Thursday, January 16, 2014

The Facebook Panic Frenzy

Hey everyone! Long time no blogpost!
Yes- you can shoot me for being lame.



Anyways, I know it's been ages since I've blogged but now that I've gotten into using twitter it's been almost impossible to WANT to write anything more than 140 characters. However, I do have something I need to expand on abit - & It's about Facebook.
 



Social media marketers have been running around like a bunch of headless chickens recently, mainly because Facebook has changed how marketers need to create , manage and promote content.

Facebook content comes in many forms; Text, Links, Images, Videos, Articles, or a combination of a few of them. - The rule of thumb (to get ahead of EdgeRank and try to increase the visibility of your posts was) Link + Image + Copy (With a CTA).

Sounds simple enough, but when you're trying to keep in mind the brand, it's guidelines, their social media objective (if they have one, if they listen to us , if they care) the tone of voice, dual languages, copy in the image, multiple links (what can I say clients just won't understand) , posting during the correct time of day (Thank you Facebook Insights woohoo! - PLEASE DON'T CHANGE) , Whether apps are functioning or not (again here you need to look at dual languages again!) , and then TRY to make sure the copy it within a certain limit, (in both languages again) - and yes I think it's best the copy doesn't exceed an overall of 400 characters when posting in dual languages , the social media tool (or tools) you'll be using ......i think you get my drift, it turns out that our gold (text, link. image) rule is actually quite difficult to achieve - forget about when managing multiple accounts!

Getting to my original point, Facebook is making social media marketers run around like headless chickens, trying to find the best way to explain that they been blind sided by Facebook and just desperately trying to figure out how to make their clients understand why EdgeRank has suddenly changed it's algorithm (No, WE don't want you to spend ad money on Facebook ads, Facebook does), in what way it's changed it (HAH - yea like that's easy to explain) and then tell you how that affects our post content.

Facebook is claiming that they are now focusing on "High Quality 'Articles' (Find out more here: http://bit.ly/KkGNVD) " being pushed to the top of users newsfeeds. - Now what they actually mean is, more "OMG WHAT'S HAPPENING TO MILEY CYRUS' articles are going to pop up rather than "Check out the latest Product by Blah, and find out how to WIN more useless stuff here: " - Yes, I see what you mean, very high quality either way.

Just say you want us to force our clients to spend more money so that everyone can reach their targets! Baaaaaaaah :'(  

Actually, since Mobile Penetration is about 112% in the Middle East - Check out the slideshare article below - (I guess this stat really needs to be questioned  - Mobile Penetration here is super high) , this is quite a good turn around, now we will create more mobile friendly content, articles and be part of the growing organism that it the internet and social media (Yes- it pretty much has a life of its own)



So, the new Facebook update - Yay or Nay?



Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Prejudice in the media


(This is an edited post)

It's amazing how we live in a world where people all around the world of different generations, classes, races and cultures can connect with each other at any time of the day anywhere in the world, but still advertisers use (Enforce or create) heavily misconstrued stereotypes to push advertising. It's insane.
It's one thing to reflect what the society around you projects to eachother and it's another to reinforce it. To be fair, I am very guilty of making stereotypical based jokes , though I don't mean to cause offence, doesn't make it ok. Advertisers and their clients have a bigger responsibility to do the same, stop reinforcing negative / misconstrued stereotypes in your advertising and maybe, just maybe, your consumers will trust you more.

I had seen this post on Facebook:
"Urgent!!Cast required for an upcoming tvc:
Main Cast breakdown – 11 (main camera time)
1. Emirati family (all dressed in traditional local custom)
• Father 34-38
• Mother 24-29
• Son 8-10
• Son 6-8
• Daughter 4-6
1. Egyptian family (all dressed in traditional local custom)
• Father 35-40
• Mother 30-35
• Son 8-10"
I was really curious to see what they thought an Emirati, or an Egyptian family should "look" like.
  1. First of all, apparently these two cultures have very traditional backgrounds.
  2. What does a traditional Egyptian family wear-  who decides that? There are tons of variations in clothing depending on which part of Egypt they're from and their education level…etc
  3. Also, they're assuming that Emiratis marry women TEN YEARS YOUNGER THAN THEM.
  4. If you look at the age ranges of the "oldest" son and the "youngest" the mother could be… SHE'D BE 14 YEARS OLD WHEN SHE GAVE BIRTH TO HER FIRST CHILD. And obviously they HAVE to have two boys and one daughter, and have their first born be a son, for the family to be a successful one. BLEH
  5. And Egyptian women and men apparently like to marry within 5 years of their age ranges.
Really?

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

My all time fav tweeple to follow

Here are a few Tweeps I think everyone should follow, some are from the UAE some aren't .
Most of these tweeple are either interesting, informative or fun... but it's just my opinion. 
Follow them to find out why :) No hard feelings?

Media Tweeps:
Great for Social Media and Media in General.
Chatty Tweeps:
These are the most fun tweeps to chat to for a variety of reasons, you'll have to find out yourself.
Tweeps to watch:
These are great to watch, they're always posting funny /ironic one liners and get you going through the day.
Bloggers:
Must read blogs, for media, photography, keeping you up to date or just witty commentaries.

Personally, I suck at #FF , because I'm generally not checking up on Twitter on fridays!
So I guess these are my all time #FF 's