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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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Friday Wrap #165: Google AMPs up news, Facebook may pay users, the public wants CEOs to be social

Friday Wrap #165: Google AMPs up news, Facebook may pay users, the public wants CEOs to be social

Friday Wrap #165The 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 For Immediate Release podcast, along with stuff I just want to remember to read) on my link blog, which you’re welcome to follow. If you want to make sure you never miss an edition of the Wrap, subscribe to my weekly email newsletter.

You haven’t signed up for my Chatbot Webinar yet?

Chatbots were barely part of the conversation a couple of months ago. Today you can’t scan your feeds without running into an article about them. Most of the content on bots, though, focuses on marketing and sales—there has been barely a word about PR, corporate communications, or employee communications. Mark my words: Bots will become a major factor in communications!

In this, my first webinar that’s not hosted by some other organization, I’ll bring you up to speed on bots, look at what goes into their development, discuss how to make the most of them (and how to avoid making mistakes with them), and explore potential uses in media relations, internal communications, and other dimensions of organizational communications. All for only $79, which buys an admission not just for you but for your entire team—and you’ll be able to watch the video replay whenever you want. Register here.

News

Update: Axe relents, gives Reddit credit—Last week I reported that Reddit users were outraged that the men’s grooming brand Axe had appropriated content for an ad campaign without giving credit to the source from which it lifted the material: a subreddit. Now, Axe has announced it will work with the Reddit user who posted the content that was used in an upcoming ad—and pay the user for his effort. The takeaway: It’s better than an apology, but it sure would have been as better story if they had done that in the first place. Read more

Facebook considers paying users—You know that old line about Facebook, that you’re the product? It’s a stupid notion to begin with, but if Facebook pursues a new idea it’s touting, it could make uttering that line even more wrong. The social network is soliciting feedback from selected users about the ways they might want to generate revenue from their content, such as posting tip jars or soliciting sponsors for content. The survey was aimed at verified users (who tend to be celebrities of one kind or another). The takeaway: The move is probably an effort to keep people who draw audiences on Facebook now that there are alternatives, especially for live broadcasting. Watch to see if Periscope, Blab, or Snapchat counter with similar revenue-raising experiments. Read more

Google elevates AMP’d news articles—Accelerated Mobile Pages—or AMP—is a Google-led open-source initiative to create pages that open with lightning speed on mobile devices, similar to Facebook’s Instant Articles but accessible across the entire Web. AMP pages are now getting preferential treatment on Google News. Several media outlets have already embraced AMP, and the odds of getting higher placement in Google News is likely to get others off the dime. The takeaway: Have you looked at AMP yet for your company’s news content and content marketing pages? It makes sense to embrace the standard. Users of WordPress.com are already AMP-compliant. Read more

360-degree live-streaming comes to YouTube—At the Coachella music festival, Google introduced 360-degree live-streaming to YouTube, with performances broadcast in real-time that could be viewed from all angles on the site by moving the video with your finger or via a Virtual Reality headset like the Samsung Gear VR. For recorded 360-degree video, Google has also introduced spatial audio support, so sounds seem to come from the right or left or behind you. There’s also a LiveAPI that will let developers bake live 360-degree video into their own apps or services. The takeaway: We’re likely to see a lot of 360-degree live streams that would have worked fine as traditional video. Don’t let that sour you on the idea of employing 360-degree live videos in cases where it makes sense, differentiates you, and offers a compelling experience. Read more

Facebook tests content categories—Facebook is testing a new feature for the News Feed on mobile devices that organizes content into categories like World and U.S. News, Sports, and Food. The categories appear at the bottom of the screen. There’s no word on whether or when the categories will be rolled out beyond its current test phase. The takeaway: Facebook is embracing the fact that more and more people get their news there. Making it easier to find news based on your interests should elevate its position as a news source even more. Read more

Target welcomes transgender customers to use restroom of their choice—Adding fuel to the argument that business in general has embraced gay rights, retailer Target posted a statement to its website announcing that customers and employees can use the rest room or fitting room that “corresponds with their gender identity.” The statement said the company celebrates inclusivity as a core corporate belief. The takeaway: We could talk about this trend for hours and still not explore every angle. Ultimately, research tells us clearly that consumers and investors increasingly expect companies to stand for something other than just making money; they believe business must play a role in improving the world. Later in this update, I share a study about the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on recruiting. Expect to see more businesses embrace social issues rather than just pay lip service to them. Read more

