Every now and then there comes a disruptive technology that changes the rule of the game.  My initial analysis of using this application makes me believe that such mashups will play vital role as far as job search is concerned.  Applications like JobDeck will provide an alternate channel for employers to scout for new talent and at the same time give multiple opportunities to the jobseeker.

TweetDeck and TwitJobSearch have teamed up to provide you with a dedicated JobDeck. This makes it even easier to search for jobs, as well as staying in touch with what’s happening now, and connecting you with your contacts across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and more. Source: TweetDeck.

The Hiring ecosystem:

Since I run an HR services company and a social media enthusiast I am in a position to analyze the tool both from the employer and employee perspective.  My analysis of the positioning of JobDeck is given below in the table.

JobDeck analysis:

JobDeck consists of primarily 2 column layout where in the first column job related tweets are displayed using the powerful search engine developed by guys at TwitJobSearch. The tweets are filtered in a manner where the content is limited to job hunting.  There is a “Job Search Experts” user list. This area can be used to stay updated with the latest development in the job market and it has lot of HR and career related articles as well. The second column is a dedicated column that is directly connected to the main feed of TwitJobSearch which searches the web and returns search results relevant to jobs and job market.

What I would love to see in JobDeck

• Even more powerful search – based on location, job type, company name like you usually have on job boards
• Ability to filter updated just based on my career stream. Like a customized JobDeck for a sales professional in the telecommunication sector.
• Ability to develop contact base and tweet with each contact from JobDeck
• Trending like twitter
• Better integration with other social media applications

JobDeck is a pretty decent attempt made towards being innovative, it has a long way to go before it can become main stream and threaten the existence of traditional media like Job Boards. Did we just think about News Papers are traditional media?? Sorry that’s dead long time ago.

To me this is a brilliant concept and the first step towards a newer, smarter and a synchronous mechanism for a job seeker and an employer.

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I always thought Money can help you buy materialistic things but certainly not family and friends.  Today I came across a company that helps you do just that and I was really amazed to learn that now you can buy friends.  With the advent of social media and everyone is trying to establish their brand online and wants to be present across social media sites and the first notion is to get maximum followers, friends, connections, whatever you want to call it.  The base idea to generate lot of contacts which supposedly are interested in your products or services and you can use these contacts to create a marketing exercise around this data.  Since everyone is feeling the heat and really don’t have a success formula to create a database (so called fans and followers) of people across social media sites there comes this company uSocial who wants to capitalize on this need and make their millions ;-)

Services offered by uSocial

Regular services

• Front page services – basically getting on first page of dig, yahoo buzz and other social media bookmarking sites
• Press release distribution – the same old thing

Interesting Services

Now these are the services where money can buy you friends and followers

• Facebook marketing service
  • Buy Facebook friends – how to increase Facebook friends
  • Buy Facebook fans – how to increase Facebook fans

The packages depends on the number of fans your desire and in multiple of thousands. You can increase the number of Facebook friends and fans from 0 to 10000 and the pricing starts form $100 to $700 for 1000 to 10000 contacts respectively.

• Twitter marketing services
  • Buy twitter followers - how to increase followers on twitter

They do the same thing on twitter and the packages depends on the number of followers you desire the range starts form 1000 and goes up to 100000 twitter followers and the pricing starts from $87 to $3500.

They claim that via both services they will help you get friends and followers based on your target audience.

My views on the model:

I think just like in the real world you cannot buy friends and family and more importantly when you use social media for business then in that case you cannot buy customers.  The basic idea is that you need to slowly build your presence via these social media sites and deliver value to your potential customers.  If you resort to buying friends, followers, connections, contacts then they will just be there in your contact list and will not prove to be of any value.  The key is not to have thousands of followers because it is going to be virtually impossible to manage one on one relation with each and everyone and at the same time you cannot deliver value to thousands of people at the same time.

I maybe wrong but to my mind companies like uSocial are opportunists and want to make quick bucks from people who are at the start of the learning curve in social media.  According to me these auto generated contacts will prove to be absolutely useless.

What’s your take on this ?

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Entrepreneurs get ready, Google has announced that it will create a venture capital arm called google ventures.  The fund is expected to invest $100 million over the next 12 months.  Most of it will be invested in start-ups.   Google Ventures has already made two investments: Silver Spring Networks, a company that makes technology to help manage electric grids, and Pixazza, which links online images with related products that can be purchased. Google declined to say how much it invested in those companies (Source NY Times).

I want to start a company and develop a product/ service/ concept so that I can be acquired by Google one day. I am talking about strategizing, planning and executing your start-up so that google acquires you eventually.  Is this possible? Are people doing it already? My answer is yes, there are companies who consider it as one of the main objective and plan their start-ups accordingly.

