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Twitter adds updates about interesting links, trends and accounts to its Notifications tab http://ift.tt/2uCat9U Your Notifications tab on Twitter might be getting a little more busy. The company recently added a new feature to this section on both mobile and web, which aims to clue you into what people you follow are up to – including whether they’re tweeting about a particular Twitter trend, sharing a link to a buzzing news article, or even following another user’s account. If this sounds familiar, that’s because Twitter’s ability to track and alert you to this information has existed for years. But before it was only delivered via push notifications. It’s now appearing in the same tab where you track the activity surrounding your own account and tweets – like who’s retweeting you, favoriting your tweets, or following you. This information first became available in September 2013, when Twitter rolled out a new notification type that aimed to help you stay “in the know,” it said. The feature itself had been developed via Twitter’s experimental account, @MagicRecs, where it had tested how to better personalize its service to end users. It then turned these “interesting activity” recommendations into push notification on iOS and Android, which you could toggle on or off. We first noticed the new addition to the Notifications tab when a number of Twitter users began to tweet about change. Twitter confirmed with TechCrunch that the feature, which was not officially announced, rolled out to users last week across iOS, Android and web. It says its goal is to make sure that people don’t miss content that may be interesting to them. Some people may have seen the feature appear as far back as late last year. That’s because Twitter tests new additions like this with select groups of users before making them more broadly available. But in this case, the feature wasn’t just randomly A/B tested. Twitter says it was rolled out to certain types of users last year, before becoming available to all. While everyone technically has the feature now, that doesn’t mean you’ll see it all the time. The notifications themselves are triggered by signals that differ from user to user. As is often the case when it comes to Twitter product updates, not everyone is thrilled about the change. To some extent, this could be because of a bug that was sending the notifications more often than it should. This has been fixed now.
But the larger issue is that Twitter’s Notifications tab is an area of the app users check on a regular basis to see activity associated with their content, not what others are up to – like what subjects people are tweeting about, links they’re sharing, or the people they decided to follow. Arguably, the Notifications tab is fairly busy as is, due to the way it mixes in more minor notifications – like favs and retweets – with more critical ones, like replies.
But Twitter wouldn’t be the first to combine updates related to your personal content with those from across your wider network, all in one area. Facebook does this, too. In its notifications section, it alerts you to a wide range of updates – including not only who liked or commented on your own posts, but also updates on ongoing threads you participated in, friends’ birthdays, posts from select friends and Pages, events, and much more. Instagram, on the other hand, separates out the activity from your wider network under the “Following” tab of its notifications section (under the heart icon), which makes it easier to see just the activity around your own posts within its “You” section. Above: Nuzzel’s app It makes sense that Twitter would move more deeply into this area, given there’s already a market for “personalized top news” pulled from Twitter. For example, third-party app Nuzzel works with your Twitter account to highlight the links your friends are sharing. It’s a useful way of finding what’s popular, without having to tediously scroll through your Twitter Timeline. With this new feature, however, Twitter could reduce the need for Nuzzel. As for the user backlash, it comes down to the challenges Twitter faces in building features to aid newcomers, which can impact its growth and bottom line. These changes tend upset its longtime power users, who aren’t in as much need of discovery tools. There is some good news if you fall into that latter camp, though. Twitter says if you don’t want these new notifications, you can tap on the down arrow next to the notification and choose “see less often.” Featured Image: Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto/Getty ImagesSocial Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com July 26, 2017 at 01:37PM
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Blue is a dating app for verified Twitter users http://ift.tt/2tJLGU0 A new app is looking to romantically match folks who are verified Twitter users. Blue, by Loveflutter, has launched a new version of their existing dating app that only allows Twitter users with that little blue tick to search for love, and only amongst their fellow blue-tick holders. Loveflutter has actually been around for a while, pivoting from matches based on shared interests (innovative!) to now focus on analyzing tweets and Twitter activity to match people. And with that switch, so was born Blue. For those of you who are verified (and actually interested in this for some reason), the app is rolling out in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, London and Tokyo, but will only go live once it has 1,000 local members. So, maybe never. Of the just over 300 million users on Twitter, around 150,000 are verified, with about 25 percent of them coming from the world of journalism/media, according to a report from 2015. That number will surely continue to grow now that Twitter has opened up applications to get verified. Actual celebrities — people like Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift — have plenty of options for dating outside of using their Twitter Verified status. This includes Tinder Select, Raya, and… walking into any bar on the planet. If anything, this is a smart way to lead-gen into the existing Loveflutter service. If (or when) Blue actually goes live in New York, I’ll be sure to begrudgingly let you know. Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com July 26, 2017 at 10:17AM
