#it's now the third most popular social network in the world after Facebook and Twitter. And unlike those other platforms

[akramvai]

How to Grow Your Business with Pinterest

Introduction

If you're looking for a way to grow your business, you should definitely consider using Pinterest. This visual platform is a great way to showcase your products or services, and it's also a powerful tool for driving traffic to your website.

Pinterest has over 250 million active users, and it's one of the most popular social media sites. In fact, it's now the third most popular social network in the world after Facebook and Twitter. And unlike those other platforms, Pinterest is highly visual, which makes it perfect for businesses that want to showcase their products or services.

What's more, pins on Pinterest are often linked back to websites, so if you can create compelling pins that drive traffic to your site, you can see a significant boost in website traffic. Plus, Pinterest is great for SEO since it uses keywords to help people find pins that are relevant to their interests.

If you're interested in using Pinterest to grow your business, here are a few tips to get started:

1. Create an optimized business profile. Make sure to choose a catchy username, optimize your profile picture, and write a compelling bio that tells people what your business is all about.

2. Create pins that are visually appealing and use keywords strategically. Remember that people on Pinterest are looking for visually appealing content that they can save for later. So make sure your pins are eye-catching and include relevant keywords so people can easily find them when they're searching for topics related to

Why Pinterest is a powerful platform for businesses.

The numbers behind Pinterest

Pinterest has over 300 million monthly active users and 1 billion boards. Every day, there are 2 million new pins and 5,000 new boards created.

What does this mean for businesses? There is a lot of potential for businesses to reach new customers on Pinterest. Not only that, but people who use Pinterest are already in a shopping mindset. They are looking for new products and ideas, which makes them more likely to make a purchase from a business they discover on the platform.What types of content perform well on Pinterest

There are a few different types of content that tend to do well on Pinterest:

-Tutorials and step-by-step guides: People use Pinterest to find recipes, DIY projects, and other how-to information. If you have helpful content that can show people how to do something, it is likely to perform well on the platform.

-Product pins: Pins that feature products, especially if they include pricing information, tend to do well on Pinterest. This is because people use the platform to window shop and compare products before making a purchase.

-Infographics: People love visual content, and infographics are an easy way to digest complex information quickly. If you have interesting data or statistics related to your business, consider creating an infographic to share on Pinterest.

As you can see, there are a variety of different types of content that can be successful on Pinterest. The key is to create high-quality pins that will appeal to the people who use the platform.

[viktorjrivy]

How Web 2.0 has changed the way people communicate and collaborate online

Web 2.0 has significantly changed the way society communicates and collaborates online. Web 2.0 essentially refers to web that is user-centred and based around a ‘matrix of dialogues’ (Arya & Mishra, 2012). Since it’s inception in 2004, a multitude of new platforms have been developed but a few in particular that are designed to facilitate and leverage communication and public participation have become mainstream whicles for social debate and communication on contemporary issues. Coinciding with the technology development has been a consistent emergence of public movements and protests, with a world-wide reach that is driving social change on a number of different levels. Each of these movements shares in common the effective use of social media to communicate and organise reactionary activities.

The use of social media platforms such as Twitter have been an important tool in the mobilisation, organisation and communication of recent social movements such as MeToo (#MeToo) (Manikonda, Beigi, Liu, & Kambhampati, 2018), Black Lives Matter (Ince et al., 2017) and Occupy Wall Street (Tremayne, 2013). Scholars around the globe have been discussing the importance of social media in supporting social change by promoting engagement amongst young people and increasing participation in social change ‘action’ or movements (Shirky, 2011). This essay will look at Twitter as such a platform along with it’s intrinsic design affordances, discussing how they have been used to support contemporary social movements and how it has changed the way people mobilise support and action online today.

Twitter is a company and social media platform that was publicly released in 2006 and has become a popular fixture within the social media ecosystem alongside platforms such as Youtube, Facebook and Instagram (Weller et al., 2013). Twitter is Web 2.0 platform that allows users to post short messages that are a maximum 140 characters in the form of tweets. In 2021, it was reported that the platform has around 187 million users globally ("Twitter: most users by country | Statista", 2021), posting 500 million tweets per day. The Twitter feed can be efficiently and easily integrated into a variety of third-party applications through it’s Application Programming Interface (API), increasing it’s reach (Weller et al., 2013). It has become an adjunct and indispensable extension of mainstream media participants without the editorial censorship of the mainstream print media.

One of the most notable and beneficial features of this platform, is the ability to use hashtags that group together and categorise information depending on the topic (Weller et al., 2013). This important affordance distinguishes the platform from earlier Web 1.0 communication tools such as e-mail and static websites, allowing users to contribute to discourse and collective conversation on any given topic.  Given the potential overload of diverse information on a daily basis for web users this is a significant advance. It allows a topic to be ‘followed’ in its development in real time. This is referred to as ‘trending’, if engagement with the specific topic or comment is being read and reacted to by large numbers of people. This is invaluable intelligence for those in the media and political and government spheres. 

 The prevalence of Web 2.0 social networking platforms like Twitter have shifted how activists collaborate and organise social movements. Social movements are now open to participation from an infinite number of global actors. This is vastly different to how movements have operated in the past, governed by a specifically organised group of actors. Scholars have explored how historically, social activism movements were composed of many different groups of people, working toward similar goals which were focussed around centralised mobilisation in specific geographic locations  (p. 751; see also Leong, Pan, Bahri, & Fauzi, 2019). Today, activism is very different, actors can locate and share information in a much easier way through social media networks. The flow of information stays consistent over time and space which allows communities to assemble quickly, through continuous cycles of dissemination and reaction (boyd, 2010; Papacharissi & de Fatima Oliviera, 2012). The communities continue to grow as this process repeats itself, bringing together and mobilising users from all over the world.

In order to fully appreciate how and why Twitter has been so successful in supporting social movements and changing the way society communicates and collaborates online, the platform’s design affordances need to be examined. Affordances are a way of understanding the dynamic between the user and the architecture of a given platform. This perspective helps determine how new media platforms can govern the way users communicate (Boyd, 2011). The key affordances that Twitter provides users with are 140 character tweets, @replies, hashtags and retweet functionality. These affordances provide users with tools that they can use to connect with each other over specific topics, disseminate information and develop groups of resistance. (Oltmann et al., 2020).

Hashtags have become ubiquitous within recent social movements. Online users utilise hashtags in number of different ways. Many use hashtags to create an index of searchable posts about a given topic such as #blacklivesmatter or #metoo, whilst other users use them to synthesise and group ideas together (Ince et al., 2017). Twitter’s hashtag affordance is an indexing mode that people use to create a semantic network of information which others can sort through and identify what they would like to communicate and collaborate on. This kind of planetary communicative power that Twitter embodies has totally changed the way society shares information with one another.

The power of Twitter’s hashtags to mobilise the community and spark social change was shown in 2017 when actor Alyssa Milano tweeted, asking followers to write ‘me too’ as a reply to her tweet if they had ever been sexually assaulted. This was in response to sexual assault allegations against film producer Harvey Weinstein at the time. The following morning, the tweet attracted over 55,000 responses and began trending on the platform (Sayej, 2017). Twenty-four hours on the hashtag was recorded being used across many other web platforms, including Facebook where it was cited in over 12 million posts using the hashtag (CBS, 2017). This is an example of how the hashtag feature within Twitter enabled account holders to mobilise through visibility, spreadability and search ability, which resulted in conversation, engaging allies and raising awareness throughout the Me Too movement.

Another major affordance of Twitter that promotes participation in social issues is the retweet feature. In a case study by Mercea (2019) it was found that:

Re-tweeters make visible and transmit insights into collective outcomes and ways of attaining them. They maintain a flow of information that sustains a pool of knowledge about the movement. At the same time, they construct a selective discursive environment where the public voicing of conflict can help clarify the scope of participation in a movement (p.1)

During the Black Lives Matter movement, the retweet was utilised by millions of users to share and re-share images of Michael Browns dead body, expressing their concerns for the welfare of Black Americans (Edrington & Lee, 2018). Here, the retweet function has been used to create a call for action amongst the global community. The success of the Black Lives Matter movement was heavily reliant on Twitter because of this feature and it’s capacity to move people with compelling content.

Thought-leaders and scholars in a particular domain e.g. health of politics can be ‘followed’ and some of the best ones read and review the emerging literature and research on that topic area to make a short (140 character) synopsis of the content and how they rate it - then post the link to the full content piece (Peters et al., 2015). This can save an enormous amount of time and targets reading and staying up to date on issues in an information overloaded world as positive outcome. The downside is it can also reinforce the echo-chamber effect of false or inflammatory information to incite mob action e.g. the Trump presidency use of twitter linked to the mob attack on the White House ("Twitter permanently suspends Trump after U.S. Capitol siege, citing risk of further violence", 2021). Users need to judge the reliability of the source or influencer to avoid being fed mis-information or fake news. Re-tweeting is an affordance that further spreads the information to wider networks so can quickly scale up the community impact of information and hence community sentiment which is a pre-cursor to action – good or bad.

In closing, modern day activism is no longer defined by the logic of collective action that was used to discuss social movements prior to the development of Web 2.0 platforms. Today, social movements are decentralised and not reliant on specific organisations to shape and direct the agenda (Benett & Segerberg, 2012). Activism is now understood as a framework based upon connectivity not collectivity. This has resulted in the practice becoming highly individualised, atomised and able to exist without an organised physical structure (Leong et al., 2019, p. 174.). The expansive networks of platforms such as Twitter, enable the dissemination of information and self motivating sharing of content for the individual.

Twitter is a powerful Web 2.0 platform that is a commonly used tool by society to communicate and organise themselves around issues or social causes. The rhizomatic nature of social networking platforms like Twitter have connected the globe on social issues in ways that would have never been possible with traditional communication mediums. Hashtag movements facilitated by Twitter have highlighted global struggles for racial minorities and affected real change in discourse and social structures. The evidence discussed has highlighted that Twitter is a central node in the current Web 2.0 ecosystem and has introduced new capacity for people to collaborate and communicate through the indexing and sharing of information in ways there not possible prior to the development of Web 2.0.

Bibliography

Arya, H., & Mishra, J. (2012). Oh! Web 2.0, Virtual Reference Service 2.0, Tools & Techniques (II). Journal Of Library & Information Services In Distance Learning, 6(1), 28-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290x.2012.660878

Bennett, W.L., & Segerberg, A. (2012). The logic of connective action. Information, Communication & Society, 15(5), 739-768.

Boyd, d. (2011). Social Network Sites as networked publics: Affordances, dynamics, and implications. In Papacharissi, Z. (Ed.), A networked self: Identity, community, and culture on social network sites (pp. 39–58). New York, NY: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. doi:10.4324/9780203876527

Dan Mercea, & Helton Levy. (2019). Cuing Collective Outcomes on Twitter: A Qualitative Reading of Movement Social Learning (Version pre-publication). International Journal of Communication, 13, 1–23. http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3341610

Edrington, C., & Lee, N. (2018). Tweeting a Social Movement: Black Lives Matter and its use of Twitter to Share Information, Build Community, and Promote Action. The Journal Of Public Interest Communications, 2(2), 289. https://doi.org/10.32473/jpic.v2.i2.p289

Ince, J., Rojas, F., & Davis, C. (2017). The social media response to Black Lives Matter: how Twitter users interact with Black Lives Matter through hashtag use. Ethnic And Racial Studies, 40(11), 1814-1830. https://doi.org/10.1080/01419870.2017.1334931

Leong, C., Pan, S.L., Bahri, S., & Fauzi, A. (2019). Social media empowerment in social movements: Power activation and power accrual in digital activism. European Journal of Information Systems, 28(2), 173-204.

Manikonda, L., Beigi, G., Liu, H., & Kambhampati, S. (2018). Twitter for sparking a movement, Reddit for sharing the moment: #Metoo through the lens of social media. ArXiv Preprint, 1–7

Peters, M., Uible, E., & Chisolm, M. (2015). A Twitter Education: Why Psychiatrists Should Tweet. Current Psychiatry Reports, 17(12). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11920-015-0635-4

Oltmann, S., Cooper, T., & Proferes, N. (2020). How Twitter's affordances empower dissent and information dissemination: An exploratory study of the rogue and alt government agency Twitter accounts. Government Information Quarterly, 37(3), 101475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2020.101475

Papacharissi, Z., & de Fatima Oliveira, M. (2012). Affective news and networked publics: The rhythms of news storytelling on #Egypt. Journal of Communication, 62(2), 266–282

Sayej, N. (2021). Alyssa Milano on the #MeToo movement: 'We're not going to stand for it any more'. The Guardian. Retrieved 20 April 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/dec/01/alyssa-milano-mee-too-sexual-harassment-abuse.

Shirky, C. (2008). Here comes everybody: How change happens when people come together. London: Penguin

Tremayne, M. (2013). Anatomy of Protest in the Digital Era: A Network Analysis ofTwitterand Occupy Wall Street. Social Movement Studies, 13(1), 110-126. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2013.830969

Twitter permanently suspends Trump after U.S. Capitol siege, citing risk of further violence. The Conversation. (2021). Retrieved 27 April 2021, from https://theconversation.com/twitter-permanently-suspends-trump-after-u-s-capitol-siege-citing-risk-of-further-violence-152924.

Twitter: most users by country | Statista. Statista. (2021). Retrieved 20 April 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/242606/number-of-active-twitter-users-in-selected-countries/.

