Flickr photo of shrink-wrapped space shuttle Atlantis courtesy of Robert NeffWelcome to the Friday Wrap, my weekly summary of stuff I have found in the last seven days that didn’t grab the big headlines but is still important, interesting, and/or worthwhile for communicators and marketers. I collect these on my link blog, which you’re welcome to follow.

News

No more “like our page” campaigns for Facebook—One reason the total number of Facebook page-likes you’re earned is a terrible metric is that a lot of people who liked your page may well have done so in exchange for a coupon, not out of a sense of genuine affinity. That won’t be a problem much longer. Facebook has put the kibosh on the practice known as “like-gating,” in which marketers can exchange content for a like, or use liking as a contest entry. The company says they want to ensure people “like pages because they want to connect and hear from the businesses, not because of artificial incentives.” Read more

Sponsored comments coming to Disqus—As managing comments on blogs and other content got more challenging, Disqus was one of the services that came to the rescue, introducing a comment hosting service with more controls than the systems built into Blogger and WordPress (among others). Like other free sites, an income model for Disqus was inevitable, and the allure of sponsored content was too much to resist. The company is introducing sponsored comments, allowing advertisers to identify relevant comment threads and inject an ad at the top of the comment section disguised as a comment. Clicking the comment will reveal an ad. Website owners and publishers will have control over enabling the sponsored comments, and will share in the revenue if they do. Read more

Tweet from the top—Small design changes can make big differences. Twitter has moved the tweet box on its website to the top of the timeline, making it easier to send a tweet. The tweet box had been residing on the left-hand side of the page. The company has also added a more inviting statement in the box: “What’s happening?” instead of “Compose new tweet.” Read more

Facebook launches Tor hidden service—It seems counter intuitive, the social network that craves your data in order to sell to you introducing a version of its site that hides your data from them. But that’s just what Facebook has done, introducing a Tor hidden service, “a version of its website that runs the anonymity software Tor,” making it nearly impossible for anyone to detect the user’s identity. Users won’t be anonymous to Facebook—they still have to log in—but “You get around the censorship and local adversarial surveillance, and it adds another layer of security on top of your connectin,” according to Runa Sandvik, a former Tor developer and adviser to Facebook for the Tor project. Read more

Dell to offer “digital transformation” service—Sales of laptops and PCs are sagging, so companies like Dell need to figure out where to find new income sources. Dell’s hoping a consulting/technology service aimed at companies rebuilding their digital operations will be the ticket. The “digital transformation” offering is expected to be unveiled at Dell World in Austin. Similar services are already available to marketers from the likes of Oracle and IBM. Included in the package: Dell’s existing social listening and social strategy tools, and an analytics platform to make it easier for marketers and others to understand data (which may be based on the Social Net Advocacy tool the company has been using internally). Dell consultants will help clients diagram customer interactions and find ways to improve them. Read more

Reddit launches its own Kickstarter—Redditmade is Reddit’s take on crowdfunding. Currently in open beta, the site features mainly T-shirt campaigns. Like other crowdfunding services, Redditmade gives campaigns 30 days to reach their goals. Instead of pledging to donate money to the concept, users promise to buy the product itself. Read more

Trends

E-commerce is coming to Facebook—Soon, the e-commerce that drives you to dedicated e-commerce websites will take place directly on Facebook and Twitter, as well. According to Stripe co-founder and president John Collison, people spend so much time on these sites that merchants will inevitably want a presence on them, and lowering the hassle of online payments (Stripe’s wheelhouse) will be a priority. The idea: Rather than click through to the e-commerce site after you’ve seen that product you desire in a tweet or a status update, you’ll be able to make the purchase directly from the place where you found it. Read more

There will be 48 million public WiFi hotspots worldwide by year’s end—During the three weeks I was out of the country, I was worried about connectivity. I shouldn’t have been. Public WiFi was nearly ubiquitous, and research shows by 2018, there will be one hotspot for every 20 people. By the end of this year, 47.7 million public WiFi hotspots will be accessible. Read more

Small businesses want to read reviews of vendors—Reflecting a pervasive trend, vendors are finding that they have less direct control over sales of their products and services to small businesses, which are relying more and more on the reviews of other small businesses already doing business with those companies. Customer testimonials are the preferred source of information for 46% of small businesses making big purchase decisions, according to a study from The Alternative Board. Information from the vendor themselves was the main source of information for only 10%. And 53% of respondents said testimonials gave them more confidence than case studies. Read more

Native advertising is paying off—As banner ads face extinction, revenue from sponsored content is surging. The practice of introducing paid-for content alongside original reporting is boosting the bottom line for publishers ranging from The New York Times to LinkedIn. The Times saw a 16.5% boost in digital-ad revenue during its third quarter, fueled largely by its native advertising product. LinkedIn’s third-quarter ad revenue wa up 45%, with sponsored updates leading the charge, accounting for 31% of the social network’s ad revenue. Native advertising is not a fad, according to the head of brand initiatives at the Interactive Advertising Bureau; “It’s actually a core part of the maturation of digital advertising.” Read more

Yo gets traction with GE’s locomotives—Yo, the app that sends a single word—yo—is still the butt of jokes and the source of confusion, but GE is among brands adopting it. In GE’s case, the company is touting the fact that its trains will send a daily Yo from along their routes; behind the Yo is a daily update from the locomotives, which travel the CSX network. Read more

Research

Print still is better than the screen—There’s still a case to be made for distributing print. A University of Oregon study found that people reading printed newspapers “remember significantly more news stories than online news readers;” “remembered significantly more topics than online newsreaders;” and remembered “more main points of news stories.” The study speculates as to the reason for the better results with print: “Online readers are apt to acquire less information about national, international and political events than print newsreaders because of the lack of salience cues; they generally are not being told what to read via story placement and prominence—an enduring feature of the print product.” Read more

Companies can use mobile tech to improve employee well-being—Half of American adult smartphone users have downloaded at least one app designed to support healthy living; 19% of all adults have downloaded and routinely use such an app. “This means that one out of every five people are regularly using mobile technology to improve their chances of a life well-lived,” according to Gallup, and the number climbs to 23% among full-time workers. Gallup suggests business leaders can make a significant difference in employee well-being “by encouraging workers to use health-related mobile technology and apps,” and offers six things companies can do right now to have a positive impact. Read more

Experiment with fake Twitter account reveals what drives consumer perceptions of a brand—Resident is an affordable unisex London fashion brand that isn’t real. Its fake Twitter account, though, was part of a Cambridge University study conducted with Twitter that found consumers’ perceptions of a brand were affected by the number of followers an account has and the tone of voice it employs. Other variables studied included the number of accounts followed by the brand, how many tweets sent by the brand, and whether tweets were promoted. They also used three different bios—a straightforward one, a funny one, and a a responsible one (focused on charitable giving). Men liked the straightforward bio, while women gravitated to the funny and responsible blurbs. Promoted tweets made respondents more likely to trust the brand, recommend it, and buy from it. Read more