Hasbro assembles an impressive team of writers—Hasbro Studios and Paramount Pictures announced last year they would create a cinematic universe built around its toy products, which include Transformers and G.I. Joe, among others. Both have already been made into multiple films, but now Hasbro sees the opportunity to bring these separate franchises together, like Marvel and D.C. have done. To that end, the company has assembled a first-rate group of screenwriters including one of my favorite authors, Michael Chabon. The takeaway: You may wonder why I’m even reporting this in a communications-focused update. But the message here is an important one: The story is become as important, if not more important, than the product. While a successful Hasbro universe movie venture can help sell more toys, it’s also positioned to make more money than the products than inspired it. Every communicator needs to zero in on the stories their companies’ products and services inspire. Read more

Microsoft expands Pulse to video—Pulse is Microsoft’s free polling platform built into Yammer, OneNote, and Skype, and used extensively on Facebook and Twitter, among other services. Now Microsoft has released Video Pulse, which allows you to synch a poll (or other kinds of responses) with pre-recorded video shared via YouTube, Vimeo, Amazon Web Services, or Microsoft’s own Azure cloud services platform. There’s a fee for Video Pulse, but no limit on the length of a video clip. The takeaway: Soliciting feedback within a video is an appealing idea, and one that makes viewing a video more interactive. For marketers the applications are no-brainers, such as learning whether a new campaign will resonate. Plenty of PR applications leap to mind, too, like figuring out the how stakeholders are reacting to an executive speech. Read more

Chatbots

I’m introducing the chatbot category because of the volume of content about bots these days and the inevitable role they will play in communications.

What if you become a chatbot in the afterlife?—The idea of uploading details of your life to leave behind a digital version of yourself isn’t new. It was even explored in an episode of the wonderful, dark British anthology, Black Mirror. But a startup called Eternime aims to make it a reality. You store your memories and visitors to the site interact “you” via chatbot technology, asking questions like, “What was your first memory?” The site claims over 32,000 people have signed up so far as part of an early beta. The takeaway: While suggesting you that can be digitally immortal may be going too far, it’s intriguing to see the kinds of uses to which innovators are putting chatbots. Odds are this won’t be the weirdest. Read more

Messenger chatbots still have a ways to go—There has been a considerable amount of press slamming the chatbots introduced recently on Facebook’s Messenger. Most expressed frustration and disappointment when trying to use them. The takeaway: Yeah, early web pages sucked, too. Read more

Trends

Doing good attracts better employees—One of the oft-cited characteristics of Millennials is their interest in values. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found nearly 60% of Millennials seek jobs with companies whose social responsibility efforts align with their own values. Communicating a company’s values in its recruiting materials has become a standard practice. The takeaway: In the war for talent, good social behavior is a weapon. It’s just another in a litany of reasons companies should be giving serious thought to their missions and whether generating profit is still the only reason for existing. Read more

Get out of the marketing mindset—In most companies, social media is viewed as a marketing activity. Customers, however, view a company’s social media presence as a one-stop shop for everything from marketing to customer service. Pigeon-holing social media in marketing limits the company’s ability to respond—7 out of 8 messages to companies take 72 hours to get a response. A cross-functional social media team makes it easier to get the right employees in front of the customer at the right time. The takeaway: I reported here a few weeks back that the number of people who look to social media for one-on-one interaction with organizations has declined, the result of repeated disappointments. Still, the number of customers who do expect a response through social media has doubled in the last three years. If the customer experience matters to your organization at all, explore the potential for a cross-functional team. It’s an approach that, according to this Harvard Business Review article, has enabled rental car agency Hertz to respond to more than 1,000 customers per week within 75 minutes. Read more

