ELEVATOR PITCH: NCOUNTRS

Everybody is busy and there’s no time to go out to networking events. It’s a long process and you may end up having no connections and spending unnecessary money in drinks. With “Ncountrs” you literally network and schedule creative conversations over coffee in your pajamas!

Ncountrs is a networking app geared to millennials that uses math and data to suggest you professional people to meet every day. Our algorithm is powered by a lot of data: your location, your point of interests, your passions and your seniority. Plus the more you use the app the smarter it gets. It’s the easiest and funniest way to meet inspiring people to grow as a professional and as a person.

Just like “Tinder”, it takes two minutes each day to select anonymously the people you would like to meet among your personalized selection. Based on the results of potential candidates, the app allows the user to anonymously like another user by swiping right or pass by swiping left on them. If two users like each other’s careers or professional work it then results in a “match” and then are able to chat within the app. Discover founders, entrepreneurs, potential mentors, musicians, artists, graphic artists, and more around you. Networking has never been this fun and efficient. Millennials will love it!

The App will be free but open to several opportunities for advertising. 

MY FUTURE ONLINE PRESENCE – SNIPETS (DRAFT 2)

The Social New Yorker
The home page of The Social New Yorker

www.thesocialneworker.com

The Social New Yorker is an online marketing specialist focusing on young adults, bestselling author, and public speaker. He helps entrepreneurs across industries establish strategies to maximize the power of social media and increase the success of their online marketing efforts.

The Chronicle of Higher Education
By: The Social New Yorker

Social Media, Higher Education, and Millennials
www.chronicle.com

Do you remember Cliff’s Notes? Some students may not even know what it is, however, they do check YouTube videos when they don’t understand something discussed in class.

Mashable.com

MPP-App – Millennials and their purchasing power

By contributor The Social New Yorker
www.mashable.com

By developing sketches we’ll be laying the foundation for our future interface. In this step we visually conceptualize the main features and the approximate layout and structure of our application.

Twitter
The Social New Yorker (@socialnewyorker)

https://twitter.com/socialnewyorker

MILLENNIAL LATINOS ARE NOT STUPID - SECOND DRAFT

I’ve always wondered why certain celebrities say that Latinos, especially younger generations such as Millennials, aren’t united and don’t support each other. Especially when it comes to Hollywood. This is a wrong statement; it’s false and unfounded.

You can’t blend entertainment with charity or support. It’s unfair to blame the community for our flopped ventures. The bottom line is that Latinos (focusing and defending millennials here) consume the same content everybody else does. It has nothing to do with who is in front or behind the camera. To Millennial Latinos, just like everybody else, content is king. If the content you create and present doesn’t pick up legs, it’s no one’s fault but yours. It’s extreme narcissism to think otherwise.

Don’t get me wrong, your work might be brilliant, but just like any product out there, if people don’t want it, it shouldn’t push you to condemn them for it. Millennials are not shy about sharing opinions. If they don’t like your product they will tell you that your job sucks. Oh, and they don’t care if you are a sensitive person, or you spent one thousand hours on the project, and your whole heart is there as well. If they don’t like what they see, they won’t support it.

Latino Millennials and Millennials in general (that’s why I love millennials) will watch a movie or a show with any ethnicity or race leading it, as long as it is what they like. Did Chicanos stop watching the Fast and Furious films because Michelle Rodriguez is Dominican and Puerto Rican? Did Cubans stop watching Ugly Betty because America Ferrera is Honduran? Did it stop people from watching San Andreas because the Rock is Black and Samoan? Did Mexicans or Dominicans stop attending Broadway’s Hamilton just because the main character is Puerto Rican? Absolutely not!

If our publications, networks, movies, and shows are tanking it is because people aren’t interested. It’s unfair to say that it’s because “we fight too much with each other.” That internal disagreement when it comes to entertainment is a myth. Especially since no one has shown any significant material effect from it except for anecdotal experiences—not even one study. Things will never change about it because it’s grasping at straws. You can’t make something happen or change that doesn’t exist. The problem with some Latinos in leadership roles is that they think everybody in US should speak Spanish and that Spanish should be the official language. Some people produce a movie or a TV show with Latino content thinking that 50 million Latinos will support it just because is a “Latino production.” They are ignorant and it’s absurd to think it will ever happen.

What happened to NBC’s “Telenovela”? One season and it’s gone. Latino community loved Eva Longoria on “Desperate Housewifes,”but they hated a soap opera featuring Longoria. It’s not about Eva; it’s about the show. The whole concept was stupid, flat, and absolutely not funny.

