The world is going digital, and most importantly India is going digital. All thanks to our Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We all love being in the digital world which is the virtual world. With the advent of personal computers, internet and smartphones, the world has swiftly adapted to the digital mediums for staying connected with their friends and families. People spend half of their time on digital platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Google, Youtube, etc. This has created a great opportunity for marketers and companies to interact with the users which eventually end up being their customers. Companies have realized this digital transformation and started approaching digital marketing agencies for the same. We see digital advancements every other month or year as it is a small but a fast-changing world. In this article, we will discuss the latest digital marketing trends of 2017.
1) Live Video Broadcasting:
Brands have smartly integrated live videos as part of their digital marketing strategy. The idea behind leveraging live videos is to engage with fans or customers in real time, create brand awareness, boost the engagement rate on social media platforms, increase conversions and build a happy community. Live video broadcasting should be entertaining, arouse interest in the eyes of the viewers and compel them to take the desired action. You can give your audience a behind-the-scene glimpse of your business, create a how-to or d-i-y tutorial of your product showcasing its benefits to the customer, host interviews, have q&a sessions or showcase events in real time. Live Video Broadcasting was initially introduced by Periscope and Meerkat, later on adopted by Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram, and will be one of the digital marketing trends to look out for in the year 2017.
2) Augmented Reality:
With the humongous success of augmented reality games like Pokemon Go, people have witnessed a never-seen-before phenomena. Did you ever imagine Bulbasaur or Pidgeotto hiding behind your cupboard at your home or at the garden which you were afraid to go at night because you thought there was a ghost but was actually a ghost Pokemon? Ingress’s monetization strategy connected the digital world with the outside world with the help of sponsored portals like Zipcar and Jamba Juice, where players used passcodes to gain special items in the game. Such sponsorships increased the business sales and gave gamers a reason to become paid customers. We can expect businesses to leverage the world of augmented reality and incorporate it as part of their digital marketing strategy.
3) Snapchat and Instagram Stories:
The young audience has migrated from Facebook to Instagram and now to Snapchat. Snapchat has 150 million+ user base, while Instagram has 500 million+ user base. Snapchat’s interesting filters and stories have retained the young audience. Instagram later adapted the stories feature of Snapchat. Brands, celebrities, bloggers and small businesses are leveraging Snapchat and Instagram stories to create brand awareness, increase website traffic, run flash sales and contests. Brands like Starbucks, Gatorade, Cadbury and Taco Bell have taken digital marketing to a new level by coming up with branded filters on Snapchat. Well, who wouldn’t want to experience a brand they love the most?
4) Marketing Automation:
A smart marketer should automate the tasks which are performed more than 3 times a day. Enter, marketing automation. Marketing automation not only saves time but also increases the productivity, customer engagement and boosts sales. Effective email marketing is about sending the right email to the right person at the right time. Email marketing tools like Infusion Soft, Mail Chimp and Drip can help you with email marketing automation. Social media posting can also be automated with tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, and Gramblr.
5) Virtual Reality:
We are discussing digital marketing trends and how can we forget about virtual reality technology. This technology took the digital world by storm and marketers are leveraging it to provide their customers a virtual reality experience of their products and services. Luxurious car companies like Mercedes, BMW, and Audi have started making use of this technology to provide a 360° virtual reality experience of their high-end cars, which has not only saved the cost of having an actual showroom but has also helped to increase the company sales. A Chinese smartphone manufacturer leveraged Loop VR during the grand launch of its flagship mobile phone to educate its customers about the features and specifications of the One Plus 3.
6) Personalized Video Ads:
Personalization has always been the key to success in the world of marketing. What started as putting your customer’s first name into an email message has since erupted in many ways to personalize the experience for different individuals and companies. Imagine a video advertisement saying your first name or your company name and inviting you to try out their new service or product. Now, imagine a video advertisement showcasing images of your website and how it can be improved with new technology. This level of personalized video advertising will soon become a digital marketing trend. The benefit of personalized video advertising is that it will not only increase engagement from consumers but will also yield a better return on investment.
If you are really looking to serve quality content to increase your engagement, analytical tools are important. Instagram has truly grown into a powerful social media force, one not to be overlooked. With its new Instagram algorithm one can now see the rearrangement of order of posts that helps you show the best posts first.
It’s very important to make sure that you’re ranked highly within a social media platform’s algorithm. Your business is inevitably affected by the algorithm that prioritizes content in a user’s feed.
The reason why you need analytics tools is to see which portion of your Instagram audience is interacting with what content. Also it helps you find which content is performing best and which audience segment you need to concentrate on the most.
Instagram analytics tools serve more information to marketers on user insights, follower demographics and post analysis. With these tools you can create stronger and relevant content that your audience will be more receptive to.
Here are 3 Instagram analytical tools that offer insights for free. Improve your Instagram marketing by utilizing these tools.
1. Simply Measured
As being “end-to-end analysis of all your social media networks”, Simply Measured offers a free Instagram report. The report provides an analysis of past two months including a wide range of engagement metrics, including engaging tags, most popular location, top filters, best day and time to post and highest engagement on sites outside Instagram.
It’s available to users with fewer than 25000 followers, and the data is available to read charts, or raw numbers. Simply Measured can simply be a great tool for marketers.
2. SquareLovin
SquareLovin provides a lot of similar features including information on your followers and how to enhance your performance with filters and hashtags. It also makes monthly analysis, displays metrics on recent posts and shows a history of your posts broken down into year, month, day and hour. You can see analytics information for your account overall, as well as for specific posts.
3. Locowise
Boasting “razor-accurate analytics”, Locowise is an analytical tool that works on results rather than assumptions. It compares your profile to 2,500 other Instagram profiles and offers benchmarks against a variety of metrics. The Instagram Analyser lets you discover how you’re doing in terms of follower growth and engagement. You can get accurate comparison when you choose to compare your account to other accounts of various follower sizes. Locowise has a visually pleasing interface that provides basic metrics you need to know.
If you are planning to achieve long-term success on Instagram, these analytical tools should be considered. These not only help you reflect on your past content but also for future campaigns. Average internet user has 5.54 social media accounts. It’s time for the brands to be active on multiple platforms and use two or more social media channels. Therefore you will need a tool for every social site you use. What are your thoughts about these Instagram analytical tools? Have you started using it?
Social media is a platform where major part of your potential audience is present. It helps events and their planners to have long-term interactions with attendees. So you should definitely make sure that you’re present on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and LinkedIn in order to reach your target audience.
Now create buzz-worthy events through social media marketing using the following tips:
Create and use a hashtag
Enhance social media buzz and increase participation through a specialized hashtag for your event. For twitter, create a hashtag that is relevant, short, unique and sweet. An example of a hashtag fail can be that of Susan Boyle’s album release party that used the hashtag #susanalbumparty. Whoops!
You don’t’ want your event hashtag to sound funny like this one does! Also just creating a hashtag won’t help to promote your event. Promote your hashtag everywhere including your event website, emails, social networks and the event’s mobile app. Through hashtags you’ll be able to watch what is trending around your event and also get feedback for the same.
Promote early
You have more chances of being successful if you promote the event and dedicated hashtag early. Time is of the essence, so you have to get started as early as possible to create momentum and reach a larger audience. Ensure a wider reach by promoting a few months in advance.
Get yourself involved in social buzz
Create an enthusiastic atmosphere before the event that will encourage others to promote it. Reach out to your attendees by initiating conversations on the channel. You could also share some relevant content and thereby initiate social buzz. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are ideal for initiating conversations. True success on social media is when you’ve engaged people into your story.
