I went to an event this morning run by SAS Design at a (very swanky) hotel in London under the theme of "The web and social media: myths, legends and adventures". This was very much a crash course into social media for recruitment companies.
So I've trivialised the messages coming out of it, but in a nut shell...
Facebook good!
Second Life bad!
It looks like the public pullback from Second Life is well and truelly happening in the recruitment space. Its worth pointing out that they've not quite cottoned on to the whole "Second Life is just a platform and an example of a Virtual World" message, and on the bright side if this means that recruiters will stop engaging with virtual worlds purely on a brand association level and start thiking about how virtual worlds are actually used, that's got to be a good thing. However, the tendancy for these design agencies to jump on (and off) the band wagon without any long term vision is a bit frustrating.
So I've trivialised the messages coming out of it, but in a nut shell...
Facebook good!
Second Life bad!
It looks like the public pullback from Second Life is well and truelly happening in the recruitment space. Its worth pointing out that they've not quite cottoned on to the whole "Second Life is just a platform and an example of a Virtual World" message, and on the bright side if this means that recruiters will stop engaging with virtual worlds purely on a brand association level and start thiking about how virtual worlds are actually used, that's got to be a good thing. However, the tendancy for these design agencies to jump on (and off) the band wagon without any long term vision is a bit frustrating.
A highlight though was hearing Dr. Adam Joinson from the University of Bath speaking about online behaviour, and the opportunity to follow-up with him afterwards about some joint efforts. Its a shame that he was not afforded more than a 20 minute slot.
However what amused me most in this event was that the overwhelming (and correct) message being portrayed regarding the important of authenticity and credibility in social media and not going about delivery in a very contrived and planned way. Makes you wonder how a design agency seems them self fitting in with that ethic really doesnt it?
2 comments:
Thanks for the write up Matt - I'd have been quite happy with a couple of hours too :-)
I think you make some valid observations - the whole SL thing seemed for a while to be going the way of early web discussions - too much focus on 'having a presence' and not enough on what they'd actually be using that presence to do (or, importantly, how they'd contribute to the community beyond some brand awareness work). I'd be more worried about the fate of Facebook over the next year or two than SL - at this rate, it's going to end up as an advertising-funded graduate recruitment tool, with users heading for the exit quicker than you can throw a sheep at them.
lol, agreed! I wonder what it would take to make the userbase switch off facebook completely. Certainly the volume of ill-placed targetted adverts is putting me off. I'll have to start taking some screengrabs.
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