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How to Use Social Listening to Create Viral Content http://ift.tt/2uBGVt1 Viral content is inherently unpredictable. You could have two similar pieces of content—with one receiving thousands upon thousands of shares and the other languishing in obscurity. In that regard, there’s no magic formula that will enable you to create viral content on command. It’s not like you can just flip a switch and get mass exposure. It doesn’t work like that. But there are several things you can do to increase the chances of your content going viral. That’s what I want to talk about in this post. More specifically, I’m going to explain how you can use social listening to your advantage. Social listening, defined as “the process of monitoring digital conversations to understand what customers are saying about a brand and industry online,” is most commonly used for evaluating customer feedback and identifying their pain points. But I’ve also found it to be absolutely perfect for predicting what my audience is craving and what’s most likely to go viral. The way I see it, social listening is perhaps the best way to predict virality. Here is how you can utilize it to your advantage. Effectively analyzing contentThere’s a popular expression:
Although this can be debatable, depending on the context in which it’s used, you’ll want to follow this line of thinking in this instance. Like I said earlier, you can never say with 100% certainty that a particular piece of content will go viral. But what you can do is see what’s resonating the most with your audience at the moment. If you notice that a particular topic, angle, theme, etc. is completely killing it, there’s a good chance you’ll see favorable results if you cover it as well. But how do you know what’s popular and what’s resonating with your audience? That’s where social listening comes in. The key to effective social listening is knowing which tools to use. I’m going to cover a few of my favorites you can use to discover trends and identify topics that have the potential to go viral. Google TrendsLet’s start from the top. I use Google Trends quite frequently for market research and for gauging people’s interest in various topics. But I find it can also be helpful for identifying the hottest topics at any given moment. For starters, you can simply go to the Google Trends homepage. Start scrolling down to see the top trending stories: Sometimes, this can give you some potential ideas to work with. Of course, the trending stories aren’t narrowed down by niche or topic, so you’re dealing with a wide variety of subject matter. But sometimes that’s all it takes. If you see something that interests you, click on it: You’ll then get some of the most relevant articles, which should provide further clarification on what’s popular at the moment: In this case, a lot of people are talking about Snapchat’s new “Snap Map” feature. Therefore, this could be something I would want to investigate further and a potential topic I could cover. Using Top ChartsAnother useful feature is called “Top Charts.” From the Google Trends homepage, click here: Then click on “Top Charts:” Here’s what you’ll see: Scroll down to look at all the different categories. Or you can search for a relevant category by clicking on “All Categories” and choosing the one you’re looking for: Once you’ve found your category, you can click on “More” for more detailed information: The logic here is that you can use up-to-date data from Google to see what people are most interested in at the moment in your industry/niche. Google Trends is by no means a be-all and end-all social listening tool, but it can serve as a nice starting point. Inbound.orgThis is only applicable to digital marketers like myself. But if this is your area of focus, it can be a potential gold mine. Here’s what you want to do. Once you’re at the Inbound.org homepage, scroll all the way down to the bottom. You’ll see this: Click on whatever sub-category you’re interested in. I’ll go with SEO: Here’s what I get: Scroll through the list, looking for ideas. Inbound.org does most of the heavy lifting for you by curating the top stories. Many have received a high volume of shares, so you know the interest it there. Also note once you sign up, you can create your own feed to streamline the process even more. This way the stories come right to you. BuzzSumoNow, let’s bring out the big guns. BuzzSumo is a beast when it comes to finding out how much engagement content receives. And since engagement (shares in particular) is the ultimate indicator of virality, this is one of the best ways to capitalize on trends and increase your odds of creating viral content. Here’s what you want to do. Type in a keyword you’re looking to base your content on in the search box of your dashboard. I’ll use “SEO” as an example: Now, set your filter date to a time that sounds right to you. Because we want to capitalize on current trends, I recommend going back no further than six months. However, the past month or week is ideal. You can even set it to the last 24 hours, but you’ll usually have limited data. I’ll set mine to the past week: Once you do that, BuzzSumo will populate your screen with the top content according to total shares. Here are the top results I got: Now all I have to do is browse through the content and look for two things:
This post from Search Engine Land about testing accelerated mobile pages (AMP) for WordPress caught my attention: Not only did it get 1.5k shares in the past week, it also got 41 backlinks. This lets me know that my audience is obviously interested in this topic. And if I created an article that was bigger, better and more epic, it would have a reasonable likelihood of going viral. This is the formula you want to use with BuzzSumo. It doesn’t matter what topic you’re covering. Following these steps will let you know what people are responding to and give you very specific data to base your decisions on. Let me say that the Pro version is ideal because it gives you a lot more data. That’s what I used for this example. However, you can do a limited search with the free version, which can still be useful. Other toolsSo far I’ve provided you with three different resources for social listening. