Category: Social Media

Nikon creates personalized #NikonInstaBadge for its user community

Mumbai : Amalgamating the brand philosophy of ‘Trustworthiness and Creativity’ with the event of World Photography Day, Nikon, a leading brand name in the photography industry, created a first-of-its-kind engagement campaign the platform feature on Instagram. The activity named #NikonInstaBadge urged regular and passionate users to avail their personalized stickers by simply sharing a picture of their Nikon gear using the exclusive hashtag.

The brand understood the importance of cameras in people’s day-to-day lives, helping capture moments both big and small.

This innovative campaign stemmed from a simple insight of photographers seeking validation from the brand by employing various hashtags while showcasing their work and additionally use watermarks to create identity of their work. Hence, Nikon decided to give the users a new experience of validation to enable continued sharing of inspiring work. Personalized badges were awarded to the users within 24-48 hours after they shared a picture of their gear with the brand.

The brand also created generic badges of all their D-SLRs for the brand loyalists to use while uploading their stories. Within a few hours of the launch, Nikon saw an influx of 800+ images. The Instagram-specific campaign also successfully brought on board the impaneled influencers, commonly referred to as the #NikonExpertive by the brand.

On the occasion of World Photography Day, Mr. Sajjan Kumar, Managing Director, Nikon India said, “World Photography Day is a reminder for us to reflect on how essential photographs and videos have become in our lives. Today I would like to take this opportunity to appreciate and encourage the photographer and videographer community for creating bespoke work and inspiring us and the coming generation to be passionate towards creating such master pieces.

He added, “On World Photography Day, as a token of appreciation from our end, we have launched an initiative #NikonInstaBadge for the community, with this we aim at providing personalized product badge to users to be used as stickers on the content. We have several members of the community, interacting with us daily. Their love for Nikon is undying and their photography & videography skills are remarkable. Hence, this World Photography Day, we wanted to display our love to our special audience by introducing the #NikonInstaBadge – an identity they can use as a watermark on their stories.”

Be it amateurs or professionals, Nikon has always wished to inspire the users in their quest to capture raw, beautiful moments and memories. #NikonInstaBadge is yet another step taken by the brand to boost pure enthusiasm for photography among one and all.

Also Here is the link: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1U-jSUHEmt/?igshid=1bz38dj1ax5os

August 19, 2019
Paani Ki Samasya by Bhuvan Bam is trending on #1

India’s youth icon Bhuvan Bam doesn’t shy away from talking on important subjects and his latest video is proof.

Right after his social media break to be with family and take a step back from the internet, Bhuvan posted his video ‘Paani Ki Samasya’ that covers the scarcity of water in our nation and how it’s affecting families, in a comical way. A subject that is so current and serious has been taken up by Bhuvan and turned into a content piece that will appeal to the masses in their way of consuming content, without preaching.

With over 77 lakh hits on YouTube, the video has been trending on #1 since two days and viewers are taking notice of how Bhuvan is incorporating subjects that aren’t fictional, in an entertaining way for his audience.

Speaking on why he chose this subject for his BB Ki Vines content Bhuvan said, “The fact that water resources are depreciating day by day and not everybody is inclined towards water conversation is shocking. I thought a comic take on the global issue will bring eyeballs to the situation and will educate millennials to save water for our forthcoming generations.”

Bhuvan will also be putting out new music soon, along with some exciting new projects on YouTube so stay tuned to his channel BB Ki Vines for more.

August 19, 2019
Facebook’s revenue rises by 28% to $16.9 billion in Q2 earnings

MUMBAI: Facebook beat analysts’ expectations in the second quarter, posting $16.9 billion in revenue with money from advertising pegged at $16.62 billion. The result came after hours aftee Facebook struck a $5 billion settlement with the Federal Trade Commission following the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal. The social media giant recorded a $2 billion charge in the quarter tied to the FTC settlement while it previously set aside $3 billion.

The social media giant’s earnings per share rose to $1.99 cents in the quarter and monthly active users across its family of services, which includes Instagram and Whatsapp, were 2.41 billion as of 30 June 2019, an 8 per cent increase year-on-year. Moreover, daily active users also saw an increase of 8 per cent reaching 1.59 billion on average for June 2019.

In addition, the company estimates that more than 2.1 billion people now use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger every day on average and more than 2.7 billion people use at least one of the company’s family of services each month.

“In July 2019, we entered into a settlement and modified consent order to resolve the inquiry of the FTC into our platform and user data practices. Among other matters, our settlement with the FTC requires us to pay a penalty of $5 billion and to significantly enhance our practices and processes for privacy compliance and oversight,” the company highlighted.

