#and the algorithm for tiktok and other social media apps drastically changed

[unoriginalityriver]

getting real nostalgic over 2020 for some reason.

[rewcana]

do you spend many of your waking hours on social media? do you feel like it's a problem? in this world of late stage capitalism, your time and attention is actively being harvested by big corporations. it's.. not good. it also just makes you feel bad!

here are some tips that have really helped me reduce the amount of time i give to these apps & get in control of my social media addiction:

1. IDENTIFY PROBLEM APPS

you probably know which apps you spend the most time on. however, looking at real data about usage is very helpful because time spent on social media is very deceiving. keep in mind which apps you spend the most time looking at and interacting with for the rest of this list.

2. TURN OFF NOTIFICATIONS

this is probably the easiest thing to do and it makes an immense difference. it's up to your discretion which notifications you want to keep on (turning on messaging notifications but turning off algorithm and interaction notifs for example) but, the most effective way to stay off problem apps is to turn off ALL notifications.

3. TURN OFF NOTIFICATION SOUNDS

i always keep my phone on silent. i understand that not all people have that privilege but, if you're able to i would highly highly recommend. it has helped me a lot with anxieties regarding waiting for notifications. i used to experienced the phantom vibrate and check my phone obsessively when nothing would happen. you can also just turn off notification sounds and vibrations for any non necessity apps if you don't want to jump to turning off all notifications.

4. CHANGE THE PLACEMENT OF PROBLEM APPS

i actually learned this trick from facebook when they changed the UI slightly so you had to be more intentional in interacting with the app. changing the layout of the apps on your phone really helps you catch yourself when you are automatically opening up apps that cost you time and attention. instead of keeping social media apps on the homescreen, keep it on a different screen, in a folder, & if possible out of the preview window for the folder.

if you want to expand on this more, you could keep a log in a notes app of every time you reached for an app that has since moved. you can even put the notes app in its place!

5. UTILIZE APP TIMERS

my experience is based on samsung app timers so i'm not sure how it differs in different makes. i really dont like my phone telling me i can't do something so i've set my tumblr timer to the highest end of my usage data (2hrs 10 minutes). another mindfulness thing that i like about using the timers is that when i'm switching between apps, my phone tells me how much time left i have (it's currently 1 hour 21 minutes, most of the 49 minutes i've spent writing this lol). i'm just a slut for data so i really like this aspect of the samsung app timer function and it's very useful besides this point.

6. DELETE APPS

okay, i know this seems drastic. but it doesn't NEED to be depending on your habitual problem apps. apps like youtube, instagram, facebook, and tumblr (to a lesser extent ime) (and probably others these are just the ones i have experience with) can pretty easily be transferred to being used exclusively on a web browser. if you use firefox it will even get rid of ads which is very important for overall sanity and for safe web browsing. one of the biggest plusses to moving from an app to a web browser is that it won't automatically play your platform's version of tiktoks. it also makes it more difficult to upload items which is a plus because it will hinder you from doing so and cut back on the loop of expecting validation from recently posted content.

opening instagram without immediately being enthralled by their endless stream of reels has made it SO much easier to control my time on the site. there are tons of plusses to transferring from app browsing to web browsing.

so on the more drastic side, if you are addicted to tiktok you maybe should just delete it. tiktok is intentionally designed so you can't use it in a web browser and can only use it in the app. i will talk more about tiktok and how evil it is later in this post.

7. MOVE DMS TO MESSAGING APPS

if a hesitation to turning off notifactions or deleting apps is from not wanting to miss conversations from online friends, i understand your pain. but, if you are serious about cutting down screen time on apps that are absolutely draining your attention, talk to your friends about switching to a different messaging app. i would suggest signal personally.

your friends may be experiencing similar problems with phone addiction and even if they aren't, if they care about you, they will make this accommodation to help you in this process. i get that this is very scary but i believe in you.

8. USE TIME ON YOUR PHONE FOR OTHER THINGS

depending on your goals for how you spend your time, there are plenty of alternatives to social media / other problem apps you may have. personally i have downloaded a bunch of books on my reading list and will divert attention from dopamine pumping social media to reading. you can find tons of free pdfs of books online and if you are used to reading on your phone, it won't be a difficult transition to read longer form narratives from short text posts.

there are free art apps, language learning apps, self care / journaling apps, meditation apps, etc. that you can use when on your phone. this may seem counterintuitive, getting more apps to battle certain app addictions. but, simply weakening the habit that brings you to the apps that you spend so much time on should help. but watch out for apps that claim they are to teach or better you but have social media built into them / other tricks that keep you glued to your screen. everyone is trying to mine your attention so be wary of all apps and the methods they use to keep you engaged.

9. DON’T BE AFRAID TO PUT YOUR PHONE BACK DOWN AFTER PICKING IT UP

idk if this is a weird one or not but, you know the feeling of going into a room to do something but you forget what so you putter around trying to remember? i feel like going on your phone when you have a phone addiction is often a state of that except the majority of the time you DON’T have a purpose to go on it. so even though it may feel silly, opening your phone only to close it right after is PERFECTLY FINE.

