India, September 25, 2018: Twitter and Centre for Social Research announced the launch of #TweeSurfing, a public education initiative, in Kolkata over the weekend. The initiative seeks to address online safety issues and spread knowledge on how people can express themselves and engage positively on the platform. Twitter has launched #Tweesurfing events in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and now Kolkata.

The event highlighted the journey of #TweeSurfing and featured a panel discussion that talked about the different sides of conversations on Twitter, from #377Verdict, #WomenReservationBill and #MeToo. Panelists included Dr Ranjana Kumari @ranjanakumari – Director, Centre for Social Research; Mahima Kaul @misskaul – Head of Public Policy, Twitter India; Rahul Rajkhowa @RajkhowaRahul – Singer & Activist; Harish Iyer, @hiyer – LGBTQ rights activist; Manasi Salvi @ManasiSalvi, TV actress; Jimmy Tangree @jimmy_tangree, RJ 91.9 Friends FM;  among others. Each of these panelists shared their journey on the platform and talked about important guidelines to undertake when leveraging Twitter to express oneself.

One of the speakers, Manasi Salvi, talked about how ‘an empowered woman can only empower other women and initiate a change through a conversation, and how Twitter has been instrumental in facilitating that in the #MeToo campaign’. Another speaker, Rahul Rajkhowa, a musician and believer of technology for change, emphasised on the necessity of initiating healthy social and political debates on Twitter for particular narratives. A third panellist, Jimmy Tangree, took a different angle on using Twitter when he said, “Twitter has brought about change in many lives a made a difference for a huge section of the unprivileged – Life is never easy, it’s how easy you make it.”

The launch in Kolkata also saw active participation from the youth who were curious to hear from the panellists on their take regarding parental control on the use of technology. Also, there were questions regarding initiating healthy discourses on platforms like Twitter where they can put forth their issues and have a larger group talk about it and provide solutions.

The #TweeSurfing event in Kolkata marked our 4th event in India followed by events conducted in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Over, the coming months, we will be taking #TweeSurfing to Hyderabad and Chennai.

Commenting on the launch of #TweeSurfing, Mahima Kaul (@misskaul), Head of Public Policy, Twitter India said, “Twitter shows people what’s happening in India and around the world and we’re excited to break new grounds with @tweesurfing in Kolkata. This is the fourth city in India where we’re expanding the @tweesurfing initiative in, and we are proud to empower conversation around online safety, positive social change, and improve the health of conversations on the platform.”

Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director, Centre for Social Research and President, WomenPowerConnect – ‎Centre for Social Research said, “TweeSurfing is our flagship initiative to battle hate speech in the online space. We are happy to build on the strong collaboration with Twitter, and I wish to thank Twitter India and Mahima Kaul for their continuous support. We have connected with more than 90 influencers who have shared their voyage on the platform which we directly shared with millennials and the others who wish to use #TwitterForGood. I am positive about our launch in Kolkata and speaking to the participants there.”

As part of the #TweeSurfing program, there is a 14-day virtual internship program called TweeShip that people can register for through @TweeSurfing. The program, delivered through Twitter DM, will train users on who sign up on how to create Twitter campaigns for social change, and let them practice what they have learnt in a real campaign. The modules will be available in English and Hindi.

About Twitter

Twitter is what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about right now. From breaking news and entertainment to sports, politics, and everyday interests, see every side of the story. Join the open conversation. Watch live streaming events. Available in more than 40 languages around the world, the service can be accessed via twitter.com, Twitter Lite (mobile.twitter.com), an array of mobile devices, and SMS.

The post Twitter and Centre for Social Research Expands Online Safety Program #TweeSurfing to Kolkata appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

INDIA, 24 August 2018 – From government agencies to relief organizations to Bollywood actors and cricket stars, Twitter was the place in India to find out what was happening with the #Keralafloods. More than 2.62 million Tweets were shared across India and around the world on the #Keralafloods and the conversations continue to flow.

Although rains have eased in Kerala offering some respite, the huge task of cleaning up from the worst flooding in 100 years must begin. Tens of thousands are still living in relief camps, and many still remain cut off and in need of help.

