Andy Cook Tell 'Em

I’ve recently stumbled upon a rather fascinating website called Sency.

Sency is a real time search engine which has implemented a filter in an effort to weed out some of the spam that comes along with real time results.  Another unique aspect to Sency is their free feed for websites & blogs.  They offer websites & blogs the ability to have automatically updating, real time information, scrolling on their webpage for any given keyword.  The free feed is completely private labeled and customizable. The content options are endless because websites and blogs have complete control over which keyword they use. Websites have the option to customize the background color, height, width, text color, and text size of the scrolling information.

The developers recently implemented a new tool which shows users the most popular links from today for a respective search term. This data, in addition to the real time results – now makes their service even more valuable for web surfers.

The real-time feed feature on any website for free is awesome, I can’t wait to implement it on here! So keep a lookout it is soon to come!

– Andy

Facebook has just launched a neat new trend mapping tool, called Lexicon. Similar to Google Trends, it allows you to create a trend graph for different words and phrases posted on Facebook Walls. It has a surprisingly useful interface, with a scroll bar enabling you to zoom in and out to get different views of the trend line. You can compare up to 5 different trends by separating words/phrases with a comma.

Although Lexicon compares favorably to Google Trends, it has some flaws. It only allows single words or words with dashes, and no support for any non-alphanumeric character. Also, to compare apples to apples, Google Trends has a wider range of data – including breakdowns by region, city and language.

Here is an example of Lexicon:

Due some some privacy concerns, Facebook announced in the blog regarding the release the quote,

“We have a cluster of computers that count the number of occurrences of every term (for example, “juno”) across profile, group and event Walls every day. The system strips out all personally identifiable information so that there is no way to track a mention back to a specific person. No human at Facebook ever reads these Wall posts, and Lexicon does not look at personal messages, invitations, or any other private user-to-user communications.”

So this looks fairly useful and has the potential to overtake Google Trends due to the extremely personal and accurate measure of each term.  Will more features come soon? I hope they will release a sorting method to only include certain networks or groups of friends, but they may never happen.

What are you thoughts?

I searched Facebook today for the Iowa State University Marketing Club group by searching “Iowa State University” within the search box. Guess what I got instead of a listing of Facebook oriented Iowa State University groups/events/people. I got a search as if I was searching Bing.com with the same term. Is this the beginning of the partnership of Facebook and Microsoft to get back at Twitter? Who knows but I hope some cool integration of Microsoft’s arsenal of products within Facebook. Facebook’s active userbase of over 250 million people could give Bing the edge it needs to go up against search giant Google. What are you thoughts on this integration??

If you joined LinkedIn you are most likely looking for a new job. LinkedIn provides many advantages to its users, especially ones with years of experience. Leads into thousands of companies and people along with exposure to recruits who may be impressed with your comments and insights in discussions provide otherwise unknown information about yourself, all at the simple cost of spending time on the site. So here’s a couple tips on how to effectively use LinkedIn.

• Create a Professional Looking Profile – LinkedIn is no Facebook.  The site’s main purpose is to showcase potential employees and to market job opportunities to them.  Keeping a professional, business oriented profile with a resume-like bio will stregnthen your image to headhunters.
• Expand Your Network – LinkedIn has thousands of specialty groups.  Join groups that relate to your interests, specialties, and job industry.  Not only should you just join these groups, actively participate in conversations and discuss topics in relation to the fields.  This will open up more individuals to connect with and may even provide grounds to impress a job recruiter.
• Get Recommended – LinkedIn offers the feature of “recommendations”.  A recommendation showcases you as a strong and valued member of the workplace and gives credibility to your skills.  This is especially useful when using LinkedIn specifically looking for a new job.
• Research Companies – LinkedIn provides companies with profiles that provide information regarding new hires, backgrounds of current employees, job openings, requirements, and general information regarding the company.  Study these pages! They will let you know whether or not a company is even interested in someone with your background.  These are a huge time saver when it comes to applications as you can hone in on exactly what the company is looking for in a new employee.
• Use LinkedIn to Get Personal – Everyone on LinkedIn works at a company.  Use this to your advantage.  If you are sending in an application, use LinkedIn search to find the HR person at the company and directly send them your resume.  Find the hiring director and speak with them directly.  Talk to coworkers and new employees to find out how they got their jobs.  At its heart, LinkedIn is  a social networking site too, so do not be afraid to talk to people!
• Keep StartUps in Mind - LinkedIn’s search has the capability of narrowing down your company search to any niche you are interested in.  Add “startup” or “stealth” to your search such as “web 2.0 startups in chicago” to find startups.  Although the chances of finding a great startup are low, in times like these many large corporations cannot provide “job security” and startups can be a nice alternative to such uncertainty.
• Start Connecting Now – Begin building your network and making connections with people as soon as possible!  As shown by our current economic situation, no job is secure.  Haivng  a solid core of business professionals at your fingertips at all times is a very advantageous cushion to have when getting back in the job search.  The key to building a network is to be open to anyone, not just former or current colleagues.  If someone from a different industry is involved in a discussion in a group, be sure to explore their areas and connect with them. Being friendly is essential!

Remember, LinkedIn has over 40 million members in over 140 industries.  Almost all of these people are employed adults and interested in business, not poking, statuses, or relationships.  This free service is a goldmine so be sure to take full advantage of LinkedIn!