Second Life image courtesy of TorleyThe Friday Wrap is a curated rundown of news, reports and posts from the past week that, while they didn’t go viral or attract much attention, are still interesting and useful for communications professionals. I select Wrap items from my link blog, which you’re welcome to follow.

News

Wikipedia tightens rules against undisclosed editing—In the wake of the multi-agency statement committing PR agencies to playing by Wikipedia’s rules, the online collaborative encyclopedia has changed its terms of use to require disclosure from anyone paid to edit articles. Wikimedia’s top communicator explained, “We’re not an advertising service; we’re an encyclopedia.” A Wikipedia blog post called undisclosed paid editing a “black hat practice that can threaten the trust of Wikimedia’s volunteers and readers. We have serious concerns about the way that such editing affects the neutrality and reliability of Wikipedia.” Read more

FDA proposes strict social media rules for pharmas—Health care companies are among the least active in social media because of compliance concerns. Proposed guidelines for the pharmaceutical and medical device industries may put severe limits on advertising via Twitter, but knowing what they can and can’t do could lead to more social media activity. The proposal would require companies to include benefits and risks associated with a product. An example tweet from the US Food and Drug Administration for a fabricated memory loss drug called NoFocus: “NoFocus for mild to moderate memory loss; may cause seizures in patients with a seizure disorder http://www.nofocus.com/risk” Read more

Brands quick to share GIFs on Twitter—Twitter introduced a new feature last week that allows users to share animated GIFs, and brands wasted no time taking advantage of it. Among those rushing GIFs into their feeds: Wendy’s, Forever 21, Mountain Dew, General Electric, Samsung Mobile, and Arby’s. Read more

Facebook releases Snapchat competitor—Shortly after accidentally releasing the app early, Facebook has unveiled Slingshot for both the Android and iOS platforms. A shot across Snapchat’s bow, Slingshot is an ephemeral messaging app that lets users share messages and images that vanish soon after they’re viewed. The unique spin to Slingshot is that you have to send something back to the sender of the original message or you can’t open the one you received. The reasoning: You have to engage with each other, not just consume content you get. No Facebook account is required to use the app. Read more here and here

US employers can’t tell employees not to be negative—It’s a standard element of both employee handbooks and social media policies. Companies that require employees to behave in a positive and professional manner and to represent the company positively in the community are in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. That’s the decision of the National Labor Relations Board, which found the policy of Hills & Dales General Hospital in Michigan chills employees in the exercise of their Section 7 rights. Read more

Now we’re sure it’s a tech bubble—The creator of the app Yo has raised $1 million for the project. The app lets you send the word “Yo” to your friends. And that’s all it does. It took only eight hours to create. The developer quit his job to work on Yo full-time. Were you wondering whether we’re in a tech bubble? Wonder no more. Read more here and here.

Justine Sacco is back at work—Remember Justine Sacco, the PR exec fired after sending a tweet meant to be edgy-funny that produced unprecedented backlash? She’s back at work, heading public relations for Hot or Not (which could use some). By all accounts, Sacco was very good at her job, so I’m happy to see she’s landed somewhere with an opportunity to continue doing great work while applying the lessons of her downfall to her new gig. Read more

Research

Shocker: Only half of communicator align work to corporate strategy and goals—Come on. Really, Really? How long do we have to trumpet the fundamental communication requirement of aligning communication work to company strategies and goals? But according to a benchmarking survey, only half of communicators are doing so. The study also found that communicators at high-performing companies are twice as likely to keep language jargon-free, 80% more likely to have a process for creating great company stories, twice as likely to make emotional connections to their audiences, and 60% more likely to think about communication from the audience perspective. Is there a correlation here? Are the companies high-performing because of better communication practices, or do high-performing companies inspire better communication? Some of both, most likely. Read more

Consumers want more control over entertainment—Call it “selfie style.” That’s how Gail Becker, president of strategic partnerships and global integrations at Edelman, characterizes the way consumers want their entertainment. The study—which covered the US, UK, and China—shows that online and on-demand access to entertainment has made binge-watching the norm. Respondents in all markets also multi-task while watching entertainment. Consumers are as likely to share information about the entertainment they watch as they are to share information about their friends. While YouTube is a valuable entertainment source for 79% of respondents, TV shows remain the top source of entertainment in all markets. Read more

See positive updates, post positive updates—People who see positive status updates tend to post their own upbeat items on Facebook, while seeing negative posts leads people to post their own. Neutral posts, absent of emotion altogether, result in less posting from those who read them. The Facebook study of its News Feed, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science contradicts a year-old study that suggested reading Facebook updates made people depressed. It also provides a clue about how to engage users. Read more

Brands are questioning the value of agency networks—Mynewsdesk has found 75% of marketers, PR practitioners and communications professionals think brands will question their investment in large agencies, concluding small agencies can deliver equally good results by using communications technology. Marketers were particularly cynical about large agency networks, with 93.5% questioning their value. A mere 17% of respondents think brands are getting value from agencies contracted to manage their social media, and 45% weren’t sure social media agencies were worth the money. Read more

Most brand mentions are neutral—A study of more than a billion messages containing references to companies found that 76.6% of mentions were neutral. Only 17.6% were positive and 5.8% were negative. A lot of the neutral references were from people seeking customer service or support. Most interaction from influencers happens on Thursdays, according to the analysis, followed by Tuesdays. Read more

It’s early days for marketing automation—While it may seem that everybody has jumped on the marketing automation bandwagon, it really hasn’t seen much adoption outside of the tech sector. Overall adoption is only at about 3%, even with 70 vendors in the space. Read more

Resources

Report helps government managers measure social media—A new report from Maxwell School professor Ines Mergel, released by the IBM Center for the Business of Government, is designed to help government managers understand the tools government agencies are using to assess the effectiveness of their social media efforts. Read more

FBI has a list of Twitter shorthand—The document containing thousands abbreviations used on on Twitter—both popular and obscure. The FBI issued the document as “useful in your work or for keeping up with your children and/or grandchildren.” What would J. Edgar Hoover think? Read more

Twitter tracking tool notifies you of changes to bios—If you need to know when someone you follow on Twitter has changed his or her bio, you might want to turn to Bio is Changed, a tool that sends you an email alert whenever someone you follow makes such a change. Using the tool helped one reporter learn that Twitter’s sales chief had tweaked his job description and that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman added “Nobel laureate” to his bio. Read more