#i can definitely leave twitter i hate that its the only platform connecting us and some asian artists and it SUCKS but

[emypony]

so um. is anyone dealing with stuff on twitter right now? im genuinely distressed

i was just following some honkai artists and.

this is so ? ?? ?

i went to the 'article' they link

like i'd say that i don't think im a 0 follower account at least :/

I tried to do a tweet about it and @ twitter support actually but

i barely retweeted anything today this scared the living daylights out of me

i asked someone from one of my servers and they can't follow me either so this seems to be a twitter problem in itself but man i was just!! again following some artists! augh i hate this hellsite (derogatory and literally)

[claireolejar-blog]

My First Reflection Blog in Regards to Social Media

Both the Common Sense Media and the Pew Research Center brought up some interesting statistics in regards to teens and adults relationship to social media. In the Common Sense Media article and the Pew article, it stated that media and technology are becoming the center of our world. Adults, young adults, teens, and even children are becoming adapted to social media and the internet being a day-to-day a norm.

The Pew Research Center stated that social media apps like Youtube, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and Twitter are dominating the social media landscape all over the US. According to the Pew website, 78% of young adults use Snapchat, 71% use Instagram, and 45% use Twitter. Although almost all three of these platforms are very common amongst our world today, Facebook still takes the lead for one of the most popular social media sites in history. I feel this is due to the fact that Facebook is more universal. Facebook (in my personal opinion) allows for a more “formal” posting site, which attracts the older crowd. My mom is always telling me how much she loves Facebook because it allows her to connect with friends she hasn’t seen in years. Facebook allows for people to give life updates, share pictures, and for News outlets to share the latest reports.

Now let's talk about Youtube. This is the #1 social media site right now according to Pew. According to Pew, 94% of Youtube users are 18-24 years old. Our younger generation is thriving off of Youtube due to its unique platform. Youtube allows people to only post videos rather than pictures. This allows for more self expression. People are able to promote their personalities and connect with people personally around the world, whether that’s by posting a video of you singing, painting, dancing, talking, etc. Youtube is by far one of my favorite social media platforms out there right now, and has been since it came out. I love being able to see what people around the world are into/doing. I also am super into posting travel vlogs whenever I go somewhere, as I travel quite a lot. This allows me to share my traveling experiences with my closest friends, family members, and the public as a whole.

Overall, I would say children and adults are developing this in depth relationship with technology due to it being such a focal point in our present lives. According to the “CSM” article, kids spend up to 50+ hours per week looking at a screen. The content being portrayed on kids’ screens is having a profound impact on their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development (according to the CSM article). Whether these impacts are positive or negative - we don’t know. Every kid/adult is affected differently by media/the internet as a whole.

In the CSM article, it stated that 95% of teens have mobile devices and use them regularly; aka, a lot. This number blew my mind, and also proved to me that teens’ relationships with the internet are way more intense than they used to be back when I was a young teen. The video on the Common Sense Media website gave me a glimpse as to how often kids really do use social media/phone. Every kid that spoke in this video mentioned how they use their phone several times throughout the day. Kids in the interview gave reasonings as to why they love social media and why they don’t love social media.

Some positive effects kids listed in regards to social media was how it allows them to connect with their friends. Several kids stated that they love being able to communicate with their friends via social media. Another positive thing kids listed in the video in regards to social media was how they love that their voices can be heard on certain political topics. One student stated that he loves being able to conversate with people online about political topics he and others are passionate about, whether that’s LGBT rights, a passion for art, etc. This statement made by the boy in regards to politics being popular on social media was so relevant to me. I’m not one to post about my political beliefs, but others for surely are. Posting about political passions has become a huge social media factor in the past couple years.

Two negative aspects social media causes are bullying and distractions (according to the kids in the video). Bullying has obviously become a huge negative trend on social media today. Kids in the video mentioned that bullying takes place on many social media apps. Some kids in the video stated that they have been victims of social media bullying. On social media, a bully may appear to leave mean comments on someone’s post. According to the kids in the video, some bullies will simply leave a list of profanity words to hurt other kids’ feelings. I thankfully have never been a victim of cyberbullying, but I know others who have. The most common social media trend I see in regards to bullying is girls getting picked on about their bodies. This to me is so sad, and also confusing. I never have understood how one could take it upon themselves to comment something hateful on another person’s post. Another downfall of social media that the kids listed was how easily distracting it can be. One girl mentioned that her phone oftentimes easily distracts her from doing homework. I have definitely been a victim of this negative downfall social media entails. I am always catching myself being so easily distracted by social media whenever it is time to do my homework. If I see that a friend has snap-chatted me, texted me, or posted a picture, I am quick to either glance at my phone notification or simply pick up my phone and respond.

[krisroley]

February 8th 2021

It might just be the time of year, but I find myself getting discouraged easily. It’s compounded by the fact that we’re coming up on a year since my job sent me home and everything that’s happened since then. The simple fact of the matter is I’m not where I want to be at almost any category of life you care to name. I’m currently making about half of what I was pre-May 2020, I’m struggling with staying in a creative mindset, I’m not necessarily hopeful that I will be able to realize a key hope of mine to regain the position I was previously in, and I’m not finding anything equivalent out there that I can do despite the experience. It leaves me in a pretty depressing place, and I’m not sure what my next move is. So when this happens, I try to move out of the mindset of what I can’t do to figure out what I can accomplish. I believe it starts with talking about the things I am passionate about. Demonstrating some knowledge. Possibly not being so unassuming about it?

A lot of the past year had to do with how my friends stayed creative and productive during the pandemic, and now I may be best served by turning this camera inward. Let’s see what happens.

After I wrote the above, I fired up my Feedly reader, and Seth Godin’s post today is very timely indeed.

So, let’s consult the imp in the back of my head that wants to know what the bleep I’m going to do to turn YET into DONE. I think first we have to define what DONE is, and I’m finding that a little hard to do at the moment. It’s a Jackson Pollack splatter of thought about what I don’t want to be doing anymore, and very little thought about what it is I would rather be doing, and whether I can do it for a living. Nothing new here, this has pretty much been the case for a few years now. I need to put these thoughts together. I don’t want to take phone calls anymore. I do want a job in a creative field. I want what I create to be able to help people. I want to be able to live comfortably on the fruits of that effort, which means not only the bills are paid, but that the wife and I are not worried about health insurance, and that the kids are taken care of.

So, maybe that’s what done is. If that’s true, then the next question—my favorite—is ‘What’s Next?”. What I’m about to write is the first time I’ve ever written this answer: I don’t know. I don’t know what the first step is, and if I don’t know what the first step is, I can’t figure the next one. Marie Forleo likes to say “Everything is Figureoutable”. I sure hope so, because being stuck in this place is a goddamn exhausting place to be.

Of course, as I said at the beginning, it could just be that it’s January and it’s cold, and that I hate everything right now. It feels like more than that, but maybe it always does and I’m not remembering it.

Oh, You Didn’t Know?

Joe Budden, who up until a few months ago had an exclusive deal with Spotify, is moving his podcast to Patreon. The Verge has some comments from Budden:

He says he proved the model, along with the potential of his audience, but didn’t want Spotify to use his fans and reach to prove the platform’s own worth and make money. 

“For many years, the record labels and the system that I come from tricked us into thinking they were doing us a favor by capitalizing off our talent and basically loaning us money, and that’s been the standard the entire time,” Budden says, adding that he already knows how that system worked out for creators. 

When Budden announced his split from the tech company, he said Spotify was “pillaging” his audience and only cared about how his show contributed to Spotify overall, not about his actual podcast.

Budden was a recording artist before he was a podcaster. If he’s aware that the record labels played games, I can’t believe he didn’t see the obvious. Streaming Services aren’t exactly known for treating artists differently, for a start, but let’s address what I think is the elephant in the room, which is the question of whether or not what you had was actually a podcast, because I think that question is fundamental to the problem Budden experienced. A podcast is not exclusive to a platform, and I’ll argue that point until I’m blue in the face. If I can’t subscribe to your show on a different platform than Spotify, then you don’t have a podcast, you have a show on Spotify. Spotify might have a big user base, but that user base is all you have. Spotify’s Q4 2020 earnings state that they have 345 million active monthly users, and that only 25 percent of those users listen to podcasts on the platform. That’s around 86.5 Million, and trust me, they’re not all listening to Joe Budden. Yes, he’s got a lot of downloads, but what he’s got on Spotify is all he’s going to get by staying there. Patreon is a huge and smart play, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes 3x on listeners and money at the very least.

(Note to self, get back on Patreon, it’s about to blow up.)

The Clothes Suck Anyway

Ah, exposure. SO great for paying bills, only the complete opposite of paying bills.

One of my favorite Twitter accounts is @forexposure_txt, and they receive posts every day from creatives who receive requests, demands, and straight-up meltdowns from people who believe it’s ok not to pay a creative for their work. However, in some cases, there’s the odd post about a company that lifts a picture, alters it, and uses it on their social media without attribution. Take, for example, Meg of Margate, a photographer who discovered a fashion brand called Ted Baker (no link, I’m not enabling this behavior) lifted a photo, photoshopped it, and post it on their Instagram “for engagement”. When called on it, they offered Meg a 200 dollar gift card from their store, which she declined. They then stated they didn’t have the budget to pay photographers, so they deleted the image.

Fine, but let’s be clear about what really happened here. A fashion brand that declared revenue of 617 million pounds in 2019 used a picture that didn’t own to drive traffic to their brand. They got likes and engagement for hours on that post. Then they told the photographer, sorry we can’t afford it, and just deleted the post. Ted Baker made money off that stolen picture, and they probably will have no liability for screwing a creative because it costs money to take people to court.

If this doesn’t make you angry, it should.

This seems like a good place to link to one of my favorite talks by Mike Montiero, “Fuck You, Pay Me.”

More Instagram Stuff

Instagram is now conducting a test to remove the ability to share feed posts within Stories:

You would assume that a lot of Stories updates are re-shared feed posts. The fact that Instagram is willing to reduce this seems like a positive sign for its development focus - but it might also indicate that people are viewing Stories less as a result of such shares, which has prompted Instagram to take action.

I can tell you that many of my stories are photos from other accounts that I think are amazing, and I do that to encourage my followers to follow them. If you remove the ability for me to do that, then I have to resort to a third party program—Repost—to post them to my feed, and I don’t want to do that. My feed should be for my pictures. I hope what they’re driving at is removing the ability to share one’s own feed posts as Stories, and I would completely understand why they feel it’s redundant. That’s not how I read this story.

In other Instagram news, it looks like IG and Twitter might be burying the hatchet soon and allowing integrations again:

That's an even bigger integration. As noted by Jane Manchun Wong, Instagram hasn't provided direct Twitter integration since it disabled Twitter card preview support back in 2012, which makes it annoyingly difficult to share content between the two apps. Now, it seems they're mending bridges, which could facilitate not just tweets in Stories stickers, but wholly new integration options which would enable direct sharing of Instagram posts to Twitter as well, fully integrated and formatted in-line.

That's not part of this proposal, and it may not ever be. But it would definitely be handy - and with Twitter seemingly now more open to such, it could pave the way for improved connection.

If true, this would look a lot cleaner than the screenshots we’re all doing right now anyway. Honestly, this horse has been out of the barn so long it’s dying of exposure.

Shot of The Day

[jonathantaylorthomas]

Taylor Swift, Entering a New Era, Sticks to a Safe Space: Tumblr

For a megastar approaching the release of her latest blockbuster, Taylor Swift, the human, has been eerily quiet.

Yes, she’s put out four songs and two music videos from “Reputation,” her sixth album, out Friday, and her visage currently adorns a racecar and a promotional fleet of UPS trucks. But Ms. Swift hasn’t given an interview in 18 months, and she has performed in public only once this year, at a pre-Super Bowl event for a corporate partner. (She will be the musical guest on “Saturday Night Live” this weekend.)

Judging by the relatively reserved rollout for “Reputation,” it’s easy to assume that Ms. Swift is pulling a Beyoncé — communicating only strategically, if at all, and mostly letting the work speak for itself. That is, unless you know where to look.

“The general public has not seen much of Taylor, really, in the last year and a half,” said Caitlin Buckvold, 28, who along with her twin sister, Megan, runs a fan blog dedicated to the singer on Tumblr. “But we’ve seen a lot of Taylor. We interact with her on a daily basis.”

At perhaps the most fraught moment in her storied career — after a tense sexual assault trial and amid ceaseless celebrity beefs and internet dramas that threaten to overwhelm the music — Ms. Swift, 27, has recommitted to engaging with her most faithful followers, known as Swifties, cocooning herself in the vibrant, supportive community they have built on the social-media platform Tumblr.

The artist is far from just an observer: Since taking personal control of her official Tumblr page in 2014, Ms. Swift has “liked” some 27,000 posts, stoking hype for her new songs, registering support for fan theories and lyric interpretations and signaling that she remains an ever-watchful eye to her devoted listeners.

Even in an age of unprecedented connection between stars and their public on social media, Ms. Swift goes beyond typical interaction on Tumblr, a niche blogging platform that, with its multimedia flexibility, including images, GIFs and text posts, is conducive to obsessive fandoms. She follows some 5,000 blogs, where users can upload original creations or “re-blog” the work of others with or without adding their own two cents.

While Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have become largely promotional megaphones for the singer (outside of a few sly surprises), she has posted more than 100 times on her Tumblr since October, often re-blogging content from Swifties and adding her own commentary (typically including their first name and a string of excited emojis).

Ms. Swift also participates in inside jokes (ask a teenager about “no its becky”), dotes on pet cats and monitors the life events of her devotees, sending flowers and making breakup playlists for those in need. There’s even a term for her omnipresence on the platform: #Taylurking.

“This is how she knows the pulse of her fan base,” said Nate Auerbach, the former head of music strategy and outreach at Tumblr, who helped Ms. Swift join the platform ahead of the release of “1989,” her previous, Grammy-winning album.

Tatiana Simonian, the current head of entertainment partnerships at Tumblr, said: “She’s just not using it like a celebrity uses it,” and called Ms. Swift “a star who behaves like a fan on the platform — she’s a fan of her fans.”

By tending to her base with such bespoke dedication — and with the looming possibility of firsthand contact — Ms. Swift can breed loyalty in listeners while focusing on positive vibes only. She plucked hundreds of fans from social media to hear “Reputation” early, at Secret Sessions held at her homes in Rhode Island, Los Angeles, London and Nashville.

“Tumblr allows her to focus on the people who matter to her,” said Megan Chesney, 17, who blogs as ohtaylorswiift. “She gets to talk directly to her fans and eliminates all of that drama and excess hate on Twitter or Instagram.”

