A screen-grab from Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative’s “Mannequin Challenge” video at the site of the 100-foot Christmas tree. (Contributed)

DELRAY BEACH — Volunteers who helped piece together Delray Beach’s 100-foot Christmas tree attraction paused — literally — to record a “Mannequin Challenge” video.

The “Mannequin Challenge” is the latest internet video trend that was even performed at the White House during President Barack Obama’s Presidential Medal of Freedom awards this past week. Each “Mannequin Challenge” video consists of people staying motionless while the camera winds its way through an area.

The Delray Beach 100-foot Christmas tree, at Old School Square, is the most popular holiday attraction in the city. Volunteers participated in the video earlier this month, and it was posted on Facebook by the Delray Beach Marketing Cooperative.

The annual tree-lighting ceremony will be held Thursday, Dec. 1 at 5 p.m. at Old School Square.

And as you’d anticipate in a Mannequin Challenge involving a 100-foot Christmas tree, there’s at least one person hanging motionless from the tree.

Check out the video here:

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Instagram blends Periscope and Snapchat for new ephemeral livestreaming and messaging features; Facebook launches a plan to fight fake news, and needs all of you to help; all about Houseparty, the livestreaming app making a splash; Russia bans LinkedIn over data war; five mistakes to avoid in B2B social media marketing; how chatbots fit into an SMB marketing mix; 10 Facebook marketing tips for the holidays; and much more…

Skim for your Thanksgiving-week heaping helping of social media news and views!

1. Instagram launches live video streaming with a twist: disappearing photos and video

Facebook is adopting the best of Snapchat and Periscope to Instagram, with the introduction of live video and messages—both with an ephemeral twist. That’s right, Instagram users and brands will now be able to livestream on the platform; but, unlike Facebook Live and Periscope, Instagram livestreams won’t be saved and can’t be replayed. But users can search for the best live videos streaming at any given time with a newly curated Explore page.

Don’t feel like posting your Instagram Story for all your followers to see? No worries, you’ll also soon be able to send a Story update to only a few close friends if you’d like. But, like Snapchat, they’ll disappear after your followers view them twice. The two new features are rolling out to users on iOS and Android in the next few weeks.

Now, Facebook is fighting back with a seven-point plan to cut fake news from the platform:

1. Increase technical systems’ ability to flag false stories before users have to
2. Make it easier for users to spot and report fake stories
3. Increase integration of third-party verification systems
4. Exploring the labeling of stories that have been flagged as false with warnings to readers
5. Increase the quality of stories suggested in « related articles »
6. Continue policy of not running ads on fake news websites
7. Listen more closely and gather input of journalists and others in the news industry

Will it work?

3. Russia blocks LinkedIn, with Facebook and Twitter possibly future targets

Data storage laws are to blame for Russia’s communication regulators’ banning of the business-centric social network in the country after LinkedIn failed to store Russian users’ personal data on Russian national servers.

Though many believe that the Russian government is exploiting these local servers, national regulators said the social network failed to comply with what it says are Russian laws meant to protect its citizens’ data.

Facebook and Twitter are also facing increased scrutiny in Russia, risking the ban of their combined 30+ million users in the nation if they don’t comply.

4. Facebook revamps Safety Check, allows users to activate it

The social titan took advantage of its new Social Good Forum in New York last week to introduce an updated Safety Check that allows users to activate it themselves. It also announced new tools for users to fundraise for charity, and to offer and receive shelter, food, and other types of aid during crises via what it calls « community help. »

Safety Check will now be activated should there be a recognized increase in posts about a specific disaster or emergency; those users will likely receive a notification from Facebook to let their friends know they’re okay via Safety Check.

Starting next year, the community help feature will use categories to streamline the process of offering and seeking aid, such as shelter, food, and transportation during times of crisis; naturally, Facebook Messenger will be used as the medium to arrange the details once something’s set up.

5. Five mistakes to avoid in B2B social media marketing

Some 91% of retail brands use two or more social media channels, 2.3 billion people are active on social media, and Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp handle 60 billion messages per day. How can your B2B brand stand out amidst all the noise?