Know your biggest promoters
Develop mutually beneficial relationships with industry and thought leaders by sharing their updates and engaging them in conversations online. Since already being established in the industry, they surely have a say, as they have loyal fans and are admired in their industry. Spread the word by encouraging attendees to leverage their social network.
Encourage your speaker to promote the event
If some of your event speakers have a significant social media presence, ask them to promote your event on their social media platforms before, during and after the event. This can help you drive visits to your website and generate buzz. Encourage your speakers to promote the event further by taking pictures with event attendees and engage with them on social media.
Create contests
Engaging audience before the event is necessary. Create challenges and try to do something different if you want to promote your event. Interact with your guests through contests. Creating contests is indirectly the best way to make your event successful. It can also be a great way of giving a behind-the-scenes of the event content along with blog posts and giveaways. You could also offer discounts or broadcast curated streams using your twitter hashtag.
Create a LinkedIn group and Facebook event page As you know most people log into Facebook at least once a day. Make it easy for them to keep up with event news by creating an event page listing. The benefit that you can get by creating an event is that it encourages sharing by attendees. On similar basis, you can create a LinkedIn group and grow attendees on these networks by eventually enjoying higher shareability for your event.
Follow back Don’t forget to reward your audience who are regularly promoting and mentioning your events on social media. Encourage two-way communication. Initiate conversation with your audience while asking them what they liked best, least, and what they hope to see for next time. This may also increase the possibility to return the following year and also share their positive experiences in their own networks.
By using these tips you can easily promote your event without spending a dime. Remember, social media can be a powerful tool and social media promotion for events doesn’t really have to cost you. So, which of these 8 tips have really worked for you? If you have any other tips to add to the list, do let us know in the comment section below.
Believe it or not, hashtags have pretty much taken over social media. Once forgotten character has finally made big time. This little symbol has dominated the social media world in recent years and has grown tremendously popular.
#WhatAreHashtags?
A hashtag is a keyword or phrase preceded by the hash symbol (#), that people include in their social media posts. So it basically makes the content of your post accessible to all people with similar interests.
For example, if you are a fan of Samsung Galaxy S7 and planning to buy it. A simple “#SamsungGalaxyS7” search on any social network will open a dedicated news feed of all the latest deals, rumours or hacks about it. The results you see on the feed are the aggregated posts of any users who use Samsung Galaxy S7. So hashtags are clickable links on posts you see and a mouse click will display a real-time live feed of every other post tagged with the same hashtag.
#SoWhoUsesHashtags?
1. Twitter
Twitter is the very first social media platform where hashtags are still very prevalent. Twitter helps you deliver target brand messages by helping you organize your tweets. You can join in trending conversations that can be viewed on your twitter page sidebars or at Hashtags.org. In this way you’ll be able to track hashtags to see which ones are most relevant with your audience.
2. Instagram
The power of hashtags on Instagram can help you increase your reach eventually leading to an increment in the network of influential brand followers.
If you want to make your photos more discoverable, employ hashtags on this app. It’s better if you use at least one hashtag per photo to maximize share.
3. Facebook
Hashtag craze all began on Facebook on June 2013 but it hasn’t really worked great for them. Facebook provides a unique URL for every hashtag and by clicking on one will redirect you to its feed. Facebook hashtags in their current form are flawed. It’s basically far from perfect.
4. Pinterest
Hashtags are supported on this platform and kind of work the same way as mentioned in the other social networks. On Pinterest, hashtags in account descriptions, board titles, board descriptions or profile names aren’t clickable. The only place where you can click and search hashtags are in a Pin’s description.
5. Google+
In case of Google+, when users click on a hashtag, the search results page includes the original hashtag as well as the posts with similar tags and keywords. Hashtags on Google+ makes it easier for people to discover your content, even if they are outside your circle.
#HowDoHashtagsHelp?
Using hashtags make your posts more visible to basically anyone who shares your interest. So your will no longer be limited to your followers; your content is now accessible to all other users interested in similar topics. Hashtags help you increase brand awareness and facilitate greater engagement.
Through hashtags you can also get to know what you’re targeted customers are interested in. They help building relationships by helping your brand get connected and be able to interact with targeted audiences. Brand loyalty in turn increases with your audiences getting insights about your brand or businesses through hashtags.
All you have to keep in mind is carefully choose the right hashtag that broadens the reach of your social media posts to thousands of followers, fans and customers.
Don’t overuse hashtags. Make sure that you use maximum of two hashtags per post. Including too many hashtags will leave the impression that you are spamming your followers.
#Conclusion
Hashtags can really work wonders if used in the right way. Try experimenting with hashtags as these are really powerful tools that connect with potentially thousands or even millions of target audiences world-wide. Hopefully you’ve learned the value of hashtags here. Which hashtags do you usually use on social media?
Content marketing has evolved into a major component of marketing strategies for companies of all sizes today. If done the right way, it can deliver amazing results. But you have to make sure that the strategy is mapped out in the right manner.
However, in order to create successful results, keep in mind that you execute a very different style of writing than what you have learned in your English class or in your business school. How do you make it work for your business?
First thing; you need to focus on is the way you write. It’s better if you keep your writing informal but also add a touch of professionalism to it.
Avoiding text speak and racial or gender based language can help your content have an impact on the audience in a positive way. Content marketing is best presented in an environment with a story. If the story grabs the attention and interest of your audience, it can take your business to new heights.
Providing relevant content to your business is the next tip to boost your content marketing business. No matter how fascinating the latest pop culture moment might be, but if it doesn’t relate to your business, you should not share it on your social media page.
Your content should educate your audience, inform them and also create engagement on your page. Moreover, it should also entertain them in some way or the other. You could also add humour to your content depending on the topic you choose. Since your brand or your product is a mediator between you and your audience, the information you share should connect back to your story. This certainly will provide you a great opportunity to build quality links and SEO friendly content.
Make use of outlines to keep your content focused. Your story should have a beginning, middle and end. Also time your stories for maximum relevance and use editorial calendars to avoid repetitive content.
Reading blogs and essays can of course help content writers to create one classic piece of writing. Look for different types of content that the site posts and consider what gets the most responses and comments.
Scrutinise the presentation of the content and also the kind of language used. How do you invite people to join the conversation? Ending your post with an engaging question can be one way of boosting engagement.
You can also create a poll on your blog and ask people their reasoning. Make your story personal and compelling for the audience by inviting them to post pictures or videos of themselves.
The struggle for attention with content marketing is real, but as we can see for ourselves, it is not a paradox at all. Interactive and visual communication is changing the way content is shared and consumed. All you have to do is pay a little more attention to consumer behaviour and apply these tips to improve your content marketing business. What other tips do you think will encourage your content marketing business?
Social media marketing is anything but fast and quick. There was a time where people considered social media as a passing fad. But now over 3 billion internet users and over 2 billion of them have active social media accounts. Facebook, twitter, Instagram, Snapchat are all the social media platforms where one can directly engage with their audiences.
But, how can social media benefit your business? If you’re wondering about this, we’ve outlined some important points for you to keep in mind.
1. Define your goals and your audience
It’s actually very vital to figure out your goals to have a solid understanding that whether or not your social media efforts have paid off. However in order to know your goals, it’s necessary to develop strategies to attain them. Also, social media is the best way to reach your target audience.
But how do you know who they are? When you identify your target audience it’s good that you consider factors such as age, location, income, career, education and interests. The more specific you be, it’ll enable you to create a strong social media strategy and you can reach your audience at the appropriate time.
