2014 On Borislav’s POV In A Nutshell

The year is about to run away and pass the baton to 2015. Naturally, around this time every year, people start reflecting on the days passed and what they have achieved. Some do that openly on their blogs or social network profiles. I decided to make no exception and write a little about what you have found most interesting in my blogging about digital marketing and the Internet.

Although I started off 2014 with the plan to blog more about my beloved industry, soon I found myself lacking time to do so regularly. When I look now at Google Analytics and the numbers it provides, clearly there seems to be no particular time pattern in creating content on borislavkiprin.com. A few posts have received attention from search engine references and the proactive thirst for knowledge. As blogging goes, the others are almost immediately forgotten, and no more interest was shown to them after the day they were published.

The Meanings of a Favorite and Retweet

Last January, I scribbled down some of the reasons people favourite or retweet a tweet. By all means, the list is not complete, but not a day passes by without this particular blog post is read at least two times. Apparently, I am not the only person in the World Wide Web interested in what prompts Twitter users to engage with a status update.

What I have asked myself over and over again is whether some of my peers in the digital marketing industry go beyond the eye-catching and sensational tweet crafting and analyze the engagement their tweets receive. Of course, it would be madness to think that highly engaging accounts present an opportunity to dig deeper than the overall interpretation, but influencers can be defined, spotted and analyzed. And since the latter is the juice of any campaign, it might be a good idea to know what makes them favourite or retweet your tweet. Or do you think otherwise?

Sorry, Devs – User is The King – Get Over It!

The second most popular post on my blog in 2014 was, in fact, about discussing mobile OS user experience. People are just as divided between Apple’s iOS, Google’s Android and a few others, as photographer wannabes are about Canon and Nikon – “it does the job, but I like mine better”. Why does someone treasures the experience with a certain mobile operating system is the key to answering the question “Which is the best mobile OS out there?” The majority of the users are not tech-savvy enough to be digging in the variety of options, and Android phone could offer. Many are not finding enough apps they want to have on either Blackberry or Windows Phone operating systems. As a friend of mine said earlier this year “I don’t want to spend hours learning how to use the phone, I just want to do the thing I need it for.” And no mobile OS beats Apple’s iOS at that… for now.

Interestingly enough, this post was preceded and did cause some heated discussions on Twitter. In fact, some of my now ex-followers held a grudge against me for a while, although claiming they had never read my post. And one would think that something as innocent as mobile operating system user experience opinion would be a base of a grown-up discussion among adults, right?

You Are The Product, Stupid!

By now, everyone who has ever been on Facebook would believe that the Berne Convention is most know to men international treaty. I still gasp for air and see smoke coming out of ears whenever Facebook changes its Privacy Terms and see the floods of Berne mentions. I am sure that when the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works was signed in 1886 at least half of the signing parties hated Mark Zuckerberg’s in their guts. Why wouldn’t they? It is a perfectly natural thing, as Jim’s father said many times in American Pie.

If you were on Twitter in 2014, you would have noticed the quite big design and algorithm changes. You probably were one of the people who wanted to say something about the Berne Convention there, but you had the sense it was not applicable. Instead, you tweeted about your disappointment and probably mentioned some of the designers’ female family members in Twitter’s team.

All you need to remember is that you are not paying for using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and rest. When you are not paying for anything, you should be asking yourself the question “How do they make money to keep this social network up for me to use?” The answer is there, and yes, you do have a choice.

This is all for 2014 from me hear. Have wonderful holidays and a great start of the new 2015! In the meantime, if you wish to share your opinion or simply follow/unfollow me on any of the social networks mentioned above, go ahead!