Week 5-Has the Job-Hunt Changed or not- What Color is Your Parachute

In the first two chapters of "What Color is Your Parachute" talks about how the surface behavior of job-hunting is changing for example Richard Bolles  states when "new technology arises- think computers, think internet, think smartphone, think digital resumes,think the Internet of things- job-hunting alters. On the surface"(Bolles.2018).  This is very true but then in Chapter 3 he starts by mentioning that even though all those things with the job-hunt are changing doesn't mean the essence of job-hunting it self is changing. Bolles states "job-hunting is not a science; it is an art. Some job-hunters know instinctively how to do it; in some cases, they were born knowing how to do it. Others of us sometimes have a harder time with it"(Bolles.2018). This is so true but in this day and age with all the changes and such there are so many resources to help those that are in fact struggling with the job search and get them on track. Final thoughts from this chapter 3 are that job-hunting is something that one has to take the time to do. If the methods or steps one is  taking aren't working something has to change because their are jobs out there for everyone.


In an article by Lydia Dishman "How You'll Search for  A Job in 2017" talks about the trends that are occurring in the job search which ties into What Color is Your Parachute as well that it's not necessarily the idea of job searching that's changing but it's how were going about the job search that is changing. Lydia states " According to LinkedIn report, 85% of people- known in HR parlance as "passive job seekers"- are employed and satisfied with their position. Yet nearly half (45%0 say they'd be willing to talk to a recruiter about a potential opportunity"(Dishman.2017). In 2017 that couldn't be more accurate because people want to be well rounded individuals and be able to bring many different skills to a company in order to be successful in the future.


Next the article dives into Assessments such as cognitive and/or behavioral assessments. According to the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 13% of U.S employers utilize personality assessments"(Dishman.2017). This is one of the changes that I believe Bolles was referring to because this isn't something that is really changing the essence of the job-hunting but it's changing the way the job-hunting is going, because often the individual that doesn't want to take the cognitive or behavioral assessment may not be qualified for the job in hand.

Closing thoughts changes are occurring no doubt about it but the essence of job-hunting is still the same but new ways of doing it are coming into place. Also Lydia makes a valid point to focus more on social media to fill job positions. Everywhere we go social media follows.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3066700/how-youll-search-for-a-job-in-2017

Week 5- Trends in Social Media For Businesses

Whether a business is using social media actively or not these trends will be sure to help them get on board and stay on board. Each year something new in social media comes around whether it's a new way to share something or it's an update on something that already exists. The bottom line is that social media changes constantly and businesses have to be able to keep up with it and be updated as well.

The first trend that is mentioned in the article by Ryan Holmes "Top 5 Social Media Trends for Businesses in 2017" states The "reachpocalypse" peaks which means that the way businesses used to reach their users is no longer going to work. So what networks are doing is using their own ads, promoted post and updates and that's what businesses have to start doing. The second trend is Employees become your social media army this is very important for businesses that don't want to spend a lot of their money on social media but want to get their brand out there. Ryan Holmes states" Employee advocacy--encouraging and incentivizing team members to share brand messages on their own social media accounts"(Holmes.2016). This  is killing two birds with one stone it's engaging your employees to work together and better the company and it's also allowing the company to save money and put it towards other things. The example that Ryan Holmes mentions in his article is "Top golf enlisted 300 of its associates to start sharing updates and saw Likes increase by 220 percent during the initiative's launch last year"(Holmes.2016).

The third trend is social media skills gap widens this is a big thing that creates a lot of problems for companies is that their front line employees don't have the skills to leverage social media as a business tool. Ryan Holmes states" Social media coursework is slowly being incorporated into university programs, and not just for students pursuing marketing and communications degrees"(Holmes.2016). This is a great tool to be able to learn just as I'm learning in the social media class I am currently in. Trend number four is CEOs finally get the hang of social media a lot of CEOs don't see the benefit of them personally being on social media but as compared to 2015 in 2016 the numbers of CEOs on social media were increasing. The last trend is Sales and customer service get more social which is incorporating chat boxes that allow customers to directly ask someone a question on a topic.

Each trend mentioned above is vitally important for businesses to keep up with their success.

https://www.inc.com/ryan-holmes/top-5-social-media-trends-for-businesses-in-2017.html

Week 4 Social Media-Why Businesses Can't Survive without Social Media

With being in 2017 it's hard to believe that a lot of companies don't use the internet as a way of communicating with there customers.  The problem arises is that companies often think that they are able to survive if they don't jump on the social media bandwagon but that is just not the case according to the article by Ryan Holmes. Ryan Holmes states "For businesses today, the best way to keep your company successful, in my estimation, is to fully embrace social media"(Holmes.2015).This couldn't be more accurate because social media now a days is allowing customers to buy products, book reservations, book plane tickets, etc. Also  social media itself is helping the companies as well by allowing them to sell their products on  social media networks which in terms may be creating a different client base.