Ms. Chesney said she joined Tumblr because Ms. Swift did, and the singer followed her page about two years ago. Like most Swifties, she remembers exactly when and how many times Ms. Swift has interacted with her blog.

“It’s, like, crazily overwhelming because it’s just hard to believe that some iconic superstar celebrity decided to take time out of her day to make someone else’s day, even with a single emoji,” Ms. Chesney said in an interview during her school lunch.

Though the Taylor Swift Tumblr was originally set up as yet another online marketing vehicle, to be run by staffers, it was Ms. Swift’s decision to take the reins herself that made it a valuable resource. “Taylor here. I’m locking myself in my room and not leaving until I figure out how to use my Tumblr,” she wrote in September 2014, following in the footsteps of artists like Lorde and Frank Ocean, who were Tumblr users before they were famous.

“The impact was immediate and didn’t taper off,” Mr. Auerbach said, noting that few stars with Ms. Swift’s reach have really dived in and sustained such a presence. “She was learning about herself in the eyes of the fans,” he added. “No one did it like her. She was incredible at it.”

The generous, loose and jocular version of Ms. Swift that fans get on Tumblr can be a far cry from a public persona that some see as meticulously calculated and overbearing. On Monday, Ms. Swift was criticized in some corners after the ACLU of Northern California pushed back against a letter from Ms. Swift’s attorney demanding the takedown of a small-time blog post that linked the singer’s music to the alt-right and white supremacy.

While the ACLU called out Ms. Swift’s “intimidation tactics,” the topic spurred civil discussion on Tumblr. Wrote one fan: “I don’t think it’s too much to ask that you (not your attorneys) publicly denounce alt-right neo-nazis who take it upon themselves to use you, your lyrics, and the imagery in your music videos to bolster their disgusting beliefs.”

But many Swifties ultimately defended the singer. “Have people out there seriously not caught on to how taylor has decided this era to NOT interact with the media?” another user wrote. “She doesn’t want to give in and tell them where she stands politically. She’s done with them. And if she were to say something, we all know she’d still get torn apart anyway.”

Like Beyoncé’s BeyHive, Swifties can be rabid in their allegiance, especially in the virtual presence of their hands-on queen. (“Taylor always says that she sees everything and knows everyone and exactly what’s going on with her fans,” Ms. Chesney said.) This week, ahead of the release of “Reputation,” fans on Tumblr urged one another to be vigilant about reporting leaked music to the singer’s label and management team.

“They’re doing a lot of work for her in many ways,” said Linda Ryan Bengtsson, an assistant professor of media and communication studies at Karlstad University in Sweden. Ms. Bengtsson is currently conducting research on fan behavior across social media, with a focus on Swifties, whom she called “really loyal” and generally “very friendly and positive.”

She added, “They really lift each other and share each other,” often with the goal of reaching Ms. Swift’s field of vision.

“Everyone’s just helping each other out to get noticed by Taylor,” said Ani, 15, a high school student in Hong Kong who blogs as rosegardensthorns and asked that her last name be withheld because of college admissions.

“She followed me back in February and I freaked out,” Ani said. Months later, when Ms. Swift finally reposted a photo from her page, “I definitely cried in the metro station,” she said. “And then I showed my friend and she cried, too.”

Such gestures, executed in a public but largely unseen ecosystem, allow Ms. Swift to do good-natured brand maintenance and outreach without oversaturating a more skeptical general audience.

“She was very ubiquitous for a while there,” said the man behind the analyzingtaylor Tumblr, who writes under the name Matt to protect his professional prospects. “I just think that she knew it was time to not be as omnipresent as she was with 10 magazine covers and five different interviews.”

After all, Ms. Swift, at her best, has always been both sweet and savvy. “I think in 2017, you’ve got to appeal to your most die-hard fans, because they’re going to to do the promotion for you,” Matt said. “It’s a smarter way to go about business.”

[whenislunch]

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This summer I saw my favorite artist perform live on an island off of Manhattan that used to serve as a jail/mental health institution.

When Frank Ocean came out with his screen grabbed text file posted as a “photo” on Tumblr in 2012, I knew the platform was something special - the one niche he could safely post something so revealing and vulnerable and still not open himself to the direct hate-filled or homophobic comments of any other forum. I had signed up for Tumblr the year prior. I joined with the fantasy of becoming a famous food blogger (and later as a nail artist) so I could quit my publicity job and score all of the PR perks that I so readily dished out to any 'mommy' with a touch of digital pretense.

Personal space on the vast internet was never my craving. I resisted being too present, and enjoyed the ability to control how much I “put myself out there” on facebook, twitter, and later Instagram. With my original two tumblrs, like Frank, I could focus on sharing and following the things I cared the most about: in early cases, it was fan art of Bill Murray, gifs of Daft Punk, and mostly photos of food I had eaten from the everyday life of a new New Yorker discovering the cult nature of the restaurant scene (a similar practice to my behavior as a teen taking shitty photos at punk shows in St Pete, Florida to pin on my bedroom wall). Tumblr became my collection of “curated cool," and nobody cared how hard I was trying or what I put up there, except for me, and it became my favorite place on the internet. Eventually, I realized all of the writers I was admiring on The Awl were including their Tumblrs in their bios, and I was there to follow them. I saw Rebecca Black become a meme before her one-hit would become a wedding band wonder. If sitting at the open kitchen counter at an edison bulb-lit restaurant was the closest you could get to a food industry version of “backstage”, then a Tumblr dashboard filled with all of the blogging generation of the “fake news media” was the analogy. It’s human nature to want to be seen and understood. Selfies perform better than friendies on Instagram - and GPOY’s on Tumblr… well I challenge anybody on music.ly to define the acronym without that peeking at the Childish Gambino Genius page first.

And that’s the tip of the iceberg for where I stand with Tumblr now. After three years of hanging out in the same field, they invited me to meet them at the dugout. After four months of interviewing and pitching challenges and pretending like I was at a digital optimization workshop, I was offered a job. After five years, or nearly, I’m ready for another one. I had the BEST time and the BEST TEAM working at Tumblr. Sentiment is incalculable, and being the Comms professionals that we are, we can swear to the moon that the effect of press results on a brand is unquantifiable when one piece can qualitatively alter the nature of the public’s perception versus the reality of a goal. And I had the the immeasurable luxury to be surrounded by the smartest, most creative, intensely productive, and to borrow a food world phrase - hardiest colleagues in the history of the internet.

My first day at Tumblr also belonged to six others - together we endured a questionable onboarding interaction and then were sent with laptops and branded hoodies to our respective seats at our superdesks on various floors. There were dogs everywhere. I was told that I’d be introduced to the company on Friday and to submit two truths and a lie to help them get to know me. Here they are:

I have photo credits in the New York Times and New York Magazine

I appeared as a backup dancer in a rap video in high school

I watercolor paintings of crustaceans as a hobby

Leave your guess in the comments (oh wait, it’s Tumblr, you can’t). 

Friday lunches were my lifeblood for a couple of months. Every week for at least seven thereafter unloaded a new set of amazing humans to be introduced in some absurd way by Sean from recruiting. I remember @sexpigeon vs Homer’s owner in game of pictionary, Johnny and Jake quickly competing for my heart as #1 engineer dudes, and of course, the instant classic game of Mark Coatney/ Marc Cote/ Marked Coat. Tumblr ramped up fast thanks to Lee, a fundraising series and at the tireless behest of my personal champion, Lindsey Dole.

Meanwhile, more magic was brewing in the cauldron. I heard @amandalynferri talking about some game she invented called Pretty Little Lasagna box, or I heard Maddie recalling the time she had her palm read in 14th street psychic's booth seeking refuge from a snowstorm, or @lexkap who sat on the other side of the building with a dog on her lap DM’d me on hip chat to show me her own nail art blog. Then a few of us won a chance to see a sneak preview of a new arthouse film by Harmony Korine and featuring an ensemble cast of former Disney talent that had been filmed in my hometown with a y2k airbrushed aesthetic - there was something innately emotional tied to each of us with this first viewing of Spring Breakers. When we left the midtown theater alongside the ATL Twins, I realized that this company had curated a community to match the intended behavior of its user base. We all connected on a level beyond any workplace I had experienced before.

And there was the professional side to the job - the work wins came quick because I was so lucky to sit under leaders who wanted the team to succeed. Rick Webb and Katherine encouraged me to dig in, and get deep with these shiny new toys called “evangelists” - Valentine, Nate, Liba, Annie, Max, Rachel, Jen, and briefly DCH. An enviable group of brilliant minds and creative energy who have all gone on to accomplish even more for their respective industries than a marketing budget at a start up could have enabled - and I had the pleasure to help share their Tumblr stories with the world - from a puppy bowl to annual southby's to groundbreaking art auctions to thirteen fucking fashion weeks to 35+ art and music shows (brrr)?

And then Tumblr got acquired and the Jenna Wortham turned the New York Times blue, and I got to do something I’m sure will never happen again in my entire career: I threw a party where the goody bag included a free tattoo, and multiple brave souls got them (Tyler, @bryanasortino, Megan & Johnny, among others).

And then Karen (aka #takingitallin aka @beautifulliving) joined, and me and Katherine gained a new teammate at the same time that I gained a new soul sister (and because of her self-described passion for advertising I never had to write an announcement about a new ad product ever again.) I’ve never been more challenged to succeed as I have over the three years I sat next to Karen - a generous and driven woman with endless dreams of supporting others (literally, ask her about the gap in the undergarment sector), who will always find a spot to squeeze me into a photobooth. Even at her wedding.

And lucky us, because then we invited @lilders into the #teamcomms fold and wow, wow, wow was life good. It was my honor working with Lily as she grew from FIT intern into somebody we should all aspire to work for someday.

Which leads to me to the poker faced improv master of all - Katherine. Allora @alittlespace! I am so lucky she believed that this girl who came into talk about a hypothetical strategy to get Eleven Madison Park on Tumblr and then pitched her a fantasy football launch party hosted by Nick Kroll and Mark Duplass could fit in and have the privilege to join the Tumblr Communications team. KB - I’ve already written you the dopiest thank you letter and shared my orchid growing miracle secrets - but it can’t be said enough - I am so grateful to have worked for you for all of these years. You are the best boss, and we will always be the #bestteam.

Because of Tumblr (and @david), I had the pleasure of working with so many additional incomparable people on projects outside of my designated Marketing Comms position, wearing more hats than we even produced for branded activation swag:

Designing and contenting for months with the relaunch of the precious Staff blog with David, Peter, Damien, Tag, Toph, among others

Setting the inaugural year in review with Danielle, Amanda, Christine loose (and then doing it again and again and again, with the wonderful team at DKC - especially that time we added a serving Kale to America’s breakfast.

Marathoning dozens of events with amazing producers like Julia, Suzanne and Magic - and encountering the native talent that thrives on Tumblr like Humans of New York, Chloe Wise, Sam Cannon, Johnny McLaughlin, Jillian Mercado, to a point where I can honestly say “I knew them when.”

Participating in the first ever Sales Offsite aka the greatest bar mitzvah ever thrown by Lee Brown, Dan Walsh and Sarah Won and the rest of the coolest sales team ever assembled (here’s to you @katemaxx, @jeffdtaylor, Meredith, Ari, Kira, and so many more)

Reaching back into my fashion bag of tricks and launching three different clothing lines.

Creating partnerships to show off super surprises at nerd parties at Comic Con and another breaking the internet for Art Basel

Interviewing the CEO of Shake Shack for the one-time-only live episode of “5 with a side of fries" in front of the whole company.

Urgently dealing with Legal, Ads, Trust and Safety on one of the definitive news story of a generation after nine months of back channeling and reporting.

DOING IT FOR THE CULTURE: Racing with the content and analytics teams for stats on the contentious day of #thedress, and then bling rings, witches, boneghazi, superwholockians, wholesome memes, studyblr, emojis, and of course, the toe thing! Thus redefining what it means to “go viral.”

Cleaned a ball pit for the dude from the 1975 to make a splash into them and trolled a legacy music publication

And wow - it took me this long to mention Post It Forward…I am so proud of everyone who helped make Tumblr the most empathetic community on the internet: Nicole Blumenfeld, Jeff D’Onofrio, @skiphursh “Dolphin", @dougrichard, Andy Sebela, Jess Frank, Sarah Won @swon, @pauwow, the brilliant and diligent Michelle Johnson. From building the blog, commissioning the art, recruiting and onboarding the partners, writing the endless number of give/gets, planning the sponsored posts and social content, running the day to day on the blog (and bequeathing that role to Lily), then doing it again with the Mental Health Quilt and IRL with the Post It Forward Summit - I’ve found my new track as a special projects person who can take on any issue, even suicidal teens. If this is my legacy, I’ve planted seeds in the garden I might never see. And special thanks to Victoria, who allowed me to speak at Obama’s White House about why kids need a place on the internet that can help heal - so long as they can find each other.

As it turns out, adults need that, too. From tailing Frank Ocean’s Ferrari to the most woke, mentally aware community and on to, thank god, a bonafide company to match - I will forever cherish my time at Tumblr and I’ll forever been asking #whenislunch. But from every tomorrow on, it will be somewhere else. And you can find me on the internet! 

Here’s my LinkedIn, I’m looking. 

[illbefinealonereads]

Today we’re talking about A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison. Scroll down for more information about the book, my spoiler-free review and an excerpt.

A Love Hate Thing Whitney D. Grandison On Sale Date: January 7, 2020 Inkyard Press 9781335016041, 133501604X Hardcover $18.99 USD, $23.99 CAD Young Adult Fiction / Romance / Contemporary Ages 13 And Up 464 pages

Summary:

A fantastic enemies to lovers romance about an It girl whose world is upended when a boy from the past moves into her house after tragedy strikes. For fans of Ibi Zoboi's Pride, Mary H. K. Choi and Samira Ahmed. Wattpad author Whitney D. Grandison's traditional publishing debut.

When they're stuck under one roof, the house may not be big enough for their hate…or their love

When Tyson Trice finds himself tossed into the affluent coastal community of Pacific Hills, he’s ready for the questions, the stares, and the total feeling of not belonging in the posh suburb. Not that he cares. After recovering from being shot and surviving the mean streets of Lindenwood, he doesn’t care about anyone or anything. He doesn’t even care how the rest of his life will play out.

In Pacific Hills, image is everything. Something that, as the resident golden girl, Nandy Smith knows all too well. She’s spent most of her life building the pristine image that it takes to fit in. After learning that her parents are taking in a former childhood friend, Nandy fears her summer plans, as well as her reputation, will go up in flames. It’s the start of summer vacation and the last thing Nandy needs is some juvenile delinquent from the ’Wood crashing into her world.

