Yesterday’s Facebook press event sparked a ton of press over the past week, cranking up the blogosphere’s rumor rampage. Dozens of conversations and opinions about Facebook’s new Graph Search were popping up on blogs and newswires around the net almost instantly following the press conference. The days and even minutes leading up to the event were filled with rumors ranging from a Facebook phone to a new “dislike” button. At the end of the day many of these rumors were just that, rumors. 

Let’s go over some the rumors going around the net and some possibilities why they won’t ever happen.

 
(Photo credit: Gizmodo) 

Facebook Phone/Mobile OS

The biggest rumor surrounding the mysterious Facebook press event was the possibility of the infamous Facebook Phone. This rumor isn’t new to the tech world. It began to surface as Facebook struggled to monetize mobile sparking investor fear and resulting in a stock value plunge shortly after the company went public. 

Facebook has repeatedly denied these rumors to their partners, shareholders, and users; and for good reason. Facebook relies on iOS and Android to host its native apps. The company learned the hard way that focusing only on their HTML5 web app was a mistake, and finally decided to embrace native mobile apps over the past several months. Both the iOS and Android platforms are crucial to Facebook’s mobile user base and mobile monetization strategy. 

Facebook is a software company. Hardware is a completely new proving ground and a very expensive project to undertake. Facebook would need to start from scratch and create an OS to run on this phone they created, limiting the user’s options to experience the hundreds of thousands of applications they have access to on the iOS and Android platforms. 

The closest thing we will ever see to a Facebook phone is digitally rendered blue Facebook phone made in Photoshop by a blogger looking for pageviews. 

“Dislike” Button

Another rumor that was brought up in some of the live blogs during yesterday’s press event was the possibility of a “Dislike” button. The closest thing to an actual “Dislike” button is an add-on created for Firefox by a third party developer. The problem with this is that the only users who can see the button are those who: a) use Firefox and b) have installed the add-on.

Another aspect to look at when discussing the “Dislike” button into the Social Graph is that developers would have to consider adding a rating system to content. YouTube allows users to thumb-down posts, Reddit has up & down votes, and countless blog/forums rank comments by rating. This change would have a dramatic impact on EdgeRank and the structure of content being displayed in the News Feed. 

The biggest reason why Facebook will probably never launch a public dislike button lies at the company’s core mission of making the world more open and connected. We discover new people, connect with them, share information, and hope for them to react positively to it by “liking” it. Having a “dislike” option would promote negativity and an anti-social attitude. 

Paid Subscription

Facebook has been in a constant struggle trying to monetize their platform for years, especially their mobile strategy. It has been a battle of trying to balance user experience with advertising. Even though Facebook directly advertises that “it’s free and always will be,” the rumors continue to pop up.

The chain posts that circulate around Facebook and blog communities continue to cover information that has no ground of truth outside of speculation. Creating a freemium model for Facebook would anger a lot of users and may even cause them to quit using the service. Facebook may have not have perfected monetization yet but, that doesn’t mean they have a flawed business model. Facebook’s number one priority is satisfying the user experience of its 1 billion users, something that will take time to find a perfect.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Resignation

Out of all the rumors about yesterday’s press conference this one took the cake for ridiculousness. It is almost too ridiculous to write about, but it did come up many times in conversation. Let’s look at why Mark Zuckerberg will not be resigning any time soon.

The plunge of the Facebook stock price after the IPO was an unfortunate problem for Mark as a leader. Facebook is still a relatively young company in terms of generating revenue and growing as a sustainable business, but the talent behind this young company will continue to reach great heights in innovation. Zuckerberg faces the difficult task of trying to keep both users and shareholders happy. 

Facebook is still growing, despite rumors of lost users, and it will continue to grow its user base in the coming years. The road to monetizing mobile without sacrificing user experience is a slow process, but not an impossible one. 

Zuckerberg will never resign due because he still has a lot of work to do. The amount of work he has accomplished in his young life is unfathomable to most, and it’s evident that he will continue to lead the company going forward.

