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Your name could shape your face new study suggests

2/28/2017

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Your name could shape your face, new study suggests

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Long before anyone knows what we'll really look like, we're given the label we will probably carry for the rest of our lives — our name. But what if your appearance, particularly your face, somehow reflected the name you were given at birth?

A new study suggests that each person's face, insanely enough, could actually be shaped by his or her name.

So that would mean, yes, that Sarah really does look like a Sarah, and that Fred really does look like a Fred. Basically, the new findings could finally give some credence to all those weird, usually seemingly baseless assumptions you might have the first time you hear a new name, as NPR reports.

"We Look Like Our Names: The Manifestation of Name Stereotypes in Facial Appearance" is the name of the the psychology experiment led by researchers at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and published Monday in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Researchers found that when a person was shown a stranger's face, they picked the right name out of five choices about 35 percent of the time. And aside from picking the right name over a third of the time, the study's participants continued to keep matching up faces with the right names through a series of other experiments with varying conditions, according to lead author, Yonat Zwebner.

"We ran more than a dozen studies, and each time we had this feeling like, 'Oh boy, maybe this time it won't work,'" Zwebner, a social psychologist at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, told NPR. "And each time, it worked. That was really surprising."

Drawing those connections led the study's researchers to believe there is a real tie between your name and what you look like. "Together, these studies suggest that facial appearance represents social expectations of how a person with a specific name should look," the study's authors write. "In this way, a social tag may influence one’s facial appearance."

But how exactly are our names shaping our faces? Well, there are a few possibilities according to the study. 

For one, an individuals's personality — influenced by the stereotypes of their name and how people have treated them as a result — may actually help shape that person's face. This has happened when, for instance, short-tempered people develop more tense facial muscles than other more relaxed people. This can lead to a particular development of the jaw, and as a result, a certain sort of face, as the study explains.

Other may include genetic influence from a person's parents or how a person styles their hair — "one of the facial features that humans control most," the study states.

Incredibly, people taking part in the study seemed to match up the right names and faces along cultural lines. For example, Israeli and French participants were better able to match up names and faces within their own cultural group, rather than in each other's.

Those findings, along with a computer algorithm that also matched faces and names better than chance probabilities, all go toward the research team's hypothesis that a face might really be a reflection of a name. Or, as the study explains, "...we posit that our facial features may change over the years to eventually represent the expectations of how we should look."

Some psychologists remain somewhat skeptical. Cathy Mondloch, from Canada's Brock University, told NPR that she wanted to see further research to be convinced that other factors, such as other name options being unpopular, aren't at play.

Either way, it might give parents pause before choosing a bizarre moniker for their newborns.





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February 28, 2017 at 09:50AM
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Why Kellyanne Conway was on the couch and oh lord this is so dumb

2/28/2017

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Why Kellyanne Conway was on the couch and oh lord this is so dumb

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Why Kellyanne Conway was on the couch and oh lord this is so dumb

If this photo makes you angry, cool your jets because it's not worth it.
If this photo makes you angry, cool your jets because it's not worth it.

Image: Aude Guerrucci/POOL/EPA/REX/Shutterstock

2016%2f09%2f16%2f8f%2fhttpsd2mhye01h4nj2n.cloudfront.netmediazgkymde1lza3.f09f1By Marcus Gilmer2017-02-28 16:57:41 UTC

We are not yet 40 days into the Donald Trump presidency and Kellyanne Conway may have instigated the absolutely dumbest controversy of the young administration thus far, which is saying something for the woman who coined the phrase "alternative facts."

Yes, I'm speaking of #Couchgate, in which Conway was photographed with her feet on the Oval Office couch during a photo opp, incurring so much misguided wrath. 

And the fact that it 1) has a hashtag and 2) includes the requisite, scandal-tagging "-gate" suffix tells you right away this dumb. Dumb dumb dumb dumb.

But, unlike that particular incident of doublespeak or her bizarre tip-toeing of ethics rules by endorsing Ivanka Trump's fashion brand on a national news channel, Conway seems to be innocent, this time. 

What the hell happened?

A photo made the rounds last night of Kellyanne Conway crouched, feet up, on the couch while President Trump was meeting with leaders of historically black colleges. That hasn't kept the internet from growing very angry about something dumb, though. 

The backlash was swift and fierce as critics hammered Conway for showing a lack of decorum in the Oval Office. 

Buuuuuuuuut here's the thing: The single photo doesn't tell the whole story. 