Stuck together in close quarters, Trice and Nandy are in for some long summer nights. Only, with the ever-present pull back to the Lindenwood streets, it’ll be a wonder if Trice makes it through this summer at all.

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About the Author:

Whitney D. Grandison was born and raised in Akron, Ohio, where she currently resides. A lover of stories since she first picked up a book, it’s no surprise she’s taken to writing her own. Some of her works can be found on Wattpad, one of the largest online story sharing platforms, where she has acquired over 30,000 followers and an audience of over fifteen million dedicated readers.

Instagram: @wheadee Twitter: @whitney_DG

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Rating: 4/5 stars

Review: This was an exceptionally enjoyable read for me. I really liked the characters. Trice was so perfectly developed and brought to the page. Nandy seemed to be set as an opposite to Trice, and I really liked their interactions. A lot in this book was well executed. I really enjoyed the dynamics between the characters, as well as the writing. The plot was okay, but the connection I felt to the characters allowed me to keep reading. I have to note though that the pacing didn’t work for me, it felt a bit inconsistent. However, I liked the story, and I really wanted to see how it would turn out in the end.

Excerpt

 1 | TRICE

Getting shot isn’t the worst part. It’s the aftermath that re­ally fucks you up.

Six months ago, on a dark December night, I was lying in a pool of my own blood on the living room floor. Six months later, I was sitting in a car on the way to a new town to start fresh. In some ways, yeah, the wound had healed. In others, it never would. I didn’t care, though. The last thing I’d cared about got me where I was.

“You’ll like it there, Tyson. The Smiths have prepared a new home for you,” Misty from social services was saying as she drove the long stretch of highway toward Pacific Hills. It was only an hour away from where I used to live in Lindenwood, California.

I didn’t respond. Home was a meaningless word to me now.

Misty peeked at me. “Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“I can leave as soon as I turn eighteen, right?” That was all that mattered. Fuck the rest. Five months, aka one hun­dred and sixty days, to go. On November twelfth, I’d be free.

Misty sighed. “Look, I know what you’re going through—”

“Word? You’ve been shot too and all’at?” I glanced her way. This lady was going home to a million-thread-count sheet-and-pillowcase set, resting easy once I was off her hands.

Fuck outta here.

“Well, no, but—”

“Then shut up.” I faced the road ahead, done talking.

Misty let out a breath, her light tan skin no doubt holding a blush upon her cheeks. “Do you kiss your—” She caught herself, as if realizing where she was about to go. “I—I’m sorry. You just shouldn’t speak that way.”

I felt an ache in my chest, but I let it go.

I didn’t care.

Half a beat later Misty was rambling on about food. “Do you wanna stop and get something to eat, you must be starv­ing.”

“I told you I wasn’t hungry.”

“Oh, well, are you nervous?”

I hadn’t thought about being nervous or the fact that I would never return home again and lead a normal life. Not like I’d ever led one to begin with.

“No.”

“Well, good. Think of it as going to a sleepover at an old friend’s house.”

One thing was true, the Smiths were old friends, but this setup was for the next five months.

“It’s been ten years since I last saw them,” I spoke up. “This ain’t no damn sleepover, and it’s not about to be all kumbaya, neither.”

At least they were black. Moving into the uppity setting of Pacific Hills was sure to be hell, but at least I would be with a black family. Even if I wouldn’t exactly fit in.

I didn’t look the same. I didn’t act the same. I wasn’t the same. And I didn’t care.

“Tyson—”

“It’s Trice.” I had asked her to call me that from jump street. No one called me Tyson.

I didn’t want to think about that. I didn’t want to think about anything. I didn’t care.

“Trice, please, try? I know it’s been rough these past few months, but you have a chance at something fresh. The Smiths are good people, and Pacific Hills is a lovely town. I’m sure soon you’ll be close to your old self.”

Misty had no clue what she was talking about. My old self? She obviously hadn’t paid attention to my file, or she would’ve been smart enough to leave it at fresh and not bring up my past.

Tyson Trice was dead.

He died on the floor in the living room that day, and he was never coming back.

When I didn’t respond, Misty let up, probably getting that I didn’t give a shit either way.

I didn’t care.

2 | Nandy

I told myself I didn’t care about the juvenile delinquent my parents were moving into our home. I told myself it was no big deal an ex-con would be sleeping right next door to me. I told myself that my parents hadn’t made the worst decision in everdom.

It was just an everyday occurrence in the Smith household.

Still, it wasn’t fair.

As I paced around the pool in my backyard and complained to my best friend, Erica Yee, over the phone, I expected her to be on my side and console me.

“This was supposed to be a great summer and they pull this?” I whined.

“You can still have a good summer,” Erica responded. “This doesn’t have to be the end.”

But it was the end. My parents hadn’t gone into detail about the boy’s situation, just that he was in a “rough spot” and would be living with us for now. And that he was from Lindenwood, otherwise known as the ghetto.

I’d never gone there, but I’d heard enough stories to know to be cautious. When my parents watched the news, there was always a segment on some tragedy that had happened in Lindenwood. Some high-speed chase, or little kids killed during a drive-by, or a robbery gone wrong among the usual clutter of crime that kept the LPD busy. Lindenwood was no­torious for its drugs, thefts, assaults, and murders.

I shivered.

It probably hadn’t been the best idea to stay up lurking on the local news feeds right before the delinquent moved in.

Everything would be ruined.

“It is the end,” I insisted. “I mean, they spent all this time whispering and having these hushed conversations behind closed doors, and they barely revealed last night that he’s from Lindenwood!”

Maybe I was acting childishly, but I felt like a kid with the way my parents had shut me out on the biggest detail of all when it came to the boy coming to stay with us out of no­where. For two weeks, they’d been scarce on the topic and evaded any and all questions. Now it felt like they’d dropped a bomb on me.

For all I knew, this kid was a total ex-gangbanger and my parents were intent on opening our home to wayward souls.

Dramatic? Sure.

Precautions? I was definitely taking them.

“Right now, you’re probably pacing around your pool ina Gucci bikini while your happily-in-love parents are inside preparing dinner together. God, Nan, your life is incredibly boring. You could use this delinquent to spice things up.”

Well, it was a Sunday evening, and the sun was beginning to set. My parents always made dinner together on Sundays, because they were both off work and able to do so.

I stopped pacing and glanced down at my white Gucci bikini. “Yee, you try new hobbies to spice things up, not in­vite ex-cons to move in with you. Look, whatever, let’s just get away for a few hours. The longer I put a halt on this, the better.”

“When is he supposed to show up?”

“Sometime today. I just wanna blow it off. Maybe you, me, and Chad could grab a bite at the club or something.”

My boyfriend’s family had a reserved table at the local country club. Anything would be better than dinner with the delinquent. I wasn’t 100 percent sure he was a criminal, but I wasn’t taking any chances. When it came to Lindenwood, you couldn’t be too sure.

“You in?” I asked.

“If we must.” Erica pretended to sound exasperated. “Call me with the details in twenty, okay?”

“Deal.” I hung up and sighed, tilting my head back to­ward the darkening sky and questioning what I had done to deserve this.

It was the first week of June, and school had ended last week. I intended to spend this summer before senior year going to beach bonfires and parties with my friends, lounging around, preparing for cotillion, and just staying as far away from home as possible.

With a plan in motion, I went around my pool and stepped into our family room through the patio doors.

“Shit!” I jumped back, dropping my phone and barely reg­istering the sound of its rough slap against the hardwood floor.

My parents were standing in the room with an Asian woman who was dressed in a violet-red pantsuit. But it was the boy beside her that startled me. He towered over my fa­ther, with broad shoulders and a wide chest, and arms that let me know he worked out, even though he seemed drenched in black with his long-sleeved shirt and matching pants. He had deep, dark brown skin with a clean complexion. But what really stood out was his hair. The boy had cornrows braided to the back of his head—well-aged cornrows.

Ugh, he looked so unpolished.

Suddenly I remembered my fallen phone and looked down to discover the screen was cracked. Because things aren’t messed up enough already.

“And you remember our daughter, Nandy.” My mother played it cool, gesturing toward where I’d frozen near the patio doors.

Everyone faced me, looking just as uncomfortable as I felt.

Great, I was making my first impression completely inap­propriate in a bikini.

Awkwardly, I waved and forced a smile onto my face, showing off the result of two years of braces.

“Nandy, this may be a little bit of a surprise, but you re­member Tyson Trice, don’t you?” my father asked, looking between the two of us.

At first, the name vaguely rang a bell, but then it hit me. Tyson, the boy I’d played with when I was younger. He used to come by in the summers when his grandfather would do lawn work around our subdivision. There’d been a few times during the school year when he’d come by too, but it was mostly a summer thing. Until he stopped coming altogether.

The revelation brought a sense of relief followed quickly by a foreign anger that I couldn’t explain.

That was then; this is now.

Now Tyson Trice had hit a mega growth spurt and stood before me nearly a man, appearing not at all like the seven­teen years young that we both were.

“Right.” I nodded my head. “Tyson, hey.”

Tyson didn’t shift focus to my body. He stared straight into my eyes and bore no friendly expression or a tell of what he was thinking. He was far across the room, but I didn’t need to be right up on him to know that he had the angriest eyes I’d ever seen. Dark, soulless abysses stared at me, making me shiver.

Right on, Dad. Thanks for inviting a possible murderer into our home.

“And this is our son, Jordy.” My mother didn’t miss a beat as she went on, downplaying how awkward everything was.

Jordy, my eleven-year-old little brother, was sitting against the ottoman, playing a video game on his handheld.

Tyson glanced at Jordy, and I felt protective, seeing curios­ity briefly cross his face as he laid eyes on my Thai brother.

Jordy looked up from his game. “Hey.”

Tyson lifted a brow and turned to face my parents in that familiar way most outsiders looked at my family once they realized a black family was raising a Thai son.

Jordy smirked, shaking his head. “They wish they could’ve spawned a kid as good‑looking as me.”

My father chuckled. “We spoke about adopting for years after having Nandy, and right around the time she was eight, we got approved and Jordy came into our lives.”

“He was just two years old,” my mother gushed. “He was so adorable, we fell in love with him instantly.”

I came more into the room, wanting to shield my brother from Tyson. Someone had to think of the kids.

“Nandy, why don’t you go put some clothes on.” It wasn’t a question. My mother was ordering me to cover up and look more presentable for our guests.

“I was actually on my way out to meet up with Erica, we’ve got this—”

“Right now?” she asked. “We’ve got company.”

I glanced at Tyson, hating him again for spoiling my summer. I’d seen him, and I��d spoken to him. What more did she want?

“Yeah, but Erica and I had plans to go to the country club and talk about cotillion.”

My mother pursed her lips. “Nandy—”

“You know what,” my father stepped in, “that’s a great idea. Nandy could take Tyson and the two could get reacquainted, and that’ll give us time to talk to Ms. Tran here.”

My eyes practically shot out of their sockets. There was no way in hell I’d share a car with Tyson.

After thinking it over, my mother seemed to agree. “That is a great idea. We can all sit down together later.”

My jaw hit the ground.

I shook my head. “You know, never mind, suddenly I’m not as hungry as I thought. In fact, I feel sick to my stomach. I think I’ll go lie down.”

By the way my mother narrowed her eyes, I knew she’d be giving me hell later about my behavior. I didn’t care. It wasn’t fair to me to force some scary-looking guy into my hands to be babysat.

With one final look at the newest arrival to the Smith household, I picked up my phone from the floor and made my way up to my room.

Long after Ms. Tran had left and my mother had scolded me in our family office, I sat in my room, maneuvering witha broken phone as I texted my boyfriend. Going on a hun­ger strike didn’t last long for me. After having refused to go down for dinner, I was starving.

My cell phone chirped as Chad texted me back.

Chad: Outside

Me: Thank God

My parents were probably still up, no doubt discussing ei­ther my punishment or how we were going to work Tyson into the family.

With their bedroom being in a different wing of our house, sneaking out was always an easy feat. Still, I made sure to keep extra quiet as I crept out of my room and slipped down the staircase.

Chad was waiting for me out front. He’d been pacing back and forth in front of our walk as he waited, and as I stepped outside I was elated to see him.

“I’m thinking sushi, you in?” I asked as I walked past him, heading for his car.

“Yeah, sure. What’s going on?” Chad asked as he caught up to me and fell into step.

I peered up into his blue eyes. “You don’t want to know.”

Chad ran a hand through his auburn hair, appearing con­fused but conceding. “O-kay, let’s go get some sushi.”

At the feeling of being watched, I glanced back at my house. On the second floor, through one of the large bay windows, I caught sight of a silhouetted figure.

It was him.

Creep.

I turned back to Chad and reached out and caught his hand. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

This was my summer, and no one was getting in the way of that.

Excerpted from A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison. Copyright ©2020 by Whitney Grandison. Published by Inkyard Press.

[christinaengela]

Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer the question:  “Why Did I Write ‘Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You’?“

Many kids today face a frighteningly increasing level of bullying at the hands of their peers! Typically this bullying is based on differences in race, gender, sexual orientation or gender identity – and as it always has been, for reasons involving jealousy, fear, resentment, or as it often is with kids, just “for fun”.

In a world where bullying and intolerance of diversity is becoming increasingly a problem, I think it’s very, very important to teach children – and adults – compassion for others. Naturally I think compassion and kindness is something that everyone should’ve learned at their parent’s knees – but unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky as some of us were – or to have the kind of parents I had!

Back in 2015, when I started realizing that children were dying at the hands of bullies, and even committing suicide because of bullying, it was an awful reality to face. Worse still, was the realization that children were being picked on for appearing gay, effeminate, or for being transgender, as I was as a child and teen (and even as a young adult) – as well as for being disabled, sickly or of another race! Seriously?

Where do children get these ideas? They certainly aren’t born with them, that’s for sure!

Children are supposed to be innocent, naive, and a newer, better version of us, aren’t they? Ideally, yes – but it’s often not the case. Some kids can be very, very cruel, even brutal towards others. This sort of behavior isn’t always spontaneous or “part of growing up” – it is often also learnt. The kid who hears Dad mouthing off about “librals” on the TV, or the Sunday School teacher venting insane yet imaginative propaganda about gay people for example, will often integrate that behavior into their own mindset and act that out with their peers.

