Everything You Need to Know About Facebook's New Upcoming Cryptocurrency
June 25, 2019
Facebook has just revealed that they are working on releasing a new cryptocurrency to the market of digital currencies. This cryptocurrency is known to be as Libra and is expected to launch publicly to the market sometime in the beginning of 2020. To confirm this, Facebook has already created their own White Paper on Libra, which speculates everything that the public needs to know about this currency. Once it’s published on the White Paper the information in there cannot be undone.
Click here for the link to Libra’s White Paper
Facebook’s new cryptocurrency will be having partnerships with many of the big known companies such as Visa, PayPal and Uber so this will help boost their currency out to the market very effectively. What’s great about Libra is it will let you purchase things or transfer funds to people with nearly no fees at all! Libra will also be available at local exchange points such as grocery stores to be able to cash out your Libra online. Facebook has confirmed that it will have its own Calibra wallet that will be built into Facebook messenger and WhatsApp as well. With this, it will increase its awareness of the currency drastically through international countries like Oman. Majority of the population in Oman use WhatsApp as a source of communication, and by having Libra be built into WhatsApp can be quite effective for the sake of awareness. Not only that, Libra will also be used to spend using other third-party wallet apps which will help increase flexibility when using the currency and to be used in the most efficient way without any complication. Facebook did not confirm if whether Libra will be available in the United States only or whether it would be available for use internationally. Cryptocurrencies are seen as the future of currencies and since many are not yet aware of the idea of digital currencies, by having safe online transactions between corporates and individuals here in Oman and other international countries can help push the awareness of cryptocurrencies out there. We are hoping to get more news of that sometime soon.
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Instagram update will appear influencers in your feed even if you DON’T follow them
With the new Instagram update, influencers and will be forced to appear in your feed even if you don’t follow them. This is because Instagram is now updating so advertisers can pay them to promote their branded content.
Instagram is having this update so that advertisers can promote their content and products to the users feed and will be displayed in both the users posts and stories as shown above. Previously, influencers had to use hashtags to ensure that they were being paid by their sponsorship, and they were of course many ways to do this but this was one of the known methods of doing this. With this new update, Instagram wants this content to be specialized so it can be easier for both the influencer and the sponsor to push their way through out to most users as possible. What has been causing the huge fuss about this new update is that if users only follow friends and family, influencers can still be able to appear on your feed even if you don’t follow these users. For instance, a brand could pay to show you a sponsored post by Will Smith for instance whether you follow him or not and whether the users account is private or not. This could be a huge win situation for Omani influencers and company corporates in Oman to have their awareness be spread to a much broader audience, but can be quite bothersome for users who choose to keep their circle limited to just family and friends. As Instagram explained in a post announcing the new format, “With branded content ads, businesses have an opportunity to tell their brand stories through creators’ voices, reach new audiences and measure impact. Using the tools available on the Facebook ads platform, businesses can reach targeted audiences beyond the people who follow the brand and creator accounts. And by running ads, they’ll have access to measurement and can optimize and test their campaigns against their set goals for more effective marketing campaigns.”
Protecting Facebook Live from Abuse and threats
Facebook has been currently working on improving their security with their Facebook Live feature from all kinds of threats and abuse that could be infiltrated to the platform. Facebook states that the main use of the Live is to spread positivity, such of it could consist of broadcasting events that are happening, sharing moments or even raising awareness for a cause but Live can be abused and Facebook wants to take steps further to limit that abuse.
Live specifically tends to be the most challenging to regulate because the moments are being captured at that very moment and tackling certain threats would require further technical innovation to stay ahead. Facebook has invested $7.5 million with three universities in new research partnerships to help design and improve image and video analysis technology. Some of their new research would consist of
- Detect manipulated media across images, video, and audio, and
- Distinguish between unwitting posters and adversaries who intentionally manipulate videos and photographs.
Alongside, Facebook is strictly tightening its rules and regulations specific to Live. By doing so, it will be applying a “one strike” policy where if anyone violates its serious policies will be restricted from using Live for a period of time which could consist of up to 30 days starting on their first offense. On the other hand, taking these actions further would help take current technology to the next step to ensure the safety of its people and the prevention of any future threats and negativity, which is what current platforms, is in need of. Facebook would be one of the first platforms out there that would be working further ahead with this and this would be a benefit for many companies and influencers out there that would want to use the Live feature with great and improved security.
