LinkedIn and branding: unless you don't want a job

It's hard to get a job these days. Everyone is looking but no one is hiring. It's the kind of job market where you think "maybe I'll hold onto that retail job after graduation, just in case." 

Or maybe you should update your LinkedIn profile.

You've heard of it before, I swear

Okay, I know. People always say "make sure your LinkedIn profile is up to date! This is really important! If you don't, you'll never get a job and you'll starve on the streets!" and it seems a little over-dramatic. I mean, chances are pretty good you won't starve (you have that retail job to fall back on, remember? You love working retail!). But it turns out they're onto something with that advice: companies care about LinkedIn a little more than you might think.

Like a lot more.

Like they probably won't hire you if you don't have one.

Ed Nathanson, the director of talent acquisition (read: the guy in charge of getting you hired) at software security company Rapid7 talked to Wired magazine about the importance of LinkedIn and hiring for an April article (which you can check out in full here).

Nathanson says that Rapid7 now uses LinkedIn Recruiter for all of its recruiting purposes, and that the company’s recruiters spend anywhere from four to five hours on LinkedIn each day. He and his team have used LinkedIn to more than double the size of Rapid7 in the last year and a half. 

In other words, Nathanson finds the vast majority of future employees on LinkedIn. And if you aren’t on LinkedIn? He’ll probably never find you. And even if he did, he probably wouldn’t hire you. “I’m always amazed at people who aren’t there now,” Nathanson says. “When I talk to candidates and they aren’t on there that’s a big red flag for me.”

Let's emphasize that last part. It's not just that having a LinkedIn profile helps. Not having one can ruin your chance of getting a job, regardless of how qualified you are. And this isn't just Rapid7. There are tons of companies that have, instead of hiring their own talent-seeking team of professional recruiters, been switching to LinkedIn as their method of searching for and screening potential employees.

So maybe it's a good idea to have a LinkedIn profile that you keep updated. Polish it up every now and then. Reassess your skills. Make yourself look employable. Because if you don't...well, I hope you really like retail.

QR codes: More clever than they seem (promise)

QR Codes have been popping up everywhere lately. They're on flyers, posters, company advertisements, business cards, my sidebar...

...bananas...

...cookies...

...dead people...

...butts....

everywhere. (For the curious, those were all from wtfqrcodes.com). It turns out the Internet has a lot of hate for QR codes.

Not pictured: any love for QR codes

And I get that. It's often way easier to make a link to a website than to create a multi-step process symbolized by what looks like a bar code that's been accidentally run through the wash. According to this poll [warning: PDF] 79% of people have never heard of a QR code (though 81% has seen one before) and 57% of people who have scanned one didn't actually do anything with the information they got from scanning.

So if QR codes are so terrible, why am I making a point to tell you about them?

Because they're really really cool. Not "cool" like "hip," like marketing people want them to be, but "cool" like "wait that weird blob does what?"  Ever wonder why people can cover up half of their QR code with a logo without affecting its ability to take you to the right place?

This should break it, right?

It turns out that QR codes have built-in error correcting mechanisms to help deal with unexpected dirt (or Octocats) that may distort your code. The codes use the Reed-Solomon error correction algorithm, which uses polynomial algebra and compares t checkpoints in the code (therefore being able to correct up to t / 2 mis-read symbols). I won't go in-depth about the actual algorithm; polynomial algebra isn't usually how I like to spend my Friday mornings. For the interested, this site gives a very detailed explanation of how the algorithm is applied. For the slightly less interested, it's the same sort of code (cyclic) as the CRC-32 algorithm that checks Ethernet correctness. Now you have something to talk about at parties.

Not all QR codes are created equal (or equally repairable). There are four different levels of QR error correction, each of which is able to repair a different amount of damage done to the code:

• Level L: corrects up to 7% damage
• Level M: corrects up to 15% damage
• Level Q: corrects up to 25% damage
• Level H: corrects up to 30% damage

The level is indicated on the QR code itself by the blocks immediately to the right of the bottom left alignment square.

You never would have thought to look, would you?

Pop quiz: based on this information, what error correction level was that Octocat code? I'll wait. Level H, you say? You're so clever. Good for you. So that's why the logo didn't ruin it -- that QR code has the highest possible level of error correction [sources 1 and 2]. The main downside to QR codes of level Q or H is their complexity; a small print size or long distance (think business card or billboard) will make your code very hard to read. As such, levels L and M are usually sufficient, unless you plan on keeping your QR code on a surface that might get dirty or change shape

like a butt

Social Networking and Brand Security

You can't escape social networking these days. Everyone you know and everything you do is on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Probably all three. It makes sense, then, that Internet advertising is no longer just a matter of weird sidebars and popup ads. Companies have social media pages purely for advertising their product and interacting with customers (and there are now social media pages about companies' social media pages).

While this adds a more personal feel to mass advertising, it has its drawbacks. Being more exposed socially can put brands in the spotlight for reasons they never intended. Twitter has allowed companies to have short personal conversations with consumers, but embarrassing tweets (like those collected here and here) show that the actions an individual takes in about thirty seconds can cause a company grief for years (some of the tweets listed were from 2011 and are still being mentioned today). Once your hilariously embarrassing and tasteless comment is on the Internet, it's there to stay. Deleting the original post doesn't matter; hundreds of people will have screencapped, archived, or quoted it already.

Twitter: a great place for mistakes that last forever

So how do companies avoid these risks to their brands? Social media management sites, such as HootSuite, have begun to emerge and are becoming a necessity for larger businesses. These services link with multiple social media accounts, allowing companies to keep a closer eye on how the world is seeing them. HootSuite also recently announced it was partnering with Nexgate for added security. This partnership has lead to features that will "help prevent hackers from hijacking your social media accounts by setting alerts when account changes are made, and by allowing you to immediately lock your accounts" (source).

Social media is no longer something reserved for personal use; it has grown to be an integral part of running a successful company. HootSuite alone has 7 million users (and 774 of the Fortune 1,000 companies), and millions more people are using other social media management tools. These numbers show that social media in the workplace is here to stay, and that smart companies will do everything in their power to get a positive social media image out to the public.