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The gods of career timing had not been kind to Sienzhi Kouemo 20 before he met fellow Babson College alumnus Kevin Bryant 82, CEO and co-founder of social media company Educated Change.

Kouemo graduated in the early turbulence of the pandemic, when uncertainty was high and layoffs and hiring freezes were even higher. Kouemo had considered graduate school, but the program he was contemplating required a job.

So, it seems fitting that Kouemo was behind the wheel when a highly anticipated call from Bryant lit up his cell phone.

I pulled over to the side of the road and took the call, said Kouemo, now the digital brand associate at Educated Change. After a brief chat on the side of the road, he and Bryant agreed to reconnect a few hours later.

I got home and I looked up everything I could about Educated Change, and by the time he called back, I was well prepared. ET&A at its best, I guess said Kouemo, referring to Babsons famous Entrepreneurial Thought & Action (ET&A) methodology.

Once Bryant and Kouemo connected, they spoke for more than an hour and a half about Kouemos life, interests, and talents.

He had this amazing energy, and you could see that he had a lot going for him, said Bryant, whose 40th graduation anniversary is this year. The two-time NCAA mens soccer champion (1979 and 1980) said he recently got back in touch with some teammates, and hes always made an effort to reach out to Babson students of all ages.

I dont just connect with the high fliers, I like to connect with people who are students because you never know, Bryant said. Kouemo has this very diverse background, and he just has this great soul.

Bryants commitment to connections of all kinds is a philosophy thats also prominent at his London-based company, Educated Change. The company teaches and advises businesses and institutions how to use social media to connect with the people who matter in their work life, growing not just their customer base but potential new team members.

Bryant already had a stellar career in bankingserving as a regional president of BankBoston and then as general manager of Fleet Bank in Europewhen his friend, Peter Klein, contacted him in 2010. Social media, argued Klein, also CEO and founder of Educated Change, would eventually be a necessity for businesses.

I wasnt convinced at the time, Bryant said. But he found the concept interesting, and soon he decided to join Peter.

We started by doing a lot of advisory work and a lot of training work, providing education about social media. Slowly but surely, businesses hired us to come in and do hourlong talks to their board or partners, Bryant said.

Eventually they asked us to be their arms and legs, so now the majority of our work is in providing a managed service so that senior executive leaders dont have to waste time looking for content and engagement opportunities. We do that and more, aided by some nifty proprietary software that allows us to listen to thousands of conversations generated by the people that matter. My partner and I both enjoy teaching and change, hence the name of the company, he said.

His education at Babson was a key part of Bryants success in several careers, including opening two tai chi clubs in England.

Babsons education was a wonderful foundation for all of the work Im doing, he said. From the other students, to the professors, and obviously the coursework, its the combination that makes us well-rounded human beings. I think thats so important, so critical.

Kouemo said hes relying on much of his Babson education at Bryants company, but hes also eager to absorb everything he can in his first job out of college.

Its been a learning experience, because the way the company is built is just so innovative, he said. I get to work with clients in all sorts of industries and different sectors, and because of my working background from Babson, I literally used what I learned and applied it to real concepts within this company.

Part of Kouemos job is working with C-Suite-level executives to increase their social media presence, and helping to bulk up their posts.

I get to work with clients in all sorts of industries and different sectors, and because of my working background from Babson, I literally used what I learned and applied it to real concepts within this company.

Seinzhi Kouemo '20, digital brand associate at Educated Change

Kouemo would encourage students to keep their eyes peeled for fellow Babson alumni on LinkedIn and at any events.

I never would have thought that I would be working for a global company based out of London for my first job, Kouemo said. It started with a LinkedIn connection, and it led me to a whole new level that I could never have imagined.

Bryant said the connections usually bring benefits for everyone involved, especially if those connections are from Babson.

We feel were quite lucky to have him with us, because hes definitely going places, Bryant said. As you get older, you become more reflective, and you think a lot about how you got here. I look at some of my old soccer mates and other graduates, and I just marvel at how successful the student body is.

Posted in Campus & Community

Tagged Career, Alumni, Babson College's Class of 2020, Mentoring & Networking, Corporate Innovation, Diversity and Inclusion, Entrepreneurship, Global

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How Remote Networking Connected Two Babson College Alumni - Babson Thought & Action

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney gave some of his final comments as the province's leader Saturday, speaking at an event attended by the candidates running to replace him.

At a Canada Strong and Freeconferencein Red Deer, Alta., Kenney said he was proud of much of the legislation passed during his time as premier, but said he would have gone farther on healthcare reform, had the pandemic not quelled those efforts.