We are different people from different cultures and different tastes. One thing that unites us is the same taste for pop culture. It transcends nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, and sex. Nothing else. Nothing more. Yes, we are united in the struggle to be validated, but that’s as far as it goes when it comes to business and entertainment. Give people what they really want. You can’t force or guilt them into action.

Muhammad Ali is also an amazing example. Latinos in general were as devastated with the news, just as the African American Community was. We don’t isolate news and follow the ones that directly affect Latinos. We follow the news that directly affects our neighborhood, city, and country.

Go back to the drawing board, learn from your mistakes, erase them and start anew. We’ve been down this road before. Why do we keep harping at it? Stop it. Latino Millennials are smarter than this. Millennials chose Bernie Sanders over Marco Rubio, not because they hate a Latino, or because that Latino is a Republican. They just didn’t have any connection with Rubio. It’s very simple. They were not willing to support a Latino, just for the simple fact that he is Latino. We all as Latinos see the big picture and for Latino Millennials, Rubio was not a good fit.

Another thing: Whenever you feel the need to blame anyone for your failures, always punch up. Never punch down. The people above are the ones making decisions without being conscious of what will or will not work. Sometimes they are conscious and create these failures before they launch just so they can continue to leave us out. It’s not the community’s fault. There’s nothing honorable, respectable, admirable, or even Christian-like about blaming them for it.

Punch up. Not down. The pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps angle is wrong–even when it comes to entertainment. Latinos are better than this. Let’s act like it. Do your homework. Approach Latino Millennials the right way. They’re not stupid. Oh, and the “Latino flag” will not work. If your work sucks it sucks. Period. Next!

FROM TV SCREENS TO THE OTHER SCREENS - SECOND DRAFT

When I was 17 all I wanted to do was work for a TV station. Live TV production was something I wanted to do. I obtained my B.A. in Broadcast journalism in 1999 and interned at well-known TV networks in the New York area. I still don’t know what convinced my former employer to hired me as a full-time Production Assistant, my good work, my persistence, my enthusiasm, or probably all of them.

From Production Assistant to Producer was my first promotion. The second was from Producer to Senior Producer. I couldn’t believe my dream came true. I was enjoying live TV and that rush of adrenaline during the live newscast was only compared to firing a gun or skydiving. I was having the time of my life! Long shifts of 10-12 hours everyday were not a big deal for me as the hours were very short when trying to book live guests, edit video, check breaking news, review scripts, take guests to make-up room, etc.

Five years later, the story was completely different, I was feeling exhausted at the end of the day, stressed, constantly sick with allergies, and colds. My doctor told me I needed to slow down because the past five years were very intense. Two years later I started losing interest in the daily hectic environment of live TV. When I celebrated eight years there, I started looking for a new job, something in public relations. I thought it was still a crazy environment, but not as insane as live TV. A few months later, just before celebrating my ninth year, I was laid off, along with 300 more people. Instead of feeling sad, I was happy, and ready to start a new chapter in my professional life.

I freelanced for a couple of years in public relations and started doing social media for independent filmmakers. This is how I started working “professionally” in social media. By professionally I mean being paid for doing social media, but not necessarily because my strategies were professional and highly competitive. Actually this is the reason I’m pursuing this Master’s Degree. I’m not new to social media, but I’m new at producing competitive social media campaigns and providing solid results.

MY DISAGREEMENT WITH ZINSSER – DRAFT 2

On chapter 9 of “On Writing Well,” by William Zinsser, he said something that I found extremely shocking and I tend to disagree. He says, “Most of us are still prisoners of the lesson pounded into us by the composition teachers of our youth: that every story must have a beginning, a middle and end… That’s all right for elementary and high school students uncertain of their ground.”

Traditional colleges teaching writing in 300 levels still teach a traditional system of beginning, middle and end. So it’s not just elementary and high schools. My brother is in college right now, and his essays must follow that structure. My first semester at Quinnipiac pursuing my Master’s, I took a class and my professor also followed this system. I can’t imagine myself going to my professor and saying I was not planning to follow the traditional structure just because William Zinsser said is not necessary. I work for a college in New York and I know all professors follow this format as well.

