Maximize your Earnings Potential with Social Rewards

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Joseph Morin

Want to maximize your rewards potential? Social Rewards offers ways to earn points quickly and easily (and now on the go through your mobile device!)

With Social Rewards you can earn points for “liking” a brand’s Facebook page or following a brand on Twitter through Connect Rewards. Through Twitter you can earn Tweet and Retweet Rewards by simply tweeting or retweeting special offers from your favorite brands or engaging directly with your favs through @Replies. From time to time brands offer additional participation through Facebook with Share Rewards so you can earn points just by sharing offers from your favorite brands.

If you’re into multimedia, Tube Rewards is for you. Watch fun video, advertisements, and special event videos from your favorite brands on YouTube to be entertained while earning points.

Need even more engagement? Try Q&A Rewards. Brands ask a question and you earn points simply by answering. share or retweet your answer and earn even more points!

Earning points is even more fun when you’re earning with your friends. Invite your friends to join the program to earn additional points. Plus, if a deal you share or tweet is purchased by your friends you get additional points just because you shared.

Other Social Rewards earning opportunities through new social networks will be coming soon… and the more you participate, the more points you earn to redeem for great promotions at restaurants, nightclubs, resorts, and more.

Social Rewards keeps all of your points safe and sound in a bank and displays your earned and pending points on the screen so you can easily keep track of exactly how much you’re earning.

So get busy… accumulating points is easy – and they add up fast, so take a look at the redemption promotions and start engaging to earn points and save up for your favorite promotion.

Posted in FAQ's on Social Rewards | Tagged las vegas, loyalty points, mobile, promotion, social media, social rewards, using social rewards | Leave a comment

Social Rewards Launches Q & A Rewards to the U.S. Market

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Social Rewards

Now you can earn points through the Social Rewards platform just by answering questions about your favorite brand. Once a member of Social Rewards, simply follow your favorite brands and join the weekly conversation by answering questions about the brand and your experience.

In March, Social Rewards launched Q & A Rewards to their Japanese market. Within the first 24-hours 5,000 users were signed up. After the first week more than 20,000 users had joined and were engaging through Q & A Rewards.

“Considering we were not doing any type of mass marketing to advertise this service, we were very pleased with the response,” said Mike Uesugi, Co-Founder and CTO at Social Rewards.

The idea for Q & A rewards came from a Social Rewards client in Japan who asked Social Rewards to create a way for users to respond to questions about the brand and earn points. Based on that request, the Social Rewards development team created a prototype which is now fully functional and implemented in the Japanese market.

The Japanese client, All Nippon Airlines (ANA), is currently using Q&A Rewards in coordination with other Social Rewards programs including Share Rewards, Connect Rewards, and Tube Rewards to encourage social engagement and offer e-coupon points toward the purchase of airfare. By using the Social Rewards platform, ANA is able to give discounts to win new business and reward existing customers.

ANA has also implemented another Social Rewards function called Socialliance [TM] by offering Social Rewards credits not only for engagement with their own brand, but with partner companies like Shiseido, JCB Credit Card, New Zealand Airlines, American Express, and others. This form of engagement offers ANA’s customers another way to engage and earn rewards while interacting with brands they know and trust as partners of ANA.

Late last week, Social Rewards launched Q&A Rewards to the U.S. market with a soft launch through Caesar’s Entertainment brands in Las Vegas. The response has been amazing.

“We launched Q & A Rewards quietly and organically with no advance promotion or official ‘launch’, just to see how users would engage with the various brands within the Caesars Entertainment portfolio in Las Vegas and the response was phenomenal, almost 1,500 answers during the launch week and some very engaging responses to questions such as “Describe your ‘Hangover’ like experience at Caesars Palace” and “What’s your favorite celebrity sighting at Planet Hollywood Las Vegas?” explains Joe Morin, Co-Founder and CEO at Social Rewards. “Our Q and A Rewards platform is unique in that responses may be made via Facebook or Twitter and posted to both our timeline as well as the users own wall or timeline and we plan to further that reach with the launch of Q & A Rewards Mobile and Q & A Rewards Display which are both launching by the end of this month for a comprehensive experience. Questions and answers (Q & A Rewards) may be displayed on our site timelines, the client’s webpage, blog and Facebook pages, via mobile device and via video display monitor to truly engage with the brand from every possible angle.”

