The Mask is Back, Anonymous Demands Justice in Maryville Rape Case

Tragically reminiscent of Steubenville, two Maryville, Mo., teens were allegedly raped by two of their peers. Again, high school football players posted on social media. Apparently living under rocks for the past few years, the alleged attackers were unaware that when you post evidence on social media hacker groups such as Anonymous will find it and demand justice. Like Steubenville, Anonymous is calling for an investigation small business social media marketing into the rape which took place last January. The case has since been dropped for lack of evidence. While many see these vigilante hacker groups as positive, Liz Roberts, chief program officer at Safe Horizon, a 24-hour victim assistance agency that provides support, and promotes justice, for victims of crime and abuse says the verdict is still out on online activism “Having their stories printed in the media can be troubling and distracting for victims so that is a confining worry,” she said. Safe Horizon is a New York City-wide assault crisis center. Community offices are throughout the city. Safe Horizon advocates for survivors and helps them navigate the legal system and life after an assault. “Great harm can be done through social media,” she said. Roberts explained social media marketing plan sample that in a number of situations she has seen at Safe Horizon involving social media, humiliating details of the assault are shared. This oftens leads to trashing and shaming the survivor, forcing them into further isolation. “We really are in a new era in terms of how sexual assault cases play out because of the major role social media and new technology play.” She said that social media introduces a real risk to survivors that was not prevalent ten or twenty years ago because messages are spread virally. “On the other hand, having people stand up for you can be good and validating,” Roberts said.

Social Media's Role Will Soon Shift From Driving Awareness to Creating Revenue

Join us at Entrepreneur magazine's Growth Conference, Dec. 15 in Long Beach, Calif. for a day of fresh ideas, business mentoring and networking. Seats are limited--Register now to secure your spot and receive exclusive reader rate (expires 12/8). Today, establishing a social-media presence for your brand has become a checkbox item, a necessary part of building brand visibility and connecting with the 1.5 billion social-media users worldwide. And brands are spending a lot of money on it. Companies are spending anywhere between $100,000 to $300,000 (and sometimes even more) to build and maintain their social followings. Between ads, marketing on social media salaries of social-media managers, and of course the requisite marketing tools and services to keep it all together, social is now a significant investment for most brands. The past few years for brands have been about building their social communities and establishing brand loyalty through direct social channels. It’s become a necessary expense of brand management and customer experience for companies. Yet now that they have established and integrated their social-media plans and begun developing campaigns to engage and increase their communities, the question becomes how can they begin to activate those social channels to convert followers to customers. How can brands actually make social a sales channel, and with a real, determined return on investment? This is the new strategy today social media marketing campaign that brands are starting to adopt. Where we are today with social is not unlike where we once were with websites. For years, websites were static pages that brands only updated every so often. They served as an online presence for the brand that was still focused on driving in-store sales.

Leverage existing data to drive advertising.

Successful brands on social media know who their audience is and how to speak to them. The secret to extracting those insights lies in the data contained in existing social platforms. Each interaction that users have with a brand’s posts or updates contains meaningful information that brands need to use to their advantage. On Instagram alone, there are more than 150 million active users, which means there is a wealth of data about social media marketing degree user demographics and related engagement behavior that lives across all social channels. The data can be analyzed and translated into actionable insights, and consequently into carefully crafted tweets, web copy and even ad targeting intelligence. Brands can now plan what time of day they should tweet about a new offer to users in California. Social data has never been more important, and companies are quickly entering the market. Analytics-focused companies such as Umbel and comScore provide granular audience data that brands can segment and slice to generate highly targeted ads, down to the zip code and persona social media marketing los angeles level. A newer platform, Insightpool, even goes beyond predictive analytics and helps brands create meaningful conversations and build relationships with the right people based on a brand’s campaign goals, even converting to sales. The most effective social advertisements are the ones targeted at specific audiences and have a well-defined intent. Brands can actively measure the efficacy of an ad performance before and after optimization through audience segmentation and targeted messaging.