IN CONCLUSION, phone usage is pretty inevitable in this day and age. i've considered getting rid of my phone entirely but, between the expectation to be constantly reachable from employers to QR code menus at restaurants, it just doesn't seem reasonable to get rid of my phone completely. and i will readily admit its convenience and functionality is life changing and wonderful.

however in late stage capitalism, technology doesn't only work for you but it harvests you -- your data, your habits, your time, your attention, your wants, your needs, your thoughts. even leftist spaces with good intentions can trap you (doom scrolling). when i was becoming radicalized during the beginning of the pandemic i spent sooo much time online reading about all these horrible truths of imperialism, colonization, and capitalism, and i felt it was my duty to share these horrors with other people to radicalize them. but it was so unhealthy, especially when shit hit the fan (which it was like constantly doing) because everyone was posting about the horrors and it felt utterly inescapable.

after following some of these steps (which i did in stages over the course of a few years), my relationship with social media has improved greatly and my mental health is actually significantly better. all of this is based on personal experience and observation and this post is specifically for people who want to cut down on phone usage, it's not supposed to be a preachy post that's telling people they spend too much time on their phone.

it's also nowhere near complete. it doesn't tackle addictions to games on phones nor the notorious tiktok. i said i would talk about it later and here it is. i have a chalkboard in my kitchen and all it has written on it is "tiktok is the devil". i have never seen such a commonly used app that has such a degrading effect on all of its users. and it set a precedent to all other social media apps for autoplaying videos that demand user engagement. i was on tiktok for a little less than a year and the way that it would sap anywhere from 20 minutes to over 3 hours of my time when i told myself i'd only watch a few videos was insane. as an aspiring creator i felt that i needed to hop on it to get recognition but now, i don't see it as anything more than a tarpit to trap as many people as possible in its dopamine rich algorithm. but whatever, that's just my little rant. as a social experiment i think it's fascinating lol and i for the creators it's benefited im very happy for them.

anywayy, i hope this helps someone if it gets any attention at all lol. remember no one can make the decision of how you spend your time on or offline but you. not some stranger on the internet, not corporations, no one. you are in control of your time (well besides the whole having to work most of your waking hours to survive but that's what communism is for yayy).

[mimigianfala-blog]

Famous For Being Famous

The social media landscape has drastically changed over the past decade. If you were to tell me ten years ago that vine was no longer a thing and Instagram allowed you to post videos while shopping for clothes simultaneously, I simply would not believe you in the slightest. New technological developments and progression in societal structure have altered how we entertain ourselves and obtain information. Social media influencers dominate the current media landscape as prominent opinion leaders. Influencers like Kim Kardashian, Addison Rae, and Alix Earles are prime examples of societal opinion leaders on social media that went from unknown individuals to household names. But how did these individuals become famous celebrities? Or are they even technically considered celebrities? The articles assigned this week to traverse down the winding road of the ever-changing social media environment and how new developments, like TikTok, have altered our societal perceptions and rankings. 

Since its release in 2016, the video-sharing social media platform TikTok has experienced rapid growth in use, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The app has been downloaded over 2.6 billion times worldwide, according to Bhandari and Bimo (2022). While there is no denying its popularity, it is inevitable to avoid recognizing other well-established social media platforms provide the same features. However, according to the article composed by Bhandari and Bimo (2022), one key element sets TikTok apart from other platforms like Instagram and Facebook, which is the prevalence of “the algorithm.” When reading this article, something that came to mind was that before TikTok became popular, not many people were aware of a “algorithm,” nor did they ever think it contributed to the content we are exposed to daily. “The algorithm determines the type of video content the user is exposed to and viewing this content makes up the majority of the experience...,” according to authors Bhandari and Bimo. TikTok is responsible for creating influencer celebrities like Addison Rae, the D’Amelio sisters, and Alix Earlies. These individuals are simply famous for being famous. 

The next article by Brooks et al. (2021) highlighted how the digital age has given rise to new pathways for average individuals to obtain media attention that potentially can translate to promotional endeavors. By cultivating a huge social media following, influencers like Addison Rae and Alix Earles have pummeled their way to the top of relevancy on all social media platforms simply by being famous on TikTok. Well-known brands, like Juicy Couture and Dunkin Donuts, notice these large followings and utilize them to create native advertising campaigns to promote brand awareness by harnessing the power of these influencers' media visibility, name recognition, and personalities (Brooks et al., 2021). I found this article extremely interesting because it proposed the question of whether influencers are considered celebrities or are they just famous for being famous? I have often wondered this when scrolling through my Instagram and TikTok feeds, where Addison Rae was once the complete focus of social media promotions to everyone’s focus on Alix Earles. 

The last article spotlighted the social media platform Reddit, which has always been sort of an anomaly to me. I have little experience actively using the platform, except when I was thoroughly interested in the Reddit thread that conspired against GameStop. Still, my dad tends to send me daily content he finds on Reddit, so it is safe to say I have an idea of the general demographic of the platform, aka I think of it as primarily a platform for dads to obtain their silly content. However, that is quite contrary to the information discussed in the article by Proferes et al. (2021). The authors analyzed how researchers utilize this platform to conduct observational data on social media uses and content discussions. Before reading this article, I was unaware of this platform's community and relationship-building powers. Users can create one-time use accounts or burner accounts, as I like to call them, where they may feel like they can speak more freely on this platform than others because their outward identity is not made known to the audience. 

[wfmrish]

All About Twitter

Twitter Inc. is a social media company that handles sites like Twitter and previously Vine. The social media app Twitter was the brainchild of New York University student, Jack Dorsey. It started out as a website for people to share each other's thoughts and interact. What really separates Twitter from other social media platforms is the focus it still puts on not being an image or video sharing platform. Tweets are still predominantly in words with less pictures taking up the timeline. People use the platform to share thoughts and opinions rather than specific moments in their lives like on Facebook or Instagram which are majorly photo sharing apps. 

Social media as a media platform is a very important asset in today's world where less and less people are actively seeking out information through traditional means of mass communication like newspapers or news reporting television channels. Information overload happening through major online and offline sources have made people not want to actually know what is happening around the world anymore which is a concerning thing when the world itself is going through so many drastic changes in such a short time period.