Weller, K., Bruns, A., Burgess, J., Mahrt, M., & Puschmann, C. (Eds.). (2013). Twitter and society. ProQuest Ebook Central http://ebookcentral.proquest.com

[tweetcando]

twitter likes should we know?

Twitter's origins lie in a "daylong brainstorming session" held by board members of the podcasting company Odeo. Jack Dorsey, then an undergraduate student at New York University, introduced the idea of an individual using an SMS service to communicate with a small group.[25][26] The original project code name for the service was twttr, an idea that Williams later ascribed to Noah Glass,[27] inspired by Flickr and the five-character length of American SMS short codes. The decision was also partly due to the fact that the domain twitter.com was already in use, and it was six months after the launch of twttr that the crew purchased the domain and changed the name of the service to Twitter.[28] The developers initially considered "10958" as a short code, but later changed it to "40404" for "ease of use and memorability".[29] Work on the project started on March 21, 2006, when Dorsey published the first Twitter message at 9:50 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST): "just setting up my twttr".[4] Dorsey has explained the origin of the "Twitter" title:

s Angeles Lakers' victory in the 2010 NBA Finals on June 17,[48] and then again at the close of Japan's victory over Denmark in the World Cup when users published 3,283 tweets per second.[49] The record was set again during the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup Final between Japan and the United States, when 7,196 tweets per second were published.[50] When American singer Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009, Twitter servers crashed after users were updating their status to include the words "Michael Jackson" at a rate of 100,000 tweets per hour.[51] The current record as of August 3, 2013 was set in Japan, with 143,199 tweets per second during a television screening of the movie Castle in the Sky[52] (beating the previous record of 33,388, also set by Japan for the television screening of the same movie).[53]

Twitter acquired application developer Atebits on April 11, 2010. Atebits had developed the Apple Design Award-winning Twitter client Tweetie for the Mac and iPhone. The application, now called "Twitter" and distributed free of charge, is the official Twitter client for the iPhone, iPad and Mac.[54]

From September through October 2010, the company began rolling out "New Twitter", an entirely revamped edition of twitter.com. Changes included the ability to see pictures and videos without leaving Twitter itself by clicking on individual tweets which contain links to images and clips from a variety of supported websites including YouTube and Flickr, and a complete overhaul of the interface, which shifted links such as '@mentions' and 'Retweets' above the Twitter stream, while 'Messages' and 'Log Out' became accessible via a black bar at the very top of twitter.com. As of November 1, 2010, the company confirmed that the "New Twitter experience" had been rolled out to all users. In 2019, Twitter was announced to be the 10th most downloaded mobile app of the decade, from 2010 to 2019.[55]

2011–2014 On April 5, 2011, Twitter tested a new homepage and phased out the "Old Twitter".[56] However, a glitch came about after the page was launched, so the previous "retro" homepage was still in use until the issues were resolved; the new homepage was reintroduced on April 20.[57][58] On December 8, 2011, Twitter overhauled its website once more to feature the "Fly" design, which the service says is easier for new users to follow and promotes advertising. In addition to the Home tab, the Connect and Discover tabs were introduced along with a redesigned profile and timeline of Tweets. The site's layout has been compared to that of Facebook.[59][60] On February 21, 2012, it was announced that Twitter and Yandex agreed to a partnership. Yandex, a Russian search engine, finds value within the partnership due to Twitter's real time news feeds. Twitter's director of business development explained that it is important to have Twitter content where Twitter users go.[61] On March 21, 2012, Twitter celebrated its sixth birthday while also announcing that it had 140 million users and 340 million tweets per day. The number of users was up 40% from their September 2011 number, which was said to have been at 100 million at the time.[62]

In April 2012, Twitter announced that it was opening an office in Detroit, with the aim of working with automotive brands and advertising agencies.[63] Twitter also expanded its office in Dublin.[64] On June 5, 2012, a modified logo was unveiled through the company blog, removing the text to showcase the slightly redesigned bird as the sole symbol of Twitter.[65][66] On October 5, 2012, Twitter acquired a video clip company called Vine that launched in January 2013.[67][68] Twitter released Vine as a standalone app that allows users to create and share six-second looping video clips on January 24, 2013. Vine videos shared on Twitter are visible directly in users' Twitter feeds.[69] Due to an influx of inappropriate content, it is now rated 17+ in Apple's[needs update][70] app store.[71] On December 18, 2012, Twitter announced it had surpassed 200 million monthly active users. Twitter hit 100 million monthly active users in September 2011.[72]

On January 28, 2013, Twitter acquired Crashlytics in order to build out its mobile developer products.[73]

On April 18, 2013, Twitter launched a music app called Twitter Music for the iPhone.[74] On August 28, 2013, Twitter acquired Trendrr,[75] followed by the acquisition of MoPub on September 9, 2013.[76] As of September 2013, the company's data showed that 200 million users sent over 400 million tweets daily, with nearly 60% of tweets sent from mobile devices.[77] On June 4, 2014, Twitter announced that it would acquire Namo Media, a technology firm specializing in "native advertising" for mobile devices.[78] On June 19, 2014, Twitter announced that it had reached an undisclosed deal to buy SnappyTV, a service that helps edit and share video from television broadcasts.[79][80] The company was helping broadcasters and rights holders to share video content bo

...we came across the word 'twitter', and it was just perfect. The definition was 'a short burst of inconsequential information,' and 'chirps from birds'. And that's exactly what the product was.[30]

The first Twitter prototype, developed by Dorsey and contractor Florian Weber, was used as an internal service for Odeo employees.[31] The full version was introduced publicly on July 15, 2006.[13] In October 2006, Biz Stone, Evan Williams, Dorsey, and other members of Odeo formed Obvious Corporation and acquired Odeo, together with its assets — including Odeo.com and Twitter.com — from the investors and shareholders.[32] Williams fired Glass, who was silent about his part in Twitter's startup until 2011.[33] Twitter spun off into its own company in April 2007.[34] Williams provided insight into the ambiguity that defined this early period in a 2013 interview:

With Twitter, it wasn't clear what it was. They called it a social network, they called it microblogging, but it was hard to define, because it didn't replace anything. There was this path of discovery with something like that, where over time you figure out what it is. Twitter actually changed from what we thought it was in the beginning, which we described as status updates and a social utility. It is that, in part, but the insight we eventually came to was Twitter was really more of an information network than it is a social network.[35]

The tipping point for Twitter's popularity was the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference. During the event, Twitter usage increased from 20,000 tweets per day to 60,000.[36][37] "The Twitter people cleverly placed two 60-inch plasma screens in the conference hallways, exclusively streaming Twitter messages," remarked Newsweek's Steven Levy. "Hundreds of conference-goers kept tabs on each other via constant twitters. Panelists and speakers mentioned the service, and the bloggers in attendance touted it."[38] Reaction at the conference was highly positive. Blogger Scott Beale said that Twitter was "absolutely ruling" SXSWi. Social software researcher danah boyd said Twitter was "owning" the conference.[39] Twitter staff received the festival's Web Award prize with the remark "we'd like to thank you in 140 characters or less. And we just did!"[40]

The first unassisted off-Earth Twitter message was posted from the International Space Station by NASA astronaut T. J. Creamer on January 22, 2010.[41] By late November 2010, an average of a dozen updates per day were posted on the astronauts' communal account, @NASA_Astronauts. NASA has also hosted over 25 "tweetups", events that provide guests with VIP access to NASA facilities and speakers with the goal of leveraging participants' social networks to further the outreach goals of NASA. In August 2010, the company appointed Adam Bain from News Corp.'s Fox Audience Network as president of revenue.[42]

twitter followers buy

2007–2010 The company experienced rapid initial growth. It had 400,000 tweets posted per quarter in 2007. This grew to 100 million tweets posted per quarter in 2008. In February 2010, Twitter users were sending 50 million tweets per day.[43] By March 2010, the company recorded over 70,000 registered applications.[44] As of June 2010, about 65 million tweets were posted each day, equaling about 750 tweets sent each second, according to Twitter.[45] As of March 2011, that was about 140 million tweets posted daily.[46] As noted on Compete.com, Twitter moved up to the third-highest-ranking social networking site in January 2009 from its previous rank of twenty-second.[47]

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and CEO of Twitter, in 2009 Twitter's usage spikes during prominent events. For example, a record was set during the 2010 FIFA World Cup when fans wrote 2,940 tweets per second in the thirty-second period after Japan scored against Cameroon on June 14. The record was broken again when 3,085 tweets per second were posted after the Lo

[gdc2k19]

How to use social media platforms to reach different demographics?

YouTube

You may be wondering why YouTube is first on the list.

The video sharing platform is actually the most used social media platform among Americans.

According to industry research, nearly three quarters of American adults use YouTube on a regular basis.

Beyond the U.S., YouTube is available in over 70 languages in nearly 100 countries, so its audience is hugely diverse.

With YouTube you have the ability to reach the masses and target specific groups within its large reach.

Facebook

Another platform that has a very diverse group of users is Facebook.

With over 2 billion daily active users, Facebook has a lot of horsepower to get your message out.

Demographics show that the most loyal Facebook users are adults 18+ and seniors.

Where Facebook shines is its ability to let you write longer posts and pair them with images and videos that entice people to share.

I utilize our company Facebook pages to share content, host contests, and promote engagement.

Since 70% of consumers feel more connected to brand when its CEO is active on social media, I make an effort to interact personally with clients and customers on my own page as well.

Instagram

The third most popular platform after YouTube and Facebook is Instagram.

This social network centers around sharing pictures and videos and is the “it” place online for teens and young adults to interact, so if you’re looking to target the millennial audience this is the place to be.

Your business can utilize Instagram stories, hashtags, and actively interact with your audience to gain brand awareness and traction.

What’s great about Instagram is it doubles as a portfolio.

Everything you post is added to your profile in a collage style for visitors to browse through.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn was designed as a space for business professionals to network and interact on a regular basis.

What sets it apart from the other platforms is most users have attained some form of higher education.

From sharing business articles to posting job opportunities, LinkedIn is the best place to target people in the professional world.

Twitter

Twitter is a platform popular among teens and young adults that limits the amount of characters each post can contain.

Many celebrities and large businesses use it as a place to interact with their followers in a more relatable environment.

If you’re wanting to share lengthy articles, Twitter isn’t going to be best for you, but where it does stand out is allowing you to interact directly with your audience to increase engagement.

You can tag specific people in tweets, get noticed by retweeting and liking specific content, and reply to consumers directly.

Snapchat

For business purposes, Snapchat could be a hit or miss.

Wildly popular among teens and those who have recently grown into young adults, Snapchat is a service that lets you send friends videos or messages that disappear after viewing.

Like other social platforms, users can follow celebrities and businesses hoping to gain a more behind-the-scenes look.

If appealing to young people and becoming more relatable is your goal, Snapchat could be a good fit for you.

Developing a social media strategy takes time.

If you think you already know what’s best suited for you, think again.

Social platforms continuously update to compete with new and existing competitors, so just because one doesn’t work for you now doesn’t mean it won’t in the future.

Knowing how to use social media to reach different demographics is a skill everyone should invest their time in to learn.

Figure out exactly who your target audience is as soon as possible, then build out your social media strategy accordingly.

[lastsonlost]

A step-by-step handbook for destroying a man's life with lie.

INTRODUCTION

A s women, we have been oppressed by men's physical advantages over us since the beginning of humankind.

But now, in today's modern societies, the tables are finally turning.

Especially with the advent of the Internet and social media, and the economy's transition from

manufacturing to information, women are leveraging their natural advantages (e.g., social skills, emotional intelligence, and communication) to gain power.

You've probably utilized these advantages to some degree already, in one form or another. For example, as a child in school, I recall the boys using physical strength and aggression (e.g., punching) to bully girls. That was their power. Girls, on the other hand, used communication and accusation (e.g., spreading rumors) to undermine boys. This is our power!

The purpose of this handbook is to be a resource:

a collection of tools and techniques that have proven

powerful in women's struggle against patriarchy. I did not invent these methods; I only describe them. Be advised, however, that the methods outlined in this handbook were chosen for their utility, or their ability to achieve results, rather than for their legal or ethical merit. In other words, the information presented herein does not purport to be legally or ethically sound. What is considered to be "right" or "legal" often changes with time, tl1e prevailing culture, and the evolution of law.

This handbook is a work of free speech. How the content is used, misused, or not used is at the sole discretion of the reader, and I (as the author) retain no responsibility. Similarly, I'm publishing this book under the pseudonym of Angela Confidential to protect from backlash.

Enjoy!

Just a little sample of what's in this book.........

CHAPTER 1

THE DAMN FUNDAMENTALS

Let's begin with some introductions. We have three key friends, or fundamentals, that make it possible to destroy a man now (DAMN). To DAMN well, it's important to know them well.

Our first ally is Allison Allegation. Allegation an be so simple, effective, and easy to employ that it's elegant. An allegation is a claim, usually without proof, that someone has done something illegal or wrong. A claim, at minimum, requires nothing more than an assertion.

For example, if I yell from a roof top that the world is flat, I have successfully made a claim. Similarly, identifying wrongdoing requires only observation, recollection, or a minimal amount of imagination. From lying to murder, any behavior that you've heard of, seen, experienced, or can think of that violates an ethical or a legal standard can suffice for an allegation.

However, it's the last part of what constitutes an allegation that makes it uniquely useful: no evidence is required.

This independence from proof allows you to make an allegation about any man doing anything without being encumbered by a need for facts.

But how can something as intangible as the spoken word, without evidence, have enough merit or power to DAMN? Admittedly, if left completely on her own, Allison Allegation has relatively little power.

