A roundup of relevant links affecting our industry.
Each week, I compose a newsletter that includes a series of links about current events and trends in the worlds of technology, social media, mobile, digital communications and marketing in order to keep leaders up to date on changes, newsworthy items and content that might be useful in their jobs.
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 Digital Magazine.
Industry
- Ezra Klein has left the Washington Post. Up next: a new publication at Vox Media that relies on the relatively unconstrained web, with a nod toward fixing the news. (The Verge)
- Corporate newsrooms aren't delivering on what journalists want - namely, more images and videos. (Ragan)
- Comcast reported a growth of 43,000 TV subscribers in Q4 2013, halting 26 quarters straight of a loss of television customers. (AdAge)
- A snapshot of global digital statistics for 2014. Some highlights are below, but the entire presentation can be seen on Slideshare. (We Are Social)
- The contrast of mobile & internet penetration is fascinating.
The Platforms
- Snapchat on Snapchat - why they're convinced of their own impending success (Re/Code)
- Facebook is rethinking its Newsfeed on mobile - and is taking on other news-sharing apps like Flipboard with the announcement of Paper, its own app. It will be released in the US for iOS devices on February 3. (The Verge, Re/Code and Facebook)
- Facebook had an excellent quarter: 55% growth of revenue year-over-year; $2.8 billion in income from operations; a 22% increase in Daily Active Users (DAUs); and a 49% increase of mobile DAUs.
- Mobile advertising now accounts for the majority of Facebook's ad revenue. (Mashable)
- Twitter is making searches easier with filters for news, videos and more. (Engadget)
Measurement / Metrics / Big Data
- Social media command centers get a lot of press. But what are they really churning out? (Forbes)
- Most people are wary of the amount of data Facebook has on them - but they don't seem to mind it from Amazon. Why? (AdAge)
Legal / HR
- Bloggers have been recognized as having the same First Amendment rights as corporate media (Huffington Post)
- Facebook has been hit with a new privacy lawsuit over message scanning. (MediaPost)
- Courtney Love won the first Twitter libel lawsuit. (NBC News)
Content
- BBC Radio 1's head of visualization gives us a glimpse of how to be successful with video content. (Fast Company)
- In a new rollout expected soon, Flipboard will become even more magazine-like, as it includes a table of contents to allow for better discoverability of content. (Re/Code)
- Some examples of brand tweets during the Grammys included the good - like Arby's; and some horribly, horribly bad - too many to mention here. (Digiday)
- As you're creating video content, it might help to understand the role of conflict in video storytelling: it's an essential component, along with a hook, context, build and resolution. Listen to this short Inside PR episode on how to accomplish it. (For Immediate Release)
Hey @Pharrell, can we have our hat back? #GRAMMYs
— Arby's (@Arbys) January 27, 2014
Bookmark / Read / Watch Later
- Video of Henry Blodget, CEO and founder of Business Insider, being interviewed by Charlie Rose. They discuss the future of journalism in the digital age, among other things. (Twist Image) [EMBED]
- 9 Ways Social Media Marketing Will Change in 2014 include the rise of graphic software, LinkedIn becoming a dominant publisher, more paid support for social media campaigns, and the emergence of Google+. (Mashable)
- Consumer engagement with brands means that old marketing models need to drastically change. Booz & Company has identified four new digital marketing models to address this: digital branders, customer experience designers, demand generators and product innovators. (strategy+business)
- A perfect example of how the above is being addressed is at Nestle, where digital acceleration teams are influencing their 2,000 brands (MIT Sloan Management Review)
- Social media - particularly the customer service element - should not be in the hands of marketing or communications; the COO should lead social media customer service. (McKinsey & Company)
- Related: Altimeter Group looks at some trends in 2014 for organizing around the social customer. (Altimeter)
Commentary
It's a mobile world, and we're experiencing the best of it. If anything, this week, it was made utterly clear by the advances that Facebook made in the mobile space. With 53% of its ad revenue in the fourth quarter of 2013 coming from mobile (up from 49% the previous quarter and 23% the year earlier), it's clear that Facebook has solved the problem of monetizing a mobile platform.Further, the announcement of its new app, Paper, has been met with nothing but intrigue and excitement. The better user interface is more aligned with mobile user experience versus the previous iteration of its app, which largely mimicked the desktop version. You can expect that appropriate mobile monetization of the new Paper app will be far easier.
Image credit: epSos.de (Flickr)
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