Social media’s mob mentality a concern

Social media have altered our perception of what a groundswell of popular opinion looks like. Before the likes of Twitter, you had to get organised. That meant finding like-minded souls and assembling with placards, or at the very least signing off a strongly worded letter with the epithet ‘disgruntled’. The benefit of this pre-internet effort was that it required some thought, a quality absent from much social media output. But it meant opinions arrived mostly baked, and armed with a reasonable understanding of the facts available. So it’s a shame it was also less effective than the pseudo-democratic gushes of the Twitterati. Recently we have seen backstage worker Tim Roberts making a hasty exit from the stage door at Her Majesty’s following the sort of Twitter firestorm that has become social media marketing course commonplace. Usually, as in this case, it starts with someone saying something stupid and results in a flood of vitriolic responses (up to and including death threats). That’s not a conversation – it’s a mobbing, and in this case one that almost certainly expedited the launch of an investigation by Really Useful Theatres, leading to Roberts’ premature exit. I don’t believe the death threats are genuine, but they reflect yet another ugly side to the ‘social’ age. Then, last week, Michael Rose and U-Live, the producers of Elf, responded to ‘overwhelming public and social media demand’ for cheaper tickets by announcing that some seats would be available for £30. That’s good for audiences, but it has nothing to do with market forces. Essentially, they’ve been bullied – cowed – into a concessionary position by the din of collective online sanctimony. Social media have become our way of repeatedly pestering until we get what we think we want. They are the places where the partly informed masses b2b social media marketing can gather with their digital pitchforks to enact hyperspeed battles of attrition with people and organisations. Witness the alacrity with which government policy on Syrian refugees changes when a heart-wrenching photograph of a dead boy proliferates online.

After outrage, govt exempts WhatsApp, social media from new encryption policy

Shortly after a controversy erupted over government's plans to snoop on every message sent through WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail or any such service, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology clarified that social media websites and applications will be exempted from the purview of the draft National Encryption Policy. The mass-use encryption products, which are currently being used in web applications, social media sites, and social media applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter etc are being exempted from the purview of the draft National Encryption Policy, said a proposed addendum to the policy social media marketing plans posted on the department's website. Encryption products used in Internet banking and payment gateways, and those used for e-commerce and password-based transactions will also be exempted. The draft new encryption policy had originally envisaged that every message sent through WhatsApp, SMS, e-mail or any such service must be mandatorily stored in plain text format for 90 days and made available on demand to security agencies. The move triggered widespread privacy concerns and generated heated debate. The draft of New Encryption Policy proposes that users of encrypted messaging service on demand should reproduce same text, social media marketing podcast transacted during a communication, in plain format before law enforcement agencies and failing to do so may lead to imprisonment of the user as per the provisions. The proposed policy, issued by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, would apply on everyone including government departments, academic institutions, citizens and for all kind of communications -- be it official or personal. Generally, all the modern messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, Line, Google Chat, yahoo messenger etc, come with high level of encryption and many a time security agencies find it hard to intercept these messages.

TV Marketers Explain How Tumblr Demands a Unique Strategy

If you’ve ever taken a look at Tumblr, then you know it’s not your average social network. If you look at the demographic breakdown, you’ll find that Tumblr users are also younger than users on other networks; it’s primarily used by adults aged 18-29, with only 6% of social network using adults active on the site. Tumblr’s typical content certainly appeals to the younger set, with a focus on graphics, animated GIFs, and extremely viral, real estate social media marketing sharable content. This might make you uncertain about expending your efforts on Tumblr — but hear us out before you click away. If you put demographics aside for a moment, you’ll see that Tumblr is a huge network: it has over 126 million individual blogs with over 56 billion posts. While that still pales to Twitter’s 554 million accounts and Facebook’s 1.2 billion users, there’s no question that Tumblr is growing, which means this may be a good time to get in on the ground floor of the young network. Though using Tumblr might not be a fit for every brand, if people are already talking about you on the site, then you have a unique social media marketing blogs opportunity to jump into the middle of the conversation. We’ve seen this work to good effect for television properties, which use Tumblr’s unique atmosphere to make themselves part of their fans’ conversations. We talked to two television pros to figure out just how Tumblr fits into their social strategies — and how Tumblr could fit into your marketing strategy, too.