Also, scripts in film follow this structure as well: SET UP, plot point, CONFRONTATION, plot point, and RESOLUTION. It’s a standard in the industry and I don’t think it will change. I must say there are many exceptions to the rule such as “Citizen Kane,” “Memento,” “Kill Bill,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Annie Hall,” among others. These amazing films do not follow the traditional structure and are still considered masterpieces with impeccable scripts. These are non-linear films and I believe Zinsser was thinking on those films when he said that “most of us are still prisoners of the lessons pounded into us by the composition teachers of our youth.” I want to assume that Zinsser was actually saying, “non-linear essays, films, and stories are also amazing pieces of work.”

In the end, it all depends on the perspective and objective of whomever is theorizing any film. If the objective is to find a three-act structure within a film, theorists will find it… or at least make an argument as to the how or why.

I love Zinsser’s book and I am learning a lot from it. It’s one of the best non-fiction books I’ve read in a very long time. However, based on the same quote mentioned before it seems that the book is not intended for younger audiences, “prisoners of composition teachers of our youth.” If a college or high school student reads this book in a traditional institution he/she certainly will have problems to succeed in his/her English Composition class. These old school institutions will still think that great stories are just like life itself with a three-act structure. Beginning (birth), Middle (life), and End (Death.)

ONE-ON-ONE WITH MY MILLENNIAL NIECE – SECOND DRAFT

I read this week that Snapchat has new filters. Just when I thought I were over Snapchat and began to prep myself for a return to the real, filterless world, an update to the app arrive to drag me back in.

I immediately called my consultant to learn more about this. My 17-year-old niece did not pick up the phone but texted me just a few minutes later: ‘sup uncle. You called me… you know I don’t use the actual phone lol. 

I know that! But I risked it anyway… obviously it didn’t work.

I asked her about the new filters and she said, “They’re lit.” Which means she approved them, use them, and liked them. Nice and brief. Very millennial.

In terms of generations, I’m generation X. However, I behave like a millennial: I hate calling people and leaving voicemails, I prefer texting or sending emails; I don’t like reading instructions; I feel suffocated in small offices, I prefer working from home in my pajamas; I don’t like going shopping, I rather order everything online. Should I continue and keep describing how millennials are? I think of a millennial and I think of my niece:

• When millennials want help, they want it now; but when they don’t want help, they expect the sales staff to be invisible.

• Millennials are fast and multitasked, and they can quickly separate out what’s important for them.

• Though fiercely loyal to themselves, they adapt easily and thrive on change

• Millennials need to be trained well because they hate looking stupid.

• Millennials hate old jokes from TV, those from the 90s.

• They’re not about to wear a dumb-looking uniform.

• They eat when they’re hungry and not by the clock. Also they may eat pasta for breakfast and a croissant with OJ for lunch. (OJ means orange juice…smh)

• Millennials take technology for granted.

• They’re not shy about sharing opinions. That’s how the whole concept of social TV got started. They’re not simple viewers, they’re very active.

• Millennials are fast learners in negotiating. They negotiate everything.

• Millennials grew up digital. They’re not intimidated by technology, and they show little patience with those who shy away from using it to its full advantage.

• Power Point presentations are tedious, boring, and so 90s.

• Everything lives in their smartphones. Everything.

I have several more facts about millennials, many, many more. This is the market I’ve been studying for the past three years. It’s a complex target audience that changes and evolves every day. But I feel I’m up to the task. I know I can learn how to market products to millennials via social media because I know what they want, how they want it, and when they want it.

I transitioned from TV production to Public Relations and for the past three years I’ve been working in online marketing. I would like to focus only in social media marketing for millennials. That is my dream job.

Since I have so many things to share about millennials, I was thinking on interviewing as many millennials as possible and sharing their thoughts. “One-on-One with a millennial” should be a good start.

LOOKING BACK

Mid-Term Review...

For the past few weeks I have been looking into millennials as part of my beat in this class. I know that this group of people who are rapidly taking center stage in every single industry spends millions of dollars every year. So, I wondered: How should brands and advertisers go about reaching millennials if they’re so powerful, but also so different, and so complex than other generations before them?

I am not a millennial because I was born before 1980. However, I do feel and act like a millennial. When I read something in the media that ends up being a stereotype about millennials, I can’t avoid jumping and defending them. There are a lot of exaggerated stereotypes, and broad stroking of this generation. Actually, I should correct myself here. I’m not interested in defending millennials, as much as sharpening the arguments. I’m fine with millennials being insulted (or praised) as long as it’s accurate. So please, if you insult them, insult them correctly.