Social media users nowadays are in figures of billions, estimated to be about half the world's population. With such a vast audience, social media is the best and most effective way of providing news to people. Even those who dont wish or previously had the means to get to know the happenings of the world are subjected to the knowledge now because it's practically impossible to miss out on now. This does not, however, contest the fact that an overload of information is harmful to a person's psyche. 

This can be very well seen in Twitter's example. Since the app is a microblogging app with a word based interface, there is more chance of seeing too much information on Twitter. Tweets from all over the world about various topics reach the trending tabs and are shown to everyone. Of course, there is the role of the algorithm, but its only one single ‘For You’ tab that is majorly algorithm based, unlike other apps like Instagram and Tiktok where most of the content shown is based on what the algorithm thinks one wants to see. Twitter's algorithm is different because it selects tweets which are similar to what the user has previously interacted with but it doesn't stop from other content to be presented to the user under the other tabs in the ‘Explore’ area of the app. 

This is the reason why it is so important for a user to curate their experience on Twitter. By choosing who they follow and the interests they want to see more on Twitter, users can curate and filter out the content they see. If they create a personal timeline filled with things of interest, there is a lower chance for users to have to go to the Explore tab at all, and hence being safe from the information overload that might happen otherwise.  

Another major tool which helps with this is the features that Twitter provides including blocking profiles and hiding certain tweets. These features are incredibly important especially due to the rampant cyber harassment that goes on in the app. Since Twitter is a very opinion based platform, it is rather obvious that fights break out very often online. People with differing opinions and viewpoints that believe they are right about some issue and refuse to listen to others’ views at all often engage in arguments and things can also take drastic turns in such situations. There have been a higher number of reported cyber harassment cases on Twitter than most other social media sites. Things like using slurs to harass other people, bullying them by  saying rude and offensive things to crimes like doxxing (revealing personal identity information about another person without their consent) and sending death threats have become common ground on Twitter. The best way to be safe from such trolls and bullies is to block and report any account trying to start a fight. 

Twitter is a tough social media platform to navigate but if done correctly, can supply important knowledge and entertainment to a user. It can certainly harm one’s mental health if they don’t know how to use the app correctly but could be very rewarding otherwise.

[ifeellikehalfbakedcookie]

Buying TikTok Likes – The Good and The Bad

With over 689 active users, TikTok is among the fastest-growing social media platforms. So it is understandable that everyone wants to establish their credentials on the social media giant.

It is no secret that many social media users buy likes and their followers. Many platforms and websites allow you to buy followers and likes on TikTok and other social media platforms. These websites are all legit, and you can buy organic followers and likes. Most of these websites offer real followers from their network. However, chances of getting spam and bots on your TikTok account are also common.

So, what's the good and bad about buying TikTok likes? And can it get you into trouble? Find out all the answers in today's post. 

Buying TikTok likes – The Good

Buying TikTok likes is similar to a paid campaign that is very common in the media industry. And just like any media campaign, buying TikTok likes is a good way to reach out to your audience and gain favor from the app's algorithm.

That said, here are the advantages of buying TikTok likes.

It boosts your presence on the platform.

There are up to 3.1 million influencers on TikTok. And according to one data, up to 1 billion videos are viewed every day on the app. This is a staggering figure and cutthroat competition.

The TikTok algorithm, in turn, promotes videos that have more likes. So if you want to get your videos to a wider audience, then buying TikTok likes is a great way to achieve it. 

It gets your videos to trend. 

For any video to trend on a social media platform, it needs a lot of likes. But even if you have a lot of real and organic followers, getting a video to trend on TikTok takes effort and time.

You can accelerate the entire process by buying TikTok likes. Many credible websites allow you to buy as many likes as you want in a legit manner. You can get up to 30,000 likes if you have the money to pay for it. So if you want your videos to trend on TikTok, go ahead and buy the different packages for TikTok likes. 

It increases your audience base. 

As your video starts trending on TikTok, naturally, many people get to see your content. This means that your audience base will also increase, which is smart for anyone new to the platform.

Since your audience increases quickly, you don't have to slog on the platform for months or even years to make an impact. You can also buy TikTok likes on https://www.followerfast.com/tiktok-likes-kaufen/ Followerfast is one of the most famous social media agencys in Germany.

Buying TikTok likes – The Bad

Contrary to popular misconception, buying TikTok likes is not illegal. However, buying likes for social media posts, in general, do have their drawbacks. These are:

The platform could change its rules.

A couple of years ago, YouTube made drastic changes in its rules, which saw many influencers losing a large number of subscribers overnight. So there is always a chance that TikTok might change its policies, and you could lose followers. To counterbalance this, try to keep your likes purchase reasonable. 

A disproportionate follower to engagement ratio. 

When you have thousands of likes on a video, but you only have a few hundred followers, this can be a red flag. Similarly, if you have thousands of followers on TikTok and very little engagement, aka, likes and shares on your post, this proportionate data can alarm your followers as well as the app developers.

So the key is to be smart and buy likes that are in line with your follower counts and vice versa. 

Wrapping up.

Despite the minor drawbacks that come with buy TikTok likes, the advantages clearly outweigh the cons. So if you need a boost of likes in your TikTok content, go ahead and buy the likes without any hesitation.

[lisinfluencers]

It's Still Complicated: Teens & TikTok

“Teens” and “TikTok” seem to be two synonymous words at the moment. If you place these two words into a quick google search, this will generate a slew of headlines that perfectly capture the assumptions (and judgements) that adults throw at teens for using TikTok. Just to illustrate this attitude, the website Evolve’s headline certainly catches attention by claiming: “TikTok: A Ticking Time Bomb for Teens.”

So, is it valid for adults to be concerned and critical of teens because they use TikTok?

