Dave: Welcome to unsuitable on Rea Radio. The award-winning financial services and business advisory podcast that challenges your old school business practices and the traditional business suit culture. Our guests are industry professionals and experts who will challenge you to think beyond the suit and tie while offering you meaningful modern solutions to help you enhance your company’s growth. I’m your host, Dave Cain.
I’m wondering if it’s now safe to say that social media is no longer just another fad and like the Internet, hashtags and trending topics, this is here to stay. We have a great guest today to help us go through social media and how it’s impacted entrepreneurs across the world in how they conduct business.
Joining us on this episode is Katie Snyder. Katie is in our Wooster office, and Katie is a millennial and she will bring a unique perspective to the task of understanding social media’s impact on consumer behavior. Welcome to unsuitable, Katie.
Katie: Thank you for having me Dave.
Dave: Before we get into social media discussion I want to talk to you about how much of a famous person you are in our firm.
Katie: Oh boy.
Dave: Last year you received the Richard Rea award for client service. As an auditor that is a tremendous award and I want to congratulate you for that award.
Katie: Thank you, Dave.
Dave: I also understand you are very active in Habitat for Humanity. I wanted to give our listening audience an idea of who you were before I start ripping you about being a millennial and your habits. Which don’t agree with mine at times. You’re going to coach me through this.
Katie: I’ll do my best.
Dave: Good, let’s talk about how social media has impacted your buying habits or your behavior as a millennial. The hashtags and all of that. Let’s start there.
Katie: As with any kind of new way to communicate with consumers, it’s going to have an impact, just like the switch from radio to television, well before my time. Social media that’s in effect we’re seeing similarly now with social media. One of the bread and butters of social media are hashtags, because there are several different avenues for communicating with different consumers in social media. One thing that’s kind of connected all of them are hashtags and a lot of people don’t even know what a hashtag is. Would you know what it is Dave?
Dave: You know I had hash browns for breakfast. Is that where we’re going with that?
Katie: I love a good hash brown but it’s not quite the same thing. What it is, do you know what the Dewey Decimal System is?
Dave: Sure, I went to the library twice while I was in college. Would that be correct?
Katie: Yes, exactly. For millennials we might not know what this is, but I’m old school. The Dewey Decimal System, if you had to check out a non-fiction book at the library and you wanted to find it, I forget the gentleman’s first name, but Dewey came up with a system of assigning numbers to all of the different subjects that a non-fiction book could be. It doesn’t matter which library you go to in the country, I’ll just throw one out. I believe 460 is home gardening. That could be completely false, I’m just making this up because I don’t use it anymore. It doesn’t matter if the library is in New York City or here in Dublin, Ohio. If I go to 460 in the number system at the library, I’m going to find a book on that topic.
How that relates to hashtags is it’s not quite exactly as uniformed, but it allows you to filter through the noise if you’re looking for a certain topic on social media.
Dave: If I was looking for a particular song or artist, I could put #RollingStones, #RareEarth.
Katie: Yes, you would put the number sign, and would type without any spaces, Rolling Stones. If you use a space it breaks the hashtag.
Dave: It will just help me navigate the Internet a little easier?
Katie: Yes. One example I use this to actually help myself shop, I’m an expert shopper, and I love finding a great deal. One of my favorite stores, twice a year they have something called a yellow tag sale, which means it’s not going to go any lower than what it is at that point on the clearance, so I know right about when it hits every year, but I don’t know the exact day they start marking down the items because they don’t give me that information.
Dave: You’re talking about shopping online, not shopping at the mall.
Katie: I’m not even to the point of shopping yet. This is actually shopping at the physical store. They don’t really have too much online yet, this store. What I do is, the store’s quite popular, I will go out to Instagram, which is a social media app on my phone. The main target is you just share photos, and then you write a description. I go to the search window, I type in #yellowtagsale, and then I will start looking for my store. Because I know what their sale tags look like, and when I start seeing those pop up, I’m like, “Hey, I’m going to go to the store tonight after work because I want this sale.”
Dave: Do you buy your clothes online?
Katie: I buy some items online, yes.
Dave: Would you buy a car online?
Katie: I’ve thought about it, but it would depend.
Dave: Did I see where, is it Amazon Prime, will deliver booze to your house? Did I see that? Now I’m starting to get this.
Katie: Think you’re going out a little in left field there Dave.
