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libraford · 1 year ago

Text

(I have permission to share this.)

Text- from Walking Distance Brewing Company

Happy Pride month! We are here another year to celebrate Pride with you! Thank you for your love and support through a difficult year of slander and harassment. Your support has not just kept us afloat but has made us thrive! Our inclusive community isn’t here just for Pride - we’re here all year. It's not always easy being inclusive in town. The library, community organizations, and yes, even Walking Distance have been targets. In this post, we're going to discuss the attacks against the library and against us. Last June, the library had a pride book display [1]. On July 3rd, (now ex) city councilmember Deb Groat wrote an email to the library at the request of the Union Faith Family Coalition [2]. In this email, she wrote: “I am deeply offended by explicitly sexual material on display in the children’s section of our library. Shame on you and your staff for pandering to any social agenda in displaying reading material to children.” [3] Later on in the email she wrote: “The library may well want to pass a levy in the future, or have input in a community TIF.” [3] On November 27, 2023 - Deb Groat was joined by city councilmember Mark Reams in voting for a TIF that would divert money away from the library for 30 years. Luckily, the extension did not pass. [4] According to Union County Faith Family Coalition’s founder, Mark Reams is a member. [2] Deb Groat and Mark Reams vote together to divert money from the library. Let’s move on to us. In June 2023, we had a drag show. On July 8th, Mark Reams’ wife, Leslie Reams posted on Facebook calling Walking Distance “Little Epstein Island” [5] joining in the same rhetoric spread by the Union County Faith Family Coalition, who nicknamed us, “Walking Distance Grooming Co.” Additionally, on April 15th, 2024 - while on-shift at her job, Leslie Reams called us a “den of depravity bar [that] preys on children,” and called our bartenders and customers, “pedophiles” and “drunks.” Let’s be clear. Leslie Reams, the members of the Union County Faith Family Coalition, and their followers have never called law enforcement (to our knowledge) - something we would expect and want to happen if pedophilia was happening. Law enforcement has never been called, we suspect that even they know that it’s not true. We have heard many rumors, as bad as, “Walking Distance is full of pedophiles” to more innocuous rumors that hurt our reputation. Our guess is that the same people who don’t believe we’re pedophiles, but want to demonize queerness, also know their audience and are able to tone it back to do the damage they can. We saw sales dips directly following Leslie Reams’ statements. We have heard city council members echoing similar rumors. Last summer, we had around 10 citations against the owner’s house and the business from the city and council - none of these citations asked us to remedy anything (except for the one about mowing…oops), and in fact there were instances when the local officials said that we were doing everything right, but they are only reaching out to us because they had so many calls. The year prior, Walking Distance and the owner's house had 0 citations. We’ll never know exactly how much business we lost due to the slander against us. We do know, we lost a lot. Similarly, we’ll never know exactly how much the support of our community has meant. We do know, it meant a whole lot. The support has kept us afloat, and with time, it's made us thrive. We know that we have survived to see another June. And we are ready to celebrate it, in the face of the hate. There would be no pride with no hate. Looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday for drag BINGO; Saturday for drag brunch; and also visit us on Saturday during Marysville Pride. We have more Pride events this week and month, keep your eyes peeled! And even if it's not a pride related event, we are always inclusive. Oh, and there's a city council meeting next Monday, June 10th at 7PM.

[/text]

Here's some photos of the extremely offensive library display:

They haven't given a call to action yet.

So anyways, that's what's happening in a nearby town. Marysville's pride event is this weekend and if you'd like to show up for local queers its going to be a very fun time.

I'm thinking of grabbing some of my local gays and giving them our patronage, of course. Its somewhat unrealistic to ask strangers on the internet to do take a hike all the way to Ohio for drag bingo.

So I think I would just like to call attention to it- if this is happening in our area, its probably happening in yours too. If you were thinking of attending a drag show but were on the fence about it, I think you should. They're a fun time.

Being involved in the queer community can be as simple as attending a drag show. Or going to a silly queer-focused event. Or supporting a queer-owned business. Every little bit of support for your queer community counts!

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lurkiestvoid · 1 year ago

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You're being targeted by disinformation networks that are vastly more effective than you realize. And they're making you more hateful and depressed.

(This essay was originally by u/walkandtalkk and posted to r/GenZ on Reddit two months ago, and I've crossposted here on Tumblr for convenience because it's relevant and well-written.)

TL;DR: You know that Russia and other governments try to manipulate people online. But you almost certainly don't how just how effectively orchestrated influence networks are using social media platforms to make you -- individually-- angry, depressed, and hateful toward each other. Those networks' goal is simple: to cause Americans and other Westerners -- especially young ones -- to give up on social cohesion and to give up on learning the truth, so that Western countries lack the will to stand up to authoritarians and extremists.

And you probably don't realize how well it's working on you.

This is a long post, but I wrote it because this problem is real, and it's much scarier than you think.

How Russian networks fuel racial and gender wars to make Americans fight one another

In September 2018, a video went viral after being posted by In the Now, a social media news channel. It featured a feminist activist pouring bleach on a male subway passenger for manspreading. It got instant attention, with millions of views and wide social media outrage. Reddit users wrote that it had turned them against feminism.

There was one problem: The video was staged. And In the Now, which publicized it, is a subsidiary of RT, formerly Russia Today, the Kremlin TV channel aimed at foreign, English-speaking audiences.

As an MIT study found in 2019, Russia's online influence networks reached 140 million Americans every month -- the majority of U.S. social media users.

Russia began using troll farms a decade ago to incite gender and racial divisions in the United States

In 2013, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a confidante of Vladimir Putin, founded the Internet Research Agency (the IRA) in St. Petersburg. It was the Russian government's first coordinated facility to disrupt U.S. society and politics through social media.

Here's what Prigozhin had to say about the IRA's efforts to disrupt the 2022 election:

"Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere and we will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how. During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once."

In 2014, the IRA and other Russian networks began establishing fake U.S. activist groups on social media. By 2015, hundreds of English-speaking young Russians worked at the IRA. Their assignment was to use those false social-media accounts, especially on Facebook and Twitter -- but also on Reddit, Tumblr, 9gag, and other platforms -- to aggressively spread conspiracy theories and mocking, ad hominem arguments that incite American users.

In 2017, U.S. intelligence found that Blacktivist, a Facebook and Twitter group with more followers than the official Black Lives Matter movement, was operated by Russia. Blacktivist regularly attacked America as racist and urged black users to rejected major candidates. On November 2, 2016, just before the 2016 election, Blacktivist's Twitter urged Black Americans: "Choose peace and vote for Jill Stein. Trust me, it's not a wasted vote."

Russia plays both sides -- on gender, race, and religion

The brilliance of the Russian influence campaign is that it convinces Americans to attack each other, worsening both misandry and misogyny, mutual racial hatred, and extreme antisemitism and Islamophobia. In short, it's not just an effort to boost the right wing; it's an effort to radicalize everybody.

Russia uses its trolling networks to aggressively attack men. According to MIT, in 2019, the most popular Black-oriented Facebook page was the charmingly named "My Baby Daddy Aint Shit." It regularly posts memes attacking Black men and government welfare workers. It serves two purposes: Make poor black women hate men, and goad black men into flame wars.

MIT found that My Baby Daddy is run by a large troll network in Eastern Europe likely financed by Russia.

But Russian influence networks are also also aggressively misogynistic and aggressively anti-LGBT.

On January 23, 2017, just after the first Women's March, the New York Times found that the Internet Research Agency began a coordinated attack on the movement. Per the Times:

More than 4,000 miles away, organizations linked to the Russian government had assigned teams to the Women’s March. At desks in bland offices in St. Petersburg, using models derived from advertising and public relations, copywriters were testing out social media messages critical of the Women’s March movement, adopting the personas of fictional Americans.

They posted as Black women critical of white feminism, conservative women who felt excluded, and men who mocked participants as hairy-legged whiners.

But the Russian PR teams realized that one attack worked better than the rest: They accused its co-founder, Arab American Linda Sarsour, of being an antisemite. Over the next 18 months, at least 152 Russian accounts regularly attacked Sarsour. That may not seem like many accounts, but it worked: They drove the Women's March movement into disarray and eventually crippled the organization.

