The New Wave of Celeb Hackers

"And the hackers gonna hack hack hack hack hack"

Yeah, I couldn't help but get Taylor Swift's "Shake It Off" song stuck in my head again today!

Poor Taylor was hacked on Instagram and Twitter yesterday
!  Of course, the social media accounts of stars being hacked is nothing new.  But Taylor just happens to be one of the most-followed celebs in the social media world, so you can bet her fans noticed when something was fishy about her account!

And that leads me to what might be the most interesting point about this celeb-hacking: its purpose.  Many times, hackers have done so to post a lewd photograph or start a juicy rumor or something similar.  But not this time.  No, this hacker seemed to mainly be after one thing: followers. Yeah, followers!!

The hacker posted a tweet as though it was from Taylor telling her fans to follow his actual Twitter account.  And later, he asked them to do the same for a supposed friend.  What a crazy thing to do to gain some social media followers!!  And while most of Taylor's followers recognized the hacker and told him to take a hike, a few had a different plan.  They messaged Taylor's account (while the hacker was on it) and asked him to follow them from Taylor's account!  

This "follow-for-a-follow" type of world is crazy and the things people do to elicit social media followers are just as nuts.  What's the craziest thing you've heard of someone doing to get social media followers?

Bye Bye Fake News!

Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on you again!

That's how I feel about misleading headlines.  Shame. On. Them.

At Casey & Sayre, we believe that a well-written headline should be both honest and intriguing.  But for the past year, Facebook News Feeds have been dominated by hoax-headlines that are purposefully misleading. We've dealt with everything from headlines saying Betty White "dyes" in her home (and when you click, you realize they are saying she dyes her hair) to blatant lies about new technology operating systems that offer insane features that aren't technically feasible. 

Well, friends, Facebook has heard how annoyed we are, and the company is doing something about it!  Starting this week, News Feeds will be equipped with a "false news story" notification option that you can click when this type of hoax is shown in your News Feed.  Similar to the "spam" or "hide from my timeline" options, the new "false news story" option will be in a dropdown menu on the top right of the news stories.  

There are already reports about the possibility of people misusing this feature, but here's to hoping that it keeps our News Feeds a bit more honest.  I'd like to never be fooled again!

Do you think the new "false news story" feature will help Facebook?

Fashion and Technology Collide at CES

Technology and Fashion.

These two words don't typically go together.  But at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, there has been a large focus on incorporating technology into fashion.

Wearables have been a trend now for awhile, everything from Google Glasses to Fitbit.  But to make things even more fashionable, dresses, vests and fabric itself are now being made tech-friendly.

Nick Verreos, of Project Runway fame, hosted FashionWare at this week's CES, a runway show complete with vests that display your latest tweets, dresses that change color with LED lighting and belts that doubled as phone chargers!  

In theory, this is all very cool.  But the looks are still a bit avant garde for my taste.  And while more practical applications like the belt/phone charger do seem like they would be pretty handy, others are kind of silly.  Do I really need my dress to show my latest tweet like I am some kind of walking billboard?   #IDontThinkSo

What do you think of these tech fashion looks?

Real-time Social Media Marketing At Its Best!

What does the movie Home Alone have in common with Allstate Insurance?

Well, if you watched any college football last night, you know!  #MayhemSale

Allstate pulled an amazing social media marketing campaign during the college football playoffs, which they called "The Mayhem Sale".  Similar to the plot of the classic "Home Alone" movie, where burglars break into the home while the family is on vacation, Allstate's campaign showed the "Mayhem" character as a burglar, having broken into a fictitious home after its "owners" overshared about their location on social media.  Following this so far?  Then the character proceeds to say he is going to sell all the couple's things and thats where the fiction ends!  Allstate held an actual, real-time auction of regular household goods.  Selling things like a 60-inch television for $60 and a car for $200!!  

Each of the items sold were published on Twitter first (making #MayhemSale a trending topic worldwide for much of the night), with many of the best having their own commercial during the games.  Allstate then suggested viewers go to the MayhemSale.com website, and it worked!  In fact the site received so many visitors that halfway through the Sugar Bowl game, it crashed!  Luckily, the site was only down for a few moments so eager bargain-hunters didn't have to hold their breaths too long!

This Allstate campaign was definitely one of the more successful online-meets-offline campaigns I have seen for awhile.  And while the the selling of these items was a bit silly, the underlying message was more serious.  It was a warning to viewers about using social media posts while on vacation, as that is a way burglars actually use to find victims.  

What did you think of the idea?