Tag: social media

Social Media Sites and Applications to Be Exempted From the Encryption’s Domain Policy

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

 

New Delhi: Shortly after a debate emitted over government’s proposal to explore each message send by an individual by WhatsApp, SMS, or Google Hangouts, the Department of Electronics and Information Technology cleared up in a draft that online networking sites and applications will be exempted from the Encryption’s domain Policy.

The draft posted by Deity indicates that there are classifications of encryption products that will be excused from the draft’s domain national encryption policy.

Encryption products, which are as of now being utilized in web applications, social media sites, and social media applications such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter etc are excluded from the purview of the draft National Encryption Policy, confirmed a proposed addendum to the policy posted on the department’s website.

Encryption items utilized as a part of Internet banking and payment gateways, and for e-commerce and password-based transactions will be exempted as well.

Read Also: Facebook Introduces SIGNAL, A Social News Gathering Tool for Journalists

Earlier Deity had proposed that all the messages which are sent through encrypted messaging services like WhatsApp (Android version supports encryption), Google Hangouts or Apple’s iMessage, must be stored safe for 90 days.  Privacy concerns triggered heated debate.

The draft of New Encryption Policy proposes that upon demand users of encrypted messaging service must reproduce same text, transacted during a communication before law enforcement agencies. It should be in a plain format. Failing to do so may result in imprisonment of the user as per the provisions.

The proposed policy of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology will be made applicable for everyone including government departments, academic institutions, normal citizens and for all kind of communications.

All the modern messaging services like WhatsApp, Viber, Line, Google Chat, yahoo messenger etc, has high level of encryption and many times security offices think that it is difficult to catch these messages.

“All information shall be stored by the concerned B/C entity for 90 days from the date of transaction and made available to Law Enforcement Agencies as and when demanded in line with the provisions of the laws of the country,” the draft said.

The ‘B category’ in the draft is defined as all statutory organizations, executive bodies, business and commercial establishments, including all Public Sector Undertakings, Academic institutions.

The draft has defined ‘C category’ as all citizens including personnel of government and business performing non-official or personal functions.

The user should provide the readable plain text along with the corresponding encrypted information if they communicate with foreigner or entity abroad.

As per the draft, all service providers located inside or outside India which uses encryption technology for providing any type of services in India should register themselves with the government.

Recommended Read: Facebook to Finally Introduce “Dislike” Button

The New Encryption Policy is introduced under section 84 A of Information Technology Act 2000, as proposed by the draft. Through amendment in 2008, this section was introduced. Sub-section 84 C introduced through the amendment has provision of imprisonment for violation of the act.

“Encryption products may be exported but with prior intimation to the designated agency of Government of India. Users in India are allowed to use only the products registered in India. Government, reserves the right to take appropriate action as per Law of the country for any violation of this Policy,” the draft said.

October 16, 2015 is the last date for public to comment on the draft.

“Having a draft on issue is a welcome step. It looks at everything with prism of law enforcement. It will create a license raj. There is very much concern around privacy of citizen. The policy wants messages to be given on demand. If my private information is sought by government, it should be done through courts,” Arun Sukumar,Head Cyber Initiative, said.

Source

Facebook to Finally Introduce “Dislike” Button

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As per popular opinion, Facebook “Dislike” button has long been overdue. The company finally seems to be listening. During a town hall meeting at the company’s California headquarters, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the feature would be coming soon.

He also said that the “Dislike” button would not “downvote” posts, but instead let users express other emotions.

“People have asked about the ‘dislike’ button for many years, and probably hundreds of people have asked about this, and today is a special day because today is the day that I actually get to say we are working on it, and are very close to shipping a test of it,” said Zuckerberg

Read Also: This is Why Marketers will love Facebook’s New Sign-Up Ads

Whatever the intentions, the public might have a different opinion.