Russia doesn't need a million accounts, or even that many likes or upvotes. It just needs to get enough attention that actual Western users begin amplifying its content.

A former federal prosecutor who investigated the Russian disinformation effort summarized it like this:

It wasn’t exclusively about Trump and Clinton anymore. It was deeper and more sinister and more diffuse in its focus on exploiting divisions within society on any number of different levels.

As the New York Times reported in 2022,

There was a routine: Arriving for a shift, [Russian disinformation] workers would scan news outlets on the ideological fringes, far left and far right, mining for extreme content that they could publish and amplify on the platforms, feeding extreme views into mainstream conversations.

China is joining in with AI

[A couple months ago], the New York Times reported on a new disinformation campaign. "Spamouflage" is an effort by China to divide Americans by combining AI with real images of the United States to exacerbate political and social tensions in the U.S. The goal appears to be to cause Americans to lose hope, by promoting exaggerated stories with fabricated photos about homeless violence and the risk of civil war.

As Ladislav Bittman, a former Czechoslovakian secret police operative, explained about Soviet disinformation, the strategy is not to invent something totally fake. Rather, it is to act like an evil doctor who expertly diagnoses the patient’s vulnerabilities and exploits them, “prolongs his illness and speeds him to an early grave instead of curing him.”

The influence networks are vastly more effective than platforms admit

Russia now runs its most sophisticated online influence efforts through a network called Fabrika. Fabrika's operators have bragged that social media platforms catch only 1% of their fake accounts across YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, and Telegram, and other platforms.

But how effective are these efforts? By 2020, Facebook's most popular pages for Christian and Black American content were run by Eastern European troll farms tied to the Kremlin. And Russia doesn't just target angry Boomers on Facebook. Russian trolls are enormously active on Twitter. And, even, on Reddit.

It's not just false facts

The term "disinformation" undersells the problem. Because much of Russia's social media activity is not trying to spread fake news. Instead, the goal is to divide and conquer by making Western audiences depressed and extreme.

Sometimes, through brigading and trolling. Other times, by posting hyper-negative or extremist posts or opinions about the U.S. the West over and over, until readers assume that's how most people feel. And sometimes, by using trolls to disrupt threads that advance Western unity.

As the RAND think tank explained, the Russian strategy is volume and repetition, from numerous accounts, to overwhelm real social media users and create the appearance that everyone disagrees with, or even hates, them. And it's not just low-quality bots. Per RAND,

Russian propaganda is produced in incredibly large volumes and is broadcast or otherwise distributed via a large number of channels. ... According to a former paid Russian Internet troll, the trolls are on duty 24 hours a day, in 12-hour shifts, and each has a daily quota of 135 posted comments of at least 200 characters.

What this means for you

You are being targeted by a sophisticated PR campaign meant to make you more resentful, bitter, and depressed. It's not just disinformation; it's also real-life human writers and advanced bot networks working hard to shift the conversation to the most negative and divisive topics and opinions.

It's why some topics seem to go from non-issues to constant controversy and discussion, with no clear reason, across social media platforms. And a lot of those trolls are actual, "professional" writers whose job is to sound real.

So what can you do? To quote WarGames: The only winning move is not to play. The reality is that you cannot distinguish disinformation accounts from real social media users. Unless you know whom you're talking to, there is a genuine chance that the post, tweet, or comment you are reading is an attempt to manipulate you -- politically or emotionally.

Here are some thoughts:

Don't accept facts from social media accounts you don't know. Russian, Chinese, and other manipulation efforts are not uniform. Some will make deranged claims, but others will tell half-truths. Or they'll spin facts about a complicated subject, be it the war in Ukraine or loneliness in young men, to give you a warped view of reality and spread division in the West.

Resist groupthink. A key element of manipulate networks is volume. People are naturally inclined to believe statements that have broad support. When a post gets 5,000 upvotes, it's easy to think the crowd is right. But "the crowd" could be fake accounts, and even if they're not, the brilliance of government manipulation campaigns is that they say things people are already predisposed to think. They'll tell conservative audiences something misleading about a Democrat, or make up a lie about Republicans that catches fire on a liberal server or subreddit.

Don't let social media warp your view of society. This is harder than it seems, but you need to accept that the facts -- and the opinions -- you see across social media are not reliable. If you want the news, do what everyone online says not to: look at serious, mainstream media. It is not always right. Sometimes, it screws up. But social media narratives are heavily manipulated by networks whose job is to ensure you are deceived, angry, and divided.

Edited for typos and clarity. (Tumblr-edited for formatting and to note a sourced article is now older than mentioned in the original post. -LV)

P.S. Apparently, this post was removed several hours ago due to a flood of reports. Thank you to the r/GenZ moderators for re-approving it.

Second edit:

This post is not meant to suggest that r/GenZ is uniquely or especially vulnerable, or to suggest that a lot of challenges people discuss here are not real. It's entirely the opposite: Growing loneliness, political polarization, and increasing social division along gender lines is real. The problem is that disinformation and influence networks expertly, and effectively, hijack those conversations and use those real, serious issues to poison the conversation. This post is not about left or right: Everyone is targeted.

(Further Tumblr notes: since this was posted, there have been several more articles detailing recent discoveries of active disinformation/influence and hacking campaigns by Russia and their allies against several countries and their respective elections, and barely touches on the numerous Tumblr blogs discovered to be troll farms/bad faith actors from pre-2016 through today. This is an ongoing and very real problem, and it's nowhere near over.

A quote from NPR article linked above from 2018 that you might find familiar today: "[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we'd surely be better off without voting AT ALL," a post from the account said.")

#propaganda #psyops #disinformation #US politics #election 2024 #us elections #YES we have legitimate criticisms of our politicians and systems #but that makes us EVEN MORE susceptible to radicalization. not immune #no not everyone sharing specific opinions are psyops. but some of them are #and we're more likely to eat it up on all sides if it aligns with our beliefs #the division is the point #sound familiar?#voting #rambles #long post

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worstscholar · 6 months ago

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I cant shake this idea out of my head while listening to music lol

What if reader is a popular singer/star and Doffy is publicly spreading news about his and readers alleged relationship, so reader released a music titled "obsessed" by Mariah Carey. I would loveeee to see Doffys reaction lol

Btw, love your works 💗

Reader cab be in any gender, Thankyou!

thank you so much :) this is super rushed and not edited at all. I had fun making doffy out to be a pathetic loser, part of me wanted to make him stalkerish, but I didn't feel like writing a whole fic, so here's this little drabble.

the reader has no gender

He didn't know what to call it, the sinking feeling in his chest every time he heard your voice, heard your name, saw your face. He couldn't find a good name for how utterly lonely you made him feel. Doflamingo knew he was obsessed, he loved you, he couldn't stop thinking about you, he needed you.

He knew he looked dumb, spending hours watching youtube tutorials on how to photoshop like a pro, just so he could convince his poor mother and father that he had found ‘the one’. If only they knew you had no idea who he was, that the only thing he was holding at night was your photo. It doesn't matter if he didn't have you now, he knew he'd have you in the future, you were bound to be his, Doflamingo could feel it, and he'd wait for you, no matter how long it took and no matter how lonely he got.

He was dedicated, using his inherited wealth to buy your albums, merchandise, anything you sold, no matter who was the target audience, Doflamingo bought it and cherished it. He's probably spent over thousands of dollars on you by now, fantasizing that it was his money that bought you that pretty new outfit, or that bag, or your new car. He couldn't help himself, could never stop himself from stalking your socials, compulsively hoarding your photos, sending you designer things, in hopes you’d read his messages and respond.

His parents were convinced you two were a thing, so proud of their son for getting such a pretty partner, always bothering him about you coming to dinner, getting married, and giving them grandkids. His mom was especially proud, posting on her facebook about the two of you, bragging to all of her friends about her son's special new partner. Rosinante on the other hand saw right through his brother's lies, in the beginning it was harmless, innocent little lies to skip out on family functions, or holidays. Then it started to get annoying, the pictures were weird enough, but the lies had been going on so long now, their mother would start asking him about any boyfriends or girlfriends, she’d even compare him to his brother. “Roci dear, when are you going to settle down with a nice boy or girl like your brother?” She’d ask, looking all innocent, while Doflamingo sat a few feet away suddenly looking a little pale.

