social media Archives - Lazy Man and Money

I’m trying to do a little less stock picking than I have in the past. I did well with it then, but now I like the diversity of ETFs. They don’t move too much and when I look at my portfolio it is still doing okay.

However, it’s hard for me to avoid the news. I need to stay on top of it to get ideas for articles to write. I didn’t much positive to write about lately, so I took a bit of a break. Hope you didn’t miss me too much.

So today, I’ve got some sales to offer you. No, I’m not going to sell you anything. I’m talking about stocks on sale.

Facebook opened up today 25% down from what people were paying for it yesterday. The could be a good deal if you wanted to hold it for a long time. It’s still worth nearly $700 billion, so bigger than the vast majority of companies. I had some shares when it was worth $50 billion, but I sold them far too early. Maybe I should get back in again.

Another social media stock that’s being put on sale today is Snapchat. It’s down nearly 20%. It’s almost at its 52-week low and about 70% off its highs. I had bought a bunch at $5 and now it is around $26. Fortunately, I sold a bunch between $60-$80. Unfortunately, I still kept some. Should I buy more back? I don’t know, but I think I’m going to wait.

What’s next? Oh, there’s Pinterest (PINS). I got lucky and bought 100 shares at $19. It’s not the biggest trade, but I sold off some at $25, $37, and $75. I still have around 50 shares worth, but it is trading back at around $24.

Buy and hold would have worked with Facebook, but it would have been disappointing with SNAP and PINS. If something goes up, I try to sell off some so that even if it goes to zero, I still made money. It’s a great plan, as long as the prices go up. I don’t walk away with a home run, but those singles and doubles add up well.

My last stock is Twitter. I don’t see how it’s always priced so low. It’s only a $27 billion company. Snapchat is bigger than that and it feels like fewer people are using that.

Nonetheless, if you are interested in social media socks, this looks like a good time to buy them. My crystal ball is in the shop getting repaired – so they may drop again tomorrow, the next day, or the next 100 days. Or maybe they recover and get back to where they were six months ago. I like buying when things are low like this because I feel there’s a better chance of them getting back there.

Of course, before you make any decision, you might want to read about why are getting hit so hard. I think there are a few different reasons such as slowing growth. Apple put in some new privacy settings and advertisers may not want to pay as much before. It also seems like some stocks are down because they are associated with Facebook. I think they’ll probably figure it all out over the long term.

Murphy-Goode Winery has an interesting job opportunity that you may or may not have heard of… a 6-month contract to be a “Lifestyle Correspondent” for Murphy-Goode Wine. It pays $10,000 a month – a fairly impressive salary considering that you get free rent on top of it. Oh you also get to learn how make wine.

What does the job entail? It’s simply marketing the lifestyle of wine country via the Internet. You’d be expected to connect with Facebook and Twitter users, create videos of your experience on YouTube.

What makes this such a fabulous idea? A couple of things:

The Publicity of the Job Itself – What’s it worth getting news coverage for this job? Hell, in a tiny, tiny way I’m contributing to the value that Murphy-Goode is getting by writing this post. I’d bet they received more than $60,000 worth of free advertising before they even choose the Lifestyle Correspondent.
Getting the Brand Spread Consistently – Part of me can’t imagine people will follow the correspondent. However, I can imagine the correspondent will have a lot of Twitter followers and a lot of Facebook friends. This is surely a quality asset for Murphy. They’ll increase their mind share, especially if they can keep it going with promotions it’s followers.

I work with a company that employs a social media consultant. I don’t have any firm statistics, but I’m fairly sure that the company doesn’t get the same value for it’s dollar as Murphy-Goode is going to. Then again, the product isn’t quite as sexy. It’s not very obvious to me how they could extend a similar type of promotion.

For a little while, I thought of applying for this position. I ended up skipping it because I’m not very good with the video camera. Also, it would be about 3 hours away from my wife and puppy. While they may be able to come with me, I’m sure my wife wouldn’t appreciate that commute. However, it’s not too late for you. If you hurry, there’s still time to apply for the job. It ends on midnight Friday night.