With a navigation bar featuring pages like Trends, Wishlist and Your Style, it looks like any other fashion or e-commerce site. But PurplePurse.com is actually a site designed to encourage people to talk openly about domestic and financial abuse.
“It gives you the tools you need to make talking with your friends about domestic violence come as naturally as chatting about fashion,” says Clicktoempower.org
PurplePurse.com is a part of The Allstate Foundation. Since 2005, The Allstate Foundation have partnered with The National Network to End Domestic Violence to help survivors of domestic violence build their financial skills as a way to escape abusive relationship, get safe, stay safe and thrive.
They also have a pretty robust social media presence to help spread the word, while telling the amazing stories of domestic abuse survivors. You can find links to their sites here: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Here are some startling facts that we learned while on the site:
- One in 3 women will be abused in their lifetime.
- Research shows that lacking financial knowledge and resources are the main factors that keep victims in relationships with their abusers.
- 74% of Americans personally know someone who is or has been abused. However, 75% Americans also fail to connect domestic violence with economic abuse.
- 96% of domestic violence victims who are employed experience problems at work due to abuse
- 33% of all police time is spent responding to domestic disturbance calls
- 57% of cities cite domestic violence against women and children as the top cause of homelessness
- Over 75% of Americans believe the recent economic downturn further strained domestic violence victims and survivors
What’s that, you say? You haven’t caved just yet? You haven’t indulged in the latest change to be cast upon your beloved Facebook account?
Well, once you do — or at least once the almighty one, himself, enforces said profile change — it’s no doubt that we’ll all have to adjust a bit to the new Facebook Timeline feature that launched the other week at the #F8 conference. Among some of the features packaged into Facebook Timeline, are the following:
Wider user interface — Similar to that of WordPress or Tumblr
More visual components, including ability to view posts, photos, etc as they’ve happened in time — Think virtual scrapbook
Ability to revisit older posts & add to them to fill in blanks — Share more about the memories that make you most nostalgic
Ability to add social apps to your profile (i.e. Spotify, Foodily, etc.)— A bevy of apps from media, gaming, lifestyle, & more (and all easy to access/ update in one location!)
Summaries & categorized activity — Likes, Edits, Friendships, Music playlists, & more (At end of each month)
Cover photo + profile picture — Can you say deeper self-expression?
Sounds pretty cool, right? … No?
Well, some may disagree with you as they embrace the ability to tell their story. Just as the last profile change crept in though, Facebook has at least allowed for an opt-in period, giving users ample time to navigate & address any important questions/ concerns about the new interface. So, while you may not have been one of the tech/ social media junkies to jump on the bandwagon before it took off — setting up the early developer version & publishing their Timelines — you still have time to get your bearings, adjust, and all-in-all warm up to the idea of Facebook Timeline.
(Personal feelings aside) Check out the images below for how some users are getting creative with their profile presentation.
I read a post on SocialMediaToday.com last week about third-party apps and how using them lead to lower engagement on Facebook. I understand why some small business owners might use them to streamline their process due to time restrictions, and why pages with a large number of followers might use them too. But I’ve personally never used one when posting on behalf of a client on Facebook, as it doesn’t take me much time to post something in it’s native environment and I frankly find it a better way for me to connect. I thoroughly believe that using a third-party app to post and manage a Twitter account is the only way to keep your head above water if you have a large following or large number of tweets directed towards you. Twitter’s native environment doesn’t always make it easy to keep up with everything.
The SocialMediaToday.com post states that:
“Facebook pages that show posts via a third party app such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck, as opposed to linking the old fashioned manual way, received 70% fewer likes and comments.”
The post’s author, Steve Olenski, showed screenshots of an identical link posted using a third-party app and the old fashion way. It was obvious which one would be more appealing, as the manually posted one (see below).
The study determined that compared to the engagement of posts published manually to Facebook’s web or mobile interfaces, the reduction in engagement ratios of the top third-party publishing APIs are:
Reading the comments submitted by other folks in social media, the following points were brought up:
There are ways to use third-party apps to add images, lead-in copy, etc. The screenshot Olenski posted above using TweetDeck, is the worst case scenario of a post using a third-party app.