In her speech “Its Complicated” (2014), Dana Boyd predicts that social media platforms with visual expression will continue to increase in coming years, especially in the youth. This prediction proves true today with the rise of teens flocking towards TikTok with 41% of users between the ages of 16-24 in 2021. Boyd also dares to break common negative myths that surround teens when they embody an online presence. Much of what she claims in her talk can be applied to today’s teens on TikTok.

“Stranger Danger” is likely the most common concern that parents express over their teens using the internet. The Evolve article mentioned earlier reinforces this idea and paints TikTok as an ideal virtual landscape for strangers to lurk waiting to take advantage of naïve teenagers, claiming that “the app is most popular for children under 16. Unfortunately, this makes it popular with pedophiles as well as child traffickers.” (Note the lack of cited sources this article uses when making such a scary but drastic accusation.)

Boyd has a different take on meeting strangers in an online atmosphere. Although platforms have shifted and changed, Boyd shares how as a LGBTQ teenager, she was able to find solace in her own identity by meeting strangers online. The internet became a space where she felt it was easier and more comfortable to be herself while giving her the freedom to connect with others who shared similar feelings. The virtual world became a place where she could find comfort and friends without the fear of rejection that may accompany her in her physical, real-life community.

TikTok mirrors this possibility for safe self-expression and connection for teens. In this opinion piece written by teenager, Delilah Joseph, she points out: “In this divided world, TikTok provides a place for teens from across the world, sitting on all rungs of the teen social/attractiveness hierarchy, to laugh with people that they would not have across any other way.” TikTok is also a digital space that allows for serious topics to come to light. There are videos the promote political awareness and education, inclusive content where LGBTQ teens can feel more comfortable to be themselves, and videos that promote mental health and self-care. The algorithm and hashtags allow teens to easily find content that they relate to and connect with others who have similar experiences and feelings.  Boyd reminds us that “the internet is made up of people” and TikTok has become an outlet for teens to express their own concerns and discuss “taboo topics like sexuality mental health, racism and women’s health.” TikTok appeals to a generation that is big on diversity and hosts inclusive content reflecting their identity, combating the myth that this social platform only consists of attractive people dancing to pop songs.

Boyd also says that teens need a space to claim as their own. After a long day of structure and rules from school to clubs to homework and chores, teens don’t have a physical space where they are allowed to go and simply be themselves. Perhaps, that is part of the lure of TikTok to teens. Delilah Joseph says “I guess we also bond over the fact that every non-teen seems to despise TikTok.” TikTok gives teens a space where they can laugh, share jokes with their friends, connect with others, and break away from the pressure that is placed on them by adults. The real question to explore when thinking of teens in virtual spaces is how to provide an environment that will give them the right tools to explore, create, and connect with each other.

- Riann Roca

[jackrgaines]

How to promote your small business on Instagram: 10 simple steps

The post How to promote your small business on Instagram: 10 simple steps appeared first on HostGator Blog.

Own a small business and decided to promote it on Instagram? Well, congratulations! You chose the right platform. Don’t worry; you don’t have to be giant brands such as Nike or National Geographic to be successful and generate sales on Instagram. Added bonus? Instagram can help you to boost website traffic.

Using Instagram’s incredible features, you can apply many digital marketing techniques in order to attract Instagram followers for free, which will eventually turn to your potential customers.

In this article, I’m going to walk you through the best Instagram marketing practices for small businesses. I’ll talk about Instagram tips, tricks, and its wide range of free tools that can come handy for small business owners. So, buckle up and read this article carefully.

Why Use Instagram for Small Businesses?

First, I’m going to tell you why you should absolutely have zero doubt about using Instagram for your family-run business or any other type of small business. Instagram gained massive popularity in recent years and is now one of the leading social media platforms. Not only does Instagram help businesses to grow, but also it gave birth to many new companies that run entirely online on the platform.

Here’s a short list of reasons why you should invest your time and energy on Instagram marketing for your small business: 

Instagrammers love business pages: about 80% of them follow a business on the platform. 

Instagram is a more engaging platform: it has an outstanding median engagement rate of 1.6% (almost 33x higher than a Tweet and 17x higher than a Facebook post).

Instagram is free: you don’t have to pay anything to have a business page. Plus, you can access Instagram’s useful insights.

Instagram is user-friendly: needless to say, it’s pretty straightforward to use.

Instagram is a highly visual platform: perfect for showcasing your products or services.

How to Promote Your Small Business on Instagram in 10 Steps 

Now that you’re convinced how much Instagram can be beneficial for you let’s go over the best promotion actions that you can take to be a winner in this crazy digital world. I’ll break them down into 10 simple steps.  

Step 1- Connect Your Instagram to Your Website and other Social Media

Instagram allows you to add one external link to your bio; so, you have the opportunity to expose your website more to your followers. Actually, social media is one of the best tools that you can use to drive traffic to your website. 

Source: Instagram – Go Get Em Tiger

Another way to use this “link in the bio” feature is to cross-promote all other of your social media. If most of your sales come from other social media or shopping platforms, you can simply add all your social media links to your Instagram bio. 

And finally, if you’re doing an excellent job on other social media such as Twitter or Facebook, better to promote your Instagram page on them. These people are already familiar with your business and like to see what your business has to offer. 

Source: Youtube – Verve Coffee

The important thing when cross-promoting on Instagram is paying attention to your content. If you use the same content on all of your social media, how do you expect people to follow you on the new platform?

Although keeping the same style and tone is essential to preserve brand consistency, you need to create different content types for each platform, considering that platform’s atmosphere. 

For example, Twitter users are known to be young, educated, and willing to express their thoughts in a concise, witty way, whereas on Facebook, you can find more senior users. TikTok is filled with teenagers, and Instagram is perfect for those who love watching short videos and images. 