Whether we “like” it or not, Facebook isn’t going anywhere anytime soon and neither is Mark Zuckerberg. So let’s bury these rumors once and for all and start making more educated guesses about what Facebook has in store for us next. 

Tagged in Facebook Social Media Mark Zuckerberg Graph Search Dislike Button.

Before we get into how Facebook’s new Graph Search feature will help community managers around the globe let’s take a step back and go over what exactly this new feature is and why Facebook has been developing it. Facebook has been on a mission to open the digital world and make it more connected. With over 1 billion users, 240 billions photos, and more than a trillion connections; Facebook has compiled a massive amount of data. The problem that Facebook has had was developing an easy method for its users to access and utilize this data effectively.

This new feature is a way to bring the Facebook experience back to its roots by allowing users to make new discoveries, make new connections, and meet new people. The Graph Search bar itself will appear as a larger search bar on top of the page. When a query is typed in it will appear as the title of that page. As you edit this title the content on the page will change according to the query.

So how are Facebook Graph Search results different from any old Web search?

Unlike a traditional search for “healthy food” where the best possible results are based on those specific keywords, the Graph Search allows you to combine phrases (for example: “my friends in Pennsylvania who like to eat healthy foods”) to find specific people in that location, photos, and other content that has been shared on their Facebook pages. The first version Graph Search will mainly focus results on people, photos, places, and interests.


(Photo via Robert Scoble) 

This brings up the big red flag of privacy issues. Most people are concerned that this new tool will intrude on information that they may not necessarily want to share. Facebook has kept all these issues in mind and wants their users to know that their privacy is completely safe. All people, photos and content that show up in the Graph Search includes information that is already publically available. What does this mean? It means that only the content that you (the user) made public will show up in the search results.

Before going fully public with Graph Search, Facebook will be prompting users to check their current privacy settings to ensure that their information is adjusted correctly. Facebook will also allow to users to prompt their friends to remove photos and other posts connected to their account. 

So how will this help Community Managers?

As the Facebook Graph Search tool rolls out to users in US market community managers will begin embrace its true value to their cause. This value will be the ability to easily find people, places, photos that directly correlate to their target market based on interests. This will help community managers find new relevant content and potentially how people are reacting to this content, thus allowing them to tweak their content strategies accordingly. It will also have reciprocating value to community managers and the pages they manage. Potential fans will now be able to search for businesses so content rich fan pages will be much easier to discover. This will have a direct impact on engagement levels, one of the key measurements in any social strategy. 

This is only the beginning of the Facebook Graph Search. As time goes on more users will gain access and new features will be added. We will begin to see more fans discovering and liking business pages. Most importantly community managers will begin to see more users interacting and engaging with their content directly on their page rather than in the News Feed. The frustrating days of trying to beat Facebook’s EdgeRank to effectively reach your current audience may be numbered. Facebook’s Graph Search may begin an era where the user will be discovering content on their own rather than the content being pushed towards the them in real-time. 

The Facebook Graph is currently in BETA and will be rolling out to US public soon. You can now sign up here to be on the wait list.  

Tagged in graph search facebook update social media social media marketing search zuckerberg community manager.

Google+ Communities are a new tool from Google that allow users post information and start conversations on specific topics, interests, organizations, etc. Before we go into how to actually create a G+ Community let’s go over the four types of communities that can be created.

1. Public- Anyone can join
a. Great for meeting people on G+ to share interests

2. Public – Moderator approval needed to join    
a. Anyone can request to join but moderators need to approve membership. Posts   are still visible to public.
b. Great for sharing content but limiting who can actually post.  University alumni groups, local communities, and private organizations can best benefit from this type.

3. Private – people find through search and request to join
a. Same structure as type 2, but all posts invisible to non-members until their membership is approved.

4. Private – Hide community from searches
a. Same as type 3, except that the group in completely hidden from search results.

Creating a New Community

Step 1: Click the communities icon on the left side of the Google+ menu.

