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While many continue having a negative view of the media – and in particular, difficulty trusting the way it covers political issues, there are certain elements of its coverage that the media deserves to be commended for. In a world filled with negativity, there is indeed a need for the media to shine a light on the commission of positive and good deeds. Particularly through the darkness the Coronavirus has created, uplifting stories of generosity and the innate urge in certain people to lend a helping hand to the needy, is something that deserves to be highlighted. Shlomo Rechnitz and his unique philanthropic gestures over the years are great examples of stories that the media rightfully lent coverage to. The consequences of such coverage can indeed be positive in a myriad of different ways. First and foremost, it’s no secret that our nation’s youth consume inordinate amounts of television and spend considerable time browsing the web. It’s also no secret that there are sadly a lack ...

Whether you are looking to do business with other businesses or directly with consumers, there are multiple reasons to invest in e-commerce. According to recent US survey data , 39% of manufacturers invested in e-commerce to enhance revenue growth, 38% to enhance business efficiency, and 34% to keep up with customer needs and reduce costs.  There are several simple ideas business owners can use to get the most out of their e-commerce business.  Get On Social Media According to 2021 US survey data, more than nine out of ten business executives in the US agreed, to varying degrees, to moving their e-commerce efforts to social media. Of these, 73% already sold their products or services via social media platforms.  Choose the Right Products If your business is retail based, certain items fare better than others in the e-commerce context. It may be a good idea to focus your business on these items. According to 2019 data, published in 2021, 4.7% of clothing and accessori...

Customer satisfaction is that one thing that keeps your customers loyal to your company, and that creates repeat business. There are many practices that can promote customer satisfaction, but below we will take a look at four basic steps you can take to promote customer satisfaction in your own business. Be accessible Do you not just hate it when you want to contact someone and you can not find their contact details, or their phone line is busy whenever you call? Well, your customers hate it too. In fact, there is nothing worse than being put on hold for hours as elevator music plays, or scouring a website for contact information that just does not seem to exist. If you want loyal and satisfied customers, the most basic thing you can do is provide accessible customer service through all channels: social media, email, chatbots and telephone. Respond to requests promptly and efficiently (never forget to be polite) and you will notice a remarkable improvement in customer satisfaction...

Marketing budgets have always been under scrutiny. But the pandemic’s arrival almost two years later and its continued presence continue to highlight the need to spend efficiently and effectively. This has made it more important to measure accurately and holistically, especially as brands increasingly use new channels and platforms to market their products. After a pullback in 2020’s first half, marketers have increased their spending on mass reach channels this year. That spending aligns with sentiment from marketers surveyed for SME’s 2021 Annual Marketing Report who cited customer acquisition and brand awareness as their top priorities. Retail, for example, saw brands increase their ad spend by a significant amount in October. Tracking ROI becomes more important as spending increases. Mass reach marketing campaigns, unlike digital and conversion-oriented marketing, can be measured using modern martech solutions. However, marketers often consider them more difficult to correlate l...

Hacking is skyrocketing. The use of ransomware for hacking, specifically, is growing rampantly, as hackers encrypt computer files and deny users access to their own data. Ransomware attacks increased by 7x in 2020 alone.  Recent projections predict that at least 3 out of 4 of IT organizations will confront a ransomware attack by 2025. When ransomware attacks are deployed, resulting data loss costs are astronomical. 82% of ransomware attack victims report significant loss of data while 61% of ransomware attack victims reported lost data to corruption. Detrimental business operation halts are often the result of data loss. Though often neglected from ransomware damage tallies, these interruptions cost businesses up to 23x more than the ransom itself. Business disruption costs average at $1.2 million with the highest cost being $6.5 million for small to medium enterprises (SMEs). Secure your organization through vital protection practices. First, give employees the tools to eval...

You might be wondering how social media reviews can help your business. They are changing the way businesses appeal to their clients and customers, but there is more to it than just that. Social media reviews have become a major factor in the buying process for many consumers. Plus, they allow you to interact with people who love your products and services. In this blog post, we will discuss 7 ways that social media reviews can improve your business. 1.  They Provide Free Word of Mouth Marketing Nothing spreads faster than information on social media. When someone loves your product, they will go to their social media and write a positive review. They may even tag you or link back to your website. This free advertising is priceless for any business owner. You can even encourage your best customers to leave reviews by giving them a coupon or another incentive. 2.  You Can Respond To Negative Reviews This is probably one of the most beneficial ways that social media review...

