#and not every character has a commonly-accepted emoji

[akuma-tenshi]

as much as i dislike twitter one thing they do on idvtwt that i find absolutely delightful is that every character has their own emojis and people put little combinations of emojis in their bios to show which characters they ship / which ships can be found on their account. it's really cute and can actually be pretty helpful in knowing who to follow

[definitelynotshouting]

alright WELL expect me to send more than one ask bc I’m awful <33 but THESE AU’S OKAYYY ALRIGHTH I AM LOOKINGGG +_+!!!!

I’ll be nice. I’ll be nice and ask for elaboration on one thing first while I let them simmer in my brain but I would love to hear the brainrot behind the kemetic symbolism 😳😳

- gonna make this easier by not signing off with a name but. an emoji here 🪐 wow. emoji so amaze but it’s eirian HI TOO FRIEND!!

Thank you for waiting patiently for me to answer this, friend, bc this is one of those concepts that i need a lot of time and space to properly brainrot abt bc it just means so much to me

To preface, i am a kemetic pagan, aka, i worship the ancient egyptian gods!! Ive been practicing for a solid decade now-- every so often i'll post something relevant to that on this blog since this is also where i post my art :] this au is essentially me saying "i see all ur religious imagery aus but what if. what if MY religious imagery au" and proceeding to go buckwild with it

Spoiler alert: i will be talking extensively abt kemeticism and kemetic imagery ahead; I will also be using terms the average layman might not be familiar with, so apologies in advance and feel free to ask clarifying questions if you're curious! Also obligatory cw for the canon typical suicide at the end of 3rd life, as well as some body horror/gore but i wont get too detailed with it.

The general premise is that post 3rd life, after Grian jumps from the cliff and falls to his death, he doesn't actually die; instead, broken and bleeding, he climbs to his feet and trails off without a true destination into the desert. His journey is intended to explicitly mirror the journey one would take through the Duat (the "Underworld") and to the Hall of Two Truths, where your heart is weighed to see if you may pass into the Field of Reeds (the afterlife¹).

The other part of the premise is that this fic is also an extended character study; Grian's journey involves one of guilt, grief, self-acceptance, and cleansing. There are a lot of things i want to incorporate into this-- like some of the 42 negative confessions, which is a spell in the Book of Coming Forth by Day (or more commonly known as the Book of the Dead) that consists of affirmations stating that one has not done certain things while in life. These confessions are generally understood less as literal truths and more as a purifying ritual, which is what i plan to use for Grian; there's something deeply heartbreaking about the concept of Grian telling himself, over and over, that he "has not caused pain," "has not caused weeping," and "has not killed" -- and something equally meaningful to me about him finally shedding that weight to actually embody what he's saying.

I also want to incorporate the concept of cleansing with natron, as well as water, and also other rituals used in both antiquity and modernity by my fellow kemetics. Cleansing is a very important concept in this fic: the idea that you are washing away isfet² and inviting ma'at³ in its place is central to the theme of healing and moving on that sits at the heart of this narrative.

Another common theme in the fic is Grian taking the place of many gods in their roles. One very important aspect of this is the continual Weighing of the Heart Ceremony that is conducted in dreams each night during Grian's journey. Grian proceeds to take on the roles of Anpu (Anubis), Wesir (Osiris), Djehuty (Thoth), the 42 Judges, Ma'at, and even the netjeri⁴ Ammit during this ceremony-- by ripping out his own heart, weighing it against one of his primary feathers, and eating it when it proves too heavy. These dreams continue over and over again throughout the fic, with the heart becoming progressively lighter as he begins to cleanse himself of the tragedy he took part in and moves toward the "afterlife," which in this case is Hermitcraft.

Scar, in this case, doesn't have a concrete role so much as his presence is quite literally haunting the narrative. I have yet to get my hands on a copy of Faulkner's⁵ Book of the Dead translation, but once i do i'll have a better picture of what i want to do with him, and how i want to incorporate him into the various pitfalls that come with one's journey through the Duat.

All in all, the fic is wildly self indulgent for me as a kemetic, and a fun way to connect my religion to my current hyperfixation :] thank you for asking about it because i have a LOT of feelings over the entire concept<3 if anyone is curious about the things i've said here, i'm super happy to answer questions about them-- regardless of whether they're about the fic or my religion.

Notes:

¹ in kemeticism, our afterlife isn't a paradise like you might associate with the concept of heaven, or the hellenic elysian fields, but is basically the idealized life of what you would have lived while on earth. I could go into a lot more detail with this (there are a lot of nuances that im simplifying here) but for now this is a good enough explanation.

² isfet is a bit of a hard term to translate, but the easiest way i can put it is the concept of non-constructive chaos. there are many beneficial kinds of chaos (such as those involved in the cycle of creation and balance), but isfet is something that unmakes and destroys. a very big part of kemeticism is casting out isfet and inviting ma'at in its place.

³ ma'at is both a goddess and a concept. it can be roughly translated to "truth/balance/justice" and is the act of creation itself. to invite ma'at is to invite order and balance into your life, and deny anything the footholds needed to unmake you or others.

⁴ netjeri is a relatively new term coined by Rev. Dr. Tamara L. Siuda (Hekatawy Alexandros), the Nisut (or leader) of Kemetic Orthodoxy, in order to shed the culturally christian baggage attached to the translation "demons" (which is the scholarly term). it can be essentially translated as "god-like." the best way i can describe them is as a class of creatures and spirits with a multitude of dispositions and roles, that are not actual gods. some of them however are considered minor deities, such as the sons of Heru-wer (Horus the Elder).

⁵ Faulkner's translation is the best and most accurate translation we have so far. if you see a translation by Budge, fucking run, that man was so innaccurate its actually physically painful

Final disclaimer: i am coming at these explanations of kemeticism from the lens of a modern kemetic pagan who is trying to keep them layman-friendly. while i do my best to make sure the information i give is accurate, i am not an egyptologist, and there are some things i haven't gotten very far with in regards to my personal studies. just keep in mind that there are some things i might have generalized for the sake of convenience, feel free to ask me more if you have questions, and do good independent research if you find yourself curious!! and a massive thanks to anyone who has gotten this far in reading something very special to me<3

[walkawaytall]

For the fanfic emoji ask game? And also, yes, I did correct the typos in both prompts because I just couldn't leave it. (retired but not recovered assistant to a big wig).

📃 Ever written something inspired by someone else's fic?

📬 The best comment you ever received?

Thank you for asking!

📃 Ever written something inspired by someone else's fic?

So...not directly, but I know there are headcanons I've picked up reading fics that I sort of adopted as my own and it's been difficult to parse through whether I got something from one particular person or just absorbed a commonly embraced idea while binging on fics back in December (I was in my "I'm just going to read, but I won't ever write fanfiction" stage of denial then). That's been one of the wild things about jumping into fandom after avoiding it for so long -- especially since there was the EU reboot -- working through what's old canon (which I wasn't really acquainted with outside of the movies), new canon, widely accepted fanon, and personal headcanon has been borderline impossible at times. If I do knowingly pull an idea from somewhere other than canon, I do mention it in author's notes, but it's usually smallish details -- I don't think I've written an entire fic inspired by someone else's.

📬 The best comment you ever received?

So, I have received many lovely and encouraging comments and I am particularly partial to the ones that say I've captured characters' voices and characterizations well because, at the end of the day, the characters are far more important to me than how correct my estimation of the time it takes to fly between two planets is. Really, the majority of my comments have been encouraging, and some have been endlessly thoughtful, and I'm appreciative of each one. I would find it difficult to rank one above the rest since I have several that I would consider top-tier comments that have been inspiring and lovely and really made my week.

But this question doesn't ask for the loveliest, it asks for the best, so I'm going to interpret that in the way I think is funniest. And the comment that has brought me the most...entertainment was an anonymous comment left on FFN when the name "Amilyn Holdo" was mentioned in Chapter 8 of Purpose of Heritage:

Amilyn Holdo So I guess in your fanfic universe Han and Leia split up and have a kid who murders his father. Thanks for the warning. I'll find something else to read.

I know this just seems like a very bland and weirdly bitter hate comment, but every time I think about it, it gets a little funnier because:

1. I am like 90% sure I know exactly who wrote this (it's a regular commenter of mine who has been on my I'm Keeping an Eye on You List for like five months) based on some other odd behavior on the part of this person, the intense vitriol they have for the sequel trilogy that makes glancing through one of their profiles feel like reading a manifesto, and their contacting me directly about the guest comment with some really strange timing. And if I'm right and this is that reader, they're still reading and commenting on that story every time I post a new chapter.

2. This fic explicitly takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, a fact that is clearly stated in the fic description. We're stopping literally the morning of the day ESB begins (I may not have the next five thousand chapters written, but I do have the final scene, so I know that much). So, even if I was super on board with the sequel trilogy's take on Han and Leia (which I'm very much not), it literally does not affect this story at all.

3. If they hate the new canon so vehemently that a single mention of a character turns them off of a fic, they should be aware that I was pulling details from From A Certain Point of View since like Chapter One and Leia, Princess of Alderaan (which is where Holdo actually first shows up both chronologically and if we're going by release date) since Chapter Three. That's right: they were reading new canon mixed in with old the whole time!

4. Amilyn Holdo isn't mentioned until about sixty-eight thousand words into the story. They read sixty-eight thousand words of my story and the mere mention of canonical Alliance member Amilyn Holdo, a character who I still can't decide if I want to actually show up, was the final straw. Which means they presumably liked most of those words, because if they were hate-reading, the mention of Holdo would have only given them more resolve to continue. So, you know, my writing isn't good enough to soothe the residual anger someone has for JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson, but it is good enough to hold a really fickle person's attention for sixty-eight thousand words. That's something.