More About Q & A Rewards:

Q&A Rewards is a rewards program through the Social Rewards platform offering another way for users to engage with their favorite brands. Brands ask questions and customers respond to the brand with answers. Users who join the conversation by answering questions are rewarded with loyalty points. Q & A Rewards offers brands another way to say “Thank you” to their customers for joining the conversation and offers customers and fans of the brand an opportunity to engage with their favorite brands and interact with other users.

Posted in Social Rewards News | Leave a comment

Social Rewards Closes $600,000 Seed Round, Exceeds Financing Goals

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Joseph Morin

Social loyalty startup achieves 80% market share of hotel casinos on the Las Vegas strip

LOS ANGELES, CA — January 31, 2012 Social Rewards, a social loyalty platform, has closed an oversubscribed seed round of angel funding totaling $600,000. The company was self-funded for a year with $250,000 from founders Joseph Morin and Mike Uesugi before raising any outside capital, and exceeded its original funding goal of $500,000.

Social Rewards provides a brand’s customers with loyalty points for engaging in social media activity via Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, and YouTube. Points may be earned, deposited, redeemed, donated, or transferred into a “bank” built on the Social Rewards platform.

Two thirds of Social Rewards’ seed round was funded by members of Tech Coast Angels, the largest angel network in the United States, including the TCA ACE Fund, the Angels’ new rapid accelerated funding arm. Other high-profile investors include Jeff Lapin, former CEO of Starwood Hotels, Stuart Larkins, part of the Performics founding management team, Kelly Perdew, previous LinkedIn advisor, co-founder & CEO TargetClose, and winner of Apprentice 2, Mi Ventures, and K 5 Venture Partners.

Many of the company’s angel funding introductions were facilitated via Angel List, a social network of entrepreneurs and investors.

Social Rewards combines social media, affiliate marketing, and loyalty rewards to help companies identify brand advocates and increase social engagement. The platform is now available in the United States and Japan and is written in unicode, making implementation possible in any country or language. The startup is already seeing revenue in both markets and has recently secured six-figure contracts.

“In our initial launch market of Las Vegas, we’ve already achieved an 80% market share of hotel casinos using the Social Rewards program on the Strip,” says Morin. “We’re very pleased to also announce new client wins including Caesars Entertainment with a global roll out to 52 resorts and casinos, and an expanded presence with MGM Resorts coming out of beta from their early adoption of our platform.”

Primarily in travel and hospitality now, Social Rewards has immediate plans to roll out to new markets and industries including entertainment and consumer product sectors.

At the core of Social Rewards is the ability to capture ROI from social media via a tracking URL. This capability allows companies to follow brand messages and engagement throughout the lifecycle of a tweet or Facebook post all the way to sales conversion where additional points may be awarded providing additional incentive. Full analytics reporting of brand mentions, clickthroughs, retweets, shares, and sales conversions are available through an administrative dashboard.

About Social Rewards

Social Rewards is a new social loyalty company based in Torrance, CA, founded by Joseph Morin and Mike Uesugi, veterans of the digital industry with a combined experience level of over 25 years. Social Rewards is a cohesive blend of social media, affiliate marketing and loyalty rewards programs rewarding consumer brand advocates with loyalty program points for social media activity. In development since late 2009 and incorporated March of 2010, Social Rewards received a seed round of angel funding from high-profile investors including Tech Coast Angel members and has 8 employees.

Related Resources:
Follow Social Rewards on Twitter
Like Social Rewards on Facebook
Visit our website at www.socialrewards.com

Contact:
Joseph Morin
info@socialrewards.com
949-433-8881

Posted in Social Rewards News | Tagged las vegas, loyalty points, social media, social rewards, startup | Leave a comment

Blogworld 2010 was incredible…

Posted on October 18, 2010 by Social Rewards

From Wednesday through yesterday, the Social Rewards team was in Las Vegas for Blogworld. It was a great week of networking, workshops, people and parties. We met so many amazing and talented individuals and were very excited to be a part of the Expo. We will be putting some of the pictures from the booth, the playboy bunnies visit, and our Luxor Suite parties up on our Facebook page. Make sure to check them out, leave us a comment and feel free to share them!

First, for those who stopped by and wanted to know more about the brands we work with or how you could get involved with Social Rewards, stay tuned this week for posts covering both topics!

