was an interesting fun fact to add to this weeks discussion.

Any other thoughts on this chapter?!

-Michele

Works Cited:

Scott, D.(2013). The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated

Strategy Vs. Communication

In reading through Argenti, Howell, and Beck’s quotes about the connection between communication and overall strategy I would have to say that for the most part, I agree with them.  I believe that it does make a difference in how you communicate your message to people and choosing which medium to communicate the message, social media, tv, or billboard for example, is part of your strategy.  If we look at it this way the two go hand in hand.   I found the cartoon, at right, to be comical as well as informative and relevant.  It supports the idea that strategy and communication rely on each other.  The strategy in the picture is to all lift together, but without the proper communication, it doesn’t work.   A campaign or plan by a company can have the same results.   It is one thing to plan out how everything will go but without the proper communication to its intended audience it may not yield the results that are wanted. 

I believe that the connection between communication and strategy does carry on through marketing, advertising and even social media.  In this short article I came across, it dives into different strategies and ways of communicating them.   Some examples they mention are direct marketing and personal selling (Greene, 2014).  It would be extremely hard to have one without the other. 

When Argenti, Howell, and Beck mention that, "Many companies take a tactical, short-term approach to communicating with key constituencies, which is not only nonstrategic but may be inconsistent with the corporate strategy or even impede it (Argenti, Howell, Beck, 2005)" it made me think.  When companies are running on a campaign idea it is usually a short lived thing.  You create a product, you put a plan together to sell it, and then you move on to the next product.  However, I feel that if we do not access and link our communication strategies together and look like one company, we could end up being a bit all over the place.  This is why it is important to always connect your company’s overall strategies and goals with the means of communication you are choosing.  If we align all IMC elements as part of overall strategy, it will really bring the company together as one.  This will be less confusing to customers and will allow all aspects of the company, including communication and strategy, to come together. 

Do you guys agree?

             

-Michele

Works Cited:

Argenti, P., Howell, R., & Beck, K. (2005). The Strategic Communication Imperative. Retrieved from https://www.dartmouth.edu/~opa/communicators/fall08/reading/Sloan_MIT_Strat_Comm_Imp.pdf

Greene, F. (2014). What is Marketing Communication Strategy. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/marketing-communication-strategy-3442.html