As usual.

A subsequent photo shows what's really going on: Conway is getting in position to take a photo of a roomful of HBCU representatives and President Trump. Sure, it's a weird angle — why not just stand further back in the room? — but it's pretty clear Conway has no ill intent here. 

So, is this the hill that opponents of Trump should choose to die on?

No. The answer is no. Unequivocally no way. 

Bigger things to worry over

Far more important is that the HBCU reps shown in the photos came away pretty nonplussed about the whole event. Apparently, the university presidents were hoping for a more substantial meeting with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and other federal officials to talk about Pell Grants, according to Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University. 

"That all blew up when the decision was made to take the presidents to the Oval Office to see the president," he wrote on Medium. "I’m still processing that entire experience. But needless to say that threw the day off and there was very little listening to HBCU presidents today ... "

While the photo-op/non-meeting was going on, the Justice Department dropped its Obama-era objection to a controversial voter ID law in Texas that could greatly affect access to voting for many minority voters, a controversy that deserves far more attention than where Kellyanne's feet are.

Plus, Trump is preparing to speak before Congress for the first time on Tuesday night and announce major cuts to just about everything in the federal budget while funneling a veritable shit-ton of money into the defense budget.

Stay focused on things that have real impact, not on Oval Office decorum, especially when we all know the worst part of Trump's White House are those garish gold curtains. 

Backlash to the backlash

Indeed, there's already a backlash to the backlash from folks like from Chris Clizza at the Washington Post. Says Clizza, "We have reached a point in our politics — and Trump was the agitator if not the originator of this latest flash of polarization — in which even the most mundane of events is somehow invested with nefarious symbolism." 

He's right, too. 

If you want to attack Conway for defending lies and showing no regards for ethics, go right ahead. But this is no different than the stupid outcry that circulated when President Obama was photographed with his feet on his Oval Office desk. 

I remember when Obama putting his feet on the desk was a right-wing nontroversy. This only matters to anyone when it's the other party http://pic.twitter.com/n8ueu9TOvH

— Covert Putin Shill (@wokieleaks1) February 14, 2017

It was something Obama did frequently, as did other presidents before him. That controversy was dumb then and this one is dumb now. 

So stop it. Find something worthwhile to be mad about — like voter suppression! — and use your hashtivism skills for that instead.

And let Kellyanne be Kellyanne. Lord knows it won't be long before she gets herself in trouble again anyway.





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February 28, 2017 at 03:03AM
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5 Core Tips for Perfecting Your Influencer Marketing Strategy in 2017

2/28/2017

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5 Core Tips for Perfecting Your Influencer Marketing Strategy in 2017

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According to research from Nielsen, 92 percent of people trust recommendations from individuals over brands — and this holds true even if they do not know the individuals. Research also shows that 81 percent of people who have used influencer marketing judged it to be effective — and that 59 percent of marketers increased their influencer marketing budget in 2016.

For a very long time, smart businesses have realized a golden principle of effective marketing — especially on social media: it’s always people over corporations.

If you don’t have an influencer marketing strategy yet, it’s time to do something about it. If you do have an influencer marketing strategy, you need to be absolutely sure that you’re doing it right.

Laser-Focused Targeting

Many businesses wrongly assume that influencer marketing is about the influencer. Wrong! Influencer marketing is about the audience — it’s about the audience you are trying to attract.

Most of us have influencers we really respect. They have millions, or hundreds of thousands of followers, and they get hundreds of likes and shares to their content. It will be cool to have them endorse you, isn’t it? However, are they in the same niche as you?

The very first step towards getting influencer marketing right is to target the right audience. If your brand is in the food niche, there’s no point recruiting influencers in the marketing niche.

Understand What Motivates Influencers

If you want to effectively recruit influencers to help promote your brand, you need to understand what motivates them. Many people, especially small businesses, wrongly assume that influencers are mostly motivated by financial compensation or some other kind of compensation (such as product samples), but research disagrees. According to a study by Augure, that tried to find out why influencers work with brands, the biggest motivation influencers have for working with brands is support with creating content — a whopping 31 percent of influencers will only work with brands if this is guaranteed. By contrast, however, only 16 percent of influencers really value financial compensation while just 9 percent value product samples.

So, yes, money makes a whole lot of difference but it takes more than just money to have influencers support your brand.

