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In Social Media We Trust?

/ Bailey Burk / Leave a comment
Is there guilt by association for brands on social media platforms?

Well, here we are at another crossroad for social media platforms. Masters of the universe in Silicon Valley are being taken to task for their lack of control and protection of user information and accountability for the content posted to their platforms. Both of these topics are specifically related to trust. Over the past few months, there has been a decline in user participation due to deliberate manipulation of content designed to divide or inflame, user privacy issues, fake news, and a general denial that the above-mentioned are growing problems for these platforms.

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How the Lenten Season Weaned Me From Facebook

/ Bailey Burk / Leave a comment
The day after Fat Tuesday is a time for taking stock of what’s going on in our lives.
Giving up Facebook for the Lenten Season showed me how manipulative it has become.

Go ahead, I DARE you – avoid logging onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or whatever your social media platform of choice is for six weeks. This is one way to gain perspective on what a total time suck, and how manipulative these global monsters have become. This is not a rant about Facebook and their apparent disregard for protecting their users private information, there’s enough of that going around already, but rather a reflection on distancing myself a seemingly innocuous part of my daily routine.

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Rethinking The News Intake Cycle

/ Bailey Burk / Leave a comment
Why day old news may be better for you

Today we live in a two-hour news cycle environment. It’s exhausting, not only for those charged with gathering and reporting the news, but more for us that consume the news. Overload is inevitable, leading to accepting the unacceptable as normal behavior.

Bombarded by the likes of FOX, MSNBC, and the social media channels — Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube — we can find little respite to gather our thoughts and make informed decisions as to what is credible content and the effect it has on us.

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Social Media Reset

/ Bailey Burk / Leave a comment
When did I sign up to be sold?

Well, it’s finally happened – social media networks are being forced to come clean about how and where they make their vast fortunes.  To most of us, these networks started as benign play things where we could post pictures and inflate our digital persona to make us look cooler than we actually were. As with most technology platforms, investors became involved and what started as a noble endeavor to make the world a better place was replaced with “how can this be scaled and monetized?”

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How Social Media Is Losing Sociability

/ Bailey Burk / 1 Comment
The utopian promise of social media was founded on the sharing of ideas and respect for the individual.

In the not too distant past, social media was embraced by brands as a conduit to engage with users in hopes of creating a personal relationship. Diaper brands embraced mommy bloggers, food brands created recipe sharing websites, Facebook created the wall where users posted enhanced digital profiles of their exploits and lives. Titans of corporations envisioned social media as a way to reduce advertising costs because in their view, social media was free. Free in the sense of no media expenditures, content was provided by the users and as a bonus it came with a rudimentary form of ROI based on likes, opens and click-through rates.

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Airlines Embrace Mobile Marketing

/ Bailey Burk / Leave a comment
Airlines are experimenting with mobile marketing strategies to engage and connect with their customer base.

The State of Airline Marketing 2014 report published by SimpliFlying and airlinetrends.com identifies seven trends that airlines are exploring to increase brand preference and customer engagement. It’s not surprising that the tactical execution of these trends rely heavily on the connectivity of mobile marketing using social media networks and mobile devices (smart phones & tablets) combined with promotion. Some of the trends mentioned have merit. Others could be considered annoying in a confined space. One thing for sure is that airlines are beginning to understand the connected traveler and are looking for innovative ways to create brand loyalty.

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Social media content strategy

/ Bailey Burk / Leave a comment
Why platform selection affects the quality and quantity of social media content.

Social media, love it or leave it, is hard to get away from. What started as digital networks where like-minded users could connect and share information has grown into a multi-billion dollar network catering to sophisticated brand advertising and user generated content.

Each platform has its own particular tone and style. Understanding this allows for social media content to be developed to show a more human side of the brand or a more technical competency based on the objectives of the social media effort.

B-to-B brands seeking to use social media for engagement need to understand the strengths and limitations of their selected social platform. Where Facebook is perceived as a more B-to-C retail platform, there are numerous examples where B-to-B brands have used the platform to connect with rural outlying communities where their facilities are located.

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