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momonetmoproblems · 4 years ago

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On Clout Nine

The Dangers of Social Media Pranks and Social Experiments

Have you ever seen something on social media and the only thing that your mind can come up with is “Why?!”

A popular saying on social media platform, Twitter, in response to the often obscene and unabashedly done acts and statements made is

“Clout is a dangerous drug”.

Lately, it seems like a lot of attention-deprived people on social media are trying to do the most shameful, extreme, scandalous, or ostentatious things for the rewards of the potential impact on each platform.

Clout is traditionally defined as influence in politics or business, but that definition has evolved to encapsulate having influence in online communities and, more accurately, wanting attention on social media.

Over 2 million Instagram posts have been tagged #clout, videos with the same tag have gained over 3.7 billion views on TikTok and, words such as cloutchaser (Bamidele, 2019), clout check and cloutlighting (Nagesh, 2018) have been coined. The word even inspired an app of the same name — “Klout”, a service which boldly displayed one’s social media interactions and engagements in the form of an algorithm generated figure (Edwards et al., 2013.) And, had that platform survived, people would have definitely found a way to wear their scores on their foreheads if they could or add it to their résumé. (Hello, influencer marketing is the present and the future.)

From licking ice-cream straight from the tubs and putting them back in the freezer to persons falling to their deaths from seven-story buildings after failed Planking Challenge attempts (Shears, 2011) or YouTubers dying from a close range shot to the chest during a stunt with a Desert Eagle handgun (Brantley, 2018), so many people across the world are craving the fleeting sensations of clout.

Users will therefore use a sensationalized headline or caption, clickbait, to garner as many clicks or interactions with their content as possible in tandem with the already obnoxious or shocking display, and people fall for it every time. It’s like those completely obvious magazines in supermarkets from the early 2000s that you find yourself picking up even though you KNOW the headline is a trap!

(Just look at these stories. I mean, 2006 Me is SHOOK!)

The development of the internet and social media has created new opportunities for using pranks and social experiments as a veiled means of accumulating clicks and engagement by social media users. This clout manifests in the form of likes, quote tweets and retweets, subscriptions, reposts, shares, among other tools. Stacey Koosel, in The Renegotiated Self: Social Media’s Effects on Identity, states that this need for attention, to share and be a contributing part of the online community:

...motivates people to share more with each other in hopes of entertaining their audience and receiving positive reinforcement or reception of the content they posted, and in doing so, creating a sense of camaraderie or community.

Therefore, according to Koosel, some Internet users engage in “electronic exhibitionism” in an effort to lure as much attention as possible, and become celebrities by the careful construction of their online identity.

While pranks and social experiments can be a good laugh or even eye-opening, in the form of social commentary or satire, sometimes, things go a little too far. These pranksters tend to get so high off of the fame these stunts bring them and the effects can be sobering. I call this On Clout Nine.

Physical Harm

The Tripping-Jump Challenge

Earlier this year, one of the most dangerous pranks to plague social media swept across the globe, claiming a few lives in its wake. The Tripping-Jump Challenge features an unsuspecting victim and two provocateurs on either side of him or her. The aim of the antagonists was to convince their target that they were all going to see who could jump the highest on camera, sometimes with a small cash reward as an incentive. When the middle person jumps, the persons on their right and left kick out their feet mid-air causing them to take an awkward tumble.

The injuries ranged from bruises to fractures to even death.

As news of the prank spread on social media, it wasn’t long before it was picked up by Jamaica’s youth and three Meadowbrook High School boys were met with the consequences. But, this challenge is merely one on a long list of pranks and social experiments that are steadily becoming a threat on our little island.

Popular local YouTuber and Prankster, iHeart Manii (née Kymani White), met his match when he scouted the Half Way Tree area for potential victims of his latest social experiment. For this act, Manii would pretend to find money at the people’s feet, hold the money up very obviously and either walk away or ask the person if the money is theirs.

Yuh ever owe a Jamaican money yet? Lol.

Naturally, the responses were downright comical as most participants were dishonest and, at times, convincingly insistent. Thus, the video was circulated on social media rapidly. Today, the May 8, 2019 upload has since gained over 187,000 views, 10,000 likes and almost 2000 comments. While this is a huge accomplishment for Jamaican content creators, any well-thinking person must wonder if Kymani has really assessed the risks associated with these stunts.

