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Facial recognition is being used in more and more areas. A month ago, Apple introduced it in the iPhone, where you can use it to unlock your phone or to make payments with Apple Pay. According to Apple, the technology knows when it is you, and is able to see the difference between your face and a picture of it. On airports a far more advanced way of facial recognition is being introduced, as they are looking for ways to handle the increasing amount of passengers.

Amsterdam Schiphol airport introduced a test with facial recognition in the beginning of this year, in cooperation with KLM. (Schiphol, 2017) The technology is used for the boarding process. After passengers have passed through security, they are able to register themselves at a special kiosk in the waiting area of the gate. After that, their boarding pass and passport can stay in your pocket, as access to the airplane will be granted after their face has been scanned. This is one of the tests the airport is doing to reduce boarding times. (KLM, 2017)

This week, Dubai airport has announced that they will use facial recognition for the security check as well, starting in 2018 (TheVerge, 2017) The airport will place similar kiosks in the terminal, where passengers can scan their passport, boarding pass and face. When this is done, the passengers can pass the security through a tunnel filled with 80 cameras that will scan the passengers face from many different angles, while the passenger keeps walking. Once at the end of the tunnel, a red or green light will indicate if everything is fine and if the passenger can board the plane. (The National, 2017)

However, is it really safe to let the computer do the check? Apple said their iPhone camera will unlock the phone by mistake, once in a million times. How high this fail rate needs to be at an airport where more than 80 million people travel through every year? (Dubai Airports, 2017) Also, what is going to happen with all of the data? Schiphol says the data will be deleted after 10 hours, but people mentioned concerns about what could happen with the data. The government could force the involved companies to get access to the data in order to use it in investigations. This already happened in the San Benardino case, where Apple had to unlock an iPhone for the FBI. (Wired, 2017) Do these advantages of facial recognition outweigh the privacy issues it brings?

Sources:
https://www.thenational.ae/uae/transport/dubai-airport-s-new-virtual-aquarium-tunnel-scans-your-face-as-you-walk-through-it-1.665406#5

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/10/16451842/dubai-airport-face-recognition-virtual-aquarium

http://news.klm.com/test-at-schiphol-boarding-quickly-and-easily-using-facial-recognition/
https://www.schiphol.nl/en/page/biometric-boarding/

https://www.wired.com/story/apples-faceid-could-be-a-powerful-tool-for-mass-spying/

http://www.dubaiairports.ae/corporate/media-centre/fact-sheets/detail/dubai-airports

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The power of Youtube is not a new thing. Everybody uses it, to post and watch vlogs, random videos or music covers. To have an idea, every minute 300 hours of video is uploaded at the website. However, to be a success you need more than just a beautiful voice, as there are already many and different kinds of it at Youtube. You can be really lucky or you need to have a special talent.

One of these successful channels is Pentatonix, a band without instruments that got more than a billion views at youtube and over 9.1 million subscribers. Besides this they won a Grammy and participated in the Hollywood movie “Pitch Perfect 2”. This week they are number one at the Billboard 200 charts, beating the ex Disney Channel star Demi Lovato, this example just shows the power of social media and the legion of fans it brings around the World.

“This is perhaps the first time in history that an a capella group has topped the all-encompassing albums chart” (FORBES) This is not the first time it happened in the band’s History. Their first album was the 4th most sold cd in U.S.A last year.

You are wrong if you think they stopped to post youtube videos and even more if u think the cover days are over, because this is what makes them famous and relevant. Social media has the power to make a person or a band popular in one second, but stay in fame is even harder. Do you think it is hard for artists to survive on a platform like Youtube?

 

Sources:
http://hypebot.com/hypebot/2014/11/how-pentatonix-built-a-social-media-powerhouse.html

By the Numbers: 135 Amazing YouTube Statistics

http://www.foxla.com/good-day/good-day-la-features/37239133-story
http://www.forbes.com/sites/hughmcintyre/2015/10/26/pentatonix-debuts-at-number-one-with-their-new-self-titled-album/

 

 

 

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A lot of companies are using social media nowadays. They use it for many reasons. One example of this is to interact with their customers. Besides these active ones, there are also firms that do not want to use social media, because they are worried about mistakes or have a lacking social media strategy. It is important for this last group, to realize how important social media is.

Just 5% of the B2B marketers said social media is a well optimized part of their marketing, while nowadays a lot of customers start to look for information about a product online. Companies should be aware of this and take advantage of it, as Giamanco and Gregoire state, the biggest potential is during the prospecting and opportunity stage. Be part of it and make mistakes is better than choose not to be present on social media, but to be successful, companies need a social media strategy. This should include goals and plans that gain business value out of social media.

Li, Berens and de Maertelaere claimed users are motivated to participate in social media by two factors, namely engagement and informedness. People want to connect with the companies and be informed about the price and availability of a product. Both factors have a positive relationship with corporate reputation. According to Dijkmans et al. positive corporate reputation leads to customers that are willing to pay more for products, are more loyal to the firm and will protect the company in times of crisis.

Dijkmans et al. also stated another important reason for the use of social media. Word-of-mouth and online reviews are trusted far more than traditional marketing. Besides positive feedback, a company obviously also receives complaints and these will be visible for all users on social media, but still, Dijkmans et al. believe the net effect of social media is positive. Surprisingly, the biggest advantage can be obtained from non-customers, that show more clear their changes in preferences.

Enginkaya and Yilmaz (2014) stated some drivers for customers to interect with brands through social media, in addition to the drivers mentioned by Li, Berens and Maertelaere. Consumers care about the objectiveness of others’s opinion about products or services and believe more in this than the website of the seller. Another driver are the viral marketing campaigns. Consumers expect some entertainment and amusement from brands on social media.

Heineken can be seen as an entertaining brand on social media, and is a great example for this. They are posting some videos on YouTube and share these across different social media channels. For example, during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Heineken posted a compilation of the people at the Museumsquare in Amsterdam who were watching the soccergame of the dutch team against Mexico.

 

Sources:

Giamanco, B., and Gregoire, K. (2012) Tweet me, Friend me, Make me buy. Harvard Business Review 90(7/8) 88-93.

Li, T., Berens, G., and de Maertelaere, M. (2014) Corporate Twitter channels: The impact of engagement and informedness on corporate reputation. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, forthcoming.

Li, T. and Soonius, G. (2012) Is your social media strategy effective? An empirical study of the factors influencing the success of Facebook campaigns. Proceedings of the Workshop on Electronic Business, Orlando, FL, December.

Dijkmans, C., Kerkhof, P. and Beukeboom, C.J. (2014) A stage to engage: Social media use and corporate reputation. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517714001757

Enginkaya, E. and Yilmaz, H. (2014) What drives consumers to interact with brands through social media? A motivation scale development study.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S187704281403941X