Week 5 EOC: Social Networks and Job Hunting

The ambassador idea is a good marketing strategy that saves companies a lot of money by having the consumer reach out to their family and friends and speaking on a new product. This has been proven to work and it is explained in the following quote: “Sony used brand ambassadors to jump-start the launch of its new GPS camera, a high-tech device that draws on satellite tracking technology to let you record the exact location of every picture you take and later map them out online using Google Maps. Sony selected customer ambassadors who like to travel, take pictures, and blog. “This is a product with emerging technology and we really need to let consumers see people using it,” says Sony’s director of digital imaging.”  (Page 143; Marketing: An Introduction, 10^th Edition; www.pearsonhighered.com)

As far as job recruiting goes, there have been many sites that offer employers a spot on their site for free job searches. Obviously, Facebook is leading in customer and online presence. This makes an attractive tool and also a competitive edge that companies must adapt to. “Matt Mund, Monster.com's vice president of product management, acknowledged that Facebook as a recruiting platform is growing rapidly. The company, which hosts a job board and other recruiter services, launched its own Facebook app, dubbed Be Known, in June, and the application now has nearly 800,000 monthly users, according to AppData.com, a market research group.” (The Wall Street Journal, August 8, 2011 page 2 by Joe Light)

To conclude, I believe that the consumer can take the company either way. It all depends on the marketing team that is in place to take advantage of whatever the market seems to need. Companies cannot accept the fact that another company has an advantage.  They must be willing to adapt and understand how the consumer’s behavior can be beneficial.