Pantone Color of 2014

RADIANT ORCHID 18-3224

Pantone has announced the 2014 color of the year, Radiant Orchid described as captivating and magical, enigmatic purple. The color will spark the imagination while intriguing the eye. According to Executive Director Leatrice Eiseman, “An enchanting harmony of fuchsia, purple and pink undertones, Radiant Orchid inspires confidence and emanates great joy, love and health. It is a captivating purple, one that draws you in with its beguiling charm.”

Pantone covers the world looking for colors that are being used and influenced in fashion, arts, film and others forms in addition socioeconomic conditions including tech, availability of textures and even influential sporting events.

Enjoy radiant orchid this coming year with a splash in your marketing design.



Michael Newhouse
WCN group
wcngroup@gmail.com

Happy New Year

reflect on the past, now move forward with might

Michael Newhouse
WCN group
wcngroup@gmail.com

It's Easier To Fake A Twitter Account Than An Orgasim

The number of fake Twitter accounts is somewhere between 5-10% which represents some 10 to 25 million accounts. Twitter is definitely a valuable social platform that will remain to be relevant for both business, consumers and the spread of rapid fire information. Twitter usually knows before most news sources and is one of the main drivers of viral marketing success.

But with all the positive attributes, Twitter needs to clean up their platform act. As authenticity and credibility continue to dominate 2014, Twitter must continue to prove its worthiness. They cannot let companies like this invade the social platform.
Inside a Twitter Robot Factory
Twitter has initiated a reporting tool for people to report fake twitter accounts to help combat this problem but if you have a Twitter account you will still notice on a weekly basis fake accounts spamming. Do us all a favor and report them. Be authentic and let's clean this platform up.



Michael Newhouse
WCN group
wcngroup@gmail.com

The End of Duck Dynasty is Near, Part 2

I wrote a blog post titled, "The End of Duck Dynasty is Near", back on October 2013 stating that due to the nature of the overt conservative philosophy and societal views shared, the inevitable offense will play itself out. As I predicted, and I am sure others did, Phil Robertson delivered on his promise.

See story here 'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson suspended over anti-gay comments

As A&E  Network suspended Phil, due to Duck Dynasty's massive audience, social media has taking Duck Dynasty to viral levels for public deliberation. The two main sides are based on Freedom of Speech opposed to being culturally and racially offensive. Both have a position that is greater in scope politically, religiously and culturally in American and across the world.

These three global scopes are being discussed and even placing some in civil war. Duck Dynasty seem to touch a nerve that I am inclined to believe, A&E network producers discussed the potential such occurrence. A.E. networks primary programming focus began based on intriguing shows but have recently transitioned to reality television that is produced edgy shows like Dog the Bounty Hunter, Inked, Gene Simmons and Criss Angel Mind Freak to name a few.

Per their A.E Networks Wikipedia page, the channel, which originally focused programming on biographies, documentaries, and drama series (especially crime dramas and mysteries), has expanded to include reality television programming.

As the three main issues take center stage in public discussion, the show will receive an initial audience viewership boost but will quickly dwindle within two to three years. As the debate dissipates from public discussion the interest for the show will vanish as the show will have ran its natural course. Hats off to A&E network and the Robertson's for capitalizing on the show and the other streams of revenue that transpires.

Till the show is no longer, take some time to follow the online debate and watch a couple shows to develop your own opinion.

Michael Newhouse
WCN group
wcngroup@gmail.com

Why Advertisers Will Leave Facebook

Facebook continues to make missteps with both their users and business partners. How many times can they afford to make bad business decisions before businesses and or users, abandon the social media platform. In the latest inadvertent‎ admission by Facebook revealed that organic reach is falling dramatically and falling short on reach. Why this is occurring and their response is flabbergasting. Yes, I used the word flabbergasting.

To set the stage, the news was discovered in a pitch deck that found its way to Ad Age. The deck contained several statements explaining the shift, "expect organic distribution of an individual page's posts to gradually decline over time" and paid distribution "to maximize delivery of your message in news feed" and finally "Your brand can fully benefit from having fans when most of your ads show social context, which increases advertising effectiveness and efficiency,"

See full Adage Facebook article here 

In sum, Facebook is attempting to further monetize the platform while compromising their initial mission and vision: 

Facebook's mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

This new direction will only empower sharing of content from large advertisers and organizations that can afford to advertise on the platform. Additionally, content that will be exposed to users will be selected based on this algorithmic system that is skewed towards paid content. Content that could be valuable for users to share will be either scarce or never exposed. As a direct result, advertisers will move to other platforms that allow for their content to be properly exposed and shared at the discretion of the user. 

Consumers are becoming savvy to platform's control and influence and do not like when knowing their content exposure is being controlled or selected for them. They want to control the type, frequency and means as to what content exposure they receive. Will Facebook backtrack on this new model or will they just continue to believe that the platform is too large that missteps like this will not receive dire results. I guess we will wait and see how the fallout plays itself out.

Michael Newhouse
WCNgroup
wcngroup@gmail.com