That's where our other two friends, Mary Media and Arthur Authority, assist.

Mary Media, our second ally, encompasses just about any means of communication. Media can be as elementary as whispers of gossip, although nowadays the term most often refers to mass communication platforms such as television, the Internet, or mainstream media networks. Of course, it also includes social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, which you will soon see are especially well suited to DAMN.

So how does Mary Media help Allison Allegation?

Well, interestingly, they help each other. You've probably heard the philosophical question, "If a tree falls in the woods, and no one hears it, did it make a sound?"

Although the answer to that question is still debated, it's certain that if an allegation is made and no one knows about it, it has no power. Fortunately, however, the opposite is also true:

the more people who know about an allegation, the more powerful it becomes.

Thankfully for Allison Allegation and for our purposes, the modern mainstream media excel at spreading information far and wide. They do it to make money-lots of money-from advertisers. Yet advertisers need more than just a way to reach people; they also need a way to get people to pay attention to their advertisements (and ultimately buy products).

This is where media content comes in. Media content can be videos, website posts, "breaking news," and so on anything that garners interest. And it's no secret that scandal attracts people's interest especially well. "Sex sells," as the saying goes, and so does violence, injustice, misconduct, and anything else outrageous. That's why scandalous content in mainstream media has increased over the years. That's also why Mary Media helps Allison Allegation: scandalous allegations attract people's interest, interested people watch advertisements, advertisements sell products, and it all makes Mary Media money.

However, fascinatingly, while the mainstream media profit from proliferating allegations, they bear little responsibility for doing it! Apparently, as long as the media mention that the scandal is an "allegation," they are relatively safe from legal repercussions.

This is because, in free-speech societies, people can voice opinions and unsubstantiated claims. Further, the media can always attest that they are not making the allegation; rather, they are just reporting it.

But, in truth, the media actually do help "make" the allegation by how they report it. You probably know that how you say something can convey greater meaning than what you say. For example, I could say, "I'm happy," but ifl scream it angrily, people are much more likely to believe I'm upset. With that in mind, try listening carefully to how mainstream media say the word "allegation" when reporting a story. Either they say it in a positive tone, as though it's something good, or they say it quickly, as though it's insignificant. They also use the word "allegation" or "alleged" instead of using terms such as "unsubstantiated claim" or "accusation without proof" to deemphasize that evidence is lacking. Even more cleverly, after the media make an allegation popular by broadcasting it far and wide, they then circle back later and broadcast how "so many" people are talking about it.

Further, they support people who make allegations by promoting them as courageous for "coming forward." These tactics get even more people interested and encourage others to make similar claims. Finally, the media then cite the increasing number of allegations and growing public outrage (that they helped create) as being "too numerous to be ignored" or as "evidence" of truth.

In a court of law, a man is considered innocent until proven guilty, but in the court of media-managed public opinion, a man "serially accused" of a scandal is guilty until proven innocent. In this way, an allegation does not require evidence to DAMN because, through media manipulation, it becomes its own evidence.

Thousands-even millions-of people can become organized against one man.

Likewise, the "evidence" and public perception of guilt created by Allison Allegation and Mary Media's synergy can become so prominent and powerful that our third ally, Arthur Authority, has a duty to step in.

And it's authority that really helps us put the "destroy" in DAMN!

Authority is defined as any person or organization that has the power to control, direct, punish, and so on, which is exactly the kind of power we need to DAMN. Examples include police, judges, bosses, human resource departments, boards of directors, teachers, professors, university councils, licensing and regulatory agencies, and so on. Ultimately, it's authority that plays the final role in condemning a man.

So what do we need to know about authority to DAMN? Well, to begin, it's important to understand that Arthur Authority is an artifact of patriarchy and chivalry. As "Daddy Knight," he takes pride in his role as guardian and savior, especially of the weak, mistreated, violated, and so on.

He strives to be the hero who saves the damsel in distress. In other words, authority caters to victims, and nothing gets Arthur Authority's attention more than a call to action to save victims.

To be considered a victim, or a damsel in distress, authority first needs to perceive you as weak. Surprisingly, a great illustration of this is how authorities usually relate to men in distress. Can you imagine what typically happens when a man walks into a police precinct and requests a restraining order against a woman?

Officers roll their eyes, and immediate dis-

belief ensues. T his is because they simply do not perceive a man to be weaker than a woman, and for that reason, they are unwilling to provide assistance. In contrast, in patriarchal societies, women are perceived as weak by default, and therefore deserving of help and protection in the eyes of authorities.

Second, for the weak to attain victim status, authorities also need to perceive them as harmed or violated.

In other words, authorities require a credible claim that a legal or an ethical standard has been broken in order to take action (because it's their duty to enforce standards).

As we now know, we can look to Allison Allegation to make the claim and to Mary Media to make it credible. Nevertheless, it's still important to emphasize that authority is most likely to help us DAMN in instances that entail an apparent violation of specific laws or codes of conduct-the more egregious, the better.

Examples are numerous, including rape, sexual harassment, discrimination, physical assault, child abuse, substance abuse, and dishonesty in its many forms (e.g., lying, cheating, fraud, etc.).

Also-and this works surprisingly well-keep in mind that with the media's help, allegations against authorities can be used to motivate authority to take action!

Just about any widespread allegation about an authority being remiss, ineffectual, or negligent in its "guardian and savior" role will suffice. For instance, a televised allegation about a company ignoring sexual harassment in the workplace is enough to motivate the company's human resources department to hunt the accused man and anyone who failed to report his scandalous behavior to HR!

Once authorities decree that there is a victim of a violation, they can take punitive actions against the perpetrator (i.e., "destroy" a man).

Punitive actions usually entail substantial loss, such as termination of employment/loss of income, loss of education or certification (e.g., dismissal from school or revocation of credentials), loss of social status or good reputation (e.g., public shame and humiliation), loss of financial savings (e.g., payment for legal settlements), and loss of freedom (e.g., imprisonment). In addition, the combined actions of Allison Allegation, Mary Media, and Arthur Authority generally result in ongoing loss or the loss of future opportunities. In this way, a man is truly damned.

With a smeared reputation or record of alleged misconduct, no one will want to be associated with him, no one will want to employ him, no one will want to help him, and no one will even believe him.

Further, the subsequent long-term stress frequently results in loss of physical and mental health.

When I say these methods can destroy a man, I genuinely mean it.

Moreover, these methods actually do destroy men, even powerful ones. There is no better testimony to how effective Allison Allegation, Mary Media, and Arthur Authority can be than the growing number of men they've destroyed (regardless of allegations being true or false).

Complete source

[lifely1]

Top 10 Social Media Platforms in the World

If we were asked the question, what are the most popular social media platforms in the world? Most would guess facebook, twitter, youtube etc. But there are dozens of other sociial media platforms in the world, out of which we're listing the top 10 elites based on monthly active users.

1. Facebook

I think we all know the nmeber one pick in this list would be Facebook. Created in 2004, Facebook is the brain child of Mark Zuckerberg and his fellow students. It currently reigns over all other social media sites with a mind blowing 2.23 billion monthly users. Around 65 million businesses use Facebook and 6 million advertisers actively promote their business. It's easy to get started on Facebook because all content format works great on Facebook — text, images, videos, live videos, and stories, which makes it perfect for personal and commercial use.

2. Youtube

Currently owned by Google, Youtube was founded in 2005. It is the biggest video sharing platform in the world with 1.9 billion monthly active users. Around one billion hours of videos are watched on Youtube everyday. It is also the second biggest search engine after Google. Millions of businesses and advertises use Youtube to operate their commercial endeavors.

3. Whatsapp

Whatsapp is a messaging app where users can communicate via text, images, documents, make voice and video calls. It was launched in 2009 and was bought by Facebook in 2014. Over 1.6 billion active users from over 180 countries use Whatsapp where 100 million voice calls and 65 billion messages are sent everyday, making it the third most used social media platform in the world.

4. Messenger

Messenger was initially a built in messaging feature within Facebook. But it was made into a standalone app by by Facebook since 2011. Yes, another top social media platform owned by Facebook. Messenger has been given many features and now we can advertise, create chatbots, send newsletters and more. These features have given us a myriad of new ways to engage and connect with each other.

5. WeChat

Previously knows as Weixin, WeChat was founded in 2011. Just like Whatsapp and Messenger, WeChat has evolved from a messaging app to an all in social platform. Unlike our earlier entries, WeChat is almost exclusively used in China. However because of Chinas large population and WeChats huge popularity there, it has made the 5th place in top social media platforms. There are 1.06 billion monthly users, and 902 million of them are active on a daily basis.

6. Instagram

The last platform currently owned by Facebook in this list, Instagram was launched in 2010. It was an instant hit, gathering 100,000 users in only a week which increased to one million in the span of two months. It has 1 billion monthly active users today. It is primarily a photo sharing app where we can also share videos, stories, live videos and messages. There are 95 million new posts everyday and users like 4.2 billion posts everyday.

7. QQ

QQ is another instant messaging platform that is popular among among young Chinese people. It was launched in 2014 and currently boasts 861 million monthly active users. Besides messaging, it allows users to watch movies, play games, blog, shop online and make payments.

8. Tumblr

Launched in 2007, Tumblr is a social networking and microblogging site. It has 642 million monthly users that share texts, photos, videos, audios, links and more. 59 million posts are made everyday. On other sites, people usually like to share quick bits of information in the form of images and text. But many people use Tumblr as a blog and publish in-depth posts.

9. Qzone

Another China based socia platform, Qzone was created in 2005 by Chinese company Tencent. It brings in 632 million users per month. Qzone operates similar to Facebook, where users can upload multimedia, write blogs, play games, and decorate their own virtual spaces. It is different from WeChat and QQ, which are almost exclusively messaging services.

10. Tik Tok

Tik Tok (Douyin in China) was known as musical.ly before it was rebranded as Tik Tok in 2016, making it one of the newer platforms. It is a music video sharing app where users can record videos of up to 60 seconds, add effects and music and upload them. It has 500 million active users where its largest audience are in Asia. There are around 13 million new videos uploaded everyday.

That was the top 10 social media platforms in terms of monthly active users. Which ones have you used and which ones are your favorites?

[itsrishikasinghthings]

Role of social media in the Fashion Industry

Acknowledgment

It is always a pleasure to thank all who have been a part of my capstone project journey. This project was a part of my specialization course which gave me a wonderful opportunity to interact with the people of the fashion industry and other experts.

Firstly, I would like to express my gratitude to my parents who always encouraged me to take risks in life and are the pillars of my strength. Without their encouragement I may not have been able to complete this project.

Secondly, I would like to convey my deepest thanks to Bennett University and my mentor Prof. Sumita Vaid Dixit for providing invaluable guidance, suggestions throughout the project, and by helping me in putting this project together.

Thirdly, a big thank you to fashion experts Mr.Rahul Toppo from Chennai, Ms. Kriti Chawla fashion stylist from Popexo, NIFT graduate Prof Pratik Kumar Singh, Prof. Neelam and Kashish from Ranchi who is an aspiring fashion designer. Their opinions and insights helped me get a better perspective of the fashion industry.

In the end, I would like to thank all those who I have not been able to name in the acknowledgement but they have played an important role in my project. Personally, the opportunity to write this capstone project is a big milestone in my career development. I hope I'm able to get another opportunity to interact with all of you again.

Sincerely,

Rishika Singh

LA17MC061

Introduction

 India's fashion industry is currently estimated at $70 billion, of which up to $9 billion is already digitally influenced, as in, shoppers are searching, browsing, and buying stuff online. Globally, and in India, fashion is the third most-followed topic among Instagram users after (movies and music).

Kashish from Ranchi who is aspiring in Fashion designing has said that being in the fashion industry and neglecting social media can be a great loss for anyone's career. "Social media plays a very important role, helps in learning the new trends, and motivates us to create good content, " she said. 

Over the past few years, social media and digital media have drastically changed how people consume the content or any sort of news, especially in the fashion industry. Both fashion blogs and social media have recently made an elitist industry more available and relatable to regular customers. Social media has created an open channel of communication between organizations and citizens. Nowadays, content is expended online and individuals are not only reading content, but they are giving their inputs through comments and social media. Numerous sorts of fashion blogs overseen by regular people are giving customers an interior look into what utilized to be an elite, fashion-experts-only industry.

Rahul Toppo, a fashion designer from Chennai said, “Social media platforms play an important role in fashion today, we can showcase our collection, content, designs and we can connect and reach to many people”. Some of the young designers like Amit Aggarwal, Dhruv Kapoor, and many more are tapping on social media mainly active on Instagram.

CHAPTER 1

Why are the fashion designers tapping in the world of social media?

In 2012, Facebook spent $1 billion to acquire what was then just a photo-sharing app. Over the years, however, Instagram has not only added a slew of features that attracts more users but also become a marketing and selling platform for business.

Everyone has been obsessing over the old designers like Manish Malhotra, Sanjay Garg, Rohit Bal, and Sabya Sacchi for forever now. Even though they’re evergreen designers in India who all the people in the country wish to wear and admire. The designs and work of these legendaries have always inspired others to work more and more and know the audience wants. The Indian customers are now becoming modernized and more open to the labels from such upcoming Indian fashion designers.

Preeti Verma, founder of an Indie label Runaway Bicycle, managed to go courtesy Instagram. Verna says keeping her Instagram buzzy and updated is more work than managing the website of fashion.“We put a great deal of thinking into our Instagram feed. We have a writer and an art director who manage the quality of content. We shoot our products specifically for the app. We push out one post every day, and it certainly is a more live medium to maintain, unlike our website,” she said.

