A few days back, we talked about Facebook working upon the virtual reality tool ‘Metaverse.’ But now Facebook is ready to take another giant step. As per the current news, Facebook is going to bring a smart glass in collaboration with Ray-Ban. For many tech geeks, this will be something really amazing. Let’s know more about this news on Facebook’s new smart glasses that they will launch soon with this Exhibit blog.
Zuckerberg On Fire
We always say that when a batsman is hitting some beautiful shots constantly, we say that the batsman is on fire. But, for now, we have to say this for Mark Zuckerberg. The way Zuckerberg is moving is commendable in every aspect. Zuckerberg has announced on Wednesday that they are coming up with a Ray-ban smart glass. For this purpose, Facebook will partner with EssilorLuxottica. However, Zuckerberg has not announced any timeline by when it will release this new product in the market. Facebook has also clearly stated that this smart glass cannot be part of classification under augmented reality. Apart from this, this smart glass may be somewhere between Snapchat’s Spectacles and Amazon’s Echo Frames.
Facebook’s Smart Glass
Facebook’s R&D line is running with a full-fledged series of developments in current times. This smart glass will be part of Facebook Reality Labs’ project. This project will help grab data that will further get used in Facebook’s Aria plan, in which they are thinking of developing their AR smart glasses. This AR smart glass, as per Facebook, is currently in the testing phase.
Smart Glass’s Working Principle
Whatever you see in smart glasses is due to the transmission of light. This transmission of light happens because of the change in voltage, light, or heat when applied. Hence, the glass part changes its character from being transparent to translucent. Smart glass technology allows a wide range of light, including both IR and UV. Smart glasses are categorized under two core categories – active and passive, depending upon the flow of electric charges through them. Both passive and active smart glasses have different functionality depending on this segregation.
Conclusion
Facebook might have found inspiration from WI Cricketer Dwayne Bravo’s ‘Champion.’ As a technology champion, Facebook is partnering with technology like VR and AR. Smart glasses have, as of now, very few stakeholders who are building products in this domain. With Facebook coming into it, it will bolster and give a bigger push on this front.
Even the wisest scholars have said – Don’t count your chicken before they get hatched. Social media giant Snapchat may have been singing “Top of The World” after witnessing theirs in terms of numbers. Exhibit discussed this Snapchat growth through an article recently. But those numbers are currently screaming for the crashes the Snapchat app is making. Due to this, the Snapchat team had to sit back tight and tried to resolve the issue at the earliest. With this Exhibit blog, we will learn more about the Snapchat app crash issue news that was creating havoc.
Snapchat App Login Issue
On Thursday evening, more than a quarter a million Snapchat users reported the crash issue. This crash was coming every time they tried to open the app on their smartphone. This number of people who registered a complaint triggered an immediate response from the Snapchat team end. They came up with the tweet where they stated they are aware of this issue after users addressed it. The Snapchat app crash issue broke out earlier in June month, especially in the iOS versions. The development team at that moment identified the bug and eliminated it.
Why did the issue of crashing come?
The complaint of the Snapchat app crash issue came out after iPhone and iPad users downloaded the newest update that has arrived. After downloading the latest update, users observed this bug repeatedly every time they tried to open the application on their gadget. Hence, one needs to understand this issue has not come for Android users at all. In Android, the app is working perfectly fine without any tussle. People who are using the beta version of the Snapchat app on their iOS devices have also not faced any issues.
Snapchat Response
The Snapchat support team quickly came with a response and started working on this front. The best part was that the problem got contained within hours to ensure that users have hassle-free usage of this social media application. However, after fixing it, Snapchat doesn’t provide the basic reason behind the crash bug. The reason could be anything. One can say that maybe the application layer was unable to load some essential files at the OS level, due to which the crash was frequently occurring. Whatever issue was there, the most probable grassroots for the bug can be that the latest update was missing something that makes the application compatible with the OS.
Final Word
If you are an iOS gadget lover who was using the Snapchat app and was eager to report the same, you need to know that now you can sing Roy Orbison’s “It’s Over” for sure. Don’t worry, as we are not saying to think about the romantic context, but for your love for the Snapchat app.
Use Signal. This tweet came from Tesla and SpaceX’s CEO, Elon Musk when the questions came up to find alternatives to WhatsApp. The Snapchat team must have thought to connect with Elon Musk to know he didn’t take their name. Anyways, let the bygones be bygones. Snapchat has challenged the space of the social media messaging app market through its rapid surge in the past few months. Some reports state that Snapchat now has almost 293 million users. Let’s go through this Exhibit blog to know more on this latest update that has cheered the entire Snapchat app team.
