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Resume's and web 2.0

I read a few articles recently about resume's and how to put together one that looks professional. The article I was reading brought up a good point, with social media becoming so expansive it's easier to find information about a person online than it is to learn about them from reading a resume. A few weeks ago at my work I had to fill a position that opened up and I requested resume's and cover letters from the applicants. I was amazed at how a resume could position a person and then when they showed up for the interview I felt like I had been tricked somehow. More important than what a person has done, I want to know what they can do and how they will fit in to the work environment that currently exists. I feel like hiring managers can get a better understanding of those qualities by looking at social networks and information online that is more candid, rather than staring at a piece of paper.

Mind your P's and Q's

Everybody is using the internet now and as a result everybody should learn and practice basic netiquette, or net etiquette. There are some things you just don't do and these rules have been devoloped as the internet has become more and more common as a way of communication. Go to any search engine and type in "net etiquette" and you will find pages and pages of webpages to visit that will all tell you the same basic rules in various different ways. If you don't know what these rules are, find them and read them. You'll feel more confident in your online interactions and your friends will thank you.

Utah State's PR Conference

I attended USU's PR Conference on the 13th. I didn't really know what to expect since I'd never been to anything like that before but I left impressed at the way things were organized along with the speakers who presented. I learned some valuable things about the PR industry and all the options that are available upon graduation. It really was a an eye opening experience for me. Utah State did a great job, which was important because this was the first one they've done. If they had messed up I guarantee next year they wouldn't be able to get as many high profile speakers to come, voluntarily, and present what they know about public relations. But from everything I saw and heard it was a big success and most of the speakers have blogged or put something on their company websites about what a great experience they had at the conference. Good job USU.

Twitter

I still don't get it. I thought Twitter was useless when I first heard about it and confusing when I first tried to use it. I didn't want to just "tweet" about what I was doing, I wanted conversations with other people. But as New York Times reports, Twitter is becoming more and more popular as well as useful.

"In 2006, when Twitter was just starting, the three men felt a small earthquake in San Francisco. They each reached for their phones to twitter about it and discovered tweets from others in the city. At that moment, it dawned on them that Twitter might be most useful for something else — a frontline news report, not just for friends, but for anyone reading.
Indeed, the news-gathering promise of Twitter was most evident during the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last November and when a jetliner landed in the Hudson River in January. People were twittering from the scenes before reporters arrived. "

Companies are even scouring Twitter now looking for "tweets" about recent products and what people think about them to get a general feel for the market. And it's free, it's the biggest tool for market research and it's being given away by every person who thinks the world care's about what they're doing.

Internet and sports

-7.52 million unique visitors to the NCAA March Madness on Demand video player (2008 figure was 4.76 million -- 58% growth)

-8.6 million total hours of live streaming video and audio consumed -- (2008 figure was 4.92 million -- 75% growth)

-515 thousand total hours of video and audio were consumed during the semifinal and championship games of the 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship, a 51% increase over 2008 figures.

-2.77 million clicks of the "Boss Button" (2008 figure was 2.5 million for entire tournament)

Those are incomprehendable numbers for most people and huge percentages of growth in a year. The internet and its ability to allow media to interact with the public is making an enormous difference in the amount of coverage sports are getting. And these figures are only for one tournament. It's just a glimpse, I believe, of what social media will do to all of media. It's gonna make it easier to get whatever we want. And that equals big money, and growth for the major players in media.

Buicks are...nice??

In a recent study done by J.D. Power and Associates, Buick is tied with Jaguar for the top spot in dependability. But I don't care about Jaguar cause they're not American owned anymore since Ford sold it in 2007, and nobody ever said Jags weren't nice cars to begin with. I was surprised that Buick was even on the list.

Jamie Hresko, GM's vice president of quality, said the win for Buick is a win for GM overall because the company has duplicated the lessons from Buick in all new models. ''I think we still struggle with the perception, that the perception of our product is substandard,'' he said. ''If we continue to attack the markets that we consider will be high volume, which is markets like the Chevrolet Malibu, and we can sell a few hundred thousand of them, the reputation will spread.''

His comment about perception is right on, but if they keep winning awards it won't take long for that to change. As American cars, not just GM cars, continue to make consumers aware that their cars are catching up and passing imports in quality, Americans will start to get over their love affair with foreign cars. It's a sadly true cliche', but what's good for GM is good for America.