Virtual Influencers Who Are They & How Do They Work

Virtual Influencers Who Are They & How Do They Work

While many of us use social media for a breather or colonial ties, others use it for promotional causes to reach a global audience. Indeed, at some point, we all might have been influenced by posts on social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Isn’t it? Let us brace for the next phase, the era of virtual influencers. The virtual influencer is a piece of fiction, yet it will be the next major technological advance in the future years.

Who is a Virtual influencer?

A virtual influencer is a kind of computer-generated imagery (CGI). To put it simply, they are digitally created characters that are aimed to be human-like in appearance, traits, and reactions. They can sway public perception through social media posts, blogs, and tweets. In fact, behind each virtual influencer, there will be a creative team working for brands or individuals with fair technical advances. They have complete control over their style and reactions and keep updated on online communities to fit the inclinations of their targeted audience.

When did Virtual influencers begin to sway?

Today while virtual influencers may appear to be a new trend, did you know they’ve actually been around for quite some time? In reality, Virtual influencers appear to be developed from the concept of virtual idols, which was first developed in the 1980s Japanese animations. Since then, different virtual influencers have developed as entertainers, vocalists, and hosts, as well as in commercial marketing, and the era has begun.

Who among them has the most public recognition?

After the age began, several virtual influencers gained notoriety and were able to sway audiences. Check out the process of development.

First here is Ludo Magalu. If you’ve heard of virtual influencers, you’ve probably heard about Ludo Magalu, the world’s top virtual influencer from Brazil with the most social media followers. Ludo Magalu is a virtual influencer created to promote and market Magalu, Brazil’s largest retail brand. Later she started by promoting iBlogTV on behalf of Magazine Luiza and afterward started sharing product reviews, unboxing videos, and software tips on her social media account from the year 2009.

With over 3 million followers, the next most popular influencer is Lil Miquela, a well-known American virtual influencer who endorses streetwear and luxury brands such as Prada, Calvin Klein, Nike, and Samsung. When she made her debut during Milan Design Week in 2018, she puzzled the audience as to whether she was a real personality or a virtual one. She quickly took over the fashion house’s social media profile.

Virtual influencers provide companies with an innovative and fresh approach to communicating with their audience.
Later on, it was luxury fashion firms that welcomed virtual influencers as a trend. In 2018, the French luxury fashion label Balmain unveiled virtual models Margot, Shudu, and Zhi as fashion models. There was no stopping after that as if the doors had been unlocked. Other businesses and brands quickly adopted the same concept. Today, we have over 200 virtual influencers working for different brands, and here are a few to list.

  • Imma is a renowned influencer who works with popular brands such as Puma, IKEA, KFC, Porsche, Magnum, Nike, Dior, Calvin Klein, Valentino, Lenovo, Amazon, Lenovo… and she has also made an appearance at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games closing ceremony.
  • Noonoouri, a virtual influencer from Germany, has not only taken the fashion business by storm by collaborating with the majority of top luxury fashion labels, like Versace, Lacoste, and Bulgari. She educates her audiences on various social problems in addition to fashion.
  • Shudu Gram is a well-known South African virtual Instagram influencer who is generally recognized as the World’s First Digital Supermodel and even walked the first red carpet at the 2019 BAFTA film awards. She has been associated with brands such as Balmain, Cosmopolitan, Samsung, Vogue, The Dubai Mall, Chanel, Bulgari, and WWD.
  • Maya Gram, a virtual influencer, has been appointed as a Puma brand ambassador for influencer marketing.
  • To promote the new season of Upload, Amazon worked with four different virtual influencers: Aliza Rex, Binxie, FNMeka, and Ruby 9100M.
  • The World Health Organization collaborated with Knox Frost, a 21-year-old AI, to raise COVID awareness.
  • KFC has released a CGI model of Colonel Sanders to meet the next generation of marketing products and services.

