ResearchGoddess

These spotlights are opportunities for you to get to know some individuals who were recommended to me for the article I wrote for Mashable, 4 Essential Traits for Social Media Success in Your Career. The purpose of my project, detailed here, is to profile some social media professionals to keep an eye on in the coming year.

Spotlight:

Jun is the Chief Marketing Officer of Viralogy, a company that specializes in eCommerce Intelligence.  They personalize the shopping experience for shoppers on ecommerce stores to increase average order value and conversion rates.  Jun attended UCLA and earned a BA in Economics and Philosophy in 2007. It was during college that he met Co-founders Yu-kai Chou, Stephen Johnson, and Joseph Yi to bring Viralogy to where it is today.  Jun has written for Dan Schawbel’s Personal Branding Blog as well as Mashable, and has presented at conferences such as Web 2.0, Social Media Strategies, and YPulse.  Jun also ran Social Media Marketing and blogs at Young Successful Entrepreneur.

Why Jun believes Dan recommended him: Jun met Dan through the Brazen Careerist network; he was one of the original people there. They have been in touch since then, and Jun has blogged for Dan’s Personal Branding Blog. They met in person for the first time about 2 months ago in Wisconsin. He believes he was recommended because of the numerous things he’s been involved in within the online marketing and social media communities, specifically his recent role as president of Social Media Marketing.

How Jun got interested in social media: Jun first learned of social media while reading David Meerman Scott‘s book, The New Rules of PR and Marketing. He liked writing to begin with, and it seemed to him that blogging and video were well received by his community.  [author's note: I am currently reading this book and it is excellent; a highly recommended read for grasping an understanding of social media marketing]

Some lessons Jun has learned about startups and being an entrepreneur: Jun and a group of young entrepreneurs, including Yu-kai Chou, started a company called Future Delivery just after graduating from college. He says it is important to find something you know about already, where you’ve got connections, and make your first startup about that. They built FDCareer after that and launched it in 2008 – it was focused on helping companies find top talent. However, in 2008, companies were looking to layoff, not recruit. Though the site is now a top recommended social network by Mashable for Gen-Y, they learned that it is important when starting a new company to understand your target market and its current trends and needs. As well, in the first iteration of Viralogy, there was no tangible business model. Jun says you must test and make sure people will pay for your product, and develop a good online business model to survive as a startup.

Where Jun sees social media going in the future: Jun believes that Foursquare and Gowalla will NOT go mainstream in the near future. He says that outside of his online community, most of his friends don’t use (or even understand) Twitter, let alone location-based services. For business however, he feels that more companies will jump in and that already companies are starting to understand that it’s not all about numbers. Jun observes that there is value in building community – conversations among consultants and companies are changing over to ‘how do i generate revenue through these actions’. Over the next 12-18 months, he feels that most companies will have taken the plunge with social media and that it won’t be a new phenomenon anymore.

Connect with Jun on:

• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Blog

Tags: career, dan schawbel, entrepreneur, jun loayza, pay it forward, PIF2010, startups, viralogy

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