Consumers will be rewarded for their social media status says Gary Vaynerchuk

Consumers that are heavily engaged in online activity will soon be rewarded by being offered "social coupons" via brands and retailers based on their online recommendations and social media rank.

That was the claim made by social media wine expert Gary Vaynerchuk at the last day of the Wine Future conference in Hong Kong.

He envisaged a time when people would stop "swiping cards" to pay for and receive goods, but would do so via social media sites.

You could, for example, go in to a wine store and choose a wine that has been recommended to you via a social media site and then be rewarded for doing so with a money off voucher or "social code" at the till, explained Vaynerchuk. The person who made the recommendation in the first place would also be rewarded with their own "social code.

The value of that "social code" may then depend on your own ranking and your influence within social media.

We are only at the beginning in terms of understanding or seeing the scale and impact that social media is going to have on our lives, claimed Vaynerchuk. "The game is just starting. This paradigm shift is just starting." He added: "People are addicted to this (social media). It is like crack."

We have, he argued, "no idea" how big the changes driven by social media could be. But he warned businesses looking to make the most of the opportunity to regard it as a "marathon", too many, he said, are "looking at this as a sprint".

Vaynerchuk said the big challenge for retailers and brands looking to connect with this new online, wired in consumer is to find the right "context" through which to communicate with them - or a "context war" as Vaynerchuk sees it.

"Who can create the best context with their brand?" he asked. "Brands that are the most human are going to get a humungous lift in this world."

But you have to prove to your customers that you truly care and are interested in them. He compared himself and like-minded businesses to Beyonce: "I want to put a ring on every one of my customers' fingers. I want to do business with my consumers for ever."