Facebook Activates Security Feature

In the wake of terrorist attacks in Turkey, the social networking giant has turned on its security feature.

Facebook Inc. has turned on its “Safety Check” service subsequent to the horrendous bomb attacks in Istanbul, Turkey’s main international airport which shook the region to its core. The unfortunate event took place during Tuesday night and the social networking site has activated the service ever since.  

The incident at Istanbul Ataturk airport took the lives of around 50 people and left over 100 injured. The Menlo Park Calif. firm sent out love and sympathies after the incident. “Our hearts go out to everyone touched by these tragic events,” the company expressed in a statement. “We hope the people in the area find the tool a helpful way to let friends and family know they are okay.”

The primitive concept behind Facebook security feature was to let users notify their friends about their safety in an event of natural catastrophe. Similarly, the users can check on their friends and acquaintances as well and marked them “safe.”

The social networking giant activated the feature when Paris had an unfortunate episode of bombing last year. In the similar way, earlier this month, after Orlando was shaken by nightclub shooting, the site’s security feature was brought into action. Among this, the same feature was activated post Brussels terror attacks and Ankara, Turkey bombing happened earlier this year.

Earlier this year, ahead of Easter Sunday bombing in Lahore, Pakistan, –claiming 70 lives –the Californian social networking giant’s Security Check service suffered from glitch. The feature erroneously forwarded misdirected notifications for which Facebook apologized later.  

Love and concern poured out on social media. The incident dominated almost all social media platforms on Tuesday. Twitter uses took the web by trending #Istanbul worldwide in addition #terörelanetolsun –a Turkish cursing condemnation of terrorism –and Atatürk Havalimanı'nda (‘at Ataturk airport’ in Turkish). Also, another worldwide trend was #PrayforTurkey.

A lot of unanswered questions regarding the attacks are stuck in a limbo. No organization has taken the responsibility of the attack. People across the world, however, have used the social media platform to express their condolences and to stand with Turkey at time of tragedy. Since the attacks, social media has a flux of information being shared, images and experiences with public and other are also being uploaded.

Earlier when suicide bombs attacked Paris, Facebook launched a temporary profile photo feature which let the users to add a transparent flag filter to their current display picture. As of now, the site hasn’t introduced such feature to record grievances for Turkey attacks. Many users, however, have been showing their creativity by editing their pictures in photo editing app and uploading the edited picture on the platform to express their sorrow and grief. Many analysts have opined that the site will soon launch similar feature for the country as well.

The Story Of Twitter Moments

Here is how Forbes explained why Twitter came into being and what is its purpose.

It has been a tough year for Twitter Inc. as it did not only post poor results but did not improve its business at all. The company’s user growth is stalled as well as the monthly active users are declining which is worrying the shareholders and investors. A few months ago, the company was on its verge to launch one of its most anticipated products, Project Lighting, which is also known as Moments. During that time, Moments was a win win situation for the social media network.

Analysts and professionals claimed that it will prove to be a game changer for the company in the coming times. Twitter is not only battling in the market to compete against Facebook but now it has to do well so that it can lure more users on its platform that are currently preferring the likes of Snapchat, Instagram, and WhatsApp as their normal routine social media network. Moments was said to be not only improve and increase the user growth but make things attractive for the existing users as well.

As Forbes reported, “If Twitter’s primary challenge has been to simplify discovery of its rich content and become more relevant for novice and non-users, then Moments takes a critical first step forward in that mission.” The social media website was created for this purpose only however ever since its inception it has not been used for the purpose it was created for. And this annoys the old investors that have been with the company from the time it was not public.

Facebook generates most of its revenues from advertising and when Twitter tried to boost advertising and marketing on its platform, it miserably failed as no big name advertisers and marketers chose Twitter to do business. But gradually, this has changed. Several businesses and brands are now looking to promote in order to extend their reach and presence throughout the social media.