Step 2- Use Instagram Management Apps

Let’s face the ugly truth: running an Instagram page is a full-time job. You can’t expect only to share one photo or video per week and get many followers. You need to continually interact with the Instagram community because the key to success on Instagram can be summarized in one single word: engagement. And the best way to reach this vital quality is by using Instagram manager apps.

Let me explain it further. If you’re already into Instagram, you probably know that the concept of engagement on Instagram has changed drastically over the few years. Those were old days when you could simply use bots or buy followers and likes to gain popularity on the platform. Thanks to the ever-changing Instagram algorithm, the only way to gain real followers and being successful on Instagram is engagement. The more engaged with the community you are, the more your chance of being visible and popular. 

As mentioned earlier, achieving this level of engagement on Instagram requires hours of focused work. As a businessperson, you may not have enough time to deal with promoting your Instagram. One alternative option would be hiring an Instagram manager, which is not exactly a budget-friendly decision. 

A better alternative is to use Instagram apps. Here’s why you should use them:

They’re way cheaper than other methods of Instagram marketing.

You can save time

Using manager apps, your Instagram growth is guaranteed.

They come with many other useful features. 

Just be careful about choosing the best Instagram app; not all of them are equally valid. 

Step 3- Optimize Instagram Username, Display Name, and Bio 

As simple as it might sound, just like hashtags, Instagram username, display name, and bio play a crucial role in making you visible for those searching your services on the platform.

Make sure that your username and display name (the name that appears above your bio) includes your business’ main keyword, and your bio contains the secondary ones. What are your main and secondary keywords? Take a look at this restaurant Instagram page:

Source: Instagram –  Nova Restaurant

As you can see, for a restaurant, the main keyword is obviously “restaurant,” which is included in both the username and the display name. Also, This restaurant serves Latin American food (secondary keyword); so, they’ve mentioned that in the bio. 

Optimizing these parts for the Instagram search engine can make a huge difference. So, don’t overlook them. 

Step 4- Consider Instagram Shoppable

You might have your website or other channels of sales that work perfectly for you. But on Instagram, people really love to buy stuff, even as a hobby. That’s why you should consider using the Instagram Shoppable feature. This tool allows your customers to pay for the items right on the app.

Source: Instagram -Boutique du Sorcier

To use this tool, you must have a business account connected to your Facebook catalogs. Also, Your account must be approved for Instagram Shopping. Then do these steps (from Instagram help center):

Go to your profile and tap 

Tap Settings

Tap Business.

Tap Shopping. Note: The option to tap Shopping is only available to accounts that have been approved for Instagram Shopping.

Tap Continue

Select a product catalog to connect to your professional account.

Tap Done.

After a few days, your Instagram shop is ready to use!

Step 5- Make the Most of Instagram Story

Have I mentioned that Instagram engagement is vital for your success on Instagram? A very useful tool on Instagram, which skyrises your engagement is Instagram Story. There are so many reasons why you should use Instagram Story for your business. This part of the app gives you numerous opportunities to be creative. 

Feel free to try all the amazing filters and stickers to entertain your followers. Poll, quiz, emoji slider, and the countdown (a great way of accounting for upcoming products) are only some of the few features of Instagram Story.  

Source: Instagram – Allpress Espresso and Grind

Step 6- Use User-generated Content (UGC)

Using user-generated content is a fantastic way to gain your customer’s trust, along with their engagement. Don’t forget that although they might have a small audience, UGC works like a free advertisement for your business. When other followers see real and authentic content, it provides them a more tangible experience. Think about it; why would anyone advertise a product or service for free unless he or she absolutely loves it?

Source: Instagram – Chinatown Ice Cream Factory

Even major brands such as Coca Cola and Starbucks use UGC to enhance their engagement level on Instagram. 

Source: Instagram – Starbucks

Step 7- Run an Influencer Campaign

Another great way to increase your visibility on Instagram is by running an Influencer campaign. No matter what your business is about, you can find perfect influencers to promote your page. Your budget might not allow you to work with macro-influencers (those who have 100K to 1M followers), but micro-influencers are better options.

Source: Giphy

Believe it or not, it’s better to partner up with Instagram micro-influencers as they produce more engagement compared to the more prominent names. As you run a small-sized business, it’s a good idea to contact a local influencer, especially if you have a store or office in the town. 

Source: Instagram – Star Stranded

Step 8- Keep Eyes on The Competition

Unless your business is incredibly rare, you always have a handful of competitors on Instagram. Try to track and monitor at least your best five competitors on Instagram to see how they manage their accounts. Seek out for their weakness and learn from their mistakes to avoid them in the future. Also, get inspired by their best posts and try to create your own ideas based on them.

I’m not saying that you should copy the ideas, captions, or photos; that would be wrong and useless. What you should do is learn from them, as they are the best in your niche and then customize those ideas for your own business. 

Step 9- Instagram Contests and Giveaways

People love getting free stuff. Who doesn’t? Well, you can get advantages of this spirit to promote your business on Instagram. Running an Instagram contest or giveaway is not a difficult task to do. Just define some simple rules such as “Like and share this post” or “Tag three of your friends to win” to persuade your followers to participate. 

Source: Instagram – Spooksieboo

You can use one of your products or services (or a considerable discount) as a reward.  

10- Use Instagram Ads

The last item on the list is not a free tool; however, it definitely worth trying. Instagram ads can make a sharp difference if you correctly apply them. The good thing about Instagram apps is that you can start with negligible amounts of money and see how they go. It pretty much works like Facebook ads, but make sure you know all things about Instagram ads for your business before launching a campaign.  

Final Words

Just because your business is small does not mean your audience should be small too. Take the necessary steps that I’ve mentioned to build a whole new digital customer level on Instagram.

