A roundup of relevant links affecting our industry.
Each week at Ford, I compose a newsletter that includes a series of links about current events and trends in the worlds of technology, social media, mobile, communications and marketing in order to keep the wider team up to date on changes, newsworthy items and content that might be useful in their jobs. These are those links.
If you have additional links, sources or ideas that might be helpful, I'd encourage you to add some via a comment below. And if you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links by subscribing to the This Week in Social Media Magazine.
Speaking of which (shameless plug alert), please check out my Red Couch interview with Flipboard in which I share Ford's approach to digital, audiences and content, and share some of my other passions that have resulted in Flipboard magazines.
Industry
- Approximately 15% of U.S. adults don't go online. As Jerry Seinfeld would say, “Who are these people?” (Pew Internet & American Life)
- Popular Science is shutting off comments on its website. The reason: too many trolls and spambots were overwhelming the intelligent discourse there. (Popular Science)
- At Advertising Week in New York this week, digital marketing is taking center stage. (WSJ)
- 20% of Americans can't access Facebook at work, according to a survey by Statista. (Mashable)
- A study by the PRSA indicates that errors on companies' Wikipedia pages can significantly damage their reputations. The challenge is that Wikipedia prohibits companies or their agencies from making changes to a company's page. (PR Newser)
- There is a lot of innovation coming out of Asia, but it is a unique market: here are 7 characteristics of Silicon Valley you won't find in Asia; and the differences between startup failures in India and in Silicon Valley. (Tech in Asia)
- Jumptap and comScore have broken out how digital time spent is broken down by device, gender and content type. (eMarketer)
- Why would mobile users want to share personal information with brands? The top three reasons are fairly logical: to receive relevant discounts or offers (47%); to receive information or alerts I've requested (45%); to resolve customer service issues (36%). Interestingly, 17% said there is never a good reason. (TRUSTe via Marketing Charts)
- Marketers can be harsh self-critics. A survey by Adobe shows a gap between important areas and marketers' proficiency in these areas. Most notable: marketing measurement (47% gap), content management (40%), creativity and innovation (42%), customer response management (42%) and personalization and targeting (40%). (Marketing Charts)
- A new report highlights the state of media usage and ad spending in Central and Eastern Europe; spending will be up 8% for the year, and Russia leads the region with 13% projected growth. (eMarketer)
The Platforms
- China is lifting its ban on Facebook - but only within the Shanghai free-trade zone. (South China Morning Post)
- A recent study showed that Facebook may be making some Americans unhappy; but that certainly is not the case in Asia. (Tech in Asia)
- Facebook thinks it can better understand your posts by using artificial intelligence. (The Verge)
- Twitter and CBS announced a comprehensive partnership through Twitter's Amplify program, allowing the broadcaster to embed videos from its 20 brands and 42 shows in its tweets in near real-time. (TechCrunch)
- Twitter is also partnering with the NFL to show instant replay clips as part of a new advertising arrangement. (Reuters)
- Twitter has chosen the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for its expected $1.5 billion IPO. (The Street)
- More Twitter news: it has opened up universal search (photos, people, and results). (Search Engine Journal)
- Pinterest has added new article pins to allow more clear saving and sharing of articles on the web and putting it in competition with sites like Delicious, Flipboard and other social bookmark platforms. The new pins will include headline, author, story description and link. (Pinterest blog)
- Social bookmarking / reading / content service Flipboard has raised $50 million more on a valuation of $800 million. (All Things D)
Measurement / Metrics / Big Data
- In many organizations, security of data and information is a concern, especially in this BYOD, cloud storage age. Here are the biggest IT compliance headaches and how CIOs can cure them. (CIO.com)
- Big data and communications: big data has an under-reported impact on the audiences communicators are trying to reach, and communicators are not adapting fast enough. (Communications Leadership Council)
Legal / HR
- The FTC is interested in what's happening in the world of native advertising. So much so that it's sponsoring a workshop on the blurring of digital ads with digital content on December 4. (FTC)
- In light of recent do not track rules, Google may discontinue using cookies as ad trackers. (USA Today)
- A group of LinkedIn users have filed a class action lawsuit, claiming that the business social network company has used their email accounts to inappropriately collect email addresses of contacts and to send out email messages without their consent or knowledge. LinkedIn denies this claim. (GigaOm Pro)
Content
- Content has an important function in crisis communications, helping to rescue brands from the edge of disaster. (Contently)
- In an affirmation of its strategy and a nod toward original content on nontraditional platforms, Netflix garnered an Emmy award as David Fincher took home Best Director for House of Cards. (PaidContent.org)
- What channels work best for content marketing? The traditional works well: company websites and email are tops, followed by public relations and social media. (Unisphere via Marketing Charts)
Bookmark / Read / Watch Later
- As many as 97% of executives place high importance on becoming a socially-enabled enterprise. There are a number of challenges and opportunities with regard to social technologies. (Bulldog Reporter)
- Search is evolving to fit the needs of users who don’t just want a web site, but the actual answer to the question driving the search. To stay on top, semantic search technologies are key. (GigaOm)
- Hal Varian, Google’s chief economist, talked about the challenges facing the newspaper business in a recent presentation in Italy, and showed that he understands those challenges better than most media executives. (PaidContent.org)
Commentary
With Twitter making even more news this week (aren't they in a "quiet" period?), it's not surprising that another company not only made news that included Twitter but made that news on Twitter.Yesterday, Amazon announced it's new Kindle Fire via a press release that was composed entirely of tweets. In just 14 short bursts, it announced the availability and features of its newest device via its @AmazonKindle account.
Was this a smart move or was it merely a stunt to get attention? One could argue that it was both. It certainly did raise attention, but frankly, when journalists - digital and traditional - are overwhelmed with deadlines, being pressured to crank out ever more content, and are using Twitter to a greater degree in 2013, they probably appreciate something that doesn't require them to sift through a company press release.
At Ford, we began using Twitter as another communications tool on the days we announce quarterly earnings. Our summary of material in our press releases comes out through the @Ford corporate handle with the #FordEarnings hashtag as well as the $F symbol, to pull it through to StockTwits. It's an additional service, but it provides the right amount of information to the right people in the right places.
Maybe Amazon is onto something.
Image credit: Ian Roberts (Flickr)