Also, Facebook is where news publishers manage to get a majority of their traffic to their websites these days. So a “dislike” button might influence the traffic inflow. In that case, brands would have to change their content strategy and approach.

Source

Effective Social Media Marketing Tricks for 2015

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Any digital marketer will know the importance of Social Media Marketing, be it for promoting their brand or for increasing sales. Social media is a vast medium which is constantly changing. So, as a marketer, unless you stay up-to-date with the current social media marketing trends, you might not be able to make any significant difference. With hordes of businesses flocking the social media market, you have to use every trick up your sleeve to get that edge. To make your job easy, we give you some effective social media marketing strategies that will improve your online presence.

  • Relook & Revamp Your Social Media Profiles: You might already have created your social media profiles or might be working on profiles that someone set for you. But, that doesn’t mean you should not go back and review the profiles. There are umpteen reasons to do that. Polish your profiles – personalize them. Social networks often keep updating their features to improve user experience. You should also do the same. Keep checking for updates and take advantage of the latest features introduced. Update your profile with the latest photos. Professional background graphics or images make a huge difference.
  • Don’t Shy Away From Multimedia: They say “A picture is worth a thousand words” and rightly so. Give your customer the inside perspective of the product or service you sell. Use professional pictures and videos of the products extensively, so that the customer gets the look and feel of the product. This will make the customers come back to your profile everytime they want any details of the product. Don’t just stick to images or videos about your businesses. Customers like to relate to the brand. So, go ahead and highlight your corporate events that you participated or some in-house events that occurred.
  • Invest in Integrated Social Media Strategy: To achieve optimal results, it is essential to integrate your social activities. So, devise a strategy that is flexible and that will meet the ever-changing needs of social media. Make a calendar with all the upcoming events or any other promotion that you plan to do. Use social share buttons wherever possible to make your content shareable.
  • Personalize Your Approach: Each of your media post relating to your business can be plain boring. Social media is the platform where people come to communicate and engage with others. You have to understand that audience needs to be felt included, and the best way to do that is to personalize your approach. Humour is a great way to reach out to your audience. Conduct simple polls, post on your clients pages to publicly thank them for their business, ask questions based on the current topics and most important of all, respond. Don’t let it be one sided, respond to the tweets and posts of others. Comment, like, retweet, say a simple Thank You for their comments or apologize for some error that occurred.
  • Work on Social Login: Registering on websites can be an annoying process and most often will dissuade the customer from doing so. People think twice before adding a new username and password to their already long list. You have to adapt the simpler method to improve your website visitors’ experience and to improve your registration conversions. And the best way to do it is through social logins. Give your customers the choice to login using their social media profiles. This way you are minimizing the registration process, while getting the chance to import their photographs, personal details and their addresses.Another advantage is that you will be reducing spam as well.
  • Be Punctual: To get the maximum results, timeliness is a crucial factor. Respond timely; don’t wait for hours to respond. Craft your message around the most happening issue on social media. If you take your own sweet time to respond, you’ll lose out on the chance of having your message heard. Timely response, matched with a crafty slogan and a hard-hitting image will give you the right boost.

Recommended Read: 10 E-mail Marketing Hacks That Every Marketer Should Know

This is Why Marketers will love Facebook’s New Sign-Up Ads

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Businesses are in constant search for e-mail addresses to find prospective customers.  But to sign up for a newsletter or to request a sales call by typing in the e-mail address is a tough task, especially using a mobile phone. Therefore, Internet users generally refuse to do that.

However, with Facebook’s new sign-up ads, it’s going to be easier. Your e-mail address, phone number and other details can be filled in automatically just by tapping twice. Facebook is still testing these “lead-ads” with small business groups for their credibility.

With Facebook ads, information such as Full Name, E-mail, Street Address, Phone, Zip, City, State, Country, Company Name, Job Title etc. can be filled in.