If you need help or want to find out what’s happening with the #Keralafloods relief effort, take note of the tips below:

1. Do NOT spread unverified messages received via social media channels, private group chats, or SMS. They can cause a lot of confusion and wasted effort.
2. Turn on push notifications for key accounts coordinating rescue efforts to ensure you don’t miss important Tweets (National Disaster Management Authority @ndmaindia, Indian Army @adgpi, Indian Navy @indiannavy, Indian Coast Guard @IndiaCoastGuard, Rapid Response @RapidResponse, National Disaster Response Force @NDRFHQ, CMO Kerala @CMOKerala)
3. Tweet with a clear Call-to-Action. Clearly state how people can help – either by donating money, donating food or essential supplies, or by Retweeting
4. After a rescue or relief Tweet has been addressed, it’s generally a good practice to Retweet your own Tweet with an update saying a particular rescue has been conducted and thank the people who did it.
5. Use the right hashtags for the rescue effort (#Keralafloods #RebuildKerala)

Please continue to follow live updates on #KeralaFloods here.

About Twitter (NYSE: TWTR)

Twitter is what’s happening in the world and what people are talking about right now. From breaking news and entertainment to sports, politics, and everyday interests, see every side of the story. Join the open conversation. Watch live streaming events. Available in more than 40 languages around the world, the service can be accessed via twitter.com, an array of mobile devices, Twitter Lite (mobile.twitter.com), and SMS. For more information, please visit about.twitter.com, follow @Twitter and @TwitterPH, and download both the Twitter and Periscope apps at twitter.com/download and periscope.tv.

The post When #KeralaFloods came, people turned to Twitter appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

They are short, pithy statements that have been bequeathed to us by the ancients. Statements – call them sermons if you may, that are sweeping in nature, but precise in their message. Yes, I am talking about proverbs – ditties of advice that are based on common sense, are born out of experience and expresses traditionally held truisms. We all know them, use them often to stress the points that we are making, to even add the punch of past legacies. But seldom do we notice how they too are evolving, like the English language, entwined as they get absorbed by the digital domain.

Allow me to spread my ware – of Old Proverbs, photoshoped and hashtagged, ready to engage the Google Search Engines.

Birds of a Feather, they don’t flock no more, they tweet. The Cuckoo’s chirp and the nightingale’s song have been condensed (and contained) to a hundred and forty characters.

 Gone are the days when it was the female of the species that was considered to be the deadliest. It was the female anopheles that sucked one’s blood and injected it with the dread inducing Malaria. It was the Cougar that prowled, the lioness that hunted. Not any more, for she has been replaced by the email – invading private spaces with impunity, destroying balances, devastating lives.

Oh yes, the modem is the message, for the medium (or is it modem) has evolved and fragmented into platforms – Facebook, Linked-in, Twitter, Instagram … each demanding customised content, crafted specifically for it. It is no more what you write, but more whether it is optimised for the reach. And yes, viral is not a fever that you get, but a fever in the brow that you crave. Crazy, but true.

Forget a thousand steps, things as mundane as a trip to the neighbourhood grocer’s too starts with a click these days, for the fearless female warriors (or at least one of them) have vanquished everybody else to have taken over the world of commerce. Want a soda? Click and Amazon will deliver. So much for your thousand-step journey.

Don’t look a Gift Horse in the mouth, they taught us, stressing, that it is not about the bad breath (the horse’s), but all about manners (your). Today, from Achilles’ heel have sprouted the geeks, dysfunctional dementors from the digital domain, with blueprints of innovative disruption that promise to topple the apple cart (yes, including that Apple) – nuts that are certain to grow up to become mighty oaks. Don’t tell me  that I hadn’t warned you.

Well, this is the age of China. Not the fine China, as in tea-sets, that our grandmothers craved, but the mass-produced copies and cheap, plastic trinkets that are not bio degradable. Naturally, for every success story, there are a million spawns, a billion wanna-be’s and a trillion me-too’s. Point is, “every venture on a shoe-string does not a Microsoft be” (whether or not it starts in a garage)!

Yes, they will, but they will be everything but meek. An army of optimisation guys will man (and woman) their back offices ensuring their place in the Google sun and obscene performance-linked pay packets will be the order of the day, before they too are upstaged by an upstart. Moore’s Law is not merely applicable on the brick and mortar entities you are disrupting today, they will learn to their consternation, it (the bell) tolls for thee as well!