Second, thanks to the @Blogworld team for putting together such an incredible event this year. I can’t count the number of people who were raving about the speakers, the panels and the events. I think there were some amazing connections made – and definitely feel the lack of sleep was worth it

Third, we want to say thank you to the Palms Hotel – this years #techkaraoke party was incredible. The Pearl Concert Hall was gorgeous, and seeing everyone rocking out on a real stage was phenomenal. Congratulations on an awesome party and on the launch the Palms Casino Social Rewards program.

Finally, we want to send a special thank you to @LuxorLV for helping us to host some of the most awesome parties and events this weekend – and for sending us their Fanstasy girls to help at the booth! We would not have had such a great time or provided such a great experience for the other attendees without your support and participation

We are looking forward to seeing everyone next month @Pubcon!

What was your favorite part of Blogworld this year?

Posted in Social Rewards Events, Stories about Social Rewards | Tagged blogworld, Events with Social Rewards, pubcon | Leave a comment

Palms Casino deals out loyalty points

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Social Rewards

The Palms Casino Resort has partnered with Social Rewards, a sophisticated social media platform, which rewards Palms social media communities for their active promotion of unique events at the Palms. The Palms will be offering a variety of exclusive specials for users to communicate to their fans and followers and, in exchange, earn points that can be redeemed for various amenities at the Palms.

“Social Rewards is both honored and excited to be partnering with the trendiest Las Vegas property on the strip to promote social loyalty,” said Joseph Morin, CEO of Social Rewards. “The Palms Casino Resort truly exemplifies the term trendsetting and, with our rewards program, we hope to bring an even stronger sense of the impassioned loyalty that they have been showing their clientele over the last decade.”

Social Rewards features an advanced infrastructure with the ability to track brand mentions and sales activity offering a complete analytics package highlighting top brand advocates and conversions resulting from the most influential users.

“Social Media is a crucial part of our marketing plan and partnering with Social Rewards gives us a great opportunity to take it to another level by encouraging our most avid fans to promote the Palms to vast audiences,” said Jason Gastwirth, Chief Marketing Officer for the Palms Casino Resort.

Social Rewards blends social media, affiliate programs and loyalty marketing into one cohesive program. Designed to work with a brand’s existing loyalty program or provide a platform upon which a brand can create, customize and create a new one, Social Rewards monitors and tracks tweets, location-based check-ins such as Foursquare, Facebook likes and fan activity.

Join the Palms Social Rewards program today!

Posted in Social Rewards Clients | Tagged las vegas, loyalty points, social rewards clients | Leave a comment

Social Rewards Launches Loyalty Program Using the Power of Viral Marketing

Posted on October 12, 2010 by Social Rewards

Social Rewards made their debut in August of this year, below is a bit about where they got started and the brands that they have already captured.

Turning Tweets, Likes and Check-ins Into Rewards

San Francisco – (August 19, 2010) Social Rewards announced today that it will debut its social media loyalty rewards platform with electronics leader, Sanyo on August 19 during Connected Marketing Week in San Francisco. Gaming giant Tropicana Las Vegas was the first to go live on the Social Rewards platform and was the initial launch beta partner earlier this month. Social Rewards will then celebrate the launch of its newest partner in the Las Vegas market, five-diamond, four star resorts, The Venetian® and The Palazzo, with a tweet-up at Lagasse’s Stadium at The Palazzo on August 20. Additionally, Las Vegas based social media and internet marketing conference PubCon will also launch its Social Rewards program showcasing the platform’s conference and event marketing capabilities.

Featuring a complex backed infrastructure with the ability to track brand mentions and sales activity, Social Rewards offers a complete analytics package highlighting top brand advocates and conversions resulting from the most influential users. Designed to work with a brand’s existing loyalty program or provide a platform upon which a brand can create, customize and create a new one, Social Rewards monitors and tracks tweets, location based check-ins such as Foursquare, Facebook likes and fan activity.

“The premise of Social Rewards is to take existing brand loyalty program members that have social media tendencies and reward them for their loyalty and word of mouth activities with program points that can be redeemed for tangible goods and services,” said Joseph Morin, CEO of Social Rewards. “Our system is also designed to easily create customized programs for companies that do not already have an existing loyalty program.”