Facebook ads do care about user privacy and therefore, the information will be handed over only when the call-to-action buttons like “Subscribe” and “Submit” are clicked. Users can also edit the information according to their convenience. Also, it’s up to the user to choose to give away their data to marketers or not.

Facebook Partners With Kaspersky Labs to Get Rid of Malicious Software

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Facebook had announced on Tuesday that they have been recently using a new security tool in order to identify and remove malicious software to make the usage of the site easier for people.

Facebook has joined hands with Kaspersky Labs to develop a program along with other security firms like ESET, F-Secure and Trend Micro.

Trevor Pottinger, a Facebook security engineer, said, “Thanks to the collaboration with these companies, in the past three months we have helped clean up more than two million people’s computers that we detected were infected with malware when they connected to Facebook. In these cases, we present a cleanup tool that runs in the background while you continue using Facebook, and you get a notification when the scan is done to show you what it found.”

The program is said to use “a combination of signals to help find infections and get the malware off of your computer for good, even if the malware isn’t actively spreading spam or harmful links.”

According to Kaspersky Lab’s Kate Kochetkova, Facebook users are often prone to various online fraudulent schemes like “phishing,” where faked e-mails are sent to the users to download malware. “Facebook is a major aim for phishers: one in five phishing scams targets Facebook notifications. So be vigilant when you receive emails appearing to be from Facebook: as they can be fake. There are lots of Trojans targeting Facebook users as well,” she said.

Twitter to Enhance E-Shopping Experience with New Product Pages

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Twitter is finally transforming from being just a social media website to a good marketing platform.

The social media platform has introduced new product page and another page that the company called “Collections” where information about a specific product or places are given. Also, customers can buy products from there.

A product page in twitter consists of things like tweets about the product, user reviews, pricing and sometimes, a buy button. However, Collections page is a bit different. It contains more of recommended products and places selected by a brand or a high-profile curator.

Though Twitter has tried various shopping experiments before, this time they are at a much advanced level. Twitter already has a user base from which they can collect information about different products to be features in product and collectible pages. They can use the information to educate the potential buyers. Also, the website is going to collect a huge revenue with these pages.

100% Growth in Social Media Usage in Rural India

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According to the  ‘Social Media in India 2014’ report by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) International, there has been 100% growth in social media usage in the last one year in rural India. The total number of users in the area is 25 million.

However, the growth is not that high in urban India. It is only 35% there, with the total number of users being 118 million as on April 2015. Almost half of the social media users in urban India hail from metro cities.

There are 143 million social media users in India as on April 2015.  According to the report, 34% of the social media users are college going students. 27% of the lot comprise of young men while 12% of the social media users in India are school-goers.

College going students and young men constitute 60% of the social media users from urban India.

Out of the total number of social media users in India, 61% access the platforms using mobile devices. “The fact that almost two-thirds of the users are already accessing social media through their mobile is a promising sign. With the expected increase in mobile traffic the number of users accessing social media on mobile is only bound to increase,” the report said.

How can Social Media Marketing Help You Retain Customers?

Posted on by NextJSjointviews

Posts, likes, shares, comments, tweets, +1s! If you thought that’s all social media platforms are about, you were wrong. Apart from showing off your location and status to the world, social media platforms are also among the best means to enhance your business.

“A brand is no longer what we tell the customer it is. It is what customers tell each other it is”- Scott Cook

Social media platforms are viewed as the “next big thing” by entrepreneurs mainly because it is where most of the potential customers will be since majority of the world are Internet users. But, some people disagree with that. They feel that social media marketing doesn’t really bring any huge difference to their business.

However, the statistics say something different… (source)

In 2014,

92% marketers felt that social media marketing was important for their business and out of the 92%, 80% of the marketers felt that social media marketing has increased traffic to their website.

97% marketers have already set their foot in the world of social media marketing. But 85% of them are still not sure of which social media tools to use to yield best results.

The statistics themselves reveal the potential of social media marketing and its positive effect on business.