Business 2 Community has five critical mistakes your brand needs to avoid if it is to stay relevant amid the overload of advertisements, messages, and images that fill up news feeds around the world.

Covered in detail: how many times to post on each platform without annoying your followers, making sure your content is relevant and consistent, the importance of optimizing your profiles, knowing where your clients are, and understanding that social media marketing isn’t something to do « on the side. »

6. Snapchat is killing its Spectacles game

The company hit the right tone when it introduced the Snap-taking smart glasses as a « toy, » all but killing the high expectations that doomed Google’s Glass. And now, thanks to its stroke-of-genius marketing campaign, Snapchat’s Spectacles are inspiring the kind of buzz a company planning for an IPO could only dream of.

The social network embarked on a stealth approach by not only dropping Spectacle-selling vending machines strategically around Los Angeles and at the Grand Canyon, but also this week opened up a surprise « store » right by the Apple Store in New York, on 59th Street, for East Coasters to get in on the fun.

Although Spectacles are, for now, by no means generating a lot of cash for the company, its unique strategy is generating all the right types of hype ahead of its IPO rumored for 2017. Would you stand in line for hours to grab a pair?

7. Yes… SMBs, too, should pay attention to chatbots

Chatbots burst onto the scene when Facebook introduced them to their Messenger platform back in April, and many large companies developed ways to automate their customer interactions via the feature. But where does that leave small and medium-sized businesses? Should they be paying attention, too?

Considering the wide range of activities bots can fulfill, and recent insight into millennials’ perspectives on the matter, the answer is yes. A recent survey finds that over 50% of Millennials would use a chatbot for local services, and that businesses that use chatbots are more favorably viewed than those that don’t (and even more favorably viewed than companies that use messaging).

From answering simple customer inquiries such as « do you offer free estimates » to more uncommon questions, the fast answers provided to Millennial customers can fulfill their need of instant gratification. But what metrics should you use to evaluate your bot performance? We’ve got some answers.

8. Meerkat died and became a Houseparty of epic proportions

Houseparty, the app built up from the ashes of Meerkat after it gave up on its livestreaming ambitions, has proven that livestreaming doesn’t have to survive on one-to-one video broadcasts or big performances and events. Instead, Houseparty brings together friends for hangout sessions, and the app already counts one million people among those who spend a combined 20 million minutes hanging out on the platform each day.

As a sort of third place, Houseparty can split the screen into up to eight frames for eight users, and participants don’t have to request for others to join in: Friends who open the app are simply thrown « in the house » with other friends who are live on the platform.

The company built Houseparty as a place for normal people on camera, hoping to encourage high use due to a less formal environment than that of other social networks. For now, it seems to be working. The app maintains a solid position in app stores and has 1.2 million daily users.

9. Ten Facebook marketing tips for the holiday season

Thinking of spreading your brand’s message far and wide via Facebook this holiday season? There are some things you should know, whether you’re opting for a paid campaign or organic one.

From creating Facebook offers and retargeting website visitors, to crafting content for maximum shares and hosting events through Facebook Live, Mari Smith has 10 tips to supercharge your holiday social marketing on the platform!

10. We’ll wrap with the war on social media and its fake-news echo chamber

President Obama has come out with sharp criticism of the spread of fake news, calling the ecosystem of online news a place where « everything is true, and nothing is true. » Even as Facebook and Google have crafted some responses to the controversy that seems to be contributing to the polarization of society and politics, Obama suggests there’s much more work to be done.

With 62% of American adults getting some or all their news from social media, some argue the only way to combat the growing problem is for social networks and other media giants, like Google, to employ human fact-checkers to ensure quality content.

Because Facebook’s walled garden leaves all content on the platform with a similar look and feel, for now it seems all we can do is to actually read the stories we share (before we share them), and to also dig deeper should something strike us as suspicious.

Happy reading!

Des dizaines de milliers de personnes ont été évacuées jeudi à Haïfa, troisième ville d’Israël, fuyant les feux de végétation qui se succèdent dans le pays depuis trois jours et dont les autorités soupçonnent que beaucoup ont une motivation politique. Des quartiers entiers de la ville des bords de la Méditerranée enveloppée d’une épaisse fumée laissant à peine filtrer le soleil, des écoles, une université et des prisons ont été évacués. « Au total, nous avons dû évacuer 60 000 habitants, c’est sans précédent à Haïfa », a dit Yona Yahav, maire de cette ville mixte juive et arabe d’environ 280 000 habitants, déjà théâtre en 2010 d’un incendie qui avait fait 44 morts.