“In particular, we have agreed to implement a comprehensive expansion of our privacy program, including substantial management and board of directors oversight, stringent operational requirements and reporting obligations, and a process to regularly certify our compliance with the privacy program to the FTC. In the second quarter of 2019, we recorded an additional $2 billion accrual in connection with our settlement with the FTC, which is included in accrued expenses and other current liabilities on our condensed consolidated balance sheet,” it added.

Facebook mentioned that the company was informed by the FTC in June that it had opened an antitrust investigation of its company. It also noted that the online technology industry and the company have received increased regulatory scrutiny in the past quarter. Moreover, the Department of Justice announced in July that it will begin an antitrust review of the market-leading online platform.

July 25, 2019
YouTube Music enables users to flip between song and music video

MUMBAI: YouTube Music has introduced a feature for its user that enables them to flip between listening to a song and watching that song’s music video without any interruption. If a video is available, the top of the app’s screen will now have two buttons that say ‘song’ and ‘video’.

Tapping on the video button will switch over to the song’s official music video without any hiccups or pauses. Then, clicking on song button will revert to just the audio and the song’s cover art. It’s all time-matched, so switching in the middle of a song will jump to the corresponding point in the video. If the user wants to stick to just audio, then they can go into settings and turn off the music video option by toggling ‘don’t play music videos’.

YouTube matched over five million music videos to songs for this feature.

Google launched YouTube Music in India on 12 March, introducing a free ad-supported and a premium ad-free version with a subscription fee. Soon after its launch, it surpassed its opponent Spotify by registering more downloads within a week of the launch. YouTube registered three million downloads in the first week of its launch.

July 21, 2019
ByteDance plans to invest in Indian content startups

MUMBAI: ByteDance, the parent company of popular video sharing app TikTok, has plans to delve deeper into the Indian content market. In order to create a bouquet of apps to target new audiences, the Chinese company will invest in Indian content startups.

As per a Mint report, ByteDance has set up a team to scout for companies in content, social commerce, and education technology. While China’s domestic consumer internet market slowly hits saturation, numbers of Chinese funds are turning their attention to startups in India.

“They (ByteDance) have been toying with this for a while and have had a lot of people come from China to meet Indian startups," the Mint report said quoting a source. “It has an ecosystem in China, and they want to create something similar in India—an ecosystem of different content platforms," the source added.

ByteDance entered the Indian market in September 2017 through its live-streaming app Vigo Video but gained prominence with the launch of TikTok. ByteDance also launched local-language social media app Helo around the same time.

July 17, 2019
Facebook reveals plan to launch cryptocurrency Libra

MUMBAI: Social media giant Facebook moves ahead in the direction of entering the e-commerce sector as it revealed plans on Tuesday to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra. According to media reports, Facebook has linked with 28 partners in a Geneva-based entity called the Libra Association which will govern its new digital coin. It is due to arrive in the first half of 2020.

A subsidiary called Calibra has been created by Facebook which will not only offer digital wallets to save, send and spend Libras but will be connected to Facebook's messaging platforms Messenger and WhatsApp.

The FAANG company hopes it will power transactions between established consumers and businesses around the globe along with offering unbanked consumers access to financial services for the first time.

However, the move comes at a time when Facebook is already devastated with security-related controversies across the world. It seems the new step may face strong opposition from privacy advocates, consumer groups, regulators and lawmakers. It is very unclear right now how Facebook’s entry into the unregulated world of cryptocurrency will be perceived by lawmakers.

According to reports, company executives said it has engaged with regulators in the United States and abroad about the planned cryptocurrency. Kevin Weil, who runs product for the initiative in Facebook, hopes it can bring global regulators to the table by publicising Libra. "It gives us a basis to go and have productive conversations with regulators around the world," he said.

Facebook said that Calibra will conduct compliance checks on customers who want to use Libra, using commonplace verification and anti-fraud processes. Moreover, the company plans to refund customers who lose money because of fraud.

June 19, 2019
#INDvPAK becomes the most tweeted about ODI on Twitter with 2.9 million Tweets

MUMBAI: India won by 89 runs in Manchester on Sunday to extend their unbeaten streak against Pakistan in the World Cup history. While we saw the rivalry between both teams on the field, the roar of the fans was loud on Twitter. The game broke cricket records by becoming the most Tweeted about one day international (ODI) match generating 2.9 million Tweets. While there was dialogue between both countries on the platform, when we compared official hashtags like #TeamIndia and #WeHaveWeWill, as well as the number of Tweets mentioning Indian cricketers and Pakistani cricketers, the Indian side dominated the conversation on Twitter.