2. Know your research
Now that you know your audience, you need to know which platforms they are actually on. There are varied active users on different platforms, so it’s not worth to invest on one social network if your audience is on some other platform. As a small business, your time and energy is most valuable.
3. Make a scrutiny on strengths and weaknesses
You need to go beyond just your research and understand the strengths and the weaknesses of each platform. Also how often you plan to publish your content should be considered as an essential point. For example, if you want your content to stay for a longer time, then Facebook is the right fit. But if you have to update multiple times a day then Twitter is the exact platform for posting multiple times.
4. Cater to your customers through social media
Thanks to social media, you don’t have to worry about relationship building with your customers. As a small business, being responsive and engaging has never been more critical. The best way to approach your customers is through Facebook and Twitter where they have private messaging capabilities. However, Instagram is great as a platform for engagement, it might not be the best to direct customers with questions about your product or service.
5. Develop user-generated content
Coming up with unique and quality content could be expensive. So user-generated content created by your customers can increase your social media presence and also helps you be active on social media all the time. However, you should ask yourself what type of UGC you could collect.
6. Know your numbers
If you want to know how close you are to achieving your goal, you should probably track your social media metrics. If you have a Facebook page, you need to measure the likes, post reach, impressions, unlikes and engagement. For Twitter, you have to concentrate on your retweets, impressions, @mentions, followers, and tweets linking to you. So monitor and analyse these numbers since they can ultimately decide whether you gain a customer or lose one.
Social media is evolving and new platforms and features are popping up. You need to evaluate and keep on experimenting until you get results that lead to your business success. As you grow, so will your business presence on these social media platforms.
Remember it’s the small changes that have a great impact on your business. You just need to put some extra efforts with the right data, strategy and tools. So when are you using these tips to market your small business?
Marketers have definitely shown off their creativity this year. With the most exceptional and impressive campaigns, you’re in to learn a lot.
Get yourself inspired through the 7 most amazing marketing campaigns of 2016.
1. Always #LikeAGirl
Like a girl has always been around forever and is used in derogatory ways.D&AD foundation (Agency) did a great job by altering ‘Always’, a brand girls count on for superior protection. #LikeAgirl campaign generated considerable global awareness. 85 million global views on YouTube from 150 and more countries….you gotta be kidding!
2. Under Armour, I Will What I Want
Empowering female athletes, whether they are playing soccer or any other sport Under Armour launched the largest campaign with a feel-good ad featuring a ballerina that went viral and racked up 4 million views in just one week. Aimed to shatter body image stereotypes, Under Armour is surely bolstering women’s self-image.
3. OPSM-Penny The Pirate
OPSM, the largest retailer of eye glasses launched ‘Penny The Pirate’ children’s eye screening book. With a great motive, it raised awareness of children across Australia. Producing an engaging printed book and app to highlight vision problems in children, ‘Penny the Pirate’ innovatively combined traditional and digital media. The campaign collected more than 100 awards to date and has taken the title to be the most effective campaign in the world.
4. U.S. Navy-Project Architeuthis
Project Architeuthis is the first ever reality game that was activated on the American Navy’s Cryptology and technology Facebook page. The campaign was created to attract the type of minds Navy Cryptology looking to recruit, while also increasing social traffic.
5. BuzzFeed- Tasty
BuzzFeed has accumulated over 60 million Facebook fans with its quick, easy-to-make mouth-watering recipe videos making their rounds on Facebook this year. BuzzFeed’s foodie-oriented campaign resulted into the launch of TastyJunior and Nifty. Their scroll-stopping videos have made a massive visibility for them.
6. L’Oreal Paris – #WorthSaying
The campaign #WorthSaying aimed to get women to talk about things they believe are important, whatever they might be. Rooted in the brand’s iconic tagline ‘Because You’re Worth It’, it revolved around the belief that all women have something worthy to say. The campaign is still being talked about and the hashtag is still in use across media channels. Seems like L’Oreal is on the worthy run!
7. Honey Maid – This is Wholesome
Honey Maid this year came out with a campaign that focused on divorced, interracial and same-sex family issues. Inclined towards celebrating all American families it focuses on showing America who they really are. With #NotBroken campaign, they received an over-whelming positive response with over 12 million views of all the content since March. Good going Honey Maid!
Having a video while marketing a campaign has become extremely important. No wonder that the use of video in marketing campaigns is on the rise. It’s so amazing to see all the cool and innovative ideas marketers have shown in their campaigns. Out of all the amazing marketing campaigns which is your favourite pick?
Are you sick of hearing about everyone talking about Pokemon GO on social media? The success of the game came overnight with an outstanding number of users who immediately began downloading the free app despite it being unavailable in most countries.
Millions of people worldwide have downloaded this game since it has released. The app that allows you to follow a map using your phone’s GPS location data and catch Pokemon to train and send in to a battle can surely do wonders to your social media business.
Whether you agree or not, play it or not, like it or not, you cannot ignore it. That’s why it’s time for your business to capitalize on it.
First and foremost, Pokemon GO is most vital and impactful for those businesses that have a physical location.
There are many ways by which you can encourage Pokemon chasers and increase your business.
1. You need to find out if there is a Pokestop or gym for immediate and easy results. Just incase if you are not near a Pokestop you can actually submit a request to become one.
2. Chip in more money to buy lures to attract Pokemon to your location. The more Pokemon, the more people.
3. If you want Pokemon Go players to play at your business, there are two important things you need to keep in mind: Wi-Fi and charging stations. You can use any kind of social channel or signage to let the players know that they are always welcome to come and play.
4. Another important thing you can actually do is to offer discounts or any other incentives to players who purchase in your business.
After you know that you have Pokemon in your area, you can now use social media to your advantage.
You can use Snapchat as a way to boost up your business while simultaneously using Snapchat filter with your business name and a Pokemon theme and encourage people to use the filter when they catch a Pokemon in your location.
Buying Facebook and Instagram ads to promote business as a hotspot for Pokemon can work wonders. Tell people how many Pokemon you have actually caught through real-time updates by using Twitter or Snapchat.
You can get more people to your area if you are offering discounts or incentives by advertising them on social media. Make use of location specific hashtags for your local area or business.
Restaurants can also have Pokemon themed cocktail or appetizer. But you need to make sure that you are using #PokemonGo or #Pokemon on your posts.
Since Pokemon Go is all about walking by various places and being out in the “real” world, you need to find ways to get into these places. Collaboration with local business to include your logo or signage will help people see your business info.
You could reward your customers who take Pokemon photos with your items in your photo through branded products or items.
Incase your employees are playing Pokemon, you can show their play on social media channels by showing what level are they at, what rare Pokemon have they found.
As you see Pokemon has a lot of potential for local as well as non-local businesses. It’s all about strategizing and using it in the right way to boost your local business. When are you using Pokemon GO to increase your social media business? What do you think about this new craze?
Instagram came out with something familiar that resembled Snapchat story features, on August 2. As soon as the update was made, Instagram users took over by posting stories allowing them to take, edit and share photos and videos for 24-hour time period before they are erased from the grid.
Instagram literally slayed Snapchat with its all new story-telling feature. So does Snapchat needs to buck up?
We all know this new Instagram feature smells, feels and looks like Snapchat. But which one would you prefer?
Snapchat has an estimated 150 million daily users which is even more than twitter. This app has set the blueprint for the entire industry. From its puppy- face, bug filters to adding time, temperature and adjusting the speed to your snaps, it has it all!