Twitter has been a victim of immense criticism recently because of lack of its product direction. Everyone uses Twitter the way they want to use it. Hence all the virtual happenings that take place across the globe is actually reported on Twitter first in comparison to other social platforms. Forbes wrote “For brands, the opportunity is to start rethinking their approach to media publishers.  As curation becomes increasingly central to news delivery, brands should pay close attention to trending stories and topics that align with the most influential curators such as Twitter.”

Twitter Will Have To Keep On Innovating In Order To Sustain

Twitter new products and tools are currently saving the company's future in the market.

Twitter believes in innovation and keeps on experimenting on its product. However, the company will have to keep on bringing innovation in order to survive in the tough social media industry. Twitter stocks faced a major downfall in the third quarter of this fiscal year by more than 45 percent. For over many months, the company has failed to meet the analysts’ expectations when it comes to user growth. It has been completely stalled and the micro blogging website is worried about it.

Therefore Twitter Inc. is finding it difficult to attract new users on its website as well as increase the engagement on the platform for the existing users. This has been one of the toughest challenges for the company as its business depends on its users. Hence, revenues in the future will be affected if this performance continues. Twitter decided to reorganize itself and made major changes in its leadership management which saw Jack Dorsey being named as the new CEO of the company as well as changes in the work force where the company lay off as many as 8 percent of the total work force.

According to Forbes, the company is relying on Jack Dorsey to change the fate. Forbes wrote, “We believe innovative feature and offerings to drive user engagement and attract new users will be the key factor for Twitter’s future growth.”

A couple of months back, the company introduced Moments which was said to be the game changer but it could not live up to the expectations. The social network is said to be bringing real time news and breaking news and updates for its customers however no one currently follows the real objective for which the social media website was created. It has been introducing features and analytics tool in order to not only bring users but the marketers and advertisers as well.

Analysts believe that the company is capable to bring in and cross the 100 million users’ mark within the United States and 400 million users’ mark internationally by the end of 2020.

The social media network is updating its other products as well such as Vine and Periscope in order to bring engagement through those platforms. It recently added Highlights on Android Polls as a new feature. Hence, Twitter will never stop innovating and keep on bringing new products, features, and tools in order to sustain in the market. As of now, the teens do not prefer twitter as much as they prefer other social media platforms.

Instagram Takes On Twitter And Snapchat With Its Video Channel

Instagram all set to compete Twitter and Snapchat with its curated video only feed.

The social media war is getting intense time after time. It will not be wrong to say that the competition is getting stiffer as users are seeing new types of social media platform every now and then which are looking to make an impact on the industry. Twitter Inc. has remained as one of the giants in this industry as well as the most preferred social media website recently. However, it faced immense competition from the likes of Snapchat, Instagram, and WhatsApp. Facebook is comfortably sitting at the top with no worries at all.

Twitter is only second to Facebook in the social media network industry. The company tries hard to sustain its business but the stiff competition from the new and established forums is making it hard for the micro blogging website. In recent times, it has gone from major leadership changes to business strategy changes but nothing has worked so far. The user growth has stalled which is worrying for the company officials. Meanwhile Instagram and Snapchat are doing wonders on their own. According to a research, teens prefer these two platforms more when compared to Facebook.

Hence, this has put more concerns on the future of Twitter. Instagram is now all ready to beef up this competition. According to the sources, the photo sharing app will soon be rolling out its latest update after being aspired from the other two platforms.  Now the Instagram users will be able to see ‘curated’ content streams for popular specific events such as Halloween etc.

According to the spokesperson who told about this new feature to Re/Code in an email, stated, “This is a new way to experience events and big moments, as they happen, through the eyes of the Instagram community. This is just the start for these kinds of curations.”

Re/Code explained that on the night of Halloween, an option was devised on the feed named ‘Watch Halloween’s Best Videos’. By tapping on this option, user was directed to a new feed where videos of Halloweens from different users as well as curated by Instagram employees were there. The objective of the company is now to make this platform popular among all the popular events and happenings.

Twitter surely feels threatened by this move as gradually the charm of the micro blogging website is fading away. It is trying hard to stay in the competition as well as in the business.