He doesn't outright tell his parents that doffy’s lying, instead he leaves little (big) hints, like teaching his mom how to use instagram, and adding you and doffy as her friends. He lets his mom find out for herself that your profile does not mention her son at all, in fact, your profile says you’re dating someone completely different. At first she’s horrified, thinking you’re cheating, and she stirs the pot, leaving comments on your posts, asking if you were cheating on her son. And before anyone realizes, you have a full blown cheating scandal on your hands with a man you’ve never met. The media is all over you, criticizing you, spreading ridiculous rumors. Your real partner is understandably horrified, and ends up leaving you.

Doflamingo is also very horrified, and embarrassed. He has no idea what happened, how did this blow up so fast? He feels sick, as he scrolls social media, he started a scandal without even meaning to, ruining both of your reputations. It's easy for doffy to ignore the hate directed at him, but when it's meant for you, he's enraged. This is his fault, why are people hating on you?

When his phone pings with a notification saying you’ve released a new single, his heart drops when he reads the title. As he listens to the song, part of him is excited that you’ve recognized him, but another part is upset that you don't reciprocate his feelings. He's done so much for you and his mom just had to go and blow up this whole situation, you’re supposed to love him.

#₊˚⊹♡ ope ope no mi #anon ask #ask box #I love pathetic doffy #send more asks please :)#doffy #doffy x reader #doflamingo x reader #doflamingo #doflamingo x male reader #donquixote doflamingo #donquixote doflamingo x reader #doffy x male reader

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sexhaver · 1 year ago

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hey I have an ungraded Alpha Chaos Orb I got from a blind egg machine in the 90s. how do I get it graded and what's the best move for me with this thing? should I sell it, or is it going to continue to acquire value?

ohhhhh man that's a Spicy Meatball. first step would be getting ahold of a jeweler's loupe and doing some basic at-home checks for whether or not it's fake. the most common is the Green Dot Test where you look at the green dot on the back of the card:

there are also some other tests you can do but the efficacy of those can vary depending on the set the card is from (i.e. sometimes legit cards can still fail); r/mtgfinance is very helpful with walking you through the specifics of these

once you determine it's not an obvious fake, the next step would be getting it graded. the gold standards here are Beckett and PSA. picking which one to use is a subject of great debate; generally PSA is preferred by Pokemon collectors and stores in Japan, whereas Beckett is preferred by MTG whales (i.e. your target audience). PSA is more lenient on specifically the centering of the card though so it might be worth sending it into them depending on how that looks. also before sending the card in to any service, get multiple high-quality scans of the front and back in case a dispute arises. both Beckett and PSA are wayyyy more reputable than that card service i posted about a few days back that just declares their customers' cards fake and then steals them, but when dealing with something this expensive it pays to be cautious. i would also recommend insuring the package you mail it to them in

once you get a grade, you can decide how to proceed from there. Chaos Orb specifically is banned in basically everything so it really only has value as a collectable, which means you can probably just leave it in the plastic "slab" you'll get it back in. on the plus side, it has a LOT of value as a collectable. i don't have a finger on the pulse of alpha card prices but you're looking at multiple thousands of dollars minimum. however, you are going to run into some issues because 1. you're someone with no sale history selling a really rare and expensive card and 2. there are so few Alpha Chaos Orbs floating around that there aren't really enough sales to pin down a market price, but not so few sales that you want to go through an auction house. you definitely do not want to sell to a physical LGS (local game store) because they are not going to beat the best offer you can find online (they mostly have the edge when selling in bulk). your best bets here are probably either ebay or this facebook group, but bear in mind that ebay takes some percentage of the sale (i think 14%?) and tends to side with the buyer unconditionally if a dispute arises. if you take the facebook route, DO NOT ACCEPT OFFERS FROM PEOPLE SLIDING INTO YOUR DMS. THEY ARE LOWBALLING YOU.

im answering this one publicly so people can chime in if they have any other advice they want to share, but in any case, your first step here is to get your hands on a jeweler's loupe

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maximumphilosopheranchor · 1 year ago

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“We need to strengthen the conflict between Zaluzhny and Zelensky, along the lines of ‘he intends to fire him,’” one Kremlin political strategist wrote a year ago, after a meeting of senior Russian officials and Moscow spin doctors, according to internal Kremlin documents.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s administration ordered a group of Russian political strategists to use social media and fake news articles to push the theme that Zelensky “is hysterical and weak. … He fears that he will be pushed aside, therefore he is getting rid of the dangerous ones.”

The Kremlin instruction resulted in thousands of social media posts and hundreds of fabricated articles, created by troll farms and circulated in Ukraine and across Europe, that tried to exploit what were then rumored tensions between the two Ukrainian leaders, according to a trove of Kremlin documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post. The files, numbering more than 100 documents, were shared with The Post to expose for the first time the scale of Kremlin propaganda targeting Zelensky with the aim of dividing and destabilizing Ukrainian society — efforts that Moscow dubbed “information psychological operations.”(..)

The documents show how in January 2023 the Kremlin’s first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, tasked a team of officials and political strategists with establishing a presence on Ukrainian social media to distribute disinformation.

The effort built on an earlier project that Kiriyenko, a longtime Putin aide, had been running to subvert Western support for Ukraine, including in France and Germany, previous reporting by The Post shows. The European propaganda group was overseen by one of Kiriyenko’s deputies, Tatyana Matveeva, head of the Kremlin’s department for developing information and communication technologies, the documents show.(..)

At a Jan. 16, 2023, meeting, Kiriyenko laid out four key objectives for the Ukraine propaganda team: discrediting Kyiv’s military and political leadership, splitting the Ukrainian elite, demoralizing Ukrainian troops and disorienting the Ukrainian population, the documents show.(..)

By early March, dozens of hired trolls were pumping out more than 1,300 texts and 37,000 comments on Ukrainian social media each week, according to one of the dashboard presentations. Records show that employees at troll farms earned 60,000 rubles a month, or $660, for writing 100 comments a day.(..)

The strategists advised developing “a network of Telegram channels in combination with Twitter and Facebook/Instagram” as the most effective way of penetrating Ukraine’s media space, noting that the Telegram audience in Ukraine had grown 600 percent over the previous year. (..)

By the first week of May,a post the Kremlin strategists had planted on Facebook, saying that “Valery Zaluzhny can become the next president of Ukraine,” had garnered 4.3 million views, one of the dashboard presentations shows. The Kremlin then issued orders to create similar posts or “additional reality” — a term used by Russian officials for fake news — including reports that Western leaders were looking for a replacement for Zelensky and that Zaluzhny intended to halt the counteroffensive.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said in a statement referring to the Russian posts about Zaluzhny and the alleged lack of state aid for the fallen soldier that it had been “monitoring and blocking accounts, Pages and websites run by this campaign” since 2022, “including these two Pages that were quickly detected and disabled by our security team.”

Undeterred, the strategists planted a plethora of articles in Ukraine via social media, with one in May headlined “Zelensky is holding on to the throne. In Ukraine democracy is being liquidated,” the documents show. Another in June sought to play up what it claimed was the prolonged disappearance of Zaluzhny from public view, with bloggers instructed to post comments declaring: “This is why Zaluzhny disappeared: Because he could have and should have taken Zelensky’s place.”

The strategists also sought to exploit Kiriyenko’s campaign in Western Europe by recycling its disinformation for use in Ukraine. The tactics in the European campaign included cloning and usurping media and government websites, such as those for Le Monde and the French Foreign Ministry, and then posting fake content on them denigrating the Ukrainian government, in an operation dubbed Doppelgänger by European Union officials. They also included creating fake accounts on X, or Twitter, for prominent figures including German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. The strategists sought to place stories or posts from those websites or accounts on Ukrainian social media as genuine European reporting or commentary.