Snapchat App’s Growth in 2020-2021
The news coming out is that Snapchat has added 13 million users in the last quarter, which is quite phenomenal considering the birth of Snapchat in 2017. Through this, Snapchat has registered a growth of almost 23% in its user base from the last year. Snapchat, through this, has surpassed Twitter which has 209 million users as of now. Snapchat has one more surprise for you in terms of its revenue. Yeah, the business of Snapchat is about to touch a billion-mark. Hence, it should raise some concerns for Mark Zuckerburg and Jack Dorsey as with this Snapchat has become a faster-growing business than Facebook and Twitter.
About Snapchat App
The best thing I remember when it comes to Stanford is the power-pack dialogue thrown by Douglas Urbanski in The Social Network movie. Stanford really has the tradition where people come and do something to express their form of innovation. Yeah, three tech nerds from Stanford, Bobby Murphy, Evan Spiegel, and Reggie Brown, developed this messaging charm – Snapchat. The tagline of this app is simply awesome – the fastest way to share a moment. I guess Snapchat was thought to be close to journalism. That’s why they call the messages as snap, somewhere related to a journalist’s scoop. Do you know that by using this social media messaging app, you can become a millionaire? Last year, the Snapchat team announced that they would pay 1 million $ (around 7.4 Crore INR) for posting viral videos.
Conclusion
Maybe this millionaire news has brought so many Snapchat users. But, this growth in the Asian region as Snapchat has more outreach in Europe and America. Snapchat may have accomplished good results, but they are far behind the reputation of other messaging apps. Only time will tell what’s the fate of Snapchat. However, you should think about this a million offer by the Snapchat team.
Twitter’s Chief Product Officer Kayvon Keykpour, last year confirmed that Twitter is ‘exploring’ the idea of adding a dislike button to the app. The social media app is now working on adding a new upvote and downvote reactions to tweets.
The company confirmed that it is testing the feature for a small group of iOS users through a tweet. Twitter said that the new feature might be available to the users in several different styles(up and down arrows, a heart icon, and thumbs up and thumbs down icons). The app is testing the feature to ‘understand the types of replies you find relevant in a convo, so we can work on ways to show more of them.’
However, downvotes will not be shown publicly, and the upvotes will be displayed as likes since the feature is intended only for internal metrics.
Twitter has clarified that the feature is just for research purposes and hasn’t finalised rolling it out yet. The company hasn’t yet defined how voting will affect what you see in your feed since the feature can draw parallels to Reddit. Upvoting or downvoting on Reddit is a way of surfacing a Redditor’s favourite replies, responses or posts.
Many users have noticed this similarity, including Reddit itself, who tweeted this in response:
Twitter has also recently announced that it is testing a new set of features for TweetDeck. The company is revamping its often-ignored dashboard with updates such as a full tweet composer, new advanced search features, new column types, and a new way to group columns into new workspaces.
This feature is being tested with a few US, Canada, and Australia users. The social media giant is consistently working upon bringing new and desirable changes to its app so more and more users can connect conveniently.
Of course, the application of these features will depend upon the reviews that Twitter gets during the research process.
TweetDeck provides a column layout that allows users to keep a tab on tweets from different accounts at once. Twitter made an announcement today that it will begin testing a new set of features for TweetDeck.
The company is looking forward to revamping its often-ignored dashboard with a few US, Canada, and Australia users. Kayvon Beykpour, Twitter’s Product Head said that the updated TweetDeck would include ‘a full tweet composer, new advanced search features, new column types, and a new way to group columns into clean workspaces.’
Previously in an interview with The Verge, Beykpour had admitted that Twitter ‘hadn’t given a lot of love to TweetDeck recently.’ He then described the revamp as a ‘pretty big overhaul from the ground up.
Notable changes are being promised with the recent update. The new tweet composer will allow the user to add GIFs, polls, or emojis to their tweets. This will also include scheduled tweets and not just photos and videos as it was before the update. You will also be able to write threads and tag your images.
The old column types, including Activity, Followers, Likes, and Outbox, have been removed. At the expense of these, new column types such as Profile, Topics, Explore, Events, Moments, and Bookmarks have been added.
The new features also allow you to use Boolean queries. You can easily choose between viewing either the top tweets or the latest tweets.
Additionally, the ‘Decks’ feature allows you to organize a set of columns into separate workspaces. It is helpful for people who want to create workspaces based on different themes or interests or if they want to organize tweets related to their clients.
Are We Getting Along?
