News has been spreading that Facebook is working on a little something called “Facebook at Work”, a platform that will allow users to collect their thoughts in groups, chat, and collaborate on documents. It will have a newsfeed too, but will not allow access to private profiles.

Currently, Facebook already has a groups feature, which allows group members to work collaboratively by uploading documents and revisions as well as commenting and liking posts made in the group. This feature is very popular among university students like myself to organize group projects or stay connected with clubs and friend groups. Facebook at work would become more tailored to companies – the question is, will it work? The move would launch them into competition directly with LinkedIn’s social network and Google Drive, a very successful online document collaboration tool.

My main concern is not with the usefulness of the new service – I’m sure it would add value to companies if integrated. However, Facebook is seen as more of a personal social network, and being on Facebook at work is generally looked down upon – it is a distraction, and lowers productivity. The core of Facebook remains that it is a social networking site. How will Facebook attempt to integrate into workplaces without resistance from managers? The launch date has not been confirmed, but it will be very interesting to see how Facebook handles this challenge.

At least, that’s what lucky American Snapchat users will be able to do. On Monday, Snapchat announced a partnership with Square called “Snapcash”, allowing users to instantaneously wire money to their friends’ bank accounts through the photo-sharing app. All you need to do is type a dollar amount (ex. $25.50) into the messaging box, and a green button will appear to send the money over.

They released this super fun video to introduce the service: 

http://youtu.be/kBwjxBmMszQ

After watching the video a couple of times (I couldn’t help myself, the song was way too catchy), here are a couple of thoughts running through my head:

Will it be safe?

There has always been concern with images and videos on Snapchat getting hacked. Turns out, Snapchat will not be storing any financial information in their databases – Square, having had had much more experience with handling people’s bank accounts, will be dealing with all the transactions. Snapchat will power the communication. *Cue sigh of relief*

Why doesn’t Canada get any of the fun stuff?

The US already has Venmo, another easy money-transfer app. I want to make it rain pixel money too! Fingers crossed that this feature will be rolled out to Canada and around the world. Of course, there could be complications with currency conversions if the transaction is between two people from different countries, but we’ll leave Snapchat and Square to work out the kinks there.

Facebook has made it even harder for marketers who write ads on Facebook. New rules announced by Facebook state that all posts deemed “too promotional” will not allowed to be posted. These posts include:

1. Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app.

2. Posts that don’t have real context when pushing people to enter promotions and sweepstakes.

3. Posts that reuse the same content from advertisements.

From the perspective of a Facebook marketer, I would be very frustrated by this move. When adding a friend on Facebook, I basically consent or “sign up” to having their posts pop up on my newsfeed. By following a company Page, I am essentially doing the same thing – consenting to having whatever they post show up on my feed. If I wanted to stop receiving these updates, I could easily unfriend or unfollow. Regulating organic posts from a brand sort of feels like too tight of a restriction – how would we feel (as private users) if Facebook regulated our personal organic posts?

From the perspective of a consumer, I would definitely love this change. Regulating overly promotional posts will force brands to generate more creative, engaging content. By doing so, not only would consumers make a better connection with the brand, but they may also enjoy seeing the posts come up, instead of scrolling right over them.

There’s one thing we know for sure – this move definitely encourages brands to pay to sponsor their ads to show up on the main page. With Facebook’s algorithm already making it difficult for a lot of brand posts to show up on Newsfeeds, companies need all the help they can get to increase exposure for their Facebook communications.

http://mashable.com/2014/11/14/facebook-is-cracking-down-on-overly-promotional-posts-from-brands/

This week, we talked about building our personal brand and ensuring that we were communicating our personal brand consistently across all social media platforms. This got me thinking about my own accounts and what messages they were carrying to potential employers.

5 Social Media Platforms I am most active on:

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• SoundCloud

After a quick glance through my accounts, I could say I was satisfied with 4/5 of these networks and what they communicated. My Facebook is completely hidden from non-friends, my Instagram has carefully curated photos I am proud of, my LinkedIn is well built-out, and my SoundCloud showcases my taste in music. My one concern was of my Twitter account.

Prior to the course, my Twitter was used to share interesting content and tweet fun thoughts that were going through my head. There was nothing professional about my Twitter – you could find anything from celebrity news to personal travel updates on my feed. I asked myself, should I protect my Tweets? There were 2 arguments to be made.

1. Protect the Tweets. Risk: Employers thinking I have something to hide. Benefit: No risk of my tweets being deemed too unprofessional.

2. Don’t protect the Tweets. Risk: Offending a potential employer, or having them think my tweets are unprofessional. Benefit: Being able to showcase my personality.

In the end, I have decided to protect my Tweets. I believe that my personality can be shown through my other social networks, and I don’t want to have to worry about sending out Tweets to try to make myself appear more professional, or having a potential employer judge me before meeting me!

