When I first started on Facebook there was a lot of talk of viral marketing and how great social networks were for promoting your business. My time on Facebook so far has been reuniting with old friends and schoolmates, some threatening to post old pictures from high school. That makes me wonder – is Facebook a place you want to conduct business?

I decided to go on Marketplace to check out people looking for work. I found one ad for babysitting – only she can’t spell babysitting. Everyone makes spelling mistakes though; I’m one of the worst ones. I went on to her profile to see what kind of person would want to look after kids. Under her causes there was ‘legalize it!’ (Marijuana) and ’stop child abuse’. There is so much you can learn from her profile – more then if you decided to interview her. Education-Portal.com wrote, "Out of the employers surveyed, one in ten said they planned to review social networking site profiles prior to making a hiring decision. More than 60 percent said the information they see on these profiles will influence what they think about the job candidate, and more importantly, who gets hired and who doesn’t. The other 40 percent are undecided as to whether or not the images and text seen on such sites should factor into a hiring decision."

Web Worker Daily states in their article "12 Ways to use Facebook Professionally" that your profile is very much like personalizing your desk space at work – drawings from your kids, a picture of your partner, or a book you are currently reading. Web Worker Daily warns though "Only display on your profile what you’d put on your desk. Just because Steve owns a picture his buddy took of him getting sick after an all-night party doesn’t mean he’s going to frame it and put it out for his co-workers to admire. Don’t add anything to your profile that you wouldn’t display for your supervisors, co-workers and clients to see as they’re walking by your work environment."

It just like that girl who is advertising to babysit, I’m sure she is fully capable but is that "legalize it" going to deter potential clients or maybe attract them? Ms. Li said in a recent Globe and Mail article "If I know something about the person selling and if that person is in my network, I have a bit more confidence in working with that person," She also suggests that "placing advertisements through Marketplace is more effective than other online ad networks such as Craigslist and Google Adwords, because of the personal touch it provides."

Yes, it does provide a personal touch but I think for now I’ll keep my high school pictures and my profile separate from my work.

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There has been a lot of buzz on the internet lately about the blog “The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs” written by Fake Steve Jobs or maybe the real Steve Jobs, who knows, but there are people trying to find out and they will go to great lengths to figure it out. The blog is well written, insightful to the goings on at Apple and always amusing. I just laugh every time I think about how he has listed “Mock turtlenecks” under his interests. The point is people are reading it and commenting on it. We are getting to know what’s new at Apple and most importantly we are being entertained, what great marketing!

West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers have also developed a clever way to market on-line with Cheddar Vision. 24 hours a day you can watch the cheddar age! Sound completely boring? Well Cheddar Vision has quite the following, with groups on FaceBook and MySpace this cheddar is getting a lot of coverage! It has even been rumored that the cheddar was invited to a wedding…

Another effective marketing method is using on-line social networks to distribute an ad like this one. It has made it’s way around YouTube, reddit and Digg.

Some content, especially humorous content, has incredible potential to take advantage of viral marketing using on-line social networks and blogs. Isotope Communications is responsible for the marketing on Cheddar Vision and hopefully we will never find out who is responsible for the writings for the Fake Steve Jobs’ blog but I think these are very innovated and effective methods to marketing on-line.