But wait, do you know that 32% of U.S. teens list Instagram as their most important social network, more than any other social network.
So how does Instagram stories compare to snapchat stories?
Instagram lets you see how many people and exactly which people watch each piece of your story. You could also decorate and make your basic content look pretty on its own and generate more engagement. Even if you’re not active on Instagram and don’t post much this feature helps you create a fresh experience on the network.
Very much imitating the 24 hour photos and videos disappearance feature, you can create campaigns and social contests on a minor scale offering content consumption to your followers on a larger scale.
If you’re really worried about your follower count, an increment can be assured. If an Instagram user follows your brand, your account will show up with a colorful ring around it whenever you release new Instagram story content. This means it’s time to increase your follower count and to be on top-of-feed on as many user feeds as possible.
One thing you need to keep in mind is not flood your feed with low-quality content or you’ll see a decline in the amount of followers that are following you. With Instagram stories your account gets uniquely placed among an Instagram user’s closest friends and family members.
With flexible privacy settings on Instagram, you can exclude specific people from seeing your stories even if they follow you. Moreover there is nothing like you can like or comment on Instagram stories, but it’s all about tapping and sending a private message to your account on Instagram direct.
To add more to this amazing feature, you can choose to feature a part of your Instagram story on your main profile if goes over well.
But when you talk about spontaneity, Snapchat definitely wins over through its flattering selfie with dog face slapped on top of it. You could say Instagram is more about food photography and making your pictures look artistic.
Anyways Instagram’s latest move is a major coup. But that still leaves us with one question: Does it mean that Instagram has won over Snapchat?
With a way to search your past snaps, Snapchat launched a camera-roll like option to save and search through past snaps. Users can now look back in time with the new feature ‘Memories’.
Where your photos and videos couldn’t be kept forever, at least not the ones that you send to your friends, memories can now help you save it.
Memories acts as a basic way to save and share snaps inside a folder. Also could be called as a camera-roll replacement, with this feature you can organize, edit, and re-share photos after they’ve been taken. A snapchat spokesperson says memories is “the first product we’ve created that’s truly meant for commemorating, especially with a friend by your side.”
It’s very simple to access memories. It can be done by swiping up from the main camera screen. It’s amazing to see your snaps in the reverse-chronological section when you open your memories section. Your photos in the past that have been saved to your camera roll can be revisited too.
Wildly popular among teens Snapchat has seen its audience start to age with 14 percent of U.S. smartphone users and older now on the app. This new feature also let you browse through the photo based on the location and time stamp, and the search feature will show you snap on the anniversary date.
It’s really fun to celebrate an anniversary or birthday by finding a few old snaps and then stringing them together.
Company’s valuation have grown to $18 billion in the recent years. It has surpassed twitter 140 million daily users with its 150 million daily users according to a report. Truly a good move Snapchat! What do you think about the new feature? Do let us know about your views in the comment section below.
We all know that digital revolution has marked the beginning of Information era. Rightly called as the third industrial revolution, India’s digital world has witnessed tremendous growth in the past decade.
Imagine a world without Internet? Once upon a time Internet was a luxury for the world. No wonder Internet was the basic fundamental idea for the development and advancement of digital technologies. It was by 2000 digital revolution had begun to spread all over the developing world. One would witness mobile phones and internet users grow during that period.
Technological collaboration with foreign companies was then started by Indian businessmen. In 2010, Internet made up about 25% of the world’s population. Also almost 68% of the world’s population were mobile owners by then.
Social media usage continues to grow around the world, with global penetration rates now in excess of 30%.India has contributed a lot towards digital marketing through social media. About 53% of India’s population uses Facebook and 44% uses WhatsApp. While Facebook and WhatsApp keep dominating the space but the growth of Google+ is interesting at a time, when it is dismantling itself.
Apparently as many have adopted the trend to start online business, only few had managed to standout from the crowd. Below is the list of Indian start-ups that have pitted themselves against Google+, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Poolwo:
Launched by Shashi Tharoor on 7 January 2014, Poolwo is a social networking site created by a company based in Kerala. Registered members can enjoy sharing and reading blogs, articles, news and even browse photos & videos.
TrulyMadly:
Just like Tinder, TrulyMadly helps you find singles trotting around you with the anticipation of becoming un-single.
Mooshak:
You can call Mooshak an ‘Indian Twitter’ that claims its Twitter & WhatsApp in one service.
InstaLively:
Add to an Indian start-up, InstaLively is an app that let you share your broadcast to Facebook, Twitter & even Youtube. It’s an app that is simple & easy to use with minimum learning curve.
How can one forget about the contribution of ‘Digital India’ initiative? Websites set up by the Indian government can help digitalize India where you can be a digital contributor. We all know that in the era of technology each one has a part to play. So through this initiative we are given an opportunity to delve into realms and make a difference.
Do you think content marketing has come of age? It’s time for content marketing changes that one needs to understand.
Brands nowadays are utilizing content marketing as a part of their overall marketing strategy. Some brands have successfully incorporated in developing very robust content marketing campaigns till now. But as the content marketing evolves it is necessary to adjust our strategy in order to follow the 2016 content marketing trends.
If you want to keep your business ahead of your competitors, there is no way of avoiding content marketing in 2016.So how do we make our content standout? It’s really a content marketing marathon out there. Let’s take a look at the 2016 marketing trends and learn some tweaks to strategize.
2016 Content marketing trends
Quality over Quantity
Only quality content can survive from now onwards. The Internet is filled with low-quality content, thus users are in need of good quality content. Also one needs to pay attention to spelling as well as grammar. It’s good to consider a professional content strategist as an investment to business.
Focus on content scheduling
If you think just to publish a lot is the only important thing, think again. It’s vital to provide high- quality content but with proper scheduling. Studies have shown that content shared on Monday mornings get a lot of views and content shared on Thursday mornings get a lot of likes.
Revise your format and draw your attention more towards content promotion.
Showcasing your content must be done on the basis of relying on more than one format. The more format one creates, the more the chances of being read. To make sure your intended audience reads your posts, it is essential to promote it. You have to ask yourself right questions about who is your target audience? When are they likely to read your content?
Let’s only concentrate on mobile first.
Mobile marketing is going to get bigger and bigger with more mobile access to new audiences. Many companies are now optimising their content for mobile devices only.
So what’s the future of content marketing beyond 2016?
Seems like a lot of brands will burn out on content, so one must not quit. Demands for visual content by customers will increase. So it’s better we give them what they want! Videos can also be the new blogging. Also content distribution will cost money. Let’s not be scared to try this channel.
The Millennials make up a majority of the entire global population, and are the consumers of today and tomorrow, thus making it incredibly important for companies to reach out to them.
Writing for Gen Y is perhaps one of the most challenging tasks. They’re as easily bored as they are stimulated, which is the biggest hurdle when writing for them.
Considering this, we compiled a list of tips that help when facing this mammoth task.
IT TAKES THEM SECONDS
Truth is, millennials are always in a hurry. Your copy has the power to make a lasting impression on a person within seconds. If they don’t like what they first see…well, that’s where it ends. Immediately. They have to be hooked, strategically, using powerful elements that they can relate to. Turns out, in an era of Instagram, Snapchat and Pinterest, that really isn’t difficult.
THEY DEMAND ENTERTAINMENT
The Millennials love to find themselves amused with something on the internet. YouTube, Vine and Boomerang have managed to capture the attention of people, with videos of different lengths.
The clue is: Engage them. The content has to be original, brisk, and personal.