Actively Recruit Influencers

We all have top bloggers and social media juggernauts that we want to champion our cause. However, it is very essential to realize most of the top influencers on your list are the top on everybody else’s lists — they get bombarded with pitches and requests to work with brands every day, and they have to carefully select who to work with. Your chances of getting them to work with you are very slim.

However, by significantly extending your list of influencers — perhaps by actively scouring social media and the media, or by using sites like Influence.co or the advanced search feature of sites like Buzzsumo — you significantly increase the number of influencers that can champion your cause as well as the likelihood of your influencer marketing succeeding.

Recruit Micro-Influencers

Also, kind of a spin off from the above point, it is important to realize that a core part of an effective influencer marketing strategy are micro-influencers.

Of course, it will be cool to have the big shots with millions of followers promote your brand. However, this is unrealistic for so many small brands. For so many reasons: the fact that they get a lot of offer and can decide that they don’t like your offer for one. There’s also the fact that they might ask for more than your monthly marketing budget just to do a mini promotion. All hope is not lost, though — you can fall back to micro-influencers.

Research has shown that mid-grade influencers with a smaller network of followers have more loyal followers, thus making it much more effective to have several mid-grade influencers promote your work than to have just one major influencer do so.

Give the Influencer Free Rein

Nothing burns an influencer marketing campaign faster than a brand trying to micro-manage everything. Things will seriously go south when you are the one influencing an influencer’s every step.

Of course, you know your brand better so you should highlight key points and critical factors you want them to focus on. However, it is also important to realize that the influencers built their reach, their profile and their audience. They know their audience much better, and it is this audience that you’re trying to attract. Once you’ve communicated the core points of your product/service to them, give them free rein and let them influence the messaging. They know their audience better.

The post 5 Core Tips for Perfecting Your Influencer Marketing Strategy in 2017 appeared first on Social Media Explorer.





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February 28, 2017 at 01:24AM
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The internet wants to know WTH Kellyanne Conway is doing on the Oval Office couch

2/28/2017

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The internet wants to know WTH Kellyanne Conway is doing on the Oval Office couch

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TwitterFacebook

Donald Trump had a big meeting with leaders of historically black colleges and obviously Kellyanne Conway took it very seriously. 

What's happening here? The internet had opinions and theories. Lots of them. 

I have so many questions about this photo, but chief among them is why nobody is telling Kellyanne Conway to get her damn feet off the couch http://pic.twitter.com/tU0CBS36Fe

— Rex Huppke (@RexHuppke) February 28, 2017

did no one's mama tell Kellyanne Conway to take her feet off that damn taxpayer-funded couch? http://pic.twitter.com/I2BiqNNgAS

— Mathew Rodriguez (@mathewrodriguez) February 28, 2017 Read more...

More about Student Debt, College, Donald Trump, White House, and Kellyanne Conway




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February 27, 2017 at 04:29PM
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Brain scans help predict the stories we're most likely to share

2/27/2017

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Brain scans help predict the stories we're most likely to share

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Sharing information has never been easier. Tap a button or click a mouse and you can tell hundreds of your closest friends and family, or thousands of strangers, pretty much anything. 

But with a seemingly infinite amount of information and number of ways to share it at our disposal comes difficult choices regarding what to share and when.

The process of choosing what to share isn't as straightforward as it might seem. A new study suggests that our brains rapidly consider the personal and social complexities of information-sharing so that you can make that judgment call within a matter of seconds.  

The findings provide new insight into why people feel compelled to share certain types of content online — and could help publishers, including media companies (such as this one, ahem), develop strategies for maximizing viral potential.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan people's brains while they looked at dozens of New York Times headlines and abstracts. The researchers observed the neural activity in certain regions of the brain and also asked the participants whether they would share each story. 

Articles that triggered stronger activity in areas of the brain associated with value and reward were shared more frequently by Times readers, the study found. People's brains appeared to be gauging the headlines and abstracts of each article to determine how sharing them might create positive personal and social outcomes for them. 

"When people decide whether to share or not, they make a calculation about the value of sharing." 

In other words, when a story more effectively tapped into people's desire for others to see them favorably, and presented an opportunity to relate to others positively, they were more likely to share it — and possibly make it go viral. 

"When people decide whether to share or not, they make a calculation about the value of sharing, and that value calculation seems to be common enough across people that we can predict what articles get shared around the world based on brain activity in 40 people in Philadelphia," Emily Falk, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania, said via email.