Pratik Kumar, a professor of Fashion Designing has stated, “I’m in this fashion industry for around 10 years now and can say that in the early time, designers lacked the internet, the age of information technology but now everything is digitized and even the industry is turning into robotics.”

Manish Malhotra talks of fashion in the age of Instagram, “Brand experience today is just a click away. Digital media has revolutionized a hyper form of window shopping. Earlier, the only people privy to what I was showcasing were those who attended the show or came across it in the newspapers the next day. Today, everyone has a front-row seat to my shows via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Livestream.”

Caption: The instagram account of Manish Malhotra (Source: Instagram)

What advantages do Social media have?

Fashion brands on social media, it is a modern platform for interaction between brand and customer. Before the arrival of the internet, all the programs for launching any design or any clothes or any brands were done through glossy magazines, TV, etc. And social media is ruling many facets of businesses and their impact on their lives is enormous.

It gives low to zero overhead cost

There’ll be no need for expensive expenditures any more in the digital area. Creating and implementing top social media campaigns and strategies are free and cost-effective. Signing up and making a profile on popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc is completely free.

It increases customer engagement and loyalty

 People spend a lot of time on social media, it's not a tough task to attract new consumers through social media. Social media allows us to interact with recent customers and old customers, but what keeps them loyal? It is the content that the user posts on their social media platforms. 

It reinforces brand awareness and credibility

Social media is the best platform to showcase the fashion studio and it acts as the best medium for brand recognition. Enhance the brand’s awareness and increase the following in all social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest by presenting all the designer collections.

Social networks impact buying decisions

The vast majority of the individuals look for designing trends and latest fashions and are aware of them through social networks only. It acts as a word of mouth so any matter can spread in no time. The business pages' preferences, shares, remarks, and so forth will impact and be an immense effect on the clients' buying choices.

Demographic targeting

Millennia is the targeted customer for the fashion industry and social media could be a customized stage where fashion retailers can target the audience demographics wise such as sex, age, area, hashtags, etc. Other than, it is exceptionally simple to track client behavior patterns online.

It is an effective marketing tool

Whether anyone wants to get high traffic, brand loyalty; provide better customer service; increase sales volume, social media acts as a marketing tool for the fashion and apparel industry.

In the survey of 110 consumers, 82.7% agree that social media is the biggest medium from which they get influenced.

Kashish from Ranchi who is aspiring in Fashion designing stated, “I have just started my journey and Instagram is really helpful because it helps me in reaching more and more people and I can create a good gallery by posting pictures and videos. I am also learning from other designers as well as knowing  the latest trends.”

Caption: Kashish trying to engage with the audience by posting her designs on Instagram (source: Instagram)

The best media to target people for promoting various designs and labels on this Pratik Kumar has mentioned, “We can use any media whether its Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest or twitter but it all depends on the targeted consumers. For example, if we target the age group of 15-25 then they’ll be mostly on Instagram but if we target the age group of 35- 50 they’ll be mostly on Facebook. So the use of media depends on the targeted consumer. ”

Neelam Patel from Ghaziabad who is a client in fashion designing and also a professor. She says, “I won’t prefer to promote as I am not a designer but being a client I would prefer Pinterest as they cater a large segment under one roof. I don’t have to like and follow the pages for what I want but by just one keyword I will type and find lots of options related.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNaZgCYzkM&feature=youtu.be

Caption: Kriti Chawla currently working in Popexo as Fashion stylist has expressed her views on the importance of social media in Fashion industry.

Social media has transformed the shopping process. From research to brand interaction to promoting the designs to actual purchasing processes, the entire situation has seen significant changes.

CHAPTER 2

The Impact of fashion industry on people and on market

Success story of Kresha Bajaj Zaverias a famous fashion designer

Kresha Bajaj Zaveri, an Indian Fashion designer was born in Mumbai, India on March 7, 1988. Kresha has studied fashion from London College of Fashion, Parsons New York, Parsons Paris, FIDM Los Angeles, and now try to bring all that knowledge to the streets of India. Fashion designer, influencer, and hairess whose clothing line Koesch and Haute taste have won her commercial success and a huge following on social media. She has over 168,000 followers on Instagram, and her stories on Instagram and her posts encouraged and gathered the attention of fashion publications like Elle Magazine. Her designs have been showcased in the Lakme Fashion Week 2014.

Koesch originally started as a website in 2013 and specializes in bespoke western and bridal women wear. She’s famous for what is called her “LOVE STORY LEHENGAS” where they map out the couple’s journey on the garment bringing alive their love story.

Caption: Kresha Bajaj Zaveri (source: Instagram)

In her blog, Kresha has shared her experience with social media for her career and she thinks that luxury and social don’t go hand in hand. “Social media platforms, and in my case Instagram specifically, being an extremely visual platform is the perfect tool to create an online presence for Krésha Bajaj, the brand”, says Kresha. Kresha believes to post the original content, ensuring that it is attractive enough for people to gush over it.

On social media, the feel, the look, the textures of the fabric will be missing. Not only on social media but no online shopping websites or apps can give that feel or the emotion of the fabric or the material of the cloth which is given in the stores or the showroom of these clothes. As Kresha’s store is only in Mumbai and she says, “it is important for us to help an online viewer feel that they are in actual space while browsing through our online posts.”

Kresha wants her consumer to believe in their imaginary world of dresses of their choices and on this she said, “For us, we want to use Instagram as a look book of a wonderland that people enter through their phone, but feel the need to come to explore in person. ”

Only posting good content, and promoting designs are not enough. According to Kresha, to gain more and more consumers and their attention the important thing is to engage with the audience, answering their questions and giving them as much information as necessary. Having a beautiful page is irrelevant if it doesn’t garner the right kind of attention and encourages conversation.

Caption: Kresha Bajaj promoting her brand by posting her designs and modals on social media (source: Instagram)

Marketing of fashion in the market in this decade

In this modern era of cut-throat competition, it is important to take care of every aspect related to marketing in the fashion world. The word media indicates the meaning of the main source of communication, these can be in the form of writing, images, visuals with narrations, or clips. Now, talking about the media there are many mediums from which the message of the designer or any influencer can be sent to their consumers and can attract more and more audiences. 

Mediums like radio, television, newspaper, banners, billboards, websites, magazines, social media, or fashion show events like these. In this passage of time fashion has made its place in the culture, slowly and steadily people are accepting and following the latest trends and want to know the updates and latest upcoming fashion which is mostly provided by various mediums.

Television has a wide influence on its viewers.it affects not only, the knowledge of the audience but also the attitude towards many things. For example, the desire for the products and their brand preferences have been changed. In general, TV has higher credibility than newspapers, People are most likely to believe in what they see, not what they read. TV as a medium influences the dressing of youths. Audience members tended to make changes in their appearances, value, attitudes, and other characteristics to become more like the admired celebrities.

This data suggests, most of the consumers find their latest trends of fashion which is going on the market from social media then comes to fashion blogs and friends' families and then goes on.

In magazines, more than any other medium, advertisements and editorial content flows together to create an experience. 

Magazines, being the media that attracts the most specialized audience can have a powerful impact on its niche audiences. Vogue, Lucky, W and many more are the most readable fashion magazines. Women are the most targeted for this medium of fashion. For women especially, reading magazines is related to the internalization of societal ideals and self-objectification.

Caption: Priyanka Chopra being featured for the cover page of Vogue India Magazine (Source: Pinterest)

In the Fashion show, in the first era of the fashion industry, designers had to show their new designs to the client through sketches. At that time, fashion designers used fashion dolls which are also known as dummy; this was the only medium to illustrate the new upcoming designs. In the second era of the fashion industry, the fashion dolls or the dummies were replaced by the living mannequin and then the models gave an entry in the fashion industry.

Captions: Soha Ali Khan walking gracefully on the rampwalk (source: pinterest)

Celebrity has backed the fashion industry 

Taking cues from international celebrities, Indian film actors and cricketers are increasingly launching their own clothing and accessories brands to cash in on a category  that industry executives and analytics believe has remained untapped so far in the country. Social media like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter  and more all the inextricable parts of being famous in today’s world.

In the survey of 110 consumers, 85.5% believed that the consumers are influenced by their favorite celebrity. In this survey, most of the consumers were attracted towards lead actors like Shahid Kapoor, Hritik Roshan, Sonam Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and many more.

Chapter 3

Future of the fashion industry 

The year ahead is likely to be challenging. Winds of change are sweeping the fashion industry, and many markets are set to see slower growth and declines in consumer confidence. Indian consumers and their apparel preferences are gradually changing, which in turn is altering the shape and size of the apparel business.

Indian customers and their apparel choices are gradually changing, which in turn is altering the shape and size of the apparel business. The changing demographics and psychographic profile of he Indian customers is today, supported by the apparel market which is moving away from tailor-made clothes to ready-made clothing. In India, people are shifting from rural to urban areas in search of jobs and some to find better education at a continually increasing rate. By 2025, the middle class consumers which will form 48.5 percent of the total targetable consumer base will contribute about 55-60 percent share of the apparel market size.

The increasing access to digital devices and internet is enabling the masses to have online shopping experience irrespective of whether they are living in urban or rural areas. The market growth and continuous shift towards brands will support new ventures, given the strength of the product and a clear growth strategy based on real consumer insights. 

How do the fashion industry is coping with COVID-19 pandemic?

Several apparel makers and fast-moving consumer goods companies had stepped up to produce medical-grade masks as philanthropic acts when Covid-19 struck but now it is apparent that the pandemic is set to alter lifestyles at least some time to come.

“Masks are expected to become a habit over the next few months. We are also working on neem and tulsi treated fabrics for Peter England for a greater degree of wellness,” said Vishak Kumar, CEO of Madura Fashion & Lifestyle. The covid-19 pandemic has created a crisis across all the business barring those of essential commodities. India’s largest fashion body, theFashion Design Council of India (FDCI) cancelled its bi-annual ready to wear fashion week in early March 2020.

Shopaholics, on their part, are keeping their shopping carts ready for delivery once the lockdown for Covid-19 gets over.

Delhi-based fashion designer Manish Tripathi designs khadi face masks to fight with this covid-19 pandemic.“I am preparing these masks for the people who can’t afford to buy masks. Then I will try selling them online and whatever amount is collected will be contributed to the PM-CARES Fund to fight the coronavirus,” he said. In his social media (twitter) account he promoted his idea and social work.

Caption: Manish Tripathi contributing in this covid-19 pandemic (source: Twitter)

“Make your social media more creative. This is the perfect opportunity to redesign your Instagram or declutter your desktop. Tidy up your photo gallery and, most importantly, unburden your Whatsapp media”, says Fashion designer Abhishek Dutta. 

Popular fashion designer Manish Malhotra is known to share his eccentric work across social media platforms and this time he used his social media account to engage his fan following by showing them a throwback of one of the famous fashion shows. In this amid Covid-19 lockdown, the ace fashion designer has shared an unseen picture from his early days in the industry which has taken social media by storm.

In Instagram, he posted a throwback picture of back in the days when he was a model. He also dropped  the sweetest picture featuring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the fashion show and is setting friendship goals.

Caption: Manish Malhotra with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the fashion show #throwback (Source: Instagram)

Since India went into lockdown on 24 March, it seems more and more of the people are turning to social media to consume news and communicate with their friends or to see what is trending whether it is fashion or any other source of entertainment.The first week of the lockdown saw citizens spend more than four hours a day on social media — an 87 percent increase compared to the previous week, as per a poll conducted by Hammerkopf Consumer Survey.he poll conducted on 28 March with 1,300 respondents in New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Chennai found that 75 percent of people spent more time on Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter compared to the previous week, largely to consume news and remain in touch, and that social media usage jumped from 150 minutes per day prior to the lockdown to 280 minutes a day during that first week.

“As everyone knows due to COVID -19 most of the businesses are in the worst situation. The fashion industry is one of those. Stores are closed and all agreements are stopped”, says Rahul Toppo a fashion designer. He also stated, “It will take time to recover  But there is a good advantage for social media as due to lockdown everyone is spending more time in social media like Instagram, Facebook & YouTube, many brand and designer are connected to their followers they are using this time to promote their present &  previous work, as we are also connected to our followers showing illustration, design process all behind the scenes and promoting previous work”.

Conclusion of the project

The world is becoming digital and with the advent of information technology, the ways of communication and work have been revolutionized completely. over the last decade, social media has become an effective marketing tool, it has not only created a new dimension of marketing but also provided many opportunities to the marketers to create brand awareness among consumers. 

Social media is a compilation of online platforms and communication channels that are used to share information, profiles, promotion of any sort of event or designs, or any exhibition.

The fashion industry will get great help through social media to reach a height and can attract more and more consumers.

Bibliography 

This project has been written with the help of multiple articles that have been proven as a credible source. And with the help of survey of 110 consumers which was conducted by the writer.

Chapter 1

Livemint

https://www.livemint.com/Industry/jtjpWRTMUqKRvtT72sX1PJ/Digital-footprint-in-Indias-fashion-market-more-than-double.html

Economic Times

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/software/how-instagram-is-driving-fashion-business/articleshow/62771925.cms?from=mdr

Chapter 2

Lukebox

https://www.luxebook.in/fashion-designer-kresha-bajaj-shares-the-secret-behind-her-brands-massive-social-media-following/

Livemint

https://www.livemint.com/Consumer/uhBCZvMWKcE4vjs6c8ztHL/Celebrities-association-with-fashion-labels-see-a-surge-in-I.html

Chapter 3

Indiaretailing

https://www.indiaretailing.com/2017/06/18/fashion/5-trends-will-define-future-indian-apparel-industry/

Economic times

https://retail.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/apparel-fashion/apparel/covid-19-impact-stylish-face-mask-is-the-new-focal-accessory-of-indias-top-fashion-brands/75639614)

Firstpost

https://www.firstpost.com/health/media-usage-during-covid-19-lockdown-indian-users-flock-to-fb-and-whatsapp-general-news-sites-see-numbers-rise-8242811.html

[savesvtfoe5season]

•••History of the Save Disney Shows campaign••• What is Save Disney Shows?

