The New Consumer and Social Media: Energizing Your Brand

The value of social media is now amplified in the context of a new phenomenon: post-crisis consumerism. Current research drawn from Brand Asset Valuator, the world's largest database of brands, reveals there's no returning to "normal." Cultural shifts in values are influencing new consumer behaviors, which create unexpected opportunities for enterprising companies to gain competitive advantage in a challenging marketplace.

Most marketers still see metrics like trust and awareness as the backbone of how brands are built. They're dead wrong—these metrics do not add to increased asset value. In fact, by following them, they actually hasten the declining value of their brands. Reconnecting with consumers via social media is a better strategy.

I play no preference to any party these days, but I am conservative. This does not mean I have lost who I am in this firestorm of mis-information that has become the rule of the day. I for one cannot understand how the lose in productivity in this country has been due to all of this mumbo-jumbo in the press. It makes your head spin.

I feel compelled to take time out of my day to post a view point that I do not hear out there, ENOUGH! Enough already! Glenn Beck said a couple weeks from his radio show. He is right, problem is (rightfully so) he cannot let it stand because the liberal left and their "PR Firm" the press will overwhelm the grassroots of this country with their brand of an engineered society. Funny thing, this "Society" does nothing more than create another form of slavery by enslaving the public to the government, this was the very cause of our revolution more than 200 years ago, and was the cause of our own civil war. All this is being trumpeted by a man that has in his own mind been elevated by the African American Race as the second coming. If everyone would step back for a moment and see this, it is undeniable; we are going down a dangerous path for this country now that we the as the American Public has been threatened by the President. My comments may very well put me on the Obama Watch List (OWL). I refused to be threatened, as an American citizen, I live under the protections of our constitution and free from political persecution.

This brings me to my point, if we don't send the message to both factions of this country; they will allow a fracture of the back bone of what make this country what it is.

The fierce independents of the individual, the small business person puts it all on the line. They leverage their personal assets against a legal and banking system that holds them in contempt and establishes all kinds of barriers to the vision they held when they establish their business. They hire 75% of the workforce and provide an economic engine the has built cities, roads, bridges and results in a significant percentage of the Gross National Product (GNP)

Now that the economy has taken a downturn, there is more than help for those that contribute nothing to this economy or to dis-propionate "special" segments of our economy, i.e. the auto industry. However the largest segment of the economy has been abandoned under the smokescreen of the SBA, as they walk away from the very people that support this largest segment of the economy. How will that affect our economic recovery if they continue to ignore the warning signs? And they are losing BIG TIME!

The small business is not looking for a government hand out; they are willing to take on additional liability to get past the overly burdened loan process that finds a way to disqualify for the "ARC" loans program by the SBA. The rules include items as disqualification such rent, transaction expenses by vendors and utilities. These are the very things that threaten the small business at the day to day level. This is again is yet another smoke screen perpetrated by current President and his Administration.

If you're a "friend of Obama" and have been properly corrupted, the Government will bend over backwards to throw money at you. But for those of us on the outside, that work hard for an honest living and are struggling day to day threatens what this country is all about. The small business is under threat as it has never been before. The engineering of this new society has no room in it for the small business; they prop up the middle class, which is the single greatest threat to the concept of creating greater dependency on the Federal Government.

For the benefit of the economy, and this country really, we cannot afford to over look the reality that will become the "second shoe to drop". It is time for the small business person to stand up and speak for themselves before its tool late. Expose the "ARC" and the rules they forced the SBA to represent as a legitimate economic stimulus effort. It's another example of the parade of mis-information that has been flooding our media; it is time to say again ENOUGH! This means stop the crap and get down to the meat of it and get this economy on the right track. Put that money on the street, not in the pockets of special interest and corrupted CEO's, the auto industry and the financial firms that house the retirement of those in office now.

Put in the hands of the people that really support the economy-Small Business.