The researchers first conducted the study on a group of 41 college students and then replicated the findings in a second group of 39 students. 

Scientists are often skeptical of fMRI research because it can be easy to incorrectly interpret the association between brain activity and psychological processes. 

Falk, however, said the technique can help researchers better understand human behavior. She and her research team also combined fMRI results with participants' self-reported sharing intentions to strengthen their statistical model and improve the accuracy of their predictions. 

Falk and her five co-authors think the results represent something they call "value-based virality," a hypothesis that explains the process of information-sharing in a connected world. Basically, the brain combines two types of inputs — self-related outcomes and the social impact of sharing — to compute the value of sharing a piece of information widely. 

People may have different individual goals for sharing, like making someone laugh, appearing well-informed or improving their social relationships by engaging others. Regardless of their specific aims, the brain is able to quickly assess the overarching value of sharing particular content. 

For this study, the researchers selected 80 Times articles about health and fitness, a topic that made it easier for them to control for article characteristics like novelty or contentiousness. The stories covered subjects such as healthy school meals and tips on how to run better. Participants reviewed only the headlines and abstracts, in a similar way to how someone might consider content on social media networks. 

"Humans are hard-wired to want to be part of positive social relationships and have a positive image of ourselves."

The researchers used internal sharing data from the Times to see how frequently readers posted each story to a social media platform. Other means of distribution, like links posted directly to Facebook and Twitter instead of through the Times' sharing tools, could not be counted. The 80 stories were shared a total of 117,611 times. 

Christin Scholz, the study's lead author and a doctoral student in Falk's lab at the University of Pennsylvania, said that while both brain activity and self-reports predicted virality, brain activity uniquely helped to explain variances in how frequently articles were shared. 

People, for example, might report they don't want to share an article whereas their brain activity suggests otherwise. Scholz said that may happen because people don't want to admit their interest in sharing something or don't realize it because the calculation is happening unconsciously in the brain. 

The study does have some caveats, however. For example, the articles used, from a period between July 2012 and February 2013, may predate more recent headline-writing trends that use emotional and declarative phrasing to appeal to readers. 

The researchers also couldn't see the total page views each story received compared to its shares, which could have given them a clearer picture of whether or not an article truly went viral. Scholz said she and her co-authors weren't looking for virality in terms of sheer volume but rather differences in sharing patterns between articles. 

"We’re really targeting very basic processes and motivations," Scholz said. 

"Humans are hard-wired to want to be part of positive social relationships and have a positive image of ourselves. Those are basic human traits that should be active across articles." 

Scholz and her co-authors are exploring how these findings could lead to strategies that improve an article's viral chances. While they haven't tested specific interventions yet, Scholz thinks subtle suggestions to the reader might be effective, like hinting that sharing might make you look smart or make someone you know laugh. Using more words that linguists consider "social" in an article may also prompt readers to think about sharing it. 

So the next time you click to share a story and it feels like second nature to you, just remember your brain may have calculated that you'd gain from sharing it.





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February 27, 2017 at 07:21AM
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This app lets you donate to charity whenever someone on Twitter pisses you off

2/27/2017

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This app lets you donate to charity whenever someone on Twitter pisses you off

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A new donation platform helps people turn a moment of rage into charitable giving, simply by replying to an infuriating tweet. 

Trigger, an amazingly passive-aggressive Twitter-based app, lets you react to hostile social media posts in a positive, productive way. Creator Isaac Alfton said the app provides social media users with a sort of agency whenever they're "triggered" online.

The company calls it "retaliatory giving," inspired by Alfton's own frustrations with his feed as it overflowed with offensive and angering posts. After seeing so many 140-character social and political hot takes, he wished there were an easy way to give to charity as a spiteful response.

"The world of donations to nonprofits is kind of sunshine and unicorns — and sometimes you don't feel like that."

"That way, the person would know 100 percent that what they said caused a donation, and that would probably anger them even more," he said.

So Alfton, who has a background in ecommerce startups, started to build it himself — and he rushed to complete the tool after the 2016 U.S. election drastically shifted the political climate in America.

To use Trigger, you simply need to reply to a tweet with a dollar amount, the handle of a U.S. nonprofit and the hashtag #TriggerGive.

To add a bit of insult to the giving, you can also add a regular reply, making sure the response really gets your message across. 

"It's a really empowering tool," Alfton said. "It's simple, and it also engages other people and raises awareness of wherever you are donating to."