After the fake Baerbock account declared in September that “the war in Ukraine will be over in 3 months,” the German authorities launched an investigation and found more than 50,000 fake user accounts coordinating pro-Russian propaganda, including those promoting the tweet. Officials believe the fake accounts were an extension of the Doppelgänger campaign, Der Spiegel reported.

The Doppelgänger operation was first exposed by Meta in September 2022 and then by French authoritieslast summer and tied to Reliable Recent News, a fake news site traced back to two Russian companies, the Social Design Agency and Structura National Technologies. The Kremlin documents show that the heads of Social Design Agency and Structura — Ilya Gambashidze and Nikolai Tupikin — worked directly with Kiriyenko and another Kremlin official, Sofiya Zakharova, who coordinated efforts in Europe and Ukraine.“She is the brain,” a European security official said.

The E.U. imposed sanctions in July on Gambashidze, Structura National Technologies and Social Design Agency for what it said was their role in creating fake webpages and social media accounts “usurping the identity of national media outlets and government websites” as part of “a hybrid campaign by Russia against the EU and member states.” Gambashidze and Tupikin were named by the U.S. State Department in November for their role in Kremlin efforts to spread disinformation in Latin America(..)

Gambashidze, Tupikin and their colleagues proposed narratives they hoped would destroy Zelensky’s image in the West as “the hero of a small country fighting a global evil,” one of the documents sent in April shows. They suggested portraying Zelensky as an actor only capable of following a script written for him by the United States and NATO,and his Western backers as tiring of him. They proposed distributing fake Ukrainian government documents as evidence of corrupt military procurement schemes, and suggesting that Zelensky and his family had Western bank accounts, the document shows.

The plans led to hundreds of articles and thousands of social media posts translated into French, German and English that targeted Zelensky, the document trove shows.

One article, for a French audience, was headlined: “The conductor has gotten bored of Zelensky’s concerts: the actions of the U.S. in Ukraine lead one to believe that Washington soon intends to get rid of Zelensky, without discussing this with Paris.”

On the basis of this article, one of the strategists ordered a troll farm employee to prepare social media posts in French saying, “Washington will replace Zelensky with a more capable president. And France will have to silently continue arming and financing Ukraine.”

Another article described how Zelensky had pushed for Ukrainian forces to defend Bakhmut against Zaluzhny’s wishes, leading, it said, to the deaths of 250,000 Ukrainian troops, a wildly exaggerated death toll in what was nonetheless a brutal battle for the city. The troll farm employees were asked to write comments such as “Why do Ukrainian generals hate Zelensky? PR out of the blood of fighters” and “To shoot the exhausted president? In Ukraine, a generals’ conspiracy is brewing.”

One of the strategists’ aims, European security officials said, was to ensure that the themes placed in European social media filtered back into Ukraine, through reposts and amplification,or by being picked up by Ukrainian politicians keen to boost their profiles with provocative posts.(..)

The strategists also had price lists for planting pro-Russian commentary in prominent Western media and for paying social media “influencers” in the United States and Europe “willing to work with Russian clients.” The documents say the Russians were willing to pay up to $39,000 for the planting of pro-Russian commentary in major media outlets in the West.

“Practically everywhere this will be columnists, leaders of public opinion, former diplomats, officials, professors and so on,” a note attached to the price list states.”

Catherine Belton, “Kremlin runs disinformation campaign to undermine Zelensky, documents show”

#Catherine Belton #Volodymyr Zelenskyy #Ukraine #Russia #Vladimir Putin #disinformation #fake news #social media #russian propaganda #media literacy #really good article

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partisan-by-default · 4 months ago

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You're being targeted by disinformation networks that are vastly more effective than you realize. And they're making you more hateful and depressed. (submitted 3 months ago * by walkandtalkk)

(I wrote this post in March and posted it on r/GenZ. However, a few people messaged me to say that the r/GenZ moderators took it down last week, though I'm not sure why. Given the flood of divisive, gender-war posts we've seen in the past five days, and several countries' demonstrated use of gender-war propaganda to fuel political division in multiple countries, I felt it was important to repost this. This post was written for a U.S. audience, but the implications are increasingly global.)

And you probably don't realize how well it's working on you.

This is a long post, but I wrote it because this problem is real, and it's much scarier than you think.

How Russian networks fuel racial and gender wars to make Americans fight one another

There was one problem: The video was staged. And In the Now, which publicized it, is a subsidiary of RT, formerly Russia Today, the Kremlin TV channel aimed at foreign, English-speaking audiences.

As an MIT study found in 2019, Russia's online influence networks reached 140 million Americans every month -- the majority of U.S. social media users.

Russia began using troll farms a decade ago to incite gender and racial divisions in the United States

Here's what Prigozhin had to say about the IRA's efforts to disrupt the 2022 election:

Gentlemen, we interfered, we interfere and we will interfere. Carefully, precisely, surgically and in our own way, as we know how. During our pinpoint operations, we will remove both kidneys and the liver at once.

Russia plays both sides -- on gender, race, and religion

MIT found that My Baby Daddy is run by a large troll network in Eastern Europe likely financed by Russia.

But Russian influence networks are also also aggressively misogynistic and aggressively anti-LGBT.

On January 23, 2017, just after the first Women's March, the New York Times found that the Internet Research Agency began a coordinated attack on the movement. Per the Times:

Russia doesn't need a million accounts, or even that many likes or upvotes. It just needs to get enough attention that actual Western users begin amplifying its content.

A former federal prosecutor who investigated the Russian disinformation effort summarized it like this:

It wasn’t exclusively about Trump and Clinton anymore. It was deeper and more sinister and more diffuse in its focus on exploiting divisions within society on any number of different levels.

As the New York Times reported in 2022,

China is joining in with AI

Last month, the New York Times reported on a new disinformation campaign. "Spamouflage" is an effort by China to divide Americans by combining AI with real images of the United States to exacerbate political and social tensions in the U.S. The goal appears to be to cause Americans to lose hope, by promoting exaggerated stories with fabricated photos about homeless violence and the risk of civil war.

The influence networks are vastly more effective than platforms admit

It's not just false facts

What this means for you

Here are some thoughts:

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mariacallous · 1 year ago

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This year marks 30 years since the Rwandan genocide in 1994, when a Hutu-majority government and a privately owned radio station with close ties to the government colluded to murder 800,000 people.

The year 1994 may seem recent, but for a continent as young as Africa (where the median age is 19), it’s more like a distant past.

Suppose this had happened today, in the age of the algorithm. How much more chaos and murder would ensue if doctored images and deepfakes were proliferating on social media rather than radio, and radicalizing even more of the public? None of this is beyond reach, and countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and Niger are at risk—owing to their confluence of ethno-religious tensions, political instability, and the presence of foreign adversaries.

Over the last few years, social media companies have culled their trust and safety units, reversing the gains made in the wake of the Myanmar genocide and the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. elections. Nowhere else are these reductions more consequential than in Africa. Low levels of digital literacy, fragile politics, and limited online safety systems render the continent ripe for hate speech and violence.

Last year, a Kenyan court held Facebook parent company Meta liable for the unlawful dismissal of 184 content moderators, after the company invested in only one content moderator for every 64,000 users in neighboring Ethiopia.

This was while Ethiopia spiraled into one of the world’s deadliest wars this century. During this time, Facebook was awash with content inciting ethnic violence and genocide. Its algorithms couldn’t detect hate speech in local languages while its engagement-based ranking systems continued to provide a platform for violent content. The scale of disinformation meant that the website’s remaining content moderators were no match for the moment.

The advent of adversarial artificial intelligence—which involves algorithms that seek to dodge content moderation tools—could light the match of the continent’s next war, and most social media companies are woefully underprepared.

And even if safety systems were to be put in place, hateful posts will spread at a far greater pace and scale, which would undermine the algorithms used to detect incendiary content. Sophisticated new AI systems could also analyze the most effective forms of disinformation messaging, produce them at scale, and effectively tailor them according to the targeted audience.

With limited oversight, this can easily tip some communities—ones that are already fraught with tensions—toward conflict and collapse.

Facebook has drawn criticism from human rights organizations for its perceived role in enabling and disseminating content intended to incite violence during the war centered in Ethiopia’s Tigray region from 2020-2022, a conflict which is estimated to have killed more than 600,000 people.