Dave: You know what, that’s the baby boomer part of it.
Katie: I have looked at getting some specialty wines online if I couldn’t get them locally. That’s more of using Google.
Dave: This is always a great conversation where the baby boomer and the millennial just trying to get on the same page. We’re not on the same page on this, are we?
Katie: It’s okay. I’ll help you.
Dave: Okay, let’s keep going. Obviously I would assume you’re a Facebook. I think probably 80% of the millennials are on Facebook. Do you use that on a regular basis?
Katie: I do use Facebook. Not so much now. Facebook as a social media is really going into the path of sharing articles and news. I actually, to get back on topic for consumption and how that affects me, I do look at Facebook pages for some of the stores I use. A few of them have been using it as a way to engage people to purchase items, where they’ll put, “Hey, show us your Facebook page, and you’ll get such and such off.” Or, “Hey, share this and we’ll put you in a contest to maybe get a new car.” If I get a new car that way, I’m okay with it.
Dave: Do you think, as your use of social b-, not social behavior, but social media has changed the way you have, obviously it’s changed the way you’ve purchased almost everything and some of your consumer behavior?
Katie: Yes, definitely.
Dave: Are you getting good deals?
Katie: I get excellent deals.
Dave: It’s not shopping unless you can bargain and negotiate. How do you negotiate through social media?
Katie: You just have to know which items to use. I was just having a conversation with one of our coworkers who had to actually go to a very ritzy event, and she walked in and said, “I felt totally under-dressed, but there is no way I could really afford the price range of some of the gowns.” We’re talking probably gowns probably I could easily spend $10,000 on the type of gown she was talking about. I went, “Well, we have Rent the Runway.” I was like, “If you ever find yourself in an event like this, let me know, I can find you a good deal.”
One of the items is Rent the Runway, which ten years ago, it would not have worked. The reason it works now is because we’re getting into, millennials the consumption has changed so much that we’re going into almost a throwaway consumer behaviors, where you use the item once, maybe twice and then you throw it away because we’re getting so visual about the items, and how much people see us. I read a post the other day on social media, “Hey, I went to this event, sorry I repeated my outfit.” The poster was male.
Dave: Okay. What impact did that have on your decision on that particular item?
Katie: Millennials are going to, we’re going on the spectrum. When it becomes materialism versus experiencism, is that a word?
Dave: Let me look. Can we look that up on a social, on a site?
Katie: We could Google it. Does anybody here have Google?
Dave: No, we’re not allowed to have our phones on during this presentation.
Katie: Give me a moment. On that spectrum, what we’re seeing because of social media, it’s driving that needle to go more towards the experiences, and items that are Facebook and Instagram and Twitter worthy, they want people to, well here’s an example. What is Kim Kardashian famous for?
Dave: Is that lost jewelry?
Katie: That’s the most recent one. At the end of the day, she has a huge social media following. Why? She has a life that is full of experiences that make everybody jealous. Not everyone, but quite a few people.
Dave: Let’s change a little bit of direction. Let’s talk about cyber security and use of social media. You know you’re reading a lot about cyber security issues. Do you have any concerns as you expand your Internet and social media usage about security issues?
Katie: That’s always present and you always have to be aware of that. How you’re projecting yourself out in the social media realm. Your essentially branding yourself. If you brand yourself publicly in a way you can very easily become a target, that’s one of the reasons why many of the social media sites have built in security features for you, so you can block that only certain people can view your information or see what you’re posting about.
Dave: For our listeners, our guest today again is Katie Snyder. Really a precise auditor, seasoned auditor for Rea & Associates. We’re talking about the acts of social media and how you’re using that in your day to day activities. From a professional standpoint, how are you using social media? Is it maybe training? Continuing education or anything there that our listeners would benefit from?
Katie: From a professional standpoint the first item that comes to mind we’re getting close to interview season for our next round of interns. First thing I do after I rate a resume on a potential client is I Google their name and a social media website to see how they are branding themselves out in public. Another way that it’s helped me professionally is there’s a lot of blogs out there that I’ll follow where people are giving their advice, different experiences. Working on the assurance side one thing that’s always in the back of my mind is fraud. What kind of fraud is out there? How can people do that? Fraud goes at a rapid pace and how it advances, it advances just as fast as technology. There’s a few certified forensic auditors that I follow that will post different cases that they come across and different weaknesses, so it just helps broaden.