However, the province is moving forward with its chartered surgical initiative, which will contract surgeries out to the private sector, and will be publicly funded.

"We could have gone further and deeper into health reform had it not been for COVID. And I think Canadians are now waking up to the reality that we do need fundamental health reform," Kenney said.

He also said if he would have run for re-election he wouldn't have stayed for long.

"I never intended to be here for a long time. Frankly it was always my intention if I'd gone on to the next election to leave, probably about a year to 18 months after that," he said.

"I was never intendingto be in this gig for a long time."

Reflecting on the state of conservatism, Kenney said there is growing anger among the alt-right fuelled by social media conspiracy theoriesand "hypercharged" by the pandemic.

"Social media comes along 20 years ago and allows people with those kinds of attitudes to self-publish and then to find a virtual community online, and then to push each other into a constant state of anger," Kenney said.

He said that "liberal mainstream legacy media almost went out of their way to become disaffected from almost everybody right of centre."

That resulted in the advent of alt-right media to fill the market, he said.

"And for many of them, their business model is the monetization of anger. And the revenue only flows if people are angrier and angrier."

"I know this is an old fashioned sentiment, but I actually believe civility is a conservative value. And there is a growing sense of profound incivility. And it concerns me greatly," Kenney said.

He added that he fears conservatism could "become a caricature of a kind of nasty, angry populism that will lose consistently at the polls as well."

In May, Kenney announced his resignation as UCP leader after receiving 51.4 per cent approval of his leadership from UCP members.

Leela Aheer, Danielle Smith, Todd Loewen, Rebecca Schulz and Brian Jean, Rajan Sawhney and Travis Toews are all vying to be the next leader of the party.

Some attendees showed up to hear from the contenders, and where they stood on the issues.

Rahim Mohamed, a Calgary student, said his vote is still undecided, and he wants to pick the person who has the best chance of winning the next provincial election.

He also wants to vote for someone who will focus on the economy.

"Finding a way to think longer term plan for sort of a long term utilization of the incoming oil revenue and who has the best long term vision for growing and hopefully diversifying Alberta's economy," he said.

Gail Parks, a Red Deer resident, said she wants to see a change in the province's healthcare system.

"We've spent a tremendous amount of money on a system that is not working. For anyone to have to wait months and months and months for an MRI," she said.

"I'm a cancer survivor. If I hadn't been able to get early treatment, I probably wouldn't have survived."

Tunde Obasan, from Edmonton, said he's looking for a candidate who will focus on jobs and the economy.

"[Someone to make sure] Alberta is an environment where employers, job creators can find us a good environment to tstart a business or to move their businesses to, you know, and that will create more jobs and boost the economy in the long run."

The UCP will choose its new leader Oct. 6.

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Jason Kenney says he never intended to 'be in this gig for a long time' - CBC.ca

After reports circulated on social media of children getting kidnapped from various parts of the metropolis, the Mumbai police on Monday, September 19, clarified stating that those were fake news.

The city police also urged people to not believe rumours that are spread on social networking sites regarding child abduction messages.

Police also stressed that members of public school teachers, principals and parents should not believe in such rumours as Mumbai is safe and no such incidents of kidnapping have taken place in anywhere in the city.

For those unversed, since the past week, people, essentially parents, have been receiving messages including letters and voice notes on their social media applications like WhatsApp and Facebook which says that children in several areas in Mumbai are being kidnapped from school and residential building premises by random men.

Police said rumours have been spread through social media that kids have been kidnapped in Kurla, Ghatkopar, Vikhroli, Kanjurmarg, Ghatkopar, Andheri, Jogeshwari and Pant Nagar.

According to the police, they have visited and checked all the details and locations mentioned in the messages that are going viral on social media.

Subsequently, the police have even checked closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera footage in all these places but they have not found anything that's being mentioned in the fake chain of messages.

The cyber wing of the Mumbai police has already started a probe to find the origin of the message and they are hopeful that the culprit will be nabbed soon.

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Don't fall prey to fake child abducting messages on social media: Mumbai Police - Mumbai Live

The new trend, amplified by social media influencers touting low-cost lifestyles and sharing money-saving tips, could be a threat to the worlds second-largest economy

By Albee Zhang and Tony Munroe / Reuters, BEIJING

Before the pandemic, Doris Fu imagined a different future for herself and her family: new car, bigger apartment, fine dining on weekends and holidays on tropical islands.

Instead, the 39-year old Shanghai marketing consultant is one of many Chinese in their 20s and 30s cutting spending and saving cash where they can, rattled by Chinas coronavirus lockdowns, high youth unemployment and a faltering property market.