While the list continues to grow, Today India has also gone on board, launching its first virtual influencer, Kyra, in December 2021. While Kyra’s journey with collaborators has just begun, it is AI-controlled computer graphics software that will empower her to monitor social media trends online and create material autonomously. Although there are a slew of influencers and brands operating behind the scenes. Let’s see

How do Virtual influencers work?

According to a survey report, 58 percent of people among the surveyors followed at least one virtual influencer. This explains how quickly these virtual Influencer trends are taking traction. Just like real influencers, virtual influencers can also influence the audience’s mind. Today, everyone is keen on the latest trends and brands to follow to keep ahead of the pack. Virtual influencers with an AI-controlled system can help to create a new trend and influence people by catching the pulse of the audience curve easily. Moreover, it can reach out to an entire audience in one stretch.

In contrast to real influencers, virtual influencers provide companies with an innovative and fresh approach to communicating with their audience. Moreover, companies can have full control over virtual influencers, as they are extremely versatile and can cut down marketing costs. Not only are purchasing impulses virtual influencers, but they can also cause social responses and behavioral change.
Virtual influencer marketing may be an alternate choice for firms looking to add a distinctive twist to their marketing strategy other than the digital marketing flywheel. Because virtual influencers have few practical limitations and with an alluring continuous relationship, virtual influencers can be one of the smartest prospects to connect with audiences. However, before you pick a virtual influencer for your brand, remember to assess your target audience and design the perfect influencer- a personality as rich and relevant to your market. Of course, there is no one-tier model for successful marketing, but practically every firm may benefit from engaging virtual influencers with proper execution. So, Let’s see how a virtual influencer leads in the coming years.

Shaminaa

About The Author…

Shamina Banu is originally from the beautiful city of Vizag. She has a Master’s degree in Agricultural processing and food engineering and brief teaching experience. Her love of writing drove her to pursue a career as a content writer. She is a critical thinker who creates well-researched, accurate, and ingenious content for audience engagement. She considers content creation and clear communication an art form and constantly strives to improve her skill.

Content Marketing vs. Influencer Marketing: How to use both to achieve your marketing goals

Content Marketing vs. Influencer Marketing: How to use both to achieve your marketing goals

Content and influencer marketing are important digital marketing concepts for product marketing. While educative and informative content is the bedrock of a marketing campaign at any stage, influencer marketing is particularly helpful in getting your product/service off to a flying start.

Influencers have a very large following on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and so on. When they write and post good content about new products or services, their followers get to know them on a positive note. That’s a big achievement for any business marketing team.

However, marketers need to understand that influencer marketing is also a form of content marketing. Instead of choosing one or the other, choosing both to create synergy can be the right way forward.

What Is Influencer Marketing?

Influencer marketing uses a celeb personality or someone who has a huge following on social media to promote a product or business.

There are chances that people will be influenced by their favorite celebs promoting a brand, and they may buy the product or invest in the business. Also, customers tend to have more trust in a product when referred by a third party rather than discovering them all by themselves.

Here influencers play the role of a third party and promote the business.Influencers can help drive traffic to a business website or the landing pages, ultimately increasing sales.

Marketing teams tie up with influencers. And they create blogs, articles, and social media posts and upload them on their respective platforms, where they have many followers. Influencers create brand awareness and most likely bring leads. If you consider using influencer marketing to reach your target audience, choose your influencer from an appropriate niche.

The product/service marketing team must research the right influencers for their businesses and bring them on board.

For influencer marketing, picking the familiar and known personality in your industry or niche is key. Once you find the influencer you are looking for, communicate and create a great rapport.

Benefits Of Influencer Marketing:

  • Broaden the audience and brand exposure
  • Increase trust and credibility
  • Gives content strategy a boost
  • Enhance sales
  • Cost-effective and time-saving
Making an impact on the audience can best be achieved by strategizing both content and influencer marketing techniques

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is part of digital marketing and has been in use for a long time. The top marketing agency can draw an audience to their pages through content marketing, ultimately generating leads and increasing sales.

All marketing agencies use content marketing to discuss their products/services and educate their audience about their features and benefits. It is an easy and proven technique to boost sales.