“Meta has yet again repeated its pattern of waiting until violence begins to support even rudimentary safety systems in Ethiopia,” Frances Haugen, the most prominent whistleblower to testify against Meta, told Foreign Policy.

In 2021, Haugen testified before the U.S Congress, exposing Facebook’s internal practices and sparking a global reckoning about social media’s influence over the communities that use it. Her disclosures suggested that Facebook knew that its systems fanned the flames of ethnic violence in Ethiopia and did little to stop it.

It did so because it knew it could. Far from the spotlight of a congressional hearing, most technology companies attract less scrutiny for operations abroad.

“It just doesn’t make the news cycle” according to Peter Cunliffe-Jones, the founder of Africa Check, the continent’s first independent fact-checking organization.

Most technology companies do not share basic data that would allow third-party organizations to effectively monitor and halt dangerous influence operations. As a result, most countries are left to outsource this critical task of maintaining social cohesion to the companies themselves. In other words, the very companies that profit the most from disinformation are now the arbiters of social order. This becomes dangerous when the companies slash safety resources in both wealthy nations and more peripheral markets beyond North America and Europe.

“One of the great misfortunes is that the war in Tigray [took place] in Africa. There was less oversight and unverified claims ran rampant” Cunliffe-Jones told Foreign Policy.

In leaked files, Meta found that its own algorithm to detect hate speech was unable to perform adequately in either of Ethiopia’s most widely used languages, Amharic and Oromo. Furthermore, the organization fell short on investing in enough content moderators.

While Meta has made significant strides elsewhere to counter disinformation, its strategy in Africa remains opaque and often involves the mobilization of response teams after a crisis becomes dire. The measures taken and their impact are not made public, leaving experts in the dark. This includes Meta’s own Oversight Board, whose requests for independent impact assessments in crisis zones were effectively ignored.

The war in Tigray is by no means an anomaly, nor should it be treated as such. In fact, across much of the continent, identity is still largely delineated by ethnicity, or along clan or religious lines—some of them a remnant of European imperialism.

With the advent of adversarial AI, Rwanda and Ethiopia could pale in comparison to an even more deadly future conflict. This is because these new algorithms don’t just spread disinformation—they also attack the very systems tasked with reviewing and removing incendiary content. For example, an adversarial AI program might slightly change the video frames of a deepfake, such that it’s still recognizable to the human eye but the slight alteration (technically known as noise) causes the algorithm to misclassify it, thereby dodging content moderation tools.

“We have been told by Big Tech that the path to safety is dependent on content moderation. Adversarial AI blows up this paradigm by allowing attackers to side-step safety systems based on content,” Haugen told Foreign Policy. “We may see the consequences first in conflicts in Africa, but no one is safe.”

Africa is at a crossroads. It is rich in critical minerals—such as cobalt, copper, and rare earth elements, which make up essential components of the technology driving the green energy transition—and has a young workforce that could turbocharge its economic growth. But it could fall prey to yet another resource curse driven by proxy wars between large powers seeking to dominate the supply chains of those critical minerals.

In this context, it’s not hard to imagine foreign mercenaries and insurgent groups leveraging adversarial AI to sow chaos and disorder. One of the greatest threats is in the eastern regions of Congo, home to an estimated 50 percent of the world’s cobalt reserves.

The region is also plagued by roughly 120 warring factions vying for control. These include, for example, the March 23 Movement (M23) and the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). The FDLR, an offshoot of the former Hutu extremist government in Rwanda, is in a heated contest against the Tutsi-majority M23, which argues that the FDLR poses a threat to local Tutsis as well as neighboring Rwanda.

According to U.N. experts, the current Rwandan government supports M23, though Kigali denies it. Through targeted information warfare, M23 argued that a genocide was looming against the Tutsi population. The Congolese army, along with the FDLR, argued that the M23 is yet another example of foreign interference and warfare intended to sow chaos and seize Congolese assets. But both sides have been accused of manufacturing news stories about violence through manipulated images and inflated death tolls, which are widely shared on social media.

The advent of adversarial AI could prove particularly dangerous here, given the ethnic tensions, foreign interference, lucrative critical mineral reserves, and a provocative online discourse that tends to fly without many strategic guardrails. Different factions could easily deploy deepfakes that mimic the casualties of past massacres or declare war from seemingly official sources.

Given the market value of critical minerals and the role of foreign adversaries, this could quickly spiral into mass violence that destabilizes Congo and neighboring countries.

Faced with such a risk, Africa cannot afford to wait for Western tech companies to act. African governments must take the lead.

As the tools of disinformation grow more sophisticated, old safety systems are becoming defunct. Faced with such a threat, the solution cannot be to invest exclusively in content moderation.

An alliance between Africa and South Asia could prove crucial. These two regions alone account for the largest anticipated growth in internet users over the coming decade as well as a growing share of market revenue. Many middle-income powers—such as Nigeria, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Pakistan—command a growing influence in global affairs.

A coordinated effort among these nations, focused on auditing tech platforms, muting destructive algorithms, and ensuring corporate accountability for social media-driven violence, could help set new standards against disinformation and adversarial AI.

Leaders in the global south should first turn to experts on disinformation. Nations threatened by the technology should demand the appointment of an independent board of experts who can request independent audits into the nature of algorithms used, co-sign on content moderation decisions in crisis zones, and measure the efficacy of new interventions. Such a board would need the accountability powers currently vested in U.S.- and EU-based agencies to ensure that there are consequences when standards aren’t adhered to.

When the independent board deems a country high risk, tech companies would be required to effectively mute algorithms that rank content based on engagement—that is, the numbers that track how many people have seen, liked, and shared it. As such, users would only see information chronologically (regardless of how much engagement it gets), thereby drastically reducing the likelihood of traffic gravitating toward incendiary content. In the age of adversarial AI, this would give an expanded team of human moderators a far better shot at removing dangerous content.

And if the board determines that an algorithm platformed incendiary content that consequently led to offline violence, the tech companies responsible for those algorithms should be pressured to contribute to a dedicated victims fund for families that bear the deadly consequences of those calls for violence.

African governments must also spearhead digital literacy efforts. In 2011, South African politician Lindiwe Mazibuko made history as the first Black woman elected as opposition leader in the South African Parliament. Today, she runs Futureelect, an organization aimed at training the next generation of ethical public leaders.

“There are 19 elections taking place this year across Africa. We’re lagging on digital literacy globally and so I worry that deep fakes and disinformation warfare could be more consequential here,” she said. “It’s why we are actively training the next cycle of ethical leaders to be cognizant of this threat.”

Ahmed Kaballo, who co-founded the pan-African media house African Stream, is focused on building more independent media. “There is virtually no way to effectively fact-check rival claims without a flourishing independent media landscape. Otherwise, the public is left to accept disinformation as the truth,” he argues.

Meanwhile, technology companies should, in the near term, invest in algorithms that can detect hate speech in local languages; build a more expansive network of content moderators and research experts; and prioritize far greater transparency and collaboration that would allow independent experts to conduct audits, design policy interventions, and ultimately measure progress.

For Haugen, it comes down to advertisers, investors, and the public demanding more oversight.

“Investors need to understand that allowing social media companies to continue to operate without oversight places systemic risk across their portfolios. Social stability and rule of law are the foundation of long-term returns, and Ethiopia demonstrates how when basic guardrails are lacking, social media can fan the flames of chaos,” she said.

In Africa, the confluence of political tensions, critical mineral reserves, and superpower competition make the continent ripe for targeting by new technologies designed to evade detection and spread chaos. Rather than just becoming a testing ground, Africa must take proactive steps to leverage its growing global weight (alongside South Asia) to demand greater government action against new forms of AI-driven disinformation that have the potential to upend societies across the world.

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sociocosmos · 7 months ago

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 1 year ago

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by Dave Huber

Cops cite ‘freedom of speech’

An Israeli physics professor’s lecture at the University of Nevada Las Vegas was interrupted by anti-Israel protesters late last month, but campus cops refused to remove them — citing the First Amendment.

This led Professor Asaf Peer, who was discussing the topic of black holes, to ask “What about my freedom of speech?”