What is Save Disney Shows? A question and information that I have wanted to give you for a long time and now is a good time to explain where this page and campaign comes from.

On a Disney Wiki website there were several "documents" and information regarding the actions that fans did regarding a series, names and also information about Disney producers but I wanted to go deeper into this looking for maybe some help or information that I would work then I found the information about Save Disney Shows on a link to their page, when I saw and read all that really surprised me was that I help with Kim Possible and the WOY movement, I read everything that cost them and how next to the fandom of the Kim series Possible managed to break the old famous rule of 65 episodes which now allows 4 seasons (renewing like this), since they opened the application, viralize hashtags, share on networks. It was a long investigation, but that was how I could understand ... that there is a way to make Star continue and really work. Here I will summarize a little about what #SaveKimPossible did. The most successful Save Disney Shows campaign was Save Kim Possible. Disney canceled the series after its third season due to its 65-episode rule, but fans wanted more, so they organized the campaign, created a petition, a website "A Day to Save Kim Possible" and conducted electronic campaigns by email. Activists encouraged fans to contact Disney through letters and emails requesting a season 4.

The team that worked at Kim Possible helped and also encouraged fans. Nine months have passed since then of the "final" premiere before Disney gave in and on November 29, 2005, it was announced that Kim Possible would be renewed with a season 4 due to popular demand. Season 4 consisted of 22 episodes and premiered on February 10, 2007. "Once upon a time, Disney canceled Kim Possible due to his rule, but thanks to the efforts of German fans and broadcasters who wanted more episodes, Disney finally was persuaded to ask for a 4 season "It was a fan-led movement to make sure Disney Channel fans aren't ignored. For 20 years, the channel would end most of its programs in 65 episodes. When Disney tried to finish this series, fans backed off and were able to do season 4. Today Save Disney Shows runs or helps organize movements for other DC shows like Lilo & Stich and Shake it Up, Save Disney Shows is a central organization for provide contact information related to Disney and the resources needed to campaign for any Disney Channel program. Now, this was one of the very popular cases, but there is also another and it is the case of the WOY movement another series that fans wanted to continue, the SaveWOY SDS website became an information center for the campaign, providing links to the different fan projects and providing regular updates on progress and events. I also include a countdown timer that counted until the premiere of the new Wander Over Yonder episodes that led to the end. "The End of the Galaxy." The website listed the addresses of Disney executives, what fans can do to help with useful resources and different requests. To raise awareness about the SaveWOY campaign, activists approached Save Disney Shows, which played an important role in the successful SaveKimPossible campaign, asking for help and adding Wander Over Yonder to their Disney programs website that need to be saved. , Save Disney Shows responded that they would help SaveWOY but that they needed campaign leaders to step forward and create a website for the campaign and while they waited for volunteers to create and manage the website, Save Disney Shows created a small site Temporary website for SaveWOY Finally two campaign leaders stepped forward, Orbaljuice and Thefandump.

Together they created the website that was launched on June 5 and both went to work. To attract and gather followers, SaveWOY requests were established almost immediately after the announcement of Craig McCracken of the cancellation of the program on Tumblr. The request on woy from change.org created by Gemma Cummins (Peepsqueak) and Kiddoryder, managed to attract most supporters. After creating the request, the hashtag #SaveWOY was created to accompany and disseminate it through social networks.

The hashtag became popular on the blog website, Tumblr, Twitter, DevianART, YouTube, Facebook, VK and google. A draw of the Wander Over Yonder t-shirt was made on Tumblr to promote the application after it was created. This gave a great boost to the signatures and exceeded the other petitions reaching 5000 signatures in 4 days, the first 5000 supporters of the petition were marked on a map based on the country in which they lived. It served to show Disney that Wander Over Yonder had fans all over the world. Originally, the map showed the full names of supporters, but due to concerns about privacy, the names were shortened to initials. Arriving at 7,000 signatures and the gratitude of the crew, on March 13, 2016, Craig McCracken, meanwhile, tweeted encouraging and wishing good luck to fans to continue voting. On March 24, 2016, the petition reached 10,000 signatures. The petition attracted the attention of Cartoon Brew, who promoted it on his Twitter account and also from the Wander Over Yonder team. The next due milestone of 20,000 signatures was reached on May 30, 2016. The original purpose of the petition was set at 25,000 signatures that reached June 19, 2016. Upon reaching the goal, the list of signatures was sent by email. to the Disney executive. Gary Marsh.

To make sure the request arrived, it was also sent by email to the creator of WOY and the producer and supervising director, Dave Thomas, who then passed it on to Disney. The petition reached 35,000 signatures on August 12, 2016, the petition was officially delivered to Gary Marsh and Marc Buhaj in two separate flash drives on July 22, 2016. The petition is currently addressed to more than 36,000 signatures. The next goal is 50,000. Unfortunately, this program simply stayed there, since they could not get more signatures, but as you can see all these things and more is what I want to use to be able to continue with this series, several years have passed since the rule was changed to 4 seasons right? It would be time for them to renew with a season 5 at DisneyPlus, after this I contacted some of those in the Save Kim Possible and WoY movement who gave me more strategies to achieve it in addition to wishing me good luck. But it's not just what I read, but more strategies to achieve it, after reading everything and finally having a plan, I told the group and decided to make this move through a blog. Currently, Star has been added to DisneyPlus, which increases the hopes of its continuation, with more than 125,000k signatures reaching almost 126,000k. Disney is a channel that must go hand in hand with the public, if many people ask for something, they will be forced to do so because they run the risk of losing a lot, they would not only win with a rating, also with money and more rapprochement with people , Now that you know the whole process that I have come to make this movement, I ask you to please do not stay in the status of WoY, As I mentioned before, we have a good number of signatures but we still need to join, I beg you for this November 19 join us to be able to cause more impact to Disney on the popularity of the series.

And you will wonder, what to do that day? Well then I will proceed to explain the steps to be able to support the movement from now on and make November 19 create something massive!

The first step to support #SaveSVTFOE, you must sign these two requests that are addressed to The Walt Disney Company, Disney Plus and other producers and other channels. The first is so that the platform can allow 5 seasons for each series and thus open the way to achieve our goal. And the second request is for Star to continue, obviously both go hand in hand but we must get a good and large number of signatures reaching almost a million if possible.

Both requests have already been shared through instagram, twitter, facebook, whatssap, amino and now on tumblr but ... we are millions of people! so if together we can share and sign we will achieve our goal. If you have friends, colleagues, close people, you are in groups, share the requests and ask them to sign.

Now that you have signed them. I must clarify a very important point and it is that many ask the creator Daron Nefcy to continue with Star and make her 5 season but she has already clarified that if it were in her hands and it was by decision of her she would do a lot more with the series, movies , books and more seasons but it's Disney's decision ... but maybe not so much Disney's decision since we know that the channel is based on the ratings of the series and the popularity that each fandom gives it, and as explained before the fandom of Kim Possible did everything possible to achieve it, so Daron asks us to continue telling the channels that we love Star because he knows that there are possibilities to achieve it but only we can give them that and we ourselves are the ones who have what we want. Obviously I will pass captures of what she spoke on reddit to verify that it is true.

Go to the next post!➡

#SaveSVTFOE #WeWantMoreStarco #WeWant5SeasonSVTFOE #StarVsTheForcesOfEvil

[ivanpravednyi]

Popular «patriotic» groups in social networks can be supervised by the FSB - SBU officer

The Kremlin’s aim is to undermine, exhaust, bleed and split Ukraine. For this the aggressor country tirelessly and continuously fights with us on all fronts. And literally - fighting in the Donbass, and stealthily, including creating pseudo-patriotic groups in social networks and throwing fake information there, so as to influence the minds of our fellow citizens and incite them to anti-Ukrainian/pro-Russian campaigns.

Of course, the work in the virtual space is in full swing and is paid off. However, their efforts are often undermined by employees of the Security Service of Ukraine.

Anyone can fall into the artful set traps of the Russian special services, said «FACTS» an operational officer of the Department of counterintelligence protection of state interests in the field of information security of the SBU Oleg Samoilenko.

“If the third part conducts such activities correctly and purposefully, it can really bring us to a civil war” – said Oleg.

The SBU officer underlines that one of the most striking examples of such technologies is the activity of a citizen of the Russian Federation, Sergey Zhuk (aka Stepan Mazur, aka Mykola Gaiduk). In February 2017, we exposed him and blocked accounts that he created and administered in social networks: Patriots of Ukraine, Ukrainian Revolution, All on the Maidan, Promotion of the Revolution of Guidance, Maidan-3, We - patriots of Ukraine ”. The total audience of these accounts has reached half a million users.

Well, Zhuk didn’t calm down - he is again fruitfully working on the previous field. We even noted his progress in Ukrainian language. Now in his texts there are no typical errors.

We know almost everything about Sergey Zhuk: his date of birth, place of living in Moscow, his biography, habits, his mobile phone number and more.

He was a social activist – fought against pedophilia, advocated the death penalty for perverts. He is also a skinhead (and twice brought to administrative responsibility, once - for causing serious bodily harm). We suppose that during the rallies and actions he was noticed by the special services of the Russian Federation and recruited.

In 2014-2015, Zhuk was in Donbass. He fought on the side of the fighters of the “DPR”, code name “Moscow”. At that time, he posted in his personal page many photos from Donetsk. He liked to pose with arms in his hands. It is known that he participated in the torture of our prisoners of war - heartbreaking videos were posted on his YouTube channel.

So, returning home after the war, Zhuk was retrained as a fighter in the information front, began to “mow” under the Ukrainian patriot, who was fighting for peace in Ukraine.

It was established that in order to destabilize and aggravate the situation in Ukraine, on the eve of the presidential and parliamentary elections, Zhuk created a new large project - the Ukrainian National Patriot group. It is registered on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Thereby it is represented in the most popular social networks now. And for the distribution of particularly important messages, Zhuk actively uses messengers - Telegram and Viber.

Zhuk created not only the Ukrainian National Patriot group, but also smaller publics - The Radnik of the President of Ukraine (over twenty thousand subscribers), The Verkhovna Rada of the 9th calling (six thousand people), 73% of us (two thousands), “Clown” (about a thousand, the other day the page was blocked), “Nі kapitulyatsії” (already deleted), “Truth about the ATO and about Maidan” (over a thousand people), “UPA March“ Zakhistimo Ukrainsky Zemlyu Land ”(also already deleted).

This group actively writes about actions and rallies that organize real national-patriotic movements. For example, the information about the “No capitulation!” action was posted by Zhuk immediately after it appeared in genuine accounts.

So he has 170 thousand subscribers only on Facebook. These are residents of Kyiv, Kharkov, Dnipro, etc. - from all over Ukraine.

How Russians are gaining an audience to disseminate the information they need?

Recruitment specialists of the Russian security service study the profile of the object in social networks, his photos (according to them you can understand what his financial situation is), everything that he places on his page, then is added to his friends, he actively comments on his remarks. If a person supports the ideology of the so-called Russian world, the task is much simpler.

That’s why, you should learn to verify any information. It's not hard. If it’s a real user, you can always find his photos, some data about him, texts and videos that he publishes, “like” or “super” marks. And when there is only one photo in the account and a couple of replicas, you should immediately beware. If you are invited to a group, find out who is its administrator and carefully study its profile. Now tech support Facebook puts a blue checkmark on the pages of groups. This means that verification has been carried out and the page is genuine (which makes it impossible and significantly reduces the chances of spreading false, distorted and fake information).

You also need to pay attention to how information is dispersed from these fake accounts. If it is full of comments by experts or combatants, it does not hinder to check whether such a unit, or a soldier, or an expert exists. Having spent time, you will protect yourself in the future.

To summarize, the SBU officer Oleg Samoilenko said that the Ukrainian security service have studied Russian methods pretty well, and know how to counteract them, have learned to snap, work in advance, and conduct Ukrainian information campaigns. The SBU is creating new modern units, trying to strengthen the cyber security of Ukraine. These are small steps, but these steps are forward!

The special services of Western countries also technically help Ukraine. In turn the SBU share with them their experience gained over the last several years. It’s really priceless!

[emilytutty-blog]

‘Social’ Media

When we pick up our phones, more often that not, it is to communicate with someone. A phone’s sole purpose is to connect one another through the use of messages and calls. If we go way back to 1973 when the first mobile phone was created, it allowed for 30 minutes of calls, with a charge time of 10 hours. Just over 40 years later and we now have abilities far and wide on these devices; abilities that never would have been deemed possible a few decades ago.

It is expected that by 2021, nearly one third of the planet’s entire population will be a part of the online community. This social network provides so much interactivity, with almost every aspect of our lives being shared to those who engage with our online accounts. But the question that I want to ask is whether this phenomenon of a social network has made us as a society more social, or if it has in fact lessened our social abilities.

The first two contradicting arguments that spring to mind are the obvious – yes, they have made us more social as we connect with people at times that we can’t be with them; no, they have not made us more social -  the addiction to the social network takes away from the moments that we do spend with people IRL.

