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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Friday Wrap #162: Instagram debuts Pluto pic, audiences move to mobile, brand blogs still matter

Friday Wrap #162: Instagram debuts Pluto pic, audiences move to mobile, brand blogs still matter

Friday Wrap #162
Flickr photo courtesy of Dave
The Friday Wrap is my weekly collection of news stories, posts, studies, and reports designed to help organizational communicators stay current on the trends and technology that affect their jobs. These may be items that flew under the radar while other stories grabbed big headlines. As always, I collect material from which I select Wrap stories (as well as stories to report on the FIR Podcast Network For Immediate Release podcast) on my link blog, which you’re welcome to follow.

News

US Army press release rolls virtual eyes at paranoid conspiracy theorists—Jade Helm is a US Army exercise covering several states that has convinced some wild-eyed paranoid conspiracy theorists that the US is planning to invade Texas. (Perhaps they’re unaware that Texas is already part of the US.) Even Texas’ governor has pandered to the hysterics, lending credence to their hysteria. As the exercise began, the Army issued a press release that, according to PR Newser, “clarified that most people making noise about this non-story are completely nuts.” Among the statements in the release: “USASOC intends to conduct the exercise safely and courteously while providing the best possible training available for the nation’s Army Special Operations Forces.” The Army also plans to monitor social media for references to the exercise in hopes of learning how “information on military movements spread through social media.” Read more

Lawyers can advice on cleaning up a client’s social media presence—A new opinion from the Florida Bar lets lawyers take preemptive steps to avoid problems during litigation that arise when the opposition can find problematic social media posts from their clients’ past. The Bar affirmed that attorneys can counsel clients “to change privacy settings on and remove information from social media accounts prior to litigation, so long as such action does not violate substantive rules or laws and the data is preserved.” Read more

Firefox dumps Flash—Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, has blocklisted all the versions of Flash that include critical security flaws. A day earlier, Facebook’s head of security called for the death of Flash, which is being used to spread malware. A lot of industry segments rely on Flash—I’m looking at you, restauranteurs—and now’s the time to dump it as it becomes harder and harder to view content delivered via Flash. Read more

Where did Pluto photos debut? Did you guess Instagram?—NASA teamed up with Instagram for the debut of its first surface image of Pluto. Instagram got an hour-long headstart on the first image. “We made an editorial decision to give the world a sneak peak of the image on Instagram,” according to NASA’s social media manager. “We feel it’s important to engage new audiences.” Read more

Google has been asked to remove more than 1 million links—Under the European travesty known as “the right to be forgotten,” introduced by the European Court of Human Rights a year or so ago, Google has received requests to remove over 1 million links from its search results. The company has complied with 58.7% of those requests and declined to remove the links requested by the other 41.3%. Most of the requests have come from France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and Italy. Read more

Another specialized social network emerges, this one for casual gamers—Gamee is a mobile-first casual gaming social network from Prague. The platform includes a slew of free games “with features we’re used to seeing in social networks” that lets users challenge friends from within and outside the network, share games and results, and more. Read more

Google goes head-to-head with Apple’s iBeacon—Eddystone is Google’s entry into the beacon market currently dominated by Apple’s iBeacon. Beacons are low-energy battery-friendly devices that use Bluetooth to transmit data. They’re gaining popularity particularly among retailers, who can pinpoint a customer’s location and deliver content based on where they are. Google hopes Eddystone will inspire developers to build more contextual apps, like one that might display a ticket barcode when the customer arrives at a concert venue or display a menu on your phone when you walk into a restaurant. Further, the technology is platform-agnostic. Read more

Microsoft propels collaboration with Gigjam—It looks like just another screen-sharing tool, but Microsoft’s new Gigjam pulls data from multiple applications into a single shared workspace. Use Gigjam starts with an empty canvas a user can fill with information needed for a project or task from multiple sources—and it can all be done verbally using Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant. Users can then share the information with a colleague over a smartphone, as well as to a Surface Hub, by circling the relevant information and sharing it with the designated staffer. Be sure to watch the video on Micorosft’s Gigjam product page. Read more

Mobile and Wearables

Audiences go mobile—Sixty-one percent of total digital media time in the US is spent on smartphones and tablets, and according to comScore half of the audience of the top 100 digital media providers is now mobile-only. “Without an optimized mobile experience, you’re likely missing numerous conversion opportunities, but beyond that, you’re potentially alienating half your audience,” says MarketingLand’s Greg Sterling. Read more

Mobile is YouTube’s focus—YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told the audience at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference that half of YouTube’s views are coming from mobile devices, leading the company to adopt three top priorities: “Mobile, mobile, mobile.” Read more