Les secours ont dénombré 95 hospitalisations dans tout le pays, dont 65 à Haïfa, la plupart pour des problèmes respiratoires sans gravité. Yael Hame, habitante du quartier de Romema, l’un des plus touchés, a raconté que la fumée l’avait forcée à quitter sa maison et qu’elle était partie avec tous ses effets rejoindre sa famille hors de la ville. « Toute la rue en face de chez moi était bloquée par les voitures. Les flammes dépassaient les tours de 20 étages. C’était effrayant et, avec la fumée, on n’y voyait rien », a-t-elle relaté.

Des résidents ont chargé leurs affaires dans des chariots de supermarché pour prendre le large tandis que des dizaines de pompiers, policiers, secouristes s’affairaient dans les rues, avec l’appui de nombreux bénévoles venus apporter leur aide.

L’armée en alerte

Des habitants tentaient de contenir les flammes avec leur tuyau de jardinage. Dans les airs, de petits avions répandaient de l’eau et du dispersant coloré, notamment près des stations-service. Les secouristes ont frappé de porte en porte pour évacuer les plus âgés. Des dizaines de personnes se sont entassées dans des centres d’accueil. L’armée a annoncé qu’elle avait déployé deux bataillons et rappelé des réservistes avec du matériel pour aider pompiers et policiers.

Plusieurs départs de feu ont été localisés à Haïfa, renforçant le soupçon que certains seraient volontaires. D’autres sinistres ont été rapportés autour de Jérusalem, à Modiin (Centre), mais aussi à Talmon, colonie israélienne de Cisjordanie, territoire palestinien occupé par Israël. Depuis trois jours, le centre et le nord d’Israël sont en proie à une succession d’incendies de végétation. Aucun décès n’a été rapporté. Des dizaines de maisons ont été atteintes, selon le gouvernement. Les feux sont favorisés par une très grande sécheresse et de forts vents. Mais le ministre de la Sécurité publique Gilad Erdan a estimé que la moitié serait d’origine criminelle, commis soit par des pyromanes soit pour des raisons liées au conflit israélo-palestinien.

Un « terrorisme de l’incendie volontaire »

Environ 1,4 million d’Arabes israéliens (17,5 % de la population), descendants des Palestiniens restés sur leurs terres à la création d’Israël en 1948, vivent dans le pays. Citoyens israéliens, ils se considèrent largement comme Palestiniens et sympathisent avec leur cause. « Nous avons affaire à un terrorisme de l’incendie volontaire », a dit Gilad Erdan dans la soirée lors d’un déplacement à Haïfa avec le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu. Il a fait état de quelques arrestations sans plus de précisions. Benjamin Netanyahu est resté plus ambigu, prévenant que tout incendie volontaire serait traité comme un « acte de terrorisme », sans dire explicitement si c’était le cas de certains feux récents.

Les leaders de la minorité arabe se sont indignés que les leurs soient montrés du doigt, criant au racisme. « Cela fait des centaines ou des milliers d’années que nous vivons dans ce pays et nous n’y avons jamais mis le feu », a dit le député arabe Ayman Odeh dans un communiqué, ajoutant que les Arabes étaient eux aussi touchés par les incendies. Le parti de Ayman Odeh, le Front démocratique pour la paix et l’égalité, a rapporté que des milliers de familles arabes étaient prêtes à accueillir des sinistrés, quelle que soit leur religion.

Israël devait recevoir d’ici à la nuit le soutien d’une dizaine d’avions envoyés de Russie, Turquie, Grèce, Italie, Croatie et Chypre. La France a annoncé l’envoi de trois appareils. Noah Wolfson, un météorologiste, se montrait « pas très optimiste » pour les prochains jours. Les vents venus du désert devraient diminuer, mais « l’atmosphère restera très, très sèche », a-t-il dit. « La situation changera seulement lundi ou mardi », a-t-il prévu.