While on my journey of One Direction discovery, two social networks that stood out to me were Tumblr and Twitter. These two networks had a very large community of 1D fans who frequently shared content and news with one another. Here are 3 observations from these Fan Communities:

1. Like any other topic we’ve studied in class, each network had thought leaders and influencers – typically with a lot of followers and highly respected by the community. On Twitter, these were generally “update accounts” who spread 1D news, or high profile fans who had somehow met or spent time with the boys. These accounts were treated like celebrities by other fans – they often gained hundreds of followers per day.

2. Twitter is brilliant for stalking finding people. When 1D were in Vancouver for their concert in the summer of 2013, I patrolled Twitter for sightings using hashtags like #1Dvancouver. After running around downtown and screening thousands of tweets for over 12 hours, I successfully found Harry Styles having dinner with his sister at The Flying Pig in Yaletown at 1am. I watched creepily from the window and once they left, I tweeted the info to an update account. They retweeted my info and I gained close to a hundred followers in 10 minutes. I was also approached by multiple accounts asking me to become an “insider” for them during the concert (essentially a reporter), and in exchange for spreading secrets I would gain followers and glory – it was like an exclusive invite to the cool kids club.

DM I received from an update account

3. The source of your information is key. With so many girls seeking attention, tons of lies were popping up: Lindsay spotted Liam in a club making out with who? Jessica ran into Niall buying what? Rumours spread like wildfire, especially with influencers tweeting information to their hundreds of thousands of followers. It became increasingly important to find the source of the gossip and establish whether or not the source was credible. This is a key learning that should be applied to everything we find online – all too often, we forget how easy it is to make up lies and post it on the internet.

Teen Sydney Dalton was a trending topic on Twitter for being the key figure in a rumour

It’s been 3 years since that fateful day I stumbled upon that first One Direction video, and I’ve since moved on from my fangirling days. As for all those hours I spent tweeting, stalking, reading about, and thinking about the boys? I regret nothing.

Three years ago, at the age of 19, I stumbled upon a ridiculous catchy pop music video on YouTube:

“These guys are kind of cute. Let’s watch this next video too, and then I’ll get back to my paper,” I thought. 4 hours and 20-odd videos later, I had learned everything there was to know about One Direction, a teenybopper boyband from the UK. I knew I was getting way too old for this celebrity-stalking-obsession stuff (especially for a group of 5 guys younger than myself), but I couldn’t help it – Harry Styles and his head of curly brown locks had officially stolen my heart. I quickly followed all of the guys on Twitter and Instagram, and any fan groups on whatever social networking site I could. This is what truly opened my eyes to the power of social networking.

Quick Glance at One Direction on Social Media today:

Twitter followers: One Direction 21.3M; Harry Styles 22.6M; Niall Horan 20.4M; Zayn Malik 13.5M; Louis Tomlinson 17.9M; Liam Payne 18.5M

Facebook: 37,057,595 likes

Instagram followers: One Direction 7.1M; Harry Styles 9.6M; Niall Horan 8.3M; Louis Tomlinson 3.9M; Liam Payne 3.5M; Zayn does not have a public Instagram account

YouTube (OneDirectionVevo): 14.4M subscribers, 3.4 billion views

How did 5 small-town UK boys who came 3rd place on the UK X Factor become such a global phenomenon? According to Mark Hardy, the former marketing director of Syco/Sony Music Entertainment, it all came down to democratization. Unlike many other celebrities who are positioned as unattainable and out of reach “demi-gods”, One Direction was positioned so that their fans felt like they were one of their friends – attainable and accessible 24/7. The boys underwent extensive social media training and interacted with their fans daily on social media.

“It was all about interaction, collaboration and content,” says Hardy. “Showcasing the fans rather than the boys themselves.”

Twitter became a huge communication platform for One Direction. A campaign called #Bring1Dtome encouraged US fans to call radio stations and request 1D’s first single, What Makes You Beautiful. The single sold 130000 copies entered the top 10 of the iTunes chart without any airplay in one week. Fans referred to the boys as “our boys”. Fans felt connected to them – this was a connection that fans of the Backstreet Boys or the Spice Girls didn’t have the chance to enjoy 15 years ago.

This powerful emotional connection, combined with the lightning speed that word travels on social media, are what propelled One Direction straight into the hearts and minds of millions of teenage girls (and boys) around the world.

Prior to internet, consumers could only give feedback or request service on purchased products in person, over the phone, or by snail mail. Due to the annoying and sometimes tedious process, consumers would simply not call in a complaint or express their satisfaction at all. Companies would miss out on important feedback, and consumers would put up with unsatisfactory services or products. 

With the existence of social media, consumers are now able to connect to businesses instantaneously. This makes it very easy for consumers to express their views on a product or service. It also makes it more comfortable – announcing your view to the world wide web and nobody in particular is actually quite a bit easier than having to tell somebody over the phone or in person that their product sucks. This relates to the “social media triage” we learned in class: If a consumer is unhappy, it is important to “take reasonable action to fix the issue and let customer know action has been taken”.

I have personally experienced great customer service via Twitter – My Optik TV was down so I tweeted about it, and in a few minutes, the Telus Support team tweeted me back, offering me reassurance that they were on the case. What surprised me however, was that Shaw Cable also tweeted me telling me that their TV service was NOT down and that I should think about switching.