The woman in both screenshots above was the real star of this video as she violently challenged Kymani regarding the ownership of the money, even after being told countless times that the events were staged, eventually causing him bodily harm.

Despite run-ins with law enforcement and hostile responses to his antics from some Jamaican victims, Kymani continues to develop new prank ideas as his primary means of income and rise to fame, stating to Jamaica STAR Writer, Stephanie Lyew, “The more pranks I upload, the faster my followers grow; for example, each time I upload a prank I gain an average 400 new subscribers.” The STAR previously put Kymani’s page at 15,000 subscribers in May 2019, growing from 5,000 over ten months. Today, White’s channel boasts approximately 96,400 subscribers and the ongoing pandemic has not stopped him from executing and uploading his experiments and pranks.

Yes, these videos have proven to be profitable content but at what cost? The unpredictability of Jamaicans is what makes these pranks such a risk to the entire iHeart Manii team. Today, it’s the old woman stabbing him. Tomorrow, maybe the woman is a man, maybe the knife is a gun...

Furthermore, Manii’s pinned prank upload features himself and fellow Jamaican YouTubers, Gio of Gio and Ken, and Rolley of Trouble Link, calling local taxi companies under the guise of heading to the airport with an extremely heavy suitcase. Each of the young men takes a turn being secured within the luggage, unbeknownst to the cab drivers, until the hidden participant begins to struggle and groan giving the appearance of a kidnapping in progress.

The first and third drivers were perturbed and refused to take them upon the realization that the young men had kidnapped someone. The second driver, however, began negotiating the fare and admonishing them for not speaking in hushed tones due to the nature of the act they were about to commit. This was just as, or even more disturbing than, the prank itself and, of course, my mind took OFF:

This clearly isn’t the first time this man has done this!!!

Yeah, I’m never taking another taxi again, thanks, xoxo.

So many women have been kidnapped within the public transport system. Hello, Jasmine Dean?!

Which company does he work for? Mortec?! Gadgepro?! On Time?! Mortec????!

Would he have carried the act right through for the right price?! I bet he would, the scum.

Is he going to be investigated? Paging JCF!!!!

Not ONE of them couldn’t see something wrong with this???

But, I digress (one issue at a time, Monét, one issue at a time). However, my mental tirade brings me to my second point.

Desensitization

Around October 1, 2020, a chilling video of a woman being abducted circulated on social media. In the two-minute-and-20-second-long video, the woman is shown walking down a roadway before she is restrained and pulled into a motor vehicle by four masked men. The man, Nathaniel, driving the getaway car is the woman, Tish’s, boyfriend and the video was originally uploaded to the couple’s YouTube as a prank.

Scathing reviews were aired out on every platform the video could be found as social media users condemned the men for their insensitivity and came to the woman’s defense. However, story come to bump when the video was removed for violating the platform's harmful and dangerous content policy and the girlfriend blamed it on envious people and guaranteed that the couple would come back bigger and better. So...she was in on it?!

In an interview with The Weekend STAR, Trish claimed:

The prank was actually acted out. It can teach other persons. As you can see when I was walking, I was looking. Persons, young girls, should look around and know them surroundings. That was the whole idea.

These men seemed very experienced to several Twitter users, including myself.

Very believable, 10/10 performance.

Who knew Jamaica had so many fine male actors doubling as activists, aiming to raise awareness around kidnapping incidents?

Even if that was the intention, they went about it in the wrong way. There was no trigger warning to prevent potential viewers, or victims from having to see or relive their worst nightmare for a few laughs. The Jamaica Constabulary Force said it best in their statement addressing the situation:

Evidently, Cyberculture is blurring the lines between safe fun and harmful risks, between harmless pranks and trivialized social issues. For a little bit of clout, persons have been seriously hurt, sued, investigated by the authorities or have lost their lives. Social media has transformed the general perception on the value of lives as so many seem so eager to throw them away for a few clicks.

Moreover, when we trivialize issues in the form of pranks and social experiments, desensitization is amplified exponentially. While there may have been outrage in response to the couple’s kidnapping prank, who knows how many men secretly thought this was a good idea, who may desire to attempt it, take it too far, not in an effort to cReaTe AwARenEsS, but to really catch a woman unawares with the intention to do more than shake her up a bit?

Hopefully, these trends dissipate like so many ephemeral online fads. Until then, there is no doubt that these antics will only get worse, affecting more and more lives as this digi-cultural currency, clout, increases in its value and the risks increase in their damages. After all, when it comes to Cyberculture, the road to fame is paved with shame, (Koestenbaum, 2011.)