Fanfic writer ask game

[cockroachmotherfucker10]

PRIDEFALL UPDATE: real or fake?

What is Pridefall?

Operation Pridefall, also known as Project Pridefall or simply Pridefall, refers to an attack planned by /pol/ (a political discussion board on the anonymous website 4chan) for all of June, AKA Pride month. The original 4chan thread, which has since been deleted, was primarily focused on “redpilling,” i.e. spreading queerphobic propaganda to make people question the LGBTQ+ community. However, now that it has spread outside 4chan, there are threats of harassing, doxxing, and outing queer people (especially minors) on social media, spamming gore and rape videos in private messages and Pride tags, and even kidnapping, assaulting, or killing queer people in real life.

Specific targets include Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and dating apps. The goal is to go after smaller accounts so the queerphobia isn’t lost in the comments.

Is Pridefall real?

Yes and no.

I searched “pridefall” on 4chan last night. Apparently any new threads on it are being deleted, and anytime someone mentions it, everyone calls them slurs and says no one is doing it.

However, Pridefall is gaining some traction on Instagram--I have seen it for myself. I don’t have TikTok or any dating apps, but I’ve heard that some people are spamming homophobia on TikTok. As for Twitter, I only looked briefly, but I saw some Pridefall accounts there, as well as a lot of warnings and blocklists from people who are worried about it.

I’ve also heard that there have been a few Reddit and Discord raids, and that there is an Operation Pridefall Discord server (someone who spied on them says they have been banned on Discord as well as a platform called Riot before, so very few people are left on the Discord server now).

What do you think, Lia?

This is not coming from 4chan. No one on 4chan is interested anymore.

Most likely, people outside of 4chan heard about it and decided to take matters into their own hands.

The original 4chan thread wanted to make Pridefall “normie-palatable” by avoiding Nazi imagery or other overt unpleasantness, but I have seen a LOT of both on Instagram. This reinforces my belief that 4chan isn’t doing this.

A lot of the people behind this are young, or at least unsophisticated. Most of the Pridefall accounts on Instagram engage in very childish trolling, and one of them said they were a minor. Some of the threats I’ve seen are so outlandish that I can only imagine they came from a fairly young person.

My guess? Most of these people are around 13-19.

There are also very few of them and some of them probably have multiple accounts. Anti-Pridefall accounts outnumber them by far.

However, on Instagram I’ve seen Pridefall accounts following each other and commenting on each other’s posts, so there may be a few groups working together.

A lot of this shit is going to get deleted. I know Instagram is working through reports very slowly right now because they have fewer people available due to COVID-19, but most of the worst accounts I saw last night were deleted by this morning. I saw some more accounts deleted today.

Most, if not all, of these Pridefallers are just trying to scare us. Because they’re probably quite young, there’s very few of them, their accounts keep getting deleted, and law enforcement can track online activity, there is no way they have the balls or resources needed to coordinate major attacks.

There is a very, very slight chance this could spill over into real life, but as long as you practice basic online safety, you will be fine.

That being said, if you are threatened or doxxed by a Pridefall account, PLEASE contact the police. Better safe than sorry.

I do think that the threat of being doxxed or outed is more real than the threat of being attacked. I have already seen one Pridefall account who posted a trans boy’s address on Instagram (he is okay, he posted recently) and another who posted someone else’s address.

There is little chance this will last throughout Pride month. Apparently the goal is for Pridefall to worsen until the end of June, but given that this is most likely just some vastly outnumbered teenage trolls who are bored in quarantine, I seriously doubt they’ll be able to stay interested for a whole month.

This might not be as big on Tumblr. Tumblr is a lot more anonymous than, say, Instagram, which will hopefully deter would-be doxxers. It’s also known to be a highly liberal and queer-friendly site, so any Pridefaller with half a brain cell should know that A) their content is sure to be outnumbered and reported (only us Tumblr users know how bad staff is at deleting questionable stuff), and B) anyone with the original goal of “redpilling” is sure to fail here. Plus, I only remember seeing few, if any, mentions of Tumblr on Pridefall planning threads.

Still, expect to see some Pridefall activity here. Unsurprisingly, not all of these Pridefallers have half a brain cell. Some of them will definitely be unable to resist the lure of a community as openly queer as Tumblr, and we’ve all seen or heard about doxxing, harassment, gore, Nazis, and queerphobes on here. Also, 4chan has historically had some beef with Tumblr, so young teenage boys who idolize 4chan may target us for that reason.

How can I stay safe?

If you have any social media accounts where you A) have posted identifying personal information, and B) are openly supportive of the LGBTQ+ community (especially if you’re queer yourself), put them on private for June. Any other accounts are probably fine to stay public.

If you need a private Tumblr, you can make a password-protected secondary account and only share the password with mutuals you trust.

It is probably okay to be openly queer on a private account (e.g. have pronouns/rainbow emojis in your Instagram bio), since a private account is not likely to be doxxed. But if you want to be extra careful, remove queer identifiers from anything that is publicly visible.

Use Pridefall blocklists. They’re all over Instagram and Twitter. I may repost some here.

Report any Pridefall accounts you see. This is VERY important because this is how we can actually get rid of Pridefall content.

DON’T RESPOND TO ANY PRIDEFALLERS WHO PERSONALLY INTERACT WITH YOU. I know it’s tempting to give a snarky reply, but if they message you, comment on your post, etc, just block them. Seriously, don’t feed the trolls. It's exactly what they want.

Make sure your password game is strong. Use a different password for every site (I know, I know, it sucks), and use passwordmeter.com to test their strength. Write them all down on a piece of paper.

Make sure your username game is strong. Don’t use the same username for multiple sites, and avoid putting personal information in your username, such as your name or birthday.

Do NOT open random links!! Pridefallers could message you links that will give you viruses or track your IP address.

Don’t accept DMs or follows from people you don’t know. Pridefall accounts don’t always look like Pridefall accounts. Some of them are undercover.

Use a VPN. This is probably a little overkill unless you’re particularly at risk of being doxxed, but it will hide your IP address.

Be careful who you interact with. A lot of queer people on Instagram are DMing Pridefall accounts or commenting on their posts, but this could make you a target. As helpful as anti-Pridefall accounts are, you might even be targeted for following those.

Be wary of Pride tags. Unfortunately, a lot of Pridefall accounts plan to infiltrate tags commonly used by queer creators during Pride month. Use discretion when looking for queer content.

Be safe IRL. Lock your doors, lock your windows, be aware of your surroundings, don’t walk alone in poorly lit places, know basic self-defense, etc. Again, I absolutely do not think people will be attacked in real life, but you should be doing this shit all the time, not just in June. Thanks to COVID-19, you’re safer inside anyway!!

Make yourself hard to dox. Even though I have a very unusual first name (it's not really Lia), I am extremely hard to find online. I just went into an incognito browser window and searched my first and last name in quotation marks, but I didn’t find myself until page 4 of Google (and that result wasn’t even posted by me). I’m only half as careful as I could be, but here’s some of the things I do:

-I never use a picture of myself as my profile pic, except for Facebook and Instagram, which are both on the highest privacy settings possible.

-If I post identifying information on a public account (my college, my age, etc), I use a pseudonym or my first name only.

-On Instagram, I only use my first name, and I used special characters to type it, so you won’t find me if you search my name.

-On Facebook, I only accept friend requests from people I know. Most, if not all, of my Instagram followers are IRL friends, friends of IRL friends, and trusted Internet friends.

-If I’m really being paranoid, I’ll make a brand-new email account to sign up for a site. That way, my accounts aren’t all linked through one email address.

-Before I post a picture online, I delete the EXIF data with verexif.com, since EXIF data can hold GPS coordinates.

🌈 Stay safe, everyone.

You will not be harmed. You will be okay. Like cockroaches, we are survivors, and we will get through this!! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

-Mod Lia

[clearsky]

My Top Comfort Characters/Kins and My Main HCs For Them

(Note, not all my kins/comfort characters are on here, just the ones I have more than 5 hcs for)

CW: Korekiyo Shinguji (DRV3), Himiko Yumeno (DRV3), Shinsou Hitoshi (BNHA), Kyoko Kirigiri (THH), Tsuyu Asui (BNHA), Entrapta (Spop), Ibuki Mioda (SDR2), Celestia Ludenberg (THH), Funtime Foxy (FNAF), Peril (WOF)

Korekiyo Shinguji (DRV3)

Nonbinary

He/They pronouns

Autistic

Chains and loose accessories are for stimming

Likes the feeling of silk and cotton

Can't stand the feeling of anything rough or bumpy

He likes collecting small trinkets and the bones of small mammals

Can't stand anything salty. He'll eat it but he certainly won't enjoy it

Dating Rantaro

Can flirt, but only if he doesn't try

Petnames are a hell yea

Gets sunburnt really easily

Group dates with Celesnaegiri and Ikuzono

Can't cook for s h i t

Had a scene kid phase in middle school

Went to the same middle school as Celeste and Maki

Knew them when Celeste went through her "I'm not like other girls" phase and Maki was a Band Kid™

Himiko Yumeno (DRV3)

Female

She/Her pronouns

Lesbian

Can force herself to fall asleep within seconds regardless of where she is

100% forces herself to fall asleep when she doesn't wanna listen/talk to someone

Himiko/Angie/Tenko relationship. I'm calling them the Traffic Light Trio

She likes taking naps in the forest

She prefers enclosed/tight spaces more than open ones

Has several hundred stress balls and squishies laying around

She overheats easy

Shinsou Hitoshi (BNHA)