Most Tweeted About Players

The captain of #TeamIndia Virat Kohli (@ImVkohli), who also became the fastest player to achieve the milestone of 11,000 ODI runs, was the most Tweeted about player during the #INDvPAK match. Rohit Sharma (@ImRo45), thanks to his epic 24th century in ODI was the second on the list, followed by Pakistan captain, Sarfaraz Ahmed (@SarfarazA_54), all-rounder Shoaib Malik (@realshoaibmalik) and wicket-keeper MS Dhoni (@msdhoni).

Most Tweeted About Moments

Here are the most Tweeted about moments from #INDvPAK, basis the conversation peaks – Tweets per minute (TPM)

1. Vijay Shankar (@vijayshankar260) taking a wicket off his first World Cup ball

2. Rohit Sharma’s (@ImRo45) brilliant innings of 140 runs; his second 100 of #CWC19

3. Rain interruption in the first half of the innings during Team India’s batting

Top Retweeted Tweets

Fans love when their heroes perform on the field. A Tweet by @ImRo45 celebrating his 2nd century of #CWC19 became the most Retweeted Tweet from Sunday’s match.

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/ImRo45/status/1140372326388776962

Embeddable Tweet: https://twitter.com/imVkohli/status/1140344298665156608

June 18, 2019
Facebook and Kiran Rao partner to unleash the power of mobile storytelling

MUMBAI: From cinematic canvas to mobile canvas, filmmaker Kiran Rao marked her return to direction with two films made for Facebook India. Each film is under ten seconds in duration and is a part of the Facebook Thumbstoppers initiative launched in May this year to redefine short-form mobile video ads in the country

Speaking about the films, Kiran Rao said, “Ten seconds. No audio. To shoot vertical. And show change in human behaviour. The brief for these films was certainly exciting. I must say that it was some great learning as a filmmaker. The mobile medium has a set of realities which as content makers one must embrace and play with. Once you understand the medium, the storytelling comes naturally. It was fun making these films, and it is great to be back doing what I love most.”

Kiran's last directorial venture, ‘Dhobi Ghat’, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, and enjoyed worldwide acclaim with its global release in 2011. She has produced several films such as Taare Zameen Par (2007), Peepli Live (2010), Delhi Belly (2011), Dangal (2016), Secret Super Star (2017), and the television show Satyamev Jayate (2012-2014) with Aamir Khan Productions.

Link to the videos: https://www.facebook.com/business/m/thumbstoppers

Sunita G.R., Head of Marketing at Facebook India said, “Mobile has fundamentally reshaped consumer behaviour. People consume as well as recall content faster on mobile. As mobile becomes more pervasive, there has emerged an ardent need for marketers and creative agencies to create mobile-first ads and to embrace the possibility that stories that stop thumbs from scrolling, evoke emotions, and change human behavior can be told in under ten seconds. The partnership with Kiran Rao is a powerful ode to the magic that can be created in ad storytelling for the mobile-first world.”

Since its launch in May, Facebook Thumbstoppers has endeavored to encourage the industry to create short-form mobile storytelling that is built for the medium rather than adapted from other traditional formats. Thumbstoppers are those stories that can stop thumbs from scrolling, evoke emotions, and have the potential to change human behavior in less than ten seconds.

The two films created by Rao touch upon two of the most glaring societal truths – gender inequality and domestic violence against women. The first film depicts a young boy and his sister being served milk at home. The milk in the boy’s glass is considerably greater in quantity than that in his sister’s glass. He pours some of the milk from his glass into hers to make the quantities equal, thus crafting a compelling story against gender discrimination.

The second film has a woman nursing a bruise with an ice pack when her domestic help walks up to her and hands over a cellphone which has the number of the police. The film aims to inspire people to take that first courageous step.

The two films powerfully showcase how integral it is to capture the audience’s attention in the first few seconds. Keeping the sensibilities of mobile consumption in mind, they are both built for the vertical landscape for seamless mobile viewing, and ensure that the right messaging lands even with the sound-off, and is a delight with sound-on. The films formidably convey that powerful storytelling is possible in a few seconds without compromising on the tenets of good filmmaking – emotion, suspense, drama, and cutting-edge creativity.

As a part of this initiative, Facebook is also throwing open a 'Thumbstopper Challenge' – an invitation to all creative minds to submit their short stories on the brief of driving behaviour change in less than ten seconds, by 12th July. The winners of the Thumbstopper Challenge will be announced in August, and the top winners will get to travel to Cannes next year. Facebook will also produce the top 20 films.