Meanwhile, I? Feel zero remorse for these cloutchasers and the repurcussions which are sure to meet them when they come down from their high.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

References

Bamidele, M. (2019, November 4). Clout Chasing: 5 instances celebrities have stirred controversies to stay relevant. The Guardian. https://guardian.ng/life/clout-chasing-5-instances-celebrities-have-stirred-controversies-to-stay-relevant/

Brantley, K. (2018, June 24). Pictured: Book that YouTuber died holding after encouraging his pregnant girlfriend to shoot him for videotaped stunt. DailyMail. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5878953/Prosecutors-release-pictures-bullet-holed-book.html

Education ministry warns against 'Jump Trip Challenge'. (2020, February 16). The Jamaica Observer.

Edwards, C., Spence, P. R., Gentile, C. J., Edwards, A., & Edwards, A. (2013). How much Klout do you have … A test of system generated cues on source credibility. Computers in Human Behavior, volume 29 (issue 5), pages A12-A16. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0747563212003767

Hobbs, R. & Grafe, S. (2015, June 30). YouTube pranking across cultures. First Monday, volume 20 (issue 7). https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/5981/4699

Koestenbaum, W. (2011). Humiliation. New York: Picador.

Koosel, S. (2015). The Renegotiated Self: Social Media’s Effects on Identity. Alfapress.

Lyew, S. (2019, May 17). Kymani the prankster - Man leaves call centre job to fool around. The Jamaica STAR. http://jamaica-star.com/article/news/20190517/kymani-prankster-man-leaves-call-centre-job-fool-around

Merrifield, R. (2020, February 24). Parents warn kids against YouTube 'killer Jump Trip Challenge' after two deaths. Mirror. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/parents-warn-kids-against-youtube-21563313

Nagesh, A. (2018, November 29). Cloutlighting: From online 'pranks' to toxic social media trend. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/2f85d272-c509-4d2c-86bf-d4ed4f4e6d9b

Russell, T. (2020). Attorney Going After Miami-Dade School Board After Teen Injured In ‘Jump Challenge’ Prank. CBS Miami. https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/02/11/jump-challenge-prank-south-dade-high-school/

Shears, R. (2011, May 16). Bizarre internet craze 'planking' claims its first victim after man plunges from balcony to his death. MailOnline. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387272/Planking-claims-victim-Acton-Beale-falls-balcony-death.html

Taylor, T. (2020, October 2). Kidnap prank’ creators surprised by backlash. The Jamaica STAR. http://jamaica-star.com/article/news/20201002/%E2%80%98kidnap-prank%E2%80%99-creators-surprised-backlash

White, K. [iHeart Manii]. (2019, May 8). “Gimmi me money” Finding money in public social experiment. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQUetpE2V8c&t=703s

White, K. [iHeart Manii]. (2020, March 28). Kidnapping Prank On Taxi Drivers (GONE WRONG) *must see* || Gio and Ken || Trouble link tv. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0HuRomRDzI

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jessette20 · 6 years ago

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Gucci snapchat

Snapchat is one of the fastest-growing social media platforms. Snapchat’s users doubled after the introduction of Stories, going from 200 million monthly active users to over 400 million in 2018.

Snapchat’s popularity shouldn’t be ignored by businesses. Active users tend to spend 30 minutes on the app.

78% of users are young (18-24) and almost 70% are female. Meaning Snapchat is a great place to engage with one of the most sought-after market segments in the world—millennial women.

Young people are a valuable market. Putting your brand in front of them not only drives engagement now, but you’re creating a brand loyalty with the generation that will soon hold the majority of the world’s wealth.

Let’s take a look at how Snapchat can get your brand in front of new potential customers.

Snapchat basics

Snapchat is a photo and video sharing app that sends content to selected friends for a short period of time. Once your friend receives your “snap,” it disappears within 1 to 10 seconds.

You can also use Snapchat to video chat with friends who are also active in the app.

Snapchat’s Story feature allows you to put videos and images on a single feed for friends to scan through and watch as many times as they like.

After 24 hours, anything uploaded a Story is deleted.

You can also send text messages within the app. They’re also deleted after a short period of time.

One of the things that makes Snapchat so unique is that the content isn’t permanent. It’s a brilliant concept because it means there’s always something new that users need to engage with.

