Are you sure your friend on Facebook is real?

  

Fake Facebook accounts: a never-ending battle against bots

Facebook's crackdown on "inauthentic" activity has resulted in the blocking the staggering figure of more than three billion fake accounts over a 6 months period. According to Facebook, in the last 3 months of 2018, they disable 1.2 billion fake accounts, and 2.9 billion in the first 3 months of 2019. The amount of automated and bots account on social networking sites and social medias are increasing.

Creating Facebook 'bots' is a violation of its terms of service. Thus Facebook said its artificial intelligence detects most of these efforts and disables the accounts as soon as possible, preventing them from posting anything on their platform. However, as managing 'bots' and fake accounts are extremely tedious, Facebook acknowledges that around 5% of the more than two billion active Facebook accounts are probably fake.

Most fake social media accounts are 'bots' created by automated programs to post certain kinds of information as an effort to manipulate and influence social conversations and thoughts. Fake accounts may be used to amplify the popularity or dislike of a person or movement, thus distorting users' views of true public sentiment. 'Bots' have played a disproportionate role in spreading misinformation on social media ahead of the 2016 US election, according to researchers. Distrust and social division in many parts of the world, and in some cases even violence has occured due to misinformation. 

Although Facebook has been taking serious measures and efforts in combating fake accounts, new bots are becoming more and more sophisticated and are tougher to detect. It is definitely a never-ending battle in detecting and removing these harmful and misleading bots and fake accounts. 

As Facebook and other social networking sites are doing their best in removing such bots and fake accounts, as human, I feel that we should also do our part in being more cautious and wary of the information and sources on the internet, and not just blindly read and trust them even when the account seems legitimate with many other followers or groups. Also, we should take more responsibility in the things we share and repost on our social media accounts, to prevent more spread of misleading information.

sources:

(2019, May 24). Fake Facebook accounts: a never-ending battle against bots. Retrieved from https://www.france24.com/en/20190524-fake-facebook-accounts-never-ending-battle-against-bots

NIKE 'BREAKING2'

As we all know, new media is taking over traditional media nowadays. New media are the means of mass communication using digital technologies such as internet. People of all ages are using social media such as Facebook and Instagram, mobile apps such as Faves, to find out about brands and their good deals, and easily start spending their money.  Besides, new media is easily accessible anywhere and anytime with great flexibility! I'm definitely guilty of spending too much time on them, such as Instagram and Facebook😥

An integrated marketing campaign (IMC) combines multiple channels such as content, email, display advertising and social media in order to promote a consistent message to a specific audience. By using several channels to convey the campaign messages, it increases the effectiveness of activities that are used to convert strangers into prospects and prospects into customers.With the advent of the era of digital, IMC has become increasingly important for organization. It exists in a variety of forms: normal advertising, sales promotion, direct response and public relations. In order to achieve the organization’s plans and goals, it should use the different media to achieve and identify the effectiveness of the promotional mix.These are the 7 steps of the IMC plan. 

An IMC approach provides benefits at every level of the organization including:

Operational level – reduces transaction costs, interdepartmental conflict, and duplication of effort
Campaign level – creates synergy with the communications mix and provides a higher return on campaign investment vs. the competition
Brand level – provides clarity and consistency to brand messages to create brand loyal customers
Customer level – positively impacts consumer awareness, customer attitudes, and customer experiences at every touch point
Market level – decreases the rate of defection, increases market position, sales, and sales growth
Financial level – increases the ability to achieve higher sales, sales growth, profitability, return on investment (ROI), and return on brand investment (ROBI) vs. the competition

LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT ONE OF THE MANY SUCCESSFUL IMC PLAN

NIKE 'BREAKING2'

As part of the strategy for their new Zoom Vaporfly Elite shoes in 2017, NIKE live streamed an attempt where they enlisted 3 runners Eliud Kipchoge, Zersenay Tadese, and Lelisa Desisa, in an attempt to complete a marathon below 2 hours. NIKE live streamed their marathon on Facebook and Twitter, and behind-the-scenes photos were posted on their instagram throughout. NIKE made it extremely easy for their audiences , where they created a hashtag #Breaking2 and even a custom Vaporfly Elite shoe emoji!! NIKE had a clear understanding on who their target was and picked the necessary channels suitable for their audiences in the most effective and efficient way. Furthermore, they ensured consistency in their look  NIKE has also created clear and consistent content that can easily be adapted and suit different social medias. Currently, there are 38,175 #Breaking2 hashtags on instagram!! 