It’s often the same with adults, isn’t it? John and Jill will go to church and listen to Pastor Jimmy thumping the holy book, misquoting and distorting verses and sermons in order to demonise and incite ill-will towards those darned homosexuals and immigrants who “come over here to rape white women and steal our jobs” – and come Monday morning, John is sharing this view with Pete and Mike over their tea-break and Jill calls the cops on a neighbor who looks suspicious while mowing his own lawn on account of the color of his skin. Meanwhile, little Mikey take their own Sunday School lessons to school with them, and decides that because Albert looks a little like a girl and likes to hang around the girls and play with their toys, he deserves what the other kids in class do to him – and joins in.

Hatred of others – and a lack of compassion or empathy – isn’t something most children are born with, it’s something they learn from those around them.

Which brings me to a very important point: what kind of learning environment and what kind of examples are adults setting for their kids? Don’t their parents teach them that hate, cruelty and bullying others is wrong or bad? Don’t they teach them to help others, to be kind? Or like many pessemists today think, do they not teach them anything at all, and “just leave it all up to the teachers at school”? In many places today, a lot of children slip through the cracks in the system – if there even is a system in place!

A lot of kids grow up with uncaring, absent parents who don’t involve themselves in their kids lives. Others might be abusive too – and there’re already whole libraries written about that aspect, but there are also many children who grow up as orphans, living in care centers, or even living on the streets. Perhaps not always in places like the US or other first world countries, where mandated foster care or center-living up to the age of 18 is legally enforced – but in places like South Africa and India and other third-world countries where kids not only slip through cracks, they disappear!

Gangs of “street kids” callously and vigorously commit crimes in the darker parts of the world, sometimes to survive, sometimes for entertainment – like the kids who chased a dog and pelted it to death with stones some years ago in a Johannesburg suburb. Then there’re the kids in the UK who were not street kids who made a video of them torturing a puppy by cutting its ears off with scissors. How cruel – how far gone must someone be to do something like that? How sick and depraved! …but yet, I wonder, how did those kids come to be that way? What kind of life have they led, that they find enjoyment in causing pain and in being cruel to a defenseless, trusting creature? Did someone teach them, an adult perhaps – through experience – that hurting and harming others gives a kind of pleasure? Perhaps a fleeting warm feeling inside to help keep the cold, harshness of living at bay?

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Circumstances and environment play a vital role in a child’s upbringing – and if a child grows up in a negative, brutal environment, whether at school or at home – it will more than likely result in a damaged child and consequently, a dysfunctional young adult. Whether or not that individual adopts the same behavior or traits and becomes a bad person – or rejects them to seek the good and beautiful in the world, generally depends on their internal make-up… and their environment as adults, and to me it’s terribly tragic to place children in such a position.

Further, there’s still a lot of animosity towards people with disabilities – which is definitely unneccessary! It seems a cruel streak runs through most of us, but in the right environment it can be negated and prevented from dominating an individual’s personality. It’s difficult to convince cynical kids though, that mocking people for their physical disabilities or characteristics is wrong and unacceptable however, when one of the most powerful leaders on earth builds his entire election platform upon doing just that. What Mr. Trump is saying – and what his revolting single-cell organism followers are saying is: “Bullies are very fine people, be a bully like us, nobody’ll stand up to you!” Nauseating, isn’t it?

Not liking people you don’t know is fine and perfectly ordinary… but hating people for being different to oneself? No wonder so many kids grow up to be such horrible, nasty, sociopathic little gits! Geez!

…And yet, there’s still a lot of hope! Hope is good – hope I can work with!

To try to offset this indoctrination of children with hatred and suspicion towards others, and the undermining of children’s innate empathy and compassion for others – and against the breaking down of their self-worth, I decided to write this book. The text reads like a poem, and it has some really gorgeous, insightful illustrations by Amanda M. Lyons, and it’s available in both eBook and paperback forms.

I wrote “Other Kids” to inspire kids (and the adults who read it with kids) who are bullied for being different without focusing too strongly on the bullying angle.

Anyway, that’s the background of why I wrote the story! Below, a review for “Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You“.

“Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You” by Christina Engela celebrates the concept of diversity and how precious every child is.

This book is about intolerance, diversity, and bullying and encourages readers to accept everyone, irrespective of their differences based on gender, race, and color. The book also emphasizes being compassionate to everyone, regardless of their color, status, and gender.

Bullying and intolerance are relevant topics in today’s times and this book is good for read-aloud sessions in classrooms to help children be more tolerant and compassionate towards others. The illustrations lend clarity to the concept and help readers connect with the author’s words.

The author’s approach to the subject is unique and different, and she makes the book appealing to children with the help of colorful illustrations. It is a good book to teach children to be kind and compassionate. 5 stars” – Mamta Madhavan for Readers’ Favorite, Oct 17, 2019

Until next time,

Cheers!

Where can you get “Other Kids Are Kids Almost Just Like You“? Right here!

You can find my books all over the place – on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Lulu, Smashwords, PayHip, and a stack of others around the world! You can also find them on my website’s Shop page.

For South African readers, Kobo lists all available titles in South African currency!

I hope this answers this question to your satisfaction!

Feel free to email or message me via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn if you have any comments or questions!

If you would like to know more about Christina Engela and her writing, please feel free to browse her website.

If you’d like to send Christina Engela a question about her life as a writer or transactivist, please send an email to christinaengela@gmail.com or use the Contact form.

Show your appreciation for Christina’s work!

All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2019.

FAQ’s Answered #15: Why Did I Write ‘Other Kids’? Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer the question:  "

[concertteamup-blog]

Q+A For ConcertTeamup

Hello everyone! I hope some of this clear things up. I understand some are a little confused on how this all works! Remember I am always here if you have any questions or concerns, please send them through messages or on ask! Lots of to you all! x

Q:   “Is this legit?”

A: Yes, I want this all to be as safe as possible for fans. We don't scam and we don't lie.

Q: “I’m selling a ticket, how do I do this?”

A: You have already done what you need to do! All I need to know is that you have one (or more) available for purchase! I will then find you someone to match with, as soon as possible. 

Q: “How do I send a request or submission for a ticket/s?”

A: Simple! Send them through ask or messaging! Both are available and open. Submitting makes it a little difficult to answer you directly though.

Q: “What should I send for the request for tickets?”

A: Just tell me what show you are wanting to attend to, and how many tickets you need, also if you need a specific ticket. It is nice to know your age, your name also how much you are offering but that is totally optional for you to tell me.

Q: “How do I get ‘Matched’” 

A: Simple, pretty much once I find a ticket, and if you are chosen. I tell you who you have been matched with. I will also then tell you that you should contact each other for how you want it all to be arranged. I don't want to intrude on your details so I leave the communication aspect to be completely up to you two.

Q: “I have been matched and am talking to the seller/buyer and we need help”

A: I am always here to help you guys in any way that I can.

Q: “I have been matched but i’m getting a strange vibe”

A: I’m very sorry to hear that. We want this to be as safe and easy as possible. If you for some reason feel that there is something shady coming from your seller/buyer, please let us know immediately. I will ask you to share what you think might be happening. I will then talk to the two of you to sort it out. It will then be asked to the seller for proof by photo and/or video of the ticket/s. If you still feel that there may be more going on, I will gladly find you someone else that you feel safer with. Although, there is a very slight chance that you will be scammed, as I talk to all of you before you are matched and make sure that you have good intentions. 

Q: “I already have tickets, I just don't want to go alone”

A: That is totally understandable, and congrats on getting tickets! I will try and find someone to match you with as soon as possible so you have someone to attend the show with. 

Q: “How do I pay once I have been matched?”

A: I leave this up to the two of you to decide as people have different requirements. Although I know you can send the payment through Ticketmaster, Paypal, Bank Transfers, etc. But again the decision is totally up to and what works best for you and your seller/buyer. Im always here if you need any assistance. 

Q: “How do I send the tickets to the buyer?”

A: As of right at this moment, nobody has their physical tickets as its only been about 36 hours since tickets sold out. But in the future you are able to connect with each other on Ticketmaster to transfer tickets, without any costs and also safely. You can also mail tickets as an option, but we all know that shipping physical items may get lost in delivery. Again this is totally up to the buyer/seller, which ever method works best for the two of you is important. Im always here for help.

Q: “I have been matched, and have successfully gotten my tickets, but I no longer need them”

A: Thats totally fine! I will find someone for you to match with! You now take on the role as a seller. 

Q: “I have been matched to a seller, but I don't need the ticket/s anymore”

A: Sorry to hear that! We will then find someone else for the ticket/s”

Q: “Will you let us know if you have any available?”

A: Yes of course! As soon as I have some available, you will all be notified. I recommend turning our posts notifications on. You can do this by going on my home page and selecting the person shaped icon in the right corner, once selected there should be a “Get Notifications” button. Click that. There will then be a lightning bolt next to the icon to confirm. I am always here for help if you are confused. 

A: “Can I be added to the ___ list”

Q: Yes, although there is no waiting list. Once I let you guys know that there is a ticket available, I will also tell you a specific word (Example: “Green”, “Pink”, “Sweet Creature”) Send me the word that I ask for that is linked to that ticket, and you will be added to a list that will help me randomly draw one of you for the ticket. I want it to be as fair as possible. If you guys prefer a waiting list, please let me know. I want all of you to get a chance. 

Q: “How do I get chosen for tickets, is there something I can do”

A: Demand for tickets is very high at the moment. Send me a request, and also keep on the look out for my posts. I don't choose for who I think deserves it more, I think you all deserve a chance and a ticket. I don't single people out if they believe in specific ‘ships’ or if they just created a blog that day. We all support the same person/people and I think thats very important, so no at this moment there is no special way to get a ticket. In the future there may be a list, but no I want this to be as fair as possible. If you disagree or have another opinion, please let me know again I want what works best for all of you! 

Q: “I didn't get any tickets the last time you had some available”

A: Don't give up, there will be more to come. It’s only been two days and I have already been able to match people. Just keep your eyes peeled on my account. 

Q: “How much time do people have to be entered on to the list for the  ______ show?”

A: After I notify you all that I have a ticket available. Im giving you all 12 hours to send me the specific word. Please keep in mind that may change depending on if the seller will allow this much time. 

Q: “You didn't reply, was I not on the list?”

A: If you sent me the word in the correct time, you would have been on the list. If I don't answer its because I have quite a few messages, but don't worry nobody is going unnoticed. I see all. 

Q: “Do you have the ticket physically”

A: No, I dont. A direct you to someone who does and is safe/reliable.  Think of me as a manager. 

Q: “If you manage to get tickets, will the name change to yours?”

A: No, I don't think the name will change. As far as I’m aware the person who first bought the ticket will have their name on it. 

Q: “Where exactly are you getting the tickets from”

A: Either someone has come to me saying they have some for sale, or I look for them myself through other platforms. 

Q: “For example, if I was able to get a ticket to the Sydney show with your help, will there be a problem when I show them the ticket at the venue...? Because I heard several people saying that they may not let you in if it doesn't have your name on it or something like that?”

A: From what I've heard is that its different for every place. Some people will only be allowed access if the person who originally bought the tickets is there with ID for proof. This is where we get the name ‘concertTeamUp’. So if someone is selling a ticket the buyer can tag along with the person who has their name on the ticket. This way you will be “Teaming Up” and going to the show together. Although some places also don't need for the person who originally bought the ticket with their name on it to be there. I would suggest calling and/or emailing the venue that you are planning to go to. We would hate for someone to get a ticket but not be allowed access. Let us know if you do contact the venues, we can then make a post about the guidelines for each place, if you guys wish. 

Q: “If I am matched but I don't respond right away, will it be given away to someone else?” 

A: No. I will wait for your response. If you don't need the ticket anymore I will give it to someone else though. 

Q: I sent a message but Im not sure you got it, you didn't reply.”

A: Most cases I have seen it, I just haven't had the chance to reply. I will get back to you as soon as I can. Again, I didn't realize my blog would be noticed as much as it is. So don't panic, I do see all.

Q: “I’m still confused”

A: Thats totally okay! Message me and I will try my best to help you understand! 

Q: “Are you selling two tickets at a time to one person?”

A: I understand people need more than one ticket, so I will try my best for you. If I have two available and you are chosen, you may be in luck.

Q: “Will you tell us details about the ticket?”

A: Normally I will tell you the amount of tickets, the place and the price. Its up to the seller on how much information is to be posted. 

Q: “Are trades available?”

A: Yes! Absolutely!

Q: “I don’t have very many places to share your blog.”

A: That is totally fine! You are not obligated to share my blog. This also does not effect your chances of being chosen for a ticket. 

Q: “Where should I share your blog?”

A: It’s completely up to you! Twitter is a good way, but honestly any form of sharing is good and very appreciated! Please don't feel pressured though.

Q: “Are there groups of people that I can tag along with?”

A: Yes! I can find you a match! Also feel free to try and start one! Let me know if you do! 

Q: “I know people looking for and buying tickets, should I tell them about you!”

A: Its up to you! It will definitely help though!

Q: “What cities have you sold to?”

A: I may be wrong but from what I remember its been, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Singapore, and New York. 

Q: ”Are you only selling tickets to certain cities?”

A: Whatever tickets for whatever shows find there way over here they will be posted. Im selling for all shows. 

Q: “If you have already sold a ticket for a show, will that be the only one?”

A: No, when more come they will be posted no matter how many times its been sold before on here.

Again I am trying my absolute best for all of you! I want this to be a place where we can connect to one another as fans. Thank you for submitting and also for paying attention. It truly does mean a lot, fingers crossed that I get you your ticket/s!

I hope this clears up some things! Again, please know Im always available for anything. These were the most asked questions, so If more come at a high rate I could make a Part 2. Also I apologize for the length of this post, I hope it helps though! x

Much love to you all, x

-CTU.

