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For this assignment, I interviewed a Temple University Graduate, Scott Li. He is a brother of Delta Chi Psi Fraternity Inc. and the owner of RateWinner, LLC and OnlineInstantQuotes, LLC.

So tell me a little about yourself.

My name is Scott Li and I graduated from Temple University in 2009 with a degree in Accounting. I currently reside in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. I am currently self-employed and one of the businesses that I own is RateWinner, LLC which is a mortgage company. I am also the owner of an insurance brokerage called OnlineInstantQuotes, LLC.

How did you end up owning your own business?

I’ve had my insurance brokerage for 4 years. I knowingly started my mortgage brokerage after working and learning from working at another company.

What do you do for work and what how does it relate to social media?

I manage the marketing as well as the growth of my business. In terms of marketing, I advertise on large volume ad networks and also scrape up some business through Twitter and Facebook.

What made resort to social media as a source of advertising?

Social Media is definitely a more personable approach to online advertising versus other internet mediums such as banner ads or Google Adwords. With Facebook/Twitter status updates, you can always offer a special deal exclusive to Twitter followers or Facebook friends by creating a sense of urgency with a time constraint or limited product offering. For example for my mortgage company I would say on my Facebook status, “Hey Facebook family, apply within the next hour and get a free appraisal while credits last. Offer expires after first hour or 50 applicants, whichever comes first.”

A lot has changed regarding social media within the past 5 years. Where do you think that social media will be within the next 5 years?

In the next 5 years, I think it will be more user-managed. Nowadays, there are a lot of spammers and cost-cutting managers who put their company’s’ fan pages or twitter pages on auto pilot in hopes of generating business. When users start becoming more personal, they will begin to generate more long term customers.

Do you think that social media will ever become a thing of the past or is it here to stay?

I think it is here to stay because it will always be more personable than any other advertising medium. You can interact with your fans/customers and respond to their questions in the same way as their friends/family.