These features undoubtedly provide many benefits, but the testers are concerned about losing the ‘Activity’ option that shows whenever someone you follow on Twitter follows another person or ‘favourites’ a tweet. The messages column is also perhaps a big miss.
Many users also complained about how it is difficult to resize the columns and the problems occurring while using it with multiple accounts.
Remember that the feature is still in its testing stage, and there are chances of better updates when TweetDeck rolls out more broadly. Beykpour wrote in a tweet,
“Through these tests, we’re exploring how we can give people more customization and control using TweetDeck.”
Rumours also suggest that TweetDeck might become part of Twitter Blue, which is the company’s subscription service.
We all knew DMs were going to be the next significant feature on Clubhouse. The social audio company is launching its new messaging feature, called Backchannel, for Android and iOS users.
Users can now chat one-on-one and send group chats, which brings quite a bit of utility onto the voice-driven social network. You cannot yet images or videos through Backchannel, but a spokesperson revealed that the company is bringing in those functionalities and few other features. An optional secondary inbox has also been added to see the text requests, which stay in there before you approve it.
The Backchannel feature will help the speakers chat among themselves during a live session or coordinate after the meeting.
Clubhouse announced its new feature on Wednesday through a blog post. The icon appears to the left of the follow button on the users’ profile. You can also swipe left in the room to access the Backchannel feature.
The unique proposition of the Clubhouse app is that it lets you hear the conversations, and introducing a chat feature will undoubtedly make organizing rooms a bit easier. Users can text co-hosts of the things they need to plan next, pitch in their questions, and discuss a particular topic without disturbing the host.
Backchannel lets you hold conversations with up to 15 members in a group. Not anyone will jump into the chat – only the moderator will have the power to add or remove people. Also, you’ll be warned if you are added to the group that includes someone you have blocked, so you can promptly exit.
You are also allowed to change your settings, so you only get texts from people you follow. You can also report chats or specific messages.
The app reportedly has garnered around 8 million downloads on Android devices, with more than 500,000 rooms created daily.
With cyber-crimes and hacking incidents on the rise more than ever before, Instagram is rolling out a new security check in the app, which aims to keep users’ Instagram accounts safe and secure. The Facebook-owned social media app will prompt users with previously compromised accounts to update their profile info and settings.
Instagram users were recently exposed to a text scam that put their accounts at risk in the hands of hackers. In April this year, a Facebook data hack even put CEO Mark Zukerberg into a severe cyber threat. In a similar series of events, Twitter was also left to deal with a massive Bitcoin scam last year, where few users had their private messages accessed.
Today, the social media giant announced a security checkup, aiming towards users whose connected email address or phone number was changed recently, resulting from potential hack rather than their actions.
The new Security Checkup feature will guide users through various security steps, including confirming accounts that share login information, reviewing profile information and login activity, and keeping up-to-date recovery contact information. Once the user completes the Security Checkup procedures, the account will be much safer and more protected against future cyber attacks.
Stay Safe
A recent wave of password reset emails has made its way into people’s DMs. These messages claim to be directly from Instagram to get people to share their passwords. Instagram issued a reminder stating that if any user receives direct messages claiming to be from Instagram, it is most likely not them.
“Instagram will never send you a DM: Over the past few months, we’ve seen a rise in malicious accounts DMing people to try and access sensitive information like account passwords. They may tell you that your account is at risk of being banned, that you are violating our policies around intellectual property, or that your photos are being shared elsewhere. These messages are often scams and violate our policies.”
Instead, Instagram says that they will do it via Email if they ever want to reach you. To review authentic communication from Instagram, one can go to the ‘Emails from Instagram’ tabs in their settings.
Hacks and scams are common nowadays, and it is essential to keep your data safe online. One should refrain from putting up useful or personal information on the web as much as one could. Fortunately, social media apps are adding security features to make the user experience more secure.
Are you on Instagram? Of course, you are. Instagram has more than 1.2 billion users worldwide, and that’s nearly 15% of the whole planet’s population. Such a vast audience, right? Amongst all these Instagrammers, 95% of them use the platform as a time-killing app, but have you ever thought that this one app can help you build a promising career?
If you’re in a field that benefits from having an audience, especially if you’re into a creative field like photography, modelling, fitness, cooking, etc, your Instagram feed can become your modern-day portfolio. Instagram is a rapidly growing platform that you cannot ignore as it helps you influence worldwide and gives you the freedom to do something that you always wanted. But how can one grow as a personal brand? Take a deep breath, sit back, and I’ll guide you in brief.
