WhatsApp Blue Tick Way Around using Notifications

                      

 WhatsApp rolled out their newest update sending the world in uproar for their privacy infringement. Now earlier hiding the last seen was a good way to avoid some potential conflicts, but with its new feature of the 2 blue ticks, hiding the last seen wont mean that much!

So whats this ticks all about? Read all about it here from the Developers Itself - Updated FAQ's

A lot of teens are harrowed by this piece of information!!

But there is a small turn around.... which may or may not work with all phone models, but it worked with using an Iphone 4 (to send) and a Samsung Note 3 Neo (to receive). This apparently does not work with IOS as updated to me by @davyr0. At a later update by @krish_vikram it was found that it does not allow it on Windows OS as well.

Please let me know in the comments if it did or did not work or tweet me @udayansikdar

THE FIX

In your notification settings, turn on your pop up notification in settings

 

I noticed that after doing that, the blue marker does not activate. You can read the message, and the other user does not get notified. However there are other things which you have to keep in mind.

Keeping this on, anyone will be able to read your message without unlocking your phone. So unless you have no-one touching your phone, I would not advise it.

  Do me let me know in comments if you faced any problems. I am sure others will be happy to get some updates!

Facebook friend verification problem solved

       How many of use have faced this problem and were at our wits end by the solution of the same. Facebook has this weird feature of making account holders to recognize people from a list of pictures, and most of the time it so happens that the pictures do not have photos of our friends, but pictures of abstract images. It becomes next to impossible in a situation where the account you have is an account of your business or an account you created just for testing purposes. Social Media Marketers would time and again need to create such accounts for their work. And might have over a thousand friends too, all who are unknown!!
I am sure you have by now tried scanning the internet for concrete answers to this problem, or a solid solution, and found nothing helpful. But there is a way to bypass this. I am not saying that it will be easy to do so. It will be time consuming and patience is needed but it is definitely fool proof method.
First of all you need to learn to take screen shots and save them into jpegs. If you don't know, you can Google it and you will get the solution.
Here are some things to know before making an attempt again(assuming that you have tried and failed already)

• Facebook uses a very simple algorithm to give you the images. It selects a group of friends from a small pool of friends. So there are high chances that the same pictures might be shown to you in the consecutive attempts.
• Facebook will show people only from your friend list.
• Facebook allows 2 skips.
• There is a very small time window to recognize this so you need to be fast( avoid being fast initially though....read complete document)

Basic Steps:

1. Ask a friend for help, if you have someone who has you as a friend and you have multiple common friends that would be helpful. As soon as you are asked the list of names to choose from, you can go to your friends' profile and make searches. Do the searches in different tabs and keep the tabs open even after if you have failed.
2. You can drag the images and do an image search in google, that might give you some options.
3. There will be some names which will be very unique, so when you do a search from your friends profile you will quickly get the person.
4. Keep retrying.

The BEST step to do:

1. Facebook as i said chooses friends from a pool of friends, that means there will be repetitions of the images they show, but then the options will all change except for the one single name which is the real name for that particular profile.Check screenshots below.

 2. The pictures above and below were shown to me at two different attempts to try to login. But there is one more thing common besides those pictures. Notice the names. Only one name is common "Keerthi Sarah". So the profile obviously belongs to her isn't it??

3. The trick here is that from the very first attempt itself make screenshots of the screens you are told to recognize. You get 7 attempts each time including 2 skips. Use them well. Do not hurry in excitement. The goal is to get maximum screen shots as possible. After around 6-7 attempts you will be able your account easily.
4. Sometimes if you identify even 4 people out of 5, Facebook will give you a try again option at the same time, and out of those 5 if you get 4 more, you are good to go.
5.I hope any Facebook developer does not change the algorithm of the same pictures, cos then i will have to think of another way to unlock this.

Losing one's identity in Social Media marketing

              As a Social Media Marketer starts to post on behalf of clients, very soon the identity of self has to be purged. And the more clients one handles the more number of masks which have to be worn. And it might not seem so, but losing ones identity online is a tough thing to do, because one has to be a spokesperson of the company at all times. A social media disaster might not be the reason for direct loss of sales in the short run, but it might tarnish the image of the company forever.
              A social media marketer hence has to erase owns' identity and assume the garb of the client. The approach not only has to be more corporate but, it still has to have a touch of freedom in it as it is social media after all. It is often observed that active Social Media Marketers spend very less time on their own profiles, this is a result of wearing so many masks that one has to stop becoming oneself online. This might be a good thing, as this ensures that one does not leave traces of ones' attitude when talking on behalf of other clients. It is still important to feel what the client feels and try to be that voice which is needed to be heard.