There is a difference between auto-posting and delayed posting. One commenter pointed out that “Many companies are using [third-party apps] to delay their Facebook posts until evening and weekends (50% or so of Corporate America blocks FB at work)”
“I’d like to know why Facebook even bothers to show the source of a post anyway,” said one commenter. This is a great point. Why do they show us the source?
What are your thought? Does it matter which route you take to post, or do you see the same results regardless?
We have all experienced what I am referring to – people not using social media correctly. It could be your best friend. It could be your boss. It could be your mom. It could be someone you don’t even know. And it can be difficult to tell them that what they are doing is a big turnoff.
That is where this new notepad can come in really handy!
The company, Knock Knock, whose mission is to create interesting, smart, well-designed gift and stationery products, along with anything else that might strike the Knock Knock fancy, recently came out with this “Social Media Citation Nifty Note” and we are loving here at Tarte. {In fact, I have already started making a list of who these are going to get sent to.}
The description of the product from Knock Knock reads:
When it comes to online etiquette, some people need a little firm but friendly guidance. Less public than an online post, this real-world pad lets you show you care by showing them the error of their ways!
Put the kibosh on creepiness and oversharing!
Modern-day etiquette for the masses
4 x 5.25 inches, 50 sheets
$4.50/pad
I will have to say, that I would love to see an online version that I could send anonymously – but for now, this is definitely going to be put to good use as is!
Would you, or will you, use something like this? Do you know someone that should receive one of these? Share with us!
What is it about profanity and other vulgarities that draw an audience in?
Aside from the obvious being humor and added shock-value, I might suggest that it may be for the purpose of casually identifying with others or getting on their level. While there are those (even a vast majority of) people that may find it inappropriate and distasteful to use in marketing or in any type of professional setting, I can’t say that I disagree with them, but I can say that I’m certainly okay with it. And, no, I will not curse in front of small children or teach them bad words… I have 11 young cousins and grew up babysitting most all of them, and I can guarantee you that they didn’t learn any four lettered words from me.
For these reasons among many, I believe in monitoring my mouth as in any other healthy balance of things. Though admittedly, I can’t help but giggle over the occasional, casual use of the F-word or of the ‘so-unimaginable-to-most-people-so-i-wont-even-abbreviate-it’ word(s).
To some, profanity is familiar, it’s casual, even relieving at many times when the situation calls for it. And, again, to some this claim may be entirely inappropriate or untrue, and I totally respect that, I do. I cannot speak for every person. However,my thought here is that profanity — among other ways to push the envelope — screams for attention, while inevitably and successfully getting it.
Much like the controversial F*ck Cancer movement, other campaigns, projects, and additional movements are jumping onboard the profanity train, well, because “it’s what everyone is thinking”. Regardless of your personal feelings about the use of it, when profanity is used in a public campaign for social good it urges us all to pay a little more attention. With somewhere in the ballpark of over 125,000 supporters (in over 11 countries) and quickly growing, this is also true of the latest campaign I’ve stumbled upon to bank of the use of both vulgarity and profanity: GIVE-A-SHIT.org.
By way of some ridiculously hilarious marketing strategies, a not-so-subtle concept & one relatable topic, Give a Sh*t, has successfully reached the masses and is continuing to grow in support with the help of actress and celebrity, Nikki Reed (Twilight) as the face of the cause.
Please be warned that the video clip you are about to see contains vulgar content & excessive profanity.
Why the bad language, you might ask?
“Some of you may be wondering why we’ve used bad language.
Well, we’re not offended by bad language. We’re offended by billions of people dying from lack of clean water. We’re offended by the rainforest being devastated by human greed. We’re offended by famine in Africa. So if we have to talk shit, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Doesn’t it just make you feel all warm and tingly inside? … No? Well, maybe the cause will or at least the idea behind it. At GIVE-A-SHIT.org they’re not asking for anything. No, really. All they’re asking is for you to give a sh*t and share it with the world… share the fact that you care, that is. Still not convinced? Check out their website (GIVE-A-SHIT.org) to learn more about the cause and how YOU can give a sh*t while taking one in order to support the world around us.
“It gives you the tools you need to make talking with your friends about domestic violence come as naturally as chatting about fashion,” says Clicktoempower.org
disagree with them, but I can say that I’m certainly okay with it. And, no, I will not curse in front of small children or teach them bad words… I have 11 young cousins and grew up babysitting most all of them, and I can guarantee you that they didn’t learn any four lettered words from me.