I no longer have manicures, I dont get my hair done anymore. I have gone to China-made for all my cosmetics, Fu said.

This new frugality, amplified by social media influencers touting low-cost lifestyles and sharing money-saving tips, is a threat to the worlds second-largest economy, which narrowly avoided contraction in the second quarter. Consumer spending accounts for more than half of Chinas GDP.

Weve been mapping consumer behavior here for 16 years and in all of that time this is the most concerned that Ive seen young consumers, said Benjamin Cavender, managing director of China Market Research Group (CMR).

Chinas zero-COVID policy including stringent lockdowns, travel restrictions and mass testing has taken a heavy toll on the countrys economy. The governments crackdown on big technology companies has also had an outsized effect on the young workforce.

Unemployment among people aged 16 to 24 stands at almost 19 percent, after hitting a record 20 percent in July, according to government data. Some young people have been forced to take pay cuts, for example in the retail and e-commerce sectors, according to two industry surveys. The average salary in 38 major Chinese cities fell 1 percent in the first three months of this year, data collated by online recruitment firm Zhilian Zhaopin show.

As a result, some young people prefer to save than splurge.

I used to go see two movies every month, but I havent stepped inside a cinema since the pandemic, said Fu, an avid movie fan.

Retail sales in China rose just 2.7 percent year-on-year in July, recovering to 5.4 percent in August but still well below the mostly 7 percent-plus levels during 2019, before the pandemic.

Almost 60 percent of people are now inclined to save more, rather than consume or invest more, according to the most recent quarterly survey by the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC), Chinas central bank. That figure was 45 percent three years ago.

Chinese households overall added 10.8 trillion yuan (US$1.54 trillion) in new bank savings in the first eight months of the year, up from 6.4 trillion yuan in the same period last year.

That is a problem for Chinas economic policymakers, who have long relied on increased consumption to bolster growth.

China is the only leading economy that cut interest rates this year, in an effort to spur growth. Chinas big state-owned banks cut personal deposit rates on Sept. 15, a move designed to discourage saving and boost consumption.

Addressing the rise in peoples inclination to save, a PBOC official said in July that when the pandemic eases, the willingness to invest and consume will stabilize and rise.

The PBOC did not respond to Reuters requests for comment; neither did Chinas Ministry of Commerce.

10 YUAN DINNER

After years of increasingly ardent consumerism fueled by rising wages, easy credit and online shopping, a move toward frugality brings young people in China closer to their more cautious parents, whose memories of lean years before the economy took off have made them more inclined to save.

Amid the tough job market and strong downward economic pressure, young peoples feelings of insecurity and uncertainty are something they never experienced, said Zhiwu Chen, chair professor of finance at Hong Kong University Business School.

Unlike their parents, some are making a show of their thriftiness online.

A woman in her 20s in the eastern city of Hangzhou, who uses the handle Lajiang, has gained hundreds of thousands of followers posting more than 100 videos on how to make 10 yuan (US$1.45) dinners on lifestyle app Xiaohongshu and streaming site Bilibili.

In one minute-long video with nearly 400,000 views, she stir-fries a dish made from a 4-yuan basa fillet, 5 yuan of frozen shrimp and 2 yuan of vegetables, using a pink chopping board and pink rice cooker.

Social media discussions have sprung up to share money-saving tips, such as the Live off 1,600 yuan a month challenge, in Shanghai, one of Chinas most expensive cities.

Yang Jun, who said she was deep in credit card debt before the pandemic, started a group called the Low Consumption Research Institute on networking site Douban in 2019. The group has attracted more than 150,000 members. Yang said she is cutting spending and is selling some of her belongings on second-hand sites to raise cash.

COVID-19 makes people pessimistic, the 28-year-old said. You cant just be like before, spend all the money you make, and make it back again next month. She said she is now out of debt.

Yang said she has cut out her daily Starbucks coffee. Fu said she switched her makeup powder brand from Givenchy to a Chinese brand called Florasis, which is about 60 percent cheaper.

French luxury brands leader LVMH, which owns Givenchy, and coffee giant Starbucks Corp both said sales fell sharply in China in the latest quarter.

China has given no signal on when or how it will exit from its zero-COVID policy. And while policymakers have taken various measures in hopes of boosting consumption, from subsidies for car buyers to shopping vouchers, far more money and attention has been directed towards infrastructure as a way of stimulating the economy.

Stability has been the key theme for Chinas policymakers this year, experts say, as President Xi Jinping gears up for a third leadership term at next months congress of the ruling Communist Party.

In the past, when you had economic slowdown, consumers were more likely to feel that government policy is going to fix this problem very quickly, said Cavender at CMR. I think right now the challenge is when you interview younger consumers they really dont know what the future holds.

