Jordan Robinson

Crazy that I updated my iPhone in September but never took a glance at any of the new updates.
Your mentioning of the Focus feature is certainly something that I need in my life. As of this fall I have been immensely busy with my job that I started to develop “workaholic” habits. During my personal time, I would constantly check my slack and email messages on weekdays and weekends. There’s never a line of separation for me, especially since I work from home. I took it upon myself as of 2 weeks ago to remove my “mail” app from my home screen and keep my phone on do not disturb as much as possible to refrain myself from getting into work mode while I’m enjoying LIFE. It was driving me crazy and it was absolutely unhealthy.
This Focus feature is definitely something I’m going to look into now and make it part of my routine. Thanks for sharing this Hannah!

I haven’t updated my phone yet, but I’m really intrigued to test out the Focus mode because I get distracted very easily too. I tend to keep my phone on do no disturb most of the day so I’m not tempted to go on my phone. It’s crazy to think that Apple still finds ways to enhance their technology to make it better for it’s users. After each update its like woah this is awesome there’s no way there’s anything else they can do to top it off, but they do!

Love that you pointed all these features out, Hannah. I have my phone on “Do Not Disturb,” almost 100 percent of the time. I think this update is enlightening and I am going to use it. My main reason for keeping my phone on do not disturb is because of the million rob-calls I get daily. I don’t know how to make them stop. I wish Apple would roll out something for this.

I performed the update just recently due to the fact, I got the new Apple watch and I was required to. I think performance is definitely a little better, but constantly being thrown off by different UX elements and occasionally experience gaps from previous CX. Curious if other users are having difficulties too?

Wow! I just got the new iPhone 13 and had no idea of some of the features you mentioned on your post. I wish there was a way to educate customers in the updates without us having to google those answers. Could be a new innovation for the future?

I went to Iceland in 2018 for a long weekend and loved it! It’s hilarious that they did this mockery of Zuckerberg’s announcement! I think it’s so funny how many memes have popped up about Meta and Facebook. I wrote my latest eportfolio post about this – do you think that the memes are helping our hurting the Meta brand? They definitely keep the conversation going longer than it would have if the announcement hasn’t been so weird.

Ha, this is very timely and funny! I agree with Kathy that all the memes have kept the conversation going a lot longer. I went back to watch the original post on Meta’s Youtube channel and saw that it hadn’t even reached 1M views. I find that very interesting and it definitely has me questioning Meta’s interest and likability factor. This goes back to our Mobile Marketing class discussion about use of social media/privacy. It seems that some of our classmates are moving away from it all and perhaps the general public is too.

Love this so much. It makes me want to drop everything and go to Iceland. I love how other brands are mocking Meta’s new stance on VR. Iceland’s tourism team needs a raise. I wish I could see data on how many people booked trips to Iceland and see if there is a correlation to this video’s views

Great parody and great opportunity to take advantage of what’s going on in real-time. Looks like Iceland made a push to get more tourism. Curious if they marketed through Facebook.. I mean Meta!

This is amazing and what a great way to incorporate humor with tourism!!! I wonder why ICELAND felt the need to promote themselves as a country to visit though? Do you think there has been a lack of tourism regardless of COVID?

I think this is really interesting and definitely has potential, but it is hard to imagine a world where another company unseats Google from its position of power. That said, I hope it does give Google a run for its money!

Ooooooo interesting! Here are my thoughts:

1. I like the logo very much — especially for a search engine. Very refreshing.
2. I like the positioning + value proposition
3. I like the simplicity of the website, especially the primary light grey + black font… has this very minimalist Wikipedia or Craigslist vibe to it, but more modern
4. I love that they offer up joining the Slack community right up top
5. I love the hover state…. hover + BOOM, color!
6. I’m happy there’s going to be some competition in this space; DuckDuckGo freaks me out bc all of the ultra-conservatives in my life that use it, and that just makes me uncomfortable that a certain psychographic of folx use a single platform… feels isolated and rabbit-holey!

