TheCity

Tag: Snapchat

  • The importance of social media to content creators

    The importance of social media to content creators

    Over the past number of years, social media has slowly become a large part of most people’s everyday lives. The popularity of Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter has grown exponentially over the past decade. Erin Killoran explores how content creators now rely on social media.  

    Image source: Pixabay

    Over the past number of years, social media has slowly become a large part of most people’s everyday lives. This has led to a phenomenon of a new way of promoting products, services and content via social media. As a result of this large companies such as the popular skincare brand ‘The Ordinary’ have changed their marketing strategies to advertising their company exclusively via social media platforms. 

    Recent studies have shown that the average adult spends 2 hours and 3 minutes on social media per day. This consumption of social media has allowed for ordinary individuals to create content and upload it online for the general public to enjoy, with the possibility of financial reward for the creators. Presently, Youtube, TikTok and Spotify are by far the most popular platforms for content creation. 

    The rise in popularity of podcasts has led to a huge surge of people creating a production of their own, covering a number of different genres. This new phenomenon is revolutionary as it allows the audience to listen in their own time, unlike traditional radio programmes. But in order to gain  any form of traction with these podcasts, these content creators need to promote themselves on various social media platforms to prevent getting overlooked in this heavily saturated market. 

    TheCity.ie spoke to the host of ‘GleeCap Podcast’, Conor Burke, who said: “Social media is essential for me for not only promoting my podcast, but also plays that I produce and star in. It is single-handedly responsible for getting a few thousand listeners a week on the podcast. I always tell people if I didn’t have to promote anything, I probably wouldn’t have any social media because it just takes up so much time.”. 

    Becoming a creator online has become extremely accessible for most people as there is no longer a need for a significant amount of funding to start up a project. Burke said: “I set the podcast up in late May, and our following has just grown organically through Instagram. It not only grew the following of the podcast on social media, but also my own personal social media accounts. Before creating this podcast, I don’t think I particularly thought about how heavily I would have to promote it online to achieve a consistent audience.”

    Prior to social media, any form of promotion was solely reliant on print media, TV and radio advertisements. Now, this is no longer necessary and has made advertising significantly easier for everyone. Burke told TheCity.ie: “There’s absolutely no way that this podcast could have grown to the extent that it has without social media. Without it,  I would have just recorded an episode and posted it online, but no one would be able to discover it and listen to it.”

    This method of social media self-promotion has eliminated the need for advertising and the assistance of marketing experts. Therefore, removing unnecessary costs for content creators working with a limited budget.

    Studies have proven that when social media users engage with their followers, they gain more traction. Burke said: “Interacting with listeners on Instagram and Twitter has grown our podcast exponentially. 

    “We often post interactive memes and get people to ask us questions prior to an episode. And while recording our podcast we’ll answer them. I have definitely found that the number of listeners go up due to this interaction as it allows them to look forward to the next episode. I also think that the numbers go up depending on the guest that we have on due to them promoting the episode via their social media accounts.”

    Due to his consistent  promotion of this podcast on social media, Burke has garnered the attention of a number of stars from the TV show Glee, including Dot Marie Jones, which has given him the opportunity to interview her and soon, a number of other stars of the show. He said, “I know that when the cast episodes come out, more people will listen because of their large social media following.”

    Burke also mentioned the importance of having a business profile as a content creator. “Instagram’s ‘business profile’ feature has been very helpful for myself. It has allowed me to see what posts my followers react well to and how much overall traffic my account is getting each day and gives me some kind of indication as to how many people are going to listen to my most recent episode.”

    The uses of social media for content creators is endless and continues to help millions of people grow their audience each day. 

  • But First, Let Me Take A Selfie

    But First, Let Me Take A Selfie

    According to Snapchat in May 2014, the app's users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day. (Photo: wikimedia commons)
    According to Snapchat in May 2014, the app’s users were sending 700 million photos and videos per day. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

    The public has been asked to think before taking out their mobile phones to capture pictures of horrific accidents.  the appeal follows the death of toddler on the way to kindergarten in Waterford.

    The Waterford City Fire Station had to make the plea on it’s Facebook page after a fatal road accident in the city centre claimed the life of two-year-old Daenerys Crosbie earlier this month.

    To think people could stand there and watch a toddler fight for her life, let alone video it on their mobile phones, turns my stomach and I’m sure many more around the country.

    On the city’s fire service’s Facebook status, they described how a few onlookers immediately reached for their phones to take “ghoulish, thoughtless and extremely distasteful” videos and images of the horrifying scene.

