Time to Clean Up Your Profiles Kids: There's a New Social Media Stalker

My generation has been constantly drilled to watch what we post on social media sites, because the omnipresent "future employers" will see it.  Now we have a new concern: lending companies. More and more lending companies are beginning to evaluate the social media profiles of potential borrowers to determine their creditworthiness or identity. Things being considered:

• Did the applicant put the same job information on their loan application as they did on sites like LinkedIn?
• Have they shared on Facebook or Twitter that they've recently been let go?
• Have they received negative reviews on sites like eBay?
• Does your company get a lot of "likes" on Facebook, and are they responding to their customers?
• Is someone logging in from an expensive mobile phone like an iPhone, or from an Internet cafe?
• What is their network like?

All of these questions, and more, can determine if a borrower will get a loan or if their application will be rejected. Proponents say this method can help small businesses with a strong social presence, who may otherwise be rejected on numbers alone. Others argue it's an invasion of privacy, and lenders are overstepping their bounds.

While the thought of someone searching through my social media history is a little scary, I think lenders are within their rights to do this. Wouldn't you want to know as much about a person as possible before loaning them money? As students we should be prepared for extra scrutiny. Annual figures released by the Department of Education showed that one in ten students defaulted on their loans within the first two years, the highest since 1995. The past six years have shown growth in the number students defaulting on their loans, so it's safe to assume most lenders are getting more hesitant about lending to students. And even if students graduate debt free, chances are most will take out loans for their first car or house. 

I think it's time to start cleaning up our social media profiles, before it's too late. 

Spoiled Olympic Brats? That's #SoSochi

Friday ushered in the official start of the 2014 Winter Olympics, but problems had begun long before that. Athletes arrived to unfinished hotels, thousands of stray dogs roamed the streets, news stories were released daily citing Russian corruption and its controversial stance on gay rights. Naturally social media exploded.

As of this writing, the Twitter account @SochiProblems has 339 thousand followers, over 100,000 more than the 31.6 thousand followers the official Olympics Twitter account, @2014Sochi, has.

Now I'm all for health standards and a safe place to stay, but honestly these Western reporters and athletes are taking things too far. The Olympics is supposed to be about the countries of the world coming together. It's supposed to promote tolerance and cultural understanding. Yet all I can hear about on the news or read about on social media sites are the problems, which aren't even that critical in the grand scheme of things. Globally 870 million went to bed hungry last night, if they even had a bed to go to. I'm supposed to empathize with an American athlete who had trouble picking out an ice cream from his menu because someone didn't perfectly translate Russian to English? Right.

For those complaining about the water situation, 783 million people do not have access to clean water. In fact, most Russians do not have access to tap water, let alone clean tap water.

It's time for us to be a little less ethnocentric, and a little more understanding. Russia is still viewed as a developing nation, so I'd hardly expect the level of luxury we have the privilege to experience as a developed nation. Does that mean this Olympics should be deemed a failure? No. If anything will deem this Olympics a failure, it will be the spoiled, self-centered athletes who care more about promoting problems through social media than taking advantage if their incredible opportunities.

A Bold, Yet Brilliant, Move By J.C. Penney

During the Super Bowl on Sunday night, J.C. Penney released several tweets with spelling and grammatical errors, leading many to believe that the person controlling the account was drunk.

Other brands hopped on J.C. Penney’s tweets as a chance to promote their own brand, such as KIA and Snickers. 

Many are still unsure as to whether the original tweets were planned, or just a sign of incompetence, but in my opinion the strategy was brilliant. These two tweets earned more than 41,000 retweets during the Super Bowl, and have generated a social media buzz unlike anything J.C. Penney has ever seen. As a comparison, the number of retweets on the J.C. Penney account the week before the game averaged only 20 per tweet. 

J.C. Penney has been on a downward slope, announcing last month that it planned to close 33 stores and eliminate 2,000 jobs in order to save $65 million a year. Stock prices have fallen 71% in the past twelve months. Now more than ever J.C. Penney needs to regain market share and increase sales. 

These tweets were a bold move, and J.C. Penney needs to strike again while the iron is hot to ensure success. Tweeting more poorly typed messages isn’t going to cut it here. Those were interesting and unexpected, a one-time novelty if you will, and following them up with other sloppy tweets would kill the appeal. J.C. Penney needs to take the time to engage with its customers, and share quality content while they still have the spotlight. Many consumers may think their stunt was funny and follow them, but unless they manage to convert these potential customers into sales, their tweets were a waste of time. 

Their final tweet of the sloppily typed saga explained that they had been typing with mittens. It was somewhat of a letdown, after expecting a funny story or further excitement from the brand. A better move in my opinion would’ve been something along the lines of “Oops it seems we had a little too much fun last night. Here’s your chance to have some fun too with a 15% off coupon”. A move like that provides a humorous ending to the story, and gives consumers a call to action that could increase sales in stores. Regardless, we’ll see if their marketing strategy pays off in the upcoming quarter.