If you can’t afford to be transparent and genuine, then Social Recruiting or Social Media is not for you! And the reasons I have to back it up? Here, If your Company’s demographics are mostly the Millennials, born between 1977 and 1997, then I’m sure you’re having a hard time containing the use of Social Media in the workplace. And If your killing Social Media in the workplace for sure your new Social Media strategy will backfire. Now, still interested of risking your BRAND? Good luck!

As you can see, these past few days have been disastrous for a few people. This includes a colleague of mine whose online reputation was ruined because someone whom she dealt with administratively created a fake and scandalous profile just to get even. Now, If this jerk can do this damage then I just couldn’t imagine what the hell he/she can do to further his/her cause of getting even to his/her employer or immediate superior.

To sum it up, as an employer, social media won’t work for you if you don’t have a clear social media policy, and as a user, social media won’t work for you if you’re using it to ruin someone’s reputation.

Facebook.com

How Facebook can cost you your job? Well, there a tons of ways on how to lose your job in 30 days – we can even have it in seven days or just a day if it’s really necessary, but with the list below, these are just a few things that everyone who’s not new to the WWW knows except you – granting that you’re a Caveman of course.

  • First, don’t be stupid of creating fake profiles on Facebook or any social networks just to get even with your boss.
  • And when you do create a fake profile, don’t even add your colleagues or immediate superior in your friends list because they might squeal to the person you’re trying to attack or get even with.
  • Lastly, when you’re in the web, don’t expect that nobody can’t find you. Everything is interconnected so don’t expect that by mere deleting of that fake profile you can already clean your tracks.

So, still interested of getting even with your boss via social media or social network? Think again…

This is trivial but not when me and my wife saw it just awhile ago after having a sumptuous breakfast at

Mang Inasal endeavors to adhere to elements that bear a distinctively Pinoy stamp-grilling with charcoal, rice wrapped in banana leaves, a marinade concocted out of local spices and herbs, bamboo sticks for skewers, and the ambience that encourages kinamot (the Ilonggo term in eating with the hands) whenever chicken inasal is served.

Mang Inasal endeavors to adhere to elements that bear a distinctively Pinoy stamp-grilling with charcoal, rice wrapped in banana leaves, a marinade concocted out of local spices and herbs, bamboo sticks for skewers, and the ambience that encourages kinamot (the Ilonggo term in eating with the hands) whenever chicken inasal is served.

Jollibee – Gaisano Grand, Basak, Lapu-lapu City Cebu.

First, let’s get an idea on whom we are talking about – ‘Mang Inasal‘. Actually, Mang Inasal endeavors to adhere to elements that bear a distinctively Pinoy stamp-grilling with charcoal, rice wrapped in banana leaves, a marinade concocted out of local spices and herbs, bamboo sticks for skewers, and the ambiance that encourages ‘kinamot’ (the Ilonggo term in eating with the hands) whenever chicken inasal is served. All these evoke a rush of nostalgia for tradition, culture, and most of all, Home – you can actually follow Mang Inasal’s website to get more information on them.

No doubt I love the place and food. I love their chicken and their unlimited rice, and this is also the reason why the chain is a hit. But, with what we saw just awhile ago? Now, I’m having second thoughts and for sure my wife wouldn’t want to visit the place anymore.

You know what? Normally, what we usually do after eating on any fast food chain inside that mall is that we walk a few meters away from the mall passing a few houses just to get a ride on our way  home. This has been our simple routine after eating inside the mall or after shopping. But this time, beside those houses we usually pass by we saw three Mang Inasal employees on their uniforms (red)fetching gallons of water from the deep well using a hand pump. Now, my question is, what are they going to do with the water they’ve fetched? Will they use it to wash the dishes? For drinking? Darn! Can’t imagine what’s worst. Let’s just hope it’s for the floor – but, aren’t the janitors doing that? To tell you, the deep well is located near a swamp beside Basak wet market surrounded with garbage. Name it, plastic, papers, cans, and maybe spoiled meat or dead animals. Eeeww! Just imagine how a squatter looks like. It’s exactly what it looks like – though it’s a bit overkill but who cares when the water they’re using for washing the dishes or for whatever purpose is not safe. Haist….

I know there are a lot of food chains out there who has worse practices than Mang Inasal, but is this the kind of BRAND they’ve wanted to project to their loyal customers? Yes! I’m a loyal customer. Whenever I go to any mall, I look for Mang Inasal and just before we’ve encountered that incident, we passed by Mang Inasal hoping to grab a bite and feed our hungry souls, but sad thing it was not 10:00 am so they were not open yet.