But the internal (*)Facebook ( FB(*() Documents suggest that there is a disconnect between the company’s public statements about its overall response to Covid-19 misinformation, and some of its employees’ findings regarding the issue. “We have no idea of the scale of the Problem with comments,” an internal report that was posted to Facebook’s internal website in February 2021, one-year after the pandemic began, stated. The report stated that “our internal systems are not yet identifying and degrading and/or removing antivaccine comments often enough.” Additional reports a month later raised concerns about the prevalence of vaccine hesitancy — which in some cases may amount to misinformation — in comments, which employees said Facebook’s systems were less equipped to moderate than posts. One of the March 2021 reports stated that “our ability detect vaccine hesitancy comment is poor in English and basically nonexistent elsewhere.”[Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy]These documents were inclu...

A brand’s ability to feel “local” while experiencing global growth to customers around the world has changed because of the inception of localization technology. It means that a brand takes local context, culture, subtlety, and consumer behavior into consideration at all steps of the customer experience — including social, customer service, marketing and sales. Localization services vary depending on a brand’s priority but can be seen in everything from website copy to audio and visual assets to data refinement and analysis. AI-powered localization platform, BLEND , recently released results from the July 2021 analysis of eCommerce localization tactics used by top-ranked brands with a global presence. The report analyzes eCommerce localization metrics used to expand global presence and maintain local relevance among the Top 50 eCommerce websites as ranked by Similar Web in July 2021.  Of note in the report: 46% of the top 50 websites offer more than four language choices to t...

The rich and varied history of the U.S. Black community has shaped our nation and cultures all over the globe. The complexity that makes this experience rich is often lost or undervalued when it comes down to representation in media. It is essential that the media industry has a deeper understanding about the community in order to be more inclusive and grow its bottom line or brand awareness with Black audiences. Learn more Content is the common language of many African Americans. Learn how Black audiences can engage with content using traditional media methods. How brands can build trust in the Black community through advertising and content that puts Black culture at the forefront. Explore the intersectionality and diversity within the Black community. Learn more about the international Black diaspora audience  Look at profiles of African American sections that are powerful: the Black male streamer and the amazing woman, as well as HBCU alumni. The post Meeting Black au...

SME asked Sandberg about her quote and whether she stood firm behind it. A Facebook spokesperson responded that Sandberg’s quote was contextualized. The spokesperson stated that Jan. 6 was a large-scale online event, and included Facebook’s platforms. Haugen’s main allegations about the company center on the attack on Capitol. She claims that Facebook misled investors, the public and the SEC about its role in perpetuating misinformation. The Wall Street Journal first published leaked documents from Haugen earlier this year. The Facebook Files, the ongoing series of reports published by The Wall Street Journal, revealed many secrets that caught the attention of lawmakers from around the world. Facebook denies the premise behind Haugen’s conclusions. Haugen claims that he has cherry-picked documents to give an unfair portrayal. “Those who attacked the Capitol and those who encouraged them are responsible for the violence that occurred January 6. We took steps to limit the content th...

Zuckerberg said, “Good faith criticism helps to us get better. But my view is we are seeing coordinated efforts to selectively use leaked files to paint a false image of our company.” “The reality is that our culture encourages discussion and research about our work so that we can make progress with many complex issues that don’t only concern us. The company’s results were announced amid what is perhaps the most serious crisis in the history of the social media giant over the past 17 years. Frances Haugen, a whistleblower, leaked tens of thousands of pages from internal documents to the Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series. On Monday, a flood was of additional news coverage by a group of 17 US news agencies, as well hearings with US lawmakers. These documents offer a deep look at Facebook’s most serious problems, including its inability to regulate hate speech and misinformation, its use of its platform to facilitate human traffickers, and research on the harms that young peopl...

When people talk about climate change, there’s a lot of focus on how governments and IGOs are responding to the problem.  The truth is that climate change will impact everybody.  Businesses that want to serve customers in the future need the resources to do so, and that requires a livable planet.  Companies should treat sustainability initiatives the way they would any other investment in their future. Let’s learn about sustainable commerce below. E-commerce giant eBay is a shining example of how to go green as a company.  Since inception, eBay has extended the life cycle of products by encouraging resale on its platform.  720,000 metric tons of carbon emissions were conserved thanks to people selling their pre-owned electronics and apparel on eBay.   Yet eBay doesn’t stop there.  eBay is also committed to supporting widespread, affordable clean energy for all.  The company’s goal to become 100% powered by renewables in 2025 is already 3/4 ...