Step 2: Click the red “Create a Community” button at the top right of the screen.

Step 3: Select whether you would like the community to be public or private. Refer to the types of communities above to help decide which best fits for your cause.

Step 4: Name your community. If this community is going to be public be sure to make sure your community name easily searchable and clearly represents your purpose.

Step 5: Click the “Create Community” button at the bottom right of “What kind of community are you making?” window.

Step 6: Add a photo and fill in your information.

Step 7: After you have filled in all the proper information you can begin to invite people into your brand new community!

Stay tuned for more information on Google+ communities and how to successfully manage your newly created community.

Tagged in google+ google communities social media community marketing.

1. Brand Awareness

Social Media is a powerful tool to create awareness for your business. With over 1 billion members on Facebook, your business has a chance to potentially reach a very large target market. Although the potential reach is very large, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be able to reach everyone over night. Business owners may get discouraged, especially ones that are well established offline, because the process of building a good brand awareness strategy on Facebook takes time. Starting a “Page” on Facebook is like starting your brand awareness strategy from scratch. Think of it in terms of the early stages of your business, you will need to build up a community of brand advocates over time with a long-term strategy.

Thousands or even millions of people may be aware of your business offline, but these same people won’t necessarily know that you exist on Facebook. In order to be effective on Facebook you must merge traditional efforts with efforts on Facebook. Let your customers who come into your business know that you are on Facebook. Incentivize them to go and “like” your page. Social media is an important distribution network that needs to be completely integrated into every other form of your marketing strategy. Most importantly, do not be discouraged if your page doesn’t get 1000 “likes” overnight; or even in the first month. Posting consistent content, interacting with customers, and providing value outside of trying to sell will organically establish a community of brand advocates for your business over time.

2. Extraordinary Real-Time Customer Service

Channel Customer Relationship Management(CRM) is perhaps the most important part of running a business. Your customers are the heart and soul of the company because in reality they are the ones buying your products/services and paying the bills. Simply having an awesome product isn’t going to cut it. You need a way to provide customer service in a timely and effective manner. Customers are going to have questions and problems that they are looking to solve immediately.

Facebook is a perfect tool for businesses to answer the questions and solve certain problems their customers may have in real time. When a customer has a problem with your product or service they usually will turn to social media to vent their problems on your wall and to their friends. If these questions or problems are left unanswered you are potentially losing that customer and all of their friends. Facebook allows you as the business owner to guide the conversation by responding to these questions and problems in a timely manner. Facebook is about building and managing relationships with customers through an environment driven by two-way dialogue. Actively engaging your customers on Facebook can transform a bad customer experience into a positive brand advocate for your company.

3. PR Channel

Facebook is a great channel to spread news and content about your business and industry to the public and the press. It is also a great hub to manage public relations in a crisis control situation. Public relations and Facebook go well together because Facebook is a public platform and the core of PR is the management of communications between an organization and the public. Billions of conversations occur on Facebook every single week. Specifically, both positive and negative conversations about businesses occur everyday; whether or not that business even has an actual “Page.”

The only way to spread positive press and manage negative press on Facebook is to actually have a presence online. This is especially important in the instance where negative press goes “viral.” Negative press is always the first to go viral and it can become viral almost instantly on Facebook and other forms of social media. If a certain business doesn’t have a presence on Facebook to respond to the news they will have no way to control the outcome of the situation. Managing PR on Facebook is all about a timely response. Business owners are often afraid to create a presence on Facebook because they are afraid of negative press, posts, or comments. What they should be afraid of is not being able to control the conversations about their business on Facebook because they don’t even have a Facebook “Page.”

4. Converting Paid Media to Earned Media

The difference between paid media and earned media is quite simple. Paid media is any form of advertising that you as the business owner pay for. Earned media is any form of advertising that happens organically. A business’s Facebook “Page” can use both paid and earned media to market themselves. In order to be effective with Facebook, a business must use a combination of both paid and earned media in order to reap the highest potential out of the platform.

