LinkedIn and Branding: A practical Social Media site for branding yourself!

Social media, websites used by large groups to share information, greatly influence modern society by providing people with a means of connecting over similar topics.  While many social media websites are commonly portrayed as a purely social experience LinkedIn, a website meant to network people between businesses and peers is widely considered a legitimate tool for the business world. LinkedIn accounts act as an online resume allowing users to network with potential employers and promote themselves essentially broadcasting their own brand.  An added bones to LinkedIn is the ability to brand oneself in a professional manner by being able to post skills, education, prior jobs and achievements all easily viewable in an universal format.  This allows companies to quickly query information on applicants, also allowing companies to search for users who might not have even applied.  

In order to properly use LinkedIn one must brand themselves properly, even when one least expects it they may be getting researched by companies.  The ability for a company to research potential employees incognito is a powerful tool that can harm one if they do not properly brand who they are.  However it can also be a great tool for both users trying to be hired as well as companies looking for a particular skill.

LinkedIn shows the power that social media can provide a specific function such as networking.  With the proper branding of oneself LinkedIn can open many doors through the networks gained through peers, followed and even anonymous companies.  Unlike many of LinkedIn’s predecessors in the world of social media, LinkedIn prevails in one aspect, it is highly professional and practical.

QR codes: Connecting the Universe one phone at a time.

Since the creation of bar codes, technology has grown with the idea of storing data in a small easily accessed picture, or bar. Due to the bar codes ability to store numbers which could represent product information, they quickly became a standard for businesses to easily maintain their products.  Bar codes while great, have limitations due to the ability to only hold 20 digits worth of data. The idea behind bar codes stemmed a new idea first implemented in Japan to create a code which could hold more data.  The result, QR codes which have the ability to “hold thousands of alphanumeric characters of information” redefining the use of barcode technology and making navigation of the web trivial.

The ease of creating and deploying QR codes, along with the availability of QR readers has made them an ideal method for connecting people across the internet.  From instantly liking someone’s Facebook to searching for someone’s blog, QR codes make navigating technology effortless and quick.  QR codes are also great for branding a business which is why in my previous blog I have a whole section on QR codes in regards to how they can effectively connect a business with a product to a consumer instantly.  The ability to pull out a phone and scan a poster and directly connect to a website cuts out all the cumbersome processes such as typing a URL in a phone or worse writing it down on paper for later.  At their best QR codes take all the effort and guesswork out of connecting users on the internet, leaving more time to enjoy the internet while being no more than a quick scan away from connecting to the rest of the world.

Social Networking Security or Lack of When Promoting Your Brand

The influence social networking has in today's world is so significant that companies all over the world are looking for effective ways to utilize its potential. The best way for a company to maximize the return of social networking websites such as Facebook is to make sure they get their brand to the potential customers in order to promote their products.  Tools such as QR's which are "two-dimensional bar codes that contain any alphanumeric text and often feature URLs that direct users to sites"("7 things you should know about.... QR Codes" educause.edu)  make it significantly easier for businesses to quickly link potential clients with their product with the simple click of a phone camera.  New features on social media websites (such as Facebook) have made it easier than ever for companies to not only advertise their brand but get results in real time. Websites such as http://www.google.com/alerts supply live data for companies to track trends, which in turn allows them to properly research and develop new ways to accurately gauge their product's appeal.  It is truly amazing the amount of data returned and the turnaround time available now, and it is crucial for companies to fully learn and integrate these tools into their business.

While it is clear that the use of social media is a great tool that continues to grow and provide support for businesses, there are some risks involved.  Any company that immerses itself into this high tech world has to be prepared to take security precautions to protect its own reputation. The growth in the integration of social media and corporations requires that " IT professionals to consider employees and customers as part of the broad security team." ( Patrick Budmar http://goo.gl/1oRDZv).  Companies must be aware of their image on media sites as well as the sensitive information being shared by their employees on their own social websites.  The dangers of an employee damaging a company's reputation with a negative comment, or worse, revealing proprietary company data, is a grave concern.  Thus new strategies to ensure security must be adopted by a company to truly make use of the great cloud in the sky which is social media.