Also, unlike influencer marketing, it falls on a little cheaper side.

Well-written content makes a big difference and helps grab the customers’ attention easily. Even an influencer works through the content. If the content goes well with the customer’s tastes and expectations, it can positively impact them. In addition, content marketing is a safe and cost-effective way to market a brand or business. However, it is time taking compared to influencer marketing.

Benefits Of Content Marketing:

  • Increased domain authority
  • More traffic from referrals
  • Increased possibility for conversion.
  • Broad relevance
  • Reduced marketing expenses and increasing value

How To Use Both To Achieve Your Marketing Goals?

Until now, you have read how content marketing and influencer marketing can help you take your business to the next level. Now, let’s look at how you can use both to achieve your marketing goals. Startups and established brands are adopting influencer and content marketing strategies to make a quick mark on the audience. Using both marketing strategies leaves no one out.

You have to work on the demographics of your customers so that you can create the right content that hits them. By knowing the demographics of your customers, you can find the platforms to reach them easily. You can always take inspiration from the long-form content to make short influencer posts for social media. You can ask the influencers to participate in a short Q&A session and answer possible questions on your business for the customers.

Benefits Of Using Both Influencer & Content Marketing:

  • Improved brand awareness
  • Improved brand awareness
  • Brand trustworthiness
  • Long-Term Partnership
  • Higher conversion rate
  • Enhanced SEO
  • Better ROI
  • Cost-effective

In Conclusion

Lately, content and influencer marketing has been extensively used for promoting products/services and brands as both use social media and other digital marketing channels. Business owners use these digital marketing concepts to increase awareness of their business and generate leads.

Content marketing uses the content in the form of blogs, white papers, case studies, emails, social media posts, etc., to reach the masses. In contrast, influencer marketing uses an influencer to post videos and social media content.

In reality, both social media posts and blogs are equally important for making a brand or business successful. A company will benefit by employing content and influencer marketing.

Get in touch with us.

Arun

About The Author…

Arun has been a print media journalist with wide-ranging experience. In search of solutions to everyday problems, he is drawn to technology and digital marketing. News and analytical insights fascinate him, and he passionately follows all that is new in the tech business. He writes for several news and content platforms. His areas of interest range from digital marketing to blockchain and digital currencies. He is dedicated, focused, and resourceful.

How to Implement Content Amplification Strategy to Reach More Audience 

How to Implement Content Amplification Strategy to Reach More Audience 

Content is King

– Bill Gates.

While marketers are always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to reach more audiences, Content marketing remains one of those rare modes of marketing that never gets old.

It’s like fine wine; the value only increases with time.

Content amplification is a sub-spectrum of content marketing where the same content is repurposed to be promoted to a wider base of audiences through multiple channels within the world wide web.

In this blog post, we will discuss how to implement a content amplification strategy and some of the most effective methods to do the same.

Let’s get started!

What is Content Amplification?

Content amplification.

Sounds complicated, doesn’t it?

Let us break it down for you.

Take the case of Noise VS Signal, a popular metaphor used extensively in Content Marketing. Here, your content is the signal, and everything else is the noise.

To put it in simpler terms, Content amplification is the process of elevating your content reach to a wider audience – thereby amplifying the signal of your content.

So how do you implement the process of amplifying content?

Let’s see.

Content syndication

Content-syndication is the process of republishing content on third-party websites. It can be a great way to reach a wider audience and generate more traffic to your website.

However, it’s important to syndicate your content wisely, as over-syndication can lead to search engine penalties. When syndicating content, be sure to use original and well-written articles that are relevant to your niche.

In addition, be sure to include a link to your website so readers can learn more about your business.

With that said, here are 3 popular platforms to syndicate your articles-

  1. Medium – Medium is a popular blogging platform that allows users to syndicate their articles. Medium is designed to promote your content to those niche-specific audiences who could be potential leads for your business.
  2. LinkedIn Publishing – LinkedIn Publishing is a great way to reach professionals and decision-makers in your industry. LinkedIn allows you to syndicate your articles and add multimedia content such as images and videos.
  3. Quora – Quora is a popular Q&A platform where people can ask questions and get answers from experts in various fields. You can syndicate your articles on Quora by adding them to relevant topic pages.