Currently, Instagram is the most used platform with their live feature here in Oman due to its reliability, but Facebook could be taking one step further with protection and security, which Instagram could greatly benefit from. Companies, influencers and other individuals here in Oman could take Facebook Live as a consideration as a starting alternate to broaden their perspectives, awareness, and options to what other platforms could offer and could help companies out there widen their range and target new audiences!
Production of A'Saffa Foods Athan Al Maghrib Ramadan Video
May 14, 2019
We started working with A’Saffa Foods – one of the major food providers in Oman. The task assigned to us was to create a 10-second spot ad for Ramadan.
During the month of Ramadan, it is the most time of the year that Oman TV is viewed, and the reason behind that is to keep track of the Athan Al Maghrib where Muslims break their fast and Oman TV tends to be their great reliance for announcing that.
Because of that, this tends to be the best, most crucial time to work on an awareness ad. Having to place an ad during this time of the month, especially in that time is by far one of the most expensive and effective approach for food companies such as A’Saffa so we wanted to be creative with this ad.
During this time, viewers would be waiting to break their fast as they watch the commercials to hear the “Athan” which is the best opportunity to show the products of A’Saffa chicken is the best quality of food and chicken you can get. You may think do people still watch TV? Well, in Oman, it’s almost like a tradition here that every household during Ramadan has Oman TV channel on especially before “Maghrib” Since all eyes are on TV during that moment, it is important that we consider making this commercial appealing to our audience, we had to make sure we would be creative with this and fast!
- The first 3 seconds of the ad spot, we had Mutrah one of the most well-known areas in Muscat display as the background to have the touch of the Omani culture. Alongside we had a voice over of: “We wish you an acceptable fast and a delicious Iftar meal”
- From 3-6 second of our ad spot, we created a nice transition twist to our plot, as we display the Mutrah Corniche as the viewer being there, we then zoom out of Mutrah, which then transitions, to being a painting of Mutrah instead. So as the viewer first sees the ad he/she would not know it’s a painting until they watch the next 3-6 seconds of the ad. As it zooms out, we then have delicious visuals of special dishes presented alongside with the Mutrah painting being as the background. We thought this would be a great technique to have our viewers ready for their meals and as a way to increase the viewers appetite before their first meal, at the same time this gives credit to A’Saffa for providing the best quality of food and best source of chicken.
- Finally, from second 6-10 we display the credits of A’saffa foods as the concluding of our ad spot.
Check out of our ad spot below!
How not to get scammed with fake social media influencers/accounts?
How not to get scammed with fake social media influencers/accounts?
Fake social media accounts and influencers are increasing in numbers and for companies, it’s very difficult to identify who’s fake and who’s genuine. These fake accounts and influencers could cost brands a lot of money.
How to avoid getting scammed?
It’s very important for brands to discover how to always pair up with the right influencers and generate great results from marketing campaigns.
Who are the fake social media influencers?
These people or accounts build a large following base by buying followers from different sources. Buying followers is actually not hard and also, it’s cheaper than you might think. For example, you can use websites like BuzzDayz to buy 15,000 Instagram followers for $55 with minimum efforts.
Using such services, someone could become a micro fake Instagram influencer or to create an account with 40,000 followers and 300 likes for each first ten posts for just around $140.
During the last couple of years, this trend has increased in Oman. Even some marketing companies are fooling brands with fake followers and likes. We’ve come across a few of these kinds of influencers and accounts in Oman digital space but if you know the tricks it’s not that difficult to identify them either.
7 ways for you to spot fake influencers or fake profiles:
- Monitor the engagement ratio in relation to the followers
- Check if the influencer is posting consistently
- Monitor whether the followers grow over time
- Check the influencer's strength of interests
- Check if their Instagram profile is a Business profile
- See if they engage in conversations with their followers
- Do a Google research about the influencer.