I read on TechCrunch that Google is in its final stage of negotiation to acquire twitter. Google to acquire twitter, now this news dint surprises me as I believe that twitter has tremendous potential in providing real time search. Imagine a situation where the king of search Google is able to lay its hands on real time updates of millions of users across the globe!!  It will enable Google to provide further targeted search to its users and also narrow down the target audience for its advertisers.

The thing that really surprised me is that if this deal goes through Twitter founders Evan Williams would have sold his company/ concept the second time to Google, Now that’s interesting.  Less than 5 years ago these guys sold Blogger to Google for an undisclosed sum.  This time around folks at Twitter are trying to do it all over again. Was this planned?

This got me thinking that is there a mindset amongst entrepreneurs to create a start-up with sole objective of being acquired by Google one day??  Specially looking at the trend it looks like entrepreneurs in San Francisco Bay Area surely consider it as one of the main objective.

To submit your company information to google please click here or go to the group site google ventures

Below is the list of companies acquired by Google and are divided into categories which will help you understand their acquisition pattern.

Table Source: Wikipedia

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I am a big fan of proto.in and hence i decided to share the social media release from proto.in.Proto.in January’09, Bangalore – The 5th edition of India’s Premier Startup event

After its resounding successes in its past four editions, Proto.in is back on 23 & 24 january at NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bangalore to further strengthen its position as India’s premier start-up event. Proto.in has built a reputation of being the one event the entire entrepreneurial ecosystem looks forward to, across the length and breadth of India. Having witnessed successful past editions in Delhi and Chennai and gearing up for the next one in Bangalore, Ravi Narayan, Managing Director of Mentor Partners, and an advisor to proto.in, believes “proto.in is poised to become a nationwide phenomenon.”

Proto.in – A Binding force within the Start-up Community

Over the last four editions, proto.in has showcased over 75 startups of whom many have leveraged the platform to close funding, develop new business opportunities, create media traction and even connect with potential hires.And as Alok Mittal, one of most successful internet entrepreneurs and a leading venture capitalist in india, says “Proto.in has emerged as an integral part of the Indian startup ecosystem.”

The last edition of Proto.in at India’s capital city played host to the 15 most exciting startups in the country amidst an audience that included the most prominent venture capital firms and angel investors to the who’s who in the technology and media circles. Amit Somani, Head of Mobile Products for Google APAC and a distinguished delegate at the last edition, believes that proto.in will be known as one of the pioneers for helping technology entrepreneurs get started in India in years to come.

The last event also saw a slew of new activities that churned out the most innovative ideas amidst a bunch of hyper enthusiastic entrepreneurs. Guess what, its only going to get better (and wackier) this edition.

What’s Special this proto.in?

Apart from the most anticipated Proto.in showcase of india’s top 15 product startups, the fifth edition of proto.in is breaking new ground by letting the audience experiment with entrepreneurship, through a set of globally unique activities for a technology conference under our exciting new initiative – Proto.in Labs.

Proto.in Labs will play host to a set of activities that will engage the crowd like no other indian conference has attempted before. Here’s a sneak peak into the exciting set of activities you’ll experience as an audience in this edition of proto.in:

Shotgun Startups – Teams of technologists, programmers, designers, and product architects compete with each other to build a product in 24 hours, and get them voted by the audience at Proto.in, with one emerging as the winner.

Pitchcamp! – The first pitch that you make, be it an investor, partner, employee or client about what you do, makes all the difference to that first impression. Pitchcamp will be a workshop for startups to help them sculpt their pitch that will sell every time.

Innovation Jam – Ideation is a simpler process. With the success of the process that started last time, at this proto.in, here’s a chance for the entire audience to participate, in chipping and brewing fresh ideas off of their head. If you have a creative block, this will ensure that its flushed out.

Proto.in Conversations – we are not alone. We are a community of entrepreneurs and some of us have tread this path before us, and have valuable experience to share. Listen from fellow entrepreneurs and get that dose of reality driven into yourself on everything from funding to hiring.

Startup Job board – Sometimes, old school works. If you are a startup and looking for people, put up a post. If you are a professional and looking for a job in an exciting startup, take a card and give them a call. Make it happen, when the entrepreneurial energy is flowing all around you.

Be There!

Add to that, an invite only dinner and a startup mixer on both nights to network and meet others in the space. Make no mistake, Proto.in 5th edition is ‘THE’ place to be, if you want to spruce up your entrepreneurship journey.

Startup nominations are closing on December 16. Hurry up!
Event registration opens on December 15.

Related Links

Nominate yout Startup to Proto.in

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