With the rising number of smartphone users, it is also important for all content to be native to mobile phones. It has been projected that there will be 204.6 million smartphone users in India, alone. A whopping number such as this, makes it safe to assume that your target audience will view your content on a smartphone.
FASCINATE THEM
Establish a connect with the millennials. What they relate to, is what they read. From trends to contemporary issues, millennials feel most strongly about something that their values are in harmony with. Telling them a story helps build a bond that is far beyond the commercial – It is emotional, and directly impacts their personal, ethical and social values. Connect your writers with them, and introduce them to guest bloggers. Mankind is a curious lot, and they love knowing more about who gives them what they read.
INFORM
Millennials love to learn. Today, classrooms are out and the internet is in. Give a millennial a textbook, and he’ll sleep. Link him to an article about literally the same thing, he’ll thrive.
The more your content can teach in a matter of moments, the more engaging it will be.
Listicles are the perfect example – people adore them. They scan, they get hooked, they learn.
REMIND
Frequent snippets of content keep millennials engaged. Brands that post content more often, are the brands that usually succeed in effectively retaining their fan-base.
Instagram, Youtube, Pinterest and other such visual-oriented platforms are the best way to keep our visual creatures engaged.
Long form articles help, too. These are articles that are longer than approximately 1300 words, and are considered ‘share-worthy’. It’s the best way of generating content that is meaningful, hits the right note, and goes viral.
KISS
While a KISS would be great, What we’re talking about is the golden rule of copywriting – Keep it simple, stupid!
Avoid fancy words picked up from a damned thesaurus; avoid jargons; basically, avoid anything that takes you far too long to frame – odds are, your audience isn’t going to understand it in daily context.
(However, some contemporary internet jargons could work, if placed correctly. If I said ‘smh’ right now, it’s probably because I am shaking my head at the thought of chat jargons, and now you know.)
INCREASE RELEVANCE
Editing is very ,very, very important. Add relevant images, infographics, gifs, change headlines – put yourself in the audience’s place. Like a wise person once said, ‘The essence of identifiability is famous quotes.’ (No, nobody ever said that but I got your attention there. Ha!)
USE. MEMES.
I cannot put into appropriate words the reach that memes have. Millennials dig memes. Give them memes, with the latest news, and they’re probably yours for eternity. (…Ah, would you look at that, I did manage to put the sentiment into words.)
DRIVE CONTENT THEIR WAY
You probably want to use the platforms millennials use, to generate effective traffic. Facebook and LinkedIn are old. Use Reddit, Medium, Tumblr and StumbleUpon and you’ll see a sudden surge in the number of your audience. The logic is simple – you drive content their way, on platforms that they’re more likely to use, and they’ll see it.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
One thing that will remain constant is the amount of research you will do. From analysing what the millennials like, to analysing what the internet provides – it’s a given process that will not change.
Getting millennial writers on-board helps create content for the millennial audience, for they identify with each other better than anybody else can.
Instagram took the world by storm, after it changed its logo out of the blue purple-slash-pink-slash-yellow. What’s more, it wrecked hearts exactly like a storm wrecks lives.
The old Instagram logo had come to be an icon, of sorts, for storytellers; photographers; selfie-takers; food-makers; bathroom-goers…you get the point.
Even food had come to be shaped in the iconic logo for Instagram addicts.
Another fine example of changes being made for absolutely no reason, there is quite literally nothing right about the new logo. In all honesty, it barely even looks like a camera. It just looks like a fairly uneventful mess of watercolors splashed inappropriately over a scrap of paper, which upon realisation of the fiasco, has been covered up in a feeble, child-like attempt with a white square that’s supposed to look like a camera.
It also looks like a scarily inaccurate attempt at making a logo with the colors of a galaxy, but using 50 wrong shades of galactic colors.
Come on, Instagram, get your shit colors together!
Facebook has been on high every since it started off 12 years ago and it refuses to stop any time soon. The Facebook Ads tab has one of the most popular ad trends of 2016. Its raging popularity has been taking social media advertising to another level. Following are some of the few Facebook ad trends that have been growing to another level.
1. Carousel Ads:
A Carousel ad is where the user can be directed to a specific location of their website. These ads include at least 5 images in them. Being an image and link based advert format, it attracts customers easily. People now click on the Facebook ads due to these attractive images. Facebook’s ad click rates are better than ever before.
2. Social Video Ads:
Videos are the fastest and the easiest way to catch the attention of the customers. Social Video Ads on Facebook are small and load faster; this helps the customer watch the ad easily. These ads contain stories or interesting behind – the – scene information related to product or the brand. Hence, these videos are gaining special attention from Facebook and from the customers too.
3. Mobile Optimized Ads:
Most ads uploaded on Facebook are “mobile optimized”. Meaning these ads are not only desktop friendly but also mobile friendly. Most people log on to Facebook via their phones rather than their laptops or computers. This makes the mobile ads very important as those the most accessible ads.
4. Local Ads:
This hassle free mode of local advertising is a relief to many people who run small time local businesses. Facebook’s local ads helps local businesses expand their horizons to a whole new level. it might be one of the fastest form of local advertising. When you advertize for your brand using local ads, you get an option to enter all the details related to the product, making it easy for your customers.
These 4 new trends have taken Facebook to a whole new level in the advertising sector. We hope Facebook keeps grabbing the virtual world’s attention in the way it has always been doing!
With the gushing wave of all high-end brands raising their bar, Motorola is leaving no stone unturned. For those who possess butter fingers, Motorola brings to you Moto X Force, a phone that does not shatter when dropped. This is something really cool because they have covered up one of the most dreadful things that could happen to today’s generation.
The new introductory teaser shows some statistical features like 30% of broken screens never gets fixed or 40% people are deathly scared of their phones falling down, etc. A very interesting innovation in technical aspects, social media is flooded with tweets and updates since its announcement. Perhaps, it is quite relatable since we all have gone through this misery at least once.
A lot (Believe me, A LOT) of them are fired up for this new gadget since it will fix the fuss of many with its arrival. It has also attracted tweeple with its Hashtag #MotoFaceOff. Here is the link to the teaser.
Social media is all about the people, the public, the audience. More audience insight equals effective communication. Hence, Facebook has launched its new audience insight tool which helps marketers know more about their audience. This includes the demographic as well as the behavioural data of your audience. It basically lets you know your audience before you roll out your budget. The data is collected from various sources primarily self-reported and off-Facebook. Self reported includes personal profiles and the latter includes external data.
Firstly you have to create an audience by choosing from people on Facebook, people connected to your page or through custom search. Next, you have to explore your data to adjust your audience by dividing your data into different tabs like demographics, page likes, location, etc. Then, save your adjusted audience.
This is beneficial for those who have their own start-ups because it gives an overview of the people visiting the page, other details and so on. Once the marketing professionals know about the insights like how many people live in proximity to their stores, what they shop, how they shop and many other things.
This is really profitable for those who want to extend branches of their business organisations but is simultaneously not that safe for those who prefer privacy.
Conceal the shipping charges because it may lead to a feeling of dismay. The customers need to know about the shipping charges as far as the website is concerned. If the customer does not know about it, he could even cede the purchase.
Give up quickly “Successful people are not gifted; they only work hard and then succeed on purpose.” All the successful people have worked hard to get there, sheer hard work, because success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration.
Make false promises Doing this will only degrade the reputation your website has earned. It is quite difficult to keep up in every manner. Perhaps, the best you could do is to NOT LIE.
Focus only on the financial aspects For a brand to be sustainable, you have to be on pins and needles so that it turns into something remarkable. You have to overlook the economic perspective for a while.