I appreciate this!!!!
Jb

Agree with Jen that the logo and color is amazing. I also agree with Erin that it will take alot for this browser to grab any users from Google’s tight grasp. I wonder what makes this different from browsers like DuckDuckGo. How will the company make money if it won’t track or sell users’ data? THere’s alot of questions coming from my head but this is really interesting

Thank you for sharing Kathryn, As someone who works in paid advertising, I am definitely aware of how Google dominates the search engine space. For context, majority of my clients either allocate all their paid search budget to Google or do a 90%/10% split between Google and Bing. The truth is even with endless funds Bing is just not able to spend in the way Google can nor does it yield great CTR results. I am excited to see how this new search engine is going to play a part in the space and if Ill be able to recommend it to my clients.

Although this is a great site (I just got to check it out for the first time!) I do not think that it will be my default browser as I personally like my data being tracked so that I can received targeted searches. This is a great alternative for those who are extremely cautious with their data and is a great investment for the future from SalesForce,

Wow I had no idea that this was even a new feature they were considering. I logged into my app and couldn’t find the games so maybe it hasn’t made its way to iOS. Personally I don’t think this is a good move for Netflix, though I understand why they introduced this new feature. I just don’t see many people including myself to log into the Netflix app to play a game when I could be rewatching Criminal Minds for the 5th time. I feel like these games will distract from the real purpose of the Netflix app. Though I’m curious to see if there will be a decrease in time of people watching content on the app once the games roll out!

Interesting direction for Netflix. I’d imagine that this is an attempt by Netflix to attract a segment of the market that isn’t consuming their other content, as in gamers perhaps…? And to get as much data about them as they can?

I just posted about Twitch on our other class blog, and admittedly, I don’t know much about that at all, but I uncovered this tidbit in “A Marketers Guide to Twitch:” In 2020, the Twitch community watched over 1 trillion minutes of content in 2020. And every day, Twitch affiliates and their partners create more content than is available in Netflix’s entire catalog. I would imagine that Netflix is paying a lot of attention to those stats.

Seems that some in the business world are not convinced, here’s an interesting piece from Harvard Business Review about that: https://hbr.org/2021/11/gaming-isnt-netflixs-best-opportunity-for-growth

This is interesting… I wish Netflix was less secretive with its data, and we could better understand their reasons for this. Per Kathryn’s comment, perhaps it’s trying to reach gamers, or maybe it’s a tactic to further engage non-gaming viewers in their content. I think there are a lot of directions this concept could go… like what if you’re watching a cooking show and could order a meal kit from a famous chef based on your interactions? Or design a house in one of those fixer upper shows?
The first interactive movie to get on my radar was Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, which I didn’t love but mostly because I didn’t find the characters or plot compelling. I think with the right storyline and call to action, interactive shows/movies could be headed in a cool direction.

I understand their tactic (like mentioned above) to engage with different or inactive users in a new way, but I also agree that they should stick with what they know. Aren’t they big enough to just stick to movies/tv?

I found it interesting that Apple tried to hold up the iOS release because their App Store policies state that third-party apps cannot act as storefronts for other apps. In release emails backs in May it seems that Apple wanted Netflix to continue selling subscriptions within its app so they could earn a cut of the money – apparently Google had given Netflix a break on their standard commission. (https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/9/22772480/netflix-games-apple-iphone-ipad-ios-subscription-app-store)

Great Post Hannah! This is super interesting, especially because I feel like there was not a lot of buzz or marketing around it. As soon as I read this, I went straight to the app and could not find it. While I was on the app, I did some thinking. Where would they even put the “games” tab. It kind of feels like an elephant in the room, where it just doesn’t belong. When consumers think of Netflix it’s all about shows, movies and a personalized experience. They want quality entertainment. I understand with the whole metaverse, AR, VR, technology maybe this was an attempt to make users play games to feel like they’re a part of the shows. According to the article though, Netflix did this as an “attempt to keep subscribers and gain new ones”. This surprised me because there target market is “18-39 year olds who have an average household income of $102,000 per year.” That market is probably working individuals, not people who sit around and play games.