What does that impermanent content mean for your business? For starters, it means that the content style is more laid back. You’ll notice some fancy ads and much-edited content from some bigger brands and fashion brands — like when Gucci let artists take over their Snapchat account for an hour per day:

Most businesses don’t need Gucci-level content. In fact, users on Snapchat want to feel the “realness” of your brand. They want a behind-the-scenes, unedited, uncut, look into your business.

Artist DJ Khaled is nicknamed The King of Snapchat. Most of his content is him, relaxing in his mansion, eating the meals prepared by his chef. This is appealing to users, but he’s really just living his life and Snapchatting along the way. Like in this Snap, where he’s relaxing in his jacuzzi:

What is Snapchat used for?

Snapchat is used for many different things. I personally use to watch video snaps of my baby niece that my sister sends. I have friends who love watching their friend’s Stories. I have one friend that religiously watches Kylie Jenner’s Stories. My teenage brothers use it to send me text messages. In short, it’s a great platform for everything from following brands and celebs to chatting with friends and relatives – all with the connecting theme of casual, impermanent content.

There are lots of features for editing images and videos. Users make lots of use of these features, but Snaps don’t really need to be edited to perfection. Instead, the edits are used more for fun, as with the virtual reality/augmented reality filters that are one of Snapchat’s biggest draws. These filters can give you a mustache or wrinkles, make you spit rainbows or fire, or turn you into a dancing hot dog.

Check out this example of an augmented reality filter by Skittles.

Getting started

There are tons of ways your company can use Snapchat to engage with users.

Just keep in mind that one thing to avoid is starting customer service questions with Snapchat because, since Snaps disappear, you won’t have any convos recorded.

Create a profile

First, set up your Snapchat profile. You’ll want to create a business profile, so you can either download the app from the App Store (available for iOS and Android) if you’re on a phone—or you can visit this link.

You’ll select a unique username. If the name is taken, a thumbs down will appear—if it’s available, you’ll see a thumbs up.

Remember, it’s best to keep your company usernames the same across all social platforms. The only way users will find your profile is through your username, so make sure the name is simple and as close to your company name as possible.

Update your settings

Make sure you update your settings so that everyone within the app can see your Snaps. Since you’re a business, you shouldn’t restrict your views to just friends.

Navigate to your settings from the home screen. Tap the top left button. Then, click the top right settings icon.

Settings > Who can > view my story

Change it from friends to everyone.

If you click the ghost icon on the home screen, you can update your profile, find users, scroll through friends, see who’s added you, etc.

Devise your plan

A company’s primary goal on social media should be to engage with their target market and direct them to whatever the company is selling. So, how can you get users from your content to a sales page?

Think about this before you start posting to Snapchat. Each post should be for a reason, with a clear goal in mind, not just an aimless effort to spur interest. Map out how users will likely engage and react to each piece of content you decide to post.

To get started, encourage users to follow you on Snapchat by sharing your new Snapchat account on your other social media profiles.

As your building your follower base on Snapchat, you can take clues from your other social media profiles as to what types of content your users prefer.

For example, let’s say you sell sneakers online and you’ve made the wise decision to automate your other social media channels with Sprout.

You glance at your Sprout Instagram Outbound Hashtag Performance and notice users are liking a ton of your content tagged with #redsneakerday. You could create some Snapchat posts around those same popular product.

You might create a Snapchat Story, where you show different people walking in various settings wearing your popular red sneakers. Maybe you show someone jogging on a track, another person hiking up a mountain, and another strolling in a museum or along cobblestone in a city. You can continue using your branded hashtag on Snapchat, too.

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a professional videographer like you might need to do for other channels, you could simply ask your friends to wear your sneakers and send you a video that they took from their phones. Remember, Snapchat is all about “realness.”

Send your first snap

To send a Snap, navigate to the camera screen (a.k.a. the home screen). From here, just tap the camera button to snap a picture or hold down the camera button to take a video.

You’ll know you’re recording video because there will be a red line that fills the white line around the camera button. One video recording is complete when the circle is full, but you can record multiple videos back-to-back. The videos will also play back-to-back, without interruption, when viewed by your audience.

Like we mentioned before, some of Snapchat’s most popular features are the filters. Geofilters add text overlays or augmented reality to a Snap based on location. So, if you’re at Joe’s Coffee Shop, you might see a filter pop up for Joe’s Coffee Shop.

Check out this example of a Geofilter from Gujarat, India.