[xhostcom]

Social Media Trends

Social media has had a turbulent year to say the least. Many social giants, Facebook in particular, has been criticized for issues ranging from data privacy to manipulative content. This year, Facebook users learned that the social network had compromised their privacy by allowing access to the personal information of millions of people to a political analytics firm. The data privacy issue put into sharp focus the magnitude of power these companies have over user data. Many people for the first time acknowledged the extent at which bad actors can exploit and disrupt government elections, broadcast viral propaganda and spread messages of hate across the globe. As the scandals mounted, both the public and the government were left questioning just how much power social networks (should) have and how much responsibility we all have to each other. Despite this backlash, social media continues to be a pervasive part of most Americans’ lives. According to a recent report, social media and messaging apps accounts for roughly 1 in every 3 minutes people spend on the internet and Facebook remains the primary platform for most Americans. Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) report that they are Facebook users, and nearly three-quarters (75%) of those users access Facebook on a daily basis. Among younger generations, video and photo sharing sites are even more popular as an astounding 94 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds regularly use YouTube. The negative aspects of social media are hard to ignore, but on the flipside, what about the positive impact of social?  Social media networks give users an opportunity to connect with others personally and professionally across the globe, catalogue and share life’s important moments, mobilize and fundraise for important causes and simply be entertained. Businesses have an opportunity to engage and service their customers more efficiently in an increasingly connected and digital world. So, what does 2019 hold for social media? How will user behaviour change in light of these issues and opportunities? Here are my social media predictions for 2019: 2019: The Rise of Dark Social for Consumers and Brands

Dark social, despite sounding ominous, means sharing content that occurs outside of what can be measured by traditional web analytics. It can also mean an online community where identity takes a backseat to free, anonymous content sharing. In this political and social climate, I predict an emergence of dark social in terms of how people share content and how brands look to monetize what content is shared in private spaces. People still want to be social online, but they don’t necessarily want these interactions to occur under the gaze of the entire world. Social networks have become a place for people to share carefully crafted snippets of their life with friends, family and strangers who view their public profiles. The historical record that many social networks leave behind has led to widespread self-censorship. People are reluctant to post content for fear that it will be dredged up months or even years later. In my view, the context gap is one of the driving forces behind the emergence of dark social. The context gap is where identity and permanence take a backseat to content. In their daily lives, people often interact with different groups. The things you might talk about with your family around the dinner table are often a far cry from the conversations you have with friends during a pub crawl. Context collapse is what happens when these different groups collide in one place — usually weddings or social media. If you share something online, everyone you know is able to see it. This often leads to a chilling effect where people find there isn’t much they want to share with everyone. Dark social just may be the answer. Dark social accomplishes two goals for users: addresses a desire to project a particular image and gives people an opportunity to avoid damaging material in a social sharing economy that is anything but open and transparent. One of the ways people avoid leaving behind a trail of (potentially) embarrassing uploads is by favoring networks with disappearing content like Snapchat and Instagram stories. The disappearing nature of Snapchat’s content is especially appealing to younger generations, with 78 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds using the platform. On the app, people can share content they find funny, interesting or important without having it associated with them forever. For brands, marketing on traditional platforms like Facebook, while highly effective at scale, requires brands to flatten people into pre-established buckets. Dark-social spaces, on the other hand, function more as focus groups. They provide an honest, inside view into what tastemakers and potential customers are thinking and sharing. Dark social is about understanding overall traffic and consumer sentiment. From there, brands can get a bit more granular by applying basic demographic information to these platforms. Knowing this information can help marketers make better sense of the trends and conversations they observe in these spaces. Combine that insight with a smart understanding of what different groups that have gathered tend to discuss, and there’s a new entry point for understanding how to market products and services. Visual Communications Continues and Evolves From text posts to infographics, from pictures to the explosion of online video, and back to short, digestible content like gifs and memes, I predict that the visual culture on social media will continue to shape shift. Our ability to communicate through visual language and the creativity we experiment with in this medium will continue to evolve. The next iteration to go mainstream could be AI-driven gifs or once 5G comes into play, the ability to post high definition selfies or stream 4K live video on social. Whatever form this communication takes, it will be designed to interact with audiences at increasingly quick speeds.   Social Media and the Generational Divide

In 2019, it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion social network users around the globe, up from 2.46 billion in 2017. That 2.77 billion users is now made up of four generations: Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z.  All four cohorts have different user behavior, social channel preferences and varying tech experience. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snap are all important social experiences offering unique ways for connecting people. Facebook will continue to dominate by sheer number of users, but I predict that people will fragment even further and organize by age group. Younger people in the Gen Z group in particular will engage, not only where their peers are, but on the channels that offer authentic, new ways to express themselves and connect with others online. Rise of Stress Free Social With so much of traditional social media tied to identity and personal branding, a “comparison” culture has emerged where people feel the need to measure their lives against what other people are posting.  Compounded by the social media drama of 2018, people are welcoming “stress free social” where authenticity and content is entertaining, interesting and real. Posting authentic content anonymously where its free from judgment or trolling will rise in popularity. As users attention spans continue to shrink, I predict disappearing content like Instagram Stories and Snapchat to sharply increase in popularity. The events of were dizzying 2018 when it came to social media, but 2019 marks an interesting turning point. We’ll continue to create new social media sharing experiences and probably pay closer attention about how our data is used and take greater responsibility for the content we share. As we continue into 2019, “getting back to basics” is the best way to characterize this year. Read the full article

[axsomreport]

Headlines for September 12, 2018

Accuracy in Media

Politifact Labels Harris Tweet on Kavanaugh’s Abortion Position ‘False’ - 9/11/2018

Yahoo: Trump Doesn’t Even Know Which Land to Lease - 9/11/2018

Mainstream Media Finds No Sources in Favor of Trump PLO Announcement - 9/11/2018

CJR Writer Tries to Understand Tucker Carlson Without Introspection - 9/11/2018

MSNBC Gives Glowing Coverage to Obama for Criticizing Trump - 9/10/2018

Allen West The Old School Patriot

Leftists Overtaking My Hometown of Atlanta - 9/11/2018

Islamic Terrorists Want Dems to Win in November - 9/11/2018

The Traitorous Revision of History in the US - 9/10/2018

The Very Definition of Terrorism on Display - 9/8/2018

Alinsky, Trump, and an Anonymous Coup - 9/7/2018

Big League Politics

BREAKING: DOJ Set To Investigate Anti-Conservative Bias Among Social Media Giants - 9/11/2018

Twitter User Threatens Mass Murder of Trump Supporters, Account Still Active - 9/11/2018

Muslim Organization Tries To Bully Franklin Graham From Speaking In U.K. - 9/11/2018

Rabid Anti-Trump Leftist Attempts to Stab GOP Congressional Candidate - 9/11/2018

Leftist U.S. Senator Compares Russian Conspiracy Theory To 9/11 - 9/11/2018

Bizpac Review

GOP Rep. Scott Taylor explains how reenlisting after 9/11 changed his life forever - 9/11/2018

Crack pipe vending machines disguised as pen dispensers pop up in Long Island as school begins - 9/11/2018

Georgia school reignites debate over corporal punishment after reinstating paddling as punishment - 9/11/2018

President Trump honors 9/11 with a speech so powerful it leaves moved CNN hosts stunned - 9/11/2018

Carter Page: FBI probe not about me, it’s about tearing down Trump and all the good he’s doing - 9/11/2018

Breitbart News

Nancy Pelosi, Confident: 'I Will Be the Speaker of the House' - 9/12/2018

Pelosi: Dems Will Win House Because Some Republicans Aren’t ‘Going to Fight Us’ - 9/11/2018

Exclusive — ‘Possession of Drug Paraphernalia’ and Dozens of Other Charges: Ad Exposes Minnesota Democrat’s Brushes with Law - 9/12/2018

Support for Mayor Khan Crashes After Summer of Violence - 9/12/2018

UK Police Force Doubles Down on 'Non-Crime Hate Incidents' After Social Media Backlash - 9/12/2018

Chicks On The Right

Uh Oh. Salsa Dancing Cynthia Nixon Has Lost The All-Important Amy Schumer Vote. - 9/12/2018

Man Threatens Mass Shooting To Collect ‘Bloodstained MAGA Hats’ – Police On The Scene - 9/11/2018

Convenience Store Clerk Collapses In Medical Emergency – Teens Do The Unthinkable - 9/11/2018

Socialist Nutjob Caught In YET ANOTHER LIE - 9/11/2018

Don Jr. Says His Father Only Has A ‘Small’ Group Of People Within The White House He Can Trust - 9/11/2018

Consortiumnews

On the Brink with Russia in Syria Again, 5 Years Later - 9/12/2018

Beyond Bolton: The Path to a Progressive Foreign Policy - 9/11/2018

Letter from Britain: The Real Reason for the ‘Anti-Semite’ Campaign Against Jeremy Corbyn - 9/10/2018

Support Our Commitment to Independent Journalism - 9/10/2018

Moscow Has Upped the Ante in Syria - 9/9/2018

CNS

Trump Would Shut Down Government Over A Border Wall; Some Say He Should - 9/12/2018

Kenneth Starr Still Getting Hardballs - 9/12/2018

If Americans Can't Drive in Afghanistan, Can We Remake Syria? - 9/12/2018

UN Human Rights Council Gives Platform to Venezuelan Minister, Who Slams The US - 9/12/2018

The Purge - USA Network - 9/11/2018

Daily Caller News Foundation

Eddie Edwards Will Face Off Against Democrat Chris Pappas In New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District - 9/11/2018

REPORT: Manafort Is Talking To Mueller About Reaching Plea Deal In Second Trial - 9/11/2018

Cardinal Wuerl To Meet With The Pope About RESIGNATION - 9/11/2018

Police Investigating Anonymous Threat Made At Trump Hotel Before MAGA Event - 9/11/2018

Molly Kelly Wins New Hampshire Democratic Primary, Faces Incumbent Sununu In November - 9/11/2018

Daily Wire

NBC News White House Correspondent Mocks Trump Saying 'Radical Islamic Terrorism' On 9/11 - 9/12/2018

WATCH: Son Of Woman Killed On 9/11 Seemingly Slams Pelosi And Booker For Using Victims as 'Props' - 9/12/2018

Bernie Sanders' Son Doesn't Do So Great In His Congressional Primary - 9/11/2018

Democratic Socialist Threatens To Shoot Up MAGA Event At Trump Hotel, Report Says - 9/11/2018

Pastor Gets Standing Ovation For Blunt Message To Nike - 9/11/2018

Dan Bongino

September 11, 2018: Ep. 804 New Texts Expose More Corruption - 9/11/2018

Do Illegal Aliens Really Commit Fewer Crimes? - 9/10/2018

September 10, 2018: Ep. 803 Is This Major Player in the Scandal Still Alive? - 9/10/2018

SPYGATE: The Characters You Need to Know - 9/9/2018

September 7, 2018: Ep. 802 Is Justice Coming? - 9/7/2018

Drudge Report Feed

Fearing destructive quake, California considers list of buildings likely to collapse... - 9/12/2018

Priest charged with sexually assaulting young girl... - 9/12/2018

Calls prevention summit... - 9/12/2018

Rat in Broth Wipes $190 Million Off Restaurant Chain's Value... - 9/12/2018

Jimmy Carter: Don't scare off moderates... - 9/12/2018

Eagle Rising

President Trump Remembers The Flight 93 Heroes - 9/11/2018

Georgia School Brings Back Paddling To Punish Students - 9/11/2018

Bolton Announces The Trump Admin Will Stop US Cooperation With The ICC - 9/11/2018

Wisconsin College Frowns On 9/11 Memorial Project Over Fears It Could Offend Muslims - 9/11/2018

TRUMP BOOM: Most Summer Travel, Higher Small Business Optimism Since Reagan, Lowest Unemployment Ever, MORE - 9/11/2018

FOX Business

Extradition case of Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya in UK court - 9/12/2018

A Decade Later: 5 Lingering Effects of the Financial Crisis - 9/12/2018

4 Retirement Planning Mistakes You Probably Don't Even Realize You're Making - 9/12/2018

Farmer Brothers (FARM) Q4 2018 Earnings Conference Call Transcript - 9/12/2018

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished for Social-Media Giants - 9/12/2018

FOX News

Florida woman doused husband's eyes with hot sauce during argument, police say - 9/12/2018

Hurricane Florence could bring catastrophic storm surges: What are they, and how can you prepare? - 9/12/2018

Hurricane Florence apps to use during the storm - 9/12/2018

Hurricane Florence churns in the Atlantic: How do these powerful tropical storms take shape? - 9/12/2018

Libyan officials say unknown missiles hit Tripoli airport - 9/12/2018

Gatestone Institute :: Articles

China's 'Digital' Totalitarian Experiment - 9/12/2018

Turkey's Latest Power Grab a Naval Base in Cyprus? - 9/12/2018

Pakistan: New Government Fails to Support Minorities - 9/11/2018

Are We Remembering 9/11 or Forgetting It? - 9/11/2018

Turkey: Torture, Sexual Abuse Rampant in Prisons - 9/10/2018

Geller Report

WATCH Moment ‘teenage’ migrants chase after UK-bound vans in broad daylight in sleepy French village - 9/11/2018

Terror-tied Muslims ‘proselytizing’ at U.S. school assemblies - 9/11/2018

‘Silent Donation’: Corporate Emails Reveal Google Executives Tried to Turn Out Latino Voters Who They Thought Would Vote For Clinton - 9/11/2018

WATCH: Ground Zero Mosque: Second Wave of the 9/11 Attacks - 9/11/2018

NYC: Racist, far-left principal trying to rid school of Jewish teachers: lawsuit - 9/11/2018

Hot Air

Report: Tennis umpires might boycott Serena Williams’s matches over “sexism” claim during U.S. Open fiasco - 9/11/2018

The Botham Jean killing: Should the cop be charged with manslaughter or murder? - 9/11/2018

Nikki Haley warns of ‘dire’ consequences if Russia and Iran continue attacks on Idlib, Syria - 9/11/2018

Pope Francis: The Great Accuser is hunting bishops these days; Update: Wuerl to discuss resigning with pope - 9/11/2018

“Unsung success”: Trump says handling of the Puerto Rico hurricane was some of the best disaster management ever - 9/11/2018

InfoWars

Emergency Report: Trump Must Take Action Now To Stop False Flags - 9/11/2018

Tech Gods Wipe Truth From Public View - 9/11/2018

Video: Amazon is Now Banning ‘Offensive’ Books - 9/11/2018

Spirit of America Captured: Bald Eagle Graces 9/11 Memorial - 9/11/2018

Report: Pyongyang Aims to Connect Railways of North, South Korea - 9/11/2018

Jihad Watch

9/11: Seventeen years have passed, and no end is in sight - 9/11/2018

Australia: Muslim preacher says its a “major sin” for wife to refuse husband’s demands for sex - 9/11/2018

Dartmouth prof: It’s good that 17 years after 9/11, people are finally forgetting about terrorism - 9/11/2018

France: Muslim who drove car onto airport runway said “I have been sent by Allah,” has “psychiatric fragility” - 9/11/2018

Muslim former Chicago resident indicted on charges he tried to join the Islamic State - 9/11/2018

Katrina Pierson

Peek: Above All, Obama Angry Trump has systematically chipped away at his legacy - 9/12/2018

Trump Reminds America “Radical Islamic Terrorists” Attacked Us on September 11th - 9/12/2018

Dershowitz: Strzok’s Claim About ‘Leak Strategy’ Doesn’t ‘Pass the Giggle Test’ - 9/12/2018

