Who Should be Rewarded for Social Media Activity?

Social media has brought a brand new perspective to marketers around the world. A brand is no longer dictated by the company; a brand is defined by what consumers tell each other. In light of this phenomenon, companies are scrambling to purchase monitoring tools, outsource to social media and PR agencies, and engage in round table discussions about how to improve their brand's sentiment across all social media channels. It is important to realize that Facebook and Twitter are not the only platforms to focus on. These conversations are taking place EVERYWHERE. (Yelp, Foursquare, Google +)To all the marketeers: Focus on ratings and review sites.

All consumers, you and i included, owe a big Thank You to the social media pioneers like Facebook and Twitter. These platforms have humanized companies in a way that will never be reversed. This comes in two forms, positive and negative. We all know the positives like Coca Cola, which enabled its customers to pick the new Coca Cola flavor and those of us entrenched in the social media stratosphere have heard about Denny's incorrect Twitter Handle. You can find other disaster examples in this slide show. (http://www.slideshare.net/HorizonWatching/social-media-101-social-media-disasters)

So why do people "like" or "follow" company pages?

Is it for the coupons?
Is it for the promotions?
Do they want to feel included?
Do they feel "social" knowing their friends are viewing their actions? Everyone gets a little chill when someone likes their Facebook post!
Or is it much deeper?

#1 reason is for the coupons.
(http://socialtimes.com/want-more-likes-on-facebook-survey-says-coupons-are-the-1-marketing-strategy_b84713)

Saying Thank You is a two way street. Or is it?  Most of the companies I speak with on a daily basis are concerned with addressing negative sentiment posts. They shower their unsatisfied customers with coupons and gift certificates to reconcile a negative experience. Individuals who realize the power of a negative comment on social media will abuse it. I know a buddy who wrote a letter to CPG firms and complained about stale cereal and bad tasting ice cream and he received numerous free products. A different buddy of mine wrote positive letters to these SAME companies and only received a thank you letter back. I agree with the term 100% satisfaction, but when does the consumer take it too far? Have you ever heard nice guys finish last? Companies fail to reward their brand ambassadors and this should be addressed. It's not easy, but if the right tools are in place, the rewarding process is seamless. My recommendation is to find an application that can automatically archive individual FB and twitter profiles and reward chief influencers and let go of the negative nancy's. Some are only posting negative things to receive free products anyway.  If you need any help with monitoring and auto-archiving, please take a look at this website.
www.engage121.com

Can Social Media Repair London Bridges Falling Down?

"The past, though it cannot be relived, can always be repaired"- John Lafarge

Have you ever looked back on your adolescent years and thought to yourself, "I can't believe I did this?" "I can't believe I said that?" "What was I thinking?" 

Looking back on my childhood, it was pretty much status quo but I wish I treated people differently. I was lucky enough to have friends that stood by me in rough times and also fortunate enough to attend college, graduated, and land my first corporate job with a 2 billion dollar corporation. This was the time in my life that my arrogance took a backseat and I finally accepted the simple fact that I did NOT know everything.  After having this epiphany, I soon became a sponge; learning everything I could and  finally admitting to myself that I was not the center of the universe. Hey mom....looks like you were right after all these years  :)

Trouble seemed to follow me wherever I went ages 13-17. Someone told me to stop for a second and take a step outside myself. Look at the 5 buddies I hung with most. Sad, but the truth is that these 5 people will dictate "your" morals, values, beliefs, and explain your behaviors. Openly, I fell into some not-so-great crowds over the years. I got into trouble here and there(nothing major) but it took moving to a brand new city where I didn't know anyone to really find myself as an individual.  Once I started to realize my potential as a human being and realized that bridges were not meant to be burned...I reflected on the reputation I created for myself over the years and I wanted a second chance. But how?

Luckily, social media has been a very important tool to improving and raising my own brand awareness. I started requesting friendships from individuals that I graduated with. I wanted to learn about the people I never gave a chance and Facebook and LinkedIn enabled me to do so. I researched where they are working, what college they went to, their life experiences, who they are dating, who they are married to, and most importantly, if they are smiling in their pictures.  Since I started this brand building project, I've had Facebook chats with these people that transformed into phone calls/texts, that resulted into catching up over drinks. 

