SOCIAL
TECH TALK WITH MIKE: Which social media platform is best for business?

It’s the million-dollar question. Almost every business owner understands the benefits of social media. Some have already seen the sales benefits of social media success. From increased exposure to more leads and greater revenue, you stand to potentially benefit greatly. However, there are currently numerous social media networks, according to Influencer Marketing Hub. So, which social media platform should your business be using?
In reality, there’s not just one right answer to this question. The best social media platform for one brand may not necessarily be the best social media network to focus on for the next business.
HOW TO CHOOSE
To determine what’s best for your business, you need to answer four questions: are you B2B (business to business) or B2C (business to consumer)? Who is your target audience? What social media do they use the most? And, what are your social media marketing goals?
ARE YOU B2B OR B2C?
If you’re not aware of the distinction, B2B (business-to-business) companies sell to other companies, while B2C (business-to-consumer) companies sell to end consumers. Your social media marketing needs will be different depending on where you belong.
B2B companies typically use social media for brand development and lead generation. A recent study by Social Media Examiner also found that just over 50% of B2B marketers use social media to grow partnerships and gain competitor insights. As such, these businesses benefit most from social platforms designed for building professional relationships. These include LinkedIn, Facebook and occasionally Twitter.
B2C brands, meanwhile, use social media primarily to drive traffic, sales, and awareness. They strive to stand out by creating something unique and different. As a result, B2C companies are better off on social platforms that focus heavily on visual content. These include Instagram, YouTube and Facebook, largely in that order.
TARGET AUDIENCE
Your choice of social media platform(s) will also depend on your target audience’s identity. Remember, each social media platform has a different set of users with different expectations. Facebook users, for instance, are mostly connecting with family and friends while Twitter users are more about discovering breaking news and trending topics.
For this reason, you need to define your target audience, perhaps by creating buyer personas. Then, use the personas to determine where this “ideal” user is likely to hang out. Some of the things you want to know about your target audience include where they live, their average age, their gender, and their average income.
Knowing these details, as well as their occupation and hobbies, will help you better understand what these people look for on social media. This, in turn, will help you determine where they’re likely to spend their time.
SOCIAL MEDIA GOALS
Finally, ask yourself what you’d like to achieve from your social media presence. Why? Because you’re not just doing social media with your business merely for fun. Any business that uses social media, does so with a reason. Which more often than not ties back to the bottom line — profits, revenues, and sales.
Common social media marketing goals include brand awareness, traffic generation, boosting brand engagement, and improving customer service. Many businesses also use social media to generate sign-ups and new leads.
The social media platform(s) you choose should help you advance these goals. For instance, businesses seeking brand awareness would be wasting time on LinkedIn. Instagram and Facebook are much better options. Those seeking additional traffic, meanwhile, would be better off on YouTube as opposed to Twitter.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Every business needs social media in this digital age. However, you must be strategic in choosing your social platforms. Consider whether you’re B2B or B2C, know your target audience, and identify your social media goals. Otherwise, you risk wasting time and resources on platforms with little to no return on investment.
Mike Gingerich is president of Digital Hill Multimedia (www.DigitalHill.com), a Goshen, Indiana web design, web software and social media marketing firm. He is also a business blogger on tech, marketing, and growth. Find out more at www.MikeGingerich.com/blog/.
SOCIAL
US YouTuber who staged plane crash jailed for six months

Trevor Jacob staged a dramatic plane crash that saw him bail out high over Southern California in a bid to garner viewers – Copyright AFP/File Lionel BONAVENTURE
Huw GRIFFITH
A daredevil YouTuber who deliberately crashed his plane to boost the number of viewers on his channel and then lied about it to investigators has been jailed for six months after reaching a plea deal, US authorities said Monday.
In a video of the event entitled “I crashed my airplane,” Trevor Jacob appears to experience engine trouble while flying over southern California in November 2021.
The dramatic footage, viewed millions of times on YouTube, shows Jacob, now 30, ejecting from the single-engine plane — selfie stick in hand — and parachuting into the dense vegetation of Los Padres National Forest.
Cameras placed all over the aircraft show its out-of-control descent into the forest, and its eventual crash landing.
Jacob, a former Olympic snowboarder, films himself hiking to the wreckage where he appears dismayed to discover the water he packed has disappeared.
He does, however, have the presence of mind to recover the footage from cameras.
He then documents an apparently arduous trek through undergrowth to reach safety.
In the weeks after the incident, investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched a probe into the crash, and Jacob was ordered to preserve the wreckage.
The YouTuber told officials he did not know where the plane had gone down.