Now the question becomes if businesses can't survive without social media then why don't all of them use social media.  Ryan Holmes mentions that as of 2015 a lot of senior executive, CEO's, and decision  makers don't know what social media does or even how it can contribute to the future success of their business. Ryan Holmes states" Three-quarters of online adults in the U.S. now use social media sites, according to the Pew Internet Project"(Holmes.2015). That means that majority of the world understands what an impact social media has on their business and how it will help them in the future. Another reason is that businesses are scared of the changes that would be made with social media. Ryan Holmes says " The argument so often cited by executives-- that social media is too new, too fluid and too "soft" and unquantifiable to merit serious consideration-- no longer holds water"(Holmes.2015). This is makes sense for businesses that have an older generation of employees  but also at the same time change is often good and something that will help make the business successful which is what those employees want in the end.

Closing thoughts social media is changing the way consumers and businesses work together so if one doesn't get on board they will fall behind. "Around 2 billion people-- more than a quarter of the planet--are now on social media. Investing in a social strategy now is the single best way to future-proof of your business for the years ahead"(Holmes.2015). Not to say you have to change everything in your business just allow other ways of communicating with your customers and employees and being able to introduce new products and services. Don't want to be the business that's left behind just because you don't want to introduce social media into it.

For more information check out the link to the article mentioned in this blog.
http://fortune.com/2015/11/18/businesses-cant-survive-social-media/

Week 4- What Color is Your Parachute

Google is a fast growing search engine that allows anyone and everyone access to all sorts of information. Now since 2008 Google is now the new resume for job seekers so all job hunters need to be careful what they are posting on their social media networks and the kind of grammar they have. So the What Color is Your Parachute book breaks it down into four things you can do to with this new Google resume.


The first thing is edit think about all the words that come to mind when you want someone to consider hiring you whether it's hardworking, professional, experienced, etc. Then look up what you find when you google search yourself and go to the different social networks that you have that make you think differently and remove them. Then have posts and stuff that portray you the way you want to be seen as.

The second thing is fill in which is on all social networks Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn it allows you to fill out a profile. The book recommends to fill out that profile completely. Leave nothing blank unless you have a reason too and make sure to double check your grammar and spelling. Lastly make sure you update your profile regularly so that when it get's checked you don't have information on there that isn't accurate.

Third thing is expand on the internet. The book gives many ways of expanding. The first is forums or groups that relate to your industry or interests and give insight when you have something to say on the group. Another way is blogging and narrow it to specific areas of expertise. Also post articles that focus on action steps rather than just thoughts. Another expanding way is Twitter by using hashtags with the industry of interest. Last way of expanding is videos and showing people things make it easier for them to understand what your interested in.


The last thing to is to add a resume to the internet. What Color is Your Parachute gives a starter kit for writing a resume. First things first mention any volunteer,community, and unpaid work. Then talk about your educational background ranging from scholarships to committees. Then talk about your experience whether it's sales experience, administration, customer service, and accounts, etc experience.

Final thoughts in this day and age it's so easy for an employer to just type in your name and find out all they need to know on whether to hire you on not. That means your job is to clean it up before they find it. By using the four things edit, fill in, expand, and add to it. Then you need to make sure your organized with your information whether its online or not in others words putting together an old before google resume. Then before you know the job is all yours.

Week 1 Repost

In Chapter 1 Social Media Marketing talks about ROI which has been a problem in the business world and the goal is to make money on the social media marketing. In the book it states Often people are hired and agencies are hired but they lose their jobs because the organization doesn't understand how it impacts the revenue. Social media marketing needs to be used in business so it's good to learn ROI.

The Acronyms that are used in this chapter are B2B and B2C which is Business to Business and Business to Consumer. An example of B2B is Walmart and the primary customer is the individual. In terms of social media marketing one has to figure out what context you will be marketing in. Then one can learn different scenarios for marketing to a consumer or to a business.


Social Media marketing is  about ROI, B2B, B2C and even Acronyms but at the end of the day Social Media Marketing is all about posting. One form of posting is promotional posting which is trying to get someone to buy something and if the post is engaging and catches their attention and they may click on it.


Lastly now you got what you want to post and who your marketing to. How do you start? To advertise on Facebook you can go to a link to Facebook advertising. To wrap up businesses goal is to make money so how you promote your social media marketing is a key component in helping that business make money.

Week 3- Job-Hunters " What Color is Your Parachute?"

Ever find it hard to find a job? Or find a job in a field you want? Well then you come to the right place. What Color is Your Parachute is the perfect book to help those Job Hunters that don't know what do or maybe don't know what kind of job they want.  Richard Bolles book states " We assume, of course, that the reason why nothing is working is that there are no jobs. It never occurs to us that there are indeed jobs- over ten million of them a month, as we'll see in chapter 3- but that employees have changed their behavior when hunting their behavior when hunting for employees, and we have not caught up with, nor adapted to, employees' new behavior"(Bolles.2018.p.3). This is true there is always going to be a job out there it may not be what you want or you may not be a candidate for it but the job is still out there. The other problem that is faced is once we find a job it doesn't always last which means we have to get smarter and develop more skills. Bolles states " Job-hunting is no longer an optional exercise. It is a  survival skill. This means the one thing in our life that we must get really skilled at, and become masters of, is the new job-hunt, new at least since things have changed after the 2008 Great Recession"(Boles.2018.p.9). This is a problem because job-seekers often get discouraged after a certain length of time when searching for a job and that is when developing a new skill will come in handy making them a more vital candidate for another great job.