Username:
You only have a few seconds to make a good impression, so knock it off and make a good one. The first thing people will notice is your username, so keep it as short and simple as possible. As you’re a personal brand, it’s a great idea to use your real name, or you can personalize an attractive name that will suit your feed and profession. Whatever it is but don’t complicate your username with any unnecessary symbols or numbers; it’ll help you stand out. Mention what you are, where you are from, and what’s your profession in bio, but in a decent and short text, don’t overdo it, and keep changing over time.
Know Your Audience:
In a world where social media matters more than anything, having the right audience is the key to success. It’s important how you connect with them visually; you have to be clear about what you’re going to add to their daily feed. If you’re into a creative field, then create a specific tone-vibe and use relatable but interesting captions to bring them to you as at the end of the day, they’re going to remember you by your work. The same applies to the rest of the fields; know your audience, know what they’re looking for and create your page accordingly.
Instagram Aesthetic:
What kind of difference do you notice when you visit your favourite Influencers feed and a regular Instagrammer’s feed? Yes, what you’re thinking is absolutely right, the aesthetics, the way they’ve composed their pictures. A well planned Instagram feed can visually convey brands in a second, as it shows how professional and passionate you’re about your work. You can learn how to set the aesthetic just by visiting your favourite profiles, are they bright and lively, or are they following some patterns? Note such things down and decide which one is suitable for you. These little things will not only give you a decent account but also helps you in building a fanbase. If you want to stay ahead of the game, then pre-plan your feed with Later’s Visual Instagram Planner because staying organized is always a great option.
Creative Editing:
The film is made in the editing room, so the Instagram feed. The essence of every art is editing, and learning it is like adding one more feather of art to your portfolio. Adopting the same or set of filters and following the same editing rules will help you keep your photos looking consistent. Adobe Lightroom, Snapseed and VSCO are the most helpful and must learn apps if you plan to level up your Instagram photos and work on aesthetics.
Amongst these, Snapseed and VSCO are pretty easy to use; if you’re looking to edit your images in less than three-four taps, then these two are best, but if you want a more professional look for your pictures, then I would recommend Adobe Lightroom, by far one of the most powerful photo editing tools out there. Also, keep these things in mind while editing your photos on an app, the temperature, brightness, and contrast, maintain these things to keep your feed consistent.
Replying to Comments:
If you have thousands of followers, then it’s not humanly possible to reply to each of them, but if you’re just started or into a developing phase, this will work great. Just a simple thanks will work wonders, even if they’re trolling you.
Hashtags:
Your personal brand is the intention behind your outward-facing interactions with the world, and you might think that with aesthetics and creative editing, you can create a decent fanbase, but what about a worldwide reach? Well, a hashtag is an answer to that. Research on what your fellow Instagrammers are hashtagging, create your hashtag to get noticed quickly, appeal to your audience about using the same hashtags, and add tagged picture stories to make them happy; these little interactions will help you go beyond the boundaries. If you’re looking for a hashtag generator, use Tailwind’s Hashtag Finder, the site will help you with the best hashtags to use for Instagram. Also, if you’re posting some brand-related content, even if it’s non-sponsored, don’t forget to tag the brands; who knows, they might feature or repost you in their next post.
With all these tips, you can have a fair head start over your competition, so don’t wait for the right day; go on, seize the opportunity.
With tech going in all directions at a pace we can’t even catch up with, newer marketing ideas are on the rise. There are so many social platforms and add to it the formats, duration, diversified audience, ‘storytelling’ and so much more. This can be so overwhelming for a marketing professional. Where’s the success? Which social media platform will spell it for me? Which strategy will work the best? This giant did this but the other one did the exact opposite and both went viral. Confused? Let us decode the M in Tech for you.
Let’s get to the main point first.
The Main Focus
It is not in the ‘what’ and ‘where’ you begin your campaign but in the ‘how’. We already know this but when it comes to current happenings in the marketing world, we completely forget this. Some might argue YouTube is outdated and IGTV is the new lasting trend, others will call YouTube the stepping stone to success. Let’s get rid of the herd mentality.
For instance, if the world is leaving Twitter behind and going all out on TikTok, should you too? If you’re a fitness brand that wants to showcase how cool the new treadmill meter is then yes but if you’re a pharmaceutical company who wants to talk about the importance of chlorine in swimming pools, then maybe not. You get the point, don’t you? While the whole world is saying a ‘no’ to Twitter and you’re a media company churning out fresh news stories by the hour, would you go with the world? If you do, I’m afraid you’d be losing out on thousands of people who are your REAL audience.