Questioning his gender, but goes by any pronouns

Knows he's Asexual, at least

Has no clue what his romantic orientation is though

The kind of person to carry treats in his pocket just in case he runs into a cat

Will stop to pet literally every cat he comes across

Great at reading people

Doesn't talk unless it's 100% needed

Hangs with Tokoyami, Jirou, and Denki most often

Aizawa has 100% unofficially adopted him

Fosters kittens

Not a big fan of physical touch

He is 100% in the bakusquad. Anyone who says he's in the Dekusquad is a c o w a r d

He and Tsuyu vibe

Knows a bunch of random facts

Dark humour? Dark humour

*skates backwards into his therapist's room slowly sipping from an absurdly huge cup of coffee* Candice you're not gonna BELIEVE the shit I just went through

In case I forgot to mention it, he skates

Kyoko Kirigiri (THH)

Mtf

She/Her

Bi with female preference

Burns go up to her shoulders/collarbone/chest

Prefers to just listen as opposed to saying anything

Knows a ton of random trivia about everyone else in her class

She keeps a notebook she fills with all the trivia

Doesn't celebrate her birthday. She just doesn't see the point of it

Doesn't hate sugar/sweets, but if given the choice she would choose literally everything else

Cuts her own hair

A cat person

Permanent dark circles

T-Tall 😳

Like,,, 6'1 at LEAST

Only person taller than her is Yasuhiro (6'3)

Canon no longer exist

Ahahaha healthy life habits? What are those?

Can't handle horror games

She's the kind of person you'd go to if you needed to rant but didn't want any advice

Polyamourous yo

Celeste/Kyoko/Makoto

She's a dom yall are just scared to admit it

Tsuyu Asui (BNHA)

They go by They/Them

Lesbian

They and Ochaco are dating

They like to hang with Shinsou

Which mainly just means the two sitting in one of their dorms in near total silence doing whatever

Can speak English and French as well as Japanese

Learned English from cartoons

Picked up French bc they thought it'd be fun

Prefers to stay neutral in the whole Bakusquad / Dekusquad thing

They're invited to all outings/events by/for both squads

They like puns

They're a dumbass but willingly, and for fun

Like "someone says they like dark humour and they'll turn off the lights before telling a joke" kind dumbass for fun

Great at poker

Likes Disney Movies

Very touchy once you get close enough

Not in a sexual way, just likes physical contact

Especially fond of piggyback rides and cuddles

Extreme fear of needles

Entrapta (She-Ra)

She/Her or It/Its

Doesn't bother trying to figure out whether she's cis, trans, nonbinary, or what

Was AMAB though

Short as fuck (4'7)

Strong as fuck though

Cuddle game strong

Physical touch is a fuck yes

Cuddles

Piggyback rides

Hugs

Anything where she's touching someone is wonderful in her book

As long as she's the one that initiates it

Anyone else touching her without her permission makes her freak

Prefers being high up

Makes it harder for anyone to sneak up on her

An ace at video games

When it comes to sexuality she just says she's Questioning

Ibuki Mioda (SDR2)

Any pronouns + Pup/Pupself + It/Its

No idea what their gender is otherwise

Biromantic Asexual

Just likes sexual jokes

Gets distracted easily

Has severe hearing problems

She's plays her instruments as loud as possible, with the amp right next to her, without ANY ear protection

It's caused some damage

She talks so loud bc she has no idea how loud is considered acceptable

Wears hearings aids most of the time

Several piercings and tattoos

Likes hearing things jingle

She has a bracelet with a few bells hanging from it

She'll shake it whenever she's bored

LOVES hair accessories

Ribbons are a particular favourite

Occasionally she'll hang little charms from her hair "horns"

The kind of person who never takes any pills/medicine bc she keeps forgetting she has to

Frequently uses emojis

Skates everywhere but she isn't very good at it

She keeps crashing into everything

Has broken every bone in her body at least 3 times

Most of which was bc she keeps trying to kick in doors and skating down the stairs

Celestia Ludenberg (THH)

Nonbinary

Any pronouns, mainly goes by She/They

Bi, 70:30

Collects mini hand sanitizers and can tabs

Has single handedly gotten Mario Kart, Mario Party, Monopoly, Uno, and Clue banned a grand total of 17 times (and counting)

The kind of person to purposefully target someone regardless of what game was being played

Favourite victim is Byakuya (bc he gets so upset about it and she finds that hilarious)

Mains Waluigi

Celeste/Kyoko/Makoto

Has several banned Twitter accounts bc whenever she's bored she'll start discourse on purpose

Hangs with Korekiyo, Ibuki, Byakuya, Yasuhiro, and Leon most often

It's a weird friend group but everyone's sorta gotten used to it

She and Byakuya gamble together occasionally

She tries to avoid it bc he'll willingly blow his entire fortune in an attempt to beat her

Autustic

Can't stand the feeling of water

Mainly bc she can't swim for shit

Horror movies? Hates them

Gets flustered super easily

Taka is her twin brother

Kotoko, Kokichi, and Gundham are their half siblings (Same father)

Peko and Toko are their cousins

She sucks ass at go fish

Fuck canon she's 4'11 now

C h u b b y

Freckles

Once she gets comfortable enough with herself she dyes her hair in the peekaboo style

Either black and red or black and blonde

Haven't decided yet

I'll be doing Celesnaegiri hcs as a seperate post but I just feel it's important for you to know that she expresses her affection verbally and is a very touchy person

Went to middle school with Maki and Korekiyo

Has horrible eyesight

She wears contacts most of the time but she always puts off buying more

After the 5th or so time she ended up blindly stumbling around a week after her contacts ran out Kyoko convinced her to buy glasses as well

Religious accessories yo

Like chokers and dangly earrings with crosses and pentagrams and shit

Likes wearing wacky earrings

Can run and do all sorts of tricks in heels

She and Mukuro are exes yo

Keeps her hair short so it's easier to manage

Hair never gets longer than her shoulders if she can help it

She seems like the kind of person who'd keep her bangs grown past her eyes regardless of how frustrating or inconvenient it is

She's a sub yall just don't wanna admit it

Funtime Foxy (FNAF)

I'm going on the record to say this

Funtime Foxy is genderfluid and that is that

Goes by Funtime

Any pronouns, They/Them most commonly

Plays music (keyboard and guitar mainly)

They and Funtime Freddy (Freds) mainly play with the kids

Freds mainly tells stories with Bonbon while Funtime more so plays one-on-one

Has nicknames for everyone

Circus Baby - Ringleader

Ballora - Bells

Funtime Freddy - Partner

Bon Bon - Bun

Peril (WOF)

I like both Nonbinary She/They Peril and Mtf She/Her Peril

They're both such good concepts

She's a lesbian, Harold

She only had a crush on Clay bc he was pretty much everything she was supposed to like in a guy

Gimme a moment while I force all my mental disorders onto this poor child

Autistic, Anxiety (Social anxiety, mainly, but she has most types), Adhd, PTSD

I'd like to reiterate yet again that She's a lesbian

Sunny and Glory were her gay awakening

Peril in Book 1: Damn, Sunny and Glory sure are pretty. Anyone would be lucky to date them. Clay would probably go for them over me. He would be stupid if he didn't. I myself would willingly date them over someone like me. They're just so pretty :(

Peril waking up in a cold sweat in the middle of arc 2: WAIT-

Rarepair alert but Peril/Sora

Peril meeting Sora: "Hmmm She's attractive. I would love to date her. Too bad I'm straight and in love with her brother lmao :P"

Peril, a mere month later, waiting for Ruby to leave Jade Mountain, pacing in her cave, running face first into a wall: WAIT-

I remember reading this one amazing story where Sora taught Peril to read/write and Peril found out she set off the bomb and comforted her/convinced her her run so that's canon now

Btw if anyone can remember what that story was called/what platform it was on and could tell me I'd appreciate it very much

I'd even be willing to draw a character of your's or make you an icon or something

I usually don't accept requests bc I get burnt out easy but this is a special case

She runs into Sora again sometime between the beginning of TOP and the end

I like to imagine she just goes wandering around

Anyway she confesses like a mere few minutes after running into her again bc Peril is just subtle like that

The actual confession takes 15 minutes and the entire time Sora is just sitting here like "👁👄👁 sure"

Bam Peril/Sora

Peril plans to keep it a secret for a little while longer but she spends 3 seconds around Clay and pretty much blurts it out

Clay, who wasn't even aware that Peril was a lesbian, is just "👁👄👁"

I wanna say Clay doesn't know what a lesbian is but in my canon Sunny is a lesbian so Starflight has already told him

Anyway he's super supportive

From that point Peril is sorta open about her sexuality?

Like, she gives Clay permission to tell the rest of the D.O.D bc she isn't about to risk being in front of them when they hear the news

(When Sunny starts actively seeking her out as a hang out buddy and Tsunami, Glory, and Starflight appear to tolerate her presence just a bit more afterwards she pretends she isn't confused by the change)

She's pink, white, and blue bc I said so

If you look at a certain angle in the right lighting her eyes, mouth, fire, and under her scales all look purple

But her fire is normally white and blue bc I said so

Also she pale as fuck bc in my canon their fire just sorta burns their colour away

You know how you leave something outside for too long and it gets sunbleached? Where it gets all washed out?