Though there are similar tools, like Goodworld and tinyGive, Alfton said the edgy nature of Trigger makes the app stand out.

"The world of donations to nonprofits is kind of sunshine and unicorns — and sometimes you don't feel like that," he said. "You get triggered, and you're pissed off. That's where we come in."

As soon as you send your retaliatory tweet, Trigger will start processing your donation. But what happens if you get a little too generous in the heat of the moment? Or what if your finger twitches on the "0" key, turning your $10 donation into a $100 donation? Don't worry — you can edit donations for up to 24 hours by contacting the Trigger team.

Users need to create an account through Trigger, which logs their Twitter handle and credit card. To operate efficiently and seamlessly, Trigger stores the credit card information of users to facilitate donations. Alfton said security is a top priority for the startup, with security compared to ordering from Amazon and paying with Paypal. 

"Why not make something positive out of your anger?"

"You have to get it right," Alfton said regarding site security. "With people's information and online payments, you get one shot."

A drawback of the service is a monthly service fee of $1.59, which funds Trigger's servers — even if you don't use it during a given month. The company uses PayPal to process donations, which takes 30 cents plus 2.9 percent. Trigger, however, never takes any portion of the donation you send. 

To receive donations, Trigger allows nonprofits to sign up, or prompts them to do so when they receive their first donation. Then, the service simply delivers collected donations to a verified nonprofit every seven days, with no further engagement required. Currently, any verified U.S. nonprofit with a Twitter account — tax-exempt or not — can receive donations through Trigger. 

Aside from those restrictions, where you send your money in social media-induced anger is up to you.

"I don't feel right telling anyone where to send their money," Alfton said. "It's your money. It's your right. It's your anger. It's your donation — so it's up to you."

However, being "triggered," Alfton stressed, doesn't always have to be negative. He said users can also give when they're positively inspired by a tweet. 

Trigger's mission to transform anger into social good may be especially welcomed in 2017.

"Sometimes you're angry after reading these posts and want to donate — and that's OK," Alfton says. "Why not make something positive out of your anger?"





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February 27, 2017 at 05:45AM
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'Fake news' jokes dominate after Oscars best picture flub

2/27/2017

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'Fake news' jokes dominate after Oscars best picture flub

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'Fake news' jokes dominate after Oscars best picture flub

Warren Beatty's eyes tell us many things.
Warren Beatty's eyes tell us many things.

Image: Andrew H. Walker/REX/Shutterstock

2016%2f09%2f16%2f9c%2fhttpsd2mhye01h4nj2n.cloudfront.netmediazgkymde1lzaz.ce8caBy Colin Daileda2017-02-27 17:22:45 UTC

"It is true, it's not fake," said Moonlight director Barry Jenkins during his jaw-dropping acceptance speech, which followed a roller coaster of events that led to his movie being named best picture on Sunday night. 

In the moments before Jenkins spoke those words, actor Warren Beatty and actress Faye Dunaway took the stage and declared La La Land the winner. The cast and crew of La La Land walked on stage. Producer Jordan Horowitz gave his acceptance speech ... then realized the winning card said Moonlight.

This was maybe the easiest pitch for anyone looking to tee up "fake news" jokes (who hasn't been sitting on a stash of these lately?), and those watching the Oscars with Twitter open got right to the task. 

I eagerly await the flood of phone calls to the @CKNW newsroom who thought La La Land won and then accuse us of fake news.

— Matt Lee (@mattlee980) February 27, 2017

Waiting for Donald Trump to blame Muslims, Mexico and illegal immigrants for the La La Land mix up and then brandish it FAKE NEWS #Oscars

— Shehab Khan (@ShehabKhan) February 27, 2017

Trump: La La Land Won Best Picture
Media: Actually it was Moonlight
Trump: Wrong Wrong Wrong. Fake News. Wrong.

#Oscars

— MATTY ICE (@FailGOP) February 27, 2017

You can thank Oscars 2017 for taking us one more step in the slow death march of the term "fake news." 





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February 27, 2017 at 03:30AM
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Want to Know How to Make Influencer Marketing Work?

2/27/2017

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Want to Know How to Make Influencer Marketing Work?

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The Internet is a noisy, overcrowded place.

Building momentum for your brand is often an uphill battle, and getting your audience to buy in can be daunting.

So, how do you get people to take you seriously?

How can you go from being just a little fish in a vast ocean to becoming a recognizable brand or even a household name?