This kind of reminds me of when Netflix came out with their “Choose Your Own Adventure” film called Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. I wonder if they are concerned because of the plateau of subscribers and the rise of third party hosting sites. I like the idea of the games, but I am not sure that I would subscribe to Netflix just to play them

Wow! I had no idea this happened, but what a great feature addition on Netflix’s part. Considering the vast profitability that lying in gamification and the gaming industry I think this will be a success. Baking the new gaming features into the subscription model is an interesting decision on Netlfixs part, great for the viewer but I wonder if this decision will be more profitable for Netflix. I am continuously reminded of Netflix’s business plan after reading their case study months ago. I wonder if the gaming addition will change to add on pricing eventually to make up for lost profits elsewhere, this might be a good opportunity for Netflix to break ahead.

Meh! Feels true to Netflix to be experimental and transcend certain verticals. Will I partake in it? No. I’m not a gamer necessarily, but am excited for folx who are.

Do we also know that TV is a HUGELY social space, which makes games on TV/Movies fun… yep! Makes a lot of sense.

I think it’s just fun and even sticky; not sure it adds any additional value than that.

I may have the unpopular opinion here but I liked Netflix’s previous attempts at interactive film and the concept of “choosing your own adventure”. I think that when the games are live and the catalogue grows, interactive content will become increasingly intertwined with video-on-demand offering and Netflix is once again in the lead.

Thank you for sharing Hannah. I seem to be on the same boat as the rest of the people since I had no idea this was a thing. This either means Netflix is rolling this out super slowly so had not launched a full campaign for it or they need to fire their marketing team for lacking awareness campaigns. Either way, I do not see how this will fit into their overall strategy. Netflix has been doing well with several successful original content that I do not see people turning to it when they think to play games. From the article it seems they are selfishly using it as a way to gain market research to influence future decsions.

Before the pandemic I had never used Twitch before because I thought that it was an app mainly for gamers, and I’m not a part of that community. Like you said in your post, many artists used it to hold live shows and thats’s how I started using it. I don’t use it much now but I do see the appeal of the platform! I haven’t checked out the other content they have on the app but the fact that they create more content than in available on Netflix is very shocking to me. I think I may have to give the app another look!

Twitch ranked 37th globally for overall internet engagement. So it’s no surprise that Twitch is primarily for video gamers in the U.S., but it ranks 4th in line after (Youtube, FB, Insta, Twitter). Amazon purchased Twitch back in August 2014 for $970 million. Amazon’s Prime service comes with a premium Twitch subscription which I recently found out. Since the data leak in October 2021, which included info on creator payouts, I’m sure influencer marketing managers must be creative with their strategies.
Just in the year, 2021 Twitch achieved:
– 1274 BILLION minutes watched this year so far
– 8.7 MILLION unique creators streaming each month
– 2,808,000 average concurrent viewers
– 106,100 average concurrent streamers

Hi Kathryn! Thanks for the post! Just to offer some alternative things, I have quite a few friends that will watch Twitch streams of things you wouldn’t expect. One of my friends watches someone on Twitch that records themselves following along to Bob Ross’ paint guides. My cousin watches streamers do live-action fun things, like drive in cars really fast or perform skydiving feats.

A Japanese hotel gave 3 guests free stay if they were willing to livestream themselves the whole time they were there. Quite a few people took them up on their offer, which worked as a strangely weird promotional effort by the hotel (which had to have worked in some capacity because I’m talking about it here).

There’s quite a few niche communities, but I’ve personally never participated– there’s something so creepy to me about watching another person as they do something live.

Wow I had no idea that Twitch offered more than just game streaming. I feel like the way they market themselves doesn’t help to open it up to other people. When I see ads about Twitch (or at least the ones I can remember) they are all about gaming. I would like to learn more about their marketing strategy and find out why they aren’t marketing the other sides of Twitch.

I agree with many of you by saying that since I’m not a gamer, Twitch didn’t seem like the platform for me. My nephews use it for that purpose and I always ask “How do you find watching someone else play a video game so entertaining?”. same for kids that watch other kids play with toys on YouTube. Different generation, different trends. After a quick research, I learned that 41% of viewers on Twitch are between the ages of 16 to 24 years old which means that college students make up a large portion of the consumption of this form of entertainment. I predict that college students will play huge role in growing the gaming industry even more and it may become as competitive as other college sports. This will be interesting to see.