Facebook uses an algorithm known as EdgeRank. EdgeRank is the deciding factor as to where your content goes, and to whom it reaches. It was developed by Facebook to limit the amount of spam found in its user’s newsfeeds. It also allows Facebook to utilize its advertising (paid media) platform and be profitable. Facebook has forms of advertising called “Promoted Posts” & “Sponsored Stories” where you as the business owner can choose to promote content to reach a greater target audience. Essentially the more money you pay, the greater the amount of people that will see your content. So why is it worth it to pay all this money for a platform that is free to sign up? That answer is simple. Conversions. When you as the business owner pay to play Facebook’s game, you gain more traction online because your content is reaching more people’s eyes.

Through Facebook’s advertising(paid media) your content is reaching more of your current audience and also new potential customers who may not currently “like” your page. This is extremely important because over 80% of posts are seen through the newsfeed alone. Most of your current fans won’t even return to your actual “Page” to see your posts, so you must rely on that content being seen in the actual newsfeed. The only fans that will return to your actual Facebook “Page” will be your brand advocates. These brand advocates along with fans who organically view your content are the true “earned media” on Facebook. Brand advocates are the earned media of Facebook because they seek out your specific content and are likely to share it among their friends. The most effective way of creating brand advocates is converting the audience that you are paying to reach organic viewers of your content. If the audience you reach finds value in your content they will actively seek you out for more.

Tagged in facebook social media social internet technology marketing brand paid media media earned media PR.

Social Media has become more than a tool for young adults to post pictures of their food, vent feelings, and state opinions on pressing issues. Since 2007 social media has transformed the way businesses market themselves, advertise their products & services, and build relationships with customers. National brands such as Target and Coke started the trend and have seen major traction with their Facebook pages acquiring a combined total of over 75 millions “likes.”

Seeing this great success, small to mid size businesses decided that they should adopt a social strategy as well. They began creating social accounts, hiring community managers, and dumping money into advertising their accounts. After six months they were left wondering why they don’t have 75 million or even 75 thousand of “likes” or followers. The money they were spending on social media didn’t seem to be converting into a direct return on their investment. This raises the most common pain point in social media marketing: where is the true ROI of social media? 

Business owners, marketers, and industry leaders have been searching for the concrete answer to this question. The reason the answer has been so hard to find is the majority of people are looking in the wrong places. Direct sales conversions and vanity metrics such as the number of “likes” and followers can never measure the true success of a social media campaign. Social media is very dynamic and serves a wide range of purposes. These include but aren’t limited to marketing, advertising, customer service, HR, crisis control, and customer retention. Social media is about building and nurturing relationships with customers and converting passive page viewers into brand advocates, which in turn, will spread positive word-of-mouth message about your brand to their friends and family.

How does one achieve this goal of creating and nurturing great customer relationships on social media?

The best way to build relationships is by providing value beyond the products you sell or services you provide. By becoming a thought leader in your industry, a source of valuable information, and an outlet for interesting, visual, engaging, and shareable content you build these relationships overtime within your community. Most users on Facebook and Twitter don’t log on to the platforms to purchase products. They log on to learn what their friends are doing, read the latest news, and find out what is trending. They also log on to spread certain news and information among their networks of friends.

So what kind of content are you publishing on social media right now? Is it daily deals, sales, specials? In most cases hard sells don’t mix with social media. This doesn’t mean that a business can’t advertise their products and services, but rather that they need to approach it from a softer angle. Become an industry thought leader and provide external value if you want your community to provide value in return.

So why isn’t your social media strategy working? 

In reality your social media strategy probably isn’t as bad as you think. The reason you aren’t getting “results” is because your expectations are in the wrong areas. Social wasn’t designed as a direct sales tool and your business might not necessarily be designed to have millions or even thousands of “likes,” or even be on every platform for that matter. Neither of these metrics can measure the true success of a social media strategy. Success is driven by the quality of content being published and the quality of the relationships being built through engagement. What value do you place on customer service, customer satisfaction, brand equity, and customer retention? These are the types of questions to be asking yourself when it comes to your social media strategy. So before you give up on social media take a look back on things and reassess your goals.

