We’re looking to add strong PR folk to our team in San Francisco. Take a look at the job description and let us know if you’re a fit!

Page One PR is a Silicon Valley public relations and social media firm that specializes in enterprise technology. At Page One we’re corporate, but collaborative and laid-back. People at Page One come from all walks of life. We like that mix and we look for initiative, intelligence, humor, integrity, creativity, risk taking, fearlessness, management skills and a track record of success.

We are looking for a creative, clever, and highly motivated individual who makes the most of every opportunity and wants to make a big splash. We want someone who can get results both independently and as part of a larger team. Every day is different, but the position will mostly include:

Job Duties:
* Develop relationships with media, bloggers, industry analysts
* Craft and place stories in the press and blogosphere
* Write both punchy blogs and traditional press releases
* Manage Twitter accounts
* Research industry events and opportunities

Job Requirements:
* 1-3 years experience in marketing, public relations, advertising or related communications field;
* At least if 1 year of high tech PR agency experience preferred;
* Successful track record of producing strong results;
* Ability to think outside of the box;
* Takes initiative;
* Ability to work both independently and cross-functionally across multiple teams and job duties;
* Grasp complex technology;
* Exceptional organization, writing and verbal communication skills;
* Four-year degree from a top university.

Since Page One’s culture is all about great people doing great things, we reward our employees with exceptional pay, matching 401K and 20 days of paid time off.

* 20 days of PTO (even in your first year)
* 12 paid company holidays
* Medical, dental and vision coverage for you and your dependents
* Matching 401K (after 6 months)
* Long- and short-term disability insurance
* Life insurance
* Flexible spending account

This position is based in the San Francisco office, which is located in the financial district. If you are interested in the position, email your resume and a cover letter to p1job at pageonepr dot com.  Please include details on your experience and explain how you would be a good addition to the team.

Learn more about us: http://www.pageonepr.com. Follow us on Twitter: @pageonepr and Facebook: /pageonepr.

Over the weekend, TechCrunch broke the story that Facebook had taken a user’s vanity URL and sold it to audio-entertainment solutions company Harman International. Facebook claimed the user, Harman Bajwa, was “violating Facebook’s policies” and his username didn’t have a clear connection to his identity. However, “Harman” as Harman Bajwa’s vanity URL seems perfectly fitting, and TechCrunch saw the revocation of facebook.com/Harman as all about making a sales deal. Harman International wanted the URL because of a campaign they’re working on for the Grammys, and initially tried to bribe Harman Bajwa citing a past gift of Coke Zero for Twitter handle twitter.com/avtr during promotion of the movie Avatar.

After the story broke I was talking with a friend about it and he was hardly surprised (unlike myself). He felt that users are willfully choosing to participate in Facebook’s network by opening an account, so terms of use are ultimately according to Facebook. Since Facebook created the option of a vanity URL in the first place, they can decide to take it away at any time.

However, I disagreed with his stance, noting that lack of respect for the individuals the site and company are founded on is a huge PR misstep and flawed business practice. Facebook’s success is because of its users. The popularity of the social networking site over time is a direct result of viral growth through users and the main catalyst for ad growth and thus ad revenues.

The URL has since been given back to Harman Bajwa with an apology from Facebook, but the incident made me want to research Facebook’s official policy regarding vanity URL’s. If you go to facebook.com/username, their stance covers their backs in all respects:

I’m not sure if their policy has always been this overarching, I’d be curious to know if it was the same prior to the Harman incident (I’m guessing it wasn’t).

What’s even more interesting is when I went to create a vanity URL for one of my clients this morning, Facebook lists “several things for you to remember” upon confirmation, stating “You can’t transfer ownership of a username to another party”. Isn’t that exactly what Facebook was trying to do? Transfer ownership from Harman Bajwa to Harman International? Maybe if Facebook started abiding by the rules they set for their own users, the company wouldn’t receive as much backlash as compared to recent months.

What do you think about this incident? Yes, Facebook technically has the right to revoke these usernames per their policy, but is it ethically sound when one’s business is fueled by its users? Would love to hear your comments below.

Page One PR is a Silicon Valley public relations and social media firm that caters to the B2B industry. We are currently looking to add an account manager to our Social Media Team in our San Francisco office.

We are looking for a brilliant, enthusiastic and highly motivated individual who wants an opportunity to impact companies’ business decisions with social media. The ideal candidate would be able to manage social media accounts (large and small), keep the accounts and grow them over time.