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are several other tools you can experiment with, many of which are free. Check out this list of the top 15 free social media monitoring tools from Brandwatch for info on other tools. Taking what you’ve learned and running with itAt this point, you should have a pretty good idea of which topics are popular at the moment and what your audience is responding to. That means you’re not basing your content on a hunch. You’re basing it on tangible data. Your job now is to create the best content possible around that topic. Now, I’m not saying you should blatantly rip someone off. What you want to do is put your own spin on things. Look for a way to expand on it. And, of course, it needs to be awesome. It needs to be epic. Just think skyscraper technique. Hitting the mark in terms of quality and value is absolutely essential if you expect for your content to go viral. I’ve already covered this extensively in the past, so there’s no need to talk about it here. But let me point you to a couple of articles I’ve written that should be helpful. There’s this one from NeilPatel.com. It’s a guide for writing epic content that will go viral. And there’s this one from Quick Sprout, which is about the anatomy of virality. ConclusionSocial listening is useful for many different aspects of marketing. Using it to gauge your audience’s collective reaction to various topics will give you a good idea of what type of subject matter is most likely to go viral. This gives you valuable knowledge to guide your content creation. In turn, you can “scratch your audience’s itch” and give them what they’re looking for. And just think of the competitive advantage this gives you over other brands that simply slap up content at random without giving it any real thought. While there are never any guarantees that something will go viral, following this formula increases the chances significantly. What do you think is the main contributing factor for content going viral? Social Media via Quick Sprout http://ift.tt/UU7LJr July 26, 2017 at 10:01AM Creative Content Marketing Advice to Boost Your Brand http://ift.tt/2tJZYEf Content marketing provides tremendous value to advertisers, allowing brands to get their message across on social platforms at little cost. To bring your content marketing strategy to its fullest potential, it’s essential to utilize creative content writing. Fortunately, creative content writing doesn’t necessarily mean producing original ideas from scratch. The best copywriters are the ones who draw inspiration from other sources to create their own unique material. If you can write compelling copy, consumers will flock to your posts. If the text is relevant to your brand and ultimately ties back to your business, you can expect a nice payday. This content marketing advice will get you started: What Is Compelling Content?You want the ideas mentioned in your posts to stick in the consumer’s head after he or she finishes reading. Write something your audience will care about. Put a new spin on a topic related to your brand or offer advice that will bring consumers a step closer to converting. Telling a compelling story or conveying valuable information in your posts will encourage readers to press the “share” button. The Anatomy of a Great PostThe best posts hook the reader with a powerful introduction and communicate their ideas with fluidity. Articles should focus on a central point while answering the following questions: What’s interesting about this topic? What are you bringing to the table? What will readers take away from the post? Once you answer these questions, consumers will engage with your topic. Strong body text uses animated verbs and adjectives. You can use a thesaurus to come up with more powerful words. As long as your content remains easy to understand after you beef it up, synonyms are your friends. From a marketer’s perspective, the post should have a strong call to action. You generally shouldn’t product push in your creative marketing content, but you should nudge the consumer to think about your brand. This doesn’t always come in the shape of a lead form. Asking a question at the end of the post can start a conversation among readers. As long as that conversation is relevant to your brand, the article can help bring in new leads. The most important element of your post happens to be the last piece you should write—the headline. Figure out what you want to say, write about it, and then come up with a snappy headline to pull it all together. When you construct your title, make your key point clear. Great Content Marketing Examples• 1-800-GOT-JUNK has a terrific blog page. Note how their headlines are relevant to the target audience. The premise is simple—provide tips to help people clean their homes and maximize living space. Somewhere down the line, they may need to hire 1-800-GOT-JUNK to clear the clutter. The article also uses conversational, down-to-earth language. Best of all, they don’t push their services. These posts get people to naturally think about those services without feeling like they’re being sold to. Many articles end with a question or a link to another post as well, which keeps the ball rolling and gets those conversations started. • Moz is known for its informative, long-form blog posts. Articles provide SEO advice that’s easy to understand. Posts offer one or more SEO insights, so the blog is constantly churning out relevant content. Moz’s thoughtful advice increases the brand’s credibility, thus encouraging the consumer to trust Moz as potential service provider. • Allstate could have easily made their blog revolve around customers they’ve covered. Instead, they choose to offer safety tips and vehicle-related advice. This site is useful for both customers and consumer targets, as it provides top-notch DIY information. They’re pretty big on list articles too, which make for easily-digestible reads. Finding Inspiration for Creative ContentStart by learning what your target audience cares about. Try to identify common problems they may come across, and use your creative content to write about solutions to those issues. It’s also great to know what kind of language resonates with consumers. Check out the voice in other content marketing materials that consumers in your niche are interested in. Caring is sharing. When you pump out creative content that assists them in some way, you’ll be thanked with both shares and business. The post Creative Content Marketing Advice to Boost Your Brand appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR July 26, 2017 at 09:31AM
