FAKE NEWS MAKING IT’S WAY TO SOCIAL MEDIA?

By now, you’ve probably heard of the term “Fake News” being circulated around, namely by the the president of the united states, Donald J trump. If you haven’t, here’s a lovely short clip from CNBCs YouTube channel Of Mr. Trump’s first press conference, where he displays his masterful showmanship saying to CNN’s Jim Acosta, “You are fake news”.

Fake news, trying to simplify the term, is of course the broadcasting of news content on media outputs that are, well, FAKE. These accusations towards popular media were definitely prominent throughout the whole Trump campaign, and are still an active card played by the Trump administration, although, the term has found new legs.

Currently trending in the news are missiles being launched at Syria from the US and other countries. Concurrently, a video was released on social media of missiles being launched at Syria and went viral. Inevitably, this evoked public outrage because, you know, violence is bad. Here, have a look at this tweet from Press TVs twitter account showing the video footage.

As it turns out, this scary and action provoking video of a missile attack was actually  fake news! After this video and videos like it began to be released, some social media users caught on, and boy did they blow their whistles. Here’s NBCs tweet of shame

Al Jazeera reported on the issue saying “The video, however, was not shot during Saturday’s air strikes in Syria, but in Ukraine. The footage was first uploaded in February 2015, and an artillery barrage in the city of Luhansk.”

Ukraine, the video was from Ukraine (lol).

As I discussed in a previous blog post, when mainstream media is censored, or just blocked, social media can often come as a savior to the subjects of oppression to spread words of their struggles, but what if now even social media is circulating doctored content?

What do you think? Could social media, the voice of the people, become subject to censorship and corruption?

Facebook: IS FAKE NEWS COMING TO SOCIAL MEDIA? WE THINK SO! goo.gl/ugTZ4N

Twitter: Since WHEN did FAKE NEWS hit Social Media? goo.gl/ugTZ4N

 

 

 

Is Social Media Melting Our Brains?

What does social media do to us?

Social media really is constant hyper-connectivity in a virtual network. Without a doubt, through avenues like Facebook, Whatsapp, and Twitter, we are able to keep in touch with family and friends from around the world like never before possible. No doubt, being able to connect with people we love is inherently good, but what about the bad? What effects does constant social media use have on our minds and even our bodies?

 

1. Antisocial Social Media

As humans, we all have an innate need in interact with the people around us, but what happens when our social interactions are mostly limited to screen time. Could this have adverse effect on our face-to-face interactions? I think so!  

I’ve seen it first hand. Often, especially for my generation (20’s) where we were raised on social media, youth will get confided to the four walls of their room and get caught on social media for hours on end, much more than the time actively interacting with real people. What I’ve seen is that this is often the genesis of social anxiety and social awkwardness because of this lack of exposure and being so used to it’s virtual substitute. Additionally, I’ve found that this lack of real engagement naturally leads people to develop a one dimensional online persona, kind of like a personal brand so that you’ll be liked (lol) by your social media peers. This leads to anxiety and personality crisis when you should be enjoying some social time! In this article, R.I.M Dunbar suggests that more friends on social media doesn’t necessarily mean you have a better social life: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178480

 

        2. Physical beat down

Social media means inactivity! I can’t count how many times I’ve tried to motivate my friends and family to go out and do something, but my words fall upon empty ears because everyone is sitting hunched over scrolling through Instagram! We’re in an extremely immobile time and we need as much physical activity as possible, so social media is not helping in that that sense. Traditionally, our ancestors went out and walked around to hang out with their peers, this is totally extinct!. Our hyper connectivity has made made travelling to people completely irrelevant and has made us satisfied with sitting in stagnation.

     3. Relationships

“You do get very self-absorbed. That’s a problem, I think, and I think the other problem is you realize you’re making yourself vulnerable to a whole bunch of other people who really don’t even know you and certainly don’t have your best interest at heart necessarily” says Maggie Pateau in an article written for Fox News. Think back to your last family dinner. Unless you have a very strict, anti-technology grandmother, how many of you were on your phones? Don’t we think that these kids polluted family gatherings would ruin our relationships?

Next dinner with your family, even if it’s just two of you, leave your phone in another room and get away from social media. If it’s awkward, know that there’s a problem in that social dynamic that needs to be fixed! If it’s light and sociable, you’re welcome!

 

 Not so social Social Media: https://bit.ly/2Jv0MRC 
 Why you should ban phones at the dinner table https://bit.ly/2Jv0MRC 

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0178480

SOCIAL MEDIA: THE SOCIAL WEAPON

A fruit and vegetable seller named Mohammed Bouazizi living in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, on December 18, 2010, set himself on fire in an act of extreme solidarity because of his anger with the Tunisian government for their blatant corruption and oppression. Following this incident, the twitter hashtag #SIDIBOUZID went viral and sparked protests in multiple countries across the globe.

