Can the Use of Social Media be Useful in Universities' Career Services?

Social media tools are becoming an important presence in recruitment processes, transforming them. They allow an instant sharing of ideas, opinions, knowledge and experiences, creating a new “space-time” dimension that could be translated in a new way (additional) to “recruit” workers. Although there are many benefits and promises from social media, however several risks are associated with their use. The ambiguity related to legal and ethical issues of social media, at the same time, contains the enthusiasm related to the potentialities that social media offer. In particular, this chapter aims at analysing the perceived risks and benefits of social media by students to understand if it can be useful for University Career Services (referred to UCS) to use these tools in job placement. The analysis is conducted in five countries: Netherlands, Sweden, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Croatia. It can be useful for managers of universities and firms to understand whether the presence of Universities on social media by students and firms is positive or not.

Social Media in Micro SME Documentary Production

Micro SME documentary producers are challenged to understand, adapt and apply social media technology in the creative economies. This paper examines the technological premise of social media, applications and limitations in documentary filmmaking. Drawing from other fields such as psychology, the author proposes a Real- and Virtual World Networking Model (RVNM), theorizing on how documentary producers can connect via social media networking to generate strong system support for their documentary project. RVNM helps documentary filmmaker make sense of the complexity of social media from development to distribution in order to further stimulate significant growth within the creative industries.

Desperately Seeking Customer Engagement

Since 2004 when Myspace was converted from a file storage service to a social networking site, social media has become an integral part of people's everyday experiences. Social media has also come to play an influential role in business. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the Five-Sources Model of Brand Value that illustrates the importance of functional, emotional, self-oriented, social, and relational brand consumption experiences helping different organisations get a clear sense of where they can add value to their marketing communication strategies on social media. The model is consumer-centered and is grounded in consumers' experiences collected through interviews and Facebook focus group. This chapter is based on an on-going project that first started as a Masters research in 2011. It has continued with conferences and academic papers, in conjunction with consulting and lecturing on social media applications in New Zealand business and education context.

Finding Information Faster by Tracing My Colleagues' Trails

Knowledge workers are confronted with the challenge of efficient information retrieval in enterprises, which is one of the most important barriers to knowledge reuse. This problem has been intensified in recent years by several organizational developments such as increasing data volume and number of data sources. In this chapter, a reference algorithm for enterprise search is developed that integrates aspects from personalized, social, collaborative, and dynamic search to consider the different natures and requirements of enterprise and web search. Because of the modular structure of the algorithm, it can easily be adapted by enterprises to their specificities by concretization. The components that can be configured during the adaptation process are discussed. Furthermore, the performance of a typical instance of the algorithm is investigated through a laboratory experiment. This instance is found to outperform rather traditional approaches to enterprise search.

Manually Profiling Egos and Entities across Social Media Platforms

Social media accounts on various social media platforms represent the public-facing Web presences of egos (individuals) and entities (groups). On the surface, these may be understood based on their profiles, their shared contents and postings, and their interactions with other user accounts online. A number of software tools and analytical techniques enable further analyses of these accounts through network analysis, content analysis, machine-based text summarization, and other approaches. This chapter describes some of the capabilities of “manual” or semi-automated (vs. fully automated) remote profiling of social media accounts for insights that would not generally be attainable by other means.

Getting New Business Contacts in Foreign Markets through Social Networking Sites

Being able to find information, people and expertise helps business to grow and remain competitive. Professional networking using the web 2.0 is providing entry opportunities into international markets, allowing professional workers to interact with both workers and companies in markets worldwide. For that reason our research seeks identify the Social Networking Sites (SNSs) used with business purposes by professional workers, as well as to test the importance given by workers of the Basque Country region in Spain, to the use of social networks, particularly SNSs, to find new professionals around the world and help the workers network. Business Networking is a valuable way to expand knowledge, learn from the success of others, attain new clients and tell others about the business.

The Role of Social Media in Shaping Marketing Strategies in the Airline Industry

Tourism is one of the leading sectors based on other people's views and comments found on the Internet. Prior to deciding where they would like to go, individuals obtain information about the travel agencies they will use, the hotels they will stay at and the regions they would like to visit, plus the views and experiences of others in terms of these issues, which are largely shared via social media environments. Accordingly, it has become a necessity for establishments to follow the main social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on, and develop their goods and services in line with the comments shared on these platforms. In this study, how national and international airline companies implement the 4Ps of marketing (product, price, place, promotion) in social media environments is investigated through examples and analysed through data obtained via interviews.

A Tale of Two Banks

By focusing on Facebook as an emerging Social Media (SM) customer services channel, this research provides an insight into social media service encounters. Data were collected from the Facebook pages of two British banks. Evidence is presented on the discrepancy between what customers expected of SM and what banks were prepared to offer, a discrepancy which resulted in customer frustration. The findings also demonstrate that, apart from banking regulation, a bank's own SM policies and the training and empowerment of its staff are likely to impact on the quality of firm-customer interactions on SM. It is challenging for financial institutions to develop strategies to address customer queries satisfactorily on their SM pages and at the same time to work within the rules of compliance regulations. Moreover, many customers who put up a complaint on SM are observed to have developed rather negative feelings about their banks and to have lost their trust, suggesting a lack of clarity about the limited role of banks' Facebook channel among customers.

Generation Y and Internet Privacy

This chapter addresses the issue of privacy settings with a focus on Generation Y from a technological, social, generational, cultural and philosophical point of view. After introducing the issue of Internet privacy and other relevant areas—generational and cultural differences, the philosophical framework, the postinternet condition, the possibilities of processing and (mis)using personal data, and privacy policy—the authors present their perspective on the issue, drawing implications for individuals and organizations based on their own research and other relevant studies. The authors discuss the possible implications in terms of a prospective use of personal data by companies (e.g. for marketing and management) and possibility of processing user data. Such perspective will allow them to formulate a critical basis for further assessment of social networking and Generation Y's attitudes to privacy. The chapter concludes by outlining several recommendations concerning the commercialization of social networking services with respect to the constantly changing conception of privacy.

Professional and Business Applications of Social Media Platforms

This chapter provides an overview of the challenges and benefits of social media across various industries. The use of social media has created the highly effective communication platforms where any user, virtually anywhere in the world, can freely create the content and disseminate this information in real time to a global audience. The chapter argues that professional and business applications of social media platforms can enhance business performance toward reaching strategic goals in the digital age. What are keeping various industries awake these days? Why are social media applications important to various industries? How do social media platforms apply for professional and business perspectives across various industries?