I don’t use Twitch and probably wouldn’t even know about it, but my husband just watches Twitch all day long in the background while he’s working. I wouldn’t have realized how many people are actually using the platform if I didn’t hear about it from him. He has his favorite streams, and the people who he watches serve as influencers for him. They help him decide what video games to play, and he even buys their merch. From a marketer’s perspective, I can see how gamers like him would be a huge segment to target – but they won’t reach me on that platform!

I have been on Twitch and have really seen how the platform has changed. Twitch in particular has dealt with the up and downs of competitors like YouTube and Afreeca. I know that it has been branching out from pure game streaming to other things, but I will be more interested to see how Twitch handles the new content. There was a trend when they were banning people streaming in hot tubs.

Thank you for sharing Kathryn. Before the pandemic I had no idea what Twitch even was and even after I have only seen the gaming side of it. I know the platform has had some very successful creators filming themselves play fortnite. I wonder why Twitch did not use its newly found popularity to market its other streaming services during a time the world was looking for ways the be entertained.

Hey Kathryn! I, too, am not an avid Twitch user but because of my job I work with many Twitch channels on producing content featuring my artists. There’s podcasts we work with that go live on Twitch first before releasing the recording on other platforms, and there’s music magazines – like SPIN – who have invested in their own Twitch channel for musician takeovers.
It’s true Twitch has evolved from gaming. It’s more-so a YouTube competitor than anything else.
I think the reason people gravitate to Twitch is the user experience. It reminds me of AIM a bit.

How interesting that you bring this channel to center of attention! I actually have not heard much of it myself so thank you for sharing the link to learn more. Gaming has always been an industry I have been interested in and hope to one day be part of. I definitely think that being aware of the importance of this community is imperative for many other industries like music that you had mentioned. Marketing is always surprising me with all the new ways we can reach our audience, things like Twitch is why I never want to leave the industry.

The Sims, and also for those who are old enough this gives me The Palace chat vibes from the early 2000s. I do feel like the idea of “the metaverse” and the use of VR/AR avatars has been around for awhile, but this also concerns me. Everyone, especially the younger generations are already so immersed in their phones – for everything. If we then create even more digital spaces for us to “live in” – where is the line between virtual and in-person connections? Is there a separation anymore?

Not sure how I feel about this name change, especially since it is so different than the original name. I understand the new name and why it is, but from a study I saw about Facebook users, it should that most users where of the age 25-34, and the second group of most distributed users are from 35-44. A lot of my family that are “older” use facebook, and I guarantee that they have no idea about AR, VR or any virtual reality. Seems like this is not geared towards their target audience, but mostly trying to gain a younger audience, or the audience from other social media channels.

Does this mean I have to sit down with my parents and explain to them the new App on their cellphone is the same thing? The answer thankfully is no. I take this how Comcast is to Xfinity, Though a lot of us still call it “Comcast cable” , they rebranded it Xfinity because Comcast has now expanded itself deeper into the entertainment industry. More or less Facebook, or Meta, will now expand itself into a virtual reality/augmented environment for the future. I can’t blame them for expansion; more jobs and more content creation.

I just don’t know about you, Zuckerberg. Considering all of the assaults on him and Facebook regarding the misuse of data, the assistance with radicalization and spreading of disinformation, one would hope that the rebrand would be part of an overall effort to be more transparent, more beneficial. Instead, this seems to me to be a “doubling down” on just how much he wants to be this sort of overload of human existence. I don’t want my experiences to be curated and created by the people (and AI) of Meta. For those of you who love Community as I do, I couldn’t help but think of Abed and Troy’s “Imaginarium” — which is their own creation. Not someone else’s. It’s like Evil Abed and Mark Zuckerberg are in cahoots. Ugh.

Wow this is crazy! This is how I imagined the metaverse to be like! I wonder how long til we could be at something similar to what they Facebook (Meta) is projecting in this video.

I’m not going to lie when I first heard this I thought it was a joke and a part of me still thinks that it is. I get why they are doing this, as it will attract a lot of young users but how will they cater for the older generation like my parents who very much still use Facebook. I feel like this will be a hard pill to swallow for them as they don’t use AR/VR technology currently and probably won’t be using the features when it’s introduced. I also don’t like the full push to a digital/virtual world, I feel like young kids who will grow up with technology will have a hard time differentiating the different between reality and virtual.