Find the post on the HostGator Blog

from HostGator Blog https://www.hostgator.com/blog/how-to-promote-your-small-business-on-instagram-10-simple-steps/

[endenogatai]

Sentinel loads up with $1.35M in the deepfake detection arms race

Estonia-based Sentinel, which is developing a detection platform for identifying synthesized media (aka deepfakes), has closed a $1.35 million seed round from some seasoned angle investors — including Jaan Tallinn (Skype), Taavet Hinrikus (Transferwise), Ragnar Sass & Martin Henk (Pipedrive) — and Baltics early stage VC firm, United Angels VC.

The challenge of building tools to detect deepfakes has been likened to an arms race — most recently by tech giant Microsoft, which earlier this month launched a detector tool in the hopes of helping pick up disinformation aimed at November’s US election. “The fact that [deepfakes are] generated by AI that can continue to learn makes it inevitable that they will beat conventional detection technology,” it warned, before suggesting there’s still short term value in trying to debunk malicious fakes with “advanced detection technologies”.

Sentinel co-founder and CEO, Johannes Tammekänd, agrees on the arms race point — which is why its approach to this ‘goal-post-shifting’ problem entails offering multiple layers of defence, following a cyber security-style template. He says rival tools — mentioning Microsoft’s detector and another rival, Deeptrace, aka Sensity — are, by contrast, only relying on “one fancy neural network that tries to detect defects”, as he puts it.

“Our approach is we think it’s impossible to detect all deepfakes with only one detection method,” he tells TechCrunch. “We have multiple layers of defence that if one layer gets breached then there’s a high probability that the adversary will get detected in the next layer.”

Tammekänd says Sentinel’s platform offers four layers of deepfake defence at this stage: An initial layer based on hashing known examples of in-the-wild deepfakes to check against (and which he says is scalable to “social media platform” level); a second layer comprised of a machine learning model that parses metadata for manipulation; a third that checks for audio changes, looking for synthesized voices etc; and lastly a technology that analyzes faces “frame by frame” to look for signs of visual manipulation.  

“We take input from all of those detection layers and then we finalize the output together [as an overall score] to have the highest degree of certainty,” he says.

“We already reached the point where somebody can’t say with 100% certainty if a video is a deepfake or not. Unless the video is somehow ‘cryptographically’ verifiable… or unless somebody has the original video from multiple angles and so forth,” he adds.

Tammekänd also emphasizes the importance of data in the deepfake arms race — over and above any specific technique. Sentinel’s boast on this front is that it’s amassed the “largest” database of in-the-wild deepfakes to train its algorithms on.

It has an in-house verification team working on data acquisition by applying its own detection system to suspect media, with three human verification specialists who “all have to agree” in order for it to verify the most sophisticated organic deepfakes. 

“Every day we’re downloading deepfakes from all the major social platforms — YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, then there’s Asian ones, Russian ones, also porn sites as well,” he says.

“If you train a deepfake model based on let’s say Facebook data-sets then it doesn’t really generalize — it can detect deepfakes like itself but it doesn’t generalize well with deepfakes in the wild. So that’s why the detection is really 80% the data engine.”

Not that Sentinel can always be sure. Tammekänd gives the example of a short video clip released by Chinese state media of a poet who it was thought has been killed by the military — in which he appeared to say he was alive and well and told people not to worry. 

“Although our algorithms show that, with a very high degree of certainty, it is not manipulated — and most likely the person was just brainwashed — we can’t say with 100% certainty that the video is not a deepfake,” he says.  

Sentinel’s founders, who are ex NATO, Monese and the UK Royal Navy, actually started working on a very different startup idea back in 2018 — called Sidekik — building a Black Mirror-esque tech which ingested comms data to create a ‘digital clone’ of a person in the form of a tonally similar chatbot (or audiobot).

The idea was that people could use this virtual double to hand off basic admin-style tasks. But Tammekänd says they became concerned about the potential for misuse — hence pivoting to deepfake detection.

They’re targeting their technology at governments, international media outlets and defence agencies — with early clients, after the launch of their subscription service in Q2 this year, including the European Union External Action Service and the Estonian Government.

Their stated aim is to help to protect democracies from disinformation campaigns and other malicious information ops. So that means they’re being very careful about who gets access to their tech. “We have a very heavy vetting process,” he notes. “For example we work only with NATO allies.”

“We have had requests from Saudi Arabia and China but obviously that is a no-go from our side,” Tammekänd adds.

A recent study the startup conducted suggests exponential growth of deepfakes in the wild (i.e. found anywhere online) — with more than 145,000 examples identified so far in 2020, indicating a ninefold year-on-year growth. 

Tools to create deepfakes are certainly getting more accessible. And while plenty are, at face value, designed to offer harmless fun/entertainment — such as the likes of selfie-shifting app Reface — it’s clear that without thoughtful controls (including deepfake detection systems) the synthesized content they enable could be misappropriated to manipulate unsuspecting viewers.

Scaling up deepfake detection technology to the level of media swapping going on on social media platforms today is one major challenge Tammekänd mentions. 

“Facebook or Google could scale up [their own deepfake detection] but it would cost so much today that they would have to put in a lot of resources and their revenue would obviously fall drastically — so it’s fundamentally a triple standard; what are the business incentives?” he suggests.

There is also the risk posed by very sophisticated, very well funded adversaries — creating what he describes as “deepfake zero day” targeted attacks (perhaps state actors, presumably pursuing a very high value target).

“Fundamentally it is the same thing in cyber security,” he says. “Basically you can mitigate [the vast majority] of the deepfakes if the business incentives are right. You can do that. But there will always be those deepfakes which can be developed as zero days by sophisticated adversaries. And nobody today has a very good method or let’s say approach of how to detect those.

“The only known method is the layered defence — and hope that one of those defence layers will pick it up.”