June 18, 2019
Tinder and BuzzFeed India launch GirlsFeed; the variety show highlighting the ups and downs of being an Indian woman

MUMBAI: Tinder and BuzzFeed India present GirlsFeed, a six episode variety show featuring a diverse group of women discussing the struggles, joys, highs and lows of being a woman in India. The show is dedicated to bringing out different perspectives on cultural nuances, dating, falling in love and relationships. Never ones to shy away from discussing a difficult topic, the BuzzFeed India team with Tinder will present various points of view through open group discussions and sketch comedy.

The series attempts to unpack the secret double lives of Indian women, how to meet new people in 2019 (given cultural constraints), how Bollywood sets unrealistic expectations, the male gaze, female friendship and the supposed inevitability of marriage.

Nirali Shah, Head of BuzzFeed India Originals said “BuzzFeed has a long history of female empowerment content globally and we are thrilled Tinder are joining us for this show, which is the first partnership of its kind for us in India.

“We spend a lot of time openly discussing our problems, our conditioning and how we’re individually trying to unlearn so many things that our surroundings have told us are ‘normal’. GirlsFeed was born from these conversations; we want to create a safe space where someone our audience relates to is open about an issue that affects us all. Most Indian women live double lives: this performative “sanskari” woman in front of your family and society, then a true version for your friends.

“We want to create more and more content for women, made by women. The show in partnership with Tinder is guaranteed to be filled with a lot of laughs you'll come away thinking you've just watched a group of your friends."

Taru Kapoor, GM, Tinder India on the partnership says “Supporting a female audience on the platform is an important part of our mission, even the mechanic of Tinder works so that women are comfortable; both users have to swipe right for it to be a match and the platform is based on what female users value most: choice, consent and mutual respect.

Conventionally it is hard to meet people outside of your immediate social circle in India, so

the opportunity Tinder provided has made life easier for all genders, but uniquely for women. Especially given the patriarchal nature of our society where women have historically had restricted access to technology, limited control over their lives and moral scrutiny of their choices-particularly romantic. Conversations about dating are still relatively nascent in India but our experience has shown us that dating ideals, once considered the norm, are fast evolving. We know that the secret to success is and has always been focusing on, talking to and understanding our users and making the experience continually better for them. And how better to start, support and challenge conversations on topics that matter than with BuzzFeed India.”

April 4, 2019
LinkedIn releases fourth edition of 2019 Top Companies list

MUMBAI: LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today launched the fourth edition of the 2019 Top Companies list for India. Determined by the actions of its 610+ million members globally, the annual ranking highlights the 25 most sought-after companies in the country by professionals. The list reveals where Indian professionals really want to work and stay, fuelled by proprietary LinkedIn insights including job seeker’s interest in the company, engagement with the company’s employees, job demand, and employee retention.

With more Millennials and Gen Z professionals entering the job market, the 2019 Top Companies have actively deployed employee-first initiatives such as informal work culture and fairness of working conditions and wages. At the same time companies are focusing on blazing business growth through smart acquisitions, and the expansion of employee strength with innovative hiring practices. These emerging trends have led to the debut (and comeback) of IT giants on the list this year, and new entrants including homegrown Internet and IT companies, Swiggy, Zomato, and Freshworks.

Internet companies dominate the top 10 spots as Flipkart (Walmart) jumps one spot up to #1, Amazon moves to #2 from #4 last year, and OYO has made headway from #10 to#3 – respectively taking the top three spots this year. While India’s IT giant Tata Consultancy Services has debuted at #7, new entrants and homegrown Internet and consumer services companies Swiggy and Zomato rank at #6 and #8 respectively, and Uber, another new entrant, takes the #5 spot. One97 Communications, a constant on the list’s Top 5, comes in #4. Breaking the monotony,India’s Oil and Energy conglomerate Reliance Industries takes a massive leap from #24 to #10, consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is a new entrant at #13, along with banks, YES BANK and ICICI Bank that come in on the list for the first time at #14 and #20 respectively.

“Every year, based on LinkedIn’s unique position to be the pulse of what job seekers in India are looking for, the Top Companies list highlights homegrown companies and global giants, where professionals want to land their next job. Interestingly this year, half the companies are new entrants on the list, including IT giants such as Tata Consultancy Services and IBM that showcase the changing job and hiring landscape. The presence of more blue chip Indian companies such as Larsen & Toubro and Reliance Industries, among others emphasizes the fact that these large firms are getting better at attracting Millennial employees,” said Adith Charlie, India Managing Editor, LinkedIn.