While running is undoubtedly NIKE's core athletic audience, the campaign’s message around unlocking human potential tapped into a much broader audience. This campaign has pushed human ability to its limit and gave anyone who had internet access a front row seat to the race by live streaming has greatly inspired thousands.

NIKE has also ensured that their team is constantly tracking their campaign. A week after the attempt, NIKE garnered 584,000 mentions on social media and their hashtag was greatly used! of which, 87% of their comments were positive and a remarkable 2 million impressions!😱The shoe did well, too, achieving 5.2 more digital content engagement in the days following the attempt.

All in all, IMC is vital for a company or brand and It helps to create competitive advantage, boost profits and sales, help customers, while strengthening relationships and simultaneously saving time, money and stress. IMC helps to move customers through the various stages of their buying process - before, during and after. i will definitely ensure that i have a great IMC plan if i have a company!

Sources:

(2019, March 30). Why Use an Integrated Marketing Communications Approach? Retrieved from https://www.stephenzoeller.com/integrated-marketing-communications/

B2B, C. (2018, November 23). Integrated Marketing: 7 Successful Campaigns Through the Decades. Retrieved from https://digitalmarketinginstitute.com/blog/27-03-18-integrated-marketing-7-successful-campaigns-through-the-decades

DO YOU THINK Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is important?

In this week's post, I will be focussing on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. 

                                 

SEO is one of the more important aspects of digital marketing, that demands attention and is constantly changing rapidly. It is crucial for a brand to start with a well-known SEO service if a company is focussing on starting their SEO as a start.  As mentioned that SEO is always changing, it is necessary to follow the trends. I will be discussing some of the prominent ones that are transforming businesses globally. 

1. THE FOCUS ON VOICE SEARCH

With voice search, people are using conversational phrases and terms instead of using specific 2-3 keywords. This means that long-tail keywords will matter for SEO. Brands and businesses who are optimizing their content for such phrases and keywords are already reaping the benefits. Voice search drastically improves user experience. Programs such as Google Assistant, Siri, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa all utilize voice search capabilities. As the point of SEO is to rank websites accurately so users can find the best information for their search efficiently, Google has since placed a higher emphasis on voice search optimization. User experience is, ultimately, at the forefront of search engine optimization.  

2. THE SHIFT TO MOBILE-FIRST INDEXING

Google came out with mobile-first indexing in 2018. SEO experts and web designers have been focussing on creating websites that are responsive, especially on optimizing keywords and content for mobile audience. As more than 50% of all web searches are from mobile devices (why am I not surprised?🤔), search engines has to constantly keep up with the changes, and incorporate these changes in their SEO plan.

3.PAGE SPEED & WEB CONTENT

Page speed is a very important aspect to focus on in offering the best possible experience for users. Google has been pretty focussed on this! Companies should check their website frequently and erase unnecessary things that could possibly influence and hinder the page speed and loading time. To reap the most out of SEO, it is essential to focus on page speed and site optimization!  Companies should also focus on creating relevant and genuine content. Ensuring frequent updates will also help in attracting people in visiting your website again and again.

4.SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE

Living in 2019, social media has taken over a big part of our lives. Many brands have been using social media and SEO hand in hand to have online influence and we all know it is definitely working really well for them! Google frequently checks for contents on social media such as Twitter and Instagram. This helps to add value to a company's efforts in SEO. Today, not only Google, Yahoo and Binge are associated to SEO. MOST SOCIAL MEDIA SITES WORK AS SEARCH ENGINES AND THE TERM 'SOCIAL MEDIA SEO' IS REAL.

