Edible Arrangements has done a major 180 in their branding and marketing, and have pivoted towards targeting a younger demographic. Historically, the company has primarily marketed towards older people having advertisement placements on TV. After having a tough year in 2019 with sales down double digits, they knew they had to make a pretty dramatic change.

Meryl Draper, the CEO of Brooklyn based ad agency called “Quirk Creative“, said “Brand is starting to become a part of the conversation again this year. It’s that shift back to, ‘We’ve got to do performance-driving tactics, like lower-funnel tactics. But we also have to now rebuild our brand equity and tell our brand story.’”

There is a clear digital shift going on among older businesses that have yet to acclimate to the new media landscape. In the case of Edible Arrangements, they began to focus primarily on e-commerce, whereas before they would have a lot of products at supermarkets or at brick and mortar locations. Visual story telling seems to be something they’re going after strongly as well, as they have started to produce tons more visual content on social media platforms.

Twitter is a platform that is known for its audience and sometimes- the ruthlessness of that audience. Twitter has attempted for many years to mitigate the seriousness of the vulgar humor and reaction-provoking content that is displayed on its platform daily. On a mission to make this encounter more manageable, Twitter is planning to revamp its explore settings by updating them to resemble a TikTok format, on an Instagram Reel- one that displays content like images, videos and even text-based tweets in a vertical form and short bursts. This new feature has been tested in both Android and IOS and will this be made available in both formats. In addition to that, the Twitter team has decided on putting to the test a one-time warning feature that will allow users to flag their posts with different labels. In the past, users had to mark all of their content under a single, general label: Sensitive. With categories like Nudity and Violence made available through this update, Twitter is now closer than ever to a new human-first approach for distributing content on its website.

As per a recent tweet:

“‘Explore’ section will have just two tabs: For You and Trending. Although the format looks a lot like TikTok UI, however, on Twitter, the retweet, share and like options will be placed at the bottom of the video instead of the right side.” (Yahoo News).

https://www.bgr.in/apps/twitter-tiktok-like-format-trending-explore-tab-tests-one-time-warning-feature-sensitive-1027232/

As the popularity of Meta steadily grows, the platform is now aiming to create opportunities for gamers worldwide, beginning in India. The main aspiration is to motivate gamers worldwide to build communities that are overseen by specially selected administrators. Known better as the gaming challenge, this initiative will give gamers access to several features including watching gaming videos, building connections in gaming group chats, playing games virutaly with people all around the world, and having the opportunity to follow their favorite game creators/game titles. All gaming groups on Facebook will be able to register for the challenge, and they will be classified into two different categories based on their time of creation: The groups that are younger than one year will be called “Lit”, and the groups that are one year or older will be called “Legends”. Community administrators are to be mentored by industry experts, understand masterclasses, and become well-versed in developing earning strategies

Manish Chopra, an executive over at Meta, has made a public statement:

“We are commited to growing the gaming ecosystem in the country, and through Game of Tribes we will offer connection and support to gaming communities looking to upgrade their skills and expand their gaming connections.” This strategy developed by Meta, of, creating gaming communities can be utilized in several ways. Gamers and enthusiasts can use it to host tournaments, connect with community members, upload videos, create livestreams, offer engaging topics of discussion among fellow gamers and much more. The activation partner for the game of tribes is Communique Marketing Solutions, and they are expected to execute the challenge.

Source: https://indianembassylaos.org/meta-presents-gaming-community-challenge-for-the-first-time-in-india/

The traditional days of debt collectors simply calling you and sending letters are long gone. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced their newest rule, allowing debt collectors to contact people via social media. Collectors are still limited in the number of times they can call you however this rule doesn’t extend to email, texts, and social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

The Bureau emphasizes that it’s still illegal for debt collectors to continuously harass those with debt payments. How this will be managed still isn’t clear.

The CFPB’s only requirement is to identify themselves as debt collectors. This identification will give citizens the power to opt-out of all communication from the CFPB on their social media platforms. The details on how this will work are nonexistent.

The good news is collectors can only contact you between the hours of 8:00 am and 9:00 pm local time. The CFPB is also not permitted to call you within 7 days of having a phone conversation with a collector.

This makes me uneasy. Social media is a place of personal peace for me and others. Now that debt collectors can contact people via social media it will no longer be a safe space for people to escape the reality of life. This will just increase the stress levels of those in debt. The lack of clarity in the opt-out option is problematic. I’m afraid this option will remain unclear so people are forced to continue receiving messages.

I’m curious to know how compliant social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were in this new decision. To me, this seems to be a breach of their user’s privacy.

Sources:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/understand-how-cfpb-debt-collection-rule-impacts-you/

https://www.consumerreports.org/debt-collection/debt-collectors-will-be-able-to-contact-you-on-facebook-instagram-twitter-a5362170249/

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/understand-how-cfpb-debt-collection-rule-impacts-you/

https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies/consumer-financial-protection-bureau