Guest posting

Guest posting is a practice in which one writer creates content for another website.

While guest posting has traditionally been used in Internet Marketing to generate backlinks, it can also be an effective way to build relationships and expand your audience.

When done correctly, guest posting can be a win-win for both parties. The host site gets high-quality content, and the guest writer gets exposure to a new audience.

However, it’s important to ensure that you publish on a site relevant to your niche. Otherwise, you might have to risk coming across spammy publications.

 

Guest posting helps in generating backlinks, build relationships and expand your audience.

 

Guest-posting can be a great way to build your brand and expand your reach. But as with anything, it’s important to do your research and ensure that you’re doing it right.

Paid Ads

Paid advertising is a form of marketing in which businesses or individuals pay to have their products or services promoted on various platforms, including SERPs, Social Media, and Television.

Paid ads can be an effective way to reach a wide audience, as they can be customized to target specific demographics.

While paid ads can be expensive, they can also produce a high return on investment if they are well-designed and properly targeted.

Paid ads can be a major trump card for businesses of all sizes, but it is important to consider the potential costs before making a decision.

Influencer Marketing

In the world of marketing, influencers are people who have the power to sway public opinion.

By partnering with influencers with large followings on social media, brands can tap into new markets and reach consumers they may not have been able to reach through traditional marketing channels.

Influencers can also help build trust and credibility with potential customers, as their endorsements are more authentic than traditional advertising.

They may be experts in their own way in the field, or they may simply have a large following on social media. Either way, they can promote or discourage people from purchasing a product or service.

However, it is important to choose an influencer carefully, as their endorsement can also backfire if their audience disagrees with their endorsement. When used correctly, however, influencer marketing can be a powerful tool for reaching new customers.

Email Marketing

Email-marketing is one of the finest ways to amplify your message in a content-driven world.

By building a list of subscribers and carefully crafting your messages, you can reach a large audience with minimal effort.

And because email is a highly personal form of communication, you can create a deep connection with your readers, encouraging them to take action on your behalf.

Furthermore, email marketing allows you to track click-through rates and other metrics, which can give you valuable insights into effectiveness of your content.

Conclusion

As you can see, there of course are quite a lot of ways to amplify your content and widen the audience base for your business.

By tailoring your amplification strategy to fit your goals and the needs of your audience, you can create a successful and effective campaign.

If you don’t wish to go through all the technical hassles for implementing an amplification strategy for your business, worry not.

We’re here to help.

At Kloudportal, we are a team of marketing Ninjas with adept experience in helping businesses approach their customers in the right way to obtain targeted results.

Get in touch with us today to witness your business take over the Digital wave.

Vyshnavprakash

About The Author…

Passionate freelance writer with 3+ years of experience in writing for a variety of platforms and media sources. Adept in developing original content based on the needs of a client, and committed to writing with integrity and a dedication to the craft. Bringing forth valuable experience serving as a content creator for high-traffic blogs and websites. Capable of writing about a variety of topics and skilled in performing research and achieving ultimate preparedness for any job.

5 Simple Ways To Promote Your Virtual Events in 2022

5 Simple Ways To Promote Your Virtual Events in 2022

Remote and hybrid working are now new ways of working in the post- Covid scenario. This led to a rise in virtual events. Not only those hosted by businesses but also by the entertainment industry, such as interactive concerts in which people across the globe participate. Virtual event marketing is a strategy that decides the kind of event that will help a business connect with its target audience. It informs its audience about the online event and its details. Virtual event marketing involves collecting and collating data, pursuing leads, measuring event metrics, and fine-tuning tactics for upcoming events. An online event marketing strategy, incorporating even artificial intelligence if required, should be built around:
  • Event landing page 
  • Email marketing campaigns
  • Social media marketing
  • Influencer marketing
  • Event blog posts
  •  Event guest posts
  •  Paid marketing ads
Here are 5 ideas to promote virtual events and ensure they do not end up as just another online event in the digital landscape.