Don’t be disappointed if you don’t have 10,000 “likes” or didn’t sell X amount of items directly through your social media strategy. True social media success is measured by how many of your current followers and fans see you as a thought leader in your industry and are willing to share this valuable information with their friends. Becoming a thought leader and building relationships with brand advocates is a long-term strategy that shouldn’t be measured with short-term vanity metrics and hardline sales numbers. 

Tagged in social media social media marketing facebook twitter linkedin social.

Facebook Ads and Promoted Posts are two of Facebook’s advertising tools that many marketers confuse or group together as “Facebook ads.” Although the true reason behind the confusion is unknown, for one reason or another marketers find it difficult to understand the difference between these two separate advertising features on Facebook. Often times the varying terminology can be difficult to understand based on which type of ad is more beneficial for marketing objectives.

Facebook Ads are well, ads. Based on the objectives of the advertiser, they can specifically target customized ads to various demographics. Some targeting demographics include interests, education, location, age, gender and work. From the beginning Facebook’s traditional ad model has always had problems. The extremely low CTR (click through rate) led many marketers to believe the value wasn’t in ads, but in content and creating a conversation around the brand. The problem that many traditional marketers fail to understand is that people don’t go on Facebook to be bombarded with ads, they log on to be social with their family, friends, and favorite brands.

Promoted Posts begin as organic content, or earned media. Promoted Posts push content that is typically more relevant and interesting to a user than an ad. Sponsoring a story simply increases the reach of the specific post beyond the reach of the brand’s Facebook Page community and into a targeted market of users. Through the use of “Promoted Posts” businesses can pay for their posts to show up more often and on more News Feeds. This allows for more people to see their post, opens the door for more engagement, and increases the reach of the content beyond the brand’s Facebook community. We’ve put together a visual description of the different types of Promoted Posts on Facebook and how they work below.

Tagged in facebook ads facebook sponsored story promoted post advertising marketing social media social media marketing.

As a social media marketing agency one of the biggest things we focus on communicating to new clients is that social media is not about hardline sales. Many of our clients come from different business backgrounds from all over the world and for many it is difficult to correlate money going out with ROI. As business owners they are trying to conduct a constant cost-benefit analysis on social media marketing, but they fail to realize several problems with correlating bottom-line sales and social media marketing.

1. Marketing and advertising include integrated multi-channel strategies.

Social media is not the be-all-end-all marketing medium; it is one tactic in an overall integrated marketing strategy. A brand’s social strategy, email campaigns, print campaigns, Google Adwords, blog posts, and any other form of marketing should all be interconnected and seamless. If your strategy is properly intertwined you should be able to point back to the overall marketing campaign as the reason for an increase in sales or brand awareness. Placing all of the pressure for a sale on one marketing medium is a mistake far too many business owners make. Whether it’s with social media or any other marketing medium, you shouldn’t place all of your eggs in one basket.

2. Marketing and advertising are long-term, not instant.

As with any form of marketing and advertising, social media marketing should be viewed through a macro lens and judged from a long-term standpoint. Traditional ad agencies create campaigns that typically last a minimum of three months, however I would argue that a proper social media strategy requires at least six months of data in order to make any concrete decisions about the value of the current strategy. Many clients are expecting instantaneous results of varying measurements. Some expect immediate sales while others expect to receive 1,000 Facebook likes overnight. Many agencies choose to conduct what I would call “black hat” social media strategies such as buying likes for a low price in order to inflate the appearance of the brand’s online community. The problem with this is two-fold: first this “community” (if you can call it that) is comprised of fake accounts with “users” who will not engage, interact, or see your brand’s message and secondly, Facebook recently cracked down on this fraudulent activity by removing the fake likes from brand pages. These likes provide no value to the business and anyone with a bit of common sense can see that no one is interacting with the brand’s content. At Kuhcoon we create real communities of people who are actually interested in our client’s product or service. This doesn’t happen overnight, but rather organically overtime with a consistent content strategy and targeted ad campaigns. 