Like that but more extreme

By the age of 10-12 firescale dragons are just white with pale eyes

That's right not even the eyes are safe

Ram horns :P

I'm also fond of Peril/Sunny

Or maybe Peril/Sora/Sunny

But Peril/Sora is the main thing

On the topic of that bringing in my hc that if one sib in a sib group is fire resistant all of them are

She,,, She can change her scale colour

But only slightly and only if her emotions are strong enough

Bc I don't give a fuck about Darkstalker's scroll we were robbed of hybrid Peril

Unfortunately all of Peril's emotions are strong

Rainwing ruff along her head and neck

It's like a hood

It's mainly smoothed to her sides but when she's startled it flares out

RAINWING PUPILS

Y'all will know what those look like as soon as I get off my ass :P

She,,, She can mimic bird cries

Hates the summer

She has more than enough body heat already and the outside is just hot enough to add on and make her feel sick

She can somewhat control her heat but most of the time it's based on her emotions

It can go from standing-in-the-middle-of-a-burning-building-cant-see-your-nose-smoke-is-so-thick heat (Strong emotion) to Hey-thats-a-nice-cozy-campfire heat (Calm/"weak" emotion/Sleeping)

I'm just gonna make a different post with all my Peril hcs cuz there isnt enough room for all of them here

[ketakidesai]

6 reasons why Digital Marketers should NOT ignore Gamification

For the uninitiated, gamification is most commonly defined as “…an informal umbrella term for the use of video game elements in non-gaming systems to improve user experience (UX) and user engagement…”. (1)

Brian Burke, Research Vice President at Gartner, in a podcast defines gamification further as “The use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals…it’s the use of game mechanics… and uses things like points and badges and leader boards… It is used in a digital engagement model” (2)

Let’s take a look at the 6 reasons why marketers must consider gamification in their digital strategy. (It's a long read but I promise it will be fun!)

Reason 1: Let’s accept it – gamification is not ‘just a fad’

The last decade has seen interest in gamification rise substantially. Growth in digital technologies has further propelled this interest across sectors like Healthcare, Real-estate, Education, and other sectors. Today, mobile technology is using game mechanics combined with UX design to enhance user engagement, aid employee learning, help students with problem-solving, and even help sales personnel reach their targets.

Reason 2: Gamification is everywhere, literally!

The earliest, less refined, version of gamification in marketing was recorded in 1896 (3) when retailers rewarded loyal customers with stamps received from marketers. By 2020, one can comfortably say that gamification in marketing has come a long way.

“It (Gamification) can be applied on many products, services, or any stage of the customer journey and it’s easily adjusted to any budget” (4)

Today, Gamification is seamlessly incorporated in our favorite digital platforms like Google Pay, Fitbit, and even Linkedin. It is common to see a mobile app use badges, points, or virtual currency to drive user engagement. While there are popular applications that have gamification at their core like Duolingo and Nike Run Club, there are apps like Zomato which have incorporated gamification into their product to keep app users coming back for more.

In 2019, Zomato launched Zomato Premier League during the IPL season. Users could predict a winner of the IPL cricket match of the day and gain 30% cashback if they predicted the winner correctly. Zomato released a scorecard of the activity that showed 224 cities and 14 Million predictions achieved during the IPL season. (5)

(On a separate note, Google decided to ruin the game and sent a notice to Zomato citing Play store policy violation – Zomato had to take off this feature in September 2020) (6)

Reason 3: Your digital audience wants to have fun

“Many brands don’t need brand awareness anymore, they already have it. So they’re looking at what’s next, they want to engage the audience, the influencers.” (7)

Digital marketers need not limit themselves to using gamification only in an app – digital engagement can be successfully created wherever the audience is including social media! Micro-gamification moments have been popular on social media platforms for some time now. One example of the micro-gamification moment is Stories Ordering by Burger King.

Burger King Spain used Instagram stories and had some fun with gamification. With “Stories Ordering” followers could pick ingredients and customize their Whoppers by simply clicking on the Instagram Poll Feature. This generated a unique coupon that participants could use to redeem their Whopper for free. A simple creative idea with zero media investment led to 270000 brand interactions.

Similarly, Star Movies launched Play @ 7 (8) to gamify the TV watching experience. Viewers were required to watch the movies played on the channel daily and play 7 games by tweeting the correct answers to the games. Star Movies created a leader-board on Twitter in real-time where participants could track their progress daily and weekly.

Reason 4: Personalise to Gamify and Gamify to personalize

“While the job of gamification is easing the daily tasks in different fields, the users’ interests and likes must be considered to create intrinsic incentives and a moral environment for them.” (9)

For a truly effective retention strategy, a brand must enhance the product experience for the user. For this ethically collecting relevant data along the user journey to personalize content and keep users engaged becomes important. Duolingo emails a weekly report to its users reminding them of their progress in comparison to the previous week. Similarly, Starbucks sends rewards points as a birthday treat to its users.

As the collected data gets richer in quality, marketers can then create loyalty programs, feedback mechanisms, gamified content, and much more, to personalize the user’s experience further.

Reason 5: Gamified marketing survived COVID-19

Locked up at home due to COVID-19, people were increasingly active online, consuming a variety of content, and playing games when not working. Between March 2020 and April 2020, comScore noted a 62% increase in the time spent on playing games online in India. Another report states that the US and UK saw a ‘40% surge in the time spent on online games’.

During this time, Burberry launched its summer collection through a gamified campaign. The luxury brand created a multiplayer game “that lets players dress up their characters in the brand's outfits before grabbing a surfboard and challenging friends to a race around a track”. The game rewards participants with daily prizes and AR-based digital rewards. (10)

ABC Entertainment decided to have fun promoting its classic TV game show “Supermarket Sweep”. To announce the return of the show, the broadcaster launched a Twitter game “Supermoji Sweep”. The audience on Twitter was required to “reply to its @SuperSweepABC account with combinations of nine emoji for grocery items including cheese, bread, steak, turkey and cherries”. Every emoji had a secret dollar value attached to it and the audience was required to guess the combination of items that would cost exactly $20. And the reward for the correct guess? A Special video message from comedian Leslie Jones, who is also the host of the show.

Reason 6: Gamification is about to get better

The overall Gamification market globally is expected to be worth $76298.9 Mn by 2030 (11) and for marketers, the opportunities are endless. Game mechanics are combined with AR/VR in education, tourism, healthcare, and entertainment industries.

In 2019, Ally Bank used AR and Gamification to create an online learning experience for consumers. “The augmented reality game brings Monopoly to life in six USA cities… Ally aims to improve consumers’ financial literacy through gamification while giving them the chance to increase their savings and win prizes."

PetSmart used Snapchat’s AR feature to create a “gamified quiz based around educational reptile facts”. Using this feature users could use the filter to turn themselves into a reptile, answer questions related to reptiles, and win a 40% discount coupon that can be redeemed at a PetSmart store. As a result, PetSmart “has seen a 50% increase in reptile sales, as well as a boost in general pet sales as owners stocked up on food and supplies in preparation for lockdown..”

Digital marketers can leverage these technologies to present immersive and gamified experiences to consumers and expand the scope of digital marketing. Similarly, brands can work towards gathering relevant user data and utilize it to create a better user experience and consumer engagement through personalized in-app gamified experiences.

Parting Thoughts

From engagement to retention, gamification can support most of the marketing objectives. This is a great approach ONLY if the marketer is clear about what objective the brand is trying to achieve when adopting the approach. To elevate a user’s experience through gamification, marketers must weave storytelling or personalization.

But remember, creating a gamified experience is not easy. Experts have researched why gamification fails and these reasons range from lack of understanding of the target audience to not being able to create a compelling story. Brian Burke mentions that gamification fails when it is used to manipulate the user’s experience to meet the organization’s goal, instead of the goal of the customer (2). As a result, marketers must create an experience that helps the consumer achieve their objectives. And this means going beyond mere reward points.

I will leave you with two popular frameworks Elemental Game Tetrad Model by Schell and Octalysis Framework by Yu-kai Chou. Both these should help you start off with planning and designing an outstanding gamification experience for your audiences/customers/users!

Add alt text

FIN!

Thank you for reading this article. I would love to hear your views on gamification and how digital marketers can leverage game mechanics to improve user engagement.

If you found this article interesting or if you have any feedback for me, do share the same in the comments below!

All references and cited articles can be viewed here.

[plance-analysis]

Pidge and Lance Analysis: Romantic

While I said I am not biased, it would be a shame to not make my first post anything but a plance post! Below the cut, I will dive into some of my favorite aspects of the relationship and then further evidence that may prove its possibility. 

(This is a long post with many images!)

Relationship Basics

Pidge and Lance were introduced to us as the audience as part of the original trio including Hunk. It started of as a regular group of mischievous kids who just had a knack for getting into trouble. This was mostly true and upon becoming paladins of Voltron, not much changed. Pidge and Lanced dynamic started as classmates, but through their individual character developments (Lance maturing into the role of a paladin, and Pidge finally finding her family) their relationship has a large opportunity to flourish. 

Starting with the first episode, Lance and Pidge didn’t have much problem with personal space, which in itself shows how easily they became friends from the get go. It is known that not a lot of time passed between the time Pidge joined the Garrison and the landing of Shiro, but yet upon seeing Pidge sneaking out Lance was immediately intrigued as to where she was going, following her rather that continuing to sneak out for some fun. Upon finding her, Lance is quickly intrigued by her set up and her ability to pick up alien signals. It’s no secret that Pidge is impressed by her own work, but for a non-science man like Lance to be even remotely interested is a feat she is very easily pleased by. Once in space, they continue to bond in ways similar to the rest of the team and there relationship becomes stagnant and very casual. The perfect base for a deeper connection.