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How to Track Dark Social Traffic in Google Analytics http://ift.tt/2v7gmPm Are links to your content shared via private messages on social media? Wondering how to identify and measure that traffic? Dark social traffic comes from sources such as Facebook Messenger, Twitter DMs, and even email. Being able to accurately trace this traffic will give you a more complete picture of how your content is performing. In this article, you’ll discover what dark social is and how to track it using Google Analytics. What Is Dark Social?First, let’s define what we know as “standard” social media today. When you publish a website link in a post from your Facebook page, the goal is for as many of your customers as possible to see it. The post appears in users’ news feeds, where they can like, comment on, and share it on Facebook or elsewhere. It’s a public post intended to reach a wide swath of users. That’s the public social media you use every day to gain an audience and drive traffic to your website. Now, let’s look at another type of sharing. Suppose a user visits a website and finds a great blog post or product link that they think their close friends will love. Instead of clicking a share icon, the user copies the URL of the website link. Then they open Facebook Messenger, paste the link into a message, and send it to their friends. They may even add a comment about why they’re sharing it, but the link is now available to their friends to click and explore. This type of sharing is “dark social.” Alexis C. Madrigal first coined the term “dark social” in an article in The Atlantic. It’s important to your marketing strategy because, as reported by Business Insider, messaging apps are outpacing social networking apps in active users. With more users investing their time in messaging apps and with more of these apps developing features to improve the experience, the time is now to get on board with using dark social. There are two aspects of dark social that separate it from standard social (or public) media. Links Shared via Dark Social Are Difficult to Track Think about your business website. You likely have at least one form or checkout page that captures new leads or paying customers. Because those conversions translate into revenue for your company, you want to learn how those customers are arriving at your website. Your website analytics tools provide this information by tracking referrer data. These little pieces of metadata cling to a website link when it gets shared and ultimately bring a visitor to your web page. It’s the equivalent of learning how an attendee heard about and traveled to your event. Dark social is like a visitor appearing out of thin air. If a user shares a link to your website by copying and pasting it into a private message, the metadata that would have traveled with the link is absent. That user’s friends could visit your web page and it would look to you as if they just typed the URL into their browser bar and landed there. Links Shared via Private Messages Are Direct and Relational Now let’s look at another aspect of dark social. Think about your customers’ social media interactions. When they like a tweet, comment on a Facebook post, or share a YouTube video, those activities are visible to their network. Their like of a post may prompt their friends or family to like it, too. Their negative review on Facebook may prompt colleagues to avoid your business altogether. Engagement on social media is very public and can be affected by that visibility (translation: peer pressure). Now contrast public social with dark social. When your customers engage with one another or even your business through a direct message, the interaction is private and far more effective, intimate, and targeted. Once you’re in private conversations with users, you’re empowered to learn about them and identify needs that you can solve. There’s no place in dark social for self-aggrandizing or widespread promotion; instead, the value lies in authentic one-to-one or one-to-a-few interactions. If you’re grasping this aspect of dark social, perhaps you’re already imagining how it can really work for your business. Let’s dive into that a bit. How Dark Social Ties in With Social Media MarketingUsing private messaging to connect with customers hearkens back to more traditional methods of sales and customer service. When one of your team members engages one-to-one with a customer, that same relationship can be translated to a one-to-one dark social experience. For instance, the All Seasons Pools & Spas Facebook page creates targeted ads to bring leads directly into Messenger for a chat, as shown in the example above. This is an excellent way to bring a lead into a conversation with your business, but it’s also crucial how your team member responds and engages with the lead. Chad Illa-Petersen, owner of Social ChAdvisor, is bringing more of his clients into this type of advertising and emphasizes the need for treating this avenue of sales/service just like every other legitimate method of communicating with customers. Another business using dark social to mobilize customers is Adidas. They use private messaging to address customer issues, questions, and concerns. Adidas also includes Facebook Messenger (and WhatsApp) customer service options on their website. The more recognized method of dark social is guiding a customer complaint or case into a private interaction. Let’s be honest: Sometimes customers use social media to complain if they feel it will get them a faster result. For instance, I tweeted to my mobile carrier about not being able to hear incoming calls at home. What started as a public Twitter thread turned into a private message interaction. Here’s the kicker about this interaction: While my complaint and the company’s response were public, the solution was private. That may seem counterintuitive for a brand that wants every win to be promoted to the world. However, by privately focusing on my account, T-Mobile took care of me faster than by sending me an FAQ link in a public tweet. How to Measure Website Traffic from Dark SocialNow that we’ve looked at a few