[GONE WRONG] 13 SECRET HEADLINES FACEBOOK WANTS TO STOP. NUMBER 5 WILL BLOW YOUR MIND! 5/5 (1)

1

October

2016

The art of clickbait.

You clicked on the link, didn’t you? How do you attract clicks on your post in a world that is moving so fast that you don’t have time to read everything? Create a title for you article that is too good not to click. Enter clickbait, fishing for your clicks by creating purposely false titles. Clickbait can be described as “web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, […] relying on sensationalist headlines or eye-catching thumbnail pictures to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over online social networks.”¹ Clickbait is probably one of the most hated categories of posts on social media.

Screen Shot 2016-10-01 at 13.41.22BuzzFeed and Upworthy are known to use clickbait titles to drive in views and ad revenue. (Screenshot of BuzzFeed taken on October 1st, 2016)

Facebook recently introduced a new algorithm that aims to stop these kind of ‘headlines’ to appear in your newsfeed. They already tried to limit the amount of clickbait appearing in your newsfeed in 2014², but apparently those clickbait sites still found a way around it. In 2014 Facebook announced that they would start looking at the amount of time spend reading the article, and the amount of likes given, to determine whether the article is clickbait or not. The new algorithm will will weed out misleading and exaggerated headlines the same way that email spam filters weed out fantastic offers to help Nigerian princes recover their lost fortunes. The new algorithm will de-prioritize posts with headlines that “(1) withholds information required to understand what the content of the article is; and (2) exaggerates the article to create misleading expectations for the reader.”³. Facebook employees analysed tens of thousands of headlines, and flagged those that intentionally withhold important information and those that use exaggeration to mislead the reader as “clickbait”. From there, they built a system that looks at the set of clickbait headlines to determine what phrases are commonly used in clickbait headlines that are not used in other headlines. This is how many self learning systems work. You show them a set off correct items and a set of incorrect items and the software itself can figure out if a new item is correct (no clickbait) or incorrect (clickbait).

Facebook wants to get rid of the clickbait articles in order to show people the stories most relevant to them. When your whole timeline is full of clickbait this ruins your user experience and you will probably not return to Facebook very often anymore which is bad for Facebook.

So hopefully no more:

in the future.

 

¹https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clickbait

²https://www.cnet.com/au/news/facebook-nixes-click-bait-headlines-in-users-news-feeds/

³http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2016/08/news-feed-fyi-further-reducing-clickbait-in-feed/

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FinTech: How to get the best exchange rate when traveling abroad. 5/5 (1)

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Minecraft, a blockbuster thanks to Word-of-Mouth?

13

October

2013

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As we could see in this weeks readings, “[…] firms increasingly rely on “network” and “viral” marketing strategies” (Hill et al. 2006, Manchanda et al. 2008, Nam et al. 2010, Retrieved from Aral, & Walker, 2011) in order to drive the product adoption and sales. So basically, the attention is paid on how to make products viral using marketing strategies and campaigns instead of how to design products that can turn  themselves viral (Aral, & Walker, 2011). So I was thinking of a good example of a product that went viral without using any marketing and what came to my mind was Minecraft.

Probably most of you heard or even played Minecraft, but for those who don’t know, it is a sandbox indie game that has its unique look of everything being boxy and sharp. It is not one of those high-profile games with sick graphics and real-life feeling to them. So how is it possible that a game that is not made to be perfect and not made to be fully marketed has earned its huge worldwide success?

While trying to answer this question, I came across a couple interesting articles (Minecraft, the worlds most successful casual game, Why Minecraft is so popular) which all showed some different aspects of the game that made it a blockbuster. However, the one that interested me the most was the fact, that word-of-mouth was one of the factors that facilitated the popularity of the game. So how is it possible that the game became so successful having no advertising/marketing budget, using only word-of mouth? Well I do not think this strategy from the side of the company was on purpose. Minecraft community is fairly tight, anybody can play the game, old/young, gamers/non-gamers. Thus, the whole platform is fueled by people, their engagement, so word-of mouth becomes something natural.

It is only to be discovered why exactly this works. What do you think? Do you know of any other platforms that use this strategy (on purpose or not)?

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A kangaroo on a unicycle

15

September

2013

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Last year, Samsung Canada received a Facebook message from a loyal fan of theirs, a man named Shane Bennett. Shane listed all the products he already had of Samsung, namely a TV, a Galaxy S, and a laptop. However, he was hungry for more, and asked Samsung for a free Samsung Galaxy S3 because he was such a loyal fan. But that was not the only thing that Shane did for them – no, he included a picture of a dragon that he drew all by himself.
Of course, Samsung was not very eager to start giving out free phones, and explained to Shane that they would very likely go bankrupt if they would do so. However, the employee handling the Facebook account decided that the drawing of the dragon was “epic”, and returned the favour by drawing a kangaroo on a unicycle.

Samsung

Shane was amused and decided to post the conversation on Reddit, and the case soon became viral.
Samsung received a lot of positive attention, replying to a customer in such a playful and creative manner. Because of the enormous amount of publicity they had received thanks to Shane, they decided to grant his request and send him a free Samsung Galaxy S3 – but then customized with the drawing of the dragon.

Samsung2 Samsung3

Personally, I like this case a lot, since Samsung is showing a whole other, more personal side of them. Instead of being a big corporation that sends out standardized responses, or no response at all, this employee really made an effort to provide a creative and amusing answer to Shane’s nearly ridiculous request.
However, we were talking in class about the issue of keeping up the professional appearance as a company. Some thought that a more serious, large corporation should not be all too neighbourly with its customers on social media. However, in the case of Samsung, do you think they were letting go of their professional image or is it ok to be so personal in their responses? I am curious to hear what you think about this case!

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