Morin continued, “Peer-to-peer recommendations have long been considered to be the strongest form of advertising and Social Rewards is going to change the way retailers think and engage in social media as we turn tweets into sales.”

Tropicana Las Vegas, an early adopter of social media, has already seen initial success with Social Rewards. “We continue to have a strong social media presence, but until recently did not have a social loyalty program to reward our brand ambassadors,” said Brandie Feuer, head of Marketing, PR and Innovation for Tropicana Las Vegas. “Social Rewards provides us with a way to do this.”

Posted in Stories about Social Rewards | Tagged first information, lauch, promotion | Leave a comment

Social Rewards: The Beginning

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Joseph Morin

This post was originally published on Joseph’s own blog, prior to social rewards launching…giving you some insight on how and why he and Mike decided to start social rewards.

This month I will be launching a new start up. I guess as a serial entrepreneur its hard to not always be thinking about companies or a new way to do things. This new company was born out of a long term relationship I’ve had with my high school best friend, Tatsuo (Mike) Uesugi. Over 20 years ago, Mike and I attended Western Christian High School in Covina, CA and even though he spoke little English at the time, we became fast friends as I sat behind him in English class during our Sophomore year. We eventually became roommates after high school and Mike went on to fame working at both Apple and IBM, helping Apple design the first Japanese language KanjiTalk OS for the Mac.

I went in another direction, becoming a private investigator and starting my own detective agency but enjoying the tech sector, the start up process and then running my own tech companies. Eventually the start up bug hit Mike and he founded Global Micro Solutions, doing integration work for just about every Japanese company doing business here in the US and growing to over 50 employees in 5 countries. Last year, Mike approached me with an idea regarding merging affiliate marketing with social media and I was hooked joining him as an advisor on building out a back end for a yet unnamed company. I was exiting my last business – Storybids, had stopped SEO consulting and had just taken on a stint as VP of Search and Social Marketing for Fly.com – a new Travel meta search engine which was funded entirely by Travelzoo (NASDAQ: TZOO) but the entrepreneurial bug wouldn’t stop biting me.

I left Fly.com last month and joined Mike full time as CEO and Co-Founder at the now named Social Rewards, Inc. which we have built into social media based loyalty marketing programs that reward consumers with a brand’s own loyalty program points for engaging in social media activity such as brand mentions via Twitter, Foursquare check-ins and Facebook likes and fan activity.

This grew out of our own simple desires to be rewarded with loyalty points for tweeting about brands that we already loved, we are both extreme travelers, he a Diamond Level at Japan Airlines and myself as an Executive Platinum with American Airlines, a Silver Premier with US Airways, a Starwood Platinum and Fairmont Silver President’s Club member. I’ve also become enamored with both jetBlue and Virgin America since US Airways pulled out of John Wayne airport for flights to Las Vegas and AA stopped going to the San Francisco Bay area.

I had become familiar with the social media benefits of rewarding influential online consumers with products via the ‘Blogger’s Night Out’ promotion that I did during the PubCon Internet Marketing Conference in 2007 where we gave away 500 tickets to major Las Vegas shows such as Spamalot, Blue Man Group and Cirque du Soleil. It was a huge success and evolved into Tweet4Tix that I continued to run during BlogWorld and Pubcon conferences over the last three years. The hard part was coming up with a business model on how to reward consumers for blogging and then ultimately tweeting activity and for three years I met with brands and partners and pondered the logistics of first theatre tickets and then movie tickets online for rewarding online brand mentions.

Early last year I stumbled upon a little start up called Klout that was barely 4 months old and just getting ramped up. I emailed their CEO, Joe Fernandez and after a few meetings, he and his Co-Founder Binh Tranh figured that I could do what I said I could do and started the process of opening a lot of doors for them both from clients to investors as an official member of the Klout Advisory Board. Eventually I began to see how both Mike’s software for affiliate marketing via social media and how Klout’s online influencer analytical tools could be merged into the business model that I had been pondering for three years with the Tweet4Tix concept. Now we could identify influential online consumers using Klout and reward them for brand mentions using Mike’s nearly completed back end CMS with the most obvious choice of online currency – loyalty program points. Social Rewards was born.

Now with our software finalized and ready to go, we launch! Please wish us luck.

Posted in Stories about Social Rewards | 20 Comments

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