Friday, February 24, 2012

Have you heard of LinkedIn?


Recently I was introduced to a social networking website called LinkedIn and I think it is very important for anyone working in the business field to know about it. LinkedIn has become one of the fastest growing social networking sites in the world. It is not as big as its competitors Facebook and Twitter are; however, it has an advantage by being unique and catering to business professionals. LinkedIn is basically the Facebook of business. LinkedIn is a site where you can keep a professional profile of yourself and you can stay in touch with past and present colleagues and classmates by having the ability to find them quickly. On LinkedIn you can look for career opportunities, win new clients, and even build your professional reputation. The site connects you to jobs, sales leads and ideal business partners. In 2010 the number of people searches on LinkedIn was 2 billion and the site has over 120 million members and counting. This goes to show you that many people in the business world are using it. LinkedIn is a great place to market yourself and if you don't have a LinkedIn account already, you should consider creating one.

Do you have a LinkedIn account? If you do, what opportunities have you gained from it? If you do not have a LinkedIn account, are you going to consider getting one and what do you hope to gain from it?

http://learn.linkedin.com/what-is-linkedin/

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

In response to Rebecca...

What companies can you think of that need to improve their ethical standards?

Few people may know that behind the smiles of Ronald McDonald and Happy Meals, lays a company with many unethical practices. Not only does McDonalds sell products that contribute to heart disease and the high obesity rate, but a typical fast food hamburger patty can contain meat from more than 1000 different cattle. McDonalds has a negative impact on the environment because this corporation is destroying natural rainforests by purchasing meat from privatized farms that raise these cattle on land that was once a rainforest. Not only does McDonalds treat the environment poorly, but they also treat their employees poorly. McDonald’s employees are underpaid for the amount of time they work and this goes into illegal amounts of labor hours. Many employees also have to work in unsanitary conditions. Also in 2006, 15 McDonalds across Japan had an apple pie recall due to the use of an illegal food coloring agent and in June the same year a woman in Southlake, Texas found a rat in her salad and McDonald’s didn’t even apologize! Clearly McDonald’s has many problems with their ethical standards and these need to be improved if McDonald’s wants a better reputation.
Can you think of a company that has gone out of business due to unethical practices?