1. Create An Attractive Event Page

Your event page will be the first-place potential participants will head to learn about the virtual event. The event page should stand out and be enticing enough to get people to sign up. Eye-catching images and vibrant colors should mark the event page. And if needed, Machine Learning should be used. Don’t forget to brag about the guest speakers who will attend the event. All information related to the virtual event should be featured on the event page. Make sure the event page contains:
  • The time as well as date of the event and its agenda.
  • The speakers at the event, details of event sponsors.
  • Links for registration and checkout gateways.

2. Use Keyword Research To Draw Traffic

Those familiar with search engine marketing will know the importance of keyword research. In this case, knowing which keywords potential participants will search to trace your event is crucial from an SEO stance.
Here are 5 simple ways of promoting your virtual events
There is any number of tools that can be used for keyword planning. Use chat-bots. You can even Google search for appropriate keywords. A degree of imagination and knowledge of the event subject is required. Pepper the marketing content with relevant keywords.

3. Use E-mail Marketing To Your Benefit

Email is an effective marketing tool. And emails continue to be relevant to marketing strategies. Send emails to everybody on the company’s email list. Emails packed with information about virtual events. Send impressive emails, creative ones. Everything connected with the event. Right down to changes related to the event. Don’t forget emails and encourage feedback post the event. Apart from engaging email content and effective imagery, email marketing strategy for virtual events should use email automation tools such as MailChimp to avoid the likelihood of emails ending up in spam.

4. Build Up Anticipation

To ensure the virtual event does not end up begging for attention and attendance, see to it the build-up given to the virtual event is marked with surprises, including the odd sneak preview. Stay engaged ahead of the virtual event, build anticipation, and regularly share information about the event. Think of it as a movie release. Get the teaser trailer ready. Build hype and get people talking about the virtual event. Use social media to the fullest to attract attendance. The excitement should be infectious. People should be clamoring for the event to happen. Share footage of the preparations being made for the event. Include short bios of guest speakers. The sneak-peek previews should pique interest in what it will be like on the big day. Use the training engine.

5. Let Social Media Work For You

It’s the age of social media. Promoting events, both physical and virtual, using the reach of social media is the norm these days. Social media ensures information about the planned virtual event is passed on to the relevant audience. Social media is perhaps the most effective and cost-effective marketing tool these days. Sharing information about your virtual event on your company’s social media pages should be the first thing in your virtual event marketing strategy. Also, take advantage of data modeling.

Final Thoughts

Email is the easiest way to publicize a virtual event. Also, the cheapest! Another is website copy. The email, as well as the website copy, should make potential participants feel valued. Also, get onboard experts and influencers to host the event to interest attendees! Optimize the landing pages and use Q&A sessions to engage with the audience. Remember hosting a virtual event does not mean it wouldn’t take time. A lot of time and resources would have to be invested, and data modeling and pattern building take time. Virtual events are easier to ‘’hold” than physical ones. Also, they enable businesses to access bigger and larger audiences. Thereby helping increase revenues and track important facts about targeted customers. An online event to attract leads and accomplish conversions requires an ideal virtual event marketing strategy.

Arun

About The Author…

Arun has been a print media journalist with wide-ranging experience. In search of solutions to everyday problems, he is drawn to technology and digital marketing. News and analytical insights fascinate him, and he passionately follows all that is new in the tech business. He writes for several news and content platforms. His areas of interest range from digital marketing to blockchain and digital currencies. He is dedicated, focused, and resourceful.

The Digital Marketing Flywheel

The Digital Marketing Flywheel

We have heard about many business models that define a company’s revenue and growth vision. Coming to marketing, funneling the leads and engaging the leads was always a point of discussion. However, identifying your flywheel in your business is the key to move up the ladder from being a startup to enterprise. And it is essential to remember that it does take time to identify the flywheel and the key players who turn the wheel.

