Real News OR Fake News; take it with a pinch of salt

Yes, the invention of Internet is amazing and we have been talking about how they help businesses, improves life, etc. 

The Good & Bad.

Positive & Negative.

Pros & Cons.

You see how they always comes together? So if there is a good side, there will definitely be the bad.

Source — meganeng4u.wordpress.com

Have you ever witness your parents showing and sharing some news/videos from Facebook and turns out that those are fake news? 

For me, yes. Very frequently.

Source — tenor.com

But I wouldn't blame them though. The older generations is always the target of scams, spams and frauds as they are considered to be gullible and won't have enough exposure to knowledge in order to differentiate between the real and fake. 

Today's topic will be on FAKE NEWS.

Source — independent.ie

What is Fake News?

Fake news is news, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately provide false information to deceive readers. The motive are to influence people's view, push a political agenda, or simply to attract attention. Fake news are usually done by imitating trusted websites like Channel News Asia by using same/similar names and websites URL. 

Fake news is not new but has became more dangerous and difficult to identify. We got our news from trusted sources and media outlets where strict code of practice is required. With the increasing amount of social media platform available to us, everyone can publish and share any information online with the world! Everyone has the freedom to post anything without any restrictions and little regulation and editorial standards to follow. 

For some people, fake news is easy to identify and they can just ignore them. However, for some people, they usually trust what they saw and never check if the source is trusted. 

Not only my parents but recently I realised that some of my friends are victim of fake news as well! 

The news on fires ravaging the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil is a serious concern that enraged everyone. Then immediately after the news, there has been Instagram post and stories circulating around stating "repost to donate $1" and "1 like = $1". Suddenly all of my Instagram stories is my friends sharing the post in hope of helping. 

Below are 3 photos of how the Instagram post looks like.

Source — huffpost.com

Some of the post even tagged(@) and mentioned organisations like National Geographic is participating in their fundraising campaign to make them trustable. However, after circulating for a few days, it got out of hand and news outlets started warning people not to trust and share these post from unofficial websites/accounts. National Geographic senior director of communications even mentioned this issue in an email stating "We are not affiliated with these organisations or social media accounts and are working to address these inaccuracies". 

What's more shocking is that even public figures starts sharing fake news and with the high number of followers on their social media, they ended up misleading millions on social media unintentionally. 

Here is an example,

Source — news.abs-cbn.com

Cristiano Ronaldo posted this photo on his Instagram sharing information with his 184.9 million followers. It was later found out that the photo above was taken on 2013 in the non-amazonian state of Rio Grande do Sul by Lauro Alves, from the Brazilian agency RBS. 

Even though the older generations are more prone to trusting fake news, they are clearly not the only victim of fake news! 

This clearly shows how dangerous fake news is.

So, How To Avoid Fake News?

• Evaluate! One example would be always check the date and time of the actual post not the date of the post shared. Some people like to bring up past news to mislead people by thinking that it is happening at the moment! 

• Google! Google is our best friend! But remember to always click on CREDIBLE news websites.

• One of the easiest way is to read news only from official news outlet. Go directly to credible news websites!

LAST ADVICE FROM ME WOULD BE any news, stories and information found on social media and websites that are not by credible or verified sources, always take it with a pinch of salt!

Source — giphy.com

Do not let these people behind fake news manipulate you! 

Have you ever been a victim of fake news? 
What are your thoughts on this? 
Do share them with me in the comment section below :)

Why IMC?

What is IMC?

Source — kais.me

IMC stands for Integrated Marketing Communications, whereby all forms of communications and messages are thoughtfully combined together to reinforce brand message for targeted audiences. 

Instead of relying on individual marketing efforts, this approach simultaneously make use of multiple channels to provide consistency and maximum communications impact. These channels includes advertising, public relations, direct marketing, social media and sales promotion. 

Why do you need IMC strategy?

So why do businesses need IMC strategy?