But I want to go deeper than that, I want to explore why it connects us with people, solidifying friendships, and why it can also lead to the death of friendships. So, to begin…

The social network is a feature of the modern day that we can all access. We can access it from our phones, our tablets, our laptops, and even our watches it would now seem. With the development of smart watches where notifications can appear, the social network doesn’t just exist in something that we hold, but now it exists in an accessory that we wear. It is EVERYWHERE.

If you go to a shop and look at their posters in store, chances are they will have the handle to their social accounts readily available. Some companies even create their own hashtag to bring together their consumers under one discourse community: #babesofmissguided and #pltstyle are just two examples of a platform created for buyers of fashion clothing to come together to share their outfits. The hashtag #ootd is an internationally-used tag, whether it be by every day users, or by bloggers to share outfit inspiration - there are hashtags available to bring together a community of any size under an umbrella of common interest.

A social network extends beyond this – a social network allows for you to connect with your course mates about the latest assignment, it allows you to connect with your friends from home, your work colleagues, your family. It also allows you to connect with total strangers.

We all have group chats where we message multiple people simultaneously – it’s easy for convenience. Most students at uni I’m sure will also have a house group chat, I know I do. But why? I live with these people so I am guaranteed to see them. Why couldn’t I just save what I had to say until I saw them, rather than posting a message in the chat? It’s the immediacy.

Social media provides us with a platform to share news as soon as its happened. Gossip from Friday night? Of course, it has to be sent in voice notes to your course mates – it definitely can’t wait until Monday to be shared. We are now so used to receiving and giving news as soon as its happened that is a natural part of life. This is where Snapchat became so successful in the social media market.

The feature that Snapchat provides us all with is the ability to take a photo, or a video, of an exact moment in time. It saves us having to describe the amazing smoothie bowl that you had that morning at brunch, it saves you having to ring your friend from the shops and describe a dress to know whether to make the purchase or not and it saves the storage of your phone where photos disappear after 10 seconds! Its EASY. It makes our life a whole load simpler and that’s what we love. When life is busy, anything to help us save time is appreciated by all.

As I have grown up, I have seen the patterns of social media change. I first got Facebook at the age of thirteen. Messages would be sent with emojis made up of punctuation instead of the animated characters that we use today, both on Android and Apple. There has always been the need for multimodal forms of communication. An emoji helps to convey the emotions that a reader is trying to express in words where they can’t visually see the person speaking. Facebook is a greatly multimodal app with the ability to tag friends in funny videos, photos, share statuses, send messages – however, other social networks have taken over. Twitter is a greatly used multimodal platform to share content, arguably it has become more popular than Facebook with younger generations.

  Instagram and Snapchat are also platforms that allow for the sharing of strong visual content. The main feature of these social networks is the sharing of images, accompanied by text. This allows for a strong visual insight into the lives of others. The culture of online influencers has led to a strong curiosity to see how others live their lives. Online we are able to present ourselves in any way, shape or form that we choose to do so – we have the freedom that so many people wish for. So, what’s not to love?

In fact, put simply, quite a lot.

Social media is amazing, fantastic, brilliant…but it is also misleading, damaging and harmful. The ability to be able to share only your best life is very misleading. This can change people’s perspectives of the person that they thought you were when you met in person, or ‘IRL’, if we’re using netspeak. People may become bitter about your life you live online, people may feel that they’re not good enough, and friends may start to see you as competition, altering your friendship.

Online is a platform for mental health issues to arise rapidly – anxiety, depression and eating disorders are only a few of the problems that can stem from the use of social media. For the damage that it does, is it really worth it?

Not only does social networking take away from the precious time that you spend with those around you, but it disengages you from conversations that they’re having. Replying to a quick message? Yes, fine; but spending time scrolling through Instagram or catching up on your Snapchat stories instead of having a gossip or a catch up with the people who are there in the room with you could come across as rude. It is a statement without having to say anything – that you’d rather be elsewhere.

I feel like when I pick up my phone and mindlessly scroll I am by all means not saying to those I’m with that I’m uninterested in discussion, it’s just habit. Phones come everywhere we go – it’s like a fifth limb that we have all biologically developed in the 21stcentury. Science has truly gone crazy.

However, not only is it the barrier that using our phones poses, but also the expectation that the content that we see online poses. If you follow endless food accounts, it may make you feel guilty for eating any food that isn’t green and crunchy; if you follow lifestyle accounts it may make you feel like your relationship isn’t as healthy as it should be, that your partner isn’t taking you on dates as exotic and exiting as they should be; you may feel that your house isn’t as tidy and clean as it should be; you may feel like you’re not as toned and healthy as you should be; you may feel that your skin isn’t as fresh as it could be; you may feel that your job isn’t as exciting as it should be; you may feel that your weekend getaway isn’t extravagant enough; you may feel that…

STOP!

The pressure that we put on ourselves because of social media is immense. The culture that it creates is one of comparison – comparing every aspect of our lives and it isn’t healthy. It isn’t healthy for your body or mind. In Summer of 2016, 95 million posts were made daily to Instagram. That works out as 3,958,333 posts her hour, 65,972 posts a minute and 1,099 posts a second. It’s no wonder it feels like there’s no room to escape.

It’s important to take a moment to yourself and remember what really matters in life. Quality time with your family, your friends and yourself are essential to feeling at peace with the world. A book that has done me enormous favours is ‘Calm’ by Fearne Cotton (I have inserted the link to this book at the bottom of the this blog post). It has helped me to put things into perspective and to ‘let go’ of any issues or stresses I have that are out of my control.

Now, put your phone down, close your laptop and go and spend time with those who love you the most.

(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Calm-Working-through-stresses-peaceful/dp/1409183637/ref=sr_1_3?qid=1552217128&refinements=p_27%3AFearne+Cotton&s=books&sr=1-3)

[nievefergie]

Bill Gates predicted that the internet would be the downfall of television, saying, “I’m stunned how people aren’t seeing that with TV, in five years from now, people will laugh at what we had” (Clarke 1). Many people agree with Gates, such as Television Week and Wired, stating that the media landscape of US network television is dying. The invasion of the internet also brings major changes in marketing for television, which is historically what fuels network television. With the loss of marketing viewers to advertisers, marketing has had to find new ways of advertising products in new mediums (Clarke). Digitalization is one of the most active parts of marketing in todays society. With the global market revolving online due to its easy access and cost efficiency, social media has also helped develop the relationship between brands and consumers. This allows digital media to use multi-platform strategies and social media presence to enhance their show. This is called transmedia storytelling (Bjursten). Many new cable, network, and online television shows have used social media to further enhance the realism of their characters and plots to entice viewers, and with the upcoming success of the national branding of the show, SKAM, the marketing formula of adding extra online tie-in content seems to be working. Many television shows have released texts between characters. Shows like Andi Mack (2017) on Disney Channel have texts between Andi and her friends after certain episodes, usually reflecting on what happened. A Canadian television show on Teennick called Open Heart (2015) also tried a similar approach. The Teennick show debuted with an app for the iPhone where viewers could read texts from characters and further investigate evidence found in the episode to unlock more clues about the mystery the story revolved around. It also had found footage of what would be on Dylan Blake’s phone, such as videos of her and her friend, Teddy (Open Heart: Unlocked). However, Open Heart’s app had many glitches, as does the Disney Channel app, making it hard to scroll and find anything. SKAM’s messages were posted on the same website that the show was aired on, so viewers did not have to go out of their way to find extra immersion — it was already a major component of the format (Machell). SKAM, translated as ‘Shame’, is a Norwegian television show produced by NRK (Norwegian State Broadcasting), a government-owned broadcaster known for its radio stations and television channels (McDermott 31). The show was produced by NRK P3, the youth based radio station of the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation as a web-based series (Pearce 156). NRK is the biggest media company in Norway, with a large following (McDermott 31). In 2015, NRK set up a website for SKAM episodes to be broadcast in real time throughout all hours of the day. This kept a sense of longing as well as the audience truly feeling a part of the action with watching, as it was happening in ‘real time’. Thirty-four year old Julie Andem created SKAM by traveling around Norway and interviewing teenagers about their own lives. She auditioned over a thousand people and created the characters based on the actors and their own lives. Each episode is written almost within the week that it is shot, as well as only being shot three days a week. As Andem writes, she uses feedback from actors and viewers to keep the storyline believable and enjoyable for teens (Donadio). SKAM is newly renowned as, “one of the best TV shows about high school ever made” (McDermott 31). Each season revolves around a different student in revolving friend groups attending Hartvig Nissen, an actual public school in Oslo. The first season follows Eva, who lost all her friends the summer before starting high school. The second season follows Noora, who begins a romance with a boy who played with her friend’s heart. The third season, which gained the most popularity, is about Isak, a teen boy coming to terms with sexuality and his budding romance with Even. The fourth and last season follows Sana, a muslim teen who is falling for her brother’s best friend and coming to terms with her religion and what it means to be a woman of color in a white society like Norway. When American fans discovered the show around season three in 2016, NRK, due to copyright, stopped making the episodes accessible to those outside of Norway; but this didn’t stop fans. Norwegians would download the episodes, translate them, and put them on Google Drive and share it around Tumblr and Twitter for their English speaking friends to experience. Although English speaking fans didn’t quite get to experience the show in real-time like fans in Oslo, they were still able to watch the clip the day it was released to keep their interest.   NRK used social media to promote SKAM with the exception of one television interview with actors from the show once it gained popularity. Hakon Moslet, the show’s executive producer said, “The idea was for teenagers to find it themselves, not from their parents” (Donadio). Social media was used to promote the show through actual teenager’s word of mouth, rather than promoting it through the eyes of adults. By bestowing the characters with social media accounts, SKAM promoted the show and enhanced blurring the line between fictional characters and real people. This further creates more authenticity rather than selling the show (Bjursten 3). SKAM used social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to further blur the lines between the show and reality. Each character had their own instagram page. Season four revolved heavily around Sana’s instagram, @saranors2, where she took screenshots of hate that Sara, the bus leader, had been sending her boyfriend as revenge to start a civil war on the bus. Sana tagged the girls actual accounts and then deleted it once she felt guilty ("Vi må stå sammen"). The account was then deleted off of Instagram in real time when Sana deleted it. Then, a new account called @ellevillevillde2 was created and deleted in real time with the show as well. The show even ended using real quotes from social media about the show when addressing hate and love, expressing gratitude and showing disservice that the fans spread online about the show (“Takk for alt”). Mari Magnus, the web producer for SKAM, writes the instagram accounts and text messages posted between episodes. The texts from characters are posted to the website from different characters to each other and create excitement for the next episode. Magnus’s goal, “is combining reality and fiction and the line between them isn't so clear” (Donadio). The immersive online world for the characters in SKAM add drama to the already dramatic show. By reading texts and Facebook messages, the characters feel even more real to the audience. They get a little peek at what the characters do when they’re not watching. It adds to the cult following and truthfulness to the story (Machell). SKAM provides a good example of how social media enhances storytelling. In the previous television market, viewers were listeners rather than participants. With the new digital age of media, the audience is allowed to help co-create the story and participate in the creation (Bjursten 4). SKAM was written in real time, as well as shot in real time. Viewers had a direct say on what happened in the story, as shown in the last episode where online comments were featured in a montage during Jonas’s ending monologue (“Takk for alt”, Donadio). By using the transmedia storytelling, SKAM and other television shows are able to tell better stories due to the strengthened relationships between the audience and show, or product and brand (Bjursten 4).

Bibliography

Connor, Pearce. 2017. "Reality and Fiction in Contemporary Television: The Case of Skam." no. 4: 156. ProjectMUSE, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

DONADIO, RACHEL. 2016. "Will a Norwegian Hit Translate?." New York Times, December 13. C4. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

2017. "'SKAM''s universal appeal." UWIRE Text, 2017. Academic OneFile, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

2017. "How Real-Time Marketing Affects Social Media Engagement." BASE, EBSCOhost (accessed March 15, 2018).

McDermott, Patrick D. "The Planet's Realest Drama." FADER, 2017, 31-35.

Andem, Julie. “Vi Må Stå Sammen.” SKAM, season 4, episode 7, NRK, 2 June 2017.

Andem, Julie. “Takk for Alt.” SKAM, season 4, episode 10, NRK, 24 June 2017.

Open Heart: Unlocked. Computer Software. Apple App Store. Vers 1.2. Epitome Pictures Inc, 2015.

Clarke, M. J. Transmedia Television: New Trends in Network Serial Production. Bloomsbury, 2013. Bjursten, Amanda, and Felicia Norman Sylvendahl. “How Real-Time Marketing Affects Social Media Engagement: A Study of the TV Series SKAM.” Lund University Library, Lund University, LUP Student Papers, 2017, lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download? func=downloadFile&recordOId=8926717&fileOId=8926718.

Machell, Ben. “Why Teens Love Skam; Ben Machell on Norway's Cult TV Hit.” The Times (London), 16 May 2017.

[is6621]

How Technology is Transforming Health and Fitness - By Jimmy Mitchell

We are now a month into the new year. It is the time when our New Year’s resolutions and “new year, new me” fads usually dissolve into our old habits. Take two of the most common resolutions, dieting and exercising, for example. After weeks of lounging and excessive eating during the holiday season, most people are guilty and strive to lose that weight and eat healthier, a term commonly referred to as holiday remorse. As the holidays fade in our memories, so do the drivers for our resolutions. People lose the self-motivation and enthusiasm that inspired the treks to the gym and skipping out on our favorites treats. In fact, according to a U.S. News study, approximately 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by February. However, today’s modern technology and its online communities are influencing and promoting people’s health and fitness choices all around us in many ways.