Le favori de la
primaire de la droite pour la
présidentielle française, François Fillon, affronte son rival Alain Juppé lors
d’un duel télévisé très attendu, dans un climat tendu avant
l’échéance du second tour dimanche. L’enjeu pour
les deux anciens premiers ministres est crucial puisque le futur champion de la
droite sera, selon les sondages, bien placé pour l’emporter face à l’extrême
droite, en mai, au second tour de la présidentielle.

Pour rattraper
son retard au premier tour de la primaire
dimanche, Alain Juppé (28,6% des voix) a attaqué tous azimuts son concurrent
(44%), au point que plusieurs ténors de son camp ont appelé à la fin des
hostilités. « On
franchit la ligne rouge quand on reprend à l’intérieur d’une même famille un
vocabulaire qui relève d’une caricature que fait la gauche quand elle nous
attaque. Je dis stop. Compétition oui, division non », a plaidé Laurent
Wauquiez, président par intérim du parti Les Républicains, auquel appartiennent
les deux candidats. Plus de 200
parlementaires de la droite et du centre ont aussi appelé à « un débat
franc mais respectueux des uns et des autres ».

Le porte-parole
d’Alain Juppé, Benoist Apparu, a lui-même dénoncé « la tension politique de
la campagne de second tour ». Le maire de Bordeaux, 71
ans, a fait feu de tout bois : il a demandé à son adversaire, 62 ans, de
justifier ses positions sur l’avortement et critiqué « sa vision
extrêmement traditionaliste, pour ne pas dire un petit peu rétrograde », de
la société.

Il a mis en
cause la crédibilité et la « brutalité » de son programme
« ultra-libéral », qui prévoit notamment la suppression de 500.000
postes de fonctionnaires. Il lui a également reproché « une complaisance
excessive vis-à-vis de Poutine » et un afflux de « soutiens d’extrême
droite ». « On m’a
accusé d’être trop mou, je dis que François Fillon est trop dur », a résumé
mercredi Alain Juppé, en appelant à « ne pas jouer les chochottes ».
« Je me battrai pour dire qu’il y a deux sensibilités, une droite clivante
et une droite de rassemblement », a-t-il dit au journal Le Parisien jeudi.

LIRE AUSSI :
» Le Brief 2017 : entre-deux tours tendu entre Juppé et Fillon

Monde

Plusieurs pays d’Amérique centrale, en particulier le Salvador et le Nicaragua, ont ressenti ce jeudi un puissant séisme d’une magnitude de 7,2 dans l’océan pacifique, selon plusieurs médias locaux. Le séisme s’est produit à 19h43 (heure belge).

Le risque de tsunami a été signalé par le centre d’alerte dans le Pacifique. Un tsunami pourrait se produire dans un rayon de 300km autour de l’épicentre, situé à une profondeur de 33km dans le Pacifique.

Lara Croft is back!

[box_alert]Some small story spoilers…[/box_alert]

It’s that time of year again, the months leading up to Christmas where every video game company decides to put out their biggest and best games of the year. With all the “Call of Duty”s, “Fallout 4″s, “Halo 5″s and “Star Wars Battlefront”s out there, some games kinda get lost in the mix. One game I was hoping wouldn’t get overlooked in that sea of awesome is Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics’ “Rise of the Tomb Raider,” the sequel to their 2013 “Tomb Raider” reboot.

I loved that first game. I actually just recently replayed it in excited anticipation for this game. Sure, it took a lot of cues from games like the “Uncharted” series, but I loved those games too. Besides, sorry Nathan Drake, but Lara Croft is the original video game adventurer badass, and it could be argued that “Uncharted” took some cues from “Tomb Raider” in the first place. But enough about other games, let get into this one…

Story:

Lara Croft (once again voiced and motion captured by Camilla Luddington) is an icon in the world of gaming. What I loved about the previous game was it took a sort of “Tomb Raider Begins”-like approach to it, showing us Lara’s first real adventure as she was shipwrecked on a mysterious island full of danger and intrigue. This game makes a natural progression, this time giving us a very personal and emotional story. Set one year after her ordeal on Yamatai, Lara becomes obsessed with proving some of the myths of the world after Trinity, a shady organization that covers up these supernatural kinds of things in order to use them for their own gain, tries to discredit her.