CYBER WAR

Weeks after the incident, there was no mainstream media coverage coming out of the country, but the social media unrest continued to boil. To quiet it’s citizens, the Tunisian government then started hacking into it’s people’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, and deleted them one after another. Soon enough, another hashtag appeared, “#Anonymous”. Anonymous was a group that, within a matter of hours, launched a counter-hacking operation paralyzing the president’s website, the networks of key ministries, and the Tunisian stock exchange. 

The group also shared a cyber war survival guide documenting the Tunisian president’s corruption, tips on running from police, and proxy sites to allow the Tunisian citizens access to Facebook and Twitter which had been blocked. The government quickly responded with a fishing operation stealing emails and passwords of social media users in order to spy on activists and destroy online decent. As well, the president shut down news stations and arrested journalists,  but word got out and social media quickly reacted.

DOMINO EFFECT

Many a times in history, citizens have been helpless in the face of oppression from their own governments, since any means of communication to the outside world can be easily tracked and shut down. Social media gave the the people of Tunisia and of other Arab Spring counties an amazing platform to spread their message, which is exactly what happened. Soon after news of Tunisia’s revolution leaked, countries like Yemen, Egypt, Libya and Syria all underwent their own revolutions after years of oppression and civil unrest. Social media allowed these people to showcase the evidence of the atrocities against them in the form of picture and video content to Facebook and Twitter.  These social networks will remain the “Social Weapon” of the people for years to come.

 

Why Marketers Should Be Comedians

A man in a bear costume, a terribly awkward actor named Alejandra, and a CEO in grey jeans with a crooked belt all come together in a low budget marketing production. What does this all achieve? Over 25 Million views on YouTube alone, and a massive disruption in the shaving industry, even while competing against giants like Gillette. The company is called Dollar Shave Club and how they did it was by creating an absolutely ridiculous piece of content.

Check it out

CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT

I recall coming across this video years ago scrolling through Facebook and laughing very hard at the genuinely hilarious piece of content, which also happened to be a commercial promoting an awesome product and service. I remember being so entertained and intrigued that I opened up my google search engine and went straight to the Dollar Shave Club  website. Already in love with their video, I then fell in love with their fantastic business concept, even though I had never shaved a day in my damn life.

Fast forward several years to the present day, there’s a lot more of this type of advertising on the internet. Content focused video advertising that is focused on making people laugh have the immense advantage of getting shared in the same streams as that one funny video of Mumphrey the cat.

 

The common link between Dollar Shave Club and Mumphrey is that they both have hilarious videos ! See link below for a vine compilation of funny cat videos casually collecting just under 60 MILLION views.

 

 

HOW COULD THIS BE???

Social media has come and empowered consumers by creating a space of two way communications between them and the businesses they subscribe to. If someone finds a nail in their McDonalds Jr chicken, they have a platform for massive disruption should they choose to make a tweet about it. How are junior chickens relevant to creating hilarious marketing videos? It’s because social media advertisers must realize that the power dynamics have shifted in the arena of social media. Consumers are powerful so we must play by their rules and show them only what they want to see.

Let Gary explain it…

Gary Vaynerchuk, founder of Vayner Media and social media giant shares with us some advice on content marketing through video in his book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook when he says, “The only way to stand out in this world is through outstanding content”. He further explains, “The content should not be annoying or intrusive, it should blend seamlessly into the consumer’s life. Anyone can avoid ads via adblock or scrolling fast…”. Vaynerchuk goes on to explain Facebook’s EdgeRank system, which tracks information going into FaceBook’s news feed. EdgeRank filters content for consumers, only showing them what their habits indicate they want to see. This means sharing a link to your website is useless on Facebook. Unless that post is actually liked or shared, it will stay out of people’s news feed,  even if they’re following you. Basically, our ads should be ENTERTAINING.

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

Can you recall the last commercial that was so hilarious or ridiculous that you wanted to share it? Here’s one of my personal favourites from the company Old Spice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY7m5jjJ9mM

And here’s a super bowl ad from Tide mocking it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kulyPinO49I

 Remember that one advertisement that was seriously unmemorable? Yea me either! Here’s how we can avoid being that guy. LINK: Why advertisers should all be comedians #Marketing #Business #SocialMediaMarketing

ATTENTION BUSINESS OWNERS: Ever wondered how to make your content advertisements memorable? Here’s a tip. LINK: Why advertisers should all be comedians #Marketing #Business #SocialMediaMarketing