The story of many browsers for the Social Media Marketeer

                   After working on social media for some time one realizes that probably it would be helpful if one had multiple screens to work on. Multiple browsers are but the cheaper option. Personally I prefer Mozilla Firefox but then i am sure that most would point my attention to Google Chrome. Apart from these two browsers others like Safari, Opera, Epic Browser are some other alternatives. Oh and not to forget Internet Explorer. Working multiple accounts can be fun and annoying at the same time. A high degree of multitasking is required. And if you think you can handle more than that then click here for the exhaustive list.
                  Social Media Marketeers also might find the ctrl + tab feature in browsers. Mozilla has a plugin which supports the function of ctrl + tab exactly like the alt + tab feature of windows.  Most of the browsers have the option of changing the home page to the mode of "last opened windows". So this way all tabs which were unclosed during the last working session will open again. No need to open the same tabs daily.
                Most browsers have the save password feature which saves all the passwords in the browser database. Google sign in can be used to save the passwords to the server. Similarly Mozilla has a addon named Foxmarks which can save the passwords on the server. You can synch these to home computer or laptops so that you never forget any password. There are many more tools of course but i would then like my readers to give some suggestions too!

Feeling what your brand feels before posting about it.

         After all the posts made on social media platforms are done by people like us. But still it is sometimes difficult to actually make a thorough connect between the person who is posting and the brand in itself. Hence to reduce the brand disconnect a person who intends to post must follow a few tips:

1. One should do a thorough background check of the brand before starting to post.
2. Understanding the brand is crucial because when a person/consumer is reading the posts he will expect the usual style of the brand and nothing else.
3. Trying to have first hand feel of the brand is necessary if possible. If that is not possible then one should at-least try to read some real time reviews about the brands by authentic users.
4. Discussions with the brand manager is essential. Ideas can be generated easily with the brand manager.
5. Online activity must always go hand in hand with on field activities so it is necessary to keep a track of that as well.
6. Approach should be different for different platforms. As the consumer changes platforms the expectation is that the style of the same message should change.
7. Competitor brand posting analyses is necessary measure.
8. If the brand has same pages of other regions they can be monitored as well to understand better brand connect in some stances.
9. Posting material and style both needs to be changed over time to keep customers interested in the post, else they might simply unsubscribe after some time.
10. Frequency of posts must be timed in a proper intervals, neither too short or long as this might effect the brand temperament.

Understanding the brand needs time. One needs to be patient and effective to achieve good resonance.

Engaging the right way on Social media

           Social Media being the hippest place to be has seen companies from all over joining in and making their accounts at a very fast rate. It all started few years back with the birth of this platform in India and companies trying to understand the importance of this medium to engage customers with the brands. Facebook pages, YouTube channel, Facebook profiles, Twitter etc. they soon gathered everywhere and they carpet bombed info everywhere. These are now times when the consumer is getting too much of everything everywhere in terms of advertisement. Customers struggle and battle to hide from the attack of advertisements, and many have mastered to ignore them.
          Although there is presence but still it is not in the proper direction everywhere. There are many blunders done by companies in India over the previous years some of which have  seen the light of the day, whereas others have faded in darkness. Be it the blunder by Starbucks India for deleting a post of an irate customer in Delhi (article), or Volkswagon India trying hard to save the lashes of consumers on twitter, after Volkswagon put a mini vibrator in the newspaper of Times Of India for advertisement purpose (article), there are social blunders everywhere. Of course exceptions being like Pepsi India who inspite of doing copy-write infringement, admit to their mistake and apologized quickly (article).
         Companies should adopt stricter measures to balance and engage on social media platforms. Some of the smallest thing includes:

• Not bombarding information
• Encouraging two way communication
• Listening to the customers
• Preparing for the posts
• Learning and analysing customer interest points
• Not shoving problems under the rug and planning good defence
• Relating with the target customers
• Presence on the right platforms needed

       India is still young to the techniques of social media, but there are chances that it might adopt faster than expected. The right attitude is the key here.

Social Media Marketing excess in India

         Social Media being one of the most sought after trends in India right now. It has gripped over millions of young minds and hearts as they work it out hard to make their social image "Cooler". But still yet there are a few hundreds who remain un-smothered by the social need pressure. As if the computer and laptop were not sufficient enough they have now shining laptops and handhelds to assist.

                        As the months have passed by there has been a seen presence of social media advertising at various channels all over. Be it before logging on to Facebook, before watching a YouTube video or before playing an Android game, its there and everywhere. Companies have realized the value of being present in this media mode especially preferred because of it cost benefits and visibility benefits. The trend of course has its pros and cons. Being bombarded with too many ads being one of the definite cons. Companies should realize that simply ramming the space with their matter is not going to help. It is the need of the time for quality social media marketing which aims more towards increasing interaction. Surely this will come to happen in due time.