Everyone focuses on social bullying and indeed, it is a huge problem in today's world. But it is normal that the news focuses on the negative side of the story. In order to stay stress free, it is important to focus on the positive side. It gives people another opportunity to right the wrongs in their past. Social media should be for the jock that poured milk all over the science club president who now works for NASA or the cheerleader that never gave the trumpet player a second look after he built up enough courage to ask her to prom. After high school, perceptions of individuals change dramatically. Think about if you ever moved to a city by yourself and you run into a person that you graduated with or migrated from the same town. Don't you agree that the experience is ten times different? Usually, you two become great friends or even date because it's a perceived similarity that binds the relationship together.

Yes, social media can repair the bridges that someone may have burned in the past. And yes, divorce rates may be higher in the future because of the ease of being attracted to temptation. But at the end of the day, social media has given us an opportunity to connect and share content with people that would have been lost inside your yearbook which is now lost in your closet. Social media does much more than telling me what you had for breakfast this morning or what song you are listening to. It gives me a real life point of view through your eyes, not mine. That "my friend" is the value of true friendship. Instead of being obsessed about me, me, me, your friends on Facebook are concerned about the world that you see, through your eyes. 

Occupy....Your Parents House?

Bailouts, unemployment, foreclosures, taxes. This is what protesters bring up when they are asked, "Why are you here?"


Truth: We don't know what they want. We don't know the demands. 

Truth: We know they are not happy. We know they aren't working during the protests.

Well let's take a deeper dive to see what would happen IF they DID work....

I worked out some numbers today for college graduates and this is what I've found. Please keep in mind that these number will vary depending on state but here is the general idea.


According to the National Average Wage Index (http://www.ssa.gov/oact/cola/AWI.html) the average American salary is 40,711.61 in 2009. This number seems pretty low so for arguments sake, lets go to $50,000.  


P.S. 50K for a college graduate is PHENOMENAL. 

Below is a list of MANDATORY expenses

School Loans-Avg. $500.00 a month                                     $50,000/12 Months=$4166 Before Taxes

Car Payment-$200.00 a month                                                                                 $3,327.08 After Taxes  

Car Insurance-$150.00 a month

Rent EVERYTHING included-$1,000

Groceries-$800.00 a month

Gas/Train-$200.00 a month

Total: $2850 Mandatory Monthly Expenses

$3327.00 Take home

-$2850.00 Expenses

=

$477.00 play money for the month. Keep in mind, I added an extra $10,000 to the median salary. 

Unless every college graduate decides to enter the sales arena, they will be struggling for some time. What if they lose their job? How are they suppose to save?  I didn't even include little expenses like cell phone bills, cable/internet bills, and all of the miscellaneous expenses that people "can't just live without." 


Looks like you will be living at home with that $100K education. (Nothing is wrong with that. I support it due to monetary reasons!) This article describes student loans for the last 40 years...http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/21CTTl/www.healthcareadministration.com/college/




With all of that said, the problem with the American economy and financial system really comes down to individual responsibility. Without saying anyone's name, I had a conversation with a close friend of mine. He mentioned that he went to Home Depot and bought a brand new sink. I asked, "Why, was it broken?" He said, "Nope, wife wanted it to match the new cabinets." "OK, how much does it cost?" His reply makes me laugh every single time I think about it. "Cory, I have no idea...but I know I don't have to pay anything until a full year from now!"  If that doesn't sum the prime mortgage, I don't know what does. Yes, it is the banks fault for giving out way more than people can afford but its people that are signing their name on the dotted line. If you can't pay for it, don't buy it. Obviously there is much more to it, but my point is that individual responsibility holds more water than blaming it on someone or something else.


I spoke to many people during my recruitment days, who lost their positions or just came out of school. My advice for those people was, and still would be today, study something that you know will be useful when you graduate/get laid off. If you don't know what you want, it's normal. Communications, multi-disciplinary, or business are all general majors that enable you to try different things without hurting your salary. Print, Radio, and Television are all great industries but they pay nothing. Tough hours, long schedules, and cut throat politics sum up many people's experiences. It sounds glamorous but so many people think they want these jobs that executives take advantage of the young and dedicated. They churn and burn you until there is nothing left. 




-Cory Kapner

Intertax. Will The Gov't Ever Tax Individuals for Surfing the Net?

I was sitting around watching Sunday Football and my roommate and I began to talk about Facebook and the rumor about charging subscriptions.  We then spoke about an article from the New Yorker about Facebook wanting to be a one stop shop for internet users. They will be adding music, video games, timelines ect.  It doesn't really matter if people like or dislike the changes because any type of buzz is good buzz. After all, Facebook is and has been the #1 website where people spend the majority of their time.  After a million thoughts raced through my brain about Facebook's impact on the world, I wondered if the government ever sat down with Mr. Zuckerburg and discussed their plans.  