Social media marketing can help you retain customers in the following ways:

Brand recognition

You should never spare an opportunity to show off your content and earn a place for yourselves amongst the crowd. Social media networks are the best platforms you can opt for to earn recognition for your brand. Not only does it help you to grab the attention of new customers, but also familiarizes  existing customers with your business.

Brand loyalty

Social media networks can be used to build a sense of trust and likeness among your customers since it enables you to connect directly to your audience. Therefore, utilizing the social media tools to the fullest and a finely planned and executed marketing strategy can influence your customers to stay loyal to your brand.

More chances to convert leads to business

The content you post in your social media platform is an opportunity for you to convert your site visitors to paying customers.  Through social media marketing, you get to interact with your customers. You get to know their reaction to your products and for almost every positive interaction, conversion is possible.

Higher conversion rates

Social media marketing can result in higher conversion rates. Also, it helps in improvising your brand according to the taste of the customer. Since you get to interact with the customers through social media networks, you can know about what they like and dislike about your product. Also interaction with your customers can help you in building trust and faith in the customer’s minds. Thus you can build a greater audience and improve your conversion rates.

Higher brand authority

You might have seen how people appreciate or criticize a brand in social media platforms. Keeping the negative feed backs apart, every time they mention the name of your brand, it is marketing and it compels others to keep themselves updated about what is happening to your brand. You can use this opportunity to interact with people on a regular manner and earn their faith.

Increased inbound traffic

Without social media marketing, inbound traffic to your site may be restricted to your already existing customers. Every profile you create on social media platforms link back to your website and the content that you post there will help you earn new customers.  Inbound traffic also depends on the quality of content you post. With better quality content, you will be able to enjoy better inbound traffic leading to higher conversion rates.

Lesser marketing costs

According to 84% of the marketers around the world, taking an effort of 6 hours per week itself can result in an increase in traffic. Spend a couple of hours to plan and another couple of hours to create quality content. That’s all you may need to start seeing desired results and it is not much of an effort. Once your brand is popular, you need not spend more on marketing it.

Improved Search Engine Rankings

Search engine rankings play an important role in earning you permanent customers and enhancing your business. People tend to notice your business only if the website appears in the first two pages of the search engine. Criteria such as regular updating of blogs, optimization of tags, sites pointing to your website, content that is not plagiarized etc. are not the only things that are considered by Google while ranking your website these days. Since almost every brand uses social media to promote, the presence of your business on social media might have an influence on your website’s Google page rank too. Being active in social media gives search engines a signal that your brand can be trusted and is loyal.

Interaction with customers

Social media is a communication platform just like telephones and e-mails.  You can interact directly with your customers and know their opinions on your product and their expectations. You tend to provide customer care at a personal level in social media networks and thereby prove that your brand is trustworthy. If a person complains about your product via social media, you can address the issue in a very short time and try to solve it. Or if a customer appreciates you, you can thank them and offer information about additional products from your brand.

Customer Insights

When you market your product through print ads or TV ads, you have to wait for a long period to know about the customer reaction. You need not wait that long when it comes to social media. You can read customer opinion in the form of comments. You can analyse what they want and improvise your products accordingly. You’ll get to know the contents that interest the customers and thus improve the content you post. At the end, all these interactions help you create a strategy that can help you enhance your business.

If you are still not sure about using social media for business, you need to know the following things

The competition is on

While you stay away from social media, there already exists an intense competition between different brands selling the same products as yours. When all your competitors enjoy the benefits of social media, such as increased conversion rates and web traffic, why should you stay idle?

Sooner you start, larger will be the audience

Social media is all about earning new acquaintances and getting social. In a similar way, you can earn as many potential customers once you enter the world of social media

Nothing to lose

You don’t endure any significant loses if your social media marketing isn’t successful.  Also, the money and time you spend on social media is nothing much compared to what you spend for other marketing techniques.

The earlier you go for it, the better your benefits will be.