Fake Hurricane Dorian video goes viral on Twitter

Whenever there is a major event, news story or a natural disaster like the hurricane Dorian, someone is going to try to take advantage of it to gain followers and reach on social media. Do you remember the fake photo of “Frankenstorm” hurricane Sandy, that looked like it would destroy all of Manhattan? Completely fake of course, but that didn’t stop people from sharing it more than 626,000 times on Facebook. Incredible!

sandy-frankenstorm-new-york

This was back in 2010, and although Facebook’s algorithm has changed and it might be a little harder to get that kind of virality today, we as users probably haven’t become much smarter.

As hurricane Dorian approached the coast of Florida, a Twitter account tweeted a video that appeard to show an enormous hurricane about to hit Miami Beach.

fake hurricane dorian video from miami beach

The tweet has gotten more than 1.7 million views, 35,000 retweets and 76,000 likes in one day, despite the fact that it is obviously fake. It looks fake and it is very easy to fact check, especially if you know that hurricanes originating in the northern hemisphere rotate counterclockwise. In the fake video, the hurricane spins clockwise.

Also, many of the replies to the tweet point out that it is not true and even link to sources that debunk the claim of the tweet.

The same video has also been shared several times on Instagram, but has since been taken down.

The computer animated video was first posted to Instagram in May 2019, several months before hurricane Dorian started to emerge. You can see the video here:

 

Visa det här inlägget på Instagram

 

Ett inlägg delat av ♏TheGlitch♏ (@theglitch.og)

 

Why do we share fake news on social media?

So why do we keep sharing stories that are so blatantly false? There are probably many reasons why this happens. Research into why people share fake news show that “Individuals tend not to question the credibility of information unless it violates their preconceptions or they are incentivized to do so”.  There is also a tendency to view unique content as “too good not to share”.

In other words, there is no incentive to fact check something that looks so cool. Some may not even care.

There are many ways you can fact check social media posts, by googling and checking hashtags. You can take a screen shot and do a reverse image search on Google, that often reveals that the footage is older than what it appears to be. And as always, if it looks too good too be true, it probably is fake.

 

Obama’s tweets will be archived on @POTUS44 – but the 46th President is an “egg”

We will soon find out who will replace Barack Obama as the President of the United States – Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. Obama has been the first president to truly embrace social media in all its forms and when he steps down, Clinton or Trump will take charge of the Twitter account @POTUS. The account will keep its 11 million followers but the new President will start off fresh with a clean time line, no old tweets will be attached to the account.

Obama’s old tweets will not be deleted, instead they will be transferred to the @POTUS44 account where they will be archived by the National Archives and Records Administration in order to preserve the material for future generations. The same strategy is in place for the other accounts associated with the Obama administration, like the @whitehouse which will be archived at @whitehouse44.

Future archives are “taken”
If this strategy continues over time, then some accounts may suddenly get some extra attention. A Mr. Phillip Jay White holds the @whitehouse45 account and the future archives of the successor to Clinton/Trump is an anonymous “egg” on the @POTUS46 account.

Naturally, the National Archives and Records Administration will have no trouble getting control of these accounts when thay day comes, but it will be fun to see if any of these people will become active and take advantage of the potential Twitter fame.

whitehouse45

potus46

Via Digital Trends.

Sweden beats Nordic rivals in social media Olympics

The Olympic games in Rio 2016 are engaging large audiences in social media. However, some reports suggest that the volume of interactions in social channels are lower than expected. A survey of US viewers shows that fewer people are following the Olympic Games via social networks than had said they expected to.

But many people are commenting and sharing views on Twitter for example. According to statistics from Socialbakers, the US and Brazil are the countries that most people are tweeting about, followed by India.

Most interactions about Sweden
If we look at Twitter conversations about the Nordic countries, Sweden is clearly in the lead before Denmark (Aug 5 – Aug 16). Almost 100,000 tweets about Sweden and 57,000 about Denmark. There are significantly fewer comments about Norway and Finland. The peak for Sweden came after the women’s football team beat USA in the quarter finals on penalties.

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(click for larger image)

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More statistics on social media at the Olympics can be found here.

The best responses to Jeb Bush’s gun tweet

twitterbirdThe US Republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush yesterday tweeted a picture of his monogrammed gun with the caption “America”. While this provocation probably lands well with many pro-gun Republican voters, others weren’t especially impressed and the gun tweet has been rightfully mocked from all corners of the world.

Here is the original tweet:

And here are some of the best responses:


And last but not least, of course the Irish betting company Paddy Power jumped on the opportunity with this tweet:

How to find your most engaging tweets

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You can learn a lot from looking at statistics and that’s why it may be a good idea to take a look at your Twitter Analytics page now and then. I looked at my stats from September 2014 to May 2015 and learned a few things like:

  • Average engagement rate is decreasing
  • I have been tweeting a lot less in the last five months compared to last fall
  • I get a lot less link clicks now than in 2014
  • The number of monthly retweets vary a lot from month to month
  • Although I tweet less and engagement rate is decreasing, the average daily reach is actually increasing

I can now use this knowledge to improve my Twitter presence by trying to increase the number of tweets, improve the content so that it engages more people, include more links to increase link clicks for example. That is, if you think these are important numbers. The reason daily reach continues to increase is probably an effect of a continuous increase in followers.

The tweets with highest reach per month
Other interesting things that you can find in Twitter Analytics are for example the tweets with highest reach for the last few months. Some of my top tweets are in Swedish which is not surprising since about 80% of my followers are from Sweden.

May 2015: Instagram photo
Reach 12,100

April 2015: News article
Reach 1,500

March 2015: Blog post
Reach 14,200

Feb 2015: Blog post
Reach 2,800

Jan 2015: News article
Reach 4,400

Dec 2014: News article
Reach 19,100

Nov 2014: Blog post
Reach 18,300

Conclusions
There are a few conclusions to be made from looking at these tweets.

  • Inspiring images help your tweets get noticed and shared, but you may also reach out without images
  • Getting retweeted by an influencer increases reach a lot
  • Twitter cards for your blog posts or for news articles may increase engagement
  • If the link you are sharing doesn’t use Twitter cards, it helps to add an image manually
  • Hashtags on trending topics also help in getting reach
  • Blog posts and news articles create a lot of engagement

Now take a look at your Twitter Analytics, you may learn a few things that could help you reach out to more people on Twitter.

Salvation Army ad nails it with THAT dress

About a week ago, the entire Internet was discussing whether a certain dress was white and gold or black and blue. Everyone was talking about it so this was a perfect situation to use for real-time marketing purposes. That’s exactly what the Salvation Army in South Africa did today with this tweet below, and boy did they nail it with this one!

The advert is part of the Salvation Army’s latest anti-domestic violence campaign.

Via Daily Mail.