Cifuentes, Jon. “Mobile Marketers are as obsessed with emojis as we are.” Venture Beat. Venture Beat, 24 March 2016. Web. 24 March 2016.
Jon Cifuentes discusses how emoji use has become a major tool in mobile marketing. As the number of smartphone users continually increases, brands have been trying to adapt to this new frontier of mobile marketing.
More and more companies are using emojis to engage with their customers. | http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/why-dominos-went-nuts-and-wrote-hundreds-tweets-almost-entirely-pizza-emojis-164732
Though the emoji revolution started as an exclusive feature on iOS devices, it is now available on many other platforms, the most widely used being Android. In fact, according to Cifuentes, Android has been growing faster than iOS for emoji usage in push notifications. This means that marketing campaigns can now use emojis to connect with a greater audience. Emojis are now a commonplace in emails and social media posts from all kinds of brands. While using emojis helps connect with this growing demographic of smartphone users, Marissa Aydlett, VP of marketing at Appboy, states that tone, goal, content, images, and etc. are still all important of a message that successfully creates repeat engagement by the consumer.
This source is extremely relatable to not only people in Atlanta, but in places around the country and nationwide. Personally, I have noticed that emails from stores like Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters have recently included emojis in the subject line. This source perfectly exemplifies how the digital built environment is constantly changing to adapt to technology and the digital trends of consumers.
http://venturebeat.com/2016/03/24/marketers-might-over-doing-it-with-all-of-the-emojis/
Komando, Kim. “Facebook is watching and tracking you more than you probably realize.” USA Today. USA Today. 18 March 2016. Web. 24 March 2016.
Kim Komando walks through how Facebook and other companies are tracking our online behavior in order to strategically market products and services to online consumers and how we can stop it from happening. It is no coincidence that we find ads for sites that we often or recently have visited popping up on our sidebars on Google. Companies are using Facebook by tracking our likes, games, and what third party apps we, or our friends, login to using Facebook. This way, if you like H&M on Facebook, marketers know exactly what ads would appeal to you the most: H&M and similar clothing ads. In the article, Kim Komando explains how this tracking is potentially dangerous. If a hacker can obtain information from one of these third party apps or retailers, all the information of the consumers they’ve tracked are now compromised.
In order to prevent his from happening, Kim Komando suggests going into the settings on Facebook to remove any third party apps that are not being used and to get rid of the habit of logging into sites using Facebook. Consumers can prevent their friends’ apps from seeing their information by going into the settings as well.
Social media is such a major part of the digital world that the ability of companies to manipulate the built environment of one of the most visited social media sites in history is slightly disturbing.
The majority of consumers do not like the feeling of being tracked online. | http://www.itbusinessedge.com/slideshows/consumers-tell-businesses-how-to-improve-online-ad-tracking-06.html
This kind of tracking creates an environment in which consumers are not comfortable. It is this kind of behavior that leads consumers to utilize the protections of ad and content blockers as stated in Melissa King’s article, “Better Online Living Through Content Moderation.”
Meyer, David. “Advertisers, Publishers Won’t Welcome Latest Ad-Blocking Stats.” Fortune. Time Inc., 1 March 2016. Web. 25 March 2016.
In this article, David Meyer discusses how the rising numbers in Ad-Blocking users are affecting advertisers and publishers. People tend to block ads simply because they annoyingly seem to interfere with what they are doing online. Ad-Blocking also happens because on websites like Facebook, who once proudly described themselves as an Ad- free social experience, have packed their sidebars with consumer-specific ads using their tracking technology. While Ad-Blocking allows users to have more control over the content that they see online, it sometimes prevents them from seeing content on their most-visited websites.
AdBlock is a populare Ad-Blocking app that consumers can install right onto their browser toolbar. | https://getadblock.com
This article goes well with the article, “Better Online Living Through Content Moderation” by Melissa King, in which she discusses the affects of unfiltered Internet and the benefits of controlling your Internet experience. As more and more companies find new ways to track and push ads onto consumers, more and more consumers are utilizing Ad-Blocking and content control features.
http://fortune.com/2016/03/01/ad-blocking-stats/
Singleton, Micah. “The New York Times is testing pop-up ads asking users to disable ad blockers.” The Verge. Vox Media Inc., 7 March 2016. Web. 25 March 2016.
As companies like Facebook increase their ads and web tracking technology, consumers are increasingly employing Ad-Blockers and other Internet content control features to better control their online experience. In his article, Micah Singleton talks about how The New York Times is attempting to combat this rise in ad-blocking usage.
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The New York Times is one of the many publishers who are now directly engaging their consumers about ad blocking. | http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/7/11175250/the-new-york-times-pop-up-ad-blockers-test
When users access The New York Times’ website, a pop-up window appear with a message asking them to disable their ad-blocker for the website or subscribe to their publication. Because these kinds of sources use ads as supplemental funding to subscriptions, users being exposed to ads are actually important to their business. A spokesperson for The New York Times has stated how Ad-Blockers are not only bad for businesses, but they also do not serve the long-term interest of consumers.
The battle between Ad-Blockers and Publishers is intensifying. While using Internet content control features is beneficial to the mental health for some users as claimed by Melissa King in, “Better Online Living Through Content Moderation,” it is not a good practice for companies and publishers who use these ads for funding.
http://www.theverge.com/2016/3/7/11175250/the-new-york-times-pop-up-ad-blockers-test