Do’s
PR and Marketing is equally necessary For every brand it is important to promote their products. Nowadays, social media has built an easy bridge to the communication gap and the best way to market your product is in Social Media.
Listen to your customers because your unhappy customers are the best source of learning. Solve most of their problems. Also, a satisfied customer is the best business strategy of all.
Detailed Description of products Once you start promoting your products you ought to describe it in detail. Make sure you use a small yet detailed description because it makes quite a difference.
Test your Product It is very important to test your product because everything is not as simple as ABC out there. Also, the easiest way to test your product is to test it through your friends or relatives. (Well, charity begins at home.)
Snapchat it seems is the all new rage sweeping the young and old alike with its strong wave.
Snapchatting ‘IS THE NEW VERB’, synonymous in its competition with whatsapping and googling.
Snapchat is the new chat. Sure adding colours with vibrant pictures to the chat definitely perks the
conversation and Snapchat takes it a notch above by making snaps the articulation of words.
Everything right from clothes to cakes, décor to doodles, friends to foes is being snapped. Life is
more into snaps than into living.
Snapchat is the new timeline, the new spectacle. Everything worth telling is snapped. It is an
addition to the digital must haves list and is expanding the digital market one snap at a time. Top
notch companies and brands are coming with their Snapchat ids, because the working and
functioning of individual companies are no longer matters of privacy. Every company and brand feels
deeply for the need of being intimate with its customers. Snapping is the new way of penetrating the
lives of the consumers. It seems as if these days life has become the new market and people the new
brand. Maybe this is called evolution.
So the debate remains the same-“Has snapchat become the new expression?”
We all know that social media is more about psychology than it is about technology. We see many people on social media who have mastered the art of building relationships via blogs, visual art or other networks. The reputation that these influencers gain is directly proportional to how people get influenced.
The most important thing is to find your target, your goal or your focus. If you focus only on one phase and you master that art it will help you in becoming a commendable influencer. It is important to be vigil and stay on top of the trends, follow them and learn how they function. The best way is to keep a tab on all social platforms. (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Pinterest…and still expanding).
Also, It is important to step aside and break through the clutter. You could start with identifying the type of content and thereby select whatever floats your boat. For eg. Tumblr for visual art, WordPress for blooming writers, YouTube for entertainers, etc. All you have to do is go the extra mile. It’s never crowded, just the audience gets bigger.
“Hey, have you seen my new profile picture?” Sophie asked Stanley, “Lol, have you seen my new profile video?” he replied, giggling. Well, no play, let’s hit the bullseye. So,THE NEW AGE is here. Facebook has come up with another fascinating update, ‘Profile Video’ which acts just like a profile picture b ut adding mot ion to it.
All you have to do is shoot and upload a 7 second video through your iPhone and BAM! You now have a profile video (That’s so cool right now). Whenever someone visits your page, the video will automatically start playing. You will have to activate the ‘video autoplay’ feature for that or else the thumbnail will only b e visible.
This feature is not yet available to Android users but it will roll out quite soon. The profile video will be quite similar to a GIF. Social Media is sprouting its seeds everyday and undoubtedly has grown some fruitful trees out there.
A millennium has passed but Shakespeare’s this question raised in Hamlet will never get old!
Social Media has now taken it upon itself to make life easier for this skeptic race that on one side hold onto their
individuality (Be like Shahenshah!) and on the other side drink to breathe (Don’t be like Devdas!)
crisis still haunts people of all age groups and genders. And not only does it haunt us humans but these little
tomatoes that question whether they are vegetables or fruits.
And now with all the advancements in Internet take all the guidance you need for your love life.
When he asks you “What would it take for you to be mine?” Always have an answer know your actual worth, Be like
Gabbar! And later when he says, “Ek baar jo commitment kar di to phir me apne app ki bhi nahi sunta.
” Know he is Radhe! Prevent yourself from being someone you are not. Don’t turn into a lemon if you are just a lemonade.”
Being a digital agency, we love to keep an update of what’s going around the social media.
Influencers can prove to be one of the best practices to amplify your brand’s presence online or offline. Influencers are the best choices to get your message buzzing over the wide-spread social media. These influencer campaigns need to be managed smartly and strategically or they can go drastically wrong.
Have a look at this campaign we came across, on twitter –
Looks like they forgot the main part here, maybe they just had a certain budget allotted which they smartly divided into ‘x’ number of influencers with ‘n’ number of fan followings, but they missed on the strategy part.
Apart from this, we have witnessed some really brilliant influencer campaigns and we think, influencer campaigns if planned well, can be the best source of organic interaction and engagement for the brand.
Here is all you need to do for a successful influencer campaign.
1. Set Relevant and Achievable Goals – Every successful campaign starts with setting of a certain goal to achieve, a campaign without goal is like a rollercoaster with no rails – no controls, you don’t know where you’ll end up being.
2. Pick The Right Match Influencer(s) – The influencers you select play a major role in making or breaking of the campaign. The influencers need to be selected on the relevance and influence factors.
(Noob tip: Don’t go for influencers if you see #follow4follow or #like4like)
3. Organic Brand Integrations – A brand needs to understand the difference between organic and paid promotion. There has to be a balance between the content and strategy. The best way to manage content is by giving the influencers creative guidelines and a creative freedom, because an influencer knows its audience better.
Yes, it is true, Google now has a parent company. As crazy as it may sound, but Larry page came up with this revolutionary decision in reference to their 11 year old letter which stated that “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.”
So what is Alphabet?
Alphabet is a new entity that would manage multiple companies, Google being one of the largest in them. “Our company is operating well today, but we think we can make it cleaner and more accountable. So we are creating a new company, called Alphabet (http://abc.xyz). I am really excited to be running Alphabet as CEO with help from my capable partner, Sergey, as President.”, Larry announced in the latest blog.
Larry appreciated Sundar Pichai’s contribution to Google by announcing him as the new CEO to Google. Well, as not many know, Sundar Pichai was Product Manager for Google and was the one behind the success of Chrome, Chrome OS and Chromebook.
Well, we guess we should be ready for more shocks and surprises coming from Alphabet and its future acquisitions
Wohoo, yet another ban is here and this time it’s none other than our beloved ‘porn’ *sarcastic drumrolls*. This calls for a celebration, doesn’t it? Like we have another pointless ban added up in our oh-so-called much needed action list.
Let’s see people’s reaction on this
Okay, let’s get it straight. There are thousands of porn sites and a thousand ways to access them. Banning them on Indian ISPs is not the only solution.
Also, There are tons of vulnerable issues around internet but porn. It’s one of the best sources for one to fulfil his/her fantasies which, if not satisfied can lead to something as serious as rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence out of frustration.
Let’s have a look on some serious issues on the search engine –
1. How to make homemade bombs?
2. How to make a real gun?
3. How to grow weed?
Oh btw, 9gag.tv is banned as well. Gagging is not just related to porn; can we just grow up to something more serious?
Instagram goes on a hashtag-banning spree daily, which is much needed. There are thousands of hashtags used to share disturbing images and pornography, resulting into violation of Instagram’s public policy. But, things went out of control when Instagram banned #curvy for “irrelevant pornography”, as Instagram’s director of public policy stated.
Instagram user Vintageortacky questioned how the term curvy could be considered harmful after learning that the hashtag was banned.
A photo posted by Cora Alvillar (@vintageortacky) on
Where, #curvy has been a source of inspiration for millions of overweight people around the globe, it also has been a hideout for nudity and pornography posts. A spokesperson for Instagram said the site will be: “limiting pictures appearing on the hashtag to those photos/videos that we are more confident will be ‘clean’.”