1. Delivering Consistent Message

If you manages to deliver one message across all channels with consistency, then it is successful! As business's message is the most important in order not to lose audience. If business message becomes unfocused and inconsistent, your audiences will starts to disappear one by one! 

Source — medium.com

2. Cost Savings

By using the same images and same copy for different media, cost of copy-writing, designing is reduced. 

Source — ydr.com

3. Align with Customer Preferences

An integrated campaign helps with providing customers information in their preferred format by specifying how they would like to receive product information, email, text message, or phone calls. This ensures that customers as well as potential customers receive the same information in all communications. 

Source — giphy.com

4. Increase the Connection Between Brand and Lifestyle

Through an IMC approach, brands can be associated with a particular lifestyle which can lead to an increase in loyal customers. 

Source — dribbble.com

5. Retain Customers

It is definitely much more affordable to market to existing consumer than to acquiring new customers. With the digital age, it is much more easier for entrepreneurs to start doing businesses and there will be more competition in the industry. Therefore, retaining customers is important. In order to do so, businesses should ensure that the same value is shared, and IMC is the best way to integrate these values to customers.

Source — omnikick.com

IMC plans are one of the easiest and most effective ways to UP YOUR COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIES GAME! 

Start implementing an IMC strategy if you haven't already!! 

Feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comment section below ;)

The Showdown: SEO vs PPC

Source — ppcprotect.com

Have you search for something today on Google? Places to eat, products to buy or even ordering product online. 

Whenever there is something I want to know, Google is the first "person" that I reaches out to.

& I bet its the same for you too ;) 

So with billions of searches going on in the world, HOW ARE BUSINESSES SUPPOSED TO GET GOOGLE TO NOTICE THEIR WEBSITE? 

Before we jump into talking about the showdown between SEO and PPC, let us understand what exactly SEO and PPC and how they work. 

SEO

Source — lyfemarketing.com

SEO, Search Engine Optimisation is the process of optimising website to get organic or unpaid traffic from the search engine results page. The algorithmic search results are those directly below the top PPC ads in Google as highlighted in the screenshot below. 

PPC

Source — etalktech.com

PPC, Pay-Per-Click is an online advertising model where marketers pay each time a user clicks on one of their online ads. These ads appear when we search for information on Google. For example, in the screenshot, I typed "resume template" and the first 2 websites that appears is a PPC ad. 

I personally tend to skipped the PPC websites while searching for information on Google. Since I know that it is a paid ad and might not be as trustworthy. 

SEO VS PPC 

So now that we understand how SEO and PPC works, what are the pros and cons of both?

SEO takes time to see organic results, a relatively slow process in order to improve results over time,  and requires ongoing optimisation.

PPC results is almost immediate, requires proper management to control budget, and once stop, traffic and results stop as well.

How to choose between both!

How about.....

Combining power?

Source — techbuzztalk.com

SEO + PPC = Increased search engine presence

Improving website with SEO gives better chance at ranking on first page of search result, by purchasing PPC ads for the same keyword will allow the website to appear near the top of the first page whenever the keyword is searched! By optimising website and purchasing PPC ads will ensure website to dominates search results! :D 

When running both SEO and PPC ads simultaneously, there will be more data available to collect and analyse. Using these information can help marketers better understand their target audience, which then modify SEO and PPC strategies accordingly. 

What do you think about SEO and PPC joining forces? 

Or would you prefer them working separately?

I'm definitely against their separation!

Do share your thoughts on this with me in the comment sections below. ^^

A 24/7 Surveillance Camera Spying On Us....

Big Data is the surveillance camera... and we are the target!

Source — dreamstime.com

Big Data? What is big data?

Have you seen any of the photos or videos on your Instagram and Facebook that shows a flashback of your posts? Or the anniversary of becoming friends with another account? 

If yes, you have witnessed how Big Data is being used. 

"So What's About Big Data?"

Many of us must be thinking the same thing. However, the important thing is not the amount of data, but what organisations is doing with the (our) data. 

