Here’s our weekly social media news update of what’s hot and happening in Sri Lanka and across the world.
Our blogs
This week our team wrote about:
- Jobs Vs. Volkswagen. The blog looks at how a communication crisis by the government in Sri Lanka was re-framed in terms of employment and various economic opportunities
- Social Media Data Mining. Our blog takes a look at, and tries to answer the most important questions, that rise when it comes to data-brokers and private information mining through social networks.
What Went Viral in Sri Lanka?
- Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Twitter Savvy Side
Answering questions on Twitter. #SriLanka #AskMR pic.twitter.com/cYsBPla6GU
— Mahinda Rajapaksa (@PresRajapaksa) January 11, 2017
The former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa was seen taking to Twitter on the 11th of January 2017, to answer various questions that were posed to him. The fact that Mahinda took to twitter to answer questions, some of which were rather blunt, by the general public can be seen as a step forward taken from the side of the opposition, owing to the fact that the majority of today’s generation is active on social media and a leader who answers people, on their level, can be possibly, projecting a positive image of themselves.
In addition to this, a post shared on facebook on the Ada Derana page, on this topic gathered over 1.3k likes and over 335 shares. There was clear enthusiasm in the response given by the people who were clearly divided among two sides; pro-Mahinda in the majority followed by pro-Maithree.
- Selfie Police
That’s a warning for you friends. Shit gets real 😂 pic.twitter.com/A7eNLKPq3K
— Mufarris (@Mufa_) January 6, 2017
No it’s not a derivation of the fashion police. This is actually the Police, or rather Polfies that have become the latest social media trend in Sri Lanka. The idea here is to take a selfie with the police officer gives the relevant party a ticket for a traffic violation. Surprisingly, the police seems to be delighted with this trend and ASP Ruwan Gunasekera, the police media spokesman stated that these polfies could actually be used as evidence in case anybody disputes their ticket. Social media is most of the time about gaining satisfaction and in this case both parties involved seem to be enjoying the trend. Brava to the youngsters (although you should watch the traffic), and to the Policemen, what spirit!
- GSP+ back to Sri Lanka
The Priminister, Ranil Wickramasinghe’s page recently put up a post stating that the GSP+ relief will be considered in Sri Lanka once more. The post was met with about 889 likes and 95 shares with many people communicating on the page to appreciate the fact that this has been re-introduced to Sri Lanka. The recent months has seen a steady increase in the social media usage, communication and branding of the imminent political parties in Sri Lanka, which, given the fact that social networking platforms are in wide usage among Sri Lankans within and out of the country, is a wise, progressive and practical trend.
Stats of the Week
- Last Week’s’ Largest Community Facebook Page in Sri Lanka – Gossip-Lanka
Gossip Lanka is a rather controversial site that has been providing news in the form of “hot topics” to Sri Lankans both in and out of the country. Their community page on Facebook is the largest in Sri Lanka. This could be owing to their outreach capacity, the somewhat sharebait themed news items and entertainment factor that the site comprises of.
- Last Week’s Largest Community Twitter profile in Sri Lanka – Island Cricket
+312 Followers
The Island Cricket Twitter profile seemed to be the largest community for the last week in Sri Lanka. This could be due to the fact that there is currently a cricket tournament in which, Sri Lanka is participating. The regular updates being tweeted could have caused the significant increase in followers.
- Last week’s Fastest Growing Corporate Facebook Page in Sri Lanka – Seylan Bank
+6 852 Fans
Seylan Bank’s Facebook page seems to have gathered a rapid growth rate over the last week. It is interesting to notice that on the 07th of January 2017, they updated their cover image to one that mentioned “Seylfie – the revolutionary youth account with digital interest and banking on Facebook”. A post like this, is intelligent social media marketing, where the bank is addressing its young clientele from a point of interest for them. This could have boosted the amount of people who liked the page.
- Last Week’s Fastest Growing Corporate Twitter Profile in Sri Lanka – Dialog Axiata
+1 898 Followers
Dialog managed to become the fastest growing corporate Twitter account in Sri lanka last week, which could be owing to the #ngage that they seem to be promoting. They also sent out a tweet on the 09th January 2017 stating that registrations are open for #ngage and that surprise personalities will be visiting. Many public figures, including Kumar Sangakkar started following the hashtag.
This Week’s International Hubub
- ”Diary of a Broken Doll”
Various online diary entries made by 12 year old Katelyn Nicole Davis under the title of “Diary of a Broken Doll” hinted at signs of severe depression and self-inflicted abuse. However, the various references that the girl had made previously to a fictional creepypasta character known as “Ben_Drwoned” being her boyfriend could potentially have stopped readers and friends from taking her claims of abuse at the hands of her stepfather seriously. The entries ended with a shocking turn of events when the 12 year old proceeded to hang herself on a livestream while sobbing and apologizing for not being strong enough. While many of the sites took down the diary and video following the confirmation of death, youtube videos still remained available until the 11th of January 2017, after which it was taken down.
Thought-provoking and disturbing, this tragedy forces us to ask several questions on the positives and negatives of social media when it comes to such situations.
- Obama Out
In a heart-touching and empowering farewell speech, Barack Obama bid his goodbyes to his fellow Americans while reminding them to always uphold the values of democracy. Time shared the post on their Facebook page which went viral gathering over 19k likes, 1800 shares and 220 comments with the majority of the people emotionally declaring Obama as the greatest POTUS. The full transcript of the speech was made available.
Things you should know
- Live Updates for Publishers
Facebook has been improving its live features consistently and on the 11th january 2017, they went online to say that there has been an addition in new tools which could further enhance the live updates experience for publishers. The new features included the likes of “Go Live from the Web, Live Contributor for Pages, Video Insights Profiles, Live Comment Pinning, Permalinks for Pages and Crossposting of Previously Live Videos”, all aiming to perfect the Facebook Live Experience.