Dave: Are you a blogger?
Katie: I am not.
Dave: You’re just a reader of material.
Katie: Yes.
Dave: How about Twitter? Do you have a Twitter handle?
Katie: I do not Twitter.
Dave: You do not Twitter?
Katie: No.
Dave: Is, obviously you don’t Twitter for a reason, can you share the pros and cons of Twitter?
Katie: For me, the main underlying use of social media for me is to keep in contact with my family and my friends. Most of them at this point are not on Twitter. The main items I use are Facebook and Instagram.
Dave: Okay. One of the notes that you gave me prior to today’s session, we’re talking about events that are held to drive social media traffic, and you listed Netflix, and the Gilmore Girls. That kind of caught me off guard, so let’s go there.
Katie: I might be a total fan of Gilmore Girls. For individuals that do not know, which I’m getting from Dave right now, is, do you know what Full House was?
Dave: Is that a sporting event?
Katie: No. Do you even know what Netflix is?
Dave: Yes, you think I’m a dumb ass? I know what Netflix is. In fact I just subscribed to Netflix. I’m watching the Orange is the New Black.
Katie: I’m impressed.
Dave: See?
Katie: I apologize.
Dave: You can teach an old dog new tricks.
Katie: Right now Netflix is kind of going through this item we’re seeing with television shows that had a large fan base, that have since been cancelled but the fan base is still loyal and crazy about the show. They’re bringing back the show with the original casts, and they’re actually doing that with Gilmore Girls. I’m quite excited. It might be getting released at 4:00 a.m. on Thanksgiving night and I already have plans to watch it.
Dave: Instead of going shopping, you’re going to watch the Gilmore Girls.
Katie: Yes.
Dave: Boy I have to get out more.
Katie: Okay, but anyway how that all ties in to social media is now the next item that’s happening is social media is actually going to start events are going to be created for the purpose of social media to drive social media tweets, hashtags. The fans will actually be advertising for it, and Netflix, they were brilliant. I know you don’t watch Gilmore Girls. You’re missing out, but Gilmore Girls, a location from the show was Luke’s Diner. Huge part of the show, so important I can’t stress that enough. What Netflix did is they got in contact with, you’d have to fact check me on this, but 200 diners across the country. Turned them into Luke’s Diner for one day. All they had to do, they put up a sign that said Luke’s Diner. They gave aprons to the employees. Everyone who showed up got a free cup of coffee that had Luke’s Diner’s name on it.
Going from that from a standpoint of advertising cost? Wasn’t that much for the impact it got, it was huge. I remember the date. It was October 5, and I remember that because my social media blew up all day long with people going to Luke’s Diner and getting free cups of coffee and I’m sitting at working going, “Why do I have to have a 9-5 job right now, I wish I could have taken a vacation day. I want to go get Luke’s coffee right now.”
Dave: Okay, as we, you can tell I was pretty excited about that one, didn’t you?
Katie: I’m kind of upset that I had to work that day.
Dave: You have a vacation don’t you?
Katie: I do. I had already scheduled an appointment that day, so client’s got to come first. I’ll live.
Dave: I need some help. You can assist me. Give me two tips as a baby boomer how I can improve my social media awareness.
Katie: First off, ask a millennial for help.
Dave: That’s going to be painful.
Katie: Yes, first step is to admit you have an issue.
Dave: Admit that I have an issue. Okay.
Katie: Then just experiment. Get out there and just use it. The more you use it, the more you’ll learn that’s out there. You’ll eventually over time pick up your own tricks and that’s all I got.
Dave: Before we wrap up we always like to ask a fun question to get a little more insight into the minds of our guests. Here’s your mystery question for today. If you could be king of social media for a day, what would you change?
Katie: King of social media for a day. I would probably make it so everybody could access it.
Dave: Without hesitation. Without delay. Again, thanks again for joining us on unsuitable Katie, and thank you to our listeners for tuning in. Sometimes the best way to confront a difficult business challenge is to bring in an expert who can offer different perspective. Are you looking for a new perspective to help you overcome a difficult business problem? Gain a whole new perspective at www.reacpa.com/podcast. If you liked listening to the show, rate it, leave a review or subscribe to unsuitable on iTunes and SoundCloud. Until next time I’m Dave Cain encouraging you to loosen up your tie and think outside the box.