Follow Your Audience
Technology enables you to perform and deliver in so many directions, you’re literally spoilt for choice but what choice you make is not based on the abundance of technology that you have in your box but the one that will make you stand out of it. Follow the technology that your audience follows. Period. Market your products and services in a format that your audience consumes the most. If it is videos, create fantastic and visually appealing videos that add value and put them on YouTube, TikTok and Facebook. Make use of IGTV’s vertical format. If it is static images, make them interactive and appealing and create a campaign for Pinterest, Instagram and Facebook. If textual content does the best job for you, get on your Twitter now. Use Tumblr to build a community and lure them to your website.
The How
You see the opportunities there? There’s an unbelievable amount of things you can do on the social media side of tech but more than ‘where’ you do what you do, it’s about how you do it too. While we did talk about the ‘where’, it is time to talk about the ‘how’. Formats are very important to understand when it comes to digital marketing. An infographic might create a ‘wow’ factor on Pinterest and drive traffic to your website but it might not be an option for Twitter. Animated GIFS might be good for Instagram and Twitter but not the best for Pinterest or Tumblr. So much happening here? Confused again? Let’s simplify it for you.
When you’re building your digital marketing strategy, here’s how you go about it.
Define your audience
Define the social platforms best suited for your products/services (forget the herd mentality)
Define the formats best suited for the social platforms you choose.
That’s how simple it really is. What will create an impact will be your brand message and the way you communicate with your audience. Technology will keep throwing new apps and social platforms at you but you need to follow the above steps to keep simplifying things for you as a marketer. Keep filtering everything new in order to not get carried away. Use new tech platforms wisely and build your digital strategy without hiccups. Whatever you do, don’t miss out on new stuff and while you do that, don’t forget what your brand is all about!
So what’s trending? That’s what everyone wants to know about, especially on TikTok. While a lot of you use it, the ones who don’t might possibly have some preconceived notions about it. By that we mean the ‘not very good’ notions. The platform has been judged by many and while that has been for all the right reasons, there’s something about TikTok that no other platform has. Let’s figure out what that is.
We have Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and the not-so-popular-anymore Twitter when we want to post content. We love to portray a specific image of ourselves in order to be ‘liked’, literally. Here’s why TikTok is the breath of fresh air amidst all the ‘good looking’ social media platforms.
It breaks stereotypes
Not only is the platform very unique with it’s 15 sec and 60 sec short video format but is also unique in its audience. It is open to ALL and the audience literally welcomes ALL. The platform is used as much by a rickshaw puller as is used by a doctor. It is used as much by a fitness model as is by those with imperfect bodies who promote a message against ‘body shaming’. While a lot of people are of the opinion that the platform is full of generation Z showing off their multicolored hair and grooving an odd move to a sexually explicit song, you need to dive in to actually see what the generation Z is actually doing. They’re promoting messages of anti-racism, love for the LGBTQ community and a lot more that we all can learn from. There’s no other platform that authentically breaks stereotypes without any pretence than TikTok.
EVERYONE is the audience
From 14 year olds to 80 year olds and everything in between can be seen doing their thing. There’s an audience for everyone because literally, everyone is the audience. This makes TikTok’s content very very broad and there’s always something for everyone. From makeup artists to phenomenally talented dancers from small villages in some corner of the world, everyone has a voice that can be heard by everyone. Isn’t that a really good thing?
EVERYONE is allowed to be who they are?
While there’s so much pretence and so much care taken about how you look and appear before you switch on your expensive DSLR to capture one picture for Instagram, TikTok audience doesn’t care. They only want to see good content. If you’re talented or have something good to offer, they don’t care how you look or if you’re rich or poor. That makes the platform free of judgement. Status, gender, appearance no bar. You’re free to be who you are and you’ll not be shamed but accepted with open arms. Makes you feel at home, doesn’t it?
The Talent you see will put your Judgements to Shame
While most platforms are about pictures and videos, the formats, sound effects, music and filters you see on TikTok allow you to do much more. So if you thought a Rashmi from Jaunpur can’t rap because ‘Does she even know English?’, you’re so wrong. This is one place where you’ll see so much talent from every corner of the world that it will urge you to showcase what you can do too! The energy and positivity is phenomenal.
These are the four major reasons why you should download TikTok and check it out. Now before you think ‘TikTok is for kids who want to show the new pair of red and yellow sneakers they bought’, read point number 3 again. It’s only when you put your judgement aside will you be able to see all that we just told you. After all, it’s not only unfair but also dangerous to live with assumptions!
