Twitter is all set to introduce new features in direct messages to help businesses improve customer service. The new features will help brands to leverage welcome messages and quick replies to customers. Apart from phone, email and web chat; twitter interactions are redefining the way brands interact with customers. Twitter clearly appears to be on its toes through a series of developments lately. #social
Pinterest-acquired Instapaper gives free access to its paid features like full-text search, unlimited notes and speed reading. Earlier, the premium features were available only to users who could cough up $3 per month or $30 per year. By offering ad-free app experience, Instapaper expects surge in usage and hopes to boost product development. #social
A recent study shows that people who use Facebook live longer. This is the latest news that is in contradiction to previous studies that have blamed Facebook for an increase in depression and anxiety. Online support systems seem to be as real as real-life support system, and this study proves it. #social
If you were surprised by the number of content that was taken down by Facebook, change might soon come. The social giant announced that it will remove less content and will work with new criteria that take into account a number of viewpoints. #social #policy
Many people are aghast that Vine is going to be killed by Twitter all of a sudden. If you are one of them, Giphy is allowing you to quickly archive all your work so that nothing is lost at all. While Vine was a great social marketing tool, Giphy will at least let you take a backup. #social
Connected Devices Could Be to Blame for the Recent DDoS Attack A distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack which the Internet recently. A large portion of the Internet was affected and raised legitimate questions about cyber security and safety. Dyn reported that our connected devices could take a share of the blame, especially when it comes to security attacks. #privacy #security Go Insta Brings Live Videos to Instagram To play catch up with Snapchat, Instagram is bringing a live video service called ‘Go Insta’, which allows you to post images and videos as part of a story but they will be available only for 24 hours. The users who broadcast the videos come with a banner that that reads ‘LIVE’, to tell others that they’re broadcasting. #digital #marketing Facebook Adopts Client-side Ranking to Improve News Feed Facebook just employed client-side ranking to ensure that News Feed content is more efficient. The idea is to bring news articles and content quickly. The idea is to make new links load quickly in the background, so that the redesigned News Feed loads everything almost instantaneously. #social Google Will Now Associate Web Tracking with Personally Identifiable User Data Apparently, Google just changed its privacy policy silently to associate web tracking with personally identifiable user data. This is supposed to be anonymous and breaks the promise that Google had once made. This could raise questions about Google Pixel, Google’s new smartphone which could make collecting such personal data easier. #privacy #security Linux’s Next Ubuntu Release Codenamed ‘Zesty Zapus’ If you are a Linux user and were wondering when the new Ubuntu update would be released, here are some clues. First, the next release will be Ubuntu 17.04, and its launch date will soon be announced. Second, it has a strange codename, just like its predecessors and is called ‘Zesty Zapus’. #os
Coming Soon: Facebook at Work Gone are the days when Facebook was banned at work. Now, the popular social media tool may soon become the next big workplace collaboration platform. Maintaining the same look and feel, Facebook at Work will let users add and share comments, photographs, videos and information about the company and its offices changing the way we work, and collaborate in our organizations. Certainly, your employees have much to look forward to. #social 2. Is Google Experimenting with Pixel Phones? Google’s Pixel phones had many heads rolling at an event raising the hopes of a lot of people who were looking for an iPhone alternative. Build on cutting edge technology using latest Snapdragon processor, 4GB of RAM and a host of exclusive features, Google hopes to make a real mark in the smartphone segment. However, one also needs to wait and watch to see if this is one of Google’s many expensive experiments. #mobile. 3. Twitter Repackages Website Conversion Tracking Building upon existing objective-based campaigns, Twitter launched a dedicated service that lets advertisers cost-efficiently track website conversions throughout the marketing campaign. Advertisers can further take advantage of predictive shopping and bidding expertise of TellApart besides leveraging Twitter’s Audience Platform. The company also rebranded its Website Clicks Offering as Website Visits. Let us hope repackaging attempts are more than a face-saver for the sinking ship. #social 4. Google’s Go Rises in Popularity Of all the programming languages that have risen to popularity, the story of Google’s Go has been a remarkable one. Tiobe once again revealed that Google’s Go is now the 16th most popular programming language, with Java, C++ and C# being the most popular on the list. 5. Indian Startups No Longer Need RBI Permission to Receive Foreign Investments Indian start-ups can rejoice, as the RBI just announced that it will allow them to seek investment from Foreign Venture Capital Investors (FVCIs). These investments will no longer require the approval of Indian regulators and is a step in the right direction toward liberalizing the economy, especially when tech start-ups are looking for foreign investments. #startup #finance