FitBit and Apple Watch

FitBit and Apple Watch are popular Christmas gifts to encourage a more active lifestyle. While both function as fashionable accessories, the FitBit and Apple Watch serve as tracking mechanisms to log a range of data, including calories burned, heart rate, steps taken, and distance traveled. They also show you how many minutes you’ve been active during the day. These devices serve as constant reminders not only to reach your daily activity goals, but also keep moving towards your fitness progression. The coolest feature about the FitBit and Apple Watch is probably the compatibility of the products and the data sharing between friends. You can sync your FitBit account to various third party health apps on the Apple Watch and vice versa, allowing for easy storage and transfer of data. You can also share data between friends on the Apple Watch. A few of my friends exchanged phone numbers and, with a click of a button, shared how many calories they each had burned that day. It’s a great way to display your daily progress and encourage your friends. These neat accessories are tracking our every move, every step, and every calorie towards our goals.

Social Media

Without a doubt, the leading motivator for health and fitness is social media. Whether it’s Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, or Facebook, people share and consume many aspects of daily life in their feeds. While you’re sitting on your couch scrolling through Instagram or Twitter, there’s a good chance you’ll find something that’ll motivate you to be active. These “motivators” appear in your feeds in many different ways. If you follow a celebrity or famous athlete, like Ariana Grande or LeBron James, you’ll likely find a post of a photo-shoot or weight lifting session. Additionally, Instagram models showcase their physique that create a sense of self-consciousness and envy (which could be interpreted as good or bad). We follow these people because we are fans. We are fans of their talents and admire the people the have become. They inspire us to reach our full potential and we aspire to be just like them.

Fitness clubs and companies also take advantage of social media with advertisements to clog newsfeeds with promotions and discount for memberships. Ads are usually annoying when they’re constantly in our face. Nevertheless, they grab our attention. There are the classic company ads, like Nike and Under Armour, that feature both famous athletes and regular people that can both pursue athletic greatness. Then, there are the ads for gyms and fitness centers, including Equinox, SoulCycle, and Barry’s Bootcamp that are popular to join with friends. These brands are recognizable, interesting, and trendy. These ads, besides promoting a brand, bring awareness to the importance of health and fitness and influence active life choices.

Above all, no one motivates better than your friends and family. Your close social network shares similar influences from celebrities, athletes, and popular fitness trends and personalizes them to form a community of common interests and goals. Seeing a friend post their workout experience and results stimulates conversation and support about collective health and fitness goals. These posts and stories are particularly powerful on specific fitness and food accounts. These accounts allow someone to show progression and empower people to make the same life-changing decisions. One of my old roommates, for example, struggled with his weight and eating habits in high school. With his football career ending and college approaching, he decided to transform his lifestyle and created a personalized workout account after joining CrossFit. He tracked his progression, shared his story, and displayed his incredible results. He is now in incredible shape and on a healthier vegetarian-like diet. Additionally, my sister, Bridget, competes for her high school varsity basketball team, but she was self-conscious about her unhealthy eating habits. Therefore, she committed to an organic diet and created an Instagram food account, called tastyandnatural (give it a follow!) to share her new healthier alternatives. These accounts, and social media as a whole, provide a powerful platform for people to share stories about health and fitness and create an interactive community of support and inspiration to pursue active goals.

Exercise at Home

When you don’t have the time or money for those expensive and cumbersome treks to your local gym, modern technology has created great workouts without leaving your home. Trendy indoor machinery, like the Peloton bike, allows you to stream daily live cycling classes from the company’s New York City studio right in your living room. You get an intensive workout from a real instructor on your time whenever is most convenient. Similarly, DVD workout packages permit the same flexibility, while selecting from a range of exercises recorded by fitness professionals. I own both P90X and Insanity and have gotten exceptional workouts that last anywhere from 15 minutes to over an hour. Additionally, both of these DVD sets are associated with BeachBody, an online community where people can talk about their active lifestyles, offer support, and motivate others to reach loftier goals. BeachBody also offers a nutrition guide that provides healthy dietary options to create a meal plan. Today’s world is fast pace and all about convenience and efficiency. Technology has brought the gym into our homes so that we not only never miss a workout, but we get a workout that leaves us exhausted, yet accomplished.

The Results?

What technology has done with exercise is that it has transformed it from a laborious obligation to a socialized trend. Tech has created an online and interactive community that people want to be a part of. Tech has brought your workout into your home. Tech has brought your workout everywhere you go. Tech has taken the excuses of inconvenience and burden out of the equation. Thanks to technology, health and fitness is both personal and interpersonal, something we can share and learn from others. A collective resolution for all.

[dccomicsnews]

DC UNIVERSE is a first-of-its kind digital subscription service that gives fans access to exclusive content and experiences not available anywhere else. With membership, fans will enjoy all-new original live-action and animated series, classic TV series and films, a curated selection of digital comic books, breaking news, an expansive DC-centric encyclopedia, and access to exclusive merchandise. Additional fan features include opportunities to connect with others in the DC community, earn premium rewards and participate in sweepstakes and contests.

“Developing new ways for consumers to access some of our most popular and iconic brands and franchises as well as exclusive, new content whenever they want, on the devices they choose, is one of our studio’s top priorities,” said Craig Hunegs, President of Warner Bros. Digital Networks. “The DC UNIVERSE platform gives fans a place to tailor their experience and build a direct relationship with DC in a way they never could before.”

  Members of DC UNIVERSE can:

WATCH exclusive originals and classic favorites;

READ from an extensive list of curated comic books;

CONNECT with the DC community;

EXPLORE the latest breaking news and the ever-expanding DC Encyclopedia;

WIN premium rewards and participate in sweepstakes and contests;

SHOP for exclusive merchandise.

  Fans can sign up today for an opportunity for beta access, which will open in August 2018. Beta access will give members a chance to test the new digital experience and provide valuable feedback on the early version of the service before it goes live later this fall 2018.

“DC UNIVERSE is so much more than a streaming service. It’s a welcoming place for everyone to immerse themselves in their own level of DC fandom, with the epic characters, stories, and experiences they have come to expect from DC,” said Jim Lee, Chief Creative Officer and Publisher at DC Entertainment. “We are investing in and creating original, high-quality shows including the new Titans series, and curating the most beloved nostalgic content, while at the same time elevating the comic reading experience to new heights. Nothing this robust has ever been offered to fans before.”

WATCH

At the heart of DC UNIVERSE will be all-new exclusive original live-action and animated series based on DC’s iconic characters. Developed by Warner Bros. Television, Swamp Thing and Doom Patrol are scheduled to debut in 2019, following the dramatic, live action adventure series Titans which premieres later this year. Warner Bros. Animation is also developing a slate of animated TV series based on existing fan favorites, including Harley Quinn and the highly anticipated third season of the popular Young Justice animated series which are both scheduled to debut in 2019.

Titans follows young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find belonging. This gritty take on the classic Titans franchise finds Dick Grayson and a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness named Rachel Roth as they get embroiled in a conspiracy. They’re joined by Starfire and Beast Boy to become a surrogate family and team.

  Doom Patrol is a reimagining of one of DC’s strangest group of outcasts: Robotman, Negative Man, Elasti-Woman and Crazy Jane. Led by the mysterious Dr. Niles Caulder they’re called into action by none other than the ultimate hero for the digital age, Cyborg. These rejects band together on a mission that will take them to the weirdest and most unexpected corners of the DC universe.

  Swamp Thing is a scary love story following Abby Arcane as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but soon discovers that the swamp holds mystical and terrifying secrets.

  Young Justice: Outsiders features the return of the fan favorite animated series with a huge cast of DC’s most iconic young superheroes – plus brand-new characters, many of whom are just discovering their unique meta-powers and special abilities. Set against the backdrop of a rich, deep world that touches all corners of the DC universe, the season focuses on meta–trafficking, and an intergalactic arms race for control of these super–powered youths.

  Harley Quinn tracks the lovable, raucous villain with a fractured psyche after she breaks up with The Joker and tries to make it on her own to become Gotham’s main queen-pin.

  An assortment of DC’s most beloved superhero films will also be available at launch for exclusive viewing windows, including all four original Superman movies and classic TV shows remastered in HD which include, Batman: The Animated Series and the original Wonder Woman series. The service will feature a selection of epic animated movies including, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Green Lantern: First Flight, and Wonder Woman.

  READ

The DC UNIVERSE comics reader will include native, untethered access across devices from a smartphone or tablet to a living room screen, rendered in vivid detail. Fans can scroll through some of their favorite comics from the comfort of their couch with family or friends and see this vibrant art form come to life like never before. A curated selection of thousands of DC comics will be available to DC UNIVERSE members from a library that includes decades of comics creations.

Members can read some of the most famous stories in comics history such as the first 1938 Action Comics book that introduced Superman to the world as well as Detective Comics #27 which first introduced Batman in 1939. Other titles include Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s iconic Justice League (2011), Swamp Thing (2011) written by Scott Snyder, and Harley Quinn (2013) written by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner. Rotating selections will cater to members new to comics and passionate fans looking for hard-to-find titles. Comics can also be downloaded for reading offline on a smartphone or tablet.

“We wanted the DC UNIVERSE comic reader to be a blend of art and technology that would further enhance fans’ experience of the live-action and animated programming on DC UNIVERSE,” said Dan DiDio, Publisher at DC Entertainment. “This hand-curated selection from our decades of comic creations gives fans a thematic digital longbox to carry with them on the device of their choosing or lets them watch exclusive video content on a big screen followed by the comic that inspired it.”

  CONNECT

The community within DC UNIVERSE will be a place where members can rate, create and share their own personalized playlists of their favorite heroes and villains. Members can personalize their profile and select their own avatar, be it Superman, Wonder Woman, or another heroic symbol. Designed to be a place for finding commonality and sharing favorite rivalries or the latest list of must-read comics, members will have a forum for posting information, finding friendship and sharing their DC passions in a shared space within DC UNIVERSE.

  EXPLORE & WIN

Latest news, an extensive DC encyclopedia, and chances to win round out the membership benefits of DC UNIVERSE. Short-form news, interviews and previews in daily video segments will keep fans up-to-date on the latest from all corners of the DC universe. The ever-expanding DC encyclopedia, to which fans can contribute, will house bios of hundreds of DC characters and places. In addition, members will have chances to win premium rewards, including game unlocks, first-chance access to pop-culture events, exclusive experiences and more.

SHOP

Exclusively for DC UNIVERSE members, DC Collectibles—the award-winning line of collectibles from DC Entertainment—will offer a wide range of new action figures and collector’s items based on DC’s iconic characters and stories. Members will have exclusive access to all-new six-inch Justice League Animated action figures based on designs from the fan-favorite animated series (2001-2004), starting in fall 2018. In addition to DC Collectibles, members will have access to a wide range of exclusive, curated and hard-to-find DC merchandise from a variety of licensing partners before the rest of the world.

  The operation of DC UNIVERSE will be managed by Sam Ades, General Manager and Senior Vice President of Warner Bros. Digital Network, based in Burbank. The digital media executive formerly served as the senior vice president, direct to consumer, for DC Entertainment, where he was responsible for creating and executing DC’s digital marketing strategy.

DC UNIVERSE will be available at launch on iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV, as well as the web and mobile web. To learn more and register for an opportunity for beta access, visit DCUNIVERSE.com and follow DC UNIVERSE on social networks including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

DC Universe Beta Access Sign Up Now Available DC UNIVERSE is a first-of-its kind digital subscription service that gives fans access to exclusive content and experiences not available anywhere else.

[lipsyncforyourlife]

VH1 GREENLIGHTS “RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE ALL STARS”

VH1 GREENLIGHTS “RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE ALL STARS”

FOR A THIRD SEASON AND BRINGS BACK THE EMMY®-NOMINATED

“UNTUCKED” AFTERSHOW FOR THE REGULAR SERIES

NEW YORK, NY – August 21, 2017 – Responding to fan demand, and following a head-spinning seven Emmy®  Award nominations for “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season nine, VH1 today announced “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” will return for a third season, serving viewers another taste of some of the series’ fiercest queens. The returning court will battle it out on the runway in all new and unforgettable challenges as they compete for the crown and position in the “Drag Race Hall of Fame” alongside past “All Stars” winners Chad Michaels and Alaska. The network also greenlit the popular behind-the-scenes after show, “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked,” which is also nominated this year for an Emmy® Award in the Unstructured Reality Program category.

“The world is calling out to see more of these beautiful queens and I am going to give them every bit of it they can handle,” said executive producer and host RuPaul. “These All Stars represent the best of the breasts, legs and thighs. They are giving everything and you’re not going to want to miss it!”

“The massive swell of new and longtime fans of ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ is nothing short of incredible,” said Pamela Post, SVP Original Programming & Development at VH1. “We are motivated now more than ever to ensure ‘Drag Race’ remains a shining example of inclusion and community, as well as fierce fashions and legendary lip-syncs. 

“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” follows a jaw-dropping season nine of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which was the most-watched in series history. The finale trended across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and was the #1 most social program the day of broadcast as viewers watched Sasha Velour crowned America’s Next Drag Superstar.

“RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked” provides viewers a raw, behind-the-scenes look as the competing queens as they await to find out who will lip sync for their life. The companion series will return just in time for the milestone 10th season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” debuting in spring 2018.