ways your brand can try out dark social with customer engagement, let’s look at the other aspect: elusive tracking. Configure Google Analytics to Show Likely Dark Traffic As powerful as Google Analytics and other tracking tools are, you won’t be able to go into your analytics and find a report named “dark social traffic,” at least not yet. Until tracking website sharing through messaging apps is more conclusive, there are workarounds to narrow down the data you seek. Here’s a rundown of how to configure Google Analytics to get an idea of your dark social traffic. First, go to Audience > Overview in your Google Analytics website data view. Click on the Add Segment option on the right. From the list of segment options, select Direct Traffic. Deselect any other segment options so that Direct Traffic is the only segment. Then scroll down and click Apply. Now that you’ve narrowed down the traffic, you can narrow it even further to the most likely suspects of your website’s dark social destinations. To do that, go to Behavior > Site Content > All Pages. The result will be a list of all of your web pages that have been accessed via direct traffic. Now you need to filter out those that are memorable enough to be manually typed into a search bar. Click the Advanced link on the right to create a new filter. The first filter to appear will default to include a page. You want to change Include to Exclude in the drop-down list. Select Page as the dimension. Then in the field at the end of the row, type in the directory of one of your simpler web pages (for example, “/blog/”, “/contact/”, or “/about/”). Tip: If you type in a forward slash (/), you’ll see a drop-down of suggested directories of your website you can enter. Add as many of your simpler website URLs as you can to this filter. Once you apply the filter, your results will consist of your website’s harder-to-remember URLs, which carry no referrer data with them. These URLs are the likely results of dark social traffic to your website. Additional Ways to Identify Dark Social Traffic Now that you have a clearer sense of which of your web pages are getting shared through messages and texts, you can try a few tactics to narrow it down even more. Plug in some opt-in traffic monitoring on the pages you see getting shared the most through dark social. For instance, if your blog article “/15-ways-mobile-shopping-dominates-big-city-living/” is one of your likely dark social pages, add a button on the page offering a free white paper if visitors tell you how they discovered your site. Additionally, give website visitors better sharing buttons for your content. Include messaging apps like WhatsApp and Slack in your options. If a visitor uses a button instead of the copy/paste method in their private message, the referring data you need to track your visitor’s path will be included and you won’t be left in the dark. Conclusion One part of the Internet has been with us as far back as AOL chatrooms, yet it’s hardly talked about. Dark social is happening with greater frequency (to you and about you) and your business success relies on knowing how it works. What do you think? Do you know how much traffic you’re getting from dark social? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC July 26, 2017 at 05:05AM
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Twitter claims its anti-abuse measures are helping, though many still disagree http://ift.tt/2ucljTR Twitter today offered an update on how its improvements to user safety and its newer anti-abuse measures are having an impact. The company declined to share any hard numbers related to abuse on its network, including how many abuse reports have been filed, or the number of actions it’s taken, for example, noting instead across the board percentage increases on things like account suspensions, implementations to limit abusers’ account functionality, and the further results of those actions. The report comes only days after a damning article from BuzzFeed painted a picture of a social network still afflicted by a systemic abuse problem, in which it described Twitter’s anti-harassment controls as a “largely cosmetic solution” and its algorithmic moderation systems as not as effective “as the company would like to think.” The truth is that BuzzFeed and Twitter are both right. Twitter has implemented a number of anti-abuse controls that didn’t exist in the past, which are having some impact on Twitter’s abuse and remediation metrics. But BuzzFeed is right in calling out the network for not having done enough to actually curb the problem. BuzzFeed’s analysis of the situation – which also highlights several personal stories from abuse victims – speaks to a network where Twitter is still slow to respond to abuse reports, then often returns with improper dismissals of users’ harassment claims. In short, Twitter is still a network that enables trolls to thrive, and have a voice. In a simpler world, Twitter would just ban abusers once and for all, instead of toying with measures like “limited account functionality,” which is the internet equivalent of a slap on the hand. But unfortunately for all of us, Twitter needs its user numbers to grow, not stagnate or drop thanks to widescale account bans. According to Twitter’s announcement today, the company claims to be taking action on 10 times the number of abusive accounts every day, compared with the same time last year. It says that its new systems which remove repeat offenders who create new accounts after suspensions have removed twice the number of these types of accounts in the last four months. It also says that those accounts that are put into a limited functionality mode are told why, and this has resulted in 25 percent fewer abuse reports from those accounts. In addition, 65 percent of those accounts are only put into this mode one time. (That latter stat, though designed to paint a picture of a system that works, could also be flipped on its head – perhaps some of those accounts deserved a second action, but didn’t receive one?) Twitter noted, too, its muting tools are being adopted, and blocks after @mentions from people you don’t follow are down 40 percent. The company also seemed to be responding directly to the characterization of its network as described by BuzzFeed when it wrote: “We have consistent harassment definitions and policies that apply