Show Evidence

Protectiveness

Pidge and Lance are both characters who throughout the show grow to become protective of their teammates and friends, but there is evidence of their sacrifices for each other specifically. Their actions in the following scenes are the most pivotal plance moments and therefore I’ll go through each one individually. The first instance is the first Sendak attack.

Upon Pidge’s capture, while Keith and Allura do make moves to take her back, the first move is made by Lance.While this doesn't seem like it would be much different from any one of them rescuing Pidge from Sendak, it is to be noted that prior to, and then immediately afterward, Lance was in critical condition and unconscious. 

He uses the word “apparently” inferring that he does not remember the event and that it was a completely unconscious (literally) decision. What are the chances that the writers would have Lance be the one to rescue Pidge rather than any of the other equally as abled, not to mention conscious and ready for battle, characters?

This moment is almost exactly paralleled in the episode Escape from Beta Traz. She is not as successful, but her intent and persistence is there, as she goes in again for a couple more attacks. This is the first time we’ve seen Pidge enraged, with the exception of anything relating to her family being found. 

In the alternate reality episode, when the team first encounters Sven and Slav, Pidge’s rescue is a scene done entirely in slow motion. Why would the staff have any reason to have the shooting of Pidge’s attack be in slow motion, rather than the actual reveal of Sven/Shiro? To showcase the fact that it was Pidge and not Allura who was directly next to her, with a similarly ranged bayard, taking the shot to save Lance.

We cannot continue without the mention of everyone’s favorite season seven plance moment, the “Don’t you touch her!” moment. This moment of Lance’s protective nature is very different from his usual, and it is an important scene for all future planned development.

The writers chose the phrase “this group of heroes has a soft spot for the small one” specifically for Zethrid, implying that she was hoping to torture the entire team at once. What we got instead, was Lance’s surprising lash out, cutting away from the team to protect Pidge. Lance, having gone through a lot of character growth and maturing, is a very rational and accepting of fate person. He has had many instances where he sacrifices himself for the good of the team, but what sets this moment apart from the rest is his obvious anger. When Lance runs into the face of danger for someone else, he does so as sacrifice, taking the hit to save another, but here, he does not offer himself instead. He runs full force towards Ezor, as though she had crossed some line deep seeded in Lance.

His choice of words is also very important. “Don’t you touch her!” He very well could have exclaimed “Stop!” “No!” “Pidge!” or even “Don’t hurt her!” Single word exclamations are a usual when it comes to Voltron writing, but Lance’s specific choice of the words “don’t you touch her” may reveal something deeper to his idea of Pidge, feeling he may not even be aware of. The idea of Pidge being hurt had no time to register, because his first priority is that no one even touch her.

Jealousy

There have been moments sprinkled in the show hinting to Pidge having at least some feelings of affection toward Lance, shown through the ways of jealousy.

Pidge is a smart girl, who knows that the mission of saving the universe is the most important thing, even before saving her family. She knows that should anything get in the way of her doing her duty, it must be suppressed to a later time. Perhaps she does this with her feelings for Lance. From the very first episode, every time Pidge is around to hear Lance mention girls, she almost instantly reacts. Whether it be through her face, or slapping Lance, she almost always shows her discomfort. Except for when Allura had been busy with Lotor. She was specifically teasing Lance that his chances with Allura were gone, giving Lance more time to spend with her, and possibly return her feelings for him.

Noticing

Out of all the Paladins, the one who gives Pidge the most private attention, is Lance. He has noticed her moods and reacted accordingly, even when she doesn’t seek him herself. Pidge, on the other hand, is a lot more introverted, but despite that, she still notices Lance. Based on the show’s scenes, there have been many more Lance watching Pidge scenes (like the ones pictured above). When she becomes upset, Pidge either stands her ground or isolates herself. In both instances, the scenes show that Lance is visibly upset and cares for her, but something stops him from acting. When Pidge unlocks the green lion’s vine cannon, Lance is the only member to speak out about it. In both the first season and the latest game show episode, Lance remember’s Pidge and her favorite robots, Rover and Beezer. He recalled Pidge loving Beezer more than Nyma stealing the blue lion, who at the time, he was the paladin of. He was the first out of him and Coran to notice Rover without the immediate Pidge attached to it. He even at time’s teases Pidge about all her smart talk and skills, much to her delight.

Blushing

Beside the occasional tech, Lance is the only person that Pidge has blushed at. In her vlog, she states that she’s always been better with technology than other people, so connecting with a person to the point that there was an opportunity to fluster her is a feat in itself. Lance, Lover boy Lance, has blushed many times with many pretty, space girls, but the only Earth girl to make Lance blush is none other than Pidge. As it is most commonly known, blushing is almost completely involuntary. The two are some of the only ones shown to blush in the show, and that they’ve blushed at each other multiple times says something.

Final Thoughts

While the plance fandom started small, after the release of the recent seasons, it has grown at an impressive rate, even making the top ten on @fandom ‘s ranked ships list. There is many a theory that plance can end up canon by the end of the series. Fans and supporters of the show constantly bring up more evidence everyday and with every content. I’ll go through a few that I believe have some footing.

Speculation

In an interview long ago, Jeremy Shada (voice of Lance) opened the interview  with drama of Lance dying, and later it was revealed that it did come to happen, regardless of his joking tone. In a separate interview with Shada and Bex Taylor-Klaus (voice of Pidge), he opened with Lance and Pidge falling in love followed by a “I’m just kidding.” 

In the opening of season 2, Pidge is known to make trash versions of all of Team Voltron, which she takes back with her, along with the puff ball aliens. Many shots of her room and the trash versions of the paladins seem to give focus to the Lance one. At one point, it was shown in the foreground with two, a blue and a green, puffball aliens floating on him. 

Many fans already deduced that Monsters & Mana, an episode of season six, heavily parallel and even foreshadow the series’ plot. Meklavar (Pidge) and Pike (Lance) are given similar markings on their characters. Pike is shown to gain an invisibility cloak when the team enter the room of loot. With many of the members gaining an object similar to their personalities, fans theorize that this is a nod to Pidge and the green lion’s cloaking ability.

In the most recent season, the episode The Journey Within, Pidge and Lance hold on to each others left hands. Left hands are commonly associated with marriage in western cultures. In the same episode, they are shown to never switch their position implying that they’ve stayed linked almost the entire time. A fan favorite moment is when tensions were beginning to run, as the other paladins were unlinking, Pidge and Lance were the only two to remain linked.

Bex Taylor-Klaus is also a known supporter of the pairing, and being that they are the voice of Pidge makes fans go wild. 

On July 2nd Taylor-Klaus tweeted a gif of Lance with the tweet being a plant emoji. Plant emoji’s are a very common motif of the plance fandom.

While many wait in anticipation for season eight at the end of this year, fans only become more anxious for any endgame relationships. Plance has a lot of potential, and it can stand on its feet with a decent amount of evidence to support it. With the end nearing, more content is created everyday with hopes, speculation, and beautiful artworks.

Pidge and Lance don’t need any romance to complete themselves, but with the terms of their relationship, being for the most part only love and understanding, plance has a chance.

What do you think will happen to plance? I would love to hear more ideas!

Have a wonderful day and thank you for your time!

[seotipsandtricks-me]