Fans craving more RuPaul this summer can catch “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Season 9 RuVealed,” currently airing every Thursday at 8:00 PM ET/PT on Logo. The never-before-seen look into the historic season that crowned Sasha Velour as America’s Next Drag Superstar is packed with shocking moments and killer reads from the queens and Mama Ru herself. 

“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” cast details and premiere date will be announced at a future time. For more information on “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and up-to-date news, go to allstars.logotv.com or to the “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” Facebook page. 

“RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” and “RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked” are produced by World of Wonder Productions with Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato, Tom Campbell, Steven Corfe, Mandy Salangsang and RuPaul Charles serving as Executive Producers.  Pamela Post and Tim Palazzola serve as Executive Producers for VH1.

[digitalmarketingserviceindelhi]

The Best Social Media Marketing Packages: The Top Social Media Marketing Services

Many brands like to remain devout and captivated with the social media following. It is one of the low-cost ideas for enhancing brand awareness for market products. But growing social media will never be easy.

The Best Social Media Marketing Packages

With social media being one of the most sophisticated fields to use, it is a new way to keep in touch with customers. If you find it difficult to grow your social media following, then you may have to look for social media marketing packages. It can have great worth and also know a great deal about this business. So, it is always good to find the best social media marketing packages. In our social media marketing services, we always strive to maintain a top grade for our customers and their ideal solutions. We like to stay ahead of the market and to make sure that our clients find their goals and dreams. That is how we help our clients to grow and make it successful in their eyes.

Understanding the market for social media marketing

Facebook Established in 2004, Facebook is very much used as a marketing channel. However, many experts think that in the year 2014, it is now not as big as expected. Facebook is the third most popular social media site among people worldwide. In 2009, Facebook made over 3 billion media impressions, 40 million customer service chats, 25 million times that a person has contacted a brand’s website. Facebook is widely used by brands to communicate directly with their customers. However, there is a huge difference between purchasing a social media marketing package. If you want to build a strong marketing channel on Facebook, you need to buy some packages. Facebook Ad The first package that is used to acquire a broad audience on Facebook is the Facebook ad.

Why do you need it?

New markets are opening up, which means that consumers are now savvy and they are quite technologically advanced. You can be right beside them, but then they are going to notice your network first. There is a second reason, which is a lot more important. Increasingly, social media is a lot more personalized. You cannot manipulate and bypass the general public on this media. You have to find ways to get them to interact with you. People's perception of you is based on the social media postings, it's their opinion of your brand. Don't let them go on as if they don't know anything about you and your brand. Ensure that you utilize social media to your advantage, to improve brand awareness and your sales.

Different types of social media marketing

The first type of social media marketing is obvious: Social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This is the most widely used method, as it has the widest audience of 1.3 billion users in the world. Furthermore, it’s cost-efficient as a tool for generating sales, not just connecting with customers. Twitter, however, is perhaps the most expensive social media network. That is, it is quite cheap and does not require much work, but is also the most expensive in terms of traditional marketing. However, Twitter has shown to have the biggest impact on marketing sales in the long term, as has been proven by the successful example of a smaller social media marketing campaign by Emirates Airlines.

What is an average ROI?

Social media marketing is nothing to be taken lightly. Using the online community to promote and market a product may yield no fruitful outcome without the best industry experts. Flawless execution of a simple social media marketing strategy will let you know how your brand can be promoted on the Internet. Social media strategies can help you build an effective social network of buyers around your products. The strategy enables you to reach out to a large group of targeted buyers around the world. The marketing plan of a company on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram should be designed around the ever-changing trends of social media marketing.

How do you measure success?

In the introduction, you have read about the financial objectives that brands have and how to make them happen. Below are some of the best social media marketing services providers for clients who are looking to make the most out of social media to increase brand awareness. Top 5 Social Media Marketing Services: Imperion Infomedia: – Imperion Infomedia is one of the leading social media marketing services for businesses in the category of educational content and public relations services. They can help you to create Facebook pages and integrate social media marketing for any type of organization. 

Tips to succeed with social media marketing

Just before the launch of the first name of your website on the social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or even YouTube, you need to know the following criteria for growth: Social media sites Links Number of entries Twitter following, Instagram profile following Number of hits per week Frequency Time of entry Frequency Likely audience Does the person have similar interests or beliefs? These are only a few issues to consider before taking the plunge into the era of social media marketing. But all these questions should be clear and transparent for you before you start the journey of social media marketing. For social media marketing, you will need to be an expert.

Conclusion

After so much industry talk, you might not feel up to any more of it. But if you are inclined to grasp on to social media, you'll be keenly aware of the gains and the challenges of this great marketing methodology. Social Media Marketing is one of the most influential ways to harness the power of the internet. If you're looking to utilize the best social media marketing packages, make sure you read more.

[newstfionline]

Friday, September 10, 2021

Biden announces sweeping new vaccine rules (AP) In his most forceful pandemic actions and words, President Joe Biden ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans — private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors — in an all-out effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant. The expansive rules mandate that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly, affecting about 80 million Americans. And the roughly 17 million workers at health facilities that receive federal Medicare or Medicaid also will have to be fully vaccinated. Biden is also requiring vaccination for employees of the executive branch and contractors who do business with the federal government — with no option to test out. That covers several million more workers. In addition to the vaccination requirements, Biden moved to double federal fines for airline passengers who refuse to wear masks on flights or to maintain face covering requirements on federal property in accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The CIA’s least covert mission (Politico) In the bowels of its Langley headquarters, a fluorescent-lit, mundane office space houses a team of about a dozen people engaged in what is perhaps the Central Intelligence Agency’s least covert mission: to make American citizens “like” the agency on social media. The United State’s premier intelligence agency has slowly ramped up its social media presence since joining Facebook and Twitter in 2014, creating one of the federal government’s quirkiest, creative, and controversial PR campaigns. The aim: to dispel some of the negative press and conspiracy theories that have dogged the agency over the years by showing the public that CIA staffers are just like us. The team has harnessed social media tropes and hashtags including Girl Boss-y posts touting “Women Crush Wednesday,” #KnowYourValue, pumpkin spice lattes, dog photos, #TuesdayTrivia, and a recurring “Humans of CIA” series modeled on the popular “Humans of New York” photography project that went viral just over a decade ago.

Acapulco earthquake recovery (Washington Post) Mexican workers shoveled rubble from roads and restored electricity to hundreds of thousands of homes Wednesday after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake rocked buildings from the beach city of Acapulco to Mexico City, more than 200 miles away. The quake Tuesday, centered outside Acapulco, killed at least two people, authorities said. Most damage was minor. But the Acapulco airport was closed to commercial flights after problems were detected in the control tower, the city’s mayor said.

El Salvador’s bitcoin adoption day turned into a crash course in crypto volatility (Quartz) El Salvador became the world’s first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender today (Sept. 7). “B-day,” as locals have dubbed it, ushers in a new era in which residents of the country can buy breakfast or pay their taxes in bitcoin: All businesses and banks must now accept bitcoin in addition to the US dollar, the country’s other legal currency. But critics of Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s young president, say he is putting the country’s finances at grave risk. Today’s debut made that crystal clear. Bitcoin’s price dropped by an unexpected 17% in mid-morning, wiping out $400 billion in minutes. Although the price had hovered around and just above US $50,000 over the weekend, it dropped to less than $43,000 at one point before rebounding to about $46,700 by 4 pm.

Britain prepares to force back migrant boats crossing the Channel, spurring war of words with France (Washington Post) Britain is preparing to turn back small migrant boats crossing the English Channel, according to numerous media reports, as an influx of arrivals of undocumented migrants this week sparked another war of words between London and Paris. It was unclear whether the measures included taking migrants back to French shores. Britain would only push boats back in “very certain, narrow circumstances,” an official said. The decision is likely to further strain ties between the two countries. In August, a record 828 migrants crossed the Channel in a single day. This year, 13,500 migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats, more than in the whole of 2020.

Pope Francis sends 15,000 ice-creams to prisoners in Rome (Guardian) Pope Francis sent 15,000 ice-creams to prisoners to help them cool down during what has been one of the hottest summers on record in Italy. The ice-creams were delivered to Rome’s two prisons – Regina Coeli in the centre of the city and Rebibbia on the outskirts – by the Vatican’s almoner, Cardinal Konrad Krajewski. In a statement, the Vatican said the pope’s charities office “did not go on holiday” this summer. Instead, Vatican volunteers spent their time “continuing to devote themselves, among other things to two of the seven works of mercy: visiting prisoners and consoling the afflicted”. The donation was among one of several “small evangelical gestures” made during the summer “to help and give hope to thousands of people in Rome’s prisons”, the statement added.

Xi Jinping’s crackdown on everything is remaking Chinese society (Washington Post) The orders have been sudden, dramatic and often baffling. Last week, “American Idol”-style competitions and shows featuring men deemed too effeminate were banned by Chinese authorities. Over the summer, China’s multibillion-dollar private education industry was decimated overnight by a ban on for-profit tutoring, while new regulations wiped more than $1 trillion from Chinese tech stocks since a peak in February. As China’s tech moguls compete to donate more to President Xi Jinping’s campaign against inequality, “Xi Jinping Thought” is taught in elementary schools, and foreign games and apps like Animal Crossing and Duolingo have been pulled from stores. A dizzying regulatory crackdown unleashed by China’s government has spared almost no sector over the past few months. This sprawling “rectification” campaign—with such disparate targets as ride-hailing services, insurance, education and even the amount of time children can spend playing video games—is redrawing the boundaries of business and society in China as Xi prepares to take on a controversial third term in 2022. The scope and velocity of the society-wide rectification has some worried China may be at the beginning of the kind of cultural and ideological upheaval that has brought the country to a standstill before.

Pro-China social media campaign expands to new countries, blames U.S. for COVID (Reuters) A misinformation campaign on social media in support of Chinese government interests has expanded to new languages and platforms, and it even tried to get people to show up to protests in the United States, researchers said on Wednesday. Experts at security company FireEye and Alphabet’s Google said the operation was identified in 2019 as running hundreds of accounts in English and Chinese aimed at discrediting the Hong Kong democracy movement. The effort has broadened its mission and spread from Twitter, Facebook and Google to thousands of handles on dozens of sites around the world. False information about COVID-19 has been a major focus. For example, accounts on social networking sites vKontakte, LiveJournal and elsewhere in Russian, German, Spanish and other languages have asserted that the novel coronavirus emerged in the United States before China and that it was developed by the U.S. military.

Japan extends virus emergency until end of September (AP) Japan announced Thursday it is extending a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and 18 other areas until the end of September as health care systems remain under severe strain, although new infections have slowed slightly. The current state of emergency, which was to end on Sunday, was issued first in Okinawa in May and gradually expanded. Despite the prolonged emergency, the largely voluntary measures have become less effective as the exhausted public increasingly ignores them.

Scores of Westerners, including Americans, fly out of Kabul (AP) An estimated 200 foreigners, including Americans, left Afghanistan on a commercial flight out of Kabul on Thursday, the first such large-scale departure since U.S. and other forces completed their frantic withdrawal over a week ago. The Qatar Airways flight to Doha marked a breakthrough in the bumpy coordination between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers. A dayslong standoff over charter planes at another airport has left dozens of passengers stranded. A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media, provided the number of Westerners on the Qatar flight and said two senior Taliban officials helped facilitate the departure—the new foreign minister and deputy prime minister. Americans, U.S. green card holders and other nationalities, including Germans, Hungarians and Canadians, were aboard, the official said. Qatari envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani said another 200 passengers will leave Afghanistan on Friday.

The Taliban is bringing back its feared ministry of ‘vice’ and ‘virtue’ (Washington Post) The last time the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, morality police roamed the streets, implementing the group’s austere interpretation of Islamic law—with harsh restrictions on women, strictly enforced prayer times and even bans on kite-flying and chess. Nearly 20 years later, the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is back. In Kabul, some people expressed fears that the return of the ministry meant that the Taliban would not seek to change. “People have stopped listening to loud music in public … fearing the past experiences from when the Taliban last ruled,” said Gul, a Kabul resident who only gave his first name due to safety concerns. “I personally didn’t see any forced prayers. But there is fear in everyone’s minds.”

UN: 18,000 Yemeni civilians killed in airstrikes since 2015 (AP) A United Nations panel said Wednesday that at least 18,000 Yemeni civilians have been killed or wounded by airstrikes since the country’s war escalated in 2015. In a report presented to the Human Rights Council, a group of experts named by the U.N. said that Yemen’s people have been subjected to some 10 airstrikes a day, a total of more than 23,000 since March 2015. The report, which cited the Yemen Data Project for the airstrike figures, found both sides in the war to have violated international law. The project, a local data gathering operation, attributes all of the airstrikes to the Saudi-led coalition. Meanwhile the coalition’s rivals, the Houthi rebels, have shelled neighborhoods, camps for the displaced, an airport and markets, leading to the deaths of dozens, according to the U.N. experts.

Nothing had better go wrong (Ars Technica) The James Webb Space Telescope, considered the single most expensive scientific instrument in the history of NASA, finally has a launch date of December 18, 2021. The project’s been delayed over the course of the decade owing to the high stakes surrounding its launch. Unfurling the 20-meter telescope—it’s the size of a tennis court but folds to 10.66 meters by 4.5 meters to fit inside the rocket—and getting it out to the LaGrange Point, a neat little bit of gravitational real estate 1.5 million kilometers away from Earth or four times the distance of the moon, is a complicated operation because there will be no way to service it when it’s all the way out there. The 50 major deployments and 178 major release mechanisms need to work perfectly, otherwise the $10 billion telescope won’t work.