In conclusion, I feel that SEO is a really important thing for a company/brand to have to promote themselves! With a reliable SEO company, goals can efficiently and effectively be reached. If I have a brand/company , i will definitely follow Google's guidelines as it will definitely help my website do well.

WISH TO HAVE A LIFELONG PERSONAL CHEF??

In week 8, I will be blogging about the Internet of things (IoT). IoT is the interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in our everyday objects such as our laptops and smartphones, enabling them to send and receive data to each other.  With the rapid advance in technology, there are more and more powerful and impressive IoT that really catches my attention and entices me! There are even IoT that are wearables like healthcare devices such as the connected contact lenses and activity trackers and even GOOGLE GLASSES! 👓

With the variety of unique and spectacular IoT available, I have discovered a series of low-key IoT devices on Postscapes that really intrigued me under the 'Connected Smart Kitchen' section. Users are able to monitor and control their cooking devices and appliances from their Smartphone App📱Among the many different gadgets, one of them really stood out the most to me! Introducing to you the.....

EVERCOOK AUTOMATED PRESSURE COOKER🍲

 'EVERYCOOK' 

As stated, this cooker is designed for people who aren't comfortable in the kitchen, however to me this cooker is definitely for someone who doesn't enjoy the hassle of cooking; this cooker is made for me!🙋🏻‍♀️ 'Everycook' is part processor, part pressure cooker, and part robot🤖Firstly, users will select a recipe from an online database via their mobile app. Secondly, they will just need to feed the required ingredients through the slicer and into the cooking pot. A mechanical stirring paddle keeps things moving, and the heat settings and cooking time are handled automatically according to the recipe you chose. There’s even a scale so you don’t have to measure!!!! just add an ingredient until Everycook tells you to stop. Imagine every meal being prepared for you and the only thing you have to do is purchase the ingredients? 

However, this device has yet to be in the market, and the designer's work seems to be continuing. I honestly can't wait to see the future of this device as well as other IoT devices! However, will IoT really benefit us as much as it seems and feels? will personal datas and our privacy be at risk? will the ability of controlling our own lives be affected? will future generations get lazier since more and more things can be done for us? I really hope not!

Sources:

(n.d.). Let IT cook for you. Retrieved from https://everycook.org/

CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT YOUR MOBILE PHONE?

Living in 2019, mobile marketing is prevalent in everyone's daily lives. Almost everyone spend a full quarter of their time awake on their mobile device. Technology has greatly taken over humans' lives that we are often interacting with people through our mobile devices, instead of the people who are physically around us. There are 5.11 billion mobile users in the world today! Thus, mobile marketing is definitely a great way to market a business to appeal to mobile device users, as it will reach a huge amount of audience very efficiently, through push notifications and emails, among others, that are sent directly to customers.

There are many successful mobile marketing such as the IKEA catalog app and Starbucks that happened in 2010 and 2011 respectively, where there are mobile apps for customers to create augmented reality by creating 3-D virtual image with their phone camera, as well as make payments with their phone from the Starbucks card mobile payment program.

All these successful apps shares common features. Here are some of the main features to me. Firstly, these apps solve problems for customers/users where it provides assistance as well as a greater ease for them, where they are able to complete a transaction solely with their mobile phones. Secondly, they are very user-friendly and efficient. With the simple steps provided , consumers are able to use their apps right away, without having to spend their time learning for long. Thirdly, these apps also update frequently, where they provide new features to keep customers engaged and excited to use the app again. Last but not least, FREE APPS are always more preferred by everyone! With a mobile app being free for download, it will definitely attract a massive amount of users!