According to The Jerusalem Post, Peer was but a mere quarter-hour into his lecture when the shouting protesters (pictured) “burst into the room […] with banners and flags.”

Protesters’ placards commemorated Islamic University of Gaza physicist Sufyan Tayeh (killed in a December Israeli airstrike) and accused Peer of getting his physics degree in “illegally occupied” territory via the 1948 Nakba.

In an edited video of the incident (below), a protester accuses Peer of “spreading violent rhetoric” on his Facebook account, and tells his students they should “all be ashamed of themselves.”

An Instagram statement by the UNLV chapter of Nevadans for Palestinian Liberation calls Peer an “anti Palestinian [sic] academic with extremist views” and a “genocide apologist.”

Peer, from Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, actually invited the activists to remain to learn about black holes and then discuss “unrelated issues” after his lecture.

But the demonstrators continued their antics, leading to the UNLV police to be called in. (No word if Peer’s lecture topic was an issue for the protesters.)

MORE: Israeli scholar to Notre Dame audience: Hamas ‘not morally equivalent’ to the IDF

The police had a discussion with the lecture’s organizer and ultimately decided to end Peer’s talk and escort him off campus for his “safety.”

Nevada Current reports UNLV Director of Public Affairs Francis McCabe said Peer’s lecture was an “open lecture as part of a public physics symposium.”

But according to the UNLV Policy on Speech and Advocacy in Public Areas, it doesn’t appear anyone can just shut down academic lectures:

[Free speech] activities must not, however, unreasonably interfere with the right of the University to conduct its affairs in an orderly manner and to maintain its property, nor may they interfere with the University’s obligation to protect rights of all to teach, study, and fully exchange ideas. Physical force, the threat of force, or other coercive actions used to subject anyone to a speech of any kind is expressly forbidden.

Members of the UNLV Jewish Faculty and Student Group and the local Anti-Defamation League pointed out free speech doesn’t mean “interruptions of academic opportunities,” and that targeting Peer due of his national origin is “unacceptable.”

UNLV President Keith Whitfield said in a statement the university is investigating the matter “to help determine how [it] can better handle such situations in the future.”

#university of nevada las vegas #professor asaf peer #unlv #bar ilan university

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fahmichowdhuryrayat011 · 5 months ago

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𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐌𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐲 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐀𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞?

Social media is more than a tool—it’s the bridge to authentic communication with your target audience. But success lies in strategy. 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: Know their pain points, preferences, and the platforms they engage with most. 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁: Each platform has its vibe—be professional on LinkedIn, visual on Instagram, and relatable on TikTok. 𝗘𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: Don’t just post—interact. Respond to comments, ask questions, and build trust. 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁: Use insights to refine what works—videos, polls, or stories? Stay agile. 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀: Stay ahead by using new features like Reels or LinkedIn articles to amplify your message. Social media is about storytelling and creating a connection. How do you use it to enhance communication? Share your thoughts! 👇

Also, you can follow: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest

#SocialMediaMarketing #AudienceEngagement #DigitalMarketing #ContentStrategy #SocialMediaTips #MarketingStrategy #CustomerEngagement #BrandBuilding #SocialMediaGrowth #OnlineMarketing #SocialMediaStrategy #DigitalContent #SocialMediaManagement #MarketingTrends #ContentMarketing

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authorjoeypaul · 9 months ago

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THE MANY DIFFERENT WAYS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is a massive beast and it's something you, as a writer/author, have to slay in your own way. I've been someone who's pretty much on all the social media I can be. Mostly because I'm old enough to have joined when they were first launched and then gone from there, but I want to be clear that you do not have to do this! You can have one, two, more, or absolutely none and that is okay. You have to do what is best for you, and no one should be demanding you do differently.

The one thing I learned early about social media is that every platform has a different audience. Like Twitter, before it went the way it did, and one I have since gladly left, was all about short form. Instagram was photos and long form. Tumblr is a mixture of the two. Facebook is more about links and memes, and YouTube is videos and some short form video content. There's more, like Blue Sky and Threads, both of which I use and am active on, though more so on Threads, that are still finding their way, and both are more about replacing the Twitter hole left from that app going seriously downhill.

But my point is that you need to know more about what goes into each one before really deciding where to set yourself up and how to work it to your advantage. I won't claim to be a social media expert, because I'm not, but I will say I have found things that've worked for me, and things that have not. I personally find it pretty easy to manage my time on all the ones I'm part of, but I completely understand how daunting it can be to come into the writer/author space and not know the first place to start.

So here are my big tips when it comes to social media and being active on many, or any!

#1 GO WHERE YOUR AUDIENCE IS

This should be simple and easy, but it's not because the demographic changes from time to time. Like I know that Instagram and Threads are more bookish spaces, and YA too, depending on the hashtags you use. I also know that Facebook very much is not, but I do have followers there who've been with me for a long time, and none of the other social sites seem to have as good a handle on groups as Facebook does, so for that you're kinda stuck.

But if, say, you're writing romance for adults, then you're gonna wanna be in a space where you know you'll how to bring your readers to you. There is little point trying to attract attention from an audience when the ideal people, your target audience are not even present. You need to do a whole lot of research and know what you're trying to do, and who you're trying to attract.

#2 TAILOR YOUR CONTENT TO THE SPACE

This is something where I made this mistake when I was first starting out. I posted the same thing absolutely everywhere. It doesn't work like that. While there are something I'll cross post, the way I go about doing that matters. Tumblr is better to have the actual posts rather than just links. Instagram wants photos that are eye catching and links in stories rather than the posts themselves. YouTube needs videos, and it should be content that's more unique to that space.

My point is that while there is, and can be, some cross over - like posting your reels to YouTube as shorts, or on Threads as a link - it shouldn't only be that. There should be some content that is unique to that platform. People engaging with you will be fine with a little cross-over but if it's all the same, and it's things that wouldn't normally be on that platform, it's going to have the opposite impact and annoy people.

#3 BALANCE THINGS

By this I simply mean that just because you can be on all platforms, doesn't mean you have to be. Like I said at the start, I am on a lot of them because I was around at the start, but that doesn't mean I'm exceptionally active on all of them at all times. I've grown my own routine and schedule, and it works for me, but that doesn't mean that someone just starting out has to do the same. You need to choose your battles wisely, as social media takes a whole chunk of time, and you still have to be writing your book after all.

So be careful, and balance the way you do things and when you do them. Work out what gets you to the right readers and go from there. Don't overextend yourself and end up in burnout. No one wants that!

So those are my tips, and I hope they're helpful to you! Good luck!

Any questions? Lemme know in the comments!

Follow Joey to be kept up to date with the latest news regarding Joey and her books.

#writeblr #writerblr #writing tips #writing advice #indie author #joey paul

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digitaldetoxworld · 16 days ago

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Proven Marketing Tactics for Small Business Success

Marketing is the lifeblood of any enterprise, especially small groups seeking to grow and compete in a crowded market. Without powerful advertising strategies, even the satisfactory products or services can pass overlooked. Unlike huge companies, small companies often operate with restrained budgets and resources. Therefore, they need clever, price-effective, and measurable strategies to advantage visibility and develop step by step.

Best marketing strategies for small business

This article explores numerous marketing techniques that are especially effective for small agencies, combining traditional strategies with modern digital tools.

1. Understand Your Target Audience

The basis of all advertising begins with know-how your clients. Define your target marketplace based totally on:

Demographics: Age, gender, profits stage, education

Geographics: Where they stay or paintings

Psychographics: Lifestyle, pursuits, and values

Behavioral trends: Buying conduct, logo loyalty, product utilization

Creating a purchaser persona enables you tailor your messaging, offers, and channels greater correctly. For instance, in case you're concentrated on university college students, Instagram and TikTok is probably better platforms than electronic mail advertising or print media.

2. Build a Strong Brand Identity

A recognizable and straightforward emblem builds lengthy-time period customer loyalty. Your brand includes:

Logo and design: Consistent shades, fonts, and imagery

Tone of voice: Formal, informal, funny, and so on.

Even a one-man or woman enterprise blessings from sturdy branding. For example, a nearby baker who uses eco-friendly packaging can emblem themselves as “inexperienced” and attract environmentally-conscious customers.

