The Green Sheet Online Edition

October 27, 2014 • Issue 14:10:02

Readers Speak

Why join LinkedIn?

I am thinking of joining LinkedIn as a way to network with other payment pros. But is it worth it?

Lance Dupree Payment pro

Lance,

You're not alone. Many people join LinkedIn, then don't know what to do with it. It so happens the lead article in this issue is about networking, and it touches on the use of social media. Even more relevant to your question, however, The Green Sheet addressed this topic in a sidebar to an April 2009 cover story on social networking. The sidebar highlighted advice from web guru and entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki on the importance of LinkedIn. The 11 reasons why he believes the social networking site can be of value are:

Increases visibility: The more connections you have, the greater the likelihood people will view your profile when they want to fill open positions or are looking for new business partners.

Improves connectability: Filling out profiles completely helps potential employers better evaluate your fit in an organization.

Improves Google PageRank: LinkedIn makes profile information available for search engines to index.

Enhances search engine results: LinkedIn profiles allow you to publicize websites on search-engines.

Provides ability to perform company reference checks: Through LinkedIn's reference check tool, headhunters can input company names and the years during which job candidates of interest worked at those companies.

Increases relevancy of job search: LinkedIn's advanced search helps you find out where people with educational and work backgrounds similar to yours work today.

Makes interviews go smoother: LinkedIn enables you to find profiles of people you have interviews set up with and find out what you might have in common.

Gauges the health of a company: You can perform an advanced search for company names to scrutinize the rate of employee turnover and find out whether key people are quitting.

Gauges the health of an industry: If you're thinking of investing or working in a particular sector, you can use LinkedIn to find people who are working or have worked for companies competing (or companies that failed) in that sector.

Tracks startups: You can see entrepreneurs in your network who run their own companies.

Provides valuable advice: LinkedIn Answers enables you to ask business-related questions to both your personal network and the greater LinkedIn network.
Editor

Confusion over Apple Pay's 'discount'

Can you explain this "discount" that issuing banks are giving back to Apple on Apple Pay [mobile wallet] transactions?

Trace Montara Merchant level salesperson

Trace,

There has been some confusion about the so-called "discount" that Apple Inc. negotiated with card issuers that makes Apple Pay transactions correspond with the lower card-present (CP) rate, rather than the higher card-not-present (CNP) rate.

It is confusing. A Sept. 16, 2014, Mercator Advisory Group blog post might clarify matters a bit. In the blog, Mercator analyst Nikhil Joseph wrote that credible reports suggest Apple "seems to have negotiated with card issuers for discounts worth 15–25 basis points on each Apple Pay transaction in exchange for the reduced fraud levels ensured by Touch ID."

Joseph went on to say that a Bank Innovation report claimed that the "networks have agreed to process all in-store Apple Pay transactions initiated via near field communication technology on the new iPhone 6 at 'card-present' rates. In-app purchases made through Apple Pay, however, will continue to be processed at 'card-not-present' rates. This is despite the fact that from a technical perspective, very little that is different is happening in either case."

But it is clear that CP versus CNP can add up to a lot of money. "Stripe, a popular payment gateway services provider that has announced support for Apple Pay, currently charges merchants/developers 2.9 percent and 30 cents for each successful transaction it processes," Joseph wrote. "Card-present rates for in-store credit card transactions, on the other hand, cost merchants about 2.10 percent and 10 cents per transaction a difference of more than 80 basis points. For a hypothetical merchant that does business worth $10 million annually through a mobile app with an average ticket size of $50, this difference in payment taxonomy could mean as much as $120,000 in lost profits for the year."

I hope this helps. Editor end of article

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