A new website called GetHired was recently launched to allow people to upload video resumes. One of the founders of the site told Mashable that “there is no solution that currently integrates job postings, prescreening via audio and video, applicant tracking, interviewing and social recruiting.”

The site allows employers to search for candidates, sift through electronic resume videos, schedule interviews via apps on iPhones and video chat to applicants.

Job seekers can upload videos pitching their skills and abilities and even answer employer submitted questions through an automated phone system. The videos are meant to allow applicants to “pitch” themselves as ideal candidates.

These videos are can be set to private so that only hiring managers can view profiles, rather than the general public liked LinkedIn.

The website is available to job seekers for free, but hiring managers will be charged approximately $25 per job post.

The website aims to give each candidate a chance to be literally seen and heard, rather than a Word document resume. It assumes that because integrated video and audio is used in the hiring process, it gives every applicant an equal opportunity and employers may hire candidates that may have overlooked in the first place.

It is a coincidence that a new report by Susan Cain, as published in the Toronto Star has just been released about how introverts are undervalued. What do you think about this new social media site for hiring new employees? Does it have the potential to find better suited candidates? Is it just another avenue to extroverted people to shine? Or is it a waste of time (albeit entertaining) like this Video Resume from the comedy How I Met Your Mother?

Mashable and American Express OPEN Forum have been debating the merits of traditional business cards. After all, in today’s day and age, after receiving such a card, it is still a necessity to transfer the names, phone numbers and email addresses into one’s phone or contact database.

Business networking site LinkedIn has created a solution called CardMunch iPhone app which allows you to take a picture of a business card and then converts the contact information as text. It then stores the information into contacts. LinkedIn also integrates the person’s information from his or her profile onto the network.

Business cards will not become obsolete anytime soon. There are some who love collect business cards, but there are options out there for those who tend to lose cards easily, do not want to carry extra paper or those who find it easier just to have the contact information on their phones.

While the CardMunch app takes away some of the hassle in transferring information from a card to your contacts, it does not take away the need for business cards since one party will still require a standard business card for the image capture.

If you do not ever want to give out another business card, there is another option called Cardcloud, which is a free app which allows you to create a digital card that you can just email. Once again, there is integration with LinkedIn, and in this case, Facebook too.

Surely in the future, there will be an app which makes it possible for two phone users to quickly and easily swap electronic business cards through email by just clicking a button.

What do you think about these new developments? Do you think that social media will replace the traditional business cards? Or is there something special about traditional business cards?

Two pieces of legislation are currently making its way in the US House of Representatives and the Senate. The Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, and the Personal Information Protection Act, or PIPA, will potentially change the way users exchange and facilitate information in the Internet.

The SOPA and PIPA will work together to oblige internet service providers to block websites that posts or links to copyrighted content. Search engines like Google and Yahoo! likewise cannot display results from websites that violate the proposed law.

The effect, obviously, will be felt not only in US but in pretty much the whole international arena. Even Canadian websites will be affected by the proposed law, as long as it’s a website that ends in .com, .net., or .org. These websites, despite being used and managed by people elsewhere, can be blocked by US courts.

The Department of Justice, in fact, has already conducted a “major operation” which included, among others, the shutdown of MegaUpload. MegaUpload is accused of causing an estimate of $500 million in damages for violating intellectual property rights.

The government has also issued as many as 20 search warrants in around 18 foreign countries. Around $10 million dollar worth of assets have also been seized.

In protest of this legislation, Wikipedia has already shut down its website for 24 hours last Wednesday. This gave a lot of Internet users a preview of how life would be without filesharing and blocking Internet sites because of copyrighted content—which is difficult to determine in the first place.

Geek and Poke Cartoon. Image Credit: Geek and Poke.

Social media is so prevalent these days that it would be strange not to incorporate it into everyday life.

For more social media funnies, check out Geek and Poke Cartoons.

Twitter Movement Map. Image Credit: Eric Fischer via Flickr.

This map depicts the physical movement of and movements of tweets. Created by Social Media cartographer Eric Fischer, this tracks the physical movement (in green) and @ replies from someone in one location to someone in another (in purple) and a combination of the two (in white).

Fischer has also created maps on the use of Flickr and Twitter, including a map that illustrates the movement of tweets in the United States,  a zoom of a subsection of the world map above.

The biggest surprise on the above map is the high level of social media movement in and out of Indonesia. According to a 2010 study, Indonesians are the most Twitter addicted country, with about twenty one percent of the population on Twitter. This could be attributed to the fact that there is a large population of almost 240 million with access to cheap mobile phones and a prevalence of spoken English.

The map about reports trips with the exception of Null Island, with all other geotags trusted. The endpoints of the trips are based on data but routes between is fabricated and the brightness of the lines are logarithmic. The data is taken from the Twitter streaming API through September 1, 2011.

Google+. Image Credit: Google.

While Google+ does that have the user numbers to rival Facebook yet, it could potentially catch up to the social media giant, as analysts expect Google+ to reach 400 million users by the end of this year, just half of the users of Facebook. It is not bad for a system that is so new to the game.

The site has had a massive increase in numbers and has doubled its traffic in the month of December. This means that there were more than 49 million US users and a increase of 55% in that month. The site has also show grown eight weeks out of nine.

These numbers are not official as Google+ has declined to publicize the actual number but social media analysts have found that the a quarter of the site’s users have only signed up in the last month.

The advantages of Google+ over Facebook are numberous. The relative ease of adding people to your network and more tools to allow for different privacy settings, categories and friend circles, direct connections to websites, more interactions with followers, and the ability to use “Hangouts” as chats with up to ten people. It also a feature called “Sparks,” which is an online sharing engine that allows people within our network to easily find common content. There are location-based apps, direct uploads and an integrated login with the very popular free email service Gmail.

The biggest hurdle for Google+ is to reach the critical mass where there are enough users to connect a social networking community.

Administration can be difficult.

Administering your social media accounts is no easy task. What more if you add another complex networking site like your Google+ account on the list? You might not want to tip the balance and add another burden to the situation.

Create a “hangout” for your target market and employees.

This feature of Google+ makes it convenient to create a place where your customers/clients and employees can interact among themselves and with each other.

Don’t fix what isn’t broken.

This can be pretty tricky. You don’t want to fix what’s not broken, but at the same time, you have to deal with the changes. you should only go ahead and create an account if you’re sure it would benefit your business.

Make your company more searchable.

Since Google+ is inter-linked with Google search results, you are ultimately allowing your business to be more searchable to potential customers. Isn’t that the point of enriching your online presence in the first place?

If, taking into account all of these reasons, you think there’s more reason for you to create a Google+ account, then by all means do so. The steps are simple enough and can be done in a few steps as outlined here.

Happy holidays from everyone at iMark Communications!

Social media cartoon. Image Credit: Glasbergen.

For more social media funnies, check out Randy Glasbergen’s official site.