Apple Pay and Google Inbox launch, John Oliver calls for more interesting Supreme Court coverage, Facebook goes old school with Rooms, Twitter wants your Digits as part of its Fabric, audience ages across social networks, Uber has (another) PR problem on its hands, ROI metrics require math, The Guardian builds out editorial teams while the Mail Online makes its editorial staff moonlight as ad creators, Microsoft is the sheriff of the Internet 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 your job. And now you have the option of just subscribing to this newsletter if you wish.
If you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links by subscribing to the This Week in Digital Magazine.
This week, we're pleased to feature a new section that acknowledges the growing importance of brands, start-ups and consumers joining forces to create new business models and solve problems. We're calling this section Collaborative Economy.
Industry
- The Guardian is reorganizing to form new editorial teams to boost digital output. These include visual journalism, data journalism and audience development. (Journalism.co.uk)
- The ad industry is coming to grips with crowdsourcing. (Mashable)
- To wit, on Last Week Tonight John Oliver bemoaned the dearth of Supreme Court (SCOTUS) media coverage because the important content is less than exciting. So, he took matters into his own hands and has challenged viewers to take video clips of dogs and use SCOTUS audio clips with them. And The Verge took him up on it. (The Verge)
- A report from E&Y finds that CMOs and chief sales officers need to accelerate change. Of particular interest: "CMOs focus too little on understanding the customer or enhancing their experience, while many CSOs emphasize short-term targets to the exclusion of strategy, innovation and longer-term connections." (MediaPost)
- Apple Pay launched this week, meaning that thousands of hipsters can leave home without those pesky wallets. (New York Times)
- The joke will be on them when the Apple Watch launches, requiring them to don yet one more thing. Is a wallet really that much trouble?
Platforms
- After changing its stance of not allowing drag queens to use their stage names, Facebook has told federal agents that they can't use fake profiles on the platform. (Venture Beat)
- Which is completely fine, since now they'll be able to set up Rooms, a pseudonymous app that lets users create pop-up forums on any topic. (Techcrunch)
- Rooms is a vintage/nostalgia play; it seems more like the IRC and Usenet forums from Web 1.0. (New York Magazine)
- Popular marketing blog Copyblogger is saying goodbye to Facebook because of lackluster results with its audience. (Copyblogger)
- When considering a paid strategy for Facebook, should you boost your posts, your profile, or both? SHIFT did the research and has your answer. (SHIFT Communications)
- Twitter held its Flight developers conference on Wednesday and revealed its new software development kit, Fabric. (Twitter)
- Aptly named, as Twitter intends for its service to be woven into the fabric of the mobile apps whether or not the service makes use of Twitter, with tweets simply being a part of the user experience and developer experience. In addition, the Digits update means that social logins are unnecessary, with mobile phone numbers substituted for login. (Wired)
[NOTE: both of the above pieces are lengthy, but deserve the time spent with them, due to the importance and depth of this development.]
- Travel site Splendia is partnering with high-volume Instagrammers to create crowsourced city guides with their images. (Marketing Land)
- Snapchat has released its first ads. This is what they look like. (BuzzFeed)
- Is the future of email here? Google's new Inbox may be just the thing to herald its arrival. (The Verge)
- Rainn Wilson - best known as Dwight Shrute from The Office - is developing a new television show starring Vine celebrities. (Engadget)
- A look at audience ages across a number of social networks. If you're into teenagers, be sure to pay attention to Snapchat, Tumblr and Vine. (eMarketer)
Collaborative Economy
- Crowd Companies is a brand council that allows large companies to tap the potential of the collaborative economy, sharing economy, maker movement and co-innovation. (Crowd Companies)
- Uber France tried a promotion that was quickly yanked - pairing riders with "hot chicks," if you can believe it. (BuzzFeed)
- And one commentary linked it to a more pervasive corporate culture. (Pando Daily)
Metrics / Measurement / Big Data
- Tracking the correct metrics for the ROI of your public relations efforts means (gasp!) using math. (Spin Sucks)
- I was at the board meeting of the American Marketing Association in Chicago this week, and while I was there, I learned about how Chicago is piecing together big data for the Array of Things. (Techcrunch)
Legal / HR
- Remember the case in which the appellant claimed that Mark Zuckerberg gave him 84% of Facebook? Well, now Facebook is suing that guy's lawyers for fraud, claiming that they should have known that his documentation was forged and dropped the case. (WSJ)
Content
- There's no fear of the so-called church and state divide of journalism and advertising at Mail Online. They contend that journalists are the best equipped to cover in-depth content. (Digiday)
- The key to sponsored content is to determine the intersection relevancy and transparency. (Econsultancy)
- Trends in content marketing continue: new titles such as "Director of Content" are emerging; mobile optimization is critical; guest video posts are becoming more common; the use of visual platforms such as Google+ and SlideShare. (The Next Web)
- If you think of your content like a bedtime story, it should be obvious what your audience wants. (SHIFT Communications)
Essential Reading / Listening / Watching
- Well worth the read - Microsoft goes to great lengths to ensure that the Internet is safe. (Wired)
- Maria Popova, proprietor of Brain Pickings, sat down with Tim Ferris to talk about writing, workflows and workarounds. Listen to this episode for insights on how a hyperproductive person does what she does. (Four Hour Workweek)
- Email marketing still works. And here are 13 tips for increasing your response rates. (Hubspot)
- The celebrity nude photo scandal that broke a few weeks ago has a lead suspect. And his story is more interesting than the original subject matter. (BuzzFeed)
Image credit: Wikimedia
--
Post a Comment