3. Users are not on social media to be sold.

Nobody logs on to Facebook and says “what can I be sold today?” People are on social media to interact with friends and family, receive real time news and updates, and to be entertained and educated by brands they love. In order to foster a thriving community, brands need to provide some sort of concrete value to their customers or users through their social media accounts. Chances are if the user connected with your brand on social media they already know what product or service you have to offer. They are more interested in what value you are going to provide them outside of a hard sale. At Kuhcoon we use a combination of our proprietary technology and strategies to help brands stand out in the noisy feeds of social media users. Our agency provides our client’s communities with educational value, entertainment, exclusive deals and coupons, direct feedback or input on new products or services, insight into the culture of the company, data-driven content, optimized ad campaign scheduling, and a two-way window of transparency placing customer service as a top priority.

4. Social media marketing and advertising are about building brand equity.  

For many brands social media offers a clean slate to begin fostering a new community of brand advocates and long-term customers. For the first time social media has placed every business on an equal playing field, forcing businesses with years of built of reputation to start from scratch and build up a customer base on various social media platforms. When a business starts a social strategy they should think back to when they started their business: they had to build their reputation and customer base one by one over a period of several months or years. Building a social media community is no different; your business needs to build up the brand reputation and community overtime; not overnight. At this stage in the social media revolution, business owners recognize the need to be active on various social media platforms; but often lack the understanding, time, and money necessary to execute a strategic plan revolved around building the digital version of their brand.

So what is the point of social media marketing?

Social media has forever changed the way we communicate and conduct business. Facebook has over one billion users, whether the social network king stays on top is up for debate; but it’s pretty safe to say social media won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. According to BIA/Kelsey the local spending on social media was valued at about $3.8 billion in 2011. By 2016 this spending is going to reach $9.8 billion as local business owners knowledge and understanding of social media increases.

The value social media provides to a business is very dynamic. It goes beyond the basic sales cycle and delves into the complex relationship between a customer and a brand. It serves as a platform where current relationships with customers can be nurtured and new relationships can be formed. Traditional advertising is the marketing medium that creates awareness for a brand, whereas social media takes the customers that are already aware and molds them into loyal brand advocates. Customer retention is important to any business and social media provides the medium for a two way street of interaction, value, and superior customer service. The business must interact and provide external value outside of the “sale” itself. Social media is about humanizing your business, building relationships, and creating a conversation around your brand with loyal brand advocates. 

Tagged in social media marketing advertising sales business community management community managers customers relationships.

Whenever I travel outside of Northeastern Pennsylvania and tell people I’m from Scranton I usually receive the same response: “Oh Scranton, like The Office right?” After about four or five times this response becomes mind-numbingly old. To those of us who grew up in NEPA, Scranton is much more than a successful comedy show on NBC. Unfortunately to the rest of the world Scranton has become the butt of a depressing joke, which is no laughing matter. 

At twenty-one years old I’ve effectively spent my entire life in Northeastern Pennsylvania. I was born in CMC hospital in 1990, spent my childhood learning about trains from my Papa at the Delaware Lackawanna Railroad, went to high school in the suburbs outside of Scranton at Riverside High School, chose the University of Scranton for my undergraduate degree, and opened my business in the Scranton Enterprise Center on Lackawanna avenue in downtown Scranton.

Simply put, Scranton is my home and I’m proud of it.

Over the last five years I’ve watched as my beloved city crumbled beneath my feet. Local businesses closing and cutting jobs, talented individuals leaving the area after graduation, and a lack of fiscal responsibility and accountability in local government are just some of the many problems leaving a negative impact on our local economy. 

This summer was the straw that finally broke the camel’s back.

