“Social media is an amazing tool, but it’s really the face-to-face interaction that makes a long-term impact.”—Felicia Day
SOCIAL media, as we know it today, is not the social media of days past. Unlike before where we just use it to reconnect and maybe meet new people and share photos, today social media has become another outlet for brands to get their message out and reach more people.
There used to be a large distinction between what brands would put out on their Facebook page and what individuals would post on their own Facebook page that same day. But now social-media worlds are colliding, and brands would even feature individuals on their social-media pages giving rise to a new breed of social-media entity: The Influencer.
Like stealthy ninjas, influencers seem to have emerged silently out of the depths of the Internet and have become brand superheroes.
And while a lot of bloggers would label themselves as “influencers”, it’s important to recognize the truly “legit” ones—not only based on followers and social media numbers but their reputation as a whole. Sometimes stats can be deceiving and only their peers know their “true identities”.
On September 16 I had the privilege of being part of the E! Bloggers Ball, which, if not the biggest, is certainly the most “lit” gathering of bloggers and social-media influencers in the country.
Hosted by E! Entertainment, and held at the Grand Ballroom of the City of Dreams Manila, the E! Bloggers Ball brought bloggers, vloggers, youtubers, instagrammers and other famous social-media personalities to meet face to face, some even for the first time, just to socialize and have a good time without any new products or campaigns to talk about. While most of the guests are based in Manila, there were also those who came from the provinces, some even flying all the way from Cebu just to join the event.
Scott Mackenzie, NBCUniversal International Networks vice president of channels for Asia, said the E! Bloggers Ball is the only one of its kind in Southeast Asia, and that the network was “extremely excited to host it again this year”.
“We are delighted to bring together the who’s who of Philippines social-media sphere in one unique event. Think of it as the ‘prom’ or the ‘big dance’ for our social-media celebrities—a night where they can dress up, let loose and, most important, celebrate their craft,” he said in a news statement.
And the bloggers really took the dress-up part seriously.
The E! Black Carpet became a runway of sorts for a lot of noted designers, including Hanz Coquilla, Leo Almodal, Hannah Kong, Boom Sason, Rosenthal Tee, Jekka Sison, Levenson Rodriguez, Paulo Lazaro, Viktoria Couture, Orias Bespoke, Mara Chua, Alex Pajaro and many others. But it was Vlog Squad member Daniel Marsh and fashion blogger Kim Cruz who stood out the most to win the Best Dressed Award of the night.
Speaking of awards, E! also took the opportunity to recognize the bloggers and social-media influencers who made a huge impact this year not only to their followers but to their peers, as well. The winners were Wil Dasovich and Jennica Sanchez for Look Who’s Trending; DG Razon and Nina Nuguid for Breakthrough Blogger of the year; The Soshal Network for Blogger Groupie; Yosh and Vinz of The Poor Traveler Blogger Icon of the Year for Travel; Erwan Heussaff Blogger Icon of the Year for Food; and Janina Vela Blogger Icon of the Year Fashion.
The winners for each category were selected by an esteemed panel of judges comprising of social-media icon and TV host Bianca Gonzalez-Intal, Nuffnang Country Manager Abe Olandres, Our Awesome Planet founder Anton Diaz, Ever Bilena Marketing Director Olive Padilla, Rex Atienza and Jay Sarmiento of Stylelist Inc.
Prior to the awarding ceremony, guests had the chance to have their portraits taken by acclaimed photographer Dookie Ducay. There was also a 360 photo booth and several backdrops inspired by the vapor-lights theme specially created for that Instagram-worthy picture. Other highlights of the event included performances from Clara Benin, DJ Mars Miranda and DJ Carlo Atendido.
BEZEL-LESS FOR LESS
ON September 20 Vivo joined the fray for the biggest screen ratio with the launch of its new flagship smartphone, the Vivo 7+. The launch was held at the Marriot Grand Ballroom with the media and dealers almost filling up the entire venue.
The Vivo 7+ boasts of a superb 5.99-inch all-screen display with an 84.4-percent screen-to-body ratio, giving its users a more exciting and enhanced game and visual experience. It also has a 24-MP selfie-shooter camera which features smart-photography algorithms to provide more clear, crisp and natural-looking photos.
This newest offering from V7+’s Special Face Beauty 7.0 feature brightens up photos and evens out complexions, so capturing a selfie moment is not a problem in dimly lit environment. Mimicking DSLR cameras, the V7+’s Portrait Mode blurs out backgrounds to highlight sharper selfie features.
The smartphone is powered by an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 SoC coupled with 4-GB RAM plus 64-GB of ROM expandable to up to 256GB. The Vivo V7+ also has a dual-SIM tray and runs on Funtouch OS 3.2 based on Android 7.1 Nougat. Moreover, it rocks a Smart Split 3.0 feature, allowing users to check their messages and mails, among others, without interrupting the current running app.
The Vivo V7+ is priced at P17,990 and will be available in the market in Champagne Gold and Matte Black. But is it a really good buy? We’ll try to answer that question in the coming weeks.
/ Tech Thoughts: Technology and social media have brought power back to the people—but is the people using that power for good?