Smartphones now a part of life—Forty-six percent of respondents to a Gallup poll agreed with this statement: “I can’t imagine life without my smartphone.” That makes it a fifth limb for nearly half the population who never leave it behind and even sleep with their phone. Without it, 40% of respondents would feel a significant level of stress. Read more

Trends

Is Twitter dying?—Twitter’s 255 million users (not even as many as use Instagram) are using twitter less they than used to, leading some to conclude that it’s all but over for the service that played a crucian role in making social publishing a routine act. “Its influence on publishing will remain, but the platform’s place in Internet culture is changing in a way that feels irreversible and echoes the tradition of AIM and pre-2005 blogging,” write Adrienne LaFrance and Robinson Meyer. Read more

Don’t write off brand blogs quite yet—With the value of high-quality content on the rise, it’s counterintuitive to kill off brand blogs. Yet that seems to be the trend—the use of corporate blogs by Fortune 500 companies has dipped—as pundits declare blogs dead. Yet some new brand blogs from the likes of Pizza Hut and Best Western are getting attention. Brand blogs still matter because consumers like reading brand content in a news-like format, they give brands a distinct voice, they’re better liked than ads, they increase consumer engagement, they can lift consumer intent, and there’s power in the blog-social media mix. Read more

Videos go vertical—Videos are horizontal, right? Movie screens, TV screens, computer screens, they’re all horizontal. Smartphones are behind a gradual change, though, and Snapchat is one of the leading catalysts of the shift to vertical video; they have become the norm on the service that is among the most popular with teens and Millennials. In fact, Snapchat has partnered with the world’s biggest advertising agency and the Daily Mail to form Truffle Pig, an advertising agency whose specialties will iinclude the development of vertical video advertisements. Read more

Brands are embracing cause marketing—Brand marketing works, with 89% of US consumers likely to switch comparable brands when one supports a cause, and 40% are willing to pay more for products from companies committed to positive social and environmental impact. Companies like Uniliver, Coca-Cola, Nestle, and Prudential provide top-notch case studies of companies walking the talk and moving beyond program-based CSR. (If you like this, be sure to read my latest blog post, a close-up look at the path to become a “brand citizen.”) Read more

Target takes a stab at explaining the Internet of Things—Retailer Target is opening an experimental store called Open House that features a mock-up house. The goal is to demonstrate how connected devices can be used together. Target is just one of several companies trying to figure out how to explain the Internet of Things to customers. Read more

Hotels make an experience out of top-level loyalty status—Intercontinental Hotel Group is introducing a “spectrum of elevated experiences” for the top-tier members of its loyalty program. Starwood has taken the same approach with its Starwood’s Moments program; HIlton has a Golden Moments program. By providing experiences, these companies expect to develop a stronger connection to the customers that goes beyond a room upgrade or more aware points. “They’re trying to create an emotional and visceral bond—one that goes beyond business and into family.” Read more

So long, spam—It’s not gone, but spam levels have dropped to a 12-year low. The amount of spam crossing the internet these days is about the same as it was in September 2003. All is not well, though, since cyberattackers are turning from spam to malware-based attacks, ransomware, and crypto-ransomware to get ill-gotten gains. Read more

Research

Facebook’s influence on news consumption is undeniable—Digiday has curated five charts that point to the indisputable influence Facebook is wielding on how Americans get and consume news. Based on data from the Pew Research Center, the charts reveal that about 60% of Faceb ook and twitter users say they use the platforms for news, a huge jump over the 52% of Twitter users and 47% of Facebook users who made that claim in 2013. More people count on Twitter for breaking news, but Facebook is a more trusted source than newspapers, according to a study from Acquity Group, and Facebook is huge for political news among Millennials, Pew data says. Further, Millennials are much more inclined to use Facebook for news and information than Twitter. Read more

Mobilegeddon was real—A lot of hype preceded the long-anticipated day when Google began punishing web pages that weren’t optimized for mobile in mobile search results. Did that really happen? According to research from Adobe, sites that weren’t mobile-ready have lost 10% of their mobile traffic year-over-year. Read more

Want the best executives in your company? Focus on culture—Some business leaders despise the idea of corporate culture; it’s just too touchy-feely for hardcore businessmen. But it matters in a big way, according to the results of a study from the Fortune Knowledge Group and Gyro, an ad agency. Sixty percent of the 500 executives surveyed said knowing a company’s mission statement and values are among the most important factors in making a business decision, and “68% said they would make short-term financial sacrifices to foster these long-term relationships with a business partner.” Read more

Also worth reading…

The best social media isn’t social media—Crafting content specifically for social media as the focus of a campaign isn’t the best approach, according to Ogilvy’s Jeremy Webb. Instead, solid PR campaigns, strong company spokespeople, great advertising, compelling events, and awesome products are what get people talking in social channels. Ogilvy calls it “social by design,” which involves 360-degree executions designed with a social media insight and a social idea at its core. Read more

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