Should You Use Instagram Stories for Your Business?
Instagram Stories have been around for a while now, and the effect of it is huge.. but businesses in Oman are not using it much as yet. The reason could be that it has left many brands, influencers, and content creators confused: should we be using Instagram Stories for business?
In our opinion, since Instagram in General and Stories, in particular, are huge in Oman Social Media, If you’re not using Instagram Stories for business, you could be missing out on a huge opportunity. Not only are Instagram Stories fun and creative, but they’re one of the best ways to grow your engagement, build brand awareness, and even drive sales!
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.
Sources:
Black Mirror TV series to highlight topics related to humanity's relationship to technology
Season 5 of Black Mirror has finally been confirmed on Netflix and will be officially released on June 5, 2019, and fans are thriving for its release! For those who don’t know what Black Mirror is, it’s a sci-fi anthology series that goes to show how technology can be threatening to our lives, and shows how impactful and dangerous it could be if misused. Black Mirror guides to show its viewers some of the worst-case scenarios of how technology could drive our lives to the near future if we people of the current generation are not cautious enough, and despite it being an entertainment show, this is definitely eye opening for many of us viewers. It’s useful to observe and take in some of the important highlights that the show dives deep into and how some of the episodes could have a possibility of coming to reality. The new upcoming season will have Miley Cryus cast in one of the episodes where it would be about a lonely teenager that yearns to connect with her favorite pop star who would be Miley Cyrus here but her charmed existence wouldn't be as quite as it appears it to be.
Many individuals here in Oman have mentioned how some of the great shows on Netflix are not offered to some regions and Oman tends to be one of those regions. Well, we have exciting news for some Omanis but Black Mirror will be available to watch here in Oman by the time it is released on June 5th! So expect to have your streaming devices, membership plans, and snacks ready! We are just a couple of weeks away from its release! Below is the trailer of the latest upcoming season of Black Mirror.
Trailers of the previous seasons for viewers who have not caught up with the show and would like to know more about the show.
Season 3
Season 4
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.
How will Oman welcome WhatsApp new updated version with limiting message forwarding for 5 times?
Now you will no longer be able to forward WhatsApp messages to more than 5 times. Announcement from WhatsApp on Monday 21st January 2019 said it was restricting worldwide how many times any given message can be forwarded from 20 to 5.
Spreading of Mendacious campaigns and fake stories on WhatsApp has become a big problem around the world. Unlike other social media channels like Twitter and Facebook, WhatsApp messages are private and encrypted. Hence it’s very difficult to track the origin of the message.
WhatsApp spokesman said, “We’ll continue to listen to user feedback about their experience, and over time, look for new ways of addressing viral content.”
Countries like Oman with a fewer number of social problems may be affected by this release negatively as friends and groups are restricted to forward their messages. WhatsApp is already playing a major role in the communication system in Oman, not only among friends but within companies. Due to it’s fast and convenience many companies in Oman are using WhatsApp as a communication method. So we will have to wait and see how the local market will adapt to this new version.
The company will release an update with forwarding limit, first to Android devices and then to IOS devices accordingly. Oman is expected the new release in near future.
Burjeel Photoshoot
Mirrors conducted a photo shoot for our client Burjeel Hospital on Saturday, 10th November 2018. Burjeel is Sultanate’s premier private tertiary healthcare provider, a unit of VPS Healthcare, situated in Al Khuwair, Muscat, Oman. The photos will be used for Burjeel’s marketing material/website and Social Media posts.
SriLankan Airlines - 'Take me Home' Contest
Srilankan Airlines held ‘Take me Home’ Quiz Contest for Diwali 2018. Ms Gayatri Aditya, a visual artist by Profession won the competition from Oman and a return Business Class flight ticket to her hometown in Chennai, India. It was her first Diwali with her family in 7 years. Mirrors Team was given the task to develop the video. The video shooting was held at Muscat International Airport