Fu, the marketing professional, said she has deferred plans to sell her two small apartments to buy a bigger one in a better school district for her son, and has given up for now on upgrading from her Volkswagen Golf.

Why do I dare not upgrade my house and my car, even if I have the money? she said. Everything is unknown.

Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.

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Frugal is the new cool for young Chinese as economy falters -

According to the latest real estate market trends,50% of home buyersfind their new home online. This means thatwhen sellingproperty, having a real estate social network presence is essential.

But with so many social media platforms to choose from, how do you know which one will bring you the most benefit? After all, no one likes throwing good money after bad investments.

If youre trying to determine which social media for real estate businesses is best, keep reading. We review some popular ones and explain how they can help you.

Real estate agents need an online presence for several reasons, but choosing the right platform is vital. So to begin, well review the benefits you can gain from a solidreal estate social media strategy before wedive into each platform.

An obvious benefit is worth mentioning here: the aim of using social media is to gain a following. This is achieved by gaining Likesand followers through posting regularly to your social media accounts.

By posting regularly, those who have Liked your posts may visit your site, thus becoming new leads. The key is posting consistently. If you only post sporadically, customers will lose interest, andyour marketingwill fall behind another, more consistent company.

Of course, social media is also about communication. Having an online presence where customers (and potential customers!) can ask your company questions goes a long way to keeping your customers engaging with your organization.

If your company is top-of-mind for the customer, theyll think of you first when searching for a new home, which is vital in a market as competitive as real estate.

Creating ads targeting your specific audience is essential if you dont want to waste your marketing budget. By using social media networks with paid advertising options, you can select who you want to see your adverts, increasing your chances of conversions.

Finally, as a result of gaining new followers to your real estate social network, you begin to build a community of customers. This can be handy regarding your future real estate social media strategy. The more connected one feels with a brand, the more likely one will tell others about it.

When a strong community follows your social media accounts, you increase your social network reach extensively.

So which is the bestsocial media for realtors? This section covers the most popular social media networks, which will hopefully help you decide which to use.

While reasonably old, Facebook still has much to offer as asocial media platform for real estate companies. Your potential audience reach is extensive, with over2.9 billion active usersevery month.

By having a Facebook page for your real estate business, you have multiple ways to generate organic leads and access to paid advertising which you can adjust for your target audience.

You can capitalize on the dedicated Facebook Marketplace for real estate by listing your properties. You can do this for free, and its a great way to attract new leads.

Facebook also has a Live feature, which real estate agents can use to interact with their audience. Think virtual house tours, live events, and Q&A sessions.

LinkedIn is the more formal option out of thesocial networks, but dont let that discourage you. LinkedIn is better suited to real estate agents who deal more with commercial property.

LinkedIn is also a great way to network with other real estate agents, where you can form a referral relationship that can benefit everyone. So while you may not get a ton of use from LinkedIn daily, its worth having an account to extend yourreal estate social network.

While Twitter is one of the most popular platforms, its not the bestsocial media for realtors. Forming lasting connections is difficult, and the user base, typically between 25 and 49, may not be your target audience.

However, Twitter can be a great place to seek out whats trending and economic andmarket trends, so using it to keep your ear to the ground is wise.

As a real estate agent, Instagram is probably going to be your best friend foryourreal estate social media strategy. Its also closely linked with Facebook, so there is little effort to maintain both accounts, thus widening your reach.

Instagram is all about images and photography so its a perfect place to showcase your latest listings. We definitely recommend hiring a professional real estate photographer.

An Instagram business account allows you to create online promotions for realtors, track post performance and followers, and see your overall reach per post.

However, Instagram users are typically on the younger side, but if thats your ideal target audience, its worth investing in an account on this platform.

TikTok is geared toward the younger generation but can be a great source of leads. More and more businesses are using TikTok to promote their company through partaking in fun challenges to uploading their own entertaining videos.

Like Instagram, since TikTok is a visual platform, its an ideal social media to showcase the various properties you have on the market. And remember, you never know when one of your videos may go viral!

Social networking is a great way to build your real estate business these platforms offer the best ways to do that. Understanding how each platform can benefit your company can tailor yourreal estate social network strategy accordingly. This will allow you to maximize your profits once your leads start converting.

If youre looking for more real estate business tips and tricks, check out ourReal Estate resource pageto find more content like this. Find topics inhousing market resources for homeowners, marketing, social media for realtors, technology, and artificial intelligence. We have it all.

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What Is Real Estate Social Networking and Their Platforms? - RealtyBizNews