What I really enjoyed about the story this time around is that we also get to learn a bit more about Lara’s father, who died years before her tomb raiding began and was only mentioned in passing in the 2013 game. We learn that he was driven mad with obsession with finding the ancient city Kitezh, which he believed to hold the secrets of immortality. Like Lara, he was discredited by the scientific community, which lead to his eventual apparent suicide. Now, Lara picks up his research where he left off and sets out to Siberia to find the city and clear her father’s name.

Gameplay:

Most of the gameplay is very much the same in the sequel as it was in the last one. For me, that was not a problem as I enjoyed the hell out of the first game, but it would have been cool for them to add a little bit of the new and shiny to the proceedings. The fighting, shooting, climbing and survival mechanics are all pretty much the same as before. There does seem to be a lot more crafting options than the first game, though, with the addition of some tools, expanded ammo/materials pouches and the like, as well as so many more wardrobe options (you know, ’cause on the island she had, like, one).

This game also keeps true to a lot of the action-type sequences from before. There are still those cool running sequences, where you have to keep running while the place is crumbling and crashing down around you, however, from where I’m currently at in the game, I haven’t seen too many of these and the ones I have encountered were a lot shorter than I remember from the first game. Also, we all remember Lara’s horrifyingly graphic death scenes whenever you’d screwed up in the first game and those are still present as well (getting mauled by a bear is pretty gnarly), but I’ve encountered very few of those as well. That’s not me bragging, I’m dying quite a bit, I just think there were a lot of opportunities for these that weren’t jumped on. I don’t know, maybe people just don’t get the kick out of torturing Lara that they used to.

Locations:

Where the overall gameplay mechanics lack in originality, the new locations more than make up for it. Much to my approval, the snowy mountain wilderness of Siberia (as well as a brief stop in Syria) is a complete 180° from the island, and it’s a lot of fun to explore these new types of environments with Lara. Like the first game, the scenery is gorgeous. In real life, you wouldn’t catch me dead in some of the exotic places that Lara Croft ventures to, but I’m more than happy to take the trip in all its high resolution glory from the comfort of my own home.

Graphics:

As I’ve mentioned, the scenery is beautiful, but that certainly would not have been the case if the graphics were not up to snuff. I recently played the Xbox One version of the 2013 game, which also had terrific graphics, and the visuals here are at least on par with that version of the previous game, if not better, just from being developed for the current gen consoles first.

There were still a few hiccups and missteps here and there, though. There was a particular cut scene where Lara was having a conversation with Jacob and her hair was just endlessly cascading over her shoulder as she turned her head, as if there was no end in sight to her luxurious locks. It was a bit distracting, I couldn’t pay attention to what was being said. Another thing that always stuck out to me, and I noticed this in the first game as well, was during the aforementioned death scenes, Lara’s face often looks like a completely different person’s face. I don’t know why this happens this way, but it always bothers me a little.

Game Rating: 8/10

Bottom Line: While I still enjoyed the hell out of this game, overall, I still think I prefer the first one more. The story here was more personal, but it just didn’t hook me as much as the shipwrecked on a magical island stuff from the original. I’m not done with the story mode yet, though, so perhaps I’ll change my mind on that evaluation once I reach the conclusion, whenever I have the time to do so. All said and done, though, I’d say this game was still a lot of fun and a worthy successor to the previous installment.

From what I’ve read, this game didn’t do quite as well as hoped, but it had a lot of competition, especially with it coming out on the same day as “Fallout 4.” Another thing that probably didn’t help was that it is exclusive to Microsoft for right now and is only available for Xbox One and Xbox 360. It will come to Playstation sometime next year. Availability on the other consoles might have helped this game’s profitability.

Have you played “Rise of the Tomb Raider” yet? If so, what are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments section below.

-By Jeff Grantz

When Richard Branson – one of the wealthiest and most successful businessmen on the planet – was hospitalised in a cycling accident, we’d have forgiven him for hiding away, concealing his battered and bloodied face from the world. Instead, and perhaps unsurprisingly given his history of cultivating such a very public persona, Branson told his story in breathless detail, accompanied by gory images of purple bruises and bleeding cuts.