Who says that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks? Just look at the number of geriatrics flocking to Facebook. Point is, the digital blackhole has an appetite that is bottomless and is quietly sucking in all and sundry. It transcends the space time conundrum and once in its grip, the victims are known to lose their bearings for all times to come. Lead them to the fix and teach them how to chase the dragon. The rest… well, what rest?

As we approach the roaring twenties of this century, the glitterati from the last have been replaced by the Tweetarati. One is known by his Tweets even as we get drawn more and more into its vortex. Life is doing a Dali, resembling Melted Time, Sci-fi prophecies are coming true with gay abandon and naked exhibitionism is replicating expressionist Edvard Munch’s Scream. Welcome to the Matrix! The stitch? Well, is there time, still?

With everything hurtling in every possible direction at the speed of thought, it is but neigh impossible to stick to whatever one is searching for. This is the era of the information overload, of digital dominance, of the triple A – a situation where anonymity and accessibility is leading us down the path to annihilation. Sad, in light of the fact that the purpose of all this advancement was aimed at making life just that bit easier.

Sumanta Adhikari, a young exponent of digital art has done the templates and deserves all the credit for this piece. A silent scream against everything ordinary, Sumanta loves wielding his Apple pencil as much as he loves to work out in the gym. Sumanta is also an accomplished beat boxer though, digital art continues to be his  reigning passion, his raison d’etre.  When he is not busy with the agency’s work,  he  works on the creation of his signature style – his work, stating the things he leaves unsaid.

Hope you enjoyed the piece as much as we enjoyed creating it. Feel free to like if you want to and share if you want to help spread the word. And do let us know if you want more, we do have them ready.

For More information:

www.azurecom.in

The post Der Schrei der Sozial (the Scream of Social), Part I – Sumanta Adhikary appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Amongst non-conventional B2B channels, Twitter steers ahead of Facebook (25.3%)
and Instagram (18%) by garnering the approval of 47% marketers

New Delhi, 18 July, 2017: 75% of marketers chose Instagram as their most preferred channel for sharing image-based content, while Twitter and Facebook garnered brand approval ratings of 63% and 56% respectively for the same. Twitter, on the other hand, leads the charts when it comes to B2B marketing, garnering 47% marketer acceptance in the non-conventional B2B channel distribution. These insights are amongst several interesting marketing facts and figures released by Pulp Strategy – a multi-award-winning full service agency in the realm of experiential, digital, and interactive marketing – in its ‘The Future of Content 2017 – Chartbuster Trends in Content Marketing’ report.

The Pulp Strategy report also mapped several other interesting trends for marketers. User-generated content was found to enjoy greater approval with social media users, with 76% of users surveyed considering it more trustworthy than brand-generated content. Image-based content generated the highest engagement for marketers online, clocking about 55% of the overall engagement, followed by clickable links at 24% and videos at 12%. LinkedIn had the highest number of links shared by users, garnering 76% of the overall engagement volume.

What was even more ground-breaking, however, was the fact that more businesses are now proactively adopting unconventional approaches, apart from emails and LinkedIn, for B2B engagement. For B2B initiatives, Facebook and Twitter mainly involved brand promotions and testimonial content. Pulp Strategy based the survey on an extensive analysis of more than 7.5 million posts across various platforms, which also highlighted an increased interest in B2B content marketing over the past six months.

Ambika Sharma, Founder & Managing Director, Pulp Strategy said, “While it is already hailed as the king of marketing, content continues to gain more prominence and has become one of the major influencers in the overall customer decision making process. Today, marketers can experiment with a range of content types, marketing channels, and strategies to generate quantifiable results for their business. The Content Marketing Report 2017 discloses some very insightful aspects of marketing which will help marketers and businesses in positioning themselves more optimally.”

The survey also observed personalization, user-generated content, and interactive media to be the key drivers in the content market space. The assessment made by the survey even disclosed in-depth insights such as how a split of body text with engaging images inclines the users to finish reading the whole content. The report on content marketing also included a range of industry examples and marketing endeavours undertaken by a variety of top-rated international brands.