One strategy that’s proven to be effective is influencer marketing.

The number of brands using this strategy has grown exponentially over the past few years.

In fact, “interest in influencer marketing has risen more than 90x from 2013 to the present.”

image00

Here are some other stats to give you a better idea of the state of this strategy at the moment:

  • “Influencer marketing content delivers 11x higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing.”
  • “Twitter users report a 5.2x increase in purchase intent when exposed to promotional content from influencers.”
  • “40 percent of people say they’ve purchased an item online after seeing it used by an influencer on Instagram, Twitter, Vine or YouTube.”

image05

The list goes on and on.

I think we can all agree that influencer marketing gets results.

But when you get right down to it, the term “influencer marketing” can be a little nebulous.

There’s a lot of confusion about how exactly to implement it and take advantage of it.

How can you get an influencer to link to your website, share your content, promote your product, etc.?

I’m going to be brutally honest with you. It’s not easy.

There’s a lot more involved than simply cold-emailing an influencer and saying, “Hey, please give my brand a shout out.”

It doesn’t work like that.

However, like with most forms of marketing, there is a formula. It’s worked for me, and it can work for you too.

Let’s get right down to it.

A three-step process

Of course, there’s a lot involved with influencer marketing.

But when you really break it all down, it involves three basic steps:

  1. Finding a suitable influencer
  2. Reaching out to them
  3. Getting them to share your content

That’s how I approach it anyway.

Let’s begin with step one.

Finding a suitable influencer

This is probably the easiest step, but it does require a fair amount of research.

How exactly do you zero in on an influencer?

Well, for starters, you’re probably already aware of at least a handful of influencers in your industry.

For example:

  • Bloggers with sizable followings
  • Popular YouTubers
  • Industry experts
  • Writers who regularly contribute to popular publications
  • Celebrities

But if you need a little help or want to know how likely a particular person is to share, I recommend using BuzzSumo.

One of the features I love there is “View Sharers.”

Let me show you how it works.

First, I enter a subject relevant to my industry/niche. In my case, it’s “content marketing.”

Here’s what pops up:

image03

Next, I choose an article and click on “View Sharers.”

image02

Here’s what pops up now:

image01

Just like that, I get a list of people and companies that shared that particular article.

I can also tell:

  • How many Twitter followers they have
  • Their retweet ratio
  • Reply ratio
  • Average retweets

These metrics are important because I can determine if they could potentially be an influencer that I would like to connect with.

I also know what the likelihood of getting a response from them would be. And I can easily follow them or tweet to them for instant interaction.

Other tools worth considering, besides BuzzSumo, include Traacker and Little Bird.

I also suggest checking out this post from Kissmetrics for other ideas.

I’m not saying you have to use a tool for finding influencers, but it does streamline the process substantially.

How big of an influencer should l target?

A common question marketers new to this concept have is whether they should target a macro-influencer (e.g., Tim Ferris or Seth Godin) with hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of followers or a micro-influencer with say 15,000 followers.

I’m a proponent of starting small and working your way up.

From my experience, micro-influencers tend to be more receptive and much easier to get in touch with than major players who may get bombarded with thousands of emails every day.

But feel free to take the path that makes the most sense to you.

Reaching out to influencers

This is hands down the most difficult part of the process.

You have to somehow figure out a way to:

a) get in touch with an influencer and

b) build rapport with them.

You can accomplish this in several ways, but I’m a fan of simply sending an email or using the contact box on their website.

Most influencers (unless they’re huge celebrities) will have some means of contacting them. Do your research until you find an efficient means of doing so.

If you absolutely can’t find their contact info, move on to the next potential influencer on your list.

How should I approach them?

The specific request you have will dictate the template you use.

For instance, there’s a:

  • curation template
  • influencer mention template
  • guest blog template

and others.

I recommend checking out this article from Entrepreneur. It will provide you with five basic templates so you’ll know what to say when making contact.

Here’s their initial outreach template:

image04

The key to getting a response is to be authentic, personable, and honest.

Just remember that you need to make them an offer they can’t refuse (using my best Vito Corleone voice).

image06

You may want to give them a shout out on your blog, send them a sample of your product, or maybe even compensate them if the situation calls for it—whatever you think would tickle their fancy.

However, I would tread lightly with compensation because it can make you come across as being insincere. But it’s definitely an option to keep in mind.

Now let me say this.

It’s ideal if you interact with an influencer on at least some level before hitting them up out of the blue.