Monitoring the web for feedback from customers is key for businesses in order for them to fix what they are doing wrong, continue what they are doing right, and maintaining a relationship with the customer after the sale. Thanks to social media, consumers can expect a higher level or service and increasingly better products faster.

China’s Alibaba has been hitting headlines for launching publicly in the US. One of Alibaba’s main businesses is called Taobao, a super-hybrid between Amazon and eBay – and it is glorious.  It’s where my mother buys imported dog food for our pet poodle, it’s where I buy designer boots straight from the manufacturer…in fact, my family (they live in Shanghai) receives an average of 4-5 packages from Taobao shopping a week. My Aunt and Uncle run a Taobao store, and sell Thermos products from out of their garage. They started their business a few months ago, and are already selling hundreds of Thermos mugs a week.

Here are a few reasons why Taobao is amazing:

• It literally has everything. 
  Every single product that exists under the sun can be found on this thing. It sells everything from authentic and fake Rolexes to seafood to human cadavers.
  

  First page of first results for “Celine”

• Prices are generally very low.
  Lots of wholesalers and manufacturers sell products straight to the consumer from their factories, thereby cutting out all the costs of renting and running a storefront.
  

  The price of the first mouse on the list (19CNY) is just over $3 Canadian.

• It’s user friendly.
  Alibaba has two other offerings that integrate seamlessly into Taobao:
  1. AliWangWang, a built-in instant messaging system that connects consumers with the owners and service reps of each store to discuss any and all questions they may have at any time.
  

  Each blue icon is an online customer service rep. There are categories for pre-sale, post-sale, and complaints.

  2. AliPay, a service similar to Paypal..but way better. It allows users to make e-commerce and brick-and-mortar payments, wire money to friends domestically and internationally, pay for bills, invest in stocks..and it all fits into one app.

• It’s ridiculously fast.
  The Chinese courier system is efficient. Most shipping we have here in Canada takes 7-10 business days. Packages in China take anywhere from a few hours to 3 days to arrive, depending on how far the sender is. The cost? If it isn’t free, then it will probably cost less than $5.

If I could only shop in one place for the rest of my life, Taobao would win hands down. It will be very interesting to see how Taobao will grow in the future – my hope is that it expands to North America, and that North America ups it’s shipping game to keep up.

This week, everybody has been talking about Ello, a brand new social network that has been dubbed the “anti-Facebok”. It differentiates itself as being simple, ad free, and “does not sell data about you to third parties”. Since it is in public beta stage, memberships are by invite only. Naturally, I requested my invitation as soon as I heard about it – I needed to know what the fuss was about! After a few days of waiting, I have still yet to receive my invitation, so I can’t comment on the usability of the site. However, I’ve done some snooping around and here’s what I can say about what I’ve seen:

• It’s looks clean.
  There are no ads in the site, which takes away the clutter. There are simple and clean lines, and it’s easy on the eyes. It reminds me a lot of Tumblr, without the customization.
• Everybody on their “featured” list is super artsy.
  From what I’ve seen, the main users of Ello so far are hipsters and artists who post a lot of abstract art or design-related images. In the very least, the images they post are of high quality photography or original-looking artwork. There may be a chance that Ello becomes a popular micro social network for artists and designers.

Verdict: I don’t really like it. Apart from the whole no-ads thing, I don’t think there is enough differentiation on Ello that sets it apart from other social networks. Ello has gained a lot of attention because it has challenged Facebook, but I feel as if most of the people who requested an invitation are curious and in it for the hype. It is the first wave of the next wave of social networks that may eventually bring down Facebook, but Facebook will not be stepping down from its throne anytime soon.

Before crowd-sourced word of mouth existed, doing research about a product or service was only reserved for big purchases, like a car or a house. With the existence of websites like Yelp and TripAdvisor, consumers are researching about pretty much everything. Consumers are becoming empowered to voice their opinion about products or services they’ve paid for for the entire world to see. Review websites are essentially word of mouth on steroids, and these “steroids” are becoming increasingly popular. 85% of consumers say they read online reviews about local businesses.

How have review sites affected myself personally?

Well, for one, I don’t go to a restaurant unless I’ve read the reviews first. Reading reviews allows consumers to gain an understanding of what to expect – it takes the uncertainty out of things. If I don’t like the reviews, then I can avoid a disappointing night. But I don’t just stop at restaurants – I read reviews for just about everything. My travel agendas are shaped entirely out of TripAdvisor and Hostelworld recommendations. I don’t buy makeup without first consulting my favourite Youtube makeup gurus. The other day, I even caught myself comparing reviews for two moisturizers while standing in the aisle at Shoppers Drug Mart.

How has this affected marketing?

Review sites have changed the future of marketing. Essentially, business owners can get free marketing (good and bad) for their product or service whether they asked for it or not. For this reason, it’s extremely important to take steps to optimize reviews for their business. They can do this by:

• Encouraging customers to write positive reviews about their business
• Following up the reviews by responding with a thank you for both negative and positive reviews. If the review is negative, apologize to the customer and tell them they will investigate the matter.