Sentinel co-founders, Kaspar Peterson (left) & Johannes Tammekänd (right). Photo Credit: Sentinel

It’s certainly getting cheaper and easier for any Internet user to make and distribute plausible fakes. And as the risks posed by deepfakes rise up political and corporate agendas — the European Union is readying a Democracy Action Plan to respond to disinformation threats, for example — Sentinel is positioning itself to sell not only deekfake detection but bespoke consultancy services, powered by learnings extracted from its deepfake data-set. 

“We have a whole product — meaning we just don’t offer a ‘black box’ but also provide prediction explainability, training data statistics in order to mitigate bias, matching against already known deepfakes and threat modelling for our clients through consulting,” the startup tells us. “Those key factors have made us the choice of clients so far.”

Asked what he sees as the biggest risks that deepfakes pose to Western society, Tammekänd says, in the short term, the major worry is election interference. 

“One probability is that during the election — or a day or two days before — imagine Joe Biden saying ‘I have a cancer, don’t vote for me’. That video goes viral,” he suggests, sketching one near term risk. 

“The technology’s already there,” he adds noting that he had a recent call with a data scientist from one of the consumer deepfake apps who told him they’d been contacted by different security organizations concerned about just such a risk.

“From a technical perspective it could definitely be pulled off… and once it goes viral for people seeing is believing,” he adds. “If you look at the ‘cheap fakes’ that have already had a massive impact, a deepfake doesn’t have to be perfect, actually, it just has to be believable in a good context — so there’s a large number of voters who can fall for that.”

Longer term, he argues the risk is really massive: People could lose trust in digital media, period. 

“It’s not only about videos, it can be images, it can be voice. And actually we’re already seeing the convergence of them,” he says. “So what you can actually simulate are full events… that I could watch on social media and all the different channels.

“So we will only trust digital media that is verified, basically — that has some method of verification behind that.”

Another even more dystopian AI -warped future is that people will no longer care what’s real or not online — they’ll just believe whatever manipulated media panders to their existing prejudices. (And given how many people have fallen down bizarre conspiracy rabbit holes seeded by a few textual suggestions posted online, that seems all too possible.)

“Eventually people don’t care. Which is a very risky premise,” he suggests. “There’s a lot of talk about where are the ‘nuclear bombs’ of deepfakes? Let’s say it’s just a matter of time when a deepfake of a politician comes out that will do massive damage but… I don’t think that’s the biggest systematic risk here.

“The biggest systematic risk is, if you look from the perspective of history, what has happened is information production has become cheaper and easier and sharing has become quicker. So everything from Gutenberg’s printing press, TV, radio, social media, Internet. What’s happening now is the information that we consume on the Internet doesn’t have to be produced by another human — and thanks to algorithms you can on a binary time-scale do it on a mass scale and in a hyper-personalized way. So that’s the biggest systematic risk. We will not fundamentally understand what is reality anymore online. What is human and what is not human.”

The potential consequences of such a scenario are myriad — from social division on steroids; so even more confusion and chaos engendering rising anarchy and violent individualism to, perhaps, a mass switching off, if large swathes of the mainstream simply decide to stop listening to the Internet because so much online contents is nonsense.

From there things could even go full circle — back to people “reading more trusted sources again”, as Tammekänd suggests. But with so much at shapeshifting stake, one thing looks like a safe bet: Smart, data-driven tools that help people navigate an ever more chameleonic and questionable media landscape will be in demand. 

TechCrunch’s Steve O’Hear contributed to this report 

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[confusedthirdculturekid]

How Digital Marketing Will Change in the 2020s

How many times have we marveled at how a product or service we were discussing with friends or family, or even just thinking about has shown up on our social media feeds, with an option to buy? Equal parts convenient and fascinating, the data gathering and analysis underlying such occurrences is integral to digital marketing. 

Targeted marketing

With our digital footprints being ever-increasingly detailed, and media and IT conglomerates making data sharing across platforms seamless, the opportunity to really drill down audiences in the market for various products and services is truly endless. The future here looks like me being able to find exactly that item I have in my head, without an excruciating search process and numerous dead ends. 

Personalization really is the name of the game, rendering the mass-marketing techniques of yesteryears obsolete. To take full advantage of this, marketers ought to deploy tools for effective data gathering and analysis, which then inform marketing strategies. After all, it is a telling statistic that 80% of consumers prefer doing business with entities that offer personalized services. 

Micro-influencer marketing

Influencer marketing is already making waves across industries, as this avenue encourages niche marketing and sponsorship.The appeal of influencers lies in the authenticity they represent as they show audiences the inner workings of their lives and connect with followers through common interests. This is a platform that will become increasingly important, with 70% of today’s teenagers having more faith in influencers than in celebrities, illustrating the power of influencer endorsements.

The future of digital marketing in this sector will emphasize micro-influencers who have fewer followers but a more targeted reach, translating into better engagement, as these influencers are able to better connect with their followers and generate content that is highly relevant to them.

So how do you make sure you don’t miss the boat on this one? Do your research on the influencers whose platform is most suited for your brand, and establish working relationships with them for one-off or longer-term promotions across their social media channels. The very first step here should be to familiarize yourself with the influencer’s work to determine if it really is a persona you are comfortable being associated with your brand, as they will serve as a spokesperson of sorts for your organization.

Unlike working with contractors and employees, influencers expect somewhat varying levels of autonomy in content creation; this is in the interest of brands as well, as it helps ensure that sponsored content is in tune with the influencer’s online persona, making it an easier sell and not coming off as a marketing gimmick. The fast-changing landscape of social media means that it is vital to stay up to date on the work of the influencer you’re partnering with, not only with regards to your contract but also looking at the entirety of their work. To stay up to date with the latest trends and rising stars on social media, a regular scan of new platforms and influencers gaining momentum in your industry will become even more important, to keep partnerships fresh and to widen your reach through such marketing. 