Qt Unveils Lightweight IoT Development Framework Software development is going to get a lot faster and lightweight, thanks to Qt Company, an open source tools provider. The company’s Qt Lite Project helps developers to streamline building IoT-enabled software for a variety of industry verticals. Developers can start with a minimal deployable configuration and add features as they develop their app. #IoT #developer Microsoft Claims Its Speech Transcription AI Is Better Than Humans Transcriptionists may soon be out of job, if Microsoft is to be believed for its new claim. The company today announced that its speech transcription AI is better than human professionals over phone calls. This is being touted as a huge milestone for speech recognition and may have significant commercial ramifications. #ai Russian Company Brings Facial Recognition Tools to Businesses Facial recognition tools are going to get bigger, thanks to NTechlab’s FindFace.Pro service. The service is being targeted at malls, casinos and concert venues, where lots of people gather and tracking people individually is difficult. Businesses in malls can provide customized service at malls, while security professionals will be able to manage crowds better. #ai Facebook Analytics for Apps Announces New Push Notifications Facebook Analytics for Apps is going to get better very soon. The social media giant announced that it would be bringing push campaigns to all businesses, which enable them to remind users that the app still exists, when it remains unused for a long time. The update also brings in-app notifications, which may help businesses to communicate with their users in a better way. #marketing Instagram Stories Finds a Larger Audience Instagram is bringing Stories to a larger audience, and this might be of interest to marketing departments. When users open up Explore, they will now find a ‘suggested stories’ section, which lets users to browse through random Instagram Stories tailored to their interests. If you are running a marketing campaign using Instagram Stories, expect to become more visible. #social
A few months ago, Instagram changed its logo. The familiar icon was replaced by something less defined and more minimalist. There was a lot of hue and cry initially but all that seems to have settled down. Instagram is still being used, and people are still sharing pictures. Most people have also forgotten what Instagram’s older logo looked like. Well, not really, but nobody seems to be paying attention to Instagram’s new design anymore. This is a luxury that very popular brands enjoy. If Nike redesigned its logo today, it will still be the same popular that it is today. Of course, people are going to get mad and investors may start selling their shares en masse. Yet, Nike will continue to make the great shoes it already makes, and will continue to appeal to a newer generation. Similarly, Instagram is now releasing Snapchat-like features, with 24-hour validity for some pictures. It is also enabling its users to disable hateful comments. And life goes on. Nothing really has changed for Instagram in the last few months, after it changed its logo. [php snippet=1] There are a few things that we can learn from Instagram’s logo change and what it teaches us about rebranding. Changing logo is not a catastrophe A lot of companies believe that a logo must never be changed and that if it is, the unthinkable might happen. This is not true. Changing logo does not lead to a catastrophe. It does not alienate your users or customers, though they may not receive it well initially. Changing a logo is also not a threat to your company that should always be avoided unless necessary. On the other hand, a logo change could be an opportunity in the right direction. If your current logo is kind of boring you already, there is no reason why you should not get a new one designed, or at least make changes in the existing one. Changing a logo may bring a lot of benefits, such as new followers, new customers and the ability to appeal to a different demographic. For example, Instagram’s new logo is very youthful, and is likely targeted at Generation Z, the upcoming generation. People’s memory is often short-lived People may complain and dislike the logo change initially. Yet, after a while, they tend to forget how the first logo looked. A survey that was recently conducted revealed that most people were unable to describe what a logo looked like, after it was changed 2-3 months previously. This indicates that people’s memory is short lived. They do not remember design very well, and they get used to the changes. It is similar to people complaining when furniture is moved in the drawing room. Yet, after a while, they forget where the chair was initially kept or the couch was previously placed. They begin to accept and even start liking the new position. Similarly, people