Archive for the ‘Social Networking’ Category

Social media access at work a drawcard

Almost 20 per cent of job applicants say they will turn down a job if they do not have reasonable access to social networking sites.

A survey of 870 employers and employees from recruitment company Hays found 19.7 per cent would reject a job offer if they did not have reasonable access to social media sites such as Facebook.

Hays NSW regional manager Shane Little said the survey suggested that many employees, particularly Generation Y, expected access to social media at work for personal use.

She said the percentage of staff with this expectation would increase over time.

"What we are seeing (is) this more projected feeling among employers and the younger workforce that it is going to become a bigger matter as time progresses, as far as attraction of staff and also the retention of staff," he said.

Mr Little said long ago personal phone calls were frowned upon in the office.

About half of those surveyed already accessed social media at work, with 13.3 per cent accessing it daily and 36.4 per cent checking occasionally.

Employers expectations also seemed in line with their staff over social media access.

Almost half (44.3 per cent) believed that allowing employees access to social media at work will improve retention levels, and a third already gave their staff access to it.

Only 23.7 per cent of employers allowed no access to social media sites.

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Social media access at work a drawcard

The Winklevoss Twins Try Social Networking One More Time

With Facebook behind them, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss invest in a social network for professional investors.

The Winklevii

The notorious Winklevoss twins just gave SumZero, a social networking site for professional investors, a financial boost,according toThe Wall Street Journal.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, the purported "masterminds" of Facebook, have pumped a $1 million investment into the four-year old platform, which happens to be run by fellow Harvard alumni Divya Narendra.

Yes, Narendra is the guy who--with the Winklevoss twins--asked Mark Zuckerberg to work on ConnectU in 2002."The band is back together," Tyler told the outlet.

As for the start-up,SumZeroworks much like Facebook. It requires that its users run hedge funds, mutual funds or private equity firms. Narendra told the Journal that he reviews every application for the site, rejecting about 75% of them. The idea, he said, is to have a platform for investors to exchange ideas and chat about their current investments.

So far, the network reportedly has 7,500 users.

The Winkelvii, who reportedly have $65 million in Facebook settlement money to spend, told the Journal that they plan to be part of the websites daily operations. SumZeros New York office will open next month.

"We want to get involved and really roll up our sleeves," Tyler Winklevoss told the Journal.

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The Winklevoss Twins Try Social Networking One More Time

Winklevoss twins get back to social networking with investment

The brothers who claimed Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea for Facebook have invested $1 million in a social network aimed at investors, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The Winklevoss in a recent TV commercial for pistachios.

The Winklevoss twins, best known for their courtroom battles with Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook, are taking another stab at the social-networking sector.

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have made a $1 million investment SumZero, a social network aimed at professional investors, The Wall Street Journal reports. The company was founded in 2008 by former Harvard classmates Aalap Mahadevia and Divya Narendra, the latter of which was a party to the Winklevoss twins' lawsuit that claimed they were misled about Facebook's value.

The case stemmed from a settlement the Winklevosses and Narendra signed with Facebook in 2008 after claiming Zuckerberg stole their idea for a social-networking site they called ConnectU, the basis for the 2010 movie "The Social Network." The trio accepted a $65 million settlement from Facebook and Zuckerberg in exchange for dropping all further litigation against the site but later said the settlement was based on an inaccurate valuation of the company.

They filed suit to undo the pact after it was revealed Microsoft paid $240 million in 2007 to acquire a 1.6 percent share of Facebook, giving social network a $15 billion valuation. The Winklevoss twins and Narendra claimed they were led to believe that Facebook's valuation was about a quarter of that.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Facebook and Zuckerberg last year, upholding the 2008 settlement. The trio threatened to take their case to the U.S. Supreme Court but later retreated and dropped their claim.

In February, the twins formed Winklevoss Capital, and their first investment in June was SumZero. The site, which claims about 7,500 members, accepts only investors who work on the "buy side" -- hedge funds, mutual funds, and private-equity firms. Wall Street bank analysts are not allowed.

The site, which says it rejects 75 percent of those who apply, allows users to follow each other's activity and requires members to regularly submit trading ideas to the network. Those who don't lose access to the database, the Journal reported.

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Winklevoss twins get back to social networking with investment

Friendster Founder's New Social Startup

Jonathan Abrams kicked off the social networking revolution with Friendster, the site that introduced many of us to the concept of connecting with friends on the Web. Now, Abrams is getting into the social news aggregation market with his latest online venture, Nuzzel.

Currently in private beta, Nuzzel shows you news stories that your friends have shared on Facebook and Twitter, ranked in order of popularity. There isn't much clutter on the site--beyond the ranked news stories in your personal feed, you can see the feeds of friends who are using the site and a feed capturing stories shared by friends of friends. You can share stories on Nuzzel through Facebook or Twitter, and the site also suggests people you may want to friend or follow on these sites.

I've been trying it out, and I'm liking it so far. It's easy to set up and use, and the amount of content isn't overwhelming. It also includes a handful of useful features like the ability to receive an e-mail alert if more than a certain number of your friends share a particular story.

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Friendster Founder's New Social Startup

IBM study shows CEOs ‘liking’ social networking

Though not specifically named in the study, Pangilinan exemplifies what the more than 1,700 CEOs from 64 countries and 18 industries who were subject of the survey revealed: bosses are opening up, and theres a shift in the top honchos management style.

The study reveals that CEOs are changing the nature of work by adding a powerful dose of openness, transparency and employee empowerment to the command-and-control ethos that has characterized the modern corporation for more than a century, a statement from IBM Philippines said.

The statement cited the study titled CEOs Embrace A More Connected Culture, which showed more companies embracing openness, which the statement defines as often characterized by a greater use of social media as a key enabler of collaboration and innovation.

Openness, it seems, has been adopted as a mantra by companies that, the study noted, outperformed their peers.

CEOs are embracing new models of working that tap into the collective intelligence of an organization and its networks to devise new ideas and solutions for increased profitability and growth, said the statement released on Tuesday to the press.

This shift is seen in the CEOs preference to using social networks more than electronic mail or telephones as primary communication vehicles.

Today only 16 percent of CEOs are using social-business platforms to connect with customers as individuals, but that number is poised to spike to 57 percent within the next three to five years.

The trend of dropping e-mail and the phone as communications tools is even more significant in Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations], where the use of social networks is expected to go up to 68 percent from the current 25 percent, as Asean CEOs plan a step-change from traditional to social media while continuing face-to-face engagement.

IBMs research finds that technology is viewed as a powerful tool to recast organizational structures. More than half of CEOs [global: 53 percent, Asean: 53 percent] are planning to use technology to facilitate greater partnering and collaboration with outside organizations.

Internally, too, digital communication tools are being eyed by more than half of CEOs (52 percent for global; 47 percent for Asean) to promote great internal collaboration.

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IBM study shows CEOs ‘liking’ social networking