There are many campaigns around the internet trying to stop companies like Facebook and Google from using the information you share with them to target ads at you, but we disagree with them. Not only as marketeers, but mostly as consumers, we find that the more targeted an advert is, the more successful it is.

Granted, some people hate adverts altogether, but without them we wouldn’t know about many new products, services, offers, jobs or anything else. For this reason we will proceed with the assumption that an advert would be useful to a person if the ‘item’ advertised would benefit him or her in some way.

Now lets take a quick look at the old mediums such as billboarding, TV spots, radio ads and printed material. All of these are placed as close to where their target market are expected to be. This seemed logical and worked ok-ish for many many years, but now things are changing, for example: not all graphic designers read the same magazines, watch the same TV shows or hang out in the same places. Whilst it can be argued that many graphic designers would share these common spaces, what about the ones who aren’t? Most of us don’t see ourselves as part of the flock and enjoy doing our own thing, especially online.

Is there a reason why we shouldn’t see an advert for a brand new graphics-related service with ludicrously low prices, for example, just because we don’t go with the flow? No. Which is why we tell sites like Facebook what we Like, allowing such companies to reach us in a very unobtrusive way. All this without having to fill in a single form, directly divulge any contact details or even scour through printed magazines.

The more information you give, the better the advertisements will match your preferences. This information is never given out to advertisers, but instead makes the advertisements more personalised. Trust us we use the platforms for many of our clients, and if there was a way to get private information, we would be the first to blow the whistle! We take privacy so seriously here at ektagon.

Do you agree? Think we’ve got it all wrong? Drop a comment below and let chat about it.

Those looking to invest in the social network will be happy to know that they have now bumped their total share offering to just below 337,500,000 shares.

Facebook had this to say:

We and the selling stockholders have granted the underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 50,612,302 shares of Class A common stock to cover over-allotments.

We anticipate that the initial public offering price will be between $34.00 and $38.00 per share.

(source)

A few months ago we covered how Facebook officially said that there was no plans to implement a premium user group to boost their revenue. Today however a few friends of ours were greeting with an option to pay to promote or highlight their posts to even more people.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to the BBC the offer (to pay to promote posts) was genuine.

“We’re constantly testing new features across the site,” said the spokesperson. “This particular test is simply to gauge people’s interest in this method of sharing with their friends.”

Different methods of highlighting posts were being tested, said the spokesperson. These would see a range of charges being levied to make posts more visible. Comments on the tests suggest the highest price being charged was £1.25 ($2) while others cost 25p or 50p.

Payments could be made via credit card or PayPal.

The spokesperson said some of the methods it was trying out would incur a charge but others would highlight a post for free. The spokesperson would not be drawn on when the test would end or if it would be tried in other territories.

(Source)

 Is Facebook going back on their promises to keep Facebook free for all to use or are they just targeting this new functionality at users who share for commercial/professional/business use? Let us know what you think below with a comment.

We are glad to see that the European Union is trying their utmost to push down roaming fees, and have already successfully dropped rates by 75%.

As from July, it has been decided by Ministers of the Economic Parliament, that call rates will drop by around 20%. The goal is to have a gap of almost zero between local and roaming charges by 2015.

We travel, and rely on our mobile connectivity, a lot. So we’re happy to hear about  such actions on our behalf, putting the euros back into our pockets to be re-invested in other equally important areas like job-creation and expansion of services offered. Thank you EU!

As we continue on our mission of launching a few- and consulting a few more- awesome projects, the time has come for us to grab some temporary workspace here in Manchester, expanding on our base in Cyprus.

We do not trade from this location, it’s more of a creative base. A space to inspire, be inspired, code, design, plan, research, maintain, improve and last but not least have a chat. Hector Kolonas, our managing director, graduated from the University of Manchester a few years ago and has always found the community quite motivating and inspirational, so many see this temporary workspace being the first step towards a full-time Manchester office in the future.

If you are based in Manchester and would like to come in for a chat with Hector, we will be scheduling coffee sessions next month. Do follow, like or circle us on your favourite social network to be kept in-the-loop.

This doesn’t mean we have abandoned Cyprus though. Not at all. With our core business still being based on our lovely little island, we will continue providing an extremely powerful suite of services with Divine Advertising, our exclusive partner in the region.

Working in online media everyday we see a storm of viral content, from videos to pics to memes to trending news. Every now and again, one piece of content will reach out and touch a nerve.

Some make you smile, some make you sad, some even make you mad. Here’s one that hit us today. And it hit us hard. Have a look:

It currently has just over 30,ooo views and with everyone’s help this message can and SHOULD go viral.

Let us know how it left you feeling in the comments at the bottom of the page.

A few days ago, Facebook announced that they have reached a partnership with some major online security companies. In order to enforce how seriously it takes user’s online security and privacy, they have informed us that they will be combining efforts to combat the rise in eWorms and Scams that are designed to spread via the social network.

They then took the deal a step further, gaining each of Facebook’s 800+ million users FREE AntiVirus software for 6 months from a great selection that boasts titles from TrendMicro, McAfee, Microsoft, Norton and Sophos.

For more information on how to get your FREE licence simply head over to Facebook’s very own AV Marketplace.

Share this information with your friends, and help secure them against malware and scams.

Another playful Easter egg by Google was spotted earlier today.

Search for Zerg Rush on Google (or click here you lazy people) and click on the attacking little O’s to take them out before they destroy your search results.

*Update: You need to use Google.com if you are in the UK as it doesn’t work on the .co.uk version. (Thanks Adam for the heads up)

Happy clicking ladies and gents! And if asked, why you are still on Google search, call it re-searching

It’s not a big update, but we saw that Facebook has added a little gem to their chat system.

Hovering over a friend’s name now displays a new button to go directly to their timeline.

Well done Facebook, and thanks for listening to your users’ ideas!

Since Google’s announcement and release of the new interface for Google+ on 11th of April, we’ve been playing around with some of their adjustments. It is now time for us to give you an in-depth-y overview of what we believe this change means to you on a personal and business level.

Be sure to add Ektagon to your circles if you’re on this social network. http://gplus.to/ektagon

First off we notice a change in the Navigation of the platform, moving from a static top-menu to a side-menu on the left that users can personalise using drag-and-drop. A nice little addition to make the network feel more personal. Hovering over certain apps also launches a set of quick action links, speeding up the input of content into the platform.

The next big change is the addition of Explore tab, that allows you to “Find out what’s new and interesting on Google+“. This tab allows for social discovery in a twitter-esque ‘trending topics’ manner, whilst also displaying the ‘hottest’ content around the network. This is valuable to users who had previously found the network limited in usefulness, and grew bored of G+ quickly. The benefit to businesses is the ability to start distributing social content more efficiently through the online network.

Profiles have been updated to allow for a more clear personal story and with the addition of a timeline-like cover-photo, profiles now feel more personal and unique, whilst avoiding the mistakes we all remember from MySpace. This allows users and brands to give a clearer picture of their brand.

Photo sharing also received a beautiful touch-up, allowing for the display of larger and more interactive image-based posts, benefiting both the personal user and the business-minded user.

Hangouts also got a new home, in their own tab, hopefully spreading the popularity of multi-person webcam conversations between people, friends and businesses.

Here’s the official video from Google:

We think that although there are no breakthrough new features, this will bring some much-needed socially-fluid content to Google’s social network. What do you think?