Three. Create a Professional Website

A internet site is your 24/7 digital storefront. It should be:

Mobile-friendly and fast

Easy to navigate

Linked for your social media pages

Equipped with touch paperwork or chat help

Use platforms like WordPress, Wix, or Shopify to create low priced, attractive websites without requiring technical expertise.

Four. Utilize Local search engine marketing

If you’re a nearby commercial enterprise, optimizing your on-line presence for local searches is critical. Start by using:

Claiming and verifying your Google Business Profile

Encouraging satisfied clients to depart reviews

Using local key phrases (e.G., “nice salon in Patna”)

Getting indexed in neighborhood directories and maps

5. Leverage Social Media Marketing

Social media structures offer unfastened and paid tools to interact your target audience and construct a community.

Facebook & Instagram: Great for promotions, memories, and visible content

LinkedIn: Best for B2B organizations

YouTube: Ideal for tutorials, product demos, and at the back of-the-scenes content

X (previously Twitter): Good for quick updates, client interplay

Use content material calendars to time table posts always and engage with followers through polls, contests, and comments.

6. Content Marketing: Educate and Add Value

Rather than simply promoting, content material advertising goals to teach and construct accept as true with. Examples encompass:

Blog posts: Informative articles in your internet site

E-books & Guides: Offer beneficial records in alternate for electronic mail addresses

Videos: Product demonstrations, testimonials, or storytelling

Infographics: Shareable visuals explaining complicated topics

Content advertising improves search engine marketing, establishes authority, and builds long-term trust.

7. Email Marketing

Email remains one of the most price-powerful channels for small corporations. Use it to:

Send newsletters

Announce promotions or new merchandise

Re-engage inactive customers

Request remarks

Tools like Mailchimp, Sendinblue, and ConvertKit allow smooth automation and list segmentation. Ensure your emails offer fee, no longer just commercials.

Eight. Referral and Loyalty Programs

Your glad clients can be your excellent marketers. Encourage them to refer friends or family with the aid of offering:

Discounts

Free products

Loyalty points

#digital marketing #online and offline sales #online and offline business #method of small business #Best marketing strategies for small business

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cyberphuck · 4 months ago

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How to Have an Argument, by Jack Daniels "Jaydee" Mizutani:

1. Don't. This isn't a joke post, it's honest advice. Whoever you're verbally sparring with, you're not going to change their mind with your words. That's something that happens in movies and not in real life. There are exceptions, such as if you are a member of a debate team or a trial lawyer, but even then it's the *audience* you're trying to sway, not your opponent.

You, Jean Q. Public, are not having a "debate" with anyone, you're arguing with someone who has already made up their mind. As stated before, most people aren't listening in conversations-- they're waiting for their turn to talk, and no matter how well thought out and accurately sourced your words are, they're either a) ignoring you or b) only waiting for you to slip up somewhere so they can dig in and dunk on you in front of everyone.

Do not begin an argument with someone, especially online, with the intention of swaying their opinion to match yours. If you begin an argument with the intention of DUNKING on someone, it will inevitably go badly for you, as your "audience," the people observing, will see you as childish and cringey (your target sees what you're attempting and refuses to play or worse, grabs you and dunks you first) or like a bully taking cheap shots (taunting someone who doesn't understand that you're only there to humiliate them-- they're often either young or neurodivergent or both, making the exercise cruel).

If your intention is to TROLL, not dunk (dunking is RELATED to their argument, i.e. "of course you believe that, the EPA is so underfunded that you shower in lead," whereas a troll is only tangentially related to the argument or even a non sequitur: "is that why you touch yourself at night?"), remember that unless you are very experienced-- and even then-- you run the HIGH risk of over- or under-shooting your mark.

Overshooting means your target doesn't rise to the bait because they don't understand your intention, leading to you either having to explain your "joke" or just walk of shame yourself out; undershooting means you've thrown a rock at someone and they turn out to be a *better troll* than you and drop a piano on you, making *you* the joke.

So there's no point in starting an argument on purpose. But there will be times when someone starts an argument with YOU, and you can't avoid having to respond somehow.

(THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE ABUSIVE SITUATIONS! THIS IS FOR LOW-STAKES CASUAL CONVERSATIONS SUCH AS SOME IDIOT ON FACEBOOK OR YOUR RACIST UNCLE COCKSNORT AT THE BBQ! SAFETY PLANS WILL LOOK DIFFERENT FOR EVERYONE AND I'M NOT QUALIFIED TO MAKE SWEEPING STATEMENTS ABOUT THEM! SORRY!)

Some random Jackolantern on Facebook or your Racist Uncle Cocksnort at the BBQ (people you don't care about) tries to start an argument with you.

"Heard YOUR PRESIDENT is gonna pass a law to let [budgies] in the army! Tell you whut, back when I was in [Wisconsin], if we saw a [budgie] we ALL knew what to do with him!"

You're going to follow the rule of "don't argue" (there's no point) with the strat of "Do not engage." If you're online, hit the block button. Woop, gone. Someone else questions your swift blocking? "That's not worth my time and I won't be engaging in any argument with you, either." Rinse and repeat if necessary.

Racist Uncle Cocksnort at the BBQ gets the courtesy of you verbalizing your refusal to argue. "I'm not interested in discussing that with you. Bye." Keep that phrase in mind so you don't accidentally get hooked on his line: "I'm not interested in having this discussion." Go and stand by the potato salad. If he follows you to try to re-start, you can keep him away by going to stand with a group of people you know *aren't* a bunch of douchebags. Outnumbered, a bully will almost always leave to search for easier prey. If he becomes *hostile,* that's an abusive situation and must be dealt with using other strategies to keep you safe.

("But I can't do that to every asshole at the BBQ, that's my whole family!"

1. You absolutely can-- you can just take your plate, get back into your car and leave. Or if you know the BBQ will consist mostly of assholes, don't go.

2. If you can't cut off your asshole (or asshole-apologist) relatives because you *rely* on them, financially or otherwise, that is an abusive situation and must be dealt with using other strategies to keep you safe.)

Main takeaway: if someone you don't care about wants you to argue, refuse to do so. Life is finite. Go look at a bird. "But Jaydee, I've seen you arguing with people on here all the time!" Wrong! If I'm "starting something" with someone, I'm nearly always waving a red cape to get them to charge at me and out themselves as a dumbass so I can make fun of them (I am not going to pretend I do this for some noble purpose, I have always been a bully and sometimes I crave violence). I take the chance because a) I'm an experienced troll and b) I already have a reputation as a huge gaping asshole, so I'm not losing any social points. I'm not gonna teach any of you how to be a troll. If you didn't learn on Livejournal in 2006 then you'll have to figure it out on your own. Hate anons are like a free buffet for me: my inbox fills up and I dive in there with a knife and fork, ready to tell everyone about how many of my dicks were in your mom last night.

#i know being a bully is bad and cringe but #i yam what i yam #society's to blame #also having to fight for survival in a family full of awful and mean but quick-witted and funny people

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inkywarden · 8 months ago

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This is a long one (fr sorry in advance) but it seems I can't quite put this out of my mind. I've never really listened to One Direction, even if I as a now 32 year old, probably was in the main target audience. I never got the hype, or much more likely, I never attempted to get the hype. I remember seeing them everywhere, and since I do have eyes, I noticed they were good looking boys. I also remember (silently mind you, I was much too edgy for 1D at this point) quickly finding my fav. He looked kind, he had a nice laugh and kind eyes. He was gorgeous, with the kind of smile I fear I will never see again. Tbh I have gone until last week without listening to, or even thinking much about 1d since. I do remember him though, Liam. I've seen him in the news, on social media, and again since I do have eyes, I noticed how the boy with the beautiful smile turned in to a very, very (like extremly??? hello?) handsome man. A man who still had the most genuine, contagious smile. A smile that always spread to his eyes. That was pretty much it for my knowledge of this band, and this man, until last week.

