Apps keep updating; but sometimes it fails.

3

November

2015

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If you use Whatsapp regularly, you know they update a lot of times. Have you seen their latest update? Every word which has something to do with time or location (today, tomorrow, here, now) is blue and underlined. You can click on it and make it an activity. I found it extremely annoying and never used it.

One day ago, Whatsapp announced that there is an update which eliminates the blue time stamps. A lot of people (including me) had complaints because it was a little bit pushy. I noticed that in every conversation you talk about time and the blue words kept coming. A big failure for Whatsapp. Do you think they will improve it and let it have a come back at some point or do you think they accepted their failure?

Everyone these days has at least 10 apps on their phone. Whatsapp, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter … Just a few apps which are used on a regular basis. All the companies behind them are innovating. And quick! Snapchat has added a few cool features and which you can have big animal eyes, a rainbow out of your mouth or an old face. Facebook has a lot of advertisements and since a few weeks Instagram also has advertisements. Did you know that Facebook is developing even more? They are trying to build intelligence in their app for blind people. The app will be able to describe certain aspects of pictures. It sounds like a great plan, but do you think this will actually work? They are also changing the ‘maybe’ button in a ‘interested’ button. To me it would not make a real difference. How far do apps have to develop themselves until they can’t? I think Whatsapp cannot do more, since it has already a lot of features. The latest update didn’t do anything good. Do notice all their updates?

http://www.nu.nl/internet/4157491/facebook-vervangt-misschien-knop-met-geinteresseerd-.html

http://www.nu.nl/internet/4157731/facebook-bouwt-kunstmatige-intelligentie-blinden.html

http://www.telegraaf.nl/digitaal/24689135/__WhatsApp_schrapt_blauwe_linkjes__.html

Buying Social Media Followers; to do or not?

13

October

2015

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Social media these days is so important. Everyone uses it. Not only individuals, but also companies, politicians, the police and so on. The main goal for most? To reach as many followers as possible. Because the more influence you have, the more important you are.

There is a certain need to get as many followers as possible. You can see this trend on Instagram, but also on Twitter. A few years back the phenomena called ‘buying followers’ occurred (although it existed way before that). People could literally buy followers, because you will get more popular. You don’t alwas have to buy followers, there is a great example of a famous Dutch singer. In November 2013 there was a disaster in the Philippines and she said ‘for every like on my Facebook page, I will donate 1 euro’. In the end she got over 200.000 likes, which means she should donate €200.000. Ofcourse she did not do this but said that she would donate ‘generously’. She donated some money and got over 200.000 new likes on her Facebook page. Does this count as buying followers for you? To me it does. She gets more popular and most of the likes were because people liked the initiative, not her music per se.

Even Harvard (2015) published an article about faking your reputation. They found that 16% of the Yelp.com reviews are a fake! On Yelp you can find restaurant in your neighborhood together with their reviews. A restaurant is also more likely to commit review fraude when it’s reputation is weak. You can buy a reputation on the internet and you can make it look as real as possible. For the short term it can be useful for your business; you are popular and have a good reputation, but eventually people start to notice that these people are not real. You have no engagement or whatsoever with your followers, something so valuable for your business.

In December 2014 Instagram decided to clean their user database. It had tremendous consequences and a lot of people lost some followers. Mostly around 100 followers, which is not that big of a deal. But for Justin Bieber it was. In one day, Justin Bieber lost 3,5 million followers on his Instagram! Did he buy them? Or was it just a ‘coincidence’?

What do you think about buying followers? If you could be a big social influencer because of this, is it worth the money and/ or risk?

Click to access fakeittillyoumakeit.pdf

F.A.K.E: een goede online reputatie kun je niet kopen, of toch wel? [case]

http://nos.nl/artikel/2009756-instagram-schoont-op-bieber-3-5-mln-volgers-kwijt.html

How should you engage with your customers? Facebook vs Twitter (Homework assignment)

24

September

2015

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Social media and networks are as social as selling. A complaining Tweet about a company can be picked up by a different company and maybe a few hours, days or weeks later you close a deal with that other company. Social media can be used for various reasons, but these days it’s all about selling and engaging.

Of all kinds of social media, I think Twitter is the one which is the easiest. How many times have you posted a complaining Tweet because your phone was not working properly, because you couldn’t make a phone call, when a store gave you a damaged item … Been there, done that. How fast do these company actually answer? Most of the time, they don’t even take the time. Luckily there are quite a few other companies which do answer, because they have implemented a great social media strategy and they put time and effort in their customers. One example I would like to give is a campaign from KLM called ‘KLM Surprise’.