Remember not to stray too far off brand within Snapchat—brand still matters, even when there are tons of filter options at your fingertips.

But don’t be afraid to let a little loose with brand guidelines when it comes to showcasing “behind-the-scenes” stuff. You could use Snapchat to showcase:

Manufacturing processes

Employees

Team outings

Workspace environments

New products/releases

Product teases

Celebratory content

Snapchat is meant to be less stylized than the other platforms. It’s more personal—which is one of the reason’s it’s so popular, particularly with young people. So, don’t go overboard perfecting each image or video that you share. People on Snapchat are looking for authenticity above all else.

Use Snapchat to your advantage

Snapchat for business purposes is still a lesser-known subject.

There aren’t nearly as many businesses competing for Snapchat user attention as there are businesses competing on other social media networks.

This is a huge advantage for you—beating your competitors to the punch and building a following for yourself before they get there.

Get creative with filters

You can get insanely creative on Snapchat. Taco Bell is infamous for silly filters on Snapchat. For example, check out their Cinco De Mayo filter from earlier this year:

Hollywood also creates blockbuster Snapchat filters. Like this one from X-Men Apocalypse:

Both of these filters are great because users are excited about them, and when they share their images with friends, they’re also sharing the branding from these campaigns.

Generate engagement

There are over 3 billion Snap videos, pics, and Stories created every day. That’s a lot of opportunities to get users interacting with your company. There are lots of ways to drive engagement on Snapchat. Let’s take a look at some of the best ways.

Hold contests

A great way to encourage more people to follow you on Snapchat is to offer Snapchat-only giveaways and promotions.

For example, let’s say you’re a digital agency. You could create a contest for a package of free social media graphic design work. You share this contest with your other social channels and encourage followers to follow you on Snapchat for a chance to win.

Check out this contest on Twitter by the Cleveland Indians encouraging followers to follow them on Snapchat. Not only does it engage their Snapchat audience, it also drives users to interact with their Twitter account too – expanding followings on both channels.

Partner up

Find some Snapchat influencers and find ways to connect with them. You could also find other businesses with larger numbers of followers and ask to partner with them for a few posts. You can co-market your business with the help of others who share your same target demographic.

For example: If you’re a digital agency that does design work, you could partner with an SEO agency with more followers to create Stories that explain digital marketing tactics.

Check out this example, once again featuring the “King of Snapchat” DJ Khaled, partnering with Stride Gum.

Source: Wieden + Kennedy

Stay consistent

I’ve said this before—if there’s a golden rule for building a following on social media—it’s consistency. Keep Snaps coming on a consistent basis. Keep your brand image consistent across all of your social media profiles, Snapchat included. For example, if your go-to is a laid-back yet professional style, don’t suddenly curse every other word.

Engage back

As your brand grows, your fans are going to comment and engage with you. When they do that—don’t ignore them. Engage back, show them you appreciate their comments and likes. If people go out of their way, give them a shout out in your Snaps, better yet—share something they’ve Snapped.

Ask questions

Asking your followers questions encourages them to reply back to you. If you read our blog often, we practice this tactic by asking questions in the conclusions of our posts.

Questions don’t need to be complex. Simple questions are easier to answer. You might ask your followers:

What do you wish we offered that we aren’t yet?

How could we improve our customer service?

Would you rather us do _____ or _____?

Another great way to ask questions is to consider what’s relevant. For example, when football (American football) season is picking up – if your business markets to American dudes, you’ve got a golden opportunity to drive engagement with something that is trending.

You could ask:

Who’s going to win ______ or _____ ?

Who’s your all-time favorite quarterback?

Top 5 picks for Superbowl 2019?

Make great stories

Besides consistency and driving engagement, you need to focus on the quality of your content. Not so much in a “look and feel” way—remember Snapchat’s got a laid-back vibe.

Keep things interesting. Don’t just post pictures of your office or of your employees all day. Add your dog (people love dogs)!

Instead of sharing pics of your team, share pics your team takes. Or, share your customers’ content. You could try sharing industry news, or how-to videos.

Don’t forget to have fun

Snapchat is all about being footloose and fancy-free. If you keep it creative and consistent with your posting, you’re going to see more and more engagement.

Tell us about some of your most successful Snapchat strategies in the comments below!

This post The essential guide to Snapchat for business originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from http://bit.ly/2yxkJ5E

#Social Media Marketing

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