During the past six weeks, I’ve discovered that millennials is an amazing generation, with high potential, and an impressive purchasing power. Those are the ones who transformed the way we communicate; they invented the concept “Social TV”, just because they can’t avoid being multi-tasked. I wrote that in terms of the workforce, millennials no longer value the traditional workplace rules of dress code, reprimands for being late, and the so-called “job-work balance”. They (we) love other intangible benefits such as a friendly work culture, freedom to listen to music. They prefer to work for 12 hours today and only 4 hours tomorrow. Millennials hate monotony. I do too.

When I read my posts, I feel I’m shaping my voice to talk about millennials in a way that is not common in traditional media. I don’t want to talk about them as a weird species controlling the world, but as the biggest age grouping in American history. Since we live in an interconnected world, millennials worldwide are more similar to one another than to older generations within their nations.

Marketing to millennials is both an enlightening look at this generation of consumers and a practical plan for earning their trust and loyalty. I think my blog will be a liaison between millennials and companies. I understand the marketing industry, and I perfectly know millennials. I know how they feel, what they want and how they want it. I also know what they like, dislike, and hate.

I want my blog to be the key to persuading the customers who will determine the bottom line for decades to come. Millennials are here to stay, and they’re not going anywhere. Their reign is just starting, just like my blog.

MPP – MILLENNIALS AND THEIR PURCHASING POWER

According to Comscore, the millennial generation’s massive size and strong purchasing power, estimated to be $170 billion per year, makes them a valuable segment of the population for marketers to target. But given some of the unique characteristics of this generation, having grown up in the digital and information ages, it is critical that marketers have a clear understanding of this group and how to most effectively reach them through advertising. What are the top products millennials buy? What are the top companies millennials trust when buying products and services? How much does a millennial spend every day, month and year? This and other questions can immediately be answer via the MPP app (Millennials Purchasing Power)

GOAL

The goal of this app is to compile information of every purchase made by a millennial. The users will do their purchases normally, but instead of accessing the online store directly, it will be done through the MPP app. Traditional systems process the data compiled within a year and then report it. With MPP everybody can check how much millennials have spent during the past month or quarter in different categories such as sports, entertainment, food, traveling, etc.

SKETCHING

By developing sketches we’ll be laying the foundation for our future interface. In this step we visually conceptualize the main features and the approximate layout and structure of our application. Once we complete a first rough sketch of the MPP app, the whole team will better understand the mission and purpose of this app.

RESEARCH

We’ll answer several questions and include as much information as possible:

1)   Find out whether there are other apps doing the same thing. How many apps are currently in the marketing archiving purchases made by millennials.

2)   Find design inspiration for MPP app. We need to come up with a logo, font, colors, graphics, etc.

3)   Find information on the technical requirements for our app. We’ll need to decide on a platform (Application Programming interface)

4)   Find out how can we market and monetize the MPP app.

5)   Decide what the app will do for the user (millennial) and the end user (companies)

TEST

Test, test, and test again. How long does it take to load? Millennials don’t have time to wait more than 10 seconds for an app to load. It should me our responsibility to make MPP’s loading experience as efficient and frictionless as possible.

LAUNCH AND WAIT

Launch, wait, and fix problems. Pay attention to comments and use the feedback to connect with customers and make improvements. Users should be able to launch the app, load new pages and make purchases seamlessly without thinking, What’s taking so long? If they have to think that, they’ve probably already jumped to our competitor’s app. That’s how millennials are and think; They hate waiting.

CAPTURE THE METRICS

This is what the companies will buy from us. Apps represent a unique opportunity for brands, and they should not be treated as an app version of the website, especially when the target audience are millennials.  The data collected from our app will help marketers plan and execute successful campaigns geared to millennials.

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING AND MILLENNIALS

Social Media Marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or attention through social media sites. Although social media marketing is an integral element of 21^st-century, the literature on social media marketing remains fragmented and is focused on isolated issues, such as tactics for effective communication, or how to produce and execute an effective social media campaign. Social Media Marketing (SMM) is increasingly being used in business to attract attention and gain website traffic. An examination of the digital marketing spending in U.S. from 2014 to 2019, broken down by segment reveals that social media is an area of marketing, which will receive heavy investment in the following years.