New Strzok-Page Texts Show Coordinated Media Leaks - 9/12/2018

The Drive-Bys Can’t Change Public Opinion on Trump and It’s Driving Them Crazy - 9/11/2018

LifeNews.com

Bioethicist Says Allowing Infanticide Does Not Violate a Baby’s Right to Life - 9/11/2018

Remember When California Spent $3 Billion for Embryonic Stem Cell Research. It Hasn’t Cured Any Patients - 9/11/2018

Thousands of Pro-Lifers March in Dominican Republic Against Legalizing Abortion - 9/11/2018

Actress Sally Field Reveals She Secretly Aborted Her Baby at 17 - 9/11/2018

Professors Argue Its OK to Euthanize Patients to Harvest Their Organs - 9/11/2018

LifeZette

Identity Politics ‘Invades Science’ on Campus: Here’s the Proof and the Pushback - 9/12/2018

Six Facts Say Papadopoulos Is Right to Think Downer, FBI Set Him Up - 9/12/2018

‘Careful What You Ask for’ Ahead of Midterms, Starr Warns Dems - 9/11/2018

Look Who Supported Roseanne Barr After She Was Fired - 9/11/2018

Happening Now: Mass Shooting Threat at Trump Hotel MAGA Event - 9/11/2018

Newsmax - America

GOP Sen. Collins Gets 'Vulgar' Calls Protesting Kavanaugh - 9/11/2018

Puerto Rico Gov. Rebukes Trump: 'Not a Successful Relationship' - 9/11/2018

Google Brings Back AI Expert With Military, Defense Ties - 9/11/2018

Florence Could Rival North Carolina's 1954 'Benchmark Storm' - 9/11/2018

WashPost: Archbishop Wuerl to Talk Resignation With Pope - 9/11/2018

Newsmax - Newsfront

Education Dept. Reopens Rutgers Case Alleging Anti-Semitism - 9/11/2018

Google Brings Back AI Expert With Military, Defense Ties - 9/11/2018

Hurricane Florence Has Ingredients That Make Experts Worry - 9/11/2018

Study: Obesity Makes You Stupid - 9/11/2018

Study: Obesity Makes You Stupid - 9/11/2018

Newsmax - Politics

GOP Sen. Collins Gets 'Vulgar' Calls Protesting Kavanaugh - 9/11/2018

Puerto Rico Gov. Rebukes Trump: 'Not a Successful Relationship' - 9/11/2018

Sessions Open to Probe of Social Media Giants - 9/11/2018

Report: Bush 43 to Help Fundraise for Select GOP Candidates - 9/11/2018

Chuck Schumer Slams Trump on 'Hurtful' Puerto Rico Comments - 9/11/2018

Newsmax - TheWire

Whale Sanctuary Blocked, Japan Pushes to End Commercial Hunting Ban - 9/11/2018

El Nino Event Is 70% Likely This Year, UN Says - 9/11/2018

Alex Trebek's Beard on 'Jeopardy!' Causes a Stir - 9/11/2018

Mac Miller Autopsy Performed, More Tests Needed in Rapper's Death - 9/11/2018

Lifelike Pediatric Robot Creeps Out Docs in Training - 9/11/2018

OAN Newsroom – One America News Network

Hurricane Florence prompts mass evacuations - 9/11/2018

WATCH: Potential False-Flag Attack in Syria Could Trigger U.S. Military Strike - 9/11/2018

FAA: Pilots advised to exercise great caution while in Iranian airspace - 9/11/2018

3 Chicago teens shot near high school - 9/11/2018

WATCH: Remembering 9/11 - 9/11/2018

Politichicks.com

Michelle Owens of the Center for Prosecutor Integrity Discusses DOJ and Corruption in DC - 9/12/2018

Anni Cyrus: Nike’s Kaepernick ‘Just Do It’ Jihad - 9/12/2018

Reminder: Benghazi “Whistleblowers” Confirm Lies, Deceit, Cover-ups - 9/11/2018

When is Enough? When All Firearms Are Taken Away! - 9/11/2018

Six Years of Benghazi: The Comfort of Friends - 9/11/2018

Populist.TV

How did the #CIA React to the Events of September 11, 2001? | Guest: @JohnKiriakou - 9/11/2018

How did the #CIA React to the Events of September 11, 2001? | Guest: @JohnKiriakou` - 9/11/2018

Remembering September 11, 2001 & What it Means to be a Patriot | Guest: @skepticalvet - 9/11/2018

Headlines + What’s Your Best Trick for Separating Truth from Fiction??? Call-In NOW @ 202-521-1320!! - 9/11/2018

What is the Current Situation in #Syria? - 9/11/2018

Sara A. Carter

McConnell Suggests ‘Ethics Inquiry’ over Cory’s ‘Unusual Behavior’ - 9/7/2018

Trump Calls on Sessions to Investigate Anonymous NYT Op-Ed Author - 9/7/2018

Corey Booker’s Grandstanding Stunt Backfires - 9/6/2018

Lawmakers Call on Trump to Declassify Carter Page FISA - 9/6/2018

Meadows: Demands AG Sessions Investigate Bruce Ohr’s Role with FBI - 9/5/2018

The American Conservative

U.S. Again Cries ‘Chemical Warfare’ in Syria - 9/11/2018

Congress’ Deadline for Yemen Certification Has Arrived - 9/11/2018

The Communalist Mormons Mitt Romney Would Have Hated - 9/11/2018

Is ‘Universal Authorship’ Such a Good Thing? - 9/11/2018

Sweden: The Latest Nationalist Domino - 9/11/2018

The Black Sphere

Chuck Schumer Comes Unplugged and Unhinged - 9/9/2018

‘Bleeding Blue’ Film Examines the Dangers and Politics of Policing in America (VIDEO) - 9/6/2018

‘Bleeding Blue’ Film Examines the Dangers and Politics of Policing in America (VIDEO) - 9/6/2018

Nike’s Bad Publicity * VIDEO * - 9/5/2018

Tiger Woods Defends Trump, Blasted by ESPN ***VIDEO*** - 9/1/2018

The Daily Signal

The Daily Signal Podcast: ‘Gosnell’ Filmmaker Shares Why This Story Had to Be Told - Invalid Date

Brett Kavanaugh’s Opponents Aren’t Really Against Him. They’re Against the Constitution. - Invalid Date

Newly Disclosed Strzok-Page Texts Shed New Light on ‘Media Leak Strategy’ at FBI, Justice - Invalid Date

America Has Strayed From Founders’ Vision for Economic Freedom and Limited Government, Walter Williams Says - Invalid Date

Government for Hire? Emails Show ‘Climate Industry’ Funds Jobs in Offices of Governors, Attorneys General - Invalid Date

The Epoch Times

Hurricane Florence Approaches Carolinas as Wind Speeds Reach 150 MPH - 9/12/2018

East Coast Military Bases Brace for Hurricane Florence - 9/12/2018

New York Beats London to Top Financial Center Spot Amid Brexit Fears - 9/12/2018

Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra Receives Rousing Welcome at Taiwan Airport - 9/12/2018

UK Prime Minister Theresa May Could Face Leadership Challenge - 9/12/2018

The Federalist

Podcast: Democrats Push Single Payer, Republicans Push Paid Family Leave - 9/11/2018

We Should Remember 9/11 Through The Lens Of Good Friday - 9/11/2018

Jim Carrey Urges Democrats To Embrace The Socialist Label - 9/11/2018

Read A Pile Of Top Nazis Talking About How They Love Leftist Marxism - 9/11/2018

U.K. Police Urge Citizens To Report Neighbors For ‘Offensive Or Insulting’ Speech - 9/11/2018

The Gateway Pundit

Obama-Hillary Fired Benghazi Heroes When they Got to Germany – Made Them Find Their Own Way Back to US (VIDEO) - 9/11/2018

Judicial Watch Sues Justice Department to Retrieve Emails Found on Weiner Laptop - 9/11/2018

Brit Hume Proves Once Again that GOP Elites Can Never Be Trusted to Lead Ever Again (VIDEO) - 9/11/2018

Breaking: More Strzok-Page Text Messages Show Coordination of FBI-DOJ to Destroy Trump with Planted Media Leaks - 9/11/2018

Stabbing Suspect Farzad Fazeli Facebook Rant About GOP, Trump: ‘Street Gangs Have a Code to Clean House’ - 9/11/2018

The Western Journal

Adrian Rogers: The Poison of Pornography - 9/11/2018

Man Appears To Take Shot at Kaepernick from 9/11 Memorial Stage - 9/11/2018

Watch: Nancy Pelosi and Cory Booker Get Scolded at 9/11 Memorial by Victim’s Family - 9/11/2018

5 Prayers for Those Who Are Stuck Waiting - 9/11/2018

Serena Williams, One of the Best Tennis Players Ever, Embraces the Left’s Victim Mentality - 9/11/2018

TownHall

School Disciplinary Policies Must Be Local - 9/11/2018

If Americans Can't Drive in Afghanistan, Can We Remake Syria? - 9/11/2018

Scooters Outrun Law - 9/11/2018

The Case Against Krissy Noble and How Drug and Gun Laws Deprive Us of Fundamental Rights - 9/11/2018

The Medicare-for-All Hoax - 9/11/2018

TownHall News

Merkel: "No excuse" for far-right violence in demonstrations - 9/12/2018

World stocks mixed as China hits at looming US tariffs - 9/12/2018

The Latest: Florence steadily making way to US East Coast - 9/12/2018

Algerian generals, others fired without explanation - 9/12/2018

EU eyes beefed-up coast guard to protect outside borders - 9/11/2018

twitchy.com

‘I am coming with a gun’: Twitter rando threatens to collect ‘bloodstained MAGA hats’ at Trump hotel meet-up - 9/11/2018

‘Incredible gesture’! Here’s what Jake Tapper is doing with his advance for the film version of his book - 9/11/2018

Center for Immigration Studies says Twitter is tagging the phrase ‘illegal alien’ as ‘hateful content’ - 9/11/2018

Man arrested for attempting to stab Republican congressional candidate; made ‘disparaging remarks’ about GOP - 9/11/2018

‘You BLEW it’! It doesn’t take long for Tomi Lahren’s hot 9/11 take to fizzle - 9/11/2018

Washington Examiner Politics

Washington Post scoop on GOP gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis landed with a thud - 9/11/2018

Jon Tester, Congress' second-biggest recipient of lobbyist cash, rails against money in politics - 9/11/2018

17 years after 9/11, a warning from Abraham Lincoln - 9/10/2018

Swedish populists gain ground; Europe's leaders can only stop such movements with policy changes - 9/10/2018

Voters still care a lot about regulating Wall Street - 9/9/2018

Washington Times: Faith & Family

Donald Wuerl to talk resignation with Pope Francis in Vatican - 9/11/2018

Vatican official: Sex abuse scandal is church's 'own 9/11' - 9/11/2018

Doug Lamborn demands DOJ probe Colorado for 'harassment' of Christian baker Jack Phillips - 9/10/2018

Vatican promises 'clarifications' to pope cover-up claims - 9/10/2018

Donald Trump, Melania Trump send Rosh Hashanah message - 9/9/2018

Washington Times: Inside the Beltway

Inside the Beltway: News media fixates on 'Trump's Katrina' and Hurricane Maria - 9/11/2018

Inside the Beltway: America remains steadfast on 9/11 anniversary - 9/10/2018

Inside the Beltway: Media attacks on Trump run like clockwork - 9/9/2018

Inside the Beltway: Trump resistance now 'an emergency,' say organizers - 9/6/2018

Inside the Beltway: Democrats faulted for joining Kavanaugh chaos - 9/5/2018

Washington Times: Inside Politics

Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski hit by anti-Kavanaugh ad blitz - 9/11/2018

Ann Coulter stands up for Jeff Sessions - 9/11/2018

John Brennan endorsed anti-Trump Steele dossier: Bob Woodward - 9/11/2018

Newt Gingrich, Republicans float new Contract with America - 9/11/2018

Bernie Sanders' son in crowded New Hampshire primary field - 9/11/2018

Washington Times: National

Belgrade airport closed after tires burst on plane - 9/12/2018

Merkel: "No excuse" for far-right violence in demonstrations - 9/12/2018

India nabs man suspected of killing dozens of truck drivers - 9/12/2018

Putin says Russia identified suspects in Novichok poisoning - 9/12/2018

Ryanair pilots, flight attendants go on strike in Germany - 9/12/2018

Washington Times: Politics

Plea to be heard for benefits of worker illegally in country - 9/12/2018

AP FACT CHECK: Obama doesn't always tell the straight story - 9/11/2018

Jimmy Carter cautions Democrats not to scare off moderates - 9/11/2018

Months of deadly unrest devastate Nicaragua's economy - 9/11/2018

Eddie Edwards, Trump-backed candidate, wins New Hampshire Republican U.S. House primary - 9/11/2018

WayneDupree.com

Ex-NIKE Exec Who Embezzled $77K Will Spend 13 Months In Jail - 9/12/2018

George W. Bush To Help Campaign And Raise Money For GOP Candidates - 9/11/2018

Defeated Schumer! Love For Senate To Turn Blue But Geography Is Against Us - 9/11/2018

WayneDupree.Com Named To Top 100 Conservative Websites — No. 50 - 9/11/2018

Nike Gains Back 3.3 Billion Stock Loss - 9/11/2018

[minnievirizarry]

Product Marketing | How to Reach #1 on Product Hunt [Case Study]

If first impressions last, then NinjaOutreach should have been doomed by our bungled product marketing long ago.

We first launched NinjaOutreach on Product Hunt—a popular app curation and discovery platform—in 2014.

I wasn’t part of the team yet at the time, but our founder, Dave Schneider, did admit the launch could have gone better.

Granted, we still managed to get featured as #10 on Product Hunt’s homepage—and on our first attempt at that.

Fast forward to 2018, with new team members, a significant rebranding, fresh look, and copy, we relaunched NinjaOutreach version 2.0.

And this time around, even with a small team and a low-budget product marketing strategy, we made it to #1 on Product Hunt’s homepage.

We eventually ended the day at #2, but compared to our previous rank of #10, that was a significant jump!

Of course, we didn’t achieve all of this without a plan.

And in this article, we’ll share our product marketing strategy for how we made our comeback and reached #1 on Product Hunt.

Background story

“It’s a ‘90s software for a 2016 price.”

Such was the comment of one unimpressed user who never made it past his trial period.

Despite those harsh words, we couldn’t deny that although we had more customers than most of our competitors, we were definitely behind when compared to their sleeker designs, cohesive branding + content, and smoother UI.

As Dave said, NinjaOutreach started out as a “desktop app that everyone hated.”

