Facebook The Anti Social Network

Well you guessed it; today my rant is going to be about Facebook. People in this day and age are spending more time on their phones than ever with a whopping 1.72 hours per day spent on social networking sites and with that number set only to increase over the next several years. Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites with 1.25 Billion active monthly users.
Now I know what your thinking, Facebook is a great way to stay in touch with friend's overseas and interstate, technically you are correct but for me the positives of Facebook are heavily outweighed by the negatives. Now stop for a second and look up from what your reading and look around at everyone you can see and count how many of them are on their phones. Now my guess is if your in a room of around 5-10 people, the number of people on their phones is between 3-6, so that's between 30%-60% of the people in that one room on their phones. Now I don't contribute this all to Facebook, other social networking sites are to blame too and also the invention of smart phones has made it too easy to access these sites at the touch of a finger. But the amount of time people spend scrolling down there news-feeds pointlessly looking for something to entertain them for a few seconds of their life is creating a very antisocial generation. Just the other day at university I was trying to have a conversation with someone and the whole time they were busy staring at their phone on Facebook scrolling through their feed to find out what everyone had got up to over the weekend. Lets be honest here most people spend 5% posting new content, 15% sharing funny videos, 40% scrolling through the news feed and 40% stalking other Facebook users photos. If we could cut back the time we spend on our phones we would be more productive and also be a better in social situations, but if we keep on with the trend of increasing more time on our phones and social networking sites we will find in the future people wont have the people skills to cope in social situations. Now I don't know about you but thats not how I wish to live my life, so from now on I am aiming to spend less time on my phone and more time living my life outside of the anti "social network".

Well that's all for today hope to have a new post up again soon.
Yours truly,
Luke Henderson

Assignment over :? or not

Hi everyone, id like thank everyone who has read my blog over the past few months and helped give me valuable feedback and data on what starting and writing a blog is about. Id like to give a huge thank you to my friends and family that shared my blog and put up with me spamming their news feeds. Sadly my assignment is over but I will be  continuing to write, so make sure you watch this space closely :)

Your one and only,
Luke Henderson

Whats Trending?

Hey everyone today I'm going to decipher why videos and/or stories go viral and become trending on social media. When looking at the current trending stories on social media you notice all of them one thing in common, they are all relatable. Whether it be kids doing something funny or someone showing kindness that isn't seen everyday these are all relatable to everyone and this is a big part of why videos go viral. Unique content is another reason why videos can go viral and become trending on social media, but the question is what makes each video unique when so much has been there done that online in this day and age? Well there is no definitive answer when it comes down to it, it's just a lot trail and error, finding the right sites to publish onto like reddit or hacker news. When looking back at the recent videos or stories I have been reading lately I have found that I have been watching a lot of time-lapse videos like this video of a man proposing over a whole year. But these videos don't interest everyone so you have to find what works for you best and harness it. If your looking for some more info on how to make a video go viral sus out this link.

Your one and only,
Luke Henderson

When Should You Post On Social Media?

Welcome back everyone I hope my Mothers Day post didn't scare too many people away :) For those that are still here the show must go on.

Today I'm going to give you a rough guide to the optimal posting times and days of the major social media platforms. For futher information click Quicksprout.

Facebook
Time: 1-3pm
Day: Thursday and Friday

Twitter
Time: 12pm, 6pm and 5pm
Day: See graph on Quicksprout

Pinterest
Time: 8-11pm
Day: Saturday

Instagram
Time: Off work hours
Day: Monday

Google+
Time: 9-11am
Day: Monday to Friday

The infographic from Quicksprout is a great rough guide for anyone looking to increase views and shares I highly recomended having a look at it :)

Yours truely,
Luke Henderson

Creating Goals

Happy Easter, 

I hope everyone is having an amazing long weekend either at home or travelling around the countryside :) Today I'm going to talk about how to go about setting your goals. When choosing a goal you need to be specific with what you have in mind, so ask yourself the five "w's"; what, why, who, where and which. Asking these simple questions will help make a clearer picture of your goal. Now you cant just be specific when choosing your goal you also need to make it measurable. You need to ask ask yourself questions like how much? how many? when do I know if I have accomplished it?

By having answers to these questions it will make it easier to see how your goal is moving forward. Your goal needs to be attainable and not just a dream, so you need to think about how can it be accomplished and whether it is realistic when put against your constraints. 

Now look at the goal and see if it is relevant, is it the right time, are you the right person for the job, does it seem worth it? If you can answer all these then your onto the last step which is to put a time constraint on it. Think about when are you going to implement it, how long are you going try for your goal and what can I do six month from now? If you can answer all these questions when creating a goal for your business your on the right track. That's all for today everyone enjoy your long weekend and I'll be back soon.
Yours truly,

Luke Henderson

Are Snapchat ads next?

Morning everyone today I'm going to have a look at Snapchat and talk about the introduction of ads being integrated into the popular app.
Snapchat started out as a simple photo sharing app where you could send anyone on your Snapchat contact list a ten second photo of you to capture the moment. Now they have integrated videos, photo filters, my stories, paint like drawing and text into their ever growing and popular app. So whats to say that ads aren't next?? Snapchat has captured the majority of today's youth  and what a better way for companies to get there product and message across than trying to get onto Snapchat and grab the attention of the next generation. We have already starting seeing major sporting events, fashion and more starting to come up in our story section, ads just seem to be the next step just like Facebook did to us  a few years ago. I believe it is only a matter of time for ads for Coca Cola or McDonald's to slowly slip in our story sections. So if your a company looking to have your ads on a platform that has the majority of people aged 15-25 keep your eye closely on Snapchat and when they finally decide to have paid for advertising.

Thank you for reading yours faithfully Luke Henderson