However, there is very limited information regarding SMM and millennials. Reaching a young audience who are hard to reach, up to date on the latest trends and often more Internet savvy than the average merchant can be a challenging task. It can be difficult to know what online platforms and marketing strategies will actually reach this audience and what is just a waste of time and resources.
Many experts in the industry agree that reaching the millennials doesn’t have to be an arduous process. It just requires merchants to do some research into what is trendy now online and adapting your marketing so that your efforts are successful at reaching this highly sought after target market.

I present here the top 3 things marketers and merchants should be doing online to keep up with the #millennials.

UNDERSTAND YOUTUBE

YouTube has become a massive attraction for teenagers and twenty something’s alike brands and performers are producing content that is both entertainment and lucrative.

One of the most interesting things for marketers about YouTube is the rise of the “YouTube Star.” These are people who create their own video content and garner millions of subscribers by posting content. From gamers to comedians to make-up gurus, millions of young people are subscribed to channels producing interesting content. People such as Zoella, PewDiePie and Miss Glamorazzi all have millions of followers who look to them for advice and reviews.

One way brands are capitalizing on this phenomena is to sponsor videos. They do this by sponsoring videos and getting YouTubers talking about their products in their videos.

SNAPCHAT

It’s safe to assume that as an eCommerce merchant you are probably on Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of the bigger social media sites. And don’t worry millennials are still using them too. However, new social media platforms are taking center stage within this target market. One of them is definitely Snapchat.

Snapchat has fast become one of the most popular ways to communicate and connect with friends and brands are catching on to. Taco Bell leads the way by posting funny images, promoting its products and getting customers engaged with the brand. Other stores soon followed suit and it has become a great way to share a brand story and post creative fun pictures to engage with customers.

REACH OUT TO BLOGGERS

Blogging is still a very popular way to market products to millennials. They prefer the reviews from a blogger than a news story from a well-known news source. Bloggers have amazing influence especially with a young audience. Fashion, sports, beauty, and lifestyle bloggers are all worshiped by their followers and seen as leaders in regards to what’s trendy and what to buy.

References

Social Media Marketing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media_marketing

Digital spending in the United States from 2014 to 2019, by segment

http://www.statista.com/statistics/275230/us-interactive-marketing-spending-growth-from-2011-to-2016-by-segment/

Millennials

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennials

The Marketer’s Guide to Reaching Millennials

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/marketer-s-guide-reaching-millennials-150131

Next-Generation Strategies for Advertising to Millennials

http://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2012/Next-Generation-Strategies-for-Advertising-to-Millennials

YouTube

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

Chasing Their Star, on YouTube

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/business/chasing-their-star-on-youtube.html?_r=0

Zoella

https://www.youtube.com/user/zoella280390

PewDiePie

https://www.youtube.com/user/PewDiePie

Ingrid Nilsen

https://www.youtube.com/user/missglamorazzi

Snapchat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat

Why Taco Bell Went Loco for Snapchat

http://mashable.com/2014/05/29/taco-bell-marketing-strategy/#xsmRdfnwgiqj

Top Millennial Blogs to Subscribe To

http://www.ploymint.com/top-millennial-blogs/

TOP 3 REASONS MILLENNIALS SEEM TO BE LAZY AT WORK

There is no doubt that millennials are challenging the traditional notion of work. The traditional system of Monday – Friday 9-5pm is in jeopardy, as millennials become the largest fraction of the U.S. workforce. Right now more and more businesses are struggling with the demands and work ethics of this diverse generation of workers. If you are one of those struggling to understand this complex generation and need ways to engage with them, here are three reasons why you might be failing and think of the whole generation as lazy and non-work driven, while the reality is quite the opposite.

1.    They no longer value the traditional workplace rules.

Strict dress code? Reprimands for being late 10 minutes?

Have a close look at their productivity time instead! You might be working for 8 hours and accomplished X amount of work. However, millennials probably did the same amount of work in just 6 hours. Try to understand their perspective. If you fire this employee, you’ll probably end up hiring another millennial.

2.    They believe in life, not work-life balance

Work is not everything millennials want in life. Work is not everything millennials wan in life. They would like to have time for their friends, hobbies, and other small pleasures. They work to live, not live to work. You’re probably thinking on retiring from this company; they don’t.

3.    They value intangible work benefits more

A millennial job seeker is armed with technology and the Internet. They can get to know all the tiny details about your company, including reviews from former and current employers, before committing to the job. Instead of a fancy desk, pension plan, and annual bonuses, they are more attracted by intangible benefits like a friendly work culture, a lack of micromanagement and bureaucracy, freedom to listen to music via headphones, and more.