About Pulp Strategy

Pulp Strategy Communications is a multi-award- winning full service agency in the realm of Tech enabled, digital & Interactive marketing with a comprehensive range of integrated solutions that combine brand strategy, creativity, consumer insight, design, and technology to deliver superior engagement and experience driven products.

The post Twitter leads Facebook and Instagram in B2B channel initiatives, according to Pulp Strategy’s Future of Content 2017 report appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Do women, especially women in India, approach the social media differently when compared to their male counterparts? Innocuous as it may seem, it is indeed a trick question for various reasons. For one, those asking the question are primarily marketers who want the answer to push whatever they are selling. Secondly, and more importantly, because there are no pan India data of such depth and quality that answers can be attempted with any reasonable amount of certainty. And finally, the digital media is so vast, is evolving so fast and incorporates the finer nuances of so many diverse faculties, that it is near impossible to make predictions and still be on the right side of the facts.

Let me be honest upfront. What we normally pass off as facts are no more than educated guess work, estimates, based more on the feelings of the guts than mechanisations of the mind. And here, my personal feeling is that the outcomes are skewed more towards the knowledge of psychology than statistics. That said, let us take a quick dekho of the broad trends. What I feel, are the trends, that is.

Facebook continues to be the most popular platform, especially for women. While young adults still make up the overwhelming numbers, middle aged women too have a solid presence and if current trends are to be believed, the aged are flocking to Facebook in ever increasing numbers. As net connectivity, backed by the proliferation of smartphones increase, the demographic migration to Facebook is continuing at ever increasing paces with more and more women joining the fray. There is no doubt about the fact that Facebook is the undisputed Saas-Bahu serial of Social media.

The other platform where women have had a traditional edge over men is Pinterest, though the numbers involved are nowhere near the top. Besides, if market watchers are to be believed, the platform has not really made it across the urban-rural divide and is still largely confined to women of a certain educational background, however snooty (read derogatory) that might sound.

Instagram with its ready-made filters, is the one platform that adds the real value to every paisa spent on acquiring that smart camera phone. And, selfie obsessed women are taking to it like fish take to the water. However, here too, the critical mass is yet to be attained and the numbers, however impressive they may seem in isolation, are way away from the kind of popularity that the Kyunki of Social Media already boasts of. What is remarkable is the steady accretion to the club of cell-phone wielding photographers who are helping this niche of freezing frames expand by clicks and posts – people who consider the square format their God and Instagram their religion. And, the number of women doing it is what makes me happy to the bottom of my Carl Zeiss lenses.

If sheer numbers are the only criterion, then Linked-in will be some distant cousin of the mainline Facebook. However, make no mistake, for those who are in the job market (as potential givers and takers), it is the place to be in. And yes, while Indian men seem to have just that edge, the sheer number of women who are jiving it all the way to the workplace is mind-boggling. And yes, these are typically the well-educated ones with the spare cash whose eyeballs your friendly neighborhood marketing (wo)man wants to engage.

Google Plus too has a fair number of women participating – but the grapevine has it that these ladies are the Amazons from the digital army, primarily using the platform to further the Optimization cause. They are there to Tango for Cash, with the Search Engines, that is. And swear by the meta-tags even as they hash and slash.

Movie teasers, video clippings of inane jokes and titillating stuff pandering to every conceivable kink are the primary reasons why people flock to YouTube, according to industry insiders. The numbers that are posted too, are insane. However, the same insiders are also quick to point out the fact that “women” (not considering the college going PYT’s catching a glimpse of the Bollywood heart throbs) are not the prime movers in the segment. Television gives them the high drama and Facebook has already taught them to brush up the images they post, not to mention the opportunity of hating the children of people they hated in school.

The most baffling are the Twitter numbers though. The restriction in the number of characters one can use to express one’s feelings is a definite straitjacket, yet, the popularity of the platform is swarming with activities that are enough to put even beehives to shame. Here too, if the pundits are to be believed, the average Bharatiya Nari is yet to make her presence felt, though some handles owned and operated by women have already attained the celebrity status with dedicated fan followings that would even put Hollywood stars to shame. Perhaps the lady next door is put off by the dreaded troll, perhaps it is the fear of the Grammar Nazi.

