Partnerships - Social Media, page 5.

Last month I had the pleasure of talking with Ezra Butler, LuckyStartups' Israel correspondant.  In our interview, Ezra and I discuss everything from my personal life and where I grew up to the services I provide as a "one-stop-shop" for startups, plus of course, let's not forget, Ezra's love for alcohol and chocolate. We also discuss the difference between American and Israeli mentality, the amazing Israeli tech scene and I offer my own 2 cents to startups:

1. If you don't know social media, don't do it on your own!  If you want to do social media on your own then read up first– if you try to do it without guidance, odds are your campaign won't be a success.  If you want to learn more about how to use social media in the right manner, a few good bloggers to read are Chris Brogan, Chris Heuer, JD Lasica and my own blog.

2. Don't rush things!  A lot of startups are being pressured by investors to launch, especially during these difficult economic times.  Don't launch until your product is at its best or you may suffer an unwarranted flop!

Watch the below video to see my full interview:

I recently attended the Facebook Developers Garage in Tel Aviv.  At the Garage, my good friend Net Jacobsson from Facebook, whom I worked with at ICQ, gave a lecture about the new evolution of Facebook– Facebook Connect.

Nat began his lecture by emphasising that Facebook has always seen themselves as a platform for change with the mission of giving users "the power to share and make the world more open and connected."  Over 140 million active users use the Facebook platform to connect with their friends, organize events and mobilize their communities and social graphs for change.  Facebook looked for ways to give users even more ways to connect and to improve the quality of their experience on Facebook.  Facebook began by translating the site into different languages and actively searching for quality applications and even funding them.  However, Facebook Connect takes the platform to a whole new level, allowing users to take their friends with them to third party sites, creating a whole new experience on the Web.  Facebook Connect is, in Net's words, "the natural evolution of the Facebook platform."

Barack Obama used social media to get himself into the White House and thousands of companies are using social media to create brand awareness and an online buzz.  However, social media can also be used for many other purposes as well. If you work in Human Resources, you may be thinking, "I dont want to get to the White House — I just want to recruit some employees".  Social networks are an amazing channel for finding potential employees and increasingly becoming an even expected way of finding them.

Social networking is a great recruitment tool for several reasons:

1. Social networks make it easy to build relationships with potential candidates and to create an open channel for discussion through which candidates can feel comfortable enough to approach you and ask you questions. It's often the case also that people are dissatisfied with their current place of employment but are too afraid to actively look for a job online. By becoming their friend, you build a trusting relationship with them where they feel comfortable to let you know about their desire to find new employment. If you create real close relationships with people, they will feel comfortable enough to forward you their friends' resumes as well.

2. Through social networks you can easily find relevant candidates for any position by searching for candidates with the skills your company is looking for.

Barack Obama used social media to get himself into the White House and thousands of companies are using social media to create brand awareness and an online buzz.  However, social media can also be used for many other purposes as well. If you work in Human Resources, you may be thinking, "I dont want to get to the White House — I just want to recruit some employees".  Social networks are an amazing channel for finding potential employees and increasingly becoming an even expected way of finding them.

Social networking is a great recruitment tool for several reasons:

1. Social networks make it easy to build relationships with potential candidates and to create an open channel for discussion through which candidates can feel comfortable enough to approach you and ask you questions. It's often the case also that people are dissatisfied with their current place of employment but are too afraid to actively look for a job online. By becoming their friend, you build a trusting relationship with them where they feel comfortable to let you know about their desire to find new employment. If you create real close relationships with people, they will feel comfortable enough to forward you their friends' resumes as well.

2. Through social networks you can easily find relevant candidates for any position by searching for candidates with the skills your company is looking for.

I've been receiving a lot of gifts lately as my birthday and the holidays just passed, but one of the coolest things that I've received lately was the new Sumsung Omnia i900 phone, which Samsung was kind enough to give me as part of their marketing campaign with McCann Digital.  McCann Digital is turning to social media with this campaign and is actually giving the phone to bloggers to use in their daily lives and share their experiences with their followers/friends.  The phone is pretty neat so I thought I'd share some of its best features with you.

With all the information on the Web today, it is becoming harder and harder to find good quality content.  There are over 180 million bloggers worldwide and over 150,000 new blogs created each day.  How can you sift through all of this data to get down to the quality content that is most relevant and interesting to you?

BloggersBase is a new Israeli startup, still in Beta, with a vision of making the Internet a better place by bringing quality content to readers.  The site is a competition-based content discovery platform in which bloggers can submit content on a variety of topics, and based on readers’ ratings, the highest quality content is discovered and featured.  The topics on BloggersBase span the content spectrum from Entertainment and Lifestyle to Technology and World Affairs.