Here are the 2019 Top 25 Companies in India:

1.   Flipkart (Walmart)
2.   Amazon
3.   OYO
4.   One97 Communications (Paytm)
5.   Uber
6.   Swiggy
7.   Tata Consultancy Service
8.   Zomato
9.   Alphabet (Google)
10.   Reliance Industries
11.   EY
12.   Adobe
13.   Boston Consulting Group (BCG)
14.   YES Bank
15.   IBM
16.   Daimler AG
17.   Freshworks
18.   Accenture
19.   Ola
20.   ICICI Bank
21.   PwC India
22.   KPMG India
23.   Larsen & Toubro
24.   Oracle
25.   Qualcomm

Some of the emerging workplace themes this year are:

Betting big in a dynamic business environment: Most top companies are not shying away from spreading their wings. Of the top three, Amazon is foraying into the offline world by bagging retail chains and setting up kiosks in malls. Flush with money from its $1 billion fundraise, OYO is venturing into food-tech, event management and co-working by acquiring startups. With 450,000 exclusive rooms globally, the online hospitality company aims to overtake Marriott as the world’s largest hotel chain by 2023.

Engineering – amongst the most hired for job functions: Technology roles were seen to dominate the jobs market but soft skills are also critical to succeed in this tech age according to the 2018 India Emerging Jobs Report by LinkedIn. This year’s rankings corroborate this trend with majority of companies in the list making maximum new hires for engineering jobs followed by operations and business development. Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s largest IT services company made a net addition of nearly 27,000 employees last year, up four-fold from 7,000 in 2017. Ranked at #9, Alphabet (Google) resumed campus hiring at the IITs in 2018, after giving the elite engineering schools a miss for two consecutive years.

Informal work culture drives happy employees: Holding #4 rank this year, mobile Internet company, One97 Communications (Paytm) has done away with the concept of work appointments. Employees are free to have impromptu meetings and occupy available rooms without blocking calendars. Designations such as assistant general manager, deputy general manager and general manager could soon be a thing of the past at India’s second-largest private bank ICICI (#20) which seeks to cut hierarchy and boost accountability.

Traditional hiring takes on a new twist: New entrant on the Top Companies list, Freshworks (#17) has an eye for people with alternate career interests as it looks to employ marketers who host podcasts, engineers who are full-time musicians, and even social activists. At #21, PwC India is moving from its monopoly of chartered accountants and tax professionals by hiring employees from diverse backgrounds such as journalists, doctors, design thinkers, data scientists and environmentalists.

Sustainable business is a profitable business: With employees putting purpose before passion in their job search, even companies are looking to give back to the society. New on the top companies list, IBM at #15 is harnessing the power of emerging technologies to solve problems specific to India, whether it’s eradicating food wastage or predicting crop prices to help farmers. Mopping up $300 million as part of its partnership with Hyundai which is focused on electric cars, Ola eventually aims to put 1 million green cars on Indian roads by 2022.
Read more about the 2019 Top Companies in India list here. Join the conversation on LinkedIn using the hashtag #LinkedInTopCompanies.

Methodology

The Top Companies list is the only ranking of its kind to be based entirely on the actions of users. We analyze billions of data points generated by LinkedIn’s 610+ million members around the world to come up with a blended score used to rank the winners in each geography.

LinkedIn ranks companies based on four pillars:

(I) Interest in the company: Interest in the company is measured by unique, non-employee new follows of the company’s LinkedIn page

(II) Engagement with employees: Employee engagement looks at how many non-employees are viewing unique employees at the company

(III) Job demand: Job demand counts the rate at which people are viewing and applying to jobs at the company, including both paid and unpaid job postings on LinkedIn

(IV) Employee retention: Employee retention measures how many employees are still at the company at least one year after their date of hire, based on LinkedIn member profiles

To be eligible, companies must have at least 500 employees as of February 1 and must have flat or positive employee growth over the 12 months (based on LinkedIn Talent Insights data). Only parent companies rank on the list; majority-owned subsidiaries and associated data are wrapped into its total score. All data is normalized based on company size. The methodology and insights time frame is February 1, 2018 through January 31, 2019. All data is aggregated and anonymised to protect members’ private information.

LinkedIn excludes all staffing and recruiting firms, nonprofits, educational institutions, government agencies and government-owned entities. LinkedIn and LinkedIn’s parent company, Microsoft, are excluded from all LinkedIn Lists.

April 3, 2019