In this day and age the communication between the job-hunters and the employers is often lacking in what exactly that employer may be looking for in their employees. " When we're job-hunting, you get turned down because-some employers say-" You don't have the skills we're looking for." You think they're referring to such things as analyzing, researching, communicating, etc. No, they really mean "experience", though they use the word "skills"(Bolles.2018.p.11). This is so frustrating for the job-hunters because how are they suppose to get experience if they don't get the chance to get hired.

Now of course there are ways to make yourself successful so that you don't run into these problems. In What Color Is Your Parachute states"  In today's world, he or she who gets hired is not necessarily the one who can do that job best; but, the one who knows the most about how to get hired"(Bolles.2018.p.14). It's all about knowing the right things to say and when to speak and when not to speak to much.

Now check out What Color is Your Parachute by Richard Bolles on more help and advice when hunting for a job or finding your career path. Don't sweat there's a job out there for everyone!

Week 3 Social Media for the Restaurant Industry

In today's society there are so many different kinds of restaurant ranging from the cuisine, to the type whether its fast food, casual dining, or even upscale dining.  Each restaurant's goal is to get customers to choose their restaurant over another restaurant and one of the ways to do that is by marketing more specifically using social media marketing. In an article How Restaurants Are Using Social Media Effectively states " One of the reasons social media is such a powerful marketing tool is its ability to foster social proof. Whether that be through avenues as formal as reviews or shares or likes, or as subtle as customers tagging a business in a photo or posting a picture of a product, it sends the message "I support this brand"(Sizer.2017)." This couldn't be more true by customers showing people that they went to that restaurant gives other people the chance to be like I want to go there or no maybe I should try another restaurant instead. The use of social proof is a create way to differentiate your restaurant as well. When a couple friends want to go out to eat looking up restaurants the first thing they do is go to the website or some sort of social media site to see if there is any photos, reviews, or comments about this restaurant.

Social media for restaurants isn't about how many people check out their social media pages whether it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter but it's the handful of followers that are the most engaging that the restaurants care about. Alex Sizer states " Putting the "social" in social media by encouraging interaction with your connection is, important for maximizing the impact of social media marketing efforts. Likes, comments, shares, and re-tweets all make for far greater exposure, social proof, and brand recognition than a simple one-off click of the "follow" button"(Sizer.2017)." Those likes, shares, and re tweets make the restaurants feel a more personal connection with their customers and allow the customers and the restaurant to engage more.

Overall all industries use social media in some aspect and each industry may take a different approach than another industry. The restaurant industry uses social media to create social proof for the restaurant and to also create that engagement between the customers and the restaurant to want the customers to come back and dine again and also be able to share their experience with their friends and families. At the end of the day restaurants goal is to create that social proof, provide information, target new audiences, create loyalty customers.

Week 2- My opinion on AI and Automation

With being in 2017 so many things are changing whether it's in the world as a whole or specific industries things are changing. Professor Kelsey article gives us a little glimpse of that change that were seeing in the job world. In this day in age its often better to be able to do so many different kind of skills whether it falls under the job requirements or job description that one currently has.A perfect example is from the article A New Kind of Jobs Program for Middle America " Students learn just enough to be dropped into teams of more experienced coders and continue their education at a company,  even as they draw a competitive full-time salary. They aren't building the high-flying start ups; most are simply translating business processes into code, transforming data or helping maintain and update legacy systems"( Mims. 2017).  My opinion it's not gonna hurt us to learn new things especially with the evolving of technology  and opportunity that is being presented in our world today.

I completely agree with the idea that it's okay for us to be a little scared of the changes that are being made but think about it would you rather be apart of the change then be left behind because in my opinion being left behind is more scarier than learning a new skill. As Professor Kelsey said in his article it's okay to be intimidated by something that we tried to learn in the past that didn't work but because we have had that experience one is able to learn and to help them with this experience. For example I'm a bartender at a Country Club and  one day want to open my own restaurant that scares the crap out of me but just because that's what I want do doesn't mean learning how to create a website or translating a process into a code or whatever it may be won't benefit me or even possible help me for my future goals or career path.

Overall this article makes us think about our future and what that future holds for us. Each person has to start thinking about how the AI and automation are going to effect us in upcoming years. As mentioned before just because your in the restaurant industry, music industry, or business industry doesn't mean that one can't transform into  coding. At the end of the day this is gonna happen whether were on board with it or not so it's best to just jump aboard and trust that everything will work out. Don't be afraid of coding just try you may even learn to like it.