Picture the scenario: Despite your best intentions and the careful consideration taken to construct a message, it gets misinterpreted by the recipient. It can happen to the best of us. Indeed, when it comes to online communication, things can often get lost in translation and it can be hard to control how we are perceived by others. This is something that can be of particular concern for businesses or brands. However, ensuring your company has a clearly defined tone of voice (TOV) can, to some extent, help reduce the likelihood of this problem occurring. In this blog post I will discuss tone of voice guidelines: what they are, why they matter and which brands are using them well. Read on to find out more. What Is Tone Of Voice? Tone of voice refers to the way you express your company’s character and personality within your communications. It entails everything from the rhythm, pace, vocabulary, grammar and syntax used in your writing and the overall tone this helps to create. Essential for connecting and engaging with customers, your tone of voice applies to pretty much all communications; every social media post, every live chat message exchanged with a customer, every slogan on ads. Some even go as far as to say that a brands tone of voice should extend to the language they use in call centres and on customer service bills. Otherwise, it’s argued, there is a potential disconnect between the brand and the customer, which could impact on sales. Similar to how you use a logo, colour palette and competitor list, it’s important your business has detailed guidelines outlining tone of voice best practice. Why Does Tone of Voice Matter? Trust and reputation is crucial to any business, especially online. Consumers know when somethings a bit off about a company and one thing that can make them suspicious is inconsistency. When browsing online, consumers will often look for consistent brand colours and a familiar logo for reassurance. Similarly, they’ll also look at a consistent tone of voice. If your tone of voice is erratic across all channels, it can be taken as an indication that your company is not to be trusted. Having a consistent tone of voice not only helps to build trust, it also helps to humanise your brand and separate you from your competitors. Plus, tone of voice guidelines matter as they help staff to adhere to the same style of writing -whether that be on your blog, on your social channels or in your advertising campaigns. Switching between different voices will often leave people confused and dilute any efforts to communicate your brand values. Speaking of which… How Tone of Voice Relates to Brand Values What is it that your company stands for, believes in and is trying to communicate to others? What is it that drives your company? These are the kind of questions you should be asking yourself when it comes to defining your brand values. Your tone one of voice, meanwhile, is the vehicle with which you express, promote and reinforce these values, traits and philosophy. Brand values are core to your company and grow naturally out of who you are as a company, as opposed to simply plucking them out of thin air. Ideally, the messaging and tone of voice used across all your communications should reflect your brand values. This will help drive people through your marketing funnel and also help you to appear reliable and trustworthy. Creating Your Own Tone Of Voice Guidelines If you are yet to create your own tone of voice guidelines, a good starting point can be to audit your existing content. Identify your best performing content and analyse the tone of voice in each. Despite having been created without a tone of voice in mind, are there any common themes evident in terms of writing style or personality? This can help you understand what kind of voice best resonates with your audience. Next, try to define your brand as if it were a real person with a real personality. Describe it in no more than 5 words, then drill these characteristics down even further. For example, if you used the word ‘alternative’ to describe your business, other characteristics you might include are ‘quirky’, ‘eccentric’ and ‘unusual’. Create a list of the words you can use in your marketing efforts. Following this, start providing examples of things your brand DOES say and, equally as important, things your brand DOESN’T say. In fact, sometimes it’s easier to begin with defining everything your company is not. If your brand is unlikely to ever be heard saying ‘epic’ or ‘awesome’, then make sure it’s documented! Having these thorough and detailed tone of voice guidelines in place is so valuable to your company, especially for new staff. Also, remember to adjust your tone and style for different channels and audiences. Whilst your brands voice remains constant, it can take on a different tone depending on the situation including: Who you’re talking to – For instance, consider the difference in how you address an existing customer compared to an individual who is completely new to your brand. What you’re talking about – Are you writing a product page, a blog post which contains instructions or talking to a customer via live chat? Each subject has a different purpose and requires an altered tone. Where you’re talking about this – The way your brand writes for Twitter will, naturally, vary compared to other social channels, your blog or a written letter. Last but not least, nit-pick away and detail your brands spelling and grammar preferences. Are American spellings acceptable? How about hyphenated words? Leave no room for ambiguity or inconsistency! Which Brands Are Using Tone Of Voice Well? Innocent Smoothies: Go ahead, roll your eyes. A blog post about tone of voice which features Innocent Smoothies? Zero points for originality, I know! But, as predictable as this one is, it’s predictable for a reason. Innocent are a brand that really understands tone of voice. Think of every possible channel this brand can communicate their voice through, from Twitter and Facebook right down to their ingredients label, and you can guarantee it has their fun and quirky personality stamped all over it. They even manage to inject a bit of fun into a bog standard 404 error page with some video content: Their navigation bar reflects their light-hearted and alternative tone of voice too. In the name of research, I had to investigate their ‘bored?’ pages. This presents the user with some fairly interesting content like information about their packaging over the years, adverts and photos from Innocent HQ. Dig a little deeper/scroll a little more, however, and you get to the truly good stuff – ‘really bored’. Videos of dogs chewing stuff and penguins pinching stuff? I.AM.SO.IN. Bravo, Innocent! Missguided: Missguided, an online retailer which sells young women’s clothing, has nailed the whole supportive best friend/sister persona down to a tee. On social media, customers are referred to as ‘babe’ and are frequently celebrated. The hashtag in particular, encourages a sense of community and sisterhood amongst its followers. Obviously aware of their young appeal, they use emojis in pretty much every single breath. They pride themselves on being fresh and current, like the clothes they sell, and this too is reflected in their tone of voice. Indeed, they’re always up to date on the latest lingo and emulate how young people speak (If the phrases ‘can’t even’, ‘lit’ ‘throw shade’ or ‘squad goals’ leave you feeling confused then you should probably go ask your BFF or bae to shed some light). On their website they describe themselves as bold, straight talking, fashion forward and say they aim to empower women globally to be confident in themselves. Something I particularly like on their ‘about’ page is the reference to a Beyoncé lyric ‘who run this mother’, when discussing their CEO. It’s youthful, rebellious and a bit cheeky, babe. Kate Spade: Kate Spade is a brand that produces women’s handbags, clothes and jewellery. Like Missguided, Kate Spade has a relatively young audience but tends to communicate with its followers in a more thoughtful and mature tone. Their social media posts are considered and lengthy, compared to the clickbait, snappy text and emojis commonly used by companies to grab the attention of an easily distracted, younger generation. There’s also a clear brand guideline which is adhered to across all their online communications. This includes minimal usage of capital letters (as seen in the ‘who we are’ page of their website and their social posts below). The Kate Spade tone of voice conveys simplicity, sophistication and elegance and is less ‘in your face’ than other brands aimed at a young women. Gillette: OOH Controversial. Gillette is a razor brand that’s been around for yonks but, unless you’ve been living your life social media free recently, you’ll be aware of the Twitter storm its recent ad campaign caused. Traditionally known for its straight talking and direct tone of voice, it’s tagline, which has always been ‘The Best A Man Can Get’ has experienced a bit of a twist for their latest campaign to become ‘The Best Men Can Be’. Entering into the current dialogue surrounding the issue of toxic masculinity, some argue that Gillette have isolated their core audience with this new advert while others have applauded them for its admirable message. As you can see on the website, Gillette have addressed their new campaign and it’s messaging on a dedicated page. The tone of voice remains forthright and frank, and they utilise short, abrupt sentences, such as the following: ‘We’ve all got work to do. And it starts today. Gillette. The Best A Man Can Get.’ However, other areas of the website such as the about page is now inclusive of women, which is more in alignment with their altered brand values: ‘We are the men and women of Gillette, and we’ve got something to say to you’. What do you think of Gillette’s change of approach and messaging? Skittles: As someone who personally has a very sweet tooth and considers themselves somewhat of a sweet connoisseur, for me, Skittles aren’t all that special. Nonetheless, they’re one of the few sweet brands which really stand out when it comes to tone of voice. ‘Taste the rainbow’, the tagline on their quirky, fun and downright bizarre adverts, is instantly recognisable.  Similar to their adverts, anything normal, ordinary or standard is thrown out the window when it comes to their online communications. Even their website meta description doesn’t follow the rules. 165 characters? SEO? Google best practice? Who cares! They’re Skittles, they don’t need no visibility: Make it onto the website and your confronted with a whole host of quirky and strange statements/questions which links to their Tumblr account: And then there’s the Twitter account which is full of personality with off the wall, wacky and goofy posts. Interestingly, these posts are all written in the first person which makes Skittles unique compared to its competitors, offers a more human element to the account and encourages followers to remain loyal. Even, the ‘about’ section on the Skittles Facebook page makes for entertaining reading. “Anything you or any other fans around the globe post on the wall is your own doing, and does not reflect the opinion of Skittles, the Rainbow, any ninja, anyone registered with WM. Wrigley Jr. Company, or most registered hedgehogs”. I rest my case! Do you need help in developing or honing your business’ tone of voice? Our content team has vast experience in this area, from helping companies to define their brand values and create a tone of voice from scratch to producing content for client websites off the back of existing tone of voice guidelines. Drop us a message in the contact form below or feel free to call us at our Brighton office on 01273 733 433. Contact Us Name* First Last Email* Message*NameThis field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged. jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_render', function(event, formId, currentPage){if(formId == 13) {} } );jQuery(document).bind('gform_post_conditional_logic', function(event, formId, fields, isInit){} ); jQuery(document).ready(function(){jQuery(document).trigger('gform_post_render', [13, 1]) } );

[le-regard-au-caire-blog]

From Barthes, to Sontag, to Socrates, to Assange. Week 5 - Part 1.

Barthes’ investigation into the unyielding power of the photograph is as timely as ever. From my limited understanding, Barthes refers to the human/camera interplay as a photographic ritual.

Essentially, this ritual is the subject of the photograph recognizing the camera, and its innate power, and then posing for the photograph as a result. Ultimately, we live in a reality that is so heavily buttressed by images that the camera’s subject, sometimes wittingly and sometimes unwittingly, attempts to mimic those poses they have previously viewed in our reality’s pervasive imaginings.

This ritual, Barthes argues, is a way to maintain our individualized identities.

However, the reconciliation between our true inner ‘self’ and the ‘self’ we have deliberately positioned in a premeditated fashion to convey our ‘self’ within the frame of a photograph, is never quite complete. The true inner ‘self’ becomes frustrated because no matter how one attempts to position themselves perfectly to convey their true ‘self’ in a still image, it can never truly be embodied by the photographically captured ‘self’.

Thus, the true ‘self’ is left with a frustrated detachment from the photographed ‘self’.

There is no reconciliation, just a general and growing unease with the camera.

In other words, no matter how one may try, through physical expressions and positioning of their body, there is no way to prevent a photograph from resulting in a limited and static representation of a human form, which may exist in perpetuity.

Bottom line, it is impossible for a photograph to genuinely capture the human form, a complex electrical grid that is constantly evolving and, even while sleeping, whirring with biomechanical wonder. It will forever remain illusive; a two-dimensional image will never fully contain and convey the true ‘self’ of the photograph’s subject.

Accordingly, a moment/image does not a ‘self’ make. Correspondingly, a photo cannot genuinely capture or convey the true ‘self’.

Interestingly, this leads into Susan Sontag’s book, On Photography, which explores similar limiting aspects of photography, albeit from a different philosophical direction. Although her argument is different than Barthes, one contention clearly overlaps.

Specifically, “To photograph is to appropriate the thing that is photographed... Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it, miniatures of reality that anyone can make or acquire” (Sontag, On Photography, Pg. 4).

The intersection is interesting, because Sontag takes the above statement and then proceeds to illustrate how there is an innate drive within the human mind to apply meaning to photographs (or in Barthes’ terms, the signified). Ultimately, the viewer of the photograph is essentially framing the viewed image through their personal experiential understanding of the world, which is ultimately myopic and limiting. Ergo, the ‘true’ meaning will forever remain allusive.  