We can’t fail to invest emotionally in a high stakes tale packed with drama, so it matters little that Branson wasn’t actually trying to sell us anything.

Instead, telling his story had the effect of humanising the Virgin brand, propagating its culture of transparency and reminding us that at the heart of this vast empire is a silver-haired guy just as capable of taking a tumble from his bike as the rest of us.

Of course, telling stories is an ancient tradition as old as cave paintings.

In the digital age, advanced storytelling techniques used as part of a video marketing strategy allow us to move away from the blunt instrument of product-led content to a more sophisticated approach based on creating emotional connections with our audience.

Some sectors (charities, for example) lend themselves readily to purposeful, emotional storytelling, but in skilful hands even more mundane categories such as financial services can tell stories that strike a powerful chord.

Two stories can be very different but most stories will follow pretty strict rules and are structured much the same way. You can see this storytelling structure at work in any film, TV drama or work of literary fiction and creating brand or message based storytelling isn’t really that different. Let’s look at each element in turn.

The Quest (or Desire)

The quest is the key goal or want of your story or, more usually, its key character – the hero.

‘Lowly farm hand must rescue beautiful princess from evil dictator’ is a story trope that has been recycled over and over in countless forms over many centuries. It also happens to be the central quest of a movie which sparked the most successful film franchise of all time – Star Wars.

Obviously, the quest doesn’t have to be something as spectacularly tangible as blowing up the Death Star. Crucially, your story’s hero should be relatable, likeable and someone we want to see succeed. Better still – make the customer the star. In this show, your brand and product should take at most a supporting role. Consider making yourself the helper, not the hero, and save your ‘appearance’ for the emotional climax.

The Obstacles

Princess needs rescuing. Boy rescues princess. The end.

Not much of a story, is it?

Obstacles create conflict, or drama. As an audience, we invest in the hero’s plight as he or she attempts to surmount the difficulties thrown in their path. We share their highs and lows as they pursue their key goal.

In film, the main obstacle is often the bad guy. In branded content, it might be a problem which our product or service can handily resolve. In the 2016 John Lewis Christmas ad, it is simply a pane of glass preventing a bouncy dog from playing on a trampoline.

The Stakes

Stakes are vital if we want our audience to invest in our hero’s quest. After all, if there’s nothing at stake – if nothing happens to our hero if he or she fails – why should we bother watching?

You might think about your target customer’s nightmare scenario, and the consequences of them failing to achieve their goal, as a starting point. The key thing about stakes however, is that they need to be big. Make them matter, to both the protagonist and the audience. This is crucial to evoking an emotional connection in your audience. If the viewer can’t empathise with your protagonist’s plight should they fail in their task, then that connection will remain elusive.

The Climax

A good story begins with a quest (or question) and escalates through a series of increasingly difficult obstacles to the climax. This is where the viewer’s emotional investment pays off and the dramatic conflict initiated at the start of your story is resolved. Typically, it is the moment your hero triumphantly achieves their goal.

The Emotional Resolution

As well as the narrative pay off, our story needs an emotional resolution. This is the heart of our story, it’s what our tale is really about. The emotional climax can be a difficult concept for novice storytellers to wrap their heads around, and it might help to think about what brand values you want to express.

Tying the emotional resolution to your brand or product in some way, without destroying that emotional investment is a subtle art form. Go in to hard and you risk bursting the bubble and coming across like a salesman. Too subtle though and you risk losing your message entirely and leaving your audience wondering what that was all about.

Check out this Turkish airlines ad to see how skilfully the company’s brand message is tied to the story’s emotional resolution.

The End?

It may be the story’s end, but it doesn’t have to be the end of your story.

We are hard-wired to feel stories. Told skilfully, stories create a kind of immersive, empathic experience that commands us to react in some way. That may take the form of something as simple as sharing in a social network or telling a friend. Or it might involve a trip to a car showroom to buy that dream motor.

If you’ve done your job well you’ll have your audience on the hook for all your future stories.