For example, you might regularly comment on their blog for a month prior to asking them for a favor.

I know that I’m more receptive to requests from loyal blog readers than to someone “off the street.”

Have thick skin

There are a couple of other little pearls of wisdom I would like to share with you.

First, you should be prepared for rejection.

It’s not realistic to expect the first influencer you contact to immediately respond and cater to your every whim.

Most of these people are busy and already have their inboxes flooded with similar requests.

No matter how charming or charismatic you may think you come off, you’re probably not going to get many responses.

Don’t take it personally. It’s a numbers game.

That’s why I recommend creating a list of at least 10 potential influencers to get going. However, the more, the merrier.

If you expect to have success, it’s going to take perseverance and patience.

Just keep at it until you finally make a breakthrough.

And here’s another tip.

Use a free email tracker, like this one from HubSpot, so you’ll know who opened your emails and who didn’t.

It’s a simple way to see what type of activity has happened after you hit “send.”

If you don’t get a response from someone who most definitely opened your email, I recommend sending them a follow-up email after a few days or so.

Don’t be a pest about it, but a polite follow-up may get an influencer to take notice of you and get you the response you’re looking for.

Getting them to share your content

Finally, you need to ensure that what you’re delivering is genuinely providing them (and their audience) with value.

For instance, if you’re asking an influencer to share a blog post you’ve written, you’d better make sure that it’s top quality and highly relevant to their audience.

If they’re willing to let you guest-post on their blog, it needs to be A+ content. Nothing less will suffice.

In other words, you need to follow through and prove to them that they’re making a good decision by helping you out.

This is obviously integral to building a solid relationship and could potentially lead to other opportunities down the road. You never know.

Conclusion

Influencer marketing seems simple enough on paper.

Get in touch with someone influential, get them to promote your brand in some fashion, and boost your exposure.

Of course, it’s never this easy, and there are a lot of twists and turns along the way.

I’ll be the first to admit that influencer marketing is a tricky process.

But it’s definitely something you can do successfully, provided you take the right approach and have enough persistence.

And once you actually get it to work, it will boost your confidence, and you’ll feel much more comfortable with the process.

At that point, you can rinse and repeat to grow your brand even more.

Have you ever experimented with influencer marketing? What are your results?





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February 27, 2017 at 02:16AM
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How To Get Started on Twitter: Learn the Language

2/27/2017

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How To Get Started on Twitter: Learn the Language

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Have you ever traveled to a foreign country?

I don’t mean some walled-off resort where everyone speaks English and the guests are all American. I’m talking about Parisian café type destinations where people speak a language completely different from your own. The type of place where although the people may be accommodating to your language barrier up to a point, they expect you to at least know a few words in their language to show that you belong.

In these places, it helps to know even a few basic words, like “oui,” “s’il vous plaît,” and “merci” (yes, please, and thanks). That way, your hosts know you’re at least trying to speak the language, and that you’re willing to communicate with the livyers in their native tongue.

You may also notice that something curious (and wonderful) happens after you make an effort to learn the local language. For example, the next time you visit that café and order a “pain au chocolat” the server may greet you with a warm smile and a hot coffee, anticipating what you want before you even verbalize it yourself. You may find yourself receiving unsolicited suggestions for special items not on the menu, or suggestions for excursions you might never have known about had you not uttered a few simple words in the local dialect.

But how do you speak in the local language if “it’s all Greek to you?” Well, there are plenty of options. Get a guidebook, a phrase book, a foreign language dictionary (or, as a sign of the times—a translation app for your smartphone!). You can avail of any number of tools to help you bridge the gap between neophyte and aficionado.

Don’t be afraid to make a few mistakes at the beginning (or even much later—as nuances of language can sometimes even surprise fluent, seasoned speakers). But above all, you have to open yourself up, you have to have the willingness to learn in order to make the most out of your efforts.

What Does Learning a Foreign Language Have to Do With Twitter?

In many respects, learning how to get started on Twitter is like learning to speak a foreign language. It has its own vocabulary of esoteric terms like “tweets,” “hashtags,” and “DMs.” When you first start out on Twitter, the experience can be at turns intimidating (“What do I tweet about?“) and frustrating, as you wonder if you’ll ever be able to get fluent enough on the platform to make sense of the whole thing. The good news is that Twitter is a social network with an emphasis on social.