Thank you for sharing Hannah! When I first heard about this I was so confused. I understand where Facebook is coming from in the sense the platform had been the same for awhile making younger users such as myself switch to more trendy social media platform such as snapchat and tiktok. However I feel as though making this drastic change will intimidate the current Facebook user, I am thinking people like my parents and grandparents. It will be interesting to see how this will all phase out and resonate with the intended user

I’ve noticed since this announcement that Facebook and Instagram, and any other social media platform owned through now Meta, still has their original names! When opening the app at the bottom it says “From Meta.” I understand why Zuckerberg is doing this because as you mentioned Hannah, Tik Tok is probably the most used and popular for generation Z. Seeing as there’s a lot of lack of trust with Zuckerberg, it’ll be crazy to see how well this virtual reality turns out and to see who else it brings in besides the hunger generation.

All evidence is that the opt-in range is driven in many ways by the content. Opt-in can be universal, but for most it’s likely “partner by partner”.

Gaming in particular offers a serious incentive to use ads to get upgrades rather than pay-for-play. In those cases, 30-40% of users are reported to opt in. Is this a harbinger for the challenges other developers or services will face?

Apple’s IDFA changes are already changing game design and monetization

iOS 14 Opt-in-Rate Is Higher for Mobile Games

As for why, 4% overall seems like a fair proxy for the share of people who just “don’t care”, at least enough to read what they’re agreeing to.

This is why I’m emphasizing 1P data as such a big part of marketer’s future. I just don’t see a viable environment where we all just let whoever wants it have our data. It’s likely to be shared, in pieces, to various parents. The ability of 1P brand to “share” data with another to see how who they know aligns with who they know seems more viable, or at least easier for people to monitor.

Wow 4%? Seems pretty low on a percentage scale, however it has me wondering the why the 4% opted in the first place (and wish there was a way to find out). BTW Kathryn, you had me at SCRATCH AND SNIFF!!!! Did this really happen? Because i would love to see this type of credit card offer!!!!

When I get the prompt, “Do you want to help us make technology work better,” I almost want to laugh. My answer is always no. They’re doing just fine updating technology without the help of my personal information. Where does all this end? I am no longer interested in receiving updates from companies either. I find that if I want to learn about something I can on my own terms.

Before starting this class, I accepted without thinking twice. I’m assuming the 4% are those who just really don’t know or care, but I’d bet they are not intentionally opting in for contribution’s sake, lol. The percentage about gamers makes sense and I find troublesome as games already exploit addiction and now this is taking it to the next step – with the realization that the gamers are such feins they’ll say yeah, sure whatever, just let me in.
And how many parents are aware enough to ensure that their children informed. Ugh. In the meantime:
https://www.theverge.com/22403523/ios-14-5-tracking-consent-app-transparency-how-to

Thanks for the thoughts Kathryn! It’s funny because I’ve started to agree with your mindset about opting-in; I used to opt out of everything and anything, and would unsubscribe with the first annoying email. But since this class and maybe my most recent job position has me much more curious about the marketing and advertising tactics being used by others. To be honest, I may have been one of those people that have opted in because I happen to enjoy targeted ads. Maybe it is because I can always tell an ad from organic feed, that I can appreciate the marketing tactics it took to get, and I doubly appreciate it if it is actually relevant to my life, and triply if it is actually appealing. I’ve clicked on more ads in recent years than ever because the targeting is so good, that I get ads for actual things I need!

As a marketer, I wish that number was higher. But as a person who adds to the other 96%, I don’t really understand why people would want to opt in. Of course companies promise opting in and giving away your information will benefit you with more personalized experience but has anyone see that benefit? All I have seen is non-stop ads from something I accidentally clicked on once. And to Steve’s point, I think they are doing just fine making decisions without the use of my data. If they really wanted consumer input, make a survey

I feel like people who opt in somehow feel like they are doing a service to the company. Maybe? I don’t know for sure. I always opt out. Some might feel bad because they want to help every time someone asks them. I really can’t think of a better reason. I stay away from marketing. It is so easy to find what I am looking for without opting in for emails, ads, etc.