Being a Digital Marketing agency with over seven years of experience, here we present you the Digital Marketing Flywheel.

As we always advocate, Digital Marketing is not a one person’s job. And true to that, we have experienced this flywheel in KloudPortal, where the wheel is turned by each of the stakeholders.

Digital Marketing Flywheel for Kloudportal. Every member in the team turns the wheel effectively, to give enough momentum to our marketing efforts. An SEO expert extensively works on Search Engine Optimization techniques which are both On-page and Off-Page. Keeping in tune with the Google’s search engine optimization updates, Bing and Yahoo search engine updates, understanding the key ranking factors, our SEO expert is constantly evaluating our website’s performance as per search engine’s guidelines.

Off Page SEO experts – guided by the latest guidelines, Off-page SEO experts work continuously with an objective to drive traffic to the website. On an average, making 30-40 submissions in a day, fine tuning their submissions to drive more and more quality referrals to the website.

Search Engine Marketing Experts – This team focusses on bringing in search engine traffic to the website. Optimizing our display advertisements, search ads on Google, Yahoo and Bing they consistently work on improving the search appearance, managing the ad budgets and improving the ad performance.

Social Media Marketing – Social Media has become an inevitable part of life. Keeping a track of social media behaviors of our prospects, identifying the right social media channels suitable for our business, strategically presenting KloudPortal on social media channels, driving engagement and traffic to the company pages. Users triggering call to actions on social media posts, has been driving considerable quality traffic to our website.

Digital Marketing Flywheel for KloudPortal. Content Writing – This team focuses on developing value added content for our prospects. Consistently writing about latest google updates, changes and suggestions as proposed in Google, keeping an eye on the search engine ranking parameters, this team adds value to the visitors coming to our website.

Content Marketing – Creating content and just leaving it there on the website, doesn’t help much. The value added content should reach the audience on different channels. Hence our content marketing team focuses on sharing the KloudPortal blogs on various channels, websites and social media handles. They focus on taking KloudPortal content to the eyes of our prospects and customers.

PR Marketing – This team focusses on taking the KloudPortal’s work to larger audience through Press Releases. Working exclusively with Medium.com and EIN presswire, this team analyzes the audience reach and optimizes the Press Releases accordingly.

SMS Marketing – A 121 channel to reach our prospects, SMS Marketing has played a key role to bringing great prospects to KloudPortal. The team focuses on driving attention of the prospects by keeping the message crisp and clear with an intentional Call to Action.

E-mail Marketing – Reaching prospects on their personal e-mails, delivering value added content to their inboxes, have attracted valuable prospects for KloudPortal. Many B2B customers have reached us for their marketing needs.

How we measure the flywheel performance?

We define KPIs for each stakeholder in the flywheel. While they enjoy doing their work, each stakeholder is excited to share their results and observations. They consistently plan to improve their performance, thereby adding momentum to the flywheel.

Typical KPIs that we use to measure our stakeholder’s performance include:

  • Website Performance
  • Traffic Analysis
  • Goals and Conversions
  • Submission Rates
  • Engagement Rates
  • Measuring our SEO RoI

While we build the flywheel model and execute it successfully for ourselves, we help our customers identify their Digital Marketing flywheel and execute it for them too.

Our experience has shown that, every organization’s Digital Marketing flywheel varies. A service based company sees a different digital marketing flywheel, and the same does not work for a product based company.

Want to know which digital marketing flywheel model is correct for your business? Book a strategy call with us. Fill the Contact us form today with your details, and our team will be with you as soon as possible.

Google’s John Muller Clarifies on Average Position Metric on Google Search Console.

Google’s John Muller Clarifies on Average Position Metric on Google Search Console.

We recently conducted a short research on Search Engine Ranking positions. We did a manual search and found that few of our pages were ranking in the first 10 positions in Google Search Rankings. We were really happy that our website was coming up in the top ten positions on Google’s SERP. But that happiness was short lived, as we did find that our Google Search Console was speaking something else.