I guess it’s high time to fix this issue with Mang Inasal. They’re considered as the fastest growing food chain with a tons of franchise already as a testament to their BRAND, and the practice could really kill their brand.

With the practice? For sure they’ve been doing that already since they’ve opened up a few weeks ago. But guys, people behind Mang Inasal  Gaisano Grand Mall, please stop that practice because it’s not helping.

Categories : Branding, Business

For our “Brand Disaster” episode of the week, let’s look at Friendster.com’s new scandal - stealing photos

Background Image used in this "log in" has istockphoto.com's watermark. By viewing the back ground image one can see clearly the watermark.

Background Image used in this "log in" has istockphoto.com's watermark. By viewing the back ground image one can see clearly the watermark.

from istockphoto.com.

First off, kudos for the blogger behind “Tittle-Tatlle” for posting this one – great find!

As we all know, Friendster updated its look and feel to accommodate new demands from its users – a major update of its website was being made hoping to even the battle field against major social networking sites.

Actually, things went well though most professionals still don’t buy it because as you can see the update was not meant for professionals who wants to network with fellow professionals and have a great time but for “kids” who wants to have fun! But, to give justice to Friendster’s major revamp, the site now looks cool and appealing for teens, but the sad part is that they steal photos from istockphoto.com of which a few hundred bloggers or so already noticed it.

You can actually check this link: http://www.friendster.com/login.php and view the background image of the log in section. On that part you can notice the istockphoto watermark on the left edge of the login form.

To get a clearer view, you may follow this simple tutorials:

  • First, hover the cursor over the vector image.
  • Right-click then select the “View Background Image”.

Here’s how it looks in this url: http://images.friendster.com/images/v2/bgLogin.jpg. I already saved a copy in my hard drive just in case Friendster will remove the image.

As we all know, istockphoto.com is one of the leading resource for images/graphics, but of course you need to buy it in order for them to remove the watermark. And if the watermark is not removed, that means you’re using the image without consent that is also tantamount to stealing.

So, what do you think? Is it not – stealing? Anyway, I just hope that the recent acquisition of Friendster.com (Kuala Lumpur-based MOL) would save Friendster’s recent mess, but that I doubt. This will surely stick!

This recent blow really caught me and my friend off-guard. Just a while ago, my friend (HR pro) told me that

A rip-off account from Friendster being used to ruin the HR pros online BRAND

A rip-off account from Friendster being used to ruin the HR pros online BRAND

someone assassinated her online profile – Facebook and Friendster were the ones being used to ruin her profile and online BRAND. And how the suspect did it are as follows:

  • First, the culprit searched/accessed her Friendster profile – I would assume the person was in her network for a long time already since he/she was able to access personal photos of the victim, or if not, the suspect asked to be included in her network. And so, knowing or say assuming that the suspect worked for the same company – as what the suspect placed in her/his profile,  the victim approved the friend request.
  • The suspect then created a fake profile using the victims’ profile and personal photos coming from the original public profile (that includes some personal information) – you can check the screen shot of the fake profile.
  • To ruin her personal brand, the suspect used obscene photos he/she have gathered online – to spice up the profile, the suspect dropped a few unreachable contact numbers.

As for my assumption, since the profile was created/updated first week of December 2009, I would assume that the suspect is really connected with the Company. So that everyone may know, the victim is handling Employee Relations – who facilitates termination -  so, this  might be job related.

With the experience, I don’t think this is fair for us HR because for a fact that HR is just a mere facilitator and a consultant when termination is really necessary. We also have a grievance committee to help us asses the case at hand of which members are from different levels of the Organization. HR don’t just recommend termination if we don’t have a solid evidence at hand, and this is why HR job is really complicated. Mind you, a Supervisor have already asked me for a “fist-fight” outside the Company.

So, what can we learn from this experience?

  • First, limit your social media profile to people whom you really know.
  • Scrutinize every friend request – ask questions if it’s really necessary.
  • From time to time update/evaluate every friends you have in your network.
  • Don’t forget to engage with your network – talk to them, write on their walls and take time to ask them questions (pro-active approach).

As for the case updates, we are now approaching legal authorities to teach this person a lesson. We’ll see if our case sticks because if this one sticks this will serve as a warning shot to those people who don’t know the ethics of using social media.

Lastly, if you have something in mind for us to expedite and solidify our case, please feel free to use the comment section.

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