“In fact, on December 10, 2021, Jacob and a friend flew by helicopter to the wreckage site,” the US District Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said Monday.
“There, Jacob used straps to secure the wreckage, which the helicopter lifted and carried to Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County, where it was loaded onto a trailer attached to Jacob’s pickup truck.”
The remains of the single engine plane were cut into small pieces and dumped in trash bins in and around Lompoc City Airport, in a bid to hide evidence of the crash.
The FAA, the body that regulates flying in the United States, yanked Jacob’s pilot’s license in April 2022.
When investigators closed in, Jacob cut a deal and agreed to plead guilty to one count of destruction and concealment with the intent to obstruct a federal investigation.
“Jacob lied to federal investigators when he submitted an aircraft accident incident report that falsely indicated that the aircraft experienced a full loss of power,” the US District Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
“[Jacob] most likely committed this offense to generate social media and news coverage for himself and to obtain financial gain,” federal prosecutors said.
“Nevertheless, this type of ‘daredevil’ conduct cannot be tolerated.”
Jacob’s original video, along with several others he posted after the escapade, have now been removed from YouTube, but a copy can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41iOvFuKsyY
Pilots and aviation experts have been immensely critical of Jacob in the almost two years since the video was initially published.
Many noted that Jacob had failed to take even elementary steps to restart his plane’s apparently troubled engine.
Others pointed out that he could easily have safely glided the plane to a landing spot, and that wearing a parachute while flying a small aircraft was highly unusual.
SOCIAL
Snap On How It Empowered Women’s With AR Storytellling

Snapchat has won the AR/VR category at The Drum Awards for Creativity. Here is the award-winning case study.
In France, like many western countries, public space lacks monuments honouring women. What about empowering Women’s Legacy through Augmented Reality? As a storytelling company, Snap knows that stories have the power to change hearts, minds, and behaviors. Stories create empathy, which can inspire behavior change across Snap and the broader industry. And although our industry is data-driven, we understand numbers are not a substitute for lived experience. The differing lived experience of underrepresented groups can reduce feelings of belonging, which in turn reduces opportunity to realize potential. Snap’s goal in inspiring empathy is to create a shared culture of belonging for all.
To celebrate International Women’s Day, March 8, 2023, Snap’s AR Studio has been honouring 8 emblematic women in 8 major French cities (Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille, Strasbourg, Metz and Nantes) through a unique augmented reality experience: “March 8, 8 women”. “March 8, 8 women” has been a unique opportunity to demonstrate Augmented Reality’s impact in supporting Great National Cause (French president Emmanuel Macron has declared Equity a priority for 2023), while showcasing Snap’s creative and technologic leadership in AR.
While as many women as men have marked the course of history, the vast majority of sculptures in the urban space in France (squares, gardens and streets) honour male characters. Snap’s AR Studio has thus imagined augmented reality statues of women who have left their mark on history in the fields of politics, arts and letters or resistance. These augmented reality statues are installed next to the physical statues of their male counterparts – hence creating a silent dialogue between two historical figures, a male & a female, a physical & a virtual, both having lived in the same era, walked similar fields, achieved close successes.
Each of these 8 virtual statues honours the achievements of the following 8 great women in history and helps to commemorate their contributions to French society:
Simone Veil: Champion of women’s rights, emblem of the 1975 law that legalized abortion, and the first female president of the European Parliament. Her augmented reality statue will be positioned next to the physical one of General Charles de Gaulle on the Champs-Elysées roundabout in Paris.
Simone de Beauvoir: An acclaimed writer and philosopher of the existentialist movement. As an anti-conformist, she advocated for the emancipation of women in her writings, such as her 1949 book The Second Sex, and became one of the pioneers of French feminism in the 20th century. Her augmented reality statue will be placed next to the physical one of 20th century poet and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, at Place Bellecour in Lyon.
Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Admitted to the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1783 and the official painter to Marie Antoinette, she achieved critical and popular success in the artistic world despite the many obstacles facing female artists of her time. Her augmented reality statue will be placed next to the physical one of 18th century artist Pierre Puget, in the Parc Borély in Marseille.
Françoise de Graffigny: One of the most emblematic female figures of 18th century French literature, best known for her philosophical essay Letters from a Peruvian Woman published in 1747. Her augmented reality statue will be positioned next to the physical one of renown philosopher Montesquieu, at Place des Quinconces in Bordeaux.
Manon Tardon: Figure of the French Resistance and Free France, she was present on May 8, 1945, in Berlin when the surrender of Nazi Germany was signed. Her augmented reality statue will be positioned next to the physical one of World War 2 hero Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque, at Square Amiral Halgan in Nantes.