Early in July 2012 Mayor Chris Doherty cut all city workers’ pay to $7.25 an hour, claiming that Scranton had “run out of money.” What followed made International news, highlighting Scranton to the world as an incompetent fiscally irresponsible city. Gawker media, an American online media company and blog network, went as far as to label Scranton “America’s Most Financially Fucked City.”

As soon as this dismal news died down, the city rose to the national spotlight once again in early October after Vice Presidential candidate Paul Ryan brought up the unemployment rate in Scranton; which happens to be the hometown of Vice President Joe Biden, during the Vice Presidential debate. Users on Twitter immediately picked up this statement and within minutes “Scranton” was a trending topic worldwide. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate in Scranton is 10% as of August 2012; up from 8.5% in January 2009.

The weekend following this mention, NBC’s Saturday Night Live put on a satirical version of the Vice Presidential debate. Jason Sudeikis, the actor portraying Vice President Biden, is quoted saying: “Things may be bad where you live, but I guarantee you it is a paradise next to the burning coal heap that is Scranton, Pennsylvania. Do you know that show The Walking Dead, it would make a great ad for the city of Scranton. If you went down to the lowest point of hell you would still be forty-five minutes outside of Scranton. It’s the single worst place on earth.”

This isn’t how I want our city to be viewed by the world. Scranton is not The Office. It is not a coal heap. It is not the “single worst place on earth.” Scranton is a beautiful city with amazingly talented individuals who are waiting to be given the opportunity to release their creative energy.

The problem in Scranton is the same problem being experienced by the rest of the nation: jobs. Creating jobs is a very simple process when you establish an environment for business growth, workforce training, startups, and opportunity.

What Scranton needs to do is inspire a generation of young entrepreneurs and risk takers. Instead of fearing new technology and innovation, the city needs to embrace these things and foster economic opportunity for those who are crazy enough to think big.

Scranton is safe, has a low cost of living, a plethora of new opportunity, and is a great place to raise a family. Together we can create jobs and spur innovation, but only if the city’s leaders recognize the need to construct an environment for entrepreneurial activity.

What initiatives have been taken by our city’s leaders to create jobs and spur innovation? In 2008 Forbes named Scranton one of the “Fastest-Dying Cities” in America, which remains evident even four years later in 2012. Government isn’t the answer. Entrepreneurship, business incentives, and innovation are the answer. In my twenty-one years of life I have yet to see one-person step up to the plate and lead the way in saving this city.

So we at Kuhcoon have decided to step up and start the process of change.

In October 2011 my Co-Founder Charles Szymanski and I saw an opportunity to transform Scranton into a socially connected innovative economic engine.  We co-founded Kuhcoon.com to help business owners’ transition into the digital age, create jobs, stimulate economic activity, and inspire a generation of young entrepreneurs who we pray will follow in our footsteps. In May 2012 we placed 1^st in the Greater Valley Technology Alliance’s 10^th Annual Business Plan Competition. The GVTA is one organization leading the way by stimulating entrepreneurial activity in the local area. Their example needs to be followed by other complementary organizations and most importantly by legislation that provides business incentives, not higher taxes on job creators and commuters.   

Since our company’s inception we have expanded our workforce to over thirteen employees who are now working with businesses not only in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but also from around the world. Together our team is fighting to put Scranton back on the map. Considering that NBC’s The Office is on its last season, we decided that Kuhcoon could take over as the reigning “office” located in downtown Scranton.

As our company continues to scale we are hopeful that new entrepreneurs will rise to the occasion and stimulate the local economy with us. We are willing to work with these risk takers, help them become successful, and create jobs at all costs. If our political leaders are willing, our executive team will offer both our time and service to help stimulate the local economy by bringing fresh ideas and perspectives into the local political atmosphere. As we continue to partner with local businesses we invite the business community to join us in our initiative to create jobs and stimulate entrepreneurial activity. It is our moral obligation to take control of the wheel and guide our cherished city back to economic prosperity.

Together we can and will save Scranton. 

Andrew Torba
Co-Founder and CEO of Kuhcoon.com 

Tagged in scranton the office startups technology social media business.