Google Search Console and Active Position Metrics
Our Google Search Console showed our average position to be somewhere around 65.6 one day, 56.9 on another day and 40 on another day. We were wondering if the Active Positions Metric on GSC was true and believable.

In a recent video posted by Google’s #AskGoogleBot series, luckily John Muller answered this question for us.

As per Google, the active position could vary based on several parameters which include Geo targeting, personalization or because of a short and sharp visibility which was brief. Also, John Muller clarified that the results on active position are for real and are based on real-time statistics and not just theoretical results.

If a website has multiple URLs indexed on Google and ranked at different positions, then Google considered the least ranked position when calculating the Average position. So when we manually check, we don’t see the URL appearing in the same poistion everytime. Hence the average position metric changes as well.

Sometimes we also observe that certain keywords display significantly less impressions, which we do not expect. Since it could be a high ranking keyword, your URLs visibility could have short lived among other URLs, and could be the reason for low visibility statistics.

The Average position metric also considers the search results in images as well.
Hence the role of alt tags on a website should never be ignored.

In conclusion, we can say that the Active position on the Google Search Console is actually based on the actual search results, when people search for something and find your website. Hence keywords, alt tags, meta descriptions and several on-page and off page parameters play a significant role in your active position metric.

Here is what John Muller said in his recent video addressing the GSC’s active position metric

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We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to outside parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include trusted third parties who assist us in operating our website, conducting our business, or servicing you, so long as those parties agree to keep this information confidential. We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others rights, property, or safety. However, non-personally identifiable visitor information may be provided to other parties for marketing, advertising, or other uses.

Registration

The minimum information we need to register you is your name, email address and a password. We will ask you more questions for different services, including sales promotions. Unless we say otherwise, you have to answer all the registration questions. We may also ask some other, voluntary questions during registration for certain services (for example, professional networks) so we can gain a clearer understanding of who you are. This also allows us to personalise services for you. To assist us in our marketing, in addition to the data that you provide to us if you register, we may also obtain data from trusted third parties to help us understand what you might be interested in. This ‘profiling’ information is produced from a variety of sources, including publicly available data (such as the electoral roll) or from sources such as surveys and polls where you have given your permission for your data to be shared. You can choose not to have such data shared with the Guardian from these sources by logging into your account and changing the settings in the privacy section. After you have registered, and with your permission, we may send you emails we think may interest you. Newsletters may be personalised based on what you have been reading on theguardian.com. At any time you can decide not to receive these emails and will be able to ‘unsubscribe’. Logging in using social networking credentials If you log-in to our sites using a Facebook log-in, you are granting permission to Facebook to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth and location which will then be used to form a Guardian identity. You can also use your picture from Facebook as part of your profile. This will also allow us and Facebook to share your, networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Facebook account settings. If you remove the Guardian app from your Facebook settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a Google log-in, you grant permission to Google to share your user details with us. This will include your name, email address, date of birth, sex and location which we will then use to form a Guardian identity. You may use your picture from Google as part of your profile. This also allows us to share your networks, user ID and any other information you choose to share according to your Google account settings. If you remove the Guardian from your Google settings, we will no longer have access to this information. If you log-in to our sites using a twitter log-in, we receive your avatar (the small picture that appears next to your tweets) and twitter username.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We are in compliance with the requirements of COPPA (Childrens Online Privacy Protection Act), we do not collect any information from anyone under 13 years of age. Our website, products and services are all directed to people who are at least 13 years old or older.

Updating your personal information

We offer a ‘My details’ page (also known as Dashboard), where you can update your personal information at any time, and change your marketing preferences. You can get to this page from most pages on the site – simply click on the ‘My details’ link at the top of the screen when you are signed in.

Online Privacy Policy Only

This online privacy policy applies only to information collected through our website and not to information collected offline.

Your Consent

By using our site, you consent to our privacy policy.

Changes to our Privacy Policy

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page.
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