to everyone. However, people define abuse differently, so using these new tools, every person has control of what they see and experience on Twitter.” There’s perhaps some truth to the statement that everyone defines abuse differently, and that’s even more of an issue during a time when our larger culture is struggling with where to draw with free speech; there are those who hold opinions that people deserve to be treated with respect, and there are those who will then demean that group as “snowflakes” who can’t handle even the slightest negativity in their lives. There are other questions here that need to be answered – like, to what extent does a social network like Twitter amplify those differences, then back people into corners related to their respective positions? Is it perhaps possible that Twitter’s very existence and the way it was designed encourages people to break the age-old internet rule: “don’t feed the trolls?” Could it be that Twitter’s embrace of anonymity – despite the valid reasons to do so (like allowing those under authoritarian regimes to have a voice) – actually does more harm than good in the long run? Twitter surely needs to do more – there should be no hand-slaps for people who tweet out violent threats or disclose personal information on private citizens – like where they live – as a means of threatening them. But to what end can it really create a kinder, gentler breeding ground for online discourse, when we’ve proven as a people that’s something we’re not capable of? Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com July 25, 2017 at 04:15PM
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The Emoji Movie inserts itself into Handmaid's Tale because why, god, why http://ift.tt/2tGHuEC None of us needed further convincing that The Emoji Movie was irrelevant Hollywood #WhatsHotWithTheKids bullshit. But, like the smartphone smiley face movie nobody wanted, the esteemed folks running its social media channels gave us more reasons anyway. Over the weekend, amidst ICYMI photos of the film's premiere, its official Twitter account published a photoshopped emoji x Handmaid's Tale mashup. Despite the fact that the tweet was taken down at around 4:30 p.m. PST Monday (after, y'know, being up for three goddamn days), none of us can unsee this tone deaf post, with copy that read: Blessed Be The Emoji. Some legitimately spent time photoshopping this Image: THE EMOJI MOVIE, Twitter 'Grinning Face' emoji is right, The Emoji Movie! Quick: What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of emojis: Juvenile web culture? Your mom's overuse of the kissy face? The degradation of human language? Your unshakeable sense that Patrick Stewart should get a new agent? How about the very real patriarchal practices of rape, sexual slavery, and the commodification of female bodies as explored in Hulu's screen adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale? Lol, yeah, us too ?
In an almost comical satirization of the central themes in Margaret Atwood's seminal novel about the historical erasure of female stories and trauma, The Emoji Movie literally erased Elizabeth Moss' face (and its attendant complex human emotions) only to replace it with a sexy smiling emoji. As we stated, the post was ultimately taken down. Which, somehow, feels more belittling. Just keep attempting to erase those patriarchal mistakes, The Emoji Movie. It's worked for centuries, so why stop now? ? ? ? Social Media via Social Media http://ift.tt/1N1mMj1 July 25, 2017 at 09:25AM How Doctors Are Using Social Media to Get Ahead http://ift.tt/2uTwzqM An active social media presence is starting to become mandatory across many different industries, especially as more leaders realize its potential for improving services and attracting clients. Even the healthcare industry, which is notoriously slow at adapting to new technologies and communication tools due to fear about violating HIPAA rules, is starting to jump onboard the social media train. Doctors are beginning to use Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to interact with patients outside of the office, collect and disseminate helpful medical information, and generally set up a stronger presence in people’s daily lives. Here are some specific ways that doctors are using social media to get ahead and help patients around the world. MarketingWith 40% of consumers using social media to find reviews of treatments and physicians, these platforms are a great way for doctors to expand awareness of their practices and attract new patients. Social media allows physicians to reach people who aren’t even aware they exist, expanding their reach past word-of-mouth and insurance referrals. For instance, many doctors post patient testimonials and connect with other referring doctors on their Facebook or Twitter pages, supplying social proof to convince potential patients of their practice’s quality. This is especially helpful in regions with few to no large hospitals, making the responsibility of finding a physician fall on the patient. Patients can hop on Facebook to see who can help them – and the fact that Facebook offers page analytics means that doctors can figure out what type of content best attracts these patients. Social media also allows doctors to manage their reputations more effectively, an essential part of marketing their practices. By getting involved online, physicians can essentially control what patients see about them; with all of the physician rating websites out there, doctors have the opportunity to respond to negative reviews and set up an active web presence to drown out those trying to damage their reputations. In a way, this all comes back to branding: instead of sitting back and letting others control their brands, doctors are able to use social media to craft their image and have some control over the conversations reviewers are having about them online. Connecting with PatientsAlong with seeing what patients are saying about their practices online, doctors can use social media to support patients outside of the office. 