PARIS. THE DIGITAL AFTERMATH.
This last week we have seen the cataclysmic effect of digital media in light of the recent #ParisAttacks. A heart wrenching feed of real time news popping up on smartphones around the world, showing details and demonstrating the enormous scale of devastation caused. Gone are the days when you had to wait for the headline of tomorrow’s newspaper to find out what’s been happening in the world. News is now almost immediate, real time and particularly at the moment, constant. While we admit it’s impossible to ignore the volume of negative, ignorant and racist backlash that has appeared on our newsfeeds, what hasn’t ceased to amaze us is how quick so many have responded in a positive light and have united. Social media feeds, profile pictures and even iconic buildings all over the world demonstrating solidarity with red, white and blue stripes. The real stories, the pictures of victims, the messages to the families affected and their own messages in response to the attacks being shared thousands of times. Facebook even introduced ‘Safety Check’ so that families could check in and find out about the safety of loved ones. It is undoubtable that digital media has been paramount in allowing us these opportunities to learn, to share the grief, to support and most importantly, to unite. #NousSommesUnis
LIVE BLOGGING CAROUSEL
Google is now allowing publishers to mark up their content with a new live blog schema meaning that content can appear in the new carousel format on Google search results. Many brands are now taking on the challenge of either hosting, or participating in live events in order to better connect with their customers. It’s worth thinking about what efforts are could make to better connect and engage with your customers in order to drive brand recommendations?
PUT A PIN IN IT
Pinners shop more and spend more than the average shopper according to Pinterest. Pinning around Black Friday and Cyber Monday has increased by 140% over the last year with over 2 million people having already pinned around these notable days. They claim that Pinners just love to shop, so if you’re looking to get your products in front of a captive audience, Pinterest is the place to be this Black Friday!
GOOGLE+ RE-VAMP
Efforts are being made to re-engage users with a new Google+ experience focused around individual interests. In a smart move to categorise content, Google have introduced ‘Collections’ where users can group posts together and others can follow these collections, being notified when new content is added. It seems the platform is now being aimed at micro-bloggers that want more than Twitter but not as much as platforms that encourage long-winded text such as ‘Medium’.
THE MOST SHARED VIDEOS OF 2015
We’ve been talking about adverts and videos a lot this week, discussing whether the most effective video content is a around humour, innovation or emotion. With more than 40m shares across Twitter, Facebook and Blogs. we shared 38.5% more videos than last year! It’s not just the high budget, cinematic videos that are getting all the shares – in fact the top three are really rather simple yet incredibly effective. The general conclusion seems to be that videos that effectively drive a high emotional response mixed with a little humour are the ones that really get people talking and sharing. It’s as simple as that!
SEO BATTLEGROUND
If you’re looking to find out who the winners and losers were in natural search this past week, you’ve come to the right place.This week we see some familiar faces, some new up-and-comers and some who we’re sure are feeling a little down in the dumps!
GOOD WEEK FOR…
Break-ups. The world’s biggest social network Facebook, have just announced that they are trialling new tools to make it less painful when handling a relationship gone sour. Read more.
BAD WEEK FOR…
Blinks of Bicester… or more specifically the owner who was arrested this week for her “racially abusive” Facebook posts. Social media gone wrong. Very, very wrong. Read more.
TOP TIP
Use Google Translate as a proxy to bypass internet restrictions such as US TV shows in the UK.