The fluttering of the Social Media butterfly’s wings is already deafening. We still don’t know whether the fluttering of a mere Butterfly’s wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas and you expect me to know what will happen when they flap in the Telengana?

(originally written for the Indian Express / Financial Express)

The post The Social Media Butterflies – Chawm Ganguly appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Happy New Year, all ye pilgrims. As we settle back in our desks, let us for once forget about demonetisation and all that hogging our attention and haggling us as conversation magnets – that’s so last year . Dump them as the broken promises (or unhonoured promissory notes) that they were – let us instead focus on more pressing issues. Like health and getting old and coping up with tomorrow.

Mitron, are you getting old? Am I? well, it’s kinda funny, but there are so many little things that are pointing fingers ominously. Take a look, and who knows, you may be on your way to anachronism the same way that I am.

You know you are getting old when:

01. You have more tablets for breakfast than toasts. (tablets as in pills as well as hand-held’s)

02. Your boss is younger than you are : and worse, he is a she.

03. Your report card is still full of Red. Only this one comes from the diagnostic center.

04. Dad ain’t there no more to sign it.

05. India’s cricket captain is younger than you are.

06. You don’t stand a devil’s chance in any form of computer gaming.

07. Young tiny –something’s, religiously call you “uncle”.

08. You car has more club stickers than dents.

09. Your monthly club bills do not look like a telephone directory any more.

10. You ache in places which you thought did not exist.

11. You spend more time with your physiotherapist than with your best buddy.

12. You actually like staying back in office.

13. Your peon hates you for staying late every single day of the week.

14. Saturdays are no longer for binge drinking and disc hopping.

15. Your wife’s nagging has become a constant drone in the back of your ears.

16. You have learnt to Rock with the bass guitar that out of sync.

17. You actually have an insurance policy that has matured.

18. Your wallet has more credit cards than bank notes.

19. You don’t remember when you last used them.

20. In an alien city, you don’t feel the desperate urge to check out the night spots.

21. CNN gets preference to both F and M TV.

22. You discover the virtues of Foot massage in Bangkok.

23. You prefer straight trousers to jeans on an evening out.

24. You get to pick up the tab, whosoever is dining out with you.

24. The page 3 is nauseating, so are the people in it.

25.  The mom’s look more appetizing than the daughters.

26. You can talk at length about corruption and anachronistic laws.

27. You feel drowsy the day after.

28. They know you at the airport lounges.

29. You are always grouching about your driver’s road sense.

30. You understand the meaning of the cliché : the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.

31. You get shunted to look into the Social Responsibility aspects of your company.

32.  You need the spectacles – they aren’t a fashion accessory any more.

33. Nike sneakers look garish. And obscenely priced.

34.  You can’t remember when you last wore your Grateful Dead t-shirt.

34. Same about Dark Side of the Moon, in full blast.

35. You are horrified when somebody refers to John Lennon as “ a great musician from the last century.

36.  You can relate to all the nagging wife jokes.

37. You actually know what DOS was, and Wordstar, and Dbase.

38. When your heart skips a beat, its medical, not emotional.

39. You rate experience over energy.

40. What was once music to your ears, is now an assault on the eardrums.

41. You don’t assume things, you actually follow them up.

42. Beauty is indeed skin deep. Though you still can’t figure out what drives the market for beauty products.

43. Maggi – when was that staple food?

44. The Stylus has replaced the Mont Blanc? Really?

45. People routinely seek your blessings.

46. You can remember what you did last night, or last summer, for that matter.

47. The last movie that you remember enjoying was the Matrix.

48. Facebook, Twitter, Linked in is all passe : is there anything that is age-appropriate?

49. Parental Guidance – Huh? It’s more Senior Citizen.

50. Fifty Shades of Gray – you talking about the hair on my head? What hair? Where?

Whoever said that you are like old wine, maturing with age, when all you feel like is an old rascal, going senile by the day?

The post 50 shades of growing old – Chawm Ganguly appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Anyone can now broadcast and experience what’s happening anywhere in the world

India, 14th December 2016: Twitter today announced that now anyone can broadcast live video directly from its apps. Powered by Periscope, live video on Twitter allows people to share and experience everything from significant moments to daily life together with an audience – all through a Tweet.

