Sochi's got 99 problems and Twitter's just one, Twitter reports its first quarterly earnings, Microsoft gets a new CEO, the Super Bowl ads were here and gone, Facebook turns 10 and released Paper, Coca-Cola Journey a year later, the one thing most content marketers forget to do, the viral math behind sites like Upworthy, why the hottest startups don't use digital agencies and more, it's This Week in Digital.
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
- Microsoft named Satya Nadella as CEO and Bill Gates is stepping down as Chairman, transitioning to a technology advisor, with John Thompson taking the Chairman role. (Microsoft)
- The Super Bowl took place on February 2. It's likely that many of the ads are already forgotten. What's the secret to a lasting impression? Believe it or not, it's consistency - the most-remembered commercials are from companies who buy Super Bowl ads on an annual basis. (Bloomberg Businessweek)
- Andy Carvin, former NPR editor who famously used Twitter during the Arab Spring for real-time journalism, has joined Pierre Omidyar's $250 million start-up First Look Media, in an effort to make social media a core principle of news and not just a share button tacked on afterward. (GigaOm)
- Hot digital startups in Silicon Valley eschew the use of digital agencies, in favor of approaches such as word-of-mouth, pop-ups and events. The crux? Limited budgets. (The Hub)
The Platforms
- With platforms being updated frequently, it's not unlikely that you might miss something. Here are 10 big, recent changes to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn you should know about. (Fast Company)
- Twitter made its first quarterly earnings report this week: fourth-quarter revenue of $242.6 million exceeded expectations, but showed growth of only 9 million users over the same time period. (Forbes)
- Twitter continues to tweak its user interface with bigger pictures and room for more ads. (Fast Company)
- Twitter loves television: Amplify is a multi-screen advertising product and the experimental Tailored Audience notifies users when their friends tweet about television shows. (Fast Company)
- High awareness and low engagement on Twitter have been acknowledged; if Twitter were set up like television, it might have more success, argues Lance Ulanoff. (Mashable)
- On the heels of that controversial Princeton study that found Facebook declining rapidly, a professor from Carnegie Mellon has build a model that shows Facebook continuing to thrive for the foreseeable future. (GigaOm)
- And not to worry: 73% of teenagers are still on Facebook. (Mashable)
- Facebook turned 10 years old this week and celebrated with giving users a Look Back at their time on Facebook, with a custom video (Facebook)
- And just how did Facebook manage to master the art of survival over the last 10 years? (Mashable)
- Google announced the Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool to help identify keywords, ad groups or campaigns that may be undervalued in last-click attribution models. (Google)
Measurement / Metrics / Big Data
- "Digital revolutions more often than not fail," according to Avinash Kaushik. He details two ladders of sustainable success for digital marketing and digital analytics. (Occam's Razor )
Legal / HR
- While Facebook launched their Paper app this week, another developer with an app of the same name may be taking legal action against them (NY Times Bits Blog)
- Buffer gets flooded with job offers after being completely transparent about their salary structure. (Quartz)
Content
- The one thing that some of the best content marketers forget to do: hustle. (Jeff Bullas)
- One year later, is Coca-Cola Journey seen as a success? (Contently)
Bookmark / Read / Watch Later
- Amid all of the clicking, sharing, swiping and other activities we do online, here's a piece that re-evaluates the value of social media. (Brian Solis)
- FOn becoming a thought leader. (strategy+business)
- The evolution of the social media manager looks at the integration of responsibilities with the wider business, education of a broad workforce, and how digitally-savvy communications professionals need to evolve their skillsets. (Communication World)
- Some deep math gets into virality on Facebook and looks at the unsustainable advantage of Upworthy. (Reuters)
Commentary
The Olympics are under way in Sochi and this is the most digitally covered set of games to date. Because journalists (and Olympians) are on the cutting edge of digital and social, many of the real-time updates prior to the games are focusing on the less than stellar (alright, let's face it - less than adequate) accommodations, from the rather odd bathroom instructions
Ok, so my hotel doesn't have a lobby yet.
— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) February 4, 2014
to the hazardous water
My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous." #Sochi2014
— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014
Water restored, sorta. On the bright side, I now know what very dangerous face water looks like. #Sochi #unfiltered pic.twitter.com/sQWM0vYtyz
— Stacy St. Clair (@StacyStClair) February 4, 2014
and lack of hotel amenities.
Ok, so my hotel doesn't have a lobby yet.
— Mark MacKinnon (@markmackinnon) February 4, 2014
So no one should be surprised that it took less than a day for an enterprising individual to create the @SochiProblems account to chronicle and parody the goings-on outside of the games. And it goes without saying that the @SochiProblems account quickly surpassed the official @Sochi2014 account in the number of followers.
No worries, it's just chronicling life as it exists in Russia:
No flush, must play basketball with used toilet paper. #SochiProblems #Sochi2014 pic.twitter.com/tHus7WfgtH
— Sochi Problems (@SochiProblems) February 4, 2014
Well that's interesting... Sochi rules in the bathrooms!! #haha #olympics pic.twitter.com/xacSVimwXY
— Sebastien Toutant (@SebToots) February 1, 2014
Of course, the Russian deputy prime minister in charge of the Olympics doesn't believe the hype the journalists. Because the Russian government admits it is spying on them - as in it has video surveillance of their showers.
So much for privacy.
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