In recent years, Facebook has faced whistleblowers and PR firestorms as well as Congressional inquiries. Now, it is facing a combination of all three in what could prove to be the most severe and extensive crisis in the company’s 17-year-old history.  On Friday, a consortium of 17 US news organizations began publishing a series of stories — collectively called “The Facebook Papers” — based on a trove of hundreds of internal company documents which were included in disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s legal counsel. SME was part of the consortium that reviewed the redacted versions sent to Congress.   SME’s coverage includes stories on how Facebook’s coordinated groups inflict violence and discord, including on January 6. There are also Facebook’s challenges in moderating certain non-English-speaking nations’ content and how human traffickers have exploited its pl...

Branding your social media experience is about more than just creating a profile picture; it’s about creating an identity that people will remember. When you want to create a brand on social media, there are some steps that you need to follow to ensure success. When branding your social media experience , you need to ensure that all the relevant platforms and networks are covered. This includes popular networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest and less mainstream ones such as Instagram or Path. If there is another platform where it makes sense for you to be, be sure to include it. Here are seven of the most important tips for branding your social media persona: Create a Professional Bio with Accurate Information The first step to branding your social media experience is to create a professional bio. Include a professional photo and accurate information that portrays your true identity. All your social media should share the same bio, as it helps people follow you acro...

“The Facebook Papers” is a collection of internal Facebook documents that were compiled from disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission and made available to Congress by Frances Haugen, Frances Haugen’s legal representative. A consortium of news 17 organisations, including SME, obtained the redacted versions. This is just the latest in a seemingly endless series of Facebook missteps and bad headlines. Facebook is causing a lot of fury among investors, lawmakers, advertisers, and users, which could signal that it’s time to change its leadership. The Wall Street Journal published previously a series of stories that were based upon tens of thousand pages of internal Facebook documents that Haugen leaked. (The consortium’s work is based upon many of the same documents. Wall Street is clearly expressing dissatisfaction with Facebook’s direction. The stock has fallen below its all-time highs. The stock dropped 5% on Friday and is now 15% below its peak price earlier in the yea...

Get it now I wrote recently about the concept of Narrative Identity What it means for brands ( This blog post can be accessed here .  Narrative Identity can be described as the life story we tell to give our lives meaning and purpose. We are all creators of our own myths — myths that give meaning to who we are in the world. Every day, we work to bring together our experiences and create a life story that makes sense.   Roles Brands Play Our Narrative Identity is built around the most meaningful brands. They help us to fix the inconsistencies in our stories. They are written into our personal narratives to help make us the characters we want in our lives’ stories.   Our stories are just like a movie. They have characters, settings, and props. We also incorporate brands in our stories in one or more of these ways. Characters: Brands are characters that can play supporting roles in our stories. Props: These can be props we use to help us move along our plot...

In recent years, Facebook has faced whistleblowers, PR firestorms, and congressional inquiries. It now faces a combination from all three in what could be the worst crisis in Facebook’s 17-year history.  On Friday, a consortium of 17 US news organizations began publishing a series of stories — collectively called “The Facebook Papers” — based on a trove of hundreds of internal company documents which were included in disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s legal counsel. SME was also part of the consortium. They reviewed the redacted versions that Congress received.   SME’s coverage covers stories about how Facebook groups have created discord and violence, including January 6. It also covers Facebook’s difficulties in moderating content from non-English-speaking countries and how human traffickers exploit its platforms. The Wall Street Journal previously published ...

According to documents, the company knew that human traffickers were using its platforms in this manner since at least 2018. It got so bad that it was made worse in 2019, (*(Apple ( AAPL ) Threatened to pull Facebook and Instagram’s Access to the App Marketplace, a platform that the social media giant relies to reach hundreds upon millions of users each Year. Internally (*)Facebook ( FB(*() Employees rushed to remove problematic content and make emergency policy modifications to avoid what they called a “potentially serious” consequence for their business. However, Facebook was able to reassure Apple at the time and prevent its removal from the app shop. However, the issues remain. The stakes are very high. Facebook documents describe women being trafficked in this fashion being subjected both to physical and sexual abuse, being deprived off food and paid, as well as having their travel documents confiscated to prevent them from fleeing. An internal Facebook report dated earlier this...