Having mentioned all of those, Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to promote or launch your business on social media space.
So let’s stop fake social media influencers ruin your marketing goals and by following simple steps like above we can make Oman social media marketing and advertising space a fraud-free place.
MIRRORS, Celebrating 5 Years of Success!
First thing first! A Huge Thank You to all our past and current clients for being with us on this success journey! A warm thank you to all our previous and current clients for being part of our success story. (I think it may be a good idea to move this sentence to the end of the story).
MIRRORS began as a conventional advertising agency with only 2 partners focused primarily on ATL & BTL advertising in Oman.
Since it started in 2015, Mirrors has produced design solutions for various companies. In 2016, MIRRORS opened a digital design department as the market started to shift towards digital space. We experienced exceptional growth and development over the past years in the digital space and today we are serving the majority of our clients with digital solutions.
Over the past five years, MIRRORS has succeeded at evolving and changing to stay ahead of the industry and has positioned itself in the most competitive way possible, enabling us to better serve our clients.
Progressing even further and expanding our services, today we work closely with our clients to assess their strategies and offer them more effective, efficient and strategic solutions.
Today, MIRRORS is made up of an experienced multicultural team that is capable of serving any organization, regardless of its type or size. MIRRORS has even bigger plans to expand its advertising, social media and strategy services in Oman as well as to the region in the coming years.
Apple Card: launch date in Oman
By announcing Apple Card, the company has made its first step into financial services with a numberless credit card which CEO Tim Cook calls the most significant change to card payments in 50 years.
Apple announced Monday (25) that it's launching a new credit card made for the iPhone. The card, which is both a digital card in the Wallet app and a physical MasterCard which offered in collaboration with Goldman Sachs. According to Apple, this new credit card meant to be easier to use and understand than most conventional credit cards. The card carries some fascinating benefits, like no late fees, no annual fees, no international fees, no over-limit fees, and a daily rewards program.
Users are able to get an apple card by signing up on their iPhone in the Apple Wallet app and get a digital card that they can use anywhere Apple Pay is accepted “within minutes.” Customers will also be able to track purchases, check balances, and see when their bill is due right from the app. According to apple; When you want to see how much you’re spending, there’s no need to log in to a separate website or app. Your totals are laid out for you in the Wallet app, by the week or by month.
They say the card makes it easy to spot trends in your spending as the spending categories are clearly highlighted with colors, so you can decide if you want to change them.
The tangible version of the Apple Card's design is what you would expect from Apple, the minimalism, debossed Apple logo, etched titanium slice, it immediately looks different and it takes a good security step by displaying only your name, without a card or CVV number. So all of that authorization information is stored directly in the Apple Wallet app.
This topic of this latest issue of Apple is very much trending at the moment around the world and it will be released to the market this summer. There's a good percentage of Apple loyal customers in Oman who are looking forward to this new payment method.
Al Aktham Restaurant Launches the first-ever Meter Grill Platter in Oman
Teachers day 2019
Some of us forget to appreciate the smallest things in life and even the biggest ones such as who provided so much knowledge to help us growing up. In the daily hustle and bustle of life we unintentionally leave out important stuff that should be celebrated without fail – like our teachers.
This is the video that we have done for Caribou Coffee in 2018 for the “Teachers Day”. Please let us know what you think in the comment section or DM us right away. Wanna make awesome videos? Get in touch!
Message us to find out more.
How Businesses in Oman can take advantage of Social Media Artificial Intelligence
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is growing very fast in business. Social media is no different. Companies are able to leverage their businesses using social media through AI.
The everyday evolving nature of social media makes it very hard for companies to keep a track of all new trends. Hence the companies are seeking the help of AI. The AI-based algorithms can analyze everything that is happening on social media platform in real time and feed that information as data so marketers will be able to utilize them in smart ways. It’s helping the companies to get a better understanding about their customers and their buying patterns, Which means, they are able to market more relevant products to the right targeted audience.
While investment in AI is increasing around the world, companies in Oman adoption of AI technologies is still lagging behind. We at MIRRORS encourage corporates and small businesses in Oman leveraging AI in efforts to gain market share or expand their products and services in the smartest ways.