The Girl With A Mac Blog

Have A Facebook Addiction? Five Jobs Just For You

Posted Nov 16, 2009. Filed under Web, Culture, Social Networking, Facebook. Leave a comment?

Are you like me, obsessively checking Facebook every five minutes or so? You know how it is, looking at pictures of people you haven’t talked to in forever, keeping your virtual farm thriving and avoiding that message in your inbox from a family member you haven’t seen in years. Well, CNN may have found the perfect job for us and other avid Facebookers.

Facebook and other social media sites, such as MySpace, are usually given a bad rep amongst us college kids. We’ve all heard how a friend of a friend wasn’t hired by [insert whichever impressive company name you feel fits here] because of a couple of drunken Facebook photos. Or we have a friend who is constantly tweeting while at work, so much so that even you wonder how they get any work done. Well, recently I’ve come across this CNN article written by Rachel Zupek, “Five jobs for Facebook addicts,” which has made me feel a little bit better for all of the hours wasted on the social networking site. The good news is that many jobs in online marketing and other areas see social media expertise as a necessity.

So, what are the top five jobs for Facebook addicts?

1. Recruiter
2. Strategist
3. Enterprise architect
4. User operations analyst
5. Director of social media

1. The recruiter needs no explanation. You’ll be dealing with a bunch of college students that are constantly on social networking sites, you should probably be able to keep up with them. You should also be perky, nobody likes that angry recruiter. You know what I’m talking about.

2. The strategist will help companies figure out how to interact with social sites and their online communities. According to Zupek, your responsibilities will include “interacting with users, growing brand awareness, creating buzz, increasing traffic and providing valuable information.”

3. The enterprise architect involves completely redoing a company’s content management strategy and internal networks.

4. The user operations analyst interact with online communities, answer queries, investigate problems and keep track of user habits. I take it these are the guys in charge of Twitter damage control.

5. And finally, the director of social media organizes company blogging, viral marketing, podcasting, etc. Zupek adds, “these folks should be wary of new technologies and be all over blogs, RSS, have Facebook and Twitter accounts, and know the difference between his or her employees playing and researching on MySpace and YouTube.” I meet all the criteria, and if you’re reading Mr. Jobs, I would be perfect for Apple’s director of social media.

Zupek recommends searching job boards and the Internet for “social media,” “interactive marketing,” “new media” or “branding manager” in order to start your search for the perfect, Facebook happy job.

It’s great to see that companies are adapting to my peers and I. A generation that is constantly using social media will find these jobs appealing. And seriously, Mr. Jobs, I’m your girl.

Pancakes & Facebook Equals Innocence

Posted Nov 12, 2009. Filed under Web, Social Networking, Facebook. Leave a comment?

Generation Y has grown up on-line. It’s not unusual for a 19-year-old to constantly update his Facebook status or send out a couple of tweets to his Twitter followers daily. What is unusual is that Facebook has helped prove the innocence of one such 19-year-old, who was arrested after a robbery took place in the Brooklyn public housing complex where he lives.

Rodney Bradford was arrested and held for 12 days after two people were robbed in his housing complex on October 17^th. Bradford, along with his father and stepmother, claimed the 19-year-old was innocent and at his father’s apartment in Harlem when the robbery took place.

What actually proved Bradford’s innocence? His Facebook status update asking his girlfriend where is pancakes were, which was updated a minute before the crime took place. Charges were dropped after Facebook verified that the update had been posted from a computer in his father’s apartment building?

This story seems so unbelievable. It seems odd that Facebook, the same site that all my friends use to take care of their fake farms and open up their virtual restraunts, can also be used as a legitimate alibi. Can you imagine what would have happened if Amy Fisher had updated her Facebook status a minute before Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot in the face?

LinkedIn & Twitter: Partners..? What?

Posted Nov 10, 2009. Filed under Web, Twitter, Social Networking. Leave a comment?

LinkedIn Corp. and Twitter Inc announced late yesterday that they have formed a partnership that lets users instantly post status updates on both of the social networking sites. The two companies plan to implement the new features over the next couple of days.

LinkedIn, has over 50 million members, with a focus on professionals. LinkedIn is a professional social networking site allowing members to connect with new clients, jobs and information. Twitter, on the other hand, is a microblogging service (allowing users to connect using 140 character tweets) with more than 58 million unique visitors monthly.