I saw it in the news, and it made no sense to me. How did we go from there to here? I felt.. something, still unsure what exactly. I later saw my old university post a memorial type post about him on facebook. My old university being the University of Wolverhampton, where I graduated as an illustrator in 2015. That's two things, two coincidences that weirdly made me feel more connected to this stranger. The unexplained, undefined feelings I was having suddenly felt heavier. This is when I hyperfixated and consumed just about everything there is to consume about this band, and this man. I'm still not a 1D fan, but I can now, after all these years say I get it. I've seen and read so much about this man and his life now, ups and downs. In the end, tragically, it seemed to be most of the latter in later years.

Most notably, and this actually broke my heart, I noticed how that genuine, beautiful smile that used to spread across his entire face, at some point stopped reaching his eyes. This is sad, it is tragic, and it is infuriating.

The time leading up to, and the aftermath both - the takes i'm seeing out here is wild and lacking in nuance. It feels like everything always is weighed in extremes, and it is neither fair or realistic. I dont know if I feel this way due to my own personal experiences and struggles with mental health, substance and/or alcohol abuse, or if its because this is the field I am soon graduating (career change dw) to work in, and I see many of these issues close up daily. These issues are things I would argue always goes hand in hand, and it is a never a choice one makes. It is a disease. I will never have anything in common with internet people today, and I will never understand this. Whatever the reasons. I will not speculate further. What I choose to believe in and live by is whatever the circumstance, people suffering from these issues deserve some grace. It is hard, constantly, and every day. No one chooses to stay in this illness, and even if they do manage to get out, it is almost impossible to stay out.

Whatever people have done, that is still just an aspect of a whole. A single line on a piece of paper, a small piece of a bigger, much more complex picture. We are more than the worst thing we have ever done. I have to believe this, both for my own sake and for the sake of others. Life is not black and white, it exists in shades of grey.

I am confused about the range of feelings i've experienced over this, and I'm still unsure why I'm affected to this degree but here we are.

I am sad, I am frustrated, I am disappointed and I am angry. Most of all my heart breaks for Liam, who never got the chance to get better, heal, and find his smile again. I also feel actual despair at the thought of this man, that young boy, passing away thinking the world hates him. There's no fixing that now. He is gone. Please, I beg you to be kinder next time. Show some compassion. Give some grace, be kind or at the very least be quiet.

I'm not even sure why I felt the need to post this, as I mentioned before I never had a horse in this race. The only opinion I ever settled on before this last week was that if I, in an alternate universe was a Directioner, I would be a Liam girly. It appears, after all these years, I still am. I dont know what comes when life ends, but I hope you find your smile again. Whatever else, you deserved so much more than this. You were a complex piece, but still so, so beautiful.

You meant so much to so many, and I wish you could have known that in the end.

Rest in peace, Liam. 🎤🎨💙

#one direction #liam payne #1direction #1d #i have feelings and opinions #and this will probably summon a pitchfork gang but idc #im sad this is so tragic and theres no fixing it #im also a norwegian millennial and the internet will not see my point #this is written in one go and i refuse to go over it again #it is extra because my FEELINGS ARE EXTRA #for some reason #do come at me by all means i prefer anger to sadness #bye

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nector-io · 8 months ago

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The Role of Social Media in Growing D2C Brands

Table of Contents

Introduction

Building Brand Awareness and Recognition

Content Creation and Storytelling

Role of Social Media in Driving Customer Loyalty for D2C Brands

Conclusion

Introduction

In today’s fast-paced eCommerce world, social media is reshaping how brands connect with customers, and no one is capitalizing on this shift more effectively than direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands. By eliminating traditional middlemen and selling straight to consumers online, D2C brands have revolutionized retail. This approach provides them with an advantage: a direct line to their customers, allowing them to gather real-time insights, offer personalized experiences, and foster a loyal community around their brand.

Social media has become indispensable for D2C brands in reaching, engaging, and retaining customers. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook enable these brands to run highly targeted campaigns, build authentic relationships, and receive immediate feedback from their audience. By leveraging influencer partnerships and creating interactive content, D2C brands not only increase their visibility but also build a strong, two-way connection with customers, which translates to better product offerings and higher customer satisfaction.

Building Brand Awareness and Recognition

Social media empowers D2C brands to reach a broad audience in a highly cost-effective manner, making it a powerful tool for startups and smaller brands that may lack large advertising budgets.

One key benefit of social media is the potential for rapid brand recognition through viral content. A single well-timed post, trend-aligned video, or clever campaign has the potential to spread quickly, exponentially increasing visibility and introducing the brand to new customers with minimal investment.

Additionally, user-generated content (UGC)—where customers share their own experiences with the brand's products—acts as authentic endorsements, further amplifying reach and trust among other potential buyers.

Influencer partnerships also play a critical role in building recognition. By collaborating with influencers whose audiences align with their target market, D2C brands gain instant credibility and exposure to engaged followers, accelerating growth and establishing trust without the high costs of traditional media.

Content Creation and Storytelling

Engaging content that tells a brand’s story and showcases its values is crucial for D2C brands looking to build meaningful relationships with their customers. In an environment where consumers have endless options, brands that create a strong emotional connection through storytelling stand out and cultivate loyalty.

Product Demonstrations: By showing how products work in real-life situations, D2C brands can highlight product benefits and build trust. For example, a skincare brand might show how their products address specific skin concerns, helping potential customers visualize the results.

Customer Testimonials: Real customer reviews and testimonials provide social proof, allowing customers to see how others benefit from the product. This type of content is highly persuasive, as people are more likely to trust the experiences of fellow customers.

User-Generated Content (UGC): Encouraging customers to share their own experiences with the brand’s products creates a sense of community and adds authenticity. UGC not only gives a brand additional content but also reinforces trust among new customers who see real people enjoying the product.

Educational Content: Content that educates customers about the brand’s values, such as sustainability efforts or ethical sourcing, helps build loyalty among conscious consumers. A clothing brand focused on sustainable materials, for instance, might share the positive environmental impact of choosing their products.

💡Did you know?

Studies show that 90% of customers say they are more likely to purchase from a brand they follow on social media. This connection can significantly boost customer loyalty, as followers tend to feel more engaged and connected to the brand. (Source: Sprout Social Index, 2023)

Role of Social Media in Driving Customer Loyalty for D2C Brands

Personalized messages, replies, and content tailored to customer preferences are powerful tools for building loyalty in D2C brands. When customers feel that a brand truly understands and values them, they are more likely to become repeat buyers and advocates. Integrating loyalty programs with social media enhances this connection, encouraging customers to actively engage with the brand and share their experiences. Here are some ways D2C brands can do this:

Points for Sharing Posts: Brands can offer loyalty points for actions like sharing posts or stories featuring their products.

Special Rewards for Tagged Posts: When customers tag the brand in their posts or stories, they can receive exclusive rewards, such as discounts, early access to new products, or bonus loyalty points.

Exclusive Content for Loyalty Members: Brands can create private groups or social media communities for loyalty program members, where they share exclusive content, early product releases, or behind-the-scenes looks.

Personalized Offers Shared Directly on Social Media: Brands can use social media DMs or comments to share personalized offers or discount codes with specific customers. For example, reaching out to a frequent commenter with a special discount acknowledges their support and encourages further loyalty.

Conclusion

Social media is essential for D2C brands in building a loyal customer base because it enables direct, authentic, and highly engaging connections with customers. Unlike traditional retail channels, social media allows D2C brands to communicate their story, showcase values, and respond to customers in real time, creating a sense of community and loyalty that goes beyond simple transactions.

Moreover, social media provides a platform for D2C brands to integrate loyalty programs seamlessly. Customers can earn rewards for sharing posts, tagging the brand, and participating in exclusive online communities, reinforcing their attachment to the brand. By consistently delivering engaging content—whether it’s behind-the-scenes insights, customer testimonials, or educational posts—D2C brands use social media to make customers feel valued and connected, turning casual buyers into loyal advocates. This direct connection and community-driven approach make social media an invaluable tool for D2C brands seeking lasting customer loyalty.

🚀Start evaluating and refining your social media approach to turn followers into lifelong customers and unlock new avenues for growth!

To know more about customer loyalty, visit nector.ai

#D2C Brands #Brand Awareness #Social Media

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