Facebook Data Leak Has Exposed Personal Details of Over 3 Million Users

by with No Comment Social Media

People from all over the world, from almost every country, is well aware of Facebook. All these users are continuously sharing their photos, videos, opinion and ideas to the world through Facebook. Facebook, being the most popular social media platform across the world has been linked to other social media platforms as well. If a person is connecting his facebook account with his Instagram account, the photos that are shared on Instagram can also be viewed on Facebook. Now that Facebook is using the data from different other social media platform, the data of the users are getting leaked. Data of almost three million users got leaked and this has exposed the personal details of the users. According to the analysts, these numbers may increase. This is because Facebook is still in the early stage of the investigation. Facebook is investigating thousands of apps to stop the data to be leaked out further. According to Facebook if they find any app misusing any of the data, they will immediately ban the same from any type collaboration with Facebook.

So, how did it start?

From the very beginning, since Facebook had started its journey as a social media platform, Facebook has been using personal details of the users. For example, when a person wants to sign in to Facebook and wants to open an account, he has to provide with his name, email id, phone number, date of birth, job status, profile picture and many more. However, it is not compulsory to provide all the details. It’s only that the name, email id, the phone number is compulsory to provide. If anyone wants he can keep his profile picture, date of birth, job status as a secret. But in most of the cases, it has been seen that most of the users give out all their personal details on Facebook, even if that is not mandatory. Thus many of the details of the users leak because of the negligence of the users.

Facebook Data Leak

Other possible ways for which the data leaked

Over the last few months, Facebook had been conducting a survey among the users. For this survey, the users have to answer few questions. On basis of these answers, the personality of the user is being judged. Students of the University of Cambridge had provided these answers to the researchers. However, when the answers were provided to the researchers, there were no proper security measures. Thus all the personal data of the users were leaked to the world. Highly sensitive personal details of the users, such as the psychological test results, personal information like email id, phone number, age and many more got revealed.

Steps were taken by Facebook to stop the data to be leaked

Facebook has stopped the “myPersonality” app from the platform. According to Facebook, the “myPersonality” app has violated the contract or not to make any information public. Thus to avoid the risk of the data to be leaked, Facebook has suspended the “myPersonality” app. Facebook has also removed all the data of the users so that in no way these data are leaked.

What is “myPersonality” app?

The “myPersonality” app was not only used for an academic purpose to make researches about different types of personalities, this was also used for business purpose as well. Different companies have used the information provided by the users to conduct the survey. This helped the companies to know the users and about their choice, likes and dislikes. People associated with the University of Cambridge are to be held responsible for disclosing all the data of the users. This is an act of violation of the contract.

Facebook Data Leak

Credits: China Daily

Our Take?

We suggest that whenever you share any information on the social media platform, one must be conscious enough so that no personal data is being given out.

Comments:

It is always better not to share any personal details on social media. All the information must be made visible only to the friends and not to the public.

 

Decoding the Changing Facebook Algorithms

by with No Comment Social Media

On 12th January, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook would be changing its newsfeed algorithm so as to favour posts by friends and family, over posts from companies. This is probably one of the largest changes to the Facebook newsfeed and will impact all businesses and force them to rethink their marketing strategies.

Zuckerberg believed that it is necessary that the time his users spent on Facebook, is worthwhile. He used this as a justification to introduce this new touch. “ You’ll see less public content like posts from businesses, brands, and media. And the public content you see more will be held to the same standard—it should encourage meaningful interactions between people”, he wrote.

It will be more challenging for companies to reach out to their audience now. Businesses will see a reduction in the organic reach, as the changes are rolled out. Unpaid promotions were never easy, and with Facebook incorporating this new algorithm, it will become all the more difficult. It is still not clear how paid ads will fare, but all in all, this is certainly not a great news for companies, to start the year with.

Yes, public unpaid content will still be available, but it needs to foster discussion among the audience. Facebook will promote content which attracts more comments. Coming up with tactics like ‘Comment on this picture for a free trial’, or in other words using ‘engagement-bait’ may seem like a viable option, but that will only be worse for your business. Facebook demotes such posts in the Newsfeed as it believes that they do not produce any quality interaction, and only lead to spamming of the user’s newsfeed.

Instead, you should look towards ways to create better, and more engaging content for your organic Facebook campaign. You can come with posts which encourage users to share their experiences or ask for their feedback. This will lead to more interaction, in the form of more comments which is exactly what Facebook is looking for. As a company, you need to start thinking from the customer’s perspective and create content which is appealing to them.