Unlike Facebook or LinkedIn that require some prior relationship with a person before you can connect with them, Twitter is all about reaching out in real-time and conversing with anyone who’s willing to chat. And there are hundreds of millions of people on Twitter willing to do just that.

All you need to do to get in on this conversation is to learn a few basics—starting with the fact that should aim to limit each conversation to 140 characters (more or less). Reach out to specific people who you’re interested in by searching for their “Twitter handles” on Google or Twitter. Start the conversation simply by saying “Hi,” followed by the person’s name. Feel free to let everyone know that you’re new to Twitter but that you’re trying—and that you wouldn’t refuse a little help if they have some to offer.

Just like the friendly server in a foreign land who brings you your coffee before you even order it, you’ll find lots of people willing to help you out. Follow their lead, study their conversations, become a willing student of Twitter. Before long, you’ll realize that it’s an “opportunity engine” which thrives on the efficiency of words. It has a language of its own that once you master, it can bring you more enjoyment and opportunity
than you ever thought possible!

The post How To Get Started on Twitter: Learn the Language appeared first on Social Media Explorer.





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February 26, 2017 at 11:51PM
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University student takes on student political party with viral online campaign gets rape threats

2/27/2017

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University student takes on student political party with viral online campaign, gets rape threats

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University student takes on student political party with viral online campaign, gets rape threats

Members of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) hold placards for peace and unity during a protest at Delhi University in New Delhi on Feb 23, 2017.
Members of the National Students Union of India (NSUI) hold placards for peace and unity during a protest at Delhi University in New Delhi on Feb 23, 2017.

Image: STR/EPA/REX/Shutterstock

2016%2f12%2f19%2fe2%2fdp.7e81dBy Sohini Mitter2017-02-27 11:41:56 UTC

A 20-year-old student from Delhi University (DU) has been receiving rape threats on social media, according to reports.

Gurmehar Kaur, a student of Lady Shri Ram College, has been viciously attacked by right-wingers for starting an online campaign against ABVP, the student wing of India's ruling political party, which clashed with students and journalists in a city college on Wednesday.

Kaur took a stand against the issue and came under the face of attack. “I have been getting a lot of threats on social media. I think it is very scary when people threaten you with violence or with rape,” she told a local television station. 

It all began when Kaur, who's also the daughter of a martyred Indian soldier, put up this post on Facebook. Her placard read: “I am a student from Delhi University. I am not afraid of ABVP. I am not alone. Every student of India is with me. #StudentsAgainstABVP”. 

"The stones that you pelt hit our bodies, but fail to bruise our ideas. This profile picture is my way of protesting against the tyranny of fear," she wrote in the status.

The campaign went viral in no time with several students putting up similar posts and calling out the threat posed by ABVP. 

Another of Kaur's posts read: "The brutal attack on innocent students by ABVP is very disturbing and should be stopped. It was not an attack on protesters, but an attack on every notion of democracy that is held dear in every Indian's heart. It is an attack on ideals, morals, freedom and rights of every person born to this nation." 

She also put up a series of placards with the #StudentsAgainstABVP hashtag.

One came under particular attention. It read: Pakistan did not kill my Dad. War killed him. (A reference to the 1998 Indo-Pak war in Kargil in which her father Captain Mandeep Singh lost his life.)

Kaur came under a facetious attack from former India cricketer Virender Sehwag, who's become some kind of a Twitter star of late, as well as a Bollywood actor who called her a "political pawn". 

Twitter erupted. Lot of support poured in for Kaur and she was lauded for being "strong".

You're welcome to call me what u want. She's no "poor girl" or "pawn." She's a strong, thinking adult who speaks her mind, handle patriarchy https://t.co/cKhgAumFcf

— Shekhar Gupta (@ShekharGupta) February 26, 2017

A martyred soldier's daughter knws more abt nationalism than those 'patriotic' TV champs targeting her,so spare her your gyaan @mehartweets

— Priyanka Chaturvedi (@priyankac19) February 26, 2017

Kaur herself objected to being called a pawn. She said: "I can think."

And clarified that people needn't call her a martyr's daughter.

Don't call me a Martyrs daughter if that bothers you. I never claimed anything otherwise. You can call me Gurmehar.

— Gurmehar Kaur (@mehartweets) February 26, 2017

More sadly, she even admitted to liking the aforementioned actor's film.

A wave of anti-ABVP protests has swept DU colleges. 





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February 26, 2017 at 09:48PM
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