As for recent years, eCommerce advertising has been rapidly growing. Advertisers and brands have been marketing their products via the 'stories' section on social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook, a powerful mobile marketing tool. Taking instagram as an example, an increasing amount of blogshops selling clothings and apparels have been selling their products with 'instagram story links and highlights. Even well known brands are doing so too. This has attracted and engaged a huge amount of customers to purchase their product online. With this, customers are also encouraged to make their purchase with mobile payments as well.

All in all, I feel that mobile marketing is definitely a great way for businesses to engage a huge amount of people efficiently, and it will only continue to expand rapidly.

In week 5, the topic of this lesson is going to be viral marketing, on why ideas spread, specifically through social media. Living in 2019, where social medias and technologies are heavily used in our everyday lives, people around the world has been increasingly outspoken and more openly sharing their thoughts, opinions, and even their lives, on almost everything and anything. 

More than 2.56 billion social media users exist today. 
CAN YOU BELIEVE IT???

Facebook’s viral #10YearChallenge

Today, I will be blogging on Facebook’s viral #10YearChallenge. Since 2019 kicked off, a trend started where people posted photos/images of themselves that  were 10 years apart. People posted diptych photos of themselves, and placed both photos side by side for comparisons. These posts where typically posted on Facebook and Instagram. Once lots of people are doing something, more and more people often jumps on the bandwagon to be part of the group.

This challenge got so viral that there was a #10YearChallenge from our very own Singapore’s Prime minister Mr Lee Hsien Loong who partaken in it too!

Other politicians have also joined in, such as Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam posting the challenge on his Facebook page.

Why has this particular trend of posting then-and-now photos of a person aging so popular when one doesn’t get any incentives at all?  

Isn’t social media a place where everyone only posts the “best photos “ of themselves?

Well, If you ask me, I feel that there’s a huge reason and motivation behind it. People will get the opportunity to show off and brag about themselves. They are able to put out their photos of 10 years difference and show a huge amount of audiences that they haven’t changed at all even after 10 years, still looking ever so youthful and good or; how much they have improved and ‘evolved’ over the years, into an even better and more attractive version of themselves. Looking good in other’s eyes or desire for social approval is a fundamental human motivation where people tend to share things that make them look and feel good about themselves. I’m sure any of you reading this right now agrees with me !

But why this particular challenge and not something else in the first place?? 

Was The Facebook '10 Year Challenge' A Way To Mine Data For Facial Recognition AI?

Which one(s) of these 6 STEPPS by Jonah Berger do you think is most present in this viral challenge?

Personally, I feel that there is social currency, emotions, practical value and public.

 Social currency makes a person look better in social eyes. The fact that people participate and share their own #10YearChallenge gives them satisfaction. As mentioned above, people tend to share and brag about something to make themselves feel good, and look good. 

As for 'Emotions', people tend to jump onto the bandwagon of sharing their very own #10YearsChallenge on their social media ,after seeing an increasing amount of people constantly sharing their own. Posting photos of 10 years ago is a reminiscent of the past as well, evoking emotions and bittersweet memories. Furthermore,  it is as simple as placing 2 diptych photos side by side. The 10 years challenge has definitely inspired and motivated more and more people to create their own. 

As for 'Practical Value' , this challenge is extremely straightforward, simple and quick for anyone and everyone to create their own and share it on their social medias. Also, this #10YearsChallenge is very relevant to many social media users, as they are of the sufficient age to be able to share their own photos, and pass the 'challenge' on.

Lastly, as for 'Public' : Monkey See, Monkey Do', which is very much self-explanatory don't you think so too? 🤨The more public something is, the more likely people will imitate, furthermore, this #10YearsChallenge has even spreaded to even Instagram and Twitter.

WHICH ONE(S) OF BERGER'S 6 STEPPS DO YOU GUYS THINK IS PRESENT IN THIS VIRAL #10YEARS CHALLENGE?  

sources:
Zhuo, T. (2019, January 18). PM Lee Hsien Loong takes viral #10YearChallenge. Retrieved from https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/prime-minister-lee-hsien-loong-takes-viral-10yearchallenge