Economy: 0 Social Media: 1

This time of year students around the nation are turning their tassels to the left and entering the workforce – hypothetically speaking. In today’s economy the majority of graduates emerge unemployed or underemployed, disheartened by the number of layoffs that are occurring in the so-called real world. The intriguing part about the current job market is the growing number of jobs available in social media. If you type “jobs in social media” into a search engine such as careerbuilder.com approximately 4,000 results appear for jobs. Admittedly, these search engines are not always accurate, but the sheer number of results that claim to be associated with social media is staggering.

Merely a decade ago I would wager that there were not half as many results for jobs in social media, but the modern world has evolved so quickly that the workforce must adjust. The number of social media sites available means that someone has to be behind the proverbial curtain calling the shots. That person could be you. The top job title in one search is “Social Media/Networking Analyst,” a title that may not have existed five years ago. Of course there have been analysts throughout the years but a social media analyst is a vastly different breed. For centuries people have learned about companies and services by word of mouth, today that word of mouth appears in the form of social media. Any company looking to significantly expand its presence must be connected through some form of social media. That may seem like an extreme statement but today’s world operates based on who posted what link and how often something pops up as a hash tag. Who keeps track of the success rate of these social plugs? I’m guessing a Social Media/Networking Analyst.

Although I am not entirely sure what a social media analyst does, my guess is that he monitors how profitable a company’s efforts are in the realm of social media. There is an art to gaining a word of mouth reputation and modern companies have realized that. Having someone keep track of how often people should post on Facebook or Twitter to promote a new product can skyrocket that product’s sales percentage. For example, if Nike comes out with a new sneaker someone should make a Facebook page, create a Facebook advertisement, post numerous blurbs on Twitter and create a Foursquare check-in for everyone who buys the new product. Each one of those small events can trigger a chain reaction that will drive a new consumer to buy a new pair of Nike shoes.

When you think of all the people it takes to create a traditional advertising campaign you now have to factor in the social gurus to incorporate that into social media. The easiest way to reach people is now through the Internet and the sites consumers visit most often, and targeting those areas is something that a Social Media/Networking Analyst should be familiar with. Although the job market is stumbling right now there are so many new jobs available that did not exist five or ten years ago. Social media is a hot commodity right now – even Zuckerberg has people working for him.

Group Deals: An Insight into Why We Purchase

The group coupon.  The everyday reminder about what we could be doing – and doing at a discount of 50% to 90%.  Sites such as Groupon, DailyDeal, and DealMobs blast daily emails to inform us, and so many of our deal-hungry peers, that we must buy now in order to take part in the group deal of a lifetime.

But what makes us salivate over these social bargains?  Why do we impulsively purchase these deals?  And how has Groupon become the fastest growing company… ever?

Let’s explore.

One obvious reason is the substantial savings.  Groupon and Groupon-like sites noticeably advertise discounted prices, which average at about 56% of the original price.  By clearly presenting the original item value, the percentage of the discount, and the difference in the sale cost and the actual cost, Groupon informs visitors every which way they are saving money.

This daily-deal-focused advertising may contribute to an unconscious craving by consumers, who, according to a study conducted by University of Westminster researchers, “get the same level of emotional excitement from special offers as they do from sexual arousal.”  This could explain why those of us who have yet to purchase a deal have not yet un-subscribed.

Time is also a major factor of group coupon purchases.  Similar to an ol’ fashioned wild west showdown, where the bad guy gives the good guy an adequate amount of time to show up, Groupon and Groupon-like sites grant us 24 hours to purchase a deal.

A Time Magazine article suggests that being a part of these limited-time purchases compels consumers to “feel special and lucky,” and that if consumers don’t participate in the deal, they often feel remorse and “left out” when the deal expires.  As if that isn’t stressful enough, these sites display a countdown timer and a deal participator cap so that we know exactly when the deal is off.

A third determinant about why we buy is group influence, meaning that daily-deal websites require a group of people to purchase a deal before the coupon is valid.  To promote this, Groupon and other sites flaunt purchase numbers, which tell a consumer the precise count of people that pay for the deal.

As described in Jeffrey Ford’s and Ellwood Ellis’ study on group influence of buyer behavior, products “high in visibility, complexity, and perceived risk, and low in testability” are factors that signify whether products are susceptible to group influence.

Daily-deals meet three our of the four criteria listed by Ford and Ellis.  They are visible to anyone on the Internet, are filled with risk, such that the buyer may not participate in the deal (20% to 30% of coupons are never used), and are low in testability (trying out the product in person) due to purchasing the deals online. These findings lead me to wonder if we purchase a deal for the savings, or we purchase one to conform to a group norm?

Regardless which, if any, reason is correct, it is important for us to become aware of the underlying behaviors we exhibit when interacting with daily-deal websites.  The consistent manner in which deals are presented could have detrimental side effects, such as accumulation of debt, for consumers, especially those who demonstrate the above behaviors.

Identifying the contributing factors listed above is likely to help us make more informed purchases and to assist us with our own self-control.

To Plan or Not to Plan? Technology and Its Effect on Planning

It’s 4:30pm and you’ve got a 5:00pm deadline for an important project bid. Your palms start to sweat as you frantically format the Microsoft Word Doc and cautiously link the subheadings of the Table of Contents to their corresponding page.
Beads of moisture slide down your palm to the tips of your fingers and drip into the millimeter gaps between your computer keys as you finish up the Executive Summary.
But, like usual, 4:59pm rolls around, and you successfully send multiple e-mails and barely beat the five o’clock buzzer.
More than twenty years ago, a 5:00pm deadline would have meant 4:30pm or earlier. You had to plan ahead and conserve precious minutes to print, scan, or fax a document. The time it took to walk the project bid over to your boss’ office and place it on his or her desk had to be carefully anticipated.

Nowadays, these tasks, along with the elaborate forethoughts of planning ahead, have been put on the back-burner in the business process and have since evaporated from our minds. And it’s safe to say that without the Internet, and the technologies that connect to it, we would be living in a completely different world.

The Internet is responsible for the eradication of many other activities we used to consider critical. Think about the old fashioned way to plan a trip.  At one time, we rummaged through our desk for our most colorful highlighter and dusted off our favorite road atlas, and we mapped out what we considered to be the greatest way to reach a destination.

We spent hours tracing roads, looking up the historical significance of this highway versus that one, and devoted a great deal of time estimating distances while relying on the resilient “finger equals a hundred miles” estimation-method.
The future of technology doesn’t seem too concerned about the planning aspect of life either.

At a developer forum held in San Francisco, Intel announced its vision for the devices of tomorrow. Justin Rattner, Intel’s chief technology officer, revealed that the current emphasis of research is on “context-aware” devices, which are devices that “will anticipate your needs, advise you, and guide you through your day in a manner more akin to a personal assistant than a traditional computer.” Context-aware gadgets will in turn provide users with a more a “friendly” way of life.

To blow a few of the minds attending the Intel symposium, Rattner demoed a TV running context-aware software. During the demo, the context-aware television sensed the grasp of the person holding the remote and changed the channel based on the individual’s past behavior.

Basically, the TV became aware of who was controlling it, scanned the user’s data profile, and selected a channel based on prior choices.

While context awareness does seem like a convenient technology on the surface, my fear is that when these devices become a fundamental component of our daily activities, we will evolve into a culture that doesn’t think before we speak – that doesn’t plan before we act.

And as we mold into this mindless and reliant society, who knows what fundamental preparation skills will disintegrate. We will then be reduced to a culture fueled by “context-aware” technology, and when this happens, we will truly become a culture that lives in the moment.