“We started Periscope because we wanted to give people the superpower to share live video with an audience. Bringing this capability directly into the Twitter app is an important step because it brings that superpower to the hundreds of millions of people who use Twitter,” said Kayvon Beykpour, CEO of Periscope. “Twitter’s already the place where people go to see what’s happening. With this update, anyone can now broadcast what’s happening live.”

Members of the audience within a live video on Twitter can interact with the broadcaster by commenting and sending hearts to show their support. Tweets that contain live video can be Retweeted, liked, and shared anywhere that people can share a Tweet.

Anyone on Twitter can now create and Tweet live video with the latest Android and iOS updates.

About Twitter

Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) is what’s happening in the world right now. From breaking news and entertainment to sports and politics, from big events to everyday interests. If it’s happening anywhere, it’s happening first on Twitter. Twitter is where the full story unfolds with all the live commentary and where live events come to life unlike anywhere else. Twitter is available in more than 40 languages around the world. The service can be accessed at Twitter.com, on a variety of mobile devices and via SMS. For more information, visit about.twitter.com or follow @TwitterIndia.

The post Announcing Live Video Creation on Twitter appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

The Doctors, God save their ilk, are a busy lot. Between doing the rounds in the Hospitals and Nursing Homes they are attached to and conducting the private practices, they hardly have a social life worth talking about. Family and friends are often mere interludes – lucid intervals, if you may, in the endless (and often maddening) rush of patients. To expect them to keep themselves abreast of the latest medical trends and be in tune with the advancements of science, at least even in their respective domains, is nothing less than sacrilege. As a matter of fact, many doctors use the interactions they are almost forced to have with the Medical Representatives of pharmaceutical and other suppliers to catch up with the latest, despite being well aware about the obvious downsides of such a course.

And it is here that Social Media is increasingly playing a stellar role. For one, like everyone else, the Doctors too have been bitten by the Bug and thankfully, they are not restricting themselves to selfies from the operation theatres. The dissemination of research findings for example, this I say in full knowledge of the fact that they are still overwhelmingly restricted to the print format, is circulating with greater frequencies between Doctors who are embracing the net to keep themselves abreast with important happenings from around the medical world. Twitter conversations that grow around specific hashtags and online patient communities for myriad ailments or concerns are increasingly engaging concerned physicians. Needless to say, such discourses in the public space is also doing a world of good to the patients apart from helping knowledge find its natural watermark.

And, all this is well beyond the one to one interactions between the patient and the Doctors that have been made possible by the increasing use of technology in general and the social media in particular. It will also be pertinent to point out the emergence of a million APPs that have come into play specifically targeting issues and concerns about healthcare, which too have demolished the walls that open existed between those needing and those administering medication.

Twitter is also emerging as the preferred platform for physicians because of its brevity and to the no-nonsense format which is also borne out by the fact that major medical conferences are now stalked mostly by their meeting specific hashtags. And, in the context, we are not even considering the steady increase in the profiles of those engaged in the medical profession in Linkedin.

This shift from the print to the social space has also impacted the way medical literature is being valued or assessed. Gone are the days of citations which have been replaced by likes and follows and page views. This system as we all know, is remarkable democratic in shifting the grains from the chaff and provides for the free flow of information – both congratulatory and condemning, with their obvious benefits.

If Twitter has breached the boundaries, then Blogs have, and read my lips, will continue to provide physicians with the voice that traditional media never gave them. There are millions of people out there who want to hear them and there are the Doctors who want to share their concerns, outside the hallowed halls of conferences (where they could speak only before peers) and their chambers (where they could speak to only a lucky few) – a dichotomy that is being addressed by the blogs. And here too, the opportunity for everyone to take part in the conversation is what is really ensuring that the ripple grows up to become the tsunami that it is destined to be.

Health Insurance entities, pharmaceutical companies, governmental bodies, medical associations, patient welfare societies … everybody is jumping into the Social Media fray, which is, again needless to say, a good thing that has happened to the medical practice in a long, long time. As a matter of fact, as more conversations take place in real time around a specific medical term, the more knowledge will be dissipated leading to more information for the laypersons to access and make their decisions on.