Research

Can PR adapt?—USC’s Annenberg Center for Public Relations, along with the Holmes Report, has released its first Global Communications Report based on a survey of more than 1,000 senior PR executives. The report sees the agency side of PR growing by $4.3 billion over the next five years from its current $14 billion, with headcount increasing by 26%. The client side will experience more modest growth, with budgets rising by 13% and headcounts increasing by 11%. Content marketing and social media account for a lot of the growth, along with reputation management and measurement/evaluation. The challenges include “the industry’s ability to attract the right talent, adapt to new technologies and increase the level of investment required to capitalize on these opportunities,” according to Fred Cook, director of the Center. The takeaway: Brace yourself. Structural change is coming to communications on both the agency and the client side. These changes will be forced on communicators by the changing communication landscape. For example, earned media will produce a shrinking amount of revenue for agencies, which will need to rethink structures to deal with paid placement activities. Read more

The Millennial fallacy—Millennials have been stereotyped more than any other generation. (Yes, even more than GenXers.) According to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average 29-year-old attended some college but didn’t graduate, has held several jobs, is likely to be married or living with somebody, and is not likely to live in an urban area. That’s the exact opposite of the perception of Millennials as a college-educated single living in the city. The takeaway: Other research has also demonstrated the inacuracy of the stereotype. One study, for instance, noted there are several sub-categories of Millennials, such as those who have graduated college but can’t find a professional job and live at home with their parents. When targeting Millennials, these realities are important to keep in mind. Better yet, it’s generally less effective to target people based solely on their age groups. Read more

What does the public want from a CEO’s social media presence?—I have been saying for some time that CEOs need to come out of the shadows and embrace social media. I’m not alone. Some prominent voices have expressed the view that social media has matured to the point where CEOs no longer have a choice: They have to have a presence. A new Harris Poll found the public also largely agrees, with 64% of Americans agreeing that it’s important for senior leaders to be active on social media. Most don’t want to hear personal stories, though. Forty-six percent say they should be using social media as a means of keeping them up to date on business activities. Only 16% want to hear personal stories or anecdotes. Nearly 40% of Americans already follow business leaders online. None of the old arguments against it make sense any more, but the use of social media by a CEO or other senior leader needs to be thought through strategically. It’s a new channel for providing information about the business, and much less a forum for humanizing leaders. Read more

Accuracy drives trust in news—Accuracy is the most important factor leading people to trust news, according to research conducted by the Media Insight Project. Eighty-five percent of respondents said accuracy is a critical reason they trust a news source, followed by having the latest details (76%) and reporting that is concise and to the point (72%). Digital news consumers don’t want ads to interfere with their experience. Political news consumers want data. And lifestyle news consumers want the source to be entertaining. The takeaway: As consumer trust becomes more and more vital to an organization’s success, accurate reporting uncluttered with jargon and updated regularly should become a priority for communicators. Read more

Some early data on Facebook Reactions—Reactions—those emojis you can pick instead of just liking a post on Facebook—account for about 8% of total likes, according to research by LiftMetrix. Love is the most popular reaction, with users exploring the use of the other four options to express their sentiment about the story (not necessarily the organization reporting the story). The data was drawn from 100 pages with a lot of followers. The takeaway: I have heard a lot of skepticism expressed over using Reactions as a metric, but taken in context, they can be useful. Video publisher NowThis, for example, prioritizes future content based on reactions to their most-viewed video shares. Don’t take Reactions at face value, but incorporating them into your measurement activities just makes good sense. Read more

Annual reports are too damn long—Annual reports have grown in length by 50% in the last decade, and that length is making them overly complex. That’s not a good thing for one of an organization’s most important communication vehicles. The length is often an effort to comply with transparency requirements, but one study finds that some organizations are finding ways to reduce the complexity by providing additional information beyond the report, including more press releases and extra interim reports. The takeaway: There may be good legal reasons for the burgeoning size of annual reports, but that doesn’t alleviate a company of its responsibility to be clear with investors and other stakeholders. The takeaway: Finding ways to “reduce the uncertainties that are caused by these complex financial statements” is an opportunity for communicators to prove their value to other parts of the organization. It wouldn’t hurt to bring more creative and effective ideas to the table than more press releases. But it has to start with communicators who have a clear understanding of the complex business, financial, and regulatory issues that are creating problems for readers of the annual report. Read more

This week’s wrap image—of Chinese sticky rice wrapped in a lotus leaf—comes to us courtesy of Edna Winti‘s Flickr account.

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