THE ANGEL VS THE DEVIL 

 

Source — thekeyplay.com

Right now, we are in a world that will be rule by Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine to Machine (M2M) where machines are producing more information than us. Big data and IoT are interdependent and they are able to take actions on their own (with all the data available to them). Sounds scary right! :( 

So is it a good or a bad thing?

We will be looking into Big Data's positive and negative contributions.

THE ANGEL

Healthcare - The application of big data analytics in healthcare is by utilising specific health data of a population and potentially help to prevent widespread diseases, finding better treatments, etc. 

The benefits of using these data is the ability in determining why specific drugs worked on different types of people. By using big data to understand patient as much as possible can allow doctors to treat or prevent any possible disease. 

Though we cannot guarantee that this will solve all diseases but no doubt, Big Data in healthcare is definitely saving money and even lives. 

THE DEVIL 

With its amazing potential to improve healthcare in the world, so now what is the problem with Big Data?

Think, have you ever been so curious about someone that you went on to Facebook to simply type their name and information is available right in front of you; where the person live, how they live, where they go, who are their family, and what they like. If you think about it, it is actually creepy that even strangers can get these informations about you. 

This also makes people and societies more open to manipulation such as people getting tricked into giving credit card numbers. 

As time goes by, there will be an increase in data about us than before and these data is kept in much more places which develop more targets for attack. 

No matter
how we feel about this, we are living in a world of Big Data.

Are you concern about how big data is being use? Why and why not? Do share your thoughts with me in the comment sections. 

Thanks for reading! ^^

Who Run The World? Phones

What do you make sure to take along before leaving the house?

Bag? Nah.

Wallet? Maybe.

Phone? Definitely.

Source — richtopia.com

Why?

Reason being we can do almost everything using our mobile phone.

Not to mention the basic functions like calling, texting and information search, we can easily book air tickets, shop online and now even contactless payment such as Apple Pay and Samsung Pay at most stores.

Source — medium.com

So, What Is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is a strategy to reach out to target audience on their smartphones and mobile devices, via social media, websites, applications, and emails.

Mobile marketing is important to brand and businesses to help them in getting close to their customers and target audiences. Continuously throwing ads and appearing on their social media feeds will be hard for them to forget your brand and may eventually lead to top-of-mind awareness.

There are plenty of mobile marketing trends such as video ads on social media platforms, artificial intelligence, in-app ads, etc. and as I’m about to talk about all these, something caught my attention.

This.

so while waiting for my internet to get connected again, I ended up playing a few rounds of it.

Source — tenor.com

Gamification just kept me entertained and engaged.

Thinking back on all the times where I’ve came across gamified content, I clicked almost 80% of them just to see what happens. I would usually scroll or swipe ads away, but it is hard to resist mini games.

Now, let's bring our attention to this example below:

Nike+ Run Club (NRC) App

Source — birchtree.com

Nike+ Run Club (NRC) is a free running app created to encourage users to run. NRC not only offers basic running app features such as tracking each run but also features in-app run coaching that is based on individual’s abilities and is customised to help users get the most out of each run. Playlist is also provided by Apple Music and Spotify to make each run more enjoyable. Users can also share their progress and achievements with whoever they choose to share with and this tap into their competitive spirit.

Source — popsugar.co.uk

Ok, so now here comes the part that makes users continue using.

Source — popsugar.co.uk

The app is constantly updating features to provide what their users need and one of them is allowing them to compete in a leaderboard that tells the user how many runners are ahead of them. Rewards such as badges and other prizes will be awarded to them if their personal record is broken. Sharing of photos and stickers is also feasible where users gets to boast about their results. There is also another feature under the events tab that allows users to participate in races according to location and sharing with friends.

Source — popsugar.co.uk

Even Though 

Nike is already a leading brand in the sports industry, they are constantly making effort in their marketing effort. I feel that without incorporating gamification elements in application, users will eventually become disinterested and tend to quit.

Mobile marketing is definitely one of the most relevant way for businesses to reach out and connect with their digital target audiences.

What do you guys think?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! :)