However, like every good thing, Social Media too comes with riders and caveats. There are concerns about ethicality, privacy and professionalism. There is also the very real fear that Social Media can be used as a tool for propaganda and the dissemination of misinformation or even the curation of content. Social Media familiarity, to coin a term, may also breed contempt. That is perhaps reason why guidelines have already been devised by clinicians from the British Journal of Urology International and the European Association of Urology, for example, recommending ways to use social media responsibly.

The piece was written for the Express Health Guide 2016.

The post Love in the time of Cholera: Social Media in HealthCare – Emerging Trends. Chawm Ganguly appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Sunday 7/17 is #WorldEmojiDay, and to kick off the celebration, we looked at some data around how emojis are used everyday on Twitter . Emojis are used constantly on Twitter, helping us to express emotion and tell stories on a daily basis.

Twitter has created a custom emoji to celebrate the beloved emoji’s birthday. Simply Tweet with #WorldEmojiDay all weekend to activate the custom Twitter emoji.

See below for some India-specific data, global data and ‘Four Tales of Emojis’ on Twitter showcasing just how people around the world are using emojis on Twitter.

Things to note:

• All data (July 1, 2015 – June 30, 2016)
• *Emoji is measured by count of its appearances, not # of tweets it appears in.

INDIA

Top emoji used in India is the joy emoji

The top 3 unique emojis used in India on Twitter that are :

1. Namaste emoji
2. Perfect emoji
3. Thumbs Up

Top 10 Emojis used in India on Twitter

1. – Joy
2. – Heart eyes
3. - Namaste
4. – Clap
5. – Kissing Heart
6. - Perfect
7. – Blush
8. - Thumbs Up
9. - Dancer
10. - Fire

GLOBAL

We took a look at the most used emojis in 20 countries around the world:

Our data shows that some emojis are more popular than others depending on the season. These emojis shined most for each month of the year:

The data also shows us a few fun facts about how emojis are Tweeted:

• People Tweet more beer emojis than coffee emojis☕☕
• Twitter has a favorite emoji monkey, the see no evil monkey
• There are more full heart emojis Tweeted than broken heart emojis 5 times more to be exact

The most Tweeted face emojis:

The most Tweeted hand emojis:

The most Tweeted heart emojis:

1. RED HEART
2. 
3. 

The most Tweeted reaction:

The most Tweeted about food:

See them all summarized in this image below:

Four tales of emojis on Twitter

We’ve also pulled together four stories of emojis on Twitter that show how these little characters are changing the way we Tweet.

Whether it’s an Australian member of parliament, a Beyonce fan or stars reacting to #BREXIT people around the world are expressing themselves with emojis more than ever.

So if you haven’t started Tweeting with emojis, then what better chance to join the world emoji party.

Here’s some inspiration:

1) Politics

During the recent Australian Federal election campaign, Deputy Leader of the Opposition and queen of emojis, @JulieBishopMP responded to journalists and voters on Twitter using emojis

Here are some examples:

https://twitter.com/JulieBishopMP/status/749130041066262529

https://twitter.com/JulieBishopMP/status/745931654779252736

https://twitter.com/JulieBishopMP/status/745934201015443457

https://twitter.com/JulieBishopMP/status/745936320283971584

https://twitter.com/JulieBishopMP/status/745936899630596096

https://twitter.com/JulieBishopMP/status/745941634899050497

One of the biggest features of election day in Australia is the sausage sizzle at polling booths. So it’s no surprise that the most-Tweeted #ausvotes emoji on polling day (2 July 2016) was the sausage in a bun!

https://twitter.com/govAU/status/749097860147212291

When politiican and UKIP party leader and rival Nigel Farage announced his resignation earlier this month, rival politician Douglas Carswell Tweeted a single emoji in response

https://twitter.com/DouglasCarswell/status/749892870606381056

2) Lemonade!

Beyonce’s album Lemonade made the lemon and bee emojis very popular on Twitter in April as fans used the emojis to share their excitement!

https://twitter.com/TwitterData/status/725721360174071808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

3) Crying with Laughter:

2015 was the year in which the emoji went mainstream. The ‘crying with laughter’   emoji was most-used on Twitter last year, with 6.6 billion uses.  https://twitter.com/twitterdata/status/673905956909133824?lang=en-gb

4) #BREXIT

When news broke that Britain had voted to leave the EU, stars Tweeted their reactions. Whether it was sorrow and joy, for these Tweeters, an emoji spoke a thousand words:

• https://twitter.com/alexa_chung/status/746203475415990272
• https://twitter.com/ElizabethHurley/status/746195171138666497

The post #WorldEmojiDay: Here are the most popular emojis on Twitter appeared first on Core Sector Communique.