Currently, #curvy has more than 2 million regulated posts. Talking about #curvy, there are various other hashtags, which sound ‘clean’ but are major source for nudity and pornography. Where hashtags like #dildo and #vagina are still in use and ‘unbanned’, banning #curvy was one bizarre move.
This is not the first time Instagram has done something like this; there was a huge buzz when Instagram took down a picture posted by the artist Rupi Kaur. She merely woke up to her menstrual cycle, which is the most natural process every woman goes through, the image contained no nudity, yet Instagram took it down calling it against its public policy.
Well, someone needs to get their policies straight.
Well, Facebook is going under minor makeovers again, and this time, it’s not about the features.
For all the design-nazis and femi-nazis out there,
Facebook revealed its new logo, which will be seen across its site and apps soon.
Old Logo –
New Logo –
While Facebook’s designers called this change to be “grown up and to be taken seriously”, the reactions from a few other designers were completely insane.
Apart from the negatives, Facebook’s new logo was hugely appreciated.
Talking about logos, here’s something more interesting,
Facebook recently hired Caitlin Winner as their Design Manager and she found some of the logos quite upsetting.
For example,
1. The Friends icon had a Male icon overpowering the Female icon. The Male icon had a nice spiked hairdo, while the Female icon had a Death Vader-like helmet hairdo, which tempted her to mess around with the company glyph kit and make some changes in the logos.
2. Also, the old ‘groups’ icon featured two men and one woman, the woman sat in the back, left behind the larger centered man. So yeah, Caitlin Winner tweaked the logo and placed the lady first.
Well, these changes don’t mean you won’t get those spam-ish updates in your news feed or get you rid of those stalkers drooling over your profile pictures. But then again isn’t that the reason why social media is still relevant?
18 year old Alex Deans surprised the world by inventing ‘iAid’, a cloud-based companion device for the visually impaired to help them navigate around effortlessly.
iAid looks like a joystick and is equipped with ultrasound, GPS and cloud features which helps it create a virtual environment around it. Alex got this idea while he helped a blind woman cross the road. He started working on it since he was just 12, it took him three years to develop the first prototype and now, he has a fully functioning device, which is a revolution in itself.
So yeah, our beloved Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) announced a strict ban over the fried food, especially Chinese food stalls around schools in Mumbai.
* Two minutes of silence for all the Chicken Fried Rice and Manchurian lovers*
Well, it’s heartbreakingly sad for all of the kids who opted for Chinese stalls after the “revolutionary” Maggi ban all over the country. The main reason of ban here, is Ajinomoto (MSG) all over again.
Let’s just say, this is some kind of conspiracy by the saviours of the nation, or maybe it’s some kind of secret diet conspiracy for a healthier population.
There has been an ever growing buzz about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his take on digital media. He has been making the most use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to communicate.
Digital India Week initiated with a vision of transforming India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
The Prime Minister has a long intensive timeline to give India a complete digital makeover which includes
Kickass digital connectivity all over the nation(including 250,000 gram panchayats)
Digitalization for hospitals and scholarships
Supporting innovative start up ideas.
The innovative Internet of Things(IoT) Technology
Portal/Forum Websites and Mobile Apps (That actually work)
And where there’s Modi, there are industrialists pouring out tons of money. We can see a lot of Capital Investment and lot more job opportunities flowing in for this revolutionary initiative.
We’re sure that this digital revolution would boost India’s overall development and we’re looking forward to the upcoming innovative initiatives.
GIFs have been on the internet for around 25 years and the trends for GIFs are ever increasing.
Social Networking and Blogging sites that support GIFs –
• Tumblr – One of the major platform for bloggers, where bloggers are been using animated GIFs smartly to keep their blogs entertaining and interactive.
• Twitter – Twitter recently announced their support for animated GIFs
• Pinterest and Google+ have been supporting GIFs.
• Blogging platforms like Blogspot and WordPress have been supporting GIFs and encouraging bloggers to use GIFs to keep their audience engaged.
Facebook supported GIF images when they were at the initial stage but later pulled it off as they found GIFs annoying on the timeline. However, after a decade now, Facebook supports GIFs again.
Facebook now supports GIF links and not GIF uploads, but it’s one smart move to keep the audiences interacting and entertained. Currently, Facebook supports GIF posts for individual accounts and not Business Pages.
Steps to post a gif on Facebook –
1. Go to platforms like Giphy, imgur etc and find/create a gif you wish to post. (Tumblr gifs are not yet supported)
2. Copy the link your gif.
For Giphy, click on the “share” button and then copy the GIF link. Pasting that link, which ends with *.gif, will result in happiness for everyone.
3. Paste it in your Status Update box and wait for Facebook to crawl the link.
4. Post and see it rolling.
Facebook currently supports GIFs on individual account and can be viewed and posted from Desktop or Mobile App.
We, at Fruitbowl Digital are eager for the “Business Page” support as it is one of the most effective way to engage and entertain the audiences.
Microsoft announced Windows 10 a while back, stating the upgrade would be free. Some of us were skeptical about it, but it actually happened! Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 users will receive free upgrades to the new and improved (hopefully) operating system. Those of you who are pirates will have to shell out some major monies for the upgrade; ranging from Rs. 8000/- to Rs. 12000/-
According to Microsoft, the strategy has been implemented to battle the corporations fight against piracy, but it is also to cover up for the unsatisfied users from the Windows 8/8.1 version. As of now, you can sign up to reserve the update when it comes out, after which the upgrade will be free for a year. Anyone who upgrades after a year, will have to pay the full price. To be able to be eligible for the update, your system must meet the minimum requirements, have either Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 on your system, and must have installed the update called KB3035583. Post which your taskbar will get a Windows icon on it. Clicking on this will open a window that allows you to reserve your free Windows 10 Upgrade.
This seems to be a smart move on Microsoft’s part, since it will help them recover the consumers they previously lost with the Windows 8/8.1 version. They say the Windows 10 OS is more focused on consumers, but only time will tell if it works.
Myntra, the biggest fashion e-commerce website in India took a bold step and took down their website last week in an effort to draw more traffic to their mobile application. According to company quotes, 90% of their traffic and 70% of the orders are from their application.
It might seem absurd to those of us who have been using a desktop for as long as we can remember, but India has just started experiencing fast Internet on cellular devices, and buying a smartphone makes a lot more sense because it does all the work a computer would, at a much cheaper price. Adding seamless applications to this combination generates a better user experience.
“Fashion is a very personal experience. We believe that only mobile can truly deliver this experience as it captures user’s lifestyle and context in manner that no other medium does. Think of all the hardware and software features that one can leverage like camera, contact, location etc. to understand the user’s context and deliver the experience that is deeply personalized,”
-Mukesh Bansal, Myntra CEO.
Since the launch of the new strategy, sales have dropped 10% for the online retailer. Amazon and SnapDeal, the competitors, have shown no interest of following Myntra’s footsteps. They believe that a large amount of their users still use PCs to shop online, and they don’t want to force them to use a specific medium to access the website. Myntra defends their move by saying that they can focus development on the app, thus making the experience better for everyone.
Their move could be promising, or the 10% loss might be static, only time will show.
Billionaire, philanthropist, genius. Add a metal suit, and you’d have Iron Man. He’s not Tony Stark, he’s Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, the man who made billions by building a website where people virtually live their lives. We all know him as the brilliant mind behind Facebook, but there’s a few things you probably didn’t know about Zuckerberg:
1] When he was just a high-school student, he built a program called Synapse, that used an algorithm to learn users’ music-listening habits. Both, Microsoft and AOL tried to buy it, but he just uploaded it for free instead.
