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, business, 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 subscribing just to this newsletter if you wish.
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Industry
- The FCC has come down squarely in favor of consumers with its net neutrality ruling, with "the strongest open internet protections ever proposed by the FCC. These enforceable, bright-line rules will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services." (Wired)
- As part of its Super Bowl efforts, Coca-Cola has launched #MakeItHappy, a campaign designed to turn away from the negativity, trolling and bullying so often seen on the web. The automated social media program took negative words and turned them into cute art. Until they were forced to shut it down thanks to a professional troll at Gawker. Of course, an unchecked automated bot could get you into just that kind of trouble. (Adweek)
- A week of mixed news for Shacks:
- Shake Shack raised $105 million in its highly anticipated IPO. (Fortune)
- But Radio Shack is ending a 94-year run as it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, (NY Times Dealbook) just after announcing a deal with Sprint and allowing Amazon to buy some of its stores as retail outlets. (Bloomberg) [See below for a longer piece]
- In a survey of 3,000 19-33 year-olds, smartphone-owning Millennials expect brands to meet their needs, including having mobile-friendly websites or apps. Their second biggest priority? Some 44% want brands to still maintain some form of human interaction with them. (Marketing Charts)
Platforms
- Happy 11th birthday, Facebook! Boy, have you grown up. (Business Insider)
- According to a Havas Media / Crowd Emotion study, users are now blind to branded content on Facebook. Given the repetitive and typical billboard-style/interruptive/insipient nature of the content (which already appears on other platforms), it's not surprising. (MediaPost)
- Facebook has a solution to that: cutting down on promotional posts by brands - again, affecting organic reach. (re/code)
- Here's Twitter's Q4 by the numbers. Highlights: slowed user growth (which Twitter claims was because of an iOS 8 glitch), better monetization and more press than its larger competitor, Facebook. (SHIFT Communications)
- Twitter launched a Vine app for kids. I know what you're thinking: "Vine is for adults?" (Venture Beat)
- With its new Instant Timeline for new users, Twitter is trying to create value without requiring much setup or involvement from new sign-ups. (NY Times Bits blog)
- Also in an effort to reach more users, Twitter has a deal with Google in which tweets will show up in Google search results as soon as they're posted. This is particularly important with regard to breaking news, as Twitter tends to have that information first. (Bloomberg)
- The Promoted Tweet ad unit is now available outside of Twitter. In this way, Twitter hopes to expand its content (or at least brands' content) to other areas of the web. (re/code)
- Videos shared to Instagram will now loop, without the option to pause them, until users scroll past them. (re/code)
- Similar to other initiatives at Facebook and Snapchat, Instagram is hiring former journalists for its editorial team, including a senior features editor. (Digiday)
Collaborative Economy
- Uber is giving Google a run for its money and is opening up a robotics research arm to build self-driving cars. So much for the jobs promised by the sharing economy... (TechCrunch)
- Is Google striking back with a car-sharing development of its own? (The Next Web)
- In a change of attitude, Uber is attempting to soften its approach by negotiating agreements with regulators and legislators. (WSJ)
- The sharing economy isn't about sharing at all - it's about access and convenience. (Harvard Business Review)
Audio
- With the success of Serial and the like, you can guarantee that there will be an uptick in DIY audio. Here's a guide on how to produce a podcast from veteran podcaster Jay Baer. (Convince and Convert)
Metrics / Measurement / Data / Security
- Marketing is entering the dawn of a golden age. Don't believe it? They're boosting their precision, broadening their scope, moving more quickly, and telling better stories. That counts for something. (McKinsey)
- Math can be hard, particularly for communicators. That doesn't mean you can escape the future, though. (SHIFT Communications)
- Data is a top priority for marketers. But 87% consider data the most underutilized asset in marketing. It could stem from a belief that their data quality is questionable. (Marketing Charts)
Legal / Security / HR
- Anthem, the second largest healthcare insurer in the U.S., was plagued by a data breach that compromised the data of 80 million members. (Forbes)
- With significant attacks on Anthem and Sony in the news, it should be no surprise to find a new provider claiming to be Snapchat for business. When the CTO of on such company calls the cloud "a drunken copier machine," it's clear that there's a need for a service that manages corporate documents on mobile devices. (The Verge)
- Have you found a job that's perfect for you? Perhaps you think you have all of the right skills and personality traits for the job but there's one catch: you don't have the proper work experience or references. No problem. Companies like Career Excuse and Paladin Deception will create websites, references and even entire businesses to fake it for you. (Motherboard)
When You Have the Time: Essential Reading / Listening / Watching
- Radio Shack is an American institution: it's been with us for nearly a century, plugging along, and now its slow-motion collapse is a spectacle for all to see. But exactly how did Radio Shack get here? (Bloomberg)
- And more importantly, where will I go for my next soldering iron?
- With so many ads being posted before the game, is the magic of Super Bowl ads gone forever? (Quartz)
- She's an icon of Silicon Valley - a Stanford superstar, an early Google employee and now the CEO of Yahoo! Lessons from Marissa Mayer's success. (Business Insider)
- Left Shark was the breakout star of the Super Bowl Halftime show. And now he's the star of the Internet. (The Chive)
- Related: You know you've made it when Katy Perry's lawyers come after you. (BBC)
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