    The Facebook post read:

    “The crew at the scene were astounded by the number of people trying to capture the incident on their phones. This has been an ongoing trend for a number of years now, never better illustrated than at an RTA not too long ago where a man (In his thirties, not a teenager) crept up, phone poised and recording, to within ten feet or so of a car where we were trying to extricate the driver while the ambulance crew were treating him. The driver died en route to hospital.

    “Why do people do this? It’s ghoulish, thoughtless and extremely distasteful. We could fill this page with photos of the injured and dead that we see. But we don’t.

    “Sometimes it’s enough to know that horrible things happen without having to see them. Most obviously there’s the matter of respect for the dignity of the people involved and the desire of paramount importance to not add to the grief and anguish felt by their families and friends.

    “So if you know somebody who considers this kind of thing alright ask them to think about it just a little more.”

    To give my own honest opinion, I think the selfie craze in general has gone too far, so much so that the term is now featured in the Oxford Dictionary and the rumour mill has it that Kim Kardashian is set to release her very own 352-page selfie book, aptly named Selfish.

    For me, it was the ‘funeral selfie’ that really took the biscuit. This, I feel, needs no explanation and can be seen here.

    The selfie craze has become dangerous, even life threatening, as a Polish couple recently plunged to their deaths after trying to take a selfie on a cliff in Portugal. And that’s not all: in Manila, reports have said a 14-year-old student fell down her school stairs and died while she was trying to snap a selfie. In Mexico City, it was reported that a 21-year-old man died when he grabbed a gun with the intention of posing with it for a selfie and it went off, accidentally shooting himself in the head.

    And then to make matters worse, along came the selfie stick, which has somehow made it to Time magazine’s list of 25 best inventions of 2014.

    The selfie stick in action (Photo: Flickr)
    The selfie stick in action (Photo: Flickr)

    Mental health professionals are increasingly seeing patients who have become obsessed with and addicted to taking selfies.

    Psychologist Jason O’Callaghan of The D4 Clinic said “We now offer social media addiction therapy sessions in our D4 Clinic. It shows a narcissistic side to people’s personalities when they obsess about taking selfies. The odd one or two is fine but when people obsess about it to the extent to when they are not living in the now but living in the online world, then it becomes an issue. Only recently, cases have been seen where people have taken selfies at accidents instead of helping the people involved.

    “We also find a lot of anxiety and stress causes by online addiction where young people are more open to getting bullied online because it never stops, unlike school when they can leave and go home. They take what they see and what they read online to be factual, rather than understanding that some posts are fakes. Lies and options and views may be misunderstood. When it comes to body image, we often see celebrities posting images of themselves which are clearly photo shopped to make them look slimmer or fitter, then young people get upset with their own body image, not realizing the image they see is not really what the person looks like.”

    At some point, at least I hope, we will get tired of these “look at me” type photos bragging about how our lives are better than all the people’s we just sent the photo to. I don’t particularly want to see what you are having for lunch today; or how Starbucks spelt your name wrong on your overpriced coffee again; how many squats you did at the gym; or a video of a concert you’re at (all I can hear is screaming anyway). These are your experiences, enjoy the moment instead of watching it happen through your phone screen. Go out and actually live your experiences, if you wanted to watch it on your phone screen you could have stayed at home and saved your money.

    Let me take a selfie.. (Photo: Amy Grehan)
    Let me take a selfie..
    (Photo: Amy Grehan)

  • Snapchat refuses to be bought

    Snapchat refuses to be bought

    Snapchat was rencently offered three billion dollars in cash from Facebook  and turned it down.

    Web pundits since, have been debating how insane this idea actually was.

    As John Herman of Buzzfeed observed yesterday, one reason analysts are struggling to understand Snapchat is that we don’t have much data on how the service is actually used.

    All we know, as Herman summarizes, is:

    • Snapchat users collectively receive 400 million “Snaps” a day
    • 88% of these ‘snaps’ are sent to just one other person

    The question on everyone’s tongues is how will Snapchat monetize itself to justify this offer with many people arguing online that this kind of action may mean we are right back in the “tech bubble”.

    In its infancy, a lot of talk about Twitter was around the same argument, and now it is one of the larger success stories of recent years. The same was said of Facebook, and Google and….

    One thing is for certain, Snapchat has a reasonable chance of becoming just as successful if it comes out with a clearly laid out plan for making money.