These overlapping ideas are extremely interesting and not necessarily novel.

Socrates long ago railed against the written word. His argument was steeped in a similar logic to Sontag and Barthes. Anything that we know about Socrates, his life, interactions, philosophy and beliefs, are only in humanity’s historical canon as a result of Plato, Socrates’ student, writing down these interactions.

Socrates never wrote anything during his lifetime because he strongly believed, and advocated, against using the written word. He contended that the written word was far too limiting for genuine understanding of the thoughts attempting to be conveyed.

In other words, it is only through a verbal exchange with another individual (or set of individuals) that can bring one into a sense of genuine understanding.

In other words (pun intended), written words could never become a complete representation of the knowledge that is attempting to be delivered. Much like the photograph will never be able to capture the true essence of those who reside (temporarily) within its frame. 

In Plato’s writing titled, Phaedrus, he retells the dialogue between Socrates and a man named Phaedrus. Interestingly, the culmination of his main argument begins with Socrates retelling of a fable set in the city of Naucratis, Egypt located on the western periphery of the Nile Delta.

“(Writing) will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external written characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of wisdom without the reality.”

In a similar sense, Socrates could have been conveying the same sentiments regarding photography.

Ultimately, Socrates advocates for the understanding that words are to knowledge, in a similar manner that both Barthes and Sontag propose, what photographs are to the subject. More specifically, both manners of conveyance – written words and photographs – are inherently and persistently limiting.

The revelations published by Wikileaks this past week, regarding the CIA’s ability to covertly spy on just about any device connected to the internet, makes these contentions more timely.

According to a 2010 interview with Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Alphabet/Google, user generated content on the Internet is expanding exponentially.

“Every two days now we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.”

Keep in mind, Schmidt’s comments were delivered in 2010 and the amount of data that is created on a daily basis has grown tremendously with the proliferation of Internet connected devices. Further, this is expected to continually increase, especially as long as Moore’s law is upheld.

That being the case, the CIA will almost certainly attempt to one day make a case for being able to capture the essence of an individual by assembling all of the text and photos the individual in question, or their friends, has uploaded. 

This begs the question, could Barthes’/Sontag’s/Socrates’ contentions be overridden via a wide dragnet assemblage of text and photos, rather than a single example? Could this large aggregate of information in the form of text and images, which are uploaded by an individual or an individual’s friend, truly create an accurate representation of said individual?

Unlike a single picture or single set of text, the CIA would likely postulate, that a large amalgamation of said content could provide a more accurate understanding of said individual.

Given these tools of communication are flawed from the get-go, it seems a stretch.

Conversely – as Socrates, Sontag and Barthes argued within their individual spheres of expertise – will the combination of both limited sources of understanding (photos and text) combine to create an even more limited comprehension of the individual since those who aim to understand the individual will apply their own experiential frame to each set of photos/text in question? Photos and text that we can agree are limited in conveying information. 

In other words, will the CIA Agent’s experiential frame, through which they view this content, risk establishing a far more distorted understanding of the individual they are attempting to comprehend, than say an individual photo or individual set of text?

After all, we have to account for the viewer’s confirmation bias while chunking large volumes of information and trying to deduce broad conclusions. Further, as we have been privy to in the recent past (think: weapons of mass destruction) these agencies are not adverse to picking-and-choosing information that fits a pre-determined narrative.

Further, since the Panopticon is now a verified reality that seems to reside in the pocket of the majority of human begins, no longer just internally divined as a result of fear seeded within our individual minds, aren’t these assemblages of text and images quite possibly an even more muted version of said individual? After all, it has been proven that individuals, who reside under the constant threat of surveillance through Panopiticon, will adjust their behaviors accordingly.

Further compounding this issue with veracity is the fact that lying on social media is commonly accepted, thus a great deal of information that is posted about said person should be considered deceptive at best. 

As a result, I cannot help but wonder, in reference to the whole of humanity, if we are witnessing the mass degradation of our ability to convey information to one-another via non-verbal communication. Many agree these forms of communication, text and images, are limiting in their very nature. Thus, if we are further debasing the already limited ability of these tools to convey a particular message, then aren’t ultimately going to become as useful as a dull knife?

One could pursue this argument further while considering emojis, which are a more recent form of communication and quite possibly an outgrowth of the erosion of textual and visual communication. After all, why is humanity so quick to embrace and integrate this new, and very limiting, form of communication? It seems odd that we are moving from a forms of previously accepted communication, which was considered a technology (i.e., text and/or image) that humanity created in order to be more effective, efficient and above all accurate in its ability to convey information and understanding, toward a far more limited form of communication that is wildly open to interpretation by the individual (i.e., emojis).

Yet, emojis continue to be pervasive and proliferating at an exponential rate. 

[t-baba]

Variables in CSS: Custom Properties

The following is a short extract from Tiffany's upcoming book, CSS Master, 2nd Edition, which will be available shortly.

For years, variables were one of the most commonly requested CSS features. Variables make it easier to manage colors, fonts, size, and animation values, and to ensure their consistency across a codebase.

It took years to work through the details of the syntax and decide how variables would fit into existing rules governing the cascade and inheritance. Now they’re available to developers in the form of CSS “custom properties”.

In this chapter, we’ll discuss the syntax of CSS custom properties. We’ll look at:

how to define properties and set default values for those properties

how the rules of the cascade and inheritance work with custom properties

how to use custom properties with media queries

By the end, you should have a good grasp of how to use custom properties in your projects.

Note: Browser support for custom variables is robust, existing in the latest versions of every major browser. Support is not, however, available in older yet recently released browser versions that may still be widely used by your site’s audience. Versions of Microsoft Edge prior to 15 and Safari prior to version 9.1 lack support entirely. The same is true for any version of Internet Explorer. Microsoft Edge 15 has support, but also has a few documented bugs.

Defining a Custom Property

To define a custom property, select a name and prefix it with two hyphens. Any alphanumeric character can be part of the name. Hyphen (-) and underscore (_) characters are also allowed. A broad range of unicode characters can be part of a custom property name, including emojis. For the sake of clarity and readability, stick to alphanumeric names.

Here’s an example:

--primarycolor: #0ad0f9ff; /* Using #rrggbbaa color notation */

The -- indicates to the CSS parser that this is a custom property. The value of the property will replace the property wherever it’s used as a variable.

Custom property names are case-sensitive. In other words, --primaryColor and --primarycolor are considered two distinct property names. That’s a departure from traditional CSS, in which property and value case doesn’t matter. It is, however, consistent with the way ECMAScript treats variables.

As with other properties, such as display or font, CSS custom properties must be defined within a declaration block. One common pattern is to define custom properties within a ruleset that uses the :root psuedo-element as a selector:

:root { --primarycolor: #0ad0f9ff; }

:root is a pseudo-element that refers to the root element of the document. For HTML documents, that’s the html element. For SVG documents, it’s the svg element. By using :root, properties are immediately available throughout the document.

Using Custom Properties

To use a custom property value as a variable, we need to use the var() function. For instance, if we wanted to use our --primarycolor custom property as a background color, we’d use the following:

body { background-color: var(--primarycolor); }

Our custom property’s value will become the computed value of the background-color property.

To date, custom properties can only be used as variables to set values for standard CSS properties. You can’t, for example, store a property name as a variable and then reuse it. The following CSS won’t work:

:root { --top-border: border-top; /* Can't set a property as custom property's value */ var(--top-border): 10px solid #bc84d8 /* Can't use a variable as a property */ }

You also can’t store a property–value pair as a variable and reuse it. The following example is also invalid:

:root { --text-color: 'color: orange'; /* Invalid property value */ } body { var(--text-color); /* Invalid use of a property */ }

Lastly, you also can’t concatenate a variable as part of a value string:

:root { --base-font-size: 10; } body { font: var(--base-font-size)px / 1.25 sans-serif; /* Invalid CSS syntax. */ }

Custom properties were designed to be used as properties that are parsed according to the CSS specification. Should the CSS Extensions specification be adopted by browser vendors, we could someday use custom properties to create custom selector groups, or custom at-rules. For now, however, we’re limited to using them as variables to set standard property values.

Setting a Fallback Value

The var() function actually accepts up to two arguments. The first argument should be a custom property name. The second argument is optional, but should be a declaration value. This declaration value functions as a kind of fallback value if the custom property value hasn’t been defined.

Let’s take the following CSS:

.btn__call-to-action { background: var(--accent-color, salmon); }

If --accent-color is defined—let’s say its value is #f30—then the fill color for any path with a .btn__call-to-action class attribute will have a red-orange fill. If it’s not defined, the fill will be salmon.

Declaration values can also be nested. In other words, you can use a variable as the fallback value for the var function:

The post Variables in CSS: Custom Properties appeared first on SitePoint.

by Tiffany Brown via SitePoint https://ift.tt/2NCKL0G

[appmarketingsolutions]

Find A List of Good KPI Metrics for your Digital Marketing and App Marketing as well as Bad KPIs to Measure Business Performance

Mobile marketers and Digital Marketers in general are relationship builders.

And like every relationship you are invested in, you want to know how things are going. Are you and the other party— so in this case, the people who have downloaded and used your app or online service —both getting what they want out of the relationship? What’s working great, what’s not? The following post is about every key value you should messure to get a good overview about the state of your app or online business. If you think this topic is of interest for you or your colleagues, feel free to share it! And don’t forget to comment below, it is truely important to me to learn more about you opinion on this topic and if i forgot about anything really important! 