Ultimately, this lack of harmonious branding, coupled with clunky UX both in-app and on the website failed to adequately convey the true value and functionality of our tool.

Also confirming this theory was an in-depth study from a firm Dave hired, which found that potential customers rated us low in trustworthiness.

Why so?

Apparently, this was because (surprise, surprise) they didn’t find our “look” particularly trustworthy.

Fortuitously, this came at a time when I, along with our Head Copywriter, Daphnie Loong, was already pushing (short of nagging) the team for a redesign.

And with all the new supporting evidence, the ball was in our court.

It was time make the shift, and we were finally ready to give NinjaOutreach its badly needed makeover.

The rebranding was a monumental effort that led to monumental changes.

Save for the official business name, everything about NinjaOutreach changed. And not just changed, but taken to a whole new level.

Excited to spread the word about these upgrades, Dave and the marketing team thought it would be a good idea to relaunch NinjaOutreach on Product Hunt.

So, our Asset Manager Evgen Schastnyy assembled a small team, and with the guidance of Dave and our co-founder Mark Samms, operation Product Hunt Comeback was set in motion.

About Product hunt

What is Product Hunt?

For the uninitiated, Product Hunt is an online community, app curation, and discovery platform where users share app news and recommendations with each other.

It’s essentially like a Quora or Reddit for apps, where apps are curated and either get upvoted or downvoted by the community. The platform also allows commenting, so each thread comes with relevant discussions about each app.

How Product Hunt Works

Members who post app recommendations are called product Hunters, so to post an app is to “hunt” it.

App developers are called Makers, and they can also hunt their own products.

Aside from typical audience engagement and upvotes, Product Hunt has its own algorithm which determines how an app gets ranked and whether it gets featured on the homepage.

Product Marketing Tactics We Used to Generate Buzz

In a moment, we will share a detailed step-by-step guide to our product marketing strategy.

But for the impatient, here is a snapshot of the product marketing tactics we used to generate buzz for the app.

Social Media Banners

As Dave mentioned in his Reddit post, social media buzz was key to our product marketing campaign’s success.

Before we launched, our design team already crafted customized banners reflecting our new brand. Each one was tailored for Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Additionally, we had special “milestone” images designed for celebrating if and when we hit 100, 300, and 500 upvotes.

Below is a screenshot of the images we used on our Twitter page.

In-App and In-Site Messages For Long-Time Customers

As an app that’s been around for over three years, we’ve accumulated our own loyal bunch of customers and site visitors who were more than happy to support us.

To help mobilize these long-time users, our Head Copywriter Daphnie edited the templates announcing our launch along with a section to fill in with the link to our listing.

We used Daphnie’s final copy on our pop-up message for returning site visitors as well as in-app notifications for customers logging in.

Eventually, we updated these notifications to cover each new milestone that we hit.

Newsletter Announcement

Daphnie also published our Product Hunt announcement through our weekly newsletter, where we have over 10k subscribers.

Team Member Support

To widen the reach of our product marketing campaign, everyone in the team went through their own networks to share the news.

Here’s Dave’s post on his Facebook.

Now that we’ve shared our main product marketing tactics, let’s move on to a more detailed breakdown of how we executed our strategy.

Our How-To Product Marketing Steps For Reaching #1 on Product Hunt

Dave and Evgen organized a list of tasks into a spreadsheet and made this accessible to all the team members involved in the product marketing campaign.

They divided the sheet into three tabs for each chronological period related to the campaign:

Pre-Launch

Launch Day

Post Launch

Each column contained instructions on what to do, where to store any files involved with the task, who is responsible for it, and a section to indicate the task’s status.

Pre-Launch Product Marketing Task Checklist

1. Find a Hunter Who Will “Hunt” the Product

There is an ongoing theory that Product Hunt’s algorithm puts less value on apps promoted by their own Makers.

Product Hunt has since pointed out that this is false and that in fact, Makers can hunt their own products.

However, we found out that certain Hunters have special privileges where a product they post makes it straight to the front page instead of the less-trafficked “new and upcoming” section.

So, we erred on the side of caution and decided to find another Hunter for our relaunch.

It’s a good thing that in all our marketing campaigns, we managed to develop warm relationships with some of our prospects.

Because of this, our Asset Manager Evgen only needed to send out a couple of emails until we got a “yes” from at least one of them.

Once Evgen found our Hunter, (special thanks to our friend Chris!) he provided the necessary info our Hunter needed to post about our product.

That included our:

Product name

Product tagline

Link to the product

Handles of the makers

Blurb for the maker

All product screenshots, GIFs, and other necessary images

Youtube link to our product explainer video

After setting our launch date and time, Evgen packed all these into a Google Docs folder (you can also use Dropbox) and sent it to our Hunter.

(Tip: If you prefer to find a Hunter for your product but don’t have warm connections, you can try a cold pitch.

Most profiles of Hunters on Product Hunt are connected to their Twitter account.

If you see people with a good following hunting a similar product like yours, try and reach out.

You can also use aggregators like 500 Hunters.)

2. Brainstorm Ideas for a Special Launch Day Promotional Offer

To encourage more people to try out our product, Evgen and the product marketing team brainstormed ideas on the best special promotional offer for the launch day.

It was a delicate balance between giving a significant discount and not selling our product too short.

In the end, the team decided to offer 10% off the first month for new registrations.

(Tip: We don’t advise this for newer products with no prior fan base, though. In that case, it’s a better idea to offer something ridiculously low at first. That way, you can get the most out of your launch.)

To make sure that every Product Hunt user will see that offer, we added a banner on the top of our product pages specifically for any visitor traffic that arrived via Product Hunt.

(Tip: We used a free-to-use tool called Introbar which let us set up our Hello banner in a few minutes.)

3. Write the In-App Message for Ninjaoutreach Users

A loyal customer base willing to leave glowing comments is a great asset for any product marketing campaign.

There’s just no better social proof than those coming from long-time, paying (and happy) customers.

So, Daphnie finalized the template for an in-app message to go out to any NinjaOutreach users logging online on our launch day.

She also edited other versions of the template so that Evgen can modify our Product Hunt announcements to match the milestones of the day.

For example, if and when we get the #1 place on Product Hunt’s homepage (which we did!) our message would look like this:

4. Draft the Email Template for Ninjaoutreach Subscribers

An email list is a powerful resource that you can leverage if you want to promote a product to a warm audience.

These are people who already trusted you enough to subscribe to your emails, after all.

In our case, we had over 10k subscribers. And for our weekly newsletter, Daphnie edited this template for Dave.

Related to this, next to-dos on our list were to:

5. Prepare the Email Template for NinjaOutreach 2.0 Beta Testers

Here’s the product marketing template that Daphnie edited for Evgen.

6. Set up the Tweet Template for Reaching out to Product Hunt Influencers

And here’s the template that Evgen prepared on Twitter.

7. Update the Knowledge Base with Screenshots of the 2.0 Version

Since our 2.0 version comes with a new look, we made sure to go back to our old tutorials and update our Knowledge Base with screenshots that reflect our tool’s improved interface and design.

8. Prepare 2.0 Branded Medias Tailored Specifically for the Launch

A rebranding won’t be complete without promotional media, so our design team got these ready as well.

These media included:

Branded social media images for:

Each team member profile

All company page profiles on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram

Milestone posts:

Launch

100 upvotes

300 upvotes

500 upvotes

Thank you post to end the day

Demo video of the new interface of the app

9. Create a List of Related Slack and Facebook Groups and Join Them

Evgen also prospected some relevant Facebook and Slack Groups where he could join and eventually post announcements of our launch.

Of course, he made sure that the material fits the groups’ requirements and that the members already showed interest in getting such announcements.

10. Assemble the List of Product Hunt and Twitter Influencers to Reach out to on Launch Day

Social media, as we said, is crucial.

To make sure we have as many people know about our launch as possible, the team assembled a prospect list of the audiences we wanted to reach out to.

These people came mainly from 3 groups:

Current NinjaOutreach users who we approached via the live chat message

NinjaOutreach mailing list

Twitter users who liked NinjaOutreach on Product Hunt previously or liked one of our main competitors.

(Tip: We used the Heroku app to scrape the Twitter profiles of Product Hunt upvoters.)

Launch Day Product Marketing Task Checklist

As soon as our Hunter put up the recommendation for NinjaOutreach 2.0, the team was all set.

With an organized plan in place, it was easy to get the ball rolling. 1. Post to Product Hunt Between 12 am and 2 am PST Our goal was to get our listing up so people can see it as the day starts, so we agreed to have our Hunter post it early.

At roughly between 12 am and 2 am PST, our NinjaOutreach 2.0 Product Hunt listing was up.

2. Drop the Maker’s Introduction Comment

A product launch isn’t complete without the app Maker’s message.

Consequently, Mark posted the template he’d prepared, which discussed NinjaOutreach 2.0’s new look and interface.

He also shared the details of our special promotional offer exclusive for Product Hunt.

3. Post Updates in the Company Chat to Keep Everyone in the Loop

A concerted team effort needs constant updates to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Hence, here’s Evgen posting an announcement to the All Employees team chat to keep everyone in the loop.

4. Send Announcements to All Newsletter Subscribers, Beta Testers, Website, and In-App Visitors

Since we already had our templates, we just added our link to the Product Hunt listing and sent our announcements to all available channels:

Newsletter subscribers

Beta testers

In-app visitors

Website visitors

5. Announce the Launch on All Company Social Media Pages

Our branded images and Product Hunt announcement captions were all ready as well, so we just set those to go live on all our company social media pages on launch day.

Here is how our Twitter social media blurb looked like:

We used the same template for our Facebook and Instagram announcement.

At this point, Evgen also asked other team members to update their social profiles and help spread the news on their networks.

(Tip: We used Zapier for our targeted outreach, but for all other social media post scheduling, we used Viraltag.)

6. Share the News to All Relevant Facebook and Slack Groups

After having spent some time building rapport with his Facebook and Slack communities, here’s Evgen in one of his groups announcing our Product Hunt launch.

7. Message Any Warm Contacts

We also shared the announcement via Email, Skype, and other mediums to contacts we’ve had recent or ongoing conversations with.

In my case, I just used our outreach tool to email all my warm contacts for me. (I used NinjaOutreach to promote NinjaOutreach—how meta is that?)

Since I continuously maintain a personal list of contacts that I have a good rapport with, I just opened my account and imported this list to NinjaOutreach.

Once done importing, I saved these contacts into a new prospect list for this particular campaign.

Next, I went to: Outreach > Templates > Create Template

Because I’ve been in steady conversations with the people on this list (I move any lapsed conversations to another list), I pretty much know the right approach to use in my outreach.

I wrote my message naturally, then hit Save to store my template.

(Afterwards, when our listing went live, I just inserted the corresponding link.)

With my template done, I went back to the Outreach tab then clicked Autosending > Schedule a Campaign.

Next, I selected the correct list for our product marketing campaign, the email address I preferred to use, and the name of the custom template that I had just saved.

There are ways to pre-schedule a campaign on NinjaOutreach using the Send Later option, but because my template required the link to our listing, I had to wait for us to go live on Product Hunt first.

Once our Product Hunt thread went live and I was able to insert the link into my template, I then chose the Send Now option.

With all input fields covered, I clicked Launch Campaign and just let NinjaOutreach do its job.

8. Post an Announcement to Celebrate Hitting the 100 Upvotes Milestone

An email outreach tool may be less appealing compared to some dating or cat GIF curation apps out there.

Still, that didn’t stop us from creating our own hype.

Here’s our celebratory Tweet for when we reached our first hundred upvotes, for example.

We also used the same template for our Facebook post.

9. Publish a Post to Celebrate Hitting the 300 Upvotes Milestone

Things got even better when we reached 300 more upvotes, so we loaded up our celebratory Tweet for that as well.

Again, we used the same template for our Facebook post.

10. Spread the Word to Celebrate Hitting the Top of the Product Hunt Homepage

Finally, the best moment came when we hit #1 on the Product Hunt homepage.

Evgen and the rest of the product marketing team were ecstatic, and we gladly used our celebratory templates for this special achievement.

Here’s our Facebook post to commemorate the milestone.

TopHuntsDaily, a Product Hunt Twitter bot, already made the announcement for us on Twitter, so we just Retweeted that.

11. Tweet the Influencers in the Prospect List

Product Hunt discourages anyone from directly asking for upvotes, so we simply shared the word with our branded images and a link to our product listing.

We also made sure to stay within Twitter’s direct message and Tweet limits.

To accomplish these faster, we used an app called Zapier to do a Google Sheet + Zapier + Twitter integration.

Basically, Zapier connected the different apps we used and automated the process of turning our templates in Google Sheets into Twitter posts.

Zapier can do this for other apps and this integration + automation process is called making a “zap.”

To demonstrate, here is a look at my Zapier account.

I already clicked Google Sheets and Twitter to view any available zap templates for those apps.

As you’ll see, you can also use zaps to save any Twitter mentions and followers into a Google sheet too. But for this particular task, the zap we needed was the one that made it possible to post Tweets from new rows on Google Sheets.

After choosing a zap, Zapier will show a short description page about it so users can double check that it’s going to do exactly as intended.

The next steps of the in-app walkthrough are easy enough to understand and in a few minutes, you’ll have a working zap.

So, back to the campaign.

We integrated several Twitter accounts of some of our team members who have a good following and set these to Tweet around 10 messages each.

We then scheduled these 10 Tweets to go out every 20 to 30 minutes to:

People who upvoted NinjaOutreach in our previous 2014 launch

Those who upvoted competitors and similar apps.

12. Monitor Mentions and Reply to Comments Throughout the Launch Day

All things considered, we still needed to keep the engagement going to maintain our top homepage position.

Using our other social media accounts, we also continued to share our Product Hunt link to our personal and business contacts, asking them to support us and join the conversation.

Also, some team members stayed on for the whole day of the launch to reply to any mentions and comments on Product Hunt and other channels.

Post Launch Product Marketing Task Checklist

1. Respond to All Supporters

After the launch, we rechecked our social media channels to say thank you to all the people who upvoted and shared the news. Evgen personally reacted to all the Tweets to show his appreciation.

2. Turn off All Automated Announcements

With our product marketing event done, we disabled all the automated messages we sent to our users and website visitors through Intercom.

3. Publish Documentation About the Relaunch

And our last task? It’s to publish a case study about this launch, and that’s why you’re reading this now. 😉

Final Notes

From #1 on the Product Hunt homepage, we ended the day at #2, with a total of 470+ upvotes, 31 reviews, and 21 comments.

Despite not being able to hold the #1 spot through to the end, NinjaOutreach still gained some leads from this exercise.