On his LinkedIn blog, Allen Blue (co-founder) writes, “The idea is simple: When you set your status on LinkedIn you can now tweet it as well, amplifying it to your followers and real-time search services like Twitter Search and Bing. And when you tweet, you can send that message to your LinkedIn connections as well, from any Twitter service or tool.”

There is one thing that initially bothered me about this. I don’t know if I really want to combine my professional relationships on LinkedIn with my old high school/college (and other various) friends on Twitter. I obviously don’t talk to the two groups the same way, and up until now I could tweet whatever I wanted (this really doesn’t apply to me so much on Twitter because my account is public, but if LinkedIn collaborated with Facebook it’d be tragic). However, my logic remains the same. I don’t know if I want my colleagues knowing every little detail about my mundane life. And then I read a little bit further in Blue’s blog. Luckily the companies thought about this too, and there is a way to set it up on Twitter so that only tweets containing the #in hashtag will be shared with LinkedIn.

With that out of the way, I wish you many years of happiness Twitter and LinkedIn.

A Mini iPhone In The Future For Verizon?

Posted Nov 9, 2009. Filed under Gadget. Leave a comment?

Lately, I’ve been reading a whole lot about the Verizon and AT&T battle. We’ve all seen the “there’s a map for that” Verizon commercial that compares the 3G coverage of both carriers side by side, and thus highlights AT&T’s shoddy coverage. But now there seems to be better news for Verizon and Apple lovers everywhere.

Computerworld’s Matt Hamblen reports, “Apple Inc. will launch a smaller ‘worldmode’ iPhone next year that will be ready for Verizon Wireless to sell in the third quarter of 2010, according to an analyst report citing unnamed handset maker sources in Taiwan”. You can read his article here.

According to the OTR Global analyst report, quoted by Apple Insider, the global iPhone would have a 2.8 inch diagonal display screen (the current iPhone has a 3.5 inch diagonal screen) and will have a hybrid chip from Qualcomm Inc. that makes it compatible with GSM/UMTS 3G networks (including AT&T), as well as CDMA2000 networks (including Verizon). Hamblen says, “The worldmode hybrid, using Qualcomm technology, will allow Apple to sell iPhones to AT&T and Verizon in the U.S., as well as other carriers globally.”

I’m pretty excited about this, although a little skeptical. I mean, the current iPhone is a bit larger than I would like it to be, but can Apple make a smaller iPhone that still does so much? If the global iPhone isn’t as amazing as the original, I would be really disappointed, even if my 3G coverage was way better. In his article, “Verizon To Offer An iPhone Nano? Daniel Indiviglio mentions that the keyboard on a traditional iPhone couldn’t get much smaller and that viewing a video on such a tiny screen is pointless, pointing out that “an iPhone nano would be more of a traditional phone than a robust smart phone. That ignores the essence of what separates an iPhone from the pack, and I’m not sure which consumers this would really appeal to.”

I also don’t know why Apple would only make this mini iPhone available across multiple carriers. I’ve heard many times that Apple made a mistake when choosing AT&T, and solely AT&T (ask my dad how upset he is about the whole situation, I think he may have actually considered moving to an area with better AT&T coverage in order to get an iPhone). There have been many rumors that Apple may turn to Verizon to boost sales, which makes me think it’s odd that only the global iPhone would be available. If you can make the technology available, you could certainly use it to improve the current iPhone. And you can certainly use it to improve profits.

And there’s one more thing. Indiviglio asks the ultimate question, why is Verizon running anti-iPhone ads if it is really in talks with Apple about carrying an iPhone? It’s a good point, and leads me to believe that I will never be able to get my hands on an iPhone. Well, at least not until I move somewhere with better 3G coverage.

The Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway

Posted Nov 7, 2009. Filed under Twitter, Social Networking, Gadget. Leave a comment?

So, I’ve come across an amazing giveaway that I thought you should know about. Earlier this week I blogged about the TwitterPeek, and now the Washington Post is giving one away. If that wasn’t enough for you to be enticed, it’s aqua!

The Washington Post is giving away a TwitterPeek to one TechCrunch reader tomorrow. In order to enter “the Just Because We Love You TwitterPeek Giveaway” all you have to do is retweet their post with the URL (http://bit.ly/3U2Yhy) and the #crunch hashtag (must be in the United States to enter). The winner will be drawn randomly tomorrow (November 7^th) and will receive the gadget in the mail along with a bonus TechCrunch t-shirt.

I don’t know about you, but of course I’m retweeting. I can’t wait to get my hands on a TwitterPeek, and I absolutely love free stuff!