60% of doctors report that social media improves the quality of care they deliver to patients, for multiple reasons. For one, social media allows doctors to see what their patients are thinking, doing, and even eating; this allows them to better serve their patients’ needs. They treat their relationships with patients as a two-way street, using platforms like Twitter to interact with and learn from the people relying on them for medical care. If a doctor can see that a patient is a member of an online support group for people with a certain illness, posts a lot of photos of unhealthy food, or other health-related information, the physician can better cater to that patient. One thing physicians need to be careful of, however, is preserving patient privacy – which can be difficult to do online. They have to refrain from giving personal medical advice or reveal any patient information online due to HIPAA concerns. It’s impossible to guarantee online anonymity, so personal questions should still be answered during doctor’s office visits. EducationWith about 20% of patients using social media to get healthcare information, it’s important that physicians work to make sure they are receiving accurate, up-to-date material to avoid inaccuracies and potentially harmful effects. Since anyone can post practically anything online, doctors use social media to post credible articles to combat misinformation. There is plenty of health-related information online, but not much of it is doctor-created content. Instead, many popular sources of this information can be less than credible, coming from common people who believe that they’ve discovered the next big remedy for an illness. To fight against this, most physicians post links to news and journal articles, credible online resources, and research studies for patients, other doctors, and the general public to educate themselves with. In this way, doctors are doing their part to use technology to fight against the spread of inaccurate – and potentially deadly – health information. As tricky as HIPAA can be, and as difficult it can be for older doctors to get social media savvy, physicians’ participation on social media websites helps them, their patients, and the general public. How else do you think doctors can use social media to aid themselves and others? The post How Doctors Are Using Social Media to Get Ahead appeared first on Social Media Explorer. Social Media via Social Media Explorer http://ift.tt/xMddWR July 25, 2017 at 09:18AM
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Facebook, Twitter, Google warned over EU consumer rights http://ift.tt/2vF04u3 U.S. social media giants have been warned by Europe’s consumer rights commissioner that she’s running out of patience with their failure to comply with the region’s consumer protection standards. “I am becoming very impatient,” said commissioner Věra Jourová, speaking at a press briefing today in Brussels. “In our opinion there are in the terms and conditions of these American companies several very unfavorable conditions for the EU consumer. And if they want to make big business using the benefit of operating in the European market they have to be compliant with the EU consumer protection standards and rules.” EU regulators have been investigating complaints about unfair terms and conditions pertaining to platforms operated by Facebook, Twitter and Google since last year. In March the Commission and national consumer protection authorities gave the three tech giants a month to fix the problems they had identified — which included issues such as depriving consumers of their right to take a company to court in their own country; and requiring consumers waive mandatory rights, such as their right to withdraw from an online purchase. Late yesterday, Reuters reported that regulatory pressure is now being cranked up on the three, after the proposals they have submitted so far have not been considered sufficient to bring them into compliance. The Commission requested amended proposals be submitted by July 20, and implemented by the end of September. Today, Jourová said the September deadline will be the last chance for the companies to satisfy EU regulators — or face enforcement action from Member States’ consumer protection authorities. This could include fines. “We received two answers out of three — one company asked for more time for the response,” noted Jourová today. “What we want them to do is to make their terms and conditions to be in full compliance with the high European standards of consumer protection. That’s why we asked them for concrete proposals, we set a deadline, and we will wait for the last answer and we will assess and analyze whether this is sufficient for us.” “In case this dialogue does not work we will have to help the national enforcers to launch the co-ordinated action,” she added. We’ve reached out to the three companies in question and will update this story with any response. Giving an example of one of the conditions that EU regulators are taking issue with, Jourová said: “I think we can all agree that it’s not acceptable to ask consumers to go to court in California if they have a problem.” (According to Reuters this is one of the sticking points in the dialogue thus far.) “Also companies have limited their own liability towards consumers in a way unacceptable under the EU law,” she continued. “And in the future they also need to better protect consumers from illegal commercial practices of traders using their platforms.” “We are intensively working on making the consumers safer when purchasing from the platforms,” she added. “We want to make sure that everybody understands that what applies offline it also has to apply for online.” Jourová also said the EC is also looking closely at the shopping experience for consumers on tech platforms — as part of a retesting review it’s undertaking to ensure current consumer protection legislation is up to date with digital developments. “We need to make sure that when you go to buy something from online platform you know exactly who you buy from — who is the other side of the contract. So we will be looking into the possibility of introducing more transparency for online shopping,” she added. Social Media via Twitter – TechCrunch https://techcrunch.com July 25, 2017 at 07:14AM
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How to Create a Snapchat Geofilter on Your Phone http://ift.tt/2tVWJVl Want to design Snapchat geofilters on the go? Have you seen the Snapchat in-app geofilter creation tool? In this article, you’ll discover how to easily create and purchase custom Snapchat geofilters from within the mobile app.