Niche social media channels

As the community of influencers changes rapidly, so do the platforms they use. Alternative channels like TikTok, Snapchat, Pinterest, Medium, and Reddit, are seeing higher usage rates. While Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube remain the big fish in this pond, marketers should be paying attention to other platforms as well, considering how they may find their audiences there too. We are also likely to see a continued focus on social media analytics and evaluation, with more sophisticated measurement tools taking the market by storm.

Interactive content

Interactive content is taking over, leaving traditional content behind; a trend we will only see more of. This user ability to manage their experience and personalize the content they’re exposed to will pave the way for the future of digital marketing. Creating fun and engaging interactive components like polls and quizzes for instance, is already important, and will become even more so as brands need to differentiate in an increasingly competitive market. 

Here are some ways that interactivity will become front and centre of digital marketing efforts of the 2020s:

Social commerce / Shoppable posts

Currently, more than half of the buyers out there, research their prospective purchase on social media. It should come as no surprise that allowing customers to shop directly through a social media platform, without leaving the app, will become more common and heavily used. 

To best utilize this feature now and in the future, companies must focus on creating a smooth end to end purchase experience that is quick, easy to use and enhances the likelihood of a completed sale.

Voice search

The prediction that more than 50% of searches this year will be voice searches (as per ComScore) demonstrates that while this technology has been around for some time, its usage has gone up significantly recently and will continue to do so. As voice-activated devices like Alexa, Siri and Google Voice become more prevalent and accurate, it will become vital to include voice search in digital marketing planning, and to optimize content for voice search. This may necessitate use of long-tail keywords, and long-tail search queries for search engine optimization, to correspond with how people search by speaking i.e. in a conversational tone, rather than how they would type.

Chatbots

With 80% of businesses looking to incorporate chatbots this year, and an estimated annual savings of $ 8 billion from 2022 onwards attributed to chatbots, it makes good business sense for chatbots to become central to digital marketing. Customers also find chatbots easier to use, responsive at all hours, prompt and accurate, making them even more viable.

Visual search

Image search, available on Google and Pinterest is a visual tool that enables users to take pictures of things and places to find out pertinent details about them, such as where to find what’s in the image, and where similar objects may be available. This will drastically change how users search; and digital marketers would do well to ensure content is tailored to be visually searchable, to avail of this huge opportunity.

AI and automation

AI and automation, having taken over many roles already, is set to play a vital role in digital marketing, so it’s advisable to begin incorporating it, if you haven’t already. AI not only offers companies competitive advantage and the opportunity to move into new businesses areas, it can also help reduce costs and meet demands of consumers seeking AI-compatible products and services.

Additionally, AI can support personalized marketing efforts by collecting improved customer data and enhancing how it’s used. One example of this is the way in which AI can inform video creation, by better understanding viewer behaviour. It also facilitates smoother customer experiences through the use of predictive technology that directs marketing more effectively.

Video

A well-thought out video strategy will also become increasingly important, as consumers gravitate towards audio-visual content. The years to come will be an opportune moment to test out different video styles that cater to the various audiences you seek to engage. 

Similarly, the popularity of vlogging is on the rise, given the direct, personal and empathetic nature of this channel. In the 2020s, plan for being able to live-stream events and shoot behind the scenes content, strengthening your relationship with customers, solidifying brand image and better engaging audiences in the process.

Neuromarketing

It’s predicted that neuromarketing will soon become a potential digital marketing tool. This is a method of “analysing measurements of a person’s brain activity to determine which types of content are ENGAGING to them” through the use of complex algorithms, neurometrics and biometrics that accurately measure the emotional responses that content generates, and the attention that its garnering. This can have widespread implications for marketers’ ability to create content that is provably engaging to target audiences and to tailor marketing strategies based on the neurological responses of content consumers.  

A word of caution

Data collection on such a wide scale as we`re seeing has implications for stereotyping audiences based on race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, religious affiliation, education level and various other markers of identity. Thus, the tools we use to shape digital marketing will have an essential role to play in avoiding typecasting people or reducing them to labels to predict behaviour; instead, these tools must account for the complex, multi-layered ways in which people make market choices. In addition, compliance with consumer privacy and protection regulations must be stringently maintained, to ensure client rights are protected. Such practices have an added advantage in that they build trust with your audiences, enhancing brand loyalty and supporting positive brand association.

Conclusion

Finally, technological advancements abound, there are nevertheless some marketing tools that will remain relevant, such as paid and organic search campaigns and interactive email marketing. While it’s important to have the right tools in your toolkit, an overarching marketing and media strategy will still remain essential. Technology aids the expertise social media professionals bring, but it does not replace it now or in the decade to come; that is to say, what digital marketing tools offer in terms of efficiency and higher productivity is complemented by the communications experts working behind the scenes. So while we may see more automation, this will create capacity for digital marketers to implement more complex and multifaceted communication strategies, rather than making them obsolete.

In conclusion, the challenge for digital marketers of tomorrow will be to effectively balance current and proven marketing tools with the exciting new innovations coming down the pipeline to implement marketing that is of better quality, more engaging, precisely targeted and able to meet and exceed KPIs.

Sources

https://www.sociallyinfused.com/social-media/social-media-tools-you-need-to-try-in-2020/ 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/02/03/2020-trends-in-digital-marketing/#2fb3799a2f03 

https://medium.com/@bizsites/the-future-of-digital-marketing-whats-new-in-2020-6d13010fb37e#:~:text=Chatbots%2C%20while%20kind%20of%20old,statistics%20for%20AI%2Dbased%20technology