  Every KPI you truely have to messure

A Good KPI Metric to Measure: Retention Rates

First, let’s start out with one of the key factors you need to know about: Retention Rates. How well your app does on the market depends on many things, like the app installs, the generated revenue through in-app purchases and so on. But one key factor that you should always take a look at is the retention rate. Not every user will keep your app. Most commonly, you will loose half of the users that downloaded your app in three days. So what can be done to retain you apps users?

First of all, lets take a look at how you can actually calculate your retention rate:

How to Measure Retention Rate

  This metric, obviously, lets you know what percentage of customers you’re retaining. And as a result, you’ll be able to also see how many customers you’re losing.

Which numbers you plug into the formula will depend on what you’re looking to learn from the retention rate, but you’re comparing a cohort of users in a more recent timeframe (say, this month), with those same users in an earlier timeframe (say, last month).

You might also be interested in calculating your retention rate using app download or first login as the denominator (as opposed to just app use).

If you’re calculating the retention rate based on how many people downloaded your app last month, the rate will reflect how your app awareness marketing (getting people to download) compares to how engaged people become with the app once they have it downloaded.

Calculating retention based on users’ first logins will reflect your app’s messaging, onboarding, and UX as more or less effective at keeping people around.

Retention Rate = # of people who use your app within a set period of time cleared of the new users / # of people in who used your app within a previously set time Example: 1300 people used your app in February and you had 1000 new downloads / 1,000 users in January = your retention rate is 30%

  Recommendation:

Increase your App Retention with Push Notification

Push notifications are a powerful weapon to increase app retention

A great way to prevent app abandonment and increase app retention is to use push notifications. If used wisely, smart push messages will remind users to open and use “sleeping” apps (apps that were installed on the device but forgotten about). This will ultimately increase the number of active app users.

Localytics has demonstrated that users who accepted push notifications for an app opened it 171% more than users who disabled them.

Push notifications can be promotional, contextual or simply informative. The most important is to wake the user up with interesting content that will make him open and use the app again.

If you’re new to this or if your push notification strategy was unsuccessful check out these 4 hacks that will help you deliver efficient push messages to increase retention and drive engagement

#1 – Find the right balance

Push notifications rely on an opt-in system: users should give their permission to receive some push content. Actually, about 46% of app users see push notifications as helpful.

However, the other half finds push messages to be an “annoying distraction”. You should therefore be careful while implementing your push notification strategy.

Depending on the essence of your app, it is important to find the right dose and deliver the right amount of message to your audience. Not enough would be useless, too much would most likely make the user delete the app.

A good way to proceed is to start with one notification and then evaluate the impact it had on users. If it’s positive, try implementing another one. Don’t hesitate to experiment with different notification periods in order to find what best fits your audience.

In any ways, try not to use more than one push notification per week to avoid “spamming” your users.

#2 – Be short and concise

It is important to keep your message short and straight to the point. AppLift recommends using notifications of less than 128 characters, as they have the highest open rate. That’s about 10 – 12 words.

Make sure to respect the various screen formats and sizes to be the most converting possible. Don’t forget to use some emoji if it’s relevant. They are brilliant eye-catchers.

#3 – Be personal and use segmentation

One of the most important hacks is to personalize push notification messages according to the right segment of users. This obviously implies to create these segments prior you start crafting your messages.

Indeed, you cannot address the same way to new users or one timers (users who used your app only once) the way you would talk to lapsed users (users who used your app frequently but then stopped).

App Retention Tipps

Thanks to a thorough data analysis of user behavior (based on install and post-install activity), you will be able to determine the user lifecycle and the various phases your users are going through when experiencing your app.

From there, you can use segmentation to personalize your messages depending on the phases your users are in.

If your message is compelling and personalized, it will certainly make your users want to know more and therefore open your app again.

#4 – Use A/B testing

App Retention Split Testing

Finally, it is extremely important to A/B test your push notification messages. This will not only help you find the right tone to use on your targeted segments, but it will also help you avoid making some mistakes.

It is therefore recommended to test your content on a smaller portion of your audience before launching your whole set of push notifications.

A/B testing can help you gauge the amount of push notifications you send. It can also help you decide between multiple formulations or phrasings. Testing your copy and tracking click through rates will guide you and help you maximize your ROI.

Push Notifications for App Retention

A Bad KPI to Measure: Impressions

Are you working a greater audience for your app and your business in general? Are you interested in better brand awareness? Do you think you are doing everything possible to grow your audience on social media and influence them? If that is your goal, it is critical for you to know the differences between reach and impressions.

Marketers encounter these two terms on a regular basis, but not everyone understands the differences of these two terms and what makes each metric so important. Many Marketers understand the importance engagement, especially social media engagement. However, when it comes to the right strategy, it is all about measuring your metrics accurately and finding the areas to that needs increased efforts.

Various social media terms are often misinterpreted. Some are even thought to mean the same thing. It’s very easy to group reach and impressions together, but they do have their own definitions. Before you accurately measure these metrics, let’s learn about reach vs. impressions and why a measurement of pure impressions can actually harm your business.

What’s the Difference Between the KPI Reach and Impressions?

Why you should not measure Impressions but Reach for your digital marketing

Reach is the total number of people that actually sees your content. Impressions are the number of times your content is displayed, no matter if it was clicked, interacted with or any other valuable KPI.

Think of reach as the number of unique people who interacts or at least noticed your content. The best case scenario would be that every follower would see every piece of your content.

  Unfortunately, that’s not how things work for marketers and especially on social media. Not all of your followers will see every single post you make. However, Impression means that content was delivered to someone’s news feed or an ad was shown. That is why Pay Per Impression Ads can really hurt your business as you can generate 0 outcome from those campaigns. A user does not have to engage with the post or ad to count as an impression. One person can also have multiple impressions for a single piece of content.

Take Facebook posts as example. The Post can show up in your News Feed from the original publisher. That is one expression. Then it can appear again when one of your friend shares the post. If you saw both activities in your news feed, you count as two impressions for the same post.

Reach & Impressions, similarities and differences

As you maybe noticed, there are a lot of similarities between reach and impressions. But there is a massive difference in terms of engagement. Look at this example:

Let’s say you have 200 followers on Twitter.

You published one Tweet.

If every one of your followers sees that Tweet, you have reached of 200 users–along with 200 impressions.

Tomorrow you publish another Tweet. Your reach is still 200 users because your follower count didn’t change. However, now you have 400 impressions. Why? Because every single one of your followers saw both Tweets you published.

That is one reason why you can see the number of impressions for one of your Tweet sometimes significantly higher than your follower count.

It’s a bit of a challenge. But you absolutely have to know this when you are tracking the success of your social media campaigns.

If you can recall nothing else about reach and impressions, please at least take this with you:

  Reach is the number of people who may actually have seen your post. Impressions are the total number of times your content was displayed to someone.

Engagement Metrics that matters

Certainly you want to better understand how to improve your reach and impressions. It’s important to learn about other related engagement metrics to fully utilies them. There are different kinds of reach and impression metrics. Let’s take Facebook for an example.

Other social media platforms may include reach and impressions in their social media analytics, but they are pretty standard. Facebook on the other hand breaks down reach and impressions by post type and other categories. This is necessary to understand when you want to improve your social media performance.

Reach vs. Impressions on Facebook

Reach on Facebook falls into three different categories:

Organic Reach: The number of unique people who saw your content without paid advertisement in the News Feed.

Paid Reach: The number of unique people who saw the content you paid for to promote, for example with Facebook Ad.

Viral Reach: The number of unique people who saw your post or Page mentioned in a story, that is published by a friends interaction, such as Liking, sharing or commenting on a post.

Many factors influence your Facebook reach. Depending on the type of reach you want to grow, you might follow different strategies. Stay tuned for an in-depth post about how to increase your facebook reach.

Just like reach, Facebook impressions are also broken down into three categories:

Organic Impressions: The number of times your content was displayed for free. This includes News Feeds or your Page.

Paid Impressions: The number of times your paid content was displayed, for example trough Facebook Ads.

Viral Impressions: The number of times content of your Page was displayed in a story, that is published by a friends interaction, such as Liking, sharing or commenting on a post.

Ad Reach vs Impressions for Facebook Ads

Using the same categoric breakdowns certainly does not keep reach and impressions separate, but you have to  remember our first example, that we discussed. If ten Facebook fans saw your post twice each, the result would be 20 impressions. The number of times displayed multiplied by the number of unique people who saw it. But the reach would only be ten, the unique people who saw your content.

If you are using Facebook Ads, there are two additional types of impressions to track: served and viewed.

When Facebook Ads are served, it means the system is told to deliver an ad. As long as the system registers delivery of that ad, it’s counted as a success—a served impression. This is a little sneaky because it’s counting a success regardless of whether or not the ad is actually seen.

Served impressions also include ads that no one sees. They can appear below the fold or because the person left the page before it could finish rendering. It’s inaccurate and leaves a big gap between the number of ads that are served and the number that are actually seen.

Viewed impressions on the other hand count from the moment the ad enters the screen of a desktop browser or a mobile app. If it doesn’t enter the screen, so it is not rendered or the user leaves the site before it could be shown, it doesn’t count.

    Another Important KPI to measure  is the Churn Rate

Using this metric you’ll find what percentage of customers or user are choosing to ditch your app, website or digital service. They are „churning“.

Churn Rate = 1 – Retention rate Example: 1 – .50 = 50% churn rate

  Did you find this post helpful? Comment below any suggestions for new topics and what you think is really important for your business.

    Der Beitrag Bad KPI to Measure Business Performance erschien zuerst auf richtech Solutions.