Job Requirements:

* 3-5 years experience in marketing, public relations, advertising or related communications field;
* Account management experience and strong track record of retaining accounts with outstanding results;
* Ability to successfully manage large tech accounts such as Cisco, SAP and VMware as well as smaller start-ups;
* Experience designing and implementing social media campaigns and a proficient understanding of social media techniques and strategy;
* Exceptional organization, writing and verbal communication skills;
* Ability to contribute individually, and lead, manage or participate in cross-functional teams;
* Ability to grow account retainer sizes;
* Four-year university degree.

At Page One we’re corporate, but collaborative and laid-back. People at Page One come from all walks of life. We like that mix and we look for initiative, intelligence, humor, integrity, creativity, risk taking, fearlessness, management skills and a track record of success.

Since Page One’s culture is all about great people doing great things, we reward our employees with exceptional pay, matching 401K and 20 days of paid time off from your first day on the job.

* 20 PTO days (even in your first year)
* 11 paid company holidays
* Medical, dental and vision coverage for you and your dependants
* Matching 401K
* Long- and short-term disability insurance
* Life insurance
* Flexible spending account

The salary for this position is up to $70,000 annually, depending on experience.

If you are interested in a career as a Social Media Account Manager at Page One, email a resume and a cover letter outlining your account management and social media experience to socialmediajobs at pageonepr dot com.  Take a look at our website, the social media services we offer and our clients – please outline your experience and explain how you would be a good addition to the team.  Applicants without a cover letter will not be considered.

Learn more about us: http://www.pageonepr.com

Follow us on Twitter: @pageonepr

Become our fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pageonepr

Read our blog: http://www.pageonepr.com/blog/

12/21 Update: It was announced yesterday (12/20) that Yelp walked away from the $550 million dollar deal with Google.

Yesterday evening, Michael Arrington from TechCrunch reported that Google was in advanced talks to acquire Yelp for at least $500 million dollars. It seems like a big business move, even for Google, so let’s try to break it down. Why does this potential purchase matter?

For Google, the benefit of the acquisition would be ad revenue. If this deal is confirmed, Google will inherit Yelp’s extensive network of local ad-buying businesses. They’ll also be able to take Yelp’s 8 million+ user reviews and integrate them into Google’s Place Pages – which will give Google even more opportunity for ad revenue with keyword searches.

For Yelp, a buyout from Google means that direct links to Yelp listings will show up in Google’s search results. These are not just links to Yelp’s search results page, but links taking you directly to the Yelp page for say, Bi-Rite Creamery. Oh, and of course, there’s the money. Yelp is reporting $30 million in revenue this year, but rumor has it that Google will purchase the company for half a billion dollars.

For local businesses, the acquisition is important because with Google’s backing, Yelp reviews will have the potential to reach much larger audiences. If your business isn’t already on Yelp, what are you waiting for? You can use your Yelp listing to serve as the landing page for your company if you don’t have the budget to build your own personal website. Customer reviews have always been a popular social activity on the Internet, and Yelp has fostered an intimate community of reviewers who could be spreading the news about your business for you.

For social media users, the acquisition ties together the two popular trends of location-based social networking and mobile devices. Consumers could use their mobile phones to locate information through Google about nearby businesses on Yelp. Now armed with a large arsenal of local content, Google could push for more advanced mobile apps that allow users to instantly connect with others in local spaces – much like Foursquare.

With this move, Google is illustrating their play for acquiring community-based websites, and trying to magnify their presence in social networking. It’ll be interesting to see if this deal pulls through. I’ll definitely be on the lookout for confirmation.

Twitter announced a new feature today called Contributors.   The new feature will allow multiple people to post Tweets on behalf of a company.  Although corporate Twitter feeds like Bing are already using this with a caret plus initials (^CO), official support from Twitter will change the perception of a Twitter feed as a source of corporate communication.

There is an ongoing debate among social media professionals about whether a corporate Twitter feed needs a single voice, a single persona, ideally managed by a single person.  In my opinion, the new contributors feature ends the debate.  When the contributors feature comes out of beta, corporate Twitter feeds will move to having multiple people post information, similar to how a corporate blog has multiple posters, each with their own voice.  Just as with blogs, there will be a need for individuals to have their own personal Twitter feed.

The Twitter contributors feature will be supported by the Twitter API, which will enable a wide range of commercial Twitter tools to offer even more management features for multiple people that are managing a single Twitter feed.

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Craig Oda   http://twitter.com/codawork

http://socialmediasurfer.com

Craig Oda, managing partner and product launch enthusiast