For one, in three weeks after our Product Hunt launch, we’ve received over 1.1k visits and 10 new signups from this source alone.

Two months later, our total goal completions referred by Product Hunt reached almost $900.

We even got a couple of new business collaboration proposals.

However, that’s not to say it couldn’t have gone better.

Yes, a social influencer outreach app could not possibly demand the sort of viral engagement that other cooler, more consumer-oriented apps could.

Still, we should have gotten more signups.

But given that we were able to successfully promote our rebranding with a small team, using minimal time, and with a low-cost product marketing campaign (this only cost us more or less $300 to execute), this, to us, was a pretty good first step for NinjaOutreach 2.0.

And as we push through the year with new key leaders to our team, the future continues to be ripe for more opportunities to take NinjaOutreach even further.

The post Product Marketing | How to Reach #1 on Product Hunt [Case Study] appeared first on NinjaOutreach.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://ninjaoutreach.com/product-marketing/

[fuzzabledotcom]

Most Trivium fans aka Shoguns keep up to date with tours, the bands activity on social media and new releases, But in case you didn’t get the memo the new album will be released October 20th and is available for presale now on itunes and trivium.org. The band released 2 songs from the album ahead of launch, the “The Sin And The Sentence” followed by the recent “The Heart From Your Hate” which are available on YouTube, Spotify and also for purchase on Itunes.

If you’re coming into this with no idea who Trivium are I would ask “have you been living under a rock?” and then tell you they’re one of my favourite metal bands hailing from Florida, US. They are not only incredibly talented but so kl & down to earth. Check Wiki if you want to find out more about them >> wiki/Trivium

Check out the first single from the upcoming album on YouTube

click here for preorder & merch

Matt loved this YouTube comment on Sin

  A new album from Trivium is always really exciting as you never quite know what you’re going to get.. its always fantastic regardless of what direction they take though thanks to the creative genius of front man Matt Heafy.

Since Matt blew his voice out and as the band evolved over the years each album has had something different and special about it. The last album ‘Silence In The Snow’ received a lot of backlash about Matts vocals and the sound the band had gone with. I cant help but feel this influenced the band a little on this record.

I’ve given a lot of love to Matt and the new record but I gotta show props to the rest of the band as an OG Shogan and because they’re a collective of incredible musicians.

Meet the band

image:@triviumpaolo

Paolo Gregoletto – Bass Player, Mr Browns human & one of the funniest guys on Twitter

Image:@coreytrivium

Corey Beaulieu – Lead Guitarist, human windwill, likes the best metal bands

image:@alexbentdrums

Alex Bent – The newest Trivium member  & a demon on drums

  Each member has their own personality and have a lot of fun with fans. Front man Matthew Heafy keeps us fully clued into his life with the band, his Epiphone signature guitars, his wife Ashley & dog Miyuki and his love for beer & food. He takes fandom and his platform to a whole other level and likes to really connect through his hobbies BJJ & twitch streaming.

   Images:@kiichichaos

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

BJJ – one of the best things to ever happen to me. #Repost @gbnorthorlando

Japanese gelato in switzerland? Yes please! oiiiishiiii!

#Repost @metalandhoney Dream team

Tour life. @asusrog @asususa

Piggle

@kirkhammett and @triviumband

  Check out our new video "The Heart From Your Hate" + pre-order our forthcoming album 'The Sin And The Sentence' now at trivium.org – link in bio.

A post shared by Trivium (@triviumband) on Aug 25, 2017 at 7:35am PDT

  The new album is a great mix of all the albums that have come before it. You’ve still got the heavy riffs and harsh vocals from matt but you’ve also got his strong singing which he has really perfected over the years. I think this album will win over everyone while also being what the band wants to work on. We can definitely expect more great things from the band and I for one am really excited for the new album to drop.

  Keep up with the band online

  Site: http://trivium.org Fanclub: http://triviumworld.org Facebook: https://facebook.com/TriviumOfficial Twitter: https://twitter.com/TriviumOfficial Instagram: http://instagram.com/triviumband

  Trivium are just finishing the last leg of their European Tour but will be kicking off another in the US soon >> Tour dates

  Leave a comment & let us know what you think of the article or tweet us @fuzzable

Trivium’s highly anticipated new album Most Trivium fans aka Shoguns keep up to date with tours, the bands activity on social media and new releases, But in case you didn't get the memo the new album will be released October 20th and is available for presale now on…

[viralleakszone-blog]

How Facebook stole the news business

http://www.viralleakszone.com/how-facebook-stole-the-news-business/

How Facebook stole the news business

Facebook, Facebook News Feed

Big news outlets stupidly sold their soul to Facebook. Desperate for the referral traffic Facebook dangled, they spent the past few years jumping through its hoops only to be cut out of the equation. Instead of developing an owned audience of homepage visitors and newsletter subscribers, they let Facebook brainwash readers into thinking it was their source of information.

Now Facebook is pushing into local news, but publishers should be wary of making the same crooked deal. It might provide more exposure and traffic for smaller outlets today, but it could teach users they only need to visit Facebook for local news in the future. Here’s how Facebook retrained us over the past 12 years to drain the dollars out of news. Users first is Facebook first later

To be clear, Facebook’s intention, that I believe to be earnest, is to foster stronger ties between its users and their communities to boost well-being. But that doesn’t mean ripple effects are positive. The critical lens through which to view all of Facebook’s strategy is that in the short term it puts users first, itself second and everyone else a distant, distant third. That includes developers, advertisers and definitely news publishers.

This strategy is actually self-serving in the long term, though, because Facebook only continues to dominate because its users don’t leave. Back in 2010, Facebook decimated the virality of game developers like Zynga, which made lots of money because their News Feed spam threatened to push people away from the social network. That short-term hit to the bottom line paved the way for the depth of engagement that fuels quarters where Facebook earns $4 billion today. This explains CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement that Facebook would make changes to enhance well-being even if it decreased time spent on the site or its ad revenue. Those consequences may be true in the short term. But it’s a shrewd tactic when you zoom out. Left unchecked, the “Time Well Spent” movement could metastasize into a “Time to leave Facebook” movement. Better to trade away a few minutes per day per user now to keep those users for years to come. Retraining news readers

When Facebook started, there was no feed. You browsed from profile to profile to check up on friends. News Feed’s launch in 2006 retrained users to just go to the Facebook home page where everything would come to you. Brands followed, investing to build an audience through Facebook’s churning stream of content.

As Facebook’s users shifted from PCs and Macs to Androids and iPhones, the company struck upon an enduring format for mobile. Desktop computers had big enough screens to accomodate multiple windows, and switching between browser tabs was quick, allowing users to easily hop between different sites. But on mobile with tiny screens, low quality app, poor connections, slow-loading sites, people seized upon Facebook’s single app that pulled together content from everywhere. Facebook began to train us to keep scrolling rather than struggle to bounce around.

In 2011, when Facebook first took notice of Twitter, it launched its public figure Subscribe feature and news links gained more visibility in the feed. By 2014, “Facebook the big news machine” was in full swing with Trending, hashtags and news outlets pouring resources into growing their Pages. Emphasizing the “news” in News Feed retrained users to wait for the big world-changing headlines to come to them rather than crisscrossing the home pages of various publishers. Many don’t even click-through, getting the gist of the news just from the headline and preview blurb. Advertisers followed the eyeballs, moving their spend from the publisher sites to Facebook. In 2015, Facebook realized users hated waiting for slow mobile websites to load, so it launched Instant Articles to host publisher content within its own app. Instant Articles trained users not to even visit news sites when they clicked their links, instead only having the patience for a fast-loading native page stripped of the publisher’s identity and many of their recirculation and monetization opportunities. Advertisers followed, as publishers allowed Facebook to sell the ads on Instant Articles for them and thereby surrendered their advertiser relationships at the same time as their reader relationships.

This is how Facebook turns publishers into ghostwriters, a problem I blew the whistle on in 2015. Publishers are pitted against each other as they make interchangeable “dumb content” for Facebook’s “smart pipes.”

Publishers wisely began pushing back, demanding more layout and monetization flexibility, and many abandoned the platform in favor of Google’s less prescriptive AMP platform for fast-loading mobile pages. In fact, 38 of 72 Instant Articles launch partner publications including the New York Times and Washington Post have ditched the Facebook controlled format according to a study by Columbia Journalism Review. Still, publishers have few major sources of traffic outside of Facebook and Google Search. With the death of Google Reader and Twitter’s move to an algorithmic feed, there’s still no at-scale, unfiltered place to share or follow news.

Meanwhile, Facebook’s only goal remains to provide value to users, and when it comes to content, it doesn’t really care which publisher provides it as long as it’s high-quality. Siphoning resources to the center

Again and again, Facebook has centralized attention typically spread across the web. A few years back I wrote about “20 New Ways Facebook Is Eating The Internet,” and its appetite has only grown. It’s trying to do the same with Watch (YouTube), Marketplace (Craigslist and eBay) and many other features. It’s a smart plan that ends up arguably improving the experience for individual users — or at least offering new options while making Facebook more essential and much richer.

The problem is that for society as a whole, this leads to a demonetization and eventual defunding of some news publishers, content creators and utility providers while simultaneously making them heavily reliant on Facebook. This gives Facebook the power to decide what types of content, what topics, and what sources are important. Even if Facebook believes itself to be a neutral tech platform, it implicitly plays the role of media company as its values define the feed. Having a single editor’s fallible algorithms determine the news consumption of the wired world is a precarious situation. The business side is just as troubling. As Ben Thompson of Stratechery has described, advertisers are abandoning news sites and aggregating to Facebook where they can more efficiently target their exact customers, where they go every day. Why advertise on an intermediary news site when businesses can go straight to well of attention. Without the massive scale and adtech, individual publishers can’t compete for dollars.

But if they resist working with Facebook and providing their content there, another publisher will happily bring the same stories to the social network in return for the short-term traffic boost. There’s always someone else willing to offer up dumb content to the smart pipe. Steamrolled by strategy change

And the real problem only manifests when Facebook shifts directions. Its comes to the conclusion that users want to see more video, so the format gets more visibility in the News Feed. Soon, publishers scramble to pivot to video, hiring teams and buying expensive equipment so they can blast the content on Facebook rather than thinking about their loyal site visitors. But then Facebook decides too much passive video is bad for you or isn’t interesting, so its News Feed visibility is curtailed, and publishers have wasted their resources and time chasing a white rabbit… or, in this case, a blue one. This happened to Page tab apps like musician profile provider BandPage, which was the No. 2 app on Facebook until Facebook banned default landing tabs. The startup lost 90 percent of its traffic after wasting years chasing Facebook’s changes, and eventually sold for $8 million after raising $27 million. Open Graph news reader apps met the same fate, built by publishers to meet the opportunity of Facebook’s short-lived Ticker and “Josh read [clickbait article] on Washington Post Social Reader” stories.

Publishers are currently caught amidst of another massive Facebook strategy change. It’s now striving to offset Russian election interference, fake news for profit, allegations of political bias, polarized society, the explosion of viral video, the absence of friends, and fears that too much scrolling hurts our well-being. That’s led to Facebook proclaiming it will remove 20% of news from the News Feed as it prioritizes content that’s not just meaningful, but stimulates meaningful interactions between users.

On this week’s Q4 2017 earnings call, Zuckerberg said Facebook had already tweaked its algorithm to show fewer viral videos and optimize well-being. The result was a 50 million hours per day reduction in Facebook use, which translates to 2.14 minutes per daily user, or 5 percent of total time spent on Facebook. The company was willing to go so far as to make changes that led to its slowest ever user growth rate, and its first decline in total users anywhere as the U.S. & Canada region actually lost 700,000 Facebookers. Yet it’s the video makers and news publishers who will pay for this pivot of purpose. Facebook’s revenue still reached a record $12.97 billion, and investors still boosted its share price higher. In fact, Facebook could actually earn money or at least break even from the “Time Well Spent” changes.

By decreasing total time spent but raising the quality of content people see, Facebook ends up with fewer total ad impressions but higher engagement rates as people are retrained to skip less of what they see. Advertisers still eager to reach its massive audience will compete in Facebook’s ad auctions, paying higher prices. Facebook has the cash reserves and momentum to weather the short-term monetization drop in exchange for a healthier long-term future. Content creators are left trying to make ends meet. Stay the course

And now local news site are facing the start of this dangerous cycle. Facebook says it will show more local news in the News Feed. It’s testing a “Today in” local news digest in several cities. It’s prioritizing content people discuss instead of passively consume. And Facebook is pushing its new mission to rebuild communities and Bring the World Closer Together that aligns with local news.

Sounds great, right? There’s no doubt there’s an opportunity here for local news outlets. But the key to keeping their boats afloat is not completely changing course to follow Facebook’s siren call. Whether or not you think the company is purposefully trying to destroy the industries it invades or just modernize them to benefit users, publishers must meet Facebook with skepticism. Facebook’s next retraining appears to be that it’s the best place to get local news, not your local newspaper or blog. It might happily display all the headlines with little encouragement for readers to click through, as it does with Today On. It might make images and videos load faster than they do on local sites. And they might bundle local news with Facebook Events and reviews of nearby places using personalization local sites can’t match.

That might be good for the reader, and thereby for Facebook long term, but it’s dangerous for the publishers. Facebook doesn’t even have to purposefully poach advertisers from local sites, they’ll just flow to it naturally as it becomes the local news destination.

They should still focus on turning occasional readers into repeat homepage visitors that bookmark the site and return frequently. They should track analytics about what kinds of stories those loyalists want, rather than the ones that might drive occasional traffic spikes of fly-by readers. They should invest in developing their own ad technology or partnering with more neutral third-party providers. And they should keep pushing email newsletter, event and subscription signups. That’s because there’s no telling when Facebook’s strategy around what users want or how to give it to them will change. Again, Facebook wants users to be informed and entertained, but it doesn’t necessarily care how or by whom. And let’s not forget that Facebook is quietly building up its Marketplace peer-to-peer selling feature in another part of its app to be the ultimate replacement for the classified ads that used to keep local news sites afloat.

Unfortunately, big, well-funded publishers staffed with true tech talent haven’t been able to gracefully navigate the constantly changing playing field set by Facebook. So what hope do smaller outlets without the technological or strategic prowess hope to have?

In Zuckerberg’s hometown of Dobbs Ferry, NY, there’s a beloved newspaper called The Rivertowns Enterprise. It’s a destination for those seeking local news, with a loyal following for both its website and its weekly print edition, which many who grew up there get delivered to their homes around the country. Visit its site and you’ll stumble across a variety of stories about city politics, high school sports and Main Street businesses that also advertise there.