Photos, videos & @names in reply Tweets will no longer count toward 140-character limit

SAN FRANCISCO – May 24, 2016 – Twitter today announced it will simplify Tweets in the coming months, making it faster and easier for people to express themselves with more room in their 140-character Tweets. The simplified Tweet rules will make conversations faster and more intuitive for people who come to Twitter everyday and those who are new to the service. Media attachments, such as photos and videos, will no longer count toward the character limit; @names in reply to Tweets will be removed from the count; and people will now be able to Retweet and Quote Tweet themselves, enabling them to resurface any of their previous Tweets and add new commentary. In addition, any new Tweet beginning with an @name will be seen by all followers.

“One of the biggest priorities for this year is to refine our product and make it simpler,” said Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO and cofounder. “We’re focused on making Twitter a whole lot easier and faster. This is what Twitter is great at – what’s happening now, live conversation and the simplicity that we started the service with.”

“We’re not giving up on the idea of Twitter being in the moment. That concept of brevity, speed and live conversation – being able to think of something and put it out to the world instantly – that’s what’s most important,” added Dorsey. “We’re always going to look for opportunities to make Tweets a lot more expressive, and enable people to say what they want to say. As long as things are fast, easy, simple and expressive, we’re going to look at what we can do to make Twitter a better experience.”

Earlier this year, Twitter announced changes to its timeline, enabling people to get back to live as quickly as possible while still making sure they didn’t miss important Tweets while they were away. The reaction to the enhanced timeline has been positive with less than two percent of people opting out, and has increased engagement from people on Twitter with significantly more Tweets, Retweets, Replies and Likes.

Additionally, improvements were made this year to the process of signing up new people on Twitter, helping them find new accounts by topic, location and people. This new on-boarding flow has resulted in dramatic increases in Follows, up 48 percent, and Mutual Follows, up 56 percent, on average across both iOS and Android OS. Mutual Follows are important because it’s two people who recognize each other, talk to each other and give each other feedback. That’s critical for new engagement and usage.

Launched solely as text, Tweets have evolved in the past 10 years to include photos, videos, GIFs, polls and Quote Tweets – all of which have historically subtracted from the overall 140-character count. In addition to these changes, Twitter will continue to explore ways to make the service simpler and more intuitive, all without compromising the unique brevity and speed that make Twitter the best place for live commentary, connections and conversations.

Twitter is announcing these changes now in order to give developers time to make any needed updates to the hundreds of thousands of products built using its platform, which includes Fabric, the company’s mobile developer toolset. In April, Twitter announced that Fabric, comprised of Crashlytics, Answers, Digits, MoPub and Twitter software development kits, is now running on over two billion mobile devices using Fabric-enabled apps every month. With more than 2.4 billion active mobile devices in the world running either iOS or Android OS, Fabric-enabled apps are installed on the vast majority of mobile devices.

For more information, visit blog.twitter.com/express-even-more-in-140-characters

Availability

The updates will be available in the coming months across twitter.com, Twitter for iOS and Android, TweetDeck, Twitter for Mac, video.twitter.com and ads.twitter.com.

About Twitter

Twitter is an iconic service and global platform for self-expression and live conversation. Twitter has always been the best place to see what’s happening now. Whether it’s breaking news, entertainment, sports, or everyday topics, only Twitter lets you connect with people anywhere in the world with live conversation. Anything that happens, you see it first on Twitter. By developing a fundamentally new way for people to consume, create, distribute and discover content, Twitter enables any voice to echo around the world instantly and unfiltered. Twitter is available in more than 40 languages around the world. The service can be accessed at Twitter.com, on a variety of mobile devices and via SMS. For more information, visit about.twitter.com or follow @twitter

The post Twitter Announces Faster, Easier & More Expressive Tweets appeared first on Core Sector Communique.