We all know the United States is not in the best shape financially right now. Between Wall Street, major car manufacturers, and now the debt ceiling...where will the money come from? Taxes will play a major part in the near future. But what kind of taxes? I was reading CNN the other day and it described how the middle class median salary decreased a full $10,000 from last year.  Immediately, I thought of a stat a week earlier that 15% of America is living in poverty right now. With these numbers top of mind, and America needing to squeeze more money out of its people, what is the only thing that people use everyday that the government doesn't really have their hand in? The Internet.

I'm sure Mark Zuckerburg has been approached many times by the government to discuss their impact on American Society as well as their global presence.  Facebook alone records over 700 billion minutes on their website a month. This stat alone leads me to believe the government sees internet usage as a very lucrative opportunity. They could tax individuals based on how many times a day, week, month, year surfing the internet. They could tax based on how many websites your going to. They could even tax based on how many family members you have registered. Think of it as a family plan from T-Mobile. This could be universal across all industries and very easily monetized. 

The internet is the only thing that the government really doesn't touch. In America's past, the "it" factor would always include the government. If the government didn't like their piece of the financial pie, they would take the company to court on tax evasion or shut it down. Remember prohibition? Why do you think cigarettes are still legal when they are 100% proven to kill you. It says it on the package! 

The Intertax may not be a bad thing. Everyone uses the internet and the majority of us pay for it anyway. What's an extra $2 or $3 dollars a month for taxes. I want my government to create opportunities for the less fortunate. At the moment, they are taking away opportunities for growth. While the rich get richer, the poorer gets poorer and if something doesn't change with the current system, 15% poverty will turn in 30% poverty.  Not to mention the value of the dollar decreasing day by day. If the America Dollar is no longer the benchmark for the world currency,(Federal Reserve) Our way of life will change dramatically. Everyday expenses will sky rocket. That is something I urge you to research yourselves. 

I'm not a radical conspiracy guy, I love the United States.  I also consider myself lucky to be an American citizen. Ever visit a third world country? Visit Nicaragua and then come back and shop at Costco or Sam's Club. I promise you will never tweet about a long line again. People say the internet is the Wild Wild West. This is true for the moment. Once settlers built their own houses, grew their own crops, and dug for their own gold, the government was ready to intervene. Facebook and Google are the Lois and Clark's of today-researching the landscape, boundaries, and dangers. Just remember that Thomas Jefferson(President at the time) commissioned the journey. 

-Cory Kapner

Social Media. What have you been missing?

Before I joined Engage121, a social media company where we enable clients to monitor, listen, publish, and track their social media efforts, Facebook and LinkedIn were the only two platforms I used. I had a self-fulfilling prophecy that Twitter was meant for celebrities, Facebook was to stay in touch with high school and college friends, and LinkedIn was the Facebook for professionals.

I soon learned that times have changed and businesses are capitalizing on this phenomenon. Information Technology is the only industry growing and thus creating jobs. We all know LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the big three. But you would be surprised to see how many people are on Foursquare, Yelp, Blogs, Vimeo, Tumblr. Ect.  Our application alone links to over 50 social media platforms and review sites where user engagement is encouraged.

Being apart of corporate America, I truly believe that if an individual isn't on one of these sites, I question if they even exist. Privacy issues, API changes, cyber bullying are all new problems to deal with. It should be interesting to see how society adapts to these changes and at what cost. 

So how does this space effect my sales career? I find myself no longer picking up the phone to schedule a meeting. My background relies heavily on picking up the phone and pounding away.  This is not the case when your dealing with the fortune 1000's. Decision makers are on social media sites that are linked to their smart phones in real time. Instead of researching what location people are based out of or direct line phone numbers, I'm investigating their twitter handles and Facebook pages. Sending DM's/Inmails/Posts and it is actually working. It takes a lot for someone to ignore you on 6 different points of contact. 

There are few experts out there in this space and that's what makes it exciting. This is my first blog and I'm still in shock that I've decided to do this. Long story short, credibility is everything. I refuse to be a social media wall flower. Because we have the power to change things in real time, you can expect to see much more activity from this guy in the coming days, weeks, months, years.

"A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is – it is what consumers tell each other it is.”-Scott Cook. Chairman Intuit, Board of Directors