Today, 8 years later, 200 million are on Facebook, Twitter easily gets almost 2 million hits per month, and the wireless industry is now breaking volume records – AT&T sold 1.2 million IPhones and they were bested by Verizon sales of 1.3 million, Alltel added 780,200 (to be fair, Sprint lost a million customers – likely dispersed among a number of carriers). 3G wireless network are being replaced by 4G.
A bad economy? Says who?
Many Dow stock companies (the Dow Jones Industrial Average is comprised of 30 companies) are still taking a beating, US Steel sales dropped 40%, Whirlpool’s net fell 27%, Toyota sales dropped 42% last quarter, Chrysler is now in bankruptcy and Microsoft is down 32% and is also struggling on the price for its Windows 7 “Starter” for netbooks (popular scaled down laptops that basically serve to surf the ‘Net) because their prior operating systems cost more than these machines. Newspapers are dying.
But Internet and wireless are growing. Amazon’s profit jumped 24%. Apple’s climbed 15% (the IPhone is an iconic device, but if the next gen can’t cut and paste or send photos via a text instead of just email, I’m writing Mr. Jobs a letter!).
- The phenomenon of the growth of the Internet and wireless while many other parts of the economy are hurting is a continued sign of our world culture’s “shift” to the (high-speed) Internet to do much of our essential living and communicating, and much more.
Need more proof of it? Last year Comcast, the world’s largest cable TV company, lost almost 600,000 customers. Did these people suddenly stop watching TV? Remember folks, were Americans – they didn’t give up their “boob tubes,” but found a cheaper way to access television programming – thru their computers via their Internet connections!
As you know, my area of focus is on assisting my employer clients reach today’s online jobseekers and advertised and recruit in a manner that reaches them and is more efficient and competitive than traditional “manual recruiting.”
Whether it’s going on Facebook to see the new way people network and interact, tinkering with an IPhone, watching an Academy Award-winning film through your computer, or reading the Wall Street Journal (online), when you see things from this perspective it becomes clear that the question for employers is now how to advertise and recruit online. Don't take my word for it - Facebook's 200 million members are sending a much clearer message.
To contact me directly, email me at carlbrickman@yahoo.com. I am also on Facebook. Learn more about my work at http://www.onlinejobtour.com/