2] Mark Zuckerberg has a paycheck of one dollar a year. [Excluding compensation for other expenses]
3] Mark doesn’t own a television set.
4] At the age of 12, he built an Instant Messaging program for his family to communicate on. It was called the ZuckNet.
5] Before he made Facebook, he made a website called Facemash, which rated his college peers based on their attractiveness. This, was criticized for objectifying women later.
6] The prodigy started off with a simple C++ for dummies book his parents gifted him when he was a kid.
7] When Facebook was new and gaining popularity fast, he gave out cards that said this.
8] He wears only one grey “Facebook” t-shirt everyday. Yes, everyday. Well, almost.
Although he is a billionaire, he’s not too flashy about it. He doesn’t drive flashy sports cars, and doesn’t believe in blowing money on generic billionaire stuff. We’d say that adds on to his coolness, if becoming a billionaire in his 20’s wasn’t enough.
As citizens of India we have always had a rather cynical opinion about our Government, and the work they do. But Sushma Swaraj, our External Affairs Minister is hard at work and recently took to twitter to reach people, and people have been reached! Even with major international crises on her plate, she has been helping people using twitter as her forum. Here are a few Twitter threads exchanged between her, and people in trouble:
1] Her Ministry helped a woman in what seems like a hostage situation:
Indian origin lady is under house arrest,needs emergency help in Mpumalanga near Johannesburg @SushmaSwaraj@MEAIndia Rahul:+91 9744440023
We are the first ones to blame politicians whenever we get the chance; maybe we should also take the first chance we get to appreciate the efforts made by them.
Microsoft infused life into Holographic technology with its HoloLens; bringing the future to 2015. Microsoft HoloLens seamlessly blends high-definition holograms with your real world; thus making augmented reality a viable concept. With an integrated computing unit, the HoloLens has computing capabilities that exceed your average laptop. Say no to cables, or wires; just put them on, and get going!
Real time editing in 3D space! Source: Microsoft
The possibilities are endless! Real time gaming; imagine Mario running around on your table, squishing Goombas. Real time designing; imagine designing a car in 3-D space using hand gestures, then using a 3D Printer to breathe life into your design. Watching the TV without a television screen, GPS mapping on the road, and so much more. All you need is a HoloLens kit, and imagination.
The HoloLens also has built in speakers just over your ears, that use scientific mumbo-jumbo to induce something called “Spatial Sound.” It characterizes how the human ear receives sound from a specific location, Microsoft HoloLens artificially creates sound so that you can hear holograms from anywhere in the room. The speakers provide a precise audio experience without headphones that is immersive, yet won’t block out the real world.
If that wasn’t enough, it looks like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but cooler! There is a lot of computer stuff happening on the inside, but for an average user, it spells magic on the outside.
The future is now. Also, at least you won’t look like this:
As we always know Facebook is always on its toes when it comes to experimenting and creating new policies for advertisers and page holders. In one such recent venture Facebook has announced that they’ve recently updated the way they measure how many people like your page. Pages may see a decrease in ‘likes’ after March 12, when they remove ‘likes’ from any inactive accounts.
An inactive Facebook account is one that memorialises deceased users, or were voluntarily deactivated.
Why this should not affect you?
As a Facebook page holder when you advertise your brand or products in the social market, the targeted objective is to find out how many people are aware about your brand or product, How many of these people will actually buy it ?
This is based on a direct relationship between the active likers of the page and the page activity.
Many popular brand pages are populated with ghost identities of people who don’t even exist in an irrelevant time and space. These inactive accounts do not contribute to the page growth and add to the brand value but just increase a number of fake likes.
These likes are of no use to you if the potential consumer does not understand your product and will not buy it or reciprocate to the posts that you update regularly.
Organic profiles or the active profiles of real users that like your page are what make up your consumer base. These people react and respond to various daily posts and also give positive as well as negative feedback for your advancement.
A decrease in likes should not be considered as a negative point but it should be considered as a chance for you to redefine yourself in the social market by catering to the needs of the real audience.
Official Announcement: https://www.facebook.com/business/news/page-likes-update
The one day of the year when everyone suddenly goes a lot greener than they had been all year is finally here. Everyone, including the PR teams of a few corporations. Some tweets so far have been pretty cool, and thought provoking, so we decided to get you a concise list of the best few:
You know India’s political scene just got a lot cooler with the PM of the nation joins the picture sharing platform of Instagram.
He posted his first Instagram photo from Myanmar, where he is attending the ASEAN Summit. And the post went something like this.
Link – http://instagram.com/narendramodi
In the span of a few hours Modi received over 1,600 likes and Mr. Modi had 35,000 followers on Instagram.Needless to say our PM has taken to social media like a fish to water, and he has conquered almost all the possible channels present.
As worshippers of Digital Media ourselves, here are a few pointers we would like to share with our PM.
1. Always Use #Hashtags
2. Keep sharing relevant images that interest your followers.
3. Make the best use of filters
4. Keeping liking and commenting on posts.
5. Always include a caption.
6. And last but not the least, keep clicking!
On that note we would like to wish NarendraModi a high five for conquering another social platform. Hopefully in the not so distant future he won’t be the only Politician of India to do so!
The Happy Song by Pharrell Williams is like the new Harlem Shake in trend & the best part in it is that you get to dance more! Yayee!
We see many people doing it for their different cities but what if you want to see Bollywood do it – Without taking much time,all the actors dancing peacefully without making any controversy, less gossip, much WOW? Yeah, Correct. It’s IMPOSSIBLE! 😛 & That’s when YOUTUBE comes to the Rescue.
Presenting to you a funny mash-up of all our actors dhinchak – ing on the Happy Song! Enjoy!
Do you really want to make a viral video and gain instant popularity??
Then here are our secrets :
Viral-ness of your video = Clickability X Sharibility of the video!
While some videos can go viral over the night, some may require the initial push to be a massive Hit.
Well, for all those who think it’s all a matter of luck. Here are some of the key principles to follow:
1.Think like an Entertainer!
No matter for what purpose you are making your video for.
Always ask yourself one question – Will others enjoy it till the last second? If yes, then go ahead. If No, then rework on your concept. Rework on your storytelling. Do not keep your videos for more than 5 minutes. Keep it short and crisp.
2.Get it technically correct!
YouTube is changing! Gone are the days when YouTube was exclusively a place for one-hit, user-generated viral videos. According to The Wall Street Journal, 9 of the top 10 most viral videos on YouTube in 2012 were created by professional producers. So don’t let your concept go waste. There are ample of companies who will produce your video 100 times better, Hire them!
3.Grab the attention in the start!
It is really necessary to capture the user attention within the first 5 – 10 seconds. This can be done in many ways through some catchy music, indifferent introduction, but perhaps the most effective (if you can afford it) is the use of celebrities.
4.Keep it emotionally attached.
You have caught the user’s attention, now what next? Keep them Interested. Your video needs to provoke the emotions of your audience by making them smile, laugh, cry or frustrated. Keep them emotionally engaged.
5.Surprise, Don’t Shock!
We all love Surprises, We all love Shocks- NO! One of the assured tactic you can get right is This!
If you really want your video to be shared for a good reason! Then make sure your video surprises and not shocks or scares people because we want to make people happy and not turn them into pranksters!
Well,
these were some of the key principles to make your video go Viral through your Content!