Reading your post got me thinking about the line between protecting content and censoring it. As a Chinese based company, TikTok is preprogramed to over censor content. The fact that they banded someone that has same sex content does not surprise me at all. This is not just a TikTok conversation. Every social media company is trying to find that fine line. I think the answer gets back to our conversation about a company’s social media policy. Social media companies should define what is and is not allowed on there platforms, universally enforce it, and then make it a continues process to review and update the policy. These are not new problems, they are just new in the number of and speed the information can reach people.

I feel like everyday I hear about content creators and influencers are having their content banned or having their profile restricted. I’m not on Tik Tok so I’m not fully aware of the issues creators are having but I have been seeing this issue with content creators I follow on Instagram. Some of the reason they have been restricted seemed really unnecessary and didn’t seem to go against the Instagram guidelines. It’s really unfair to those who like Kevin James Thornton, have poured so much into creating a thriving community on these platforms only to have them “start again”. I wonder if TikTok is willing to amend some of their guidelines around their moderation system in order to protect their creators since they help to bring so many eyes to the platform.

OUTSTANDING post and comments here, all! Sean, absolutely agree with your point that “these are not new problems, they are just new in the number of and speed the information can reach people.”

Does it ultimately come down to accountability? To whom are social media companies accountable for establishing clear values and expectations, and then upholding them? What happens if they aren’t accountable or consistent in doing so? At what point is social media considered a utility that could be regulated? Lots to consider…

This is unbelievable to me. Kathryn’s post and your comment just sent me down a wormhole of reading articles about TikTok’s haphazard censorship. I still don’t understand how having the word “nazi” in your bio wouldn’t automatically get you banned… what alternative context is there? Based on my minimal understanding of algorithms, I can maybeee see how TikTok had to make some tweaks around BLM to ensure people who should be blocked were and vice versa (though apparently it’s still an issue: https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2021-09-16/fed-up-with-tiktok-black-users-are-moving-on)
But when TikTok programmers came together to discuss what should be censored (if that’s how it’s done), how was censoring the word nazi (or white supremacy) not an easy box to check, especially when used in a bio? Maybe they’ve figured that out by now… Not sure because I’m not on TikTok, and I’d hope the algorithm would know me better than to show that content but YIKES.

Katheryn, I totally agree with your comment on the possibility that a platform could lose its audience or advertisers because of the overzealous banning of creators. Do you think this is because of the origin of this social app? Does Tick Tok actually have defined values that makes it different from any other social platform that also has trolls string up trouble?

Also, I had no idea that there were trolls on Tick Tok just trying to instigate trouble in order to get someone banned. What a disheartening thought for someone to hate on another so much for some reason, they would go to lengths to make them look bad, and eventually banned.

A year or two ago, users on Tiktok claimed it had all of the style and grace of Instagram, but without the trolling. They touted that they had an inclusive environment that didn’t have the vitriol that normal social media platforms have. In the past few months though, it is becoming clear that this welcoming attitude when you arrive is a façade that can sometimes conceal a lot of hate. I recently watched a TikTok about a woman who did a social experiment on Tiktok, where she followed and liked anti-trans users and videos, and found that the platform started to recommend other types of hate videos like racist or anti-Semitist videos. Though the suggestion algorithm can be powerful, it can also be dangerous. Thanks Kathryn for the share!

Thank you for sharing Kathryn! As someone who recently got into Tiktok I can confidently say my for you page is now my latest addiction. With that I am show many different content creators from a BUNCH of different interest and have seen a growing number of videos made about wrongfully being banned on tiktok. Even tiktok queen herself Addison Rae was banned?!?! I own a small business and can understand first hand the toll it can take on someone to lose contact with a fanbase they have put so much time and effort to build. The platform needs new guidelines to better target creators that violate community guidelines.

Kathryn this is a great post because I’m on Tik Tok often getting stuck in the infinity scroll for ours. I don’t know if Tik Tok reviews ins reports thoroughly or takes things a little too seriously because it’s often I see users whoo are shadow banned, banned from commenting or posting, videos under reviews constantly despite following the safety guidelines, and possibly even losing their account. However, as classmates have commented before, sometimes they end up reporting the wrong things because I do tend to see a Lot of hate on such a popular and powerful social media platform. There are times I wish tik tok would just disappear.