Josephine Baker: An American-born singer, actress, feminist, showgirl, and French resistance fighter, Josephine Baker was a spy for the Free French Forces, an emblem of the Paris of the Roaring Twenties, and an influential figure in the fight against racial segregation. Her augmented reality statue will be placed next to the physical one of resistant fighter Jean Moulin, at Gare Centrale in Metz.
Olympe de Gouges: Principal author of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Citizen published in 1791, she is considered one of the French pioneers of feminism. Her augmented reality statue will be positioned next to the physical one of French Revolution leader Jean-Baptiste Kléber, at Place Kléber in Strasbourg.
Hubertine Auclert: Journalist, feminist activist, and founder of the society Le droit des femmes in 1876, she advocated for women’s economic independence, the right to education, and equality in marriage and divorce. Her augmented reality statue will be positioned next to the physical one of early 20th-century activist Léon Trulin, at Place du Théâtre (not far from the Lille Opera).
“Through this innovative experience installed in 8 cities in France, we want to pay tribute to 8 women who have changed French history and society through their actions, their writings, or their positions. Thanks to Snap’s augmented reality technologies, we were able to celebrate those 8 women by building their statues in the public space by placing them alongside statues of men. By establishing a silent dialogue between these historical figures, our wish is to raise public awareness of the fight for women’s rights.” — Donatien Bozon, AR Studio Director.
To design this outstanding augmented reality experience, AR Studio Paris teamed up with French Women’s Rights advocate and influencer Aude Gogny-Goubert, drew inspiration from academic essays (Women & cities, Presses universitaires François-Rabelais, 2004), and requested the patronage of SnapWomen EMEA, a Snap’s Employee Representative Group supporting Equity. An all-female panel vetted the 8 female historical figures (and their male counterpart), from more than twenty curated candidates.
It took AR Studio Paris and its partners a total of 3 months, from ideation to launch, to create true virtual monument as close to physical ones as possible. 3D artists and producers scrutinized the physical statues in order to develop a virtual counterpart replicating sculpting techniques and materials. AR engineers exploited Snap Inc. proprietary technologies (Location AR, Environment mapping, Surface Tracking…) to bring this augmented reality experience to life.
The AR experience “March 8, 8 Women” has been available since March 8, 2023, sharing, with Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lille, Strasbourg, Metz and Nantes citizen and visitors, 8 permanent virtual monument exclusively available on Snapchat… thus building momentum to advocate Equity across France.
Snap believes that augmented reality—digital content overlaid over the real world—represents the next major shift in computing. Like ephemeral messaging and vertical video, Snap also pioneered augmented reality. Today Snap is leading in AR, from a technology, scale, and creator perspective. Snap’s vision for AR is rooted in innovation and stems from our desire to solve problems for our community in a creative way through human-centric design, and the desire to create a more positive reality rather than escape the problems our society faces. As it turns out, Snapchatters love the world around them and the friends and family they share it with, so why not use technology to enhance it for the better?
SOCIAL
An Overview of the Evolving Data Landscape Powering AI, VR, and More [Infographic]
![An Overview of the Evolving Data Landscape Powering AI, VR, and More [Infographic] An Overview of the Evolving Data Landscape Powering AI, VR, and More [Infographic]](https://articles.entireweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/1701770165_An-Overview-of-the-Evolving-Data-Landscape-Powering-AI-VR.jpg)
While AI and large language models (LLMs) become more commonplace, it’s worth considering the amount of computational power, and data storage, that these systems require to operate.
Demand for high-grade GPUs, for example, is still exceeding demand, as more tech companies and investors look to muscle in, while the big players continue to build on their data center capacity, in order to beat smaller systems out of the market.
That, inevitably, means that control over many of these new processes will eventually fall to those with the most money, and even if you have concerns about next-level computational power being governed by CEOs and corporations, there’s not a heap that you can do about it, as they need an established holding to even get in.
Well, unless a government steps in and seeks to build its own infrastructure in order to facilitate AI development, though that seems unlikely.
And it’s not just AI, with crypto processes, complex analysis, and advanced scientific discovery now largely reliant on a few key providers that have available capacity.
It’s a concern, but essentially, you can expect to see a lot more investment in big data centers and processing facilities over the coming years.
This new overview from Visual Capitalist (for Hive Digital) provides some additional context. Here, the VC team have broken down the current data center landscape, and what we’re going to need to facilitate next-level AI, VR, the metaverse, and more.
It’s an eye-opening summary. You can check out Visual Capitalists’ full overview here.
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