 So, what are the key areas in which you should be investing your time and effort, with these changes in the Facebook algorithm? Here are some areas to focus on :

Look out for Paid Ads:  You should look towards increasing your budget on paid ads on Facebook. Zuckerberg hasn’t said anything about paid promotions, but in probability, these will still reach out to the public as before. Unpaid content will be affected.

Create engaging content: Unpaid content that you create should be creative, engaging and lead to discussion among people. This is the only way such posts show up in the newsfeed.

Facebook Live: Videos, especially live videos fare extremely well on Facebook. If you haven’t started using it, this is the right time to do so. The new algorithm will support Facebook Live videos, and these can be used to maximize customer interaction.

Use other platforms: Other social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram if you are not getting favourable results on Facebook. These sites are also becoming popular among the youth and can be used to target your audience.

Why Outsourcing your Social Media Marketing is the Best Thing to do in 2018

by with No Comment Social Media

With most social networking platforms reaching their all-time high figures, in terms of the number of users, Social Media Marketing has undoubtedly become one of the most popular ways of reaching out to your target audience. If done properly, it can provide very high ROI and help shape your brand’s image.

Social Media Marketing (SMM)is very important for your brand and it needs to be done in a proper manner. Many people have this notion that it is an easy task, and the basics of Facebook and Twitter will help them sail through. In reality, it is much more complicated and requires the knowledge of a professional.

SMM is more than just advertising across social channels. It requires the knowledge of various software and apps for managing your marketing campaign. It also demands an ability to create quality content which will be a hit with your target audience. You need a continuous campaign, across various social channels, curated specifically for your target audience.

All this is seldom possible with a small in-house marketing team. They may not be as well equipped with the intricacies of social media marketing. Also, social media is time-consuming and it may not always be possible for them to look into this. As a company which is just starting up, you have numerous other tasks to look after. In such a case, outsourcing your social media marketing will be your best bet. The past year was a huge year for social media, with the number of Facebook users reaching 2 billion, and these figures will continue to grow in 2018. Outsourcing your social media will have the following benefits.

Save Money

If you don’t outsource, you will need to hire a professional. This will probably be more expensive as apart from the salary you will have to look into other benefits and overheads. Working directly with a b2b agency will provide you more value for money. Also, you won’t have to spend on any software, tools or training as they will already be equipped with the same


Expertise

Social media doesn’t just involve sharing posts. It also involves analysing huge amounts of data and figuring out a proper strategy based on the results. Marketing agencies catering to social media will have many experienced members who actually enjoy doing all this.Moreover, tools and technology are developing at a very steep rate and it will be difficult for you to keep up with all this. The coming year might also see newer forms of social media emerging or new advertising formats across channels. All this should be left to the professionals. As stated before, social marketing is not as easy as it appears.

Response Management

If you are busy, there are chances that the queries on social media platforms, by your customers go unattended. This will be better handled by a separate agency. So if you have a product launch or a team outing, you need not worry about your social media presence fading out. Marketing agencies like ours provide continuous solutions and ensure your presence across social channels at all times.

Targeting your audience

If you cannot answer questions like who you are targeting specifically, and where is there presence likely to be found, it is best that a third party handle your social media handles. They will research your target audience, find out how and where to target them and generate leads for your company.

If you are not convinced enough, just have a look at your social media marketing outcomes. Is your in-house marketing team or the underpaid intern able to generate enough leads? If the answer is not satisfactory, you are probably not doing it right and should look towards outsourcing your social media marketing, in the coming year.

How to Get Started with Facebook Advertising

by with No Comment Social Media

With a whopping 2.07 billion monthly users as of 2017, Facebook is undoubtedly the largest social media platform currently available. With people all across the world spending more and more time on Facebook, today it has become one of the best means to reach out to the consumer base for your company. Moreover, Facebook ads are extremely targeted and effective, without being too heavy in the pocket. If you have not started using Facebook Ads yet, for your start-up venture, it is high time that you start doing so.

This article walks you through the process of advertising on Facebook, and how to get started with the same.

  1. Navigate to your page and on the right-hand top panel, in the drop-down menu, select Create Ads. This will direct you to the Facebook Ads Manager which looks like this.

    How to get started with Facebook Advertising - digital raffish
  2. Now, you have to choose your marketing objective. This may seem a little intimidating the first time. Hence, it is important for you to research this beforehand and think of your campaigning strategy. Whether you want to just start off by creating a brand awareness, or you are more interested in sales, you should choose your campaign objective wisely. You can hover over each sub-category to know more about it. 
  3. After selecting your campaign strategy, we proceed to the following page, which is concerned with the setting up of your Ad account. You have to fill in your basic account details, like the country, currency and time zone. 

