Here’s our latest update on what’s been creating a buzz on social media in Sri Lanka and worldwide
Our Blogs
This week our team wrote about:
- The Dilemma of the Digital in Traditional Businesses: we explore the tendencies of a bricks-and-mortar business to self-cannibalise when it succeeds at the digital and how, in an ever evolving, digital-centric future, this effect can be overcome.
- Words that Wound: an attempt at decoding the psychology that hides behind a cyber-bully.
What Went Viral in Sri Lanka?
- Protests against courts ruling in favour of SAITM
There have been a considerable amount of protests regarding the courts ruling in favour of SAITM. Several of these managed to go viral online, especially on Facebook.
- Upul Tharanga’s 14th ODI
After a series of losses for the Sri Lankan cricket team, Upul Tharanga’s powerful performance at his 14th ODI which was the Sri Lanka tour of South Africa, went viral with thousands of fans cheering him on and sending “thank you”s. Even though his performance was not enough to win the series, it was one of the best performances a cricketer of the Sri Lankan team had displayed recently.
- Immigration Ban Is One Of Trump’s Most Popular Orders So Far
Trump has been tweeting a poll and the reaction to it seems to favour the immigration ban. It is interesting that even though Trump’s popularity has decreased, even more, the popularity of his poll seems to have increased. What does this say about the people of America? If they really do like the immigration ban, why are there protests all around the country with a massive outcry to remove the ban?
'Immigration Ban Is One Of Trump's Most Popular Orders So Far' pic.twitter.com/wAelwuQ4BE
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 8, 2017
- Instagram generation is fuelling UK food waste mountain, study finds
The new Instagram trend of buying food for its aesthetic properties as opposed to actual consumption has lead to a serious wastage of food. #foodgram and #foodporn are some of these examples. In UK a jaw-dropping 7.5 billion GBP is the annual churn out of this wastage while an average household, research says, wastes at least 700 GBP of food in a year. Millennials between the ages of 18-34 are those that show this behaviour mostly, with the senior generations maintaining lower food expenditure and buying only necessities. The hype to gain the most amount of followers and likes on IG has lead to most youngsters buying exotic and far more expensive items which are hard to reuse and are solely for the purpose of creating aesthetically appealing dishes.
Stats of the Week
The Facebook page of Singer Sri Lanka came out as the fastest growing brand on FB. Singer has been promoting their “Hot Valentines offer” recently on their page, which could be the reason for the growth in the page. The regular updates with regards to the promotion seem to be grabbing the attention of many.
The Dialog Axiata Twitter profile tweeted their Mega Wasana and iPhone 7 giveaway to celebrate “the month of love” as they worded it. The promotions could definitely cause an increase in their twitter following.
Things you should know
- Facebooking it with equal rights – Facebook improves enforcement and promotes diversity
Last fall, Facebook pledged to remove discrimination from the social network and on the 08th february 2017, they announced the new improvements been put in place to uphold the same. The Facebook team said that they have been working closely with their stakeholders to create a method of developing updates for their advertising policies, stronger enforcement tools and advertiser education options. The ultimate goal here is to avoid any sort of discrimination on Facebook. However, they also mentioned that many businesses have reached out to them to stress on the business advantage of targeting their adverts to a certain community of people or in other words, a market. Facebook hopes to achieve this goal of targeted marketing minus any discrimination that may arise from it in the future.