KLM wanted to surprise its customers with something they could use on their trip and that wasn’t too big. They gave away about 40 gifts to their customers and made a video showing how they did this. Even though 40 gifts is not much, people were tweeting about it and even that same month the KLM Twitter Feed was viewed more than one million times. It is a great way to start interacting and engaging with your customers. People will tell others about their experience, it is a trending topic on social media and it will give a better Return On Investment than placing a billboard somewhere.

Facebook also gives opportunities to engage with customers. The more you can reach out to customers, the more they will actively participate on Facebook and the better they can engage their customers. The less campaigns per day, the better. So put time and effort in the quality of the campaign, not the quantity. Adding a picture to the campaign, increases total reach and companies should avoid posting between 14:00-15:00. When the campaign is focused on getting Likes and Polls increase the total reach of the campaign, as does the day on which the campaign is posted. Campaigns posted on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have the highest total reach. I tried to think about reasons why the day and time for advertisements are so important for reach. I think it’s because more people work from home at these days and between 14:00 and 15:00 a lot of people are busy with their work of school. What do you think?

Take a look at the infographics. Facebook or Twitter…?

So, Twitter can be used to search for complains or setting hashtags out which will be shared. Or you can use Facebook where people can like and share your message. Facebook can create much more rich content then Twitter, but Twitter may be easier. Many pros and cons. Do you like to follow a brand on Facebook or Twitter? What do you prefer?

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. (2013). Corporate Twitter Channels: The Impact of Engagement and Informedness on Corporate Reputation. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(2), pp.97-126.
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
http://www.digett.com/2011/01/11/klm-surprise-how-little-research-earned-1000000-impressions-twitter

How social is social media?

9

September

2015

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How social is social media?

I came across an article, which raised the question ‘how social is social media?’ It made me think and there are a few things that I noticed, but to which I do not have an answer.

Social Media can be fun, but it can be a little bit less fun when you see things you don’t want to see. Or when you get bullied, stalked, see videos about war and refugees these days… Cyber bullying is bigger then bullying at school, mostly because of the increase in social media. Don’t get me wrong, it is important to know the news and what is going on. But there is a difference between reading a newspaper – whether that is online of offline – and scrolling down your Facebook page and see images you’d rather not see. Should you have a choice in what you want to see? Should there be some kind of filter so you can avoid messages related to the topic you don’t want to see? Do you make Social Media more or less social by avoiding those things you don’t want to see? Because, what’s left without it? Should Social Media only be fun?

For example the Dutch ‘Zwarte Piet’ discussion. In the Netherlands we have a feast similar to Christmas, only called ‘Sinterklaas’. The discussion is about racism and that Zwarte Pieten (black pete) is discrimination and that the Zwarte Pieten reminds people of slavery. People have set up a Facebook page called ‘Pietitie’ where you can sign if you want the ‘Zwarte Pieten’ to stay. The discussion is still going, but opinions differ. Of course there should be freedom of speech, but you can go to far with it.

On the other side, social media is getting more and more commercial. We are used to the advertisements, but what is so social about these advertisements? It is all about marketing, integrating advertisement into social media and calling it social commerce. Did you know that 86% of the people have used social media for customer service and 1.000.000 people view customer service related tweets every day? Social media is thought to be a better customer service platform than a call centre. And 32% of the people who used social media to get in touch with the customer service, expects a response within 30 minutes. Social media needs to be quick and useful.

There are a lot of different reasons to use social media. I came across a funny infographic about the social media use between men and women. Women are more likely to use social media to stay in touch with family and friends, to share photos, for entertainment and self-help, while men use social media more for business reasons and dating compared to women. To me social media is mostly about getting in touch with friends, interaction and entertainment. But, as it seems, social media is so much more then these things. It is about news, about advertisement and customer service. So in a way it is social. But how social? What is social media to you?

http://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2015/05/01/waar-gingen-social-media-ook-alweer-over/

http://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2015/03/30/klantenservice-via-social-media-hoe-snel-moet-je-reageren-infographic/

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/196610339957241781/

http://www.frankwatching.com/archive/2014/07/23/laten-we-social-media-nu-echt-sociaal-maken/