may dislike changes made to an existing logo. However, after a while, they will embrace it and forget the previous one. Adding new features will compensate for unpleasant changes If your new logo is not accepted by a large section of your target audience, there is no need to worry about it. This very large section will soon forget what they were angry about. However, you should ensure that while they are displeased about the logo change, they do not jump ship and go toward your competitor. For that, you will need to compensate the changes made to your brand with some new features that are appealing. This is easy to do, as evidenced by Instagram. Soon after making changes to its logo, Instagram added several new features, with the most memorable one being a Snapchat-like feature, where photos can be set to vanish after 24 hours. Rebranding may sometimes be necessary The very reason we change logo is because the current one may not be representative of your brands. The current logo may also not be fetching you the results you need. This means, you will need to rebrand your products and services and use a new logo. Studies show that a logo change usually brings in new customers. If you are truly looking for new customers to approach you, a rebranding strategy may work very well in your favor. All you need to do is to make changes to the existing logo or get a completely different one. As stated before, it is not going to matter whether your new logo is liked initially or not. Sooner or later, people will embrace the new version and forget the older one. This is just how the human mind works. Just to be sure, get your logo designed by professionals and do not make attempts to change them yourself. Take home message As you can see, changing one’s logo is not a big deal. If you do not like your existing logo, you can always change it. It does not matter how long it has been used, and how popular the logo is with your fans. In other words, changing one’s logo is not such a big deal. Moreover, with time, people forget what the previous logo looked like. They will begin to relate to the newer logo the same way they embraced the previous one. This has got something to do with people’s memory patterns. If your new logo is not well received, you still have a right to go ahead with it. After all, you probably have a wonderful mission behind the logo change. Nevertheless, adding new features may help to compensate negative feelings about logo change. People are more likely to ignore what they don’t like, and embrace what they like. Finally, rebranding in the way of changing a logo or design is important. Sometimes it is eve necessary. This means, your company may not do well if the current logo isn’t doing what it should. Get expert opinions and decide if you want to change the logo or stick with
Amazon Fire TV Stick With Voice-Search Remote The new Amazon Fire TV stick comes with a quad-core processor and supports faster Wi-Fi as compared to its dual-core predecessor. Amazon hopes to buy off consumers by generously giving away voice-search enabled Alexa remotes along with the stick without charging a penny more. Yet the offer may sound lame to those who eagerly anticipated 4K support. #tech #entertainment Twitter Repackages Website Conversion Tracking Building upon existing objective-based campaigns, Twitter launched a dedicated service that lets advertisers cost-efficiently track website conversions throughout the marketing campaign. Advertisers can further take advantage of predictive shopping and bidding expertise of TellApart besides leveraging Twitter’s Audience Platform. The company also rebranded its Website Clicks Offering as Website Visits. Let us hope repackaging attempts are more than a face-saver for the sinking ship. #social Play Your Favorite Games From Anywhere With a vision To free gamers from constant upgrade cycles and expensive hardware, Parsec launched a new technology that now delivers ultra-smooth low latency streaming experience. You not only remote control your gaming PC from anywhere, but can share it with friends or invite them to play with. Forget about owning a gaming hardware when you can simply rent it on cloud. It’s absolutely a new high in cloud gaming. #cloud #entertainment Personalized Filters For Flight Bookings Employing its complex predictive algorithms, Hopper mobile app could tell flyers the best time to book their ticket to get a better bargain. Further exploiting its algorithm, Hopper now lets flyers book non-stop flights filtering low-cost carriers or flights with a long haul. The new feature called Watch Filters even allows you to remove basic fares from search options to look for the best and not just the cheapest option. Boasting 95% prediction accuracy, Hopper has a lot going for it. #apps #corporate Houseparty App Marred By Scaling Problems Houseparty, a live video-streaming app targeted at younger audiences lets you chat with up to seven friends simultaneously. A friend of a friend can enter your chat and a banner warning “Stranger Danger” flashes on your screen. You wave at other users to invite them to join the chat or call for privacy if you feel that way. With rising popularity of Houseparty among teenagers, this is another wobbly attempt by Meerkat to fulfill its dream of making it big. #apps