#1: Design Your Snapchat On-Demand GeofilterTo get started creating your geofilter, open the Snapchat app. From the camera screen, tap the ghost symbol in the top-left corner. On the profile screen, tap the gear symbol in the top-right corner. On the settings screen, tap On-Demand Geofilters. If this is your first time creating an on-demand geofilter, Snapchat will walk you through a series of questions and templates as you create your design. If you have existing geofilters and want to create a new one, tap the create icon in the top-right corner. Next, select the occasion that best applies to your needs. You can choose from themes like Wedding, Birthdays, and more. Snapchat will add seasonal themes like 4th of July and Halloween when those dates appear on the calendar. Once you select a theme, you’ll see a set of available templates. To customize your chosen template, you can edit the existing text and add more text, emojis, bitmojis, or stickers. Note: You can’t upload a pre-created design from your mobile device. Here’s an example of how you can get creative: Once your geofilter design is complete, tap the green button with the white check mark. #2: Set the Date, Time, and Location for Your Geofilter to AppearAfter you’ve created your design, you’ll need to add some details about your geofilter. First, add a name. The filter type defaults to Personal. Currently, you must use the desktop version of Snapchat to create business geofilters. On the next screen, schedule your geofilter. Select the start and end dates, and the time when you’d like it to become active. Geofilters can last anywhere from 1 hour to 90 days. Next, you need to draw a geofence to indicate where you want the geofilter to be available. Snapchat automatically starts with a pre-set geofence of 20,000 square feet for a price of $5.99. If you want to choose a different location, type in an address or name in the Type a Location field at the top. Once you’ve found your location, pinch the map to zoom in and out to cover more or less of this location. Snapchat will tell you if you need to make your geofence bigger or smaller to meet its minimum (20,000 square feet) or maximum requirements (5,000,000 square feet). Drag the corners of the blue box to change the shape if needed. When you’re finished, tap the green Continue button. #3: Submit Your Custom Geofilter for ReviewOn the final screen, check your order details and tap Submit to send your geofilter to Snapchat for review. You’ll then see a pop-up message about payment. Tap Okay to agree to the Terms and Conditions and submit your geofilter for review. The geofilter created for this article was approved and ready for payment pretty quickly. Once your geofilter’s status changes from Under Review to Approved, tap on your geofilter to confirm payment. Note: Your geofilter will not run unless you confirm your payment in the app! Depending on which type of mobile device you’re using, you’ll need your App Store (iOS) or Google Play (Android) payment information to be up to date to complete your purchase. The purchase process is similar to that of a song or an app. Tap to confirm your purchase. When you see the pop-up message below, tap Okay, and your geofilter will be set up to go live. You don’t have to worry about checking the app waiting for your geofilter to be approved. Snapchat will send you a confirmation email when payment is required, informing you to complete payment in the app. If you’re late completing payment, Snapchat may allow you to confirm payment after your scheduled start time and will do their best to get your geofilter running once you confirm payment. Because Snapchat reserves your geofilter’s location, it will cost the same even if you confirm purchase after the start time. #4: View Your Completed Geofilter MetricsOnce you have a completed geofilter, Snapchat lets you view the metrics from within the app. To access these metrics, open Snapchat and from your camera screen, swipe up and tap the gear icon to go to your settings. Select On-Demand Geofilters and tap on one of your completed geofilters. Now you can view the results of your completed geofilter in a mobile-friendly view. You can see your geofilter’s swipes, uses, and views. You can find additional information about on-demand geofilters in the Snapchat FAQ section. Conclusion Snapchat’s in-app on-demand geofilters feature is a great option if you need a quick, easy geofilter. However, the downside is that creating a geofilter within the app is considered “personal,” so promoting a business, brand, or logo may not be permitted. It’s best to create geofilters for business with the desktop version of Snapchat. I hope you found this tutorial helpful, and if you’re on Snapchat, be sure to give it a try! What do you think? Have you tried creating an in-app on-demand geofilter yet? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Social Media via http://ift.tt/eZnnjC July 25, 2017 at 05:08AM |
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