    How to get started with facebook advertising -digital raffish

  4. The next step is a crucial one, which consists of Audience, Placements, Budget schedule and additional fields, depending on your Campaign objective. Audience: Now, it is extremely important to choose your audience carefully. A very generalized idea should not be applied, and you should try to maximise your conversions. Facebook Ads can be made very target specific, thereby leading to huge ROI. Apart from specifying demography like age, gender and languages, you can also choose for a detailed targeting, based on interests.

    Budget, placements and schedule: Next, you choose your daily budget, starting at a minimum of Rs 40 per day. Compared to other social networking ad agencies, Facebook ads, actually are pretty economical.
    As for Placements, it is best to go with the automatic placements, which chooses where to place your ads, based on the target audience chosen. You can also choose to do it manually. You can choose the schedule of airing your ads as well. 

    how to get started with facebook advertising - digital raffish

  5. The next step consists of the format for displaying your ad. You can choose a textual display or a picture or a video or any of the formats Facebook has in store. Make sure the ad is visually appealing, as well as informative at the same time. 

    how to get started with facebook advertising - digital raffish

Additionally, there may be steps where you are prompted to add the URL of your website, or the link of the app that you want users to install. These fields are crucial for converting your audience to customers, and should not be neglected.

After following these steps, your Ad is ready to go live on Facebook. You will have to look into the Facebook Ad reports to find out if you are making any progress. You can use various tools provided by facebook ads manager, in order to know how you have fared. Based on these insights, you can alter the schedule of your ads, make some changes in the target audience fields and adjust your budget in order to maximise your returns.

An effective advertising campaign can do wonders for your company… An average product, with a largely successful marketing campaign, has greater chances of survival than an excellent product, with lousy advertising.Facebook Ads are undoubtedly a great platform for you to expand your business, and if done right, it can be a huge boost to your startup venture.

How To Enhance Your Facebook Ad Targeting

by with No Comment Digital Marketing

Advertising across social networking sites especially on Facebook has become the need of the hour and has unbelievable effective potential that can facilitate in delivering your message to your intended audience. Seize the complete benefit of Facebook advertising options to generate extremely flourishing Facebook ad campaigns.

How to enhance your facebook ad targeting

Gain from unconventional targeting methods

Facebook has a lot of remarkable and distinctive targeting options for FB paid ads which you won’t get anywhere else. You can easily target the public through specifications such as place, age, gender, occupation, relationship position, lingo, literacy levels, income groups and more.

Focus on your desired audience with interest mark

Along with the targeting options stated above, Facebook allows for some far-fetched interest gathering. This offers remarkable significance, and the interest targeting facilities single-handedly can substantiate your utilisation of Facebook advertising.

Befriend new people and pay attention to the old

Start by aiming your Facebook ads specifically to users who are previously linked to your Facebook page and you can opt to target them and their colleagues, or people who are not associated to your page at the moment. (Don’t forget that widening your range may shrink the significance of your audience and charge a bit extra.)

Watch out for your prospective spectators

When you increase and develop targeting options and confine your audience, Facebook will produce an estimated quantity of people you’ll get in touch with. This is only an approximation, but it can help you ensure you’re not targeting way too many people all at once (or too little). Ads can help achieve the best when they’re aimed at least a few hundred people, so think about eliminating various constraints if your audience rate is declining beneath this.

Focus on your target with more sorting

In case you have only some specifications gathered, resort to the addition of related topics under the “More Categories” sector. Then you’ll come across options for narrowing your audience even further – select users of a specific area, or of specific age group, people who have had a birthday recently, who post a lot on Facebook, etc.

how to enhance your facebook ad targeting

Need more customers for your shops?

Strive to target people who reside in your neighbouring areas and locality. Combine this with Facebook Deals and other offers which can be cashed in at stores and just notice just how much more customers you can gain just by being social and friendly.

Link your mailing catalogue to Facebook

In case you prefer and want to build upon on hand leads, you can try by adding a convention audience and connecting your mailing list straight away to Facebook, which will further allow you to aim at users you already have a relationship with beforehand. Acquiring benefits from the norm audience aspect can frequently boost ad conversion rates. Try uploading a mailing list or connecting directly through the MailChimp. Simply click on “Create New Audience” in the Audience segment.
 

Resort to these suggestions for great results!