HC+T Update: June 14, 2013

From: "HC+T Update" <shel@holtz.com>

Subject: HC+T Update: June 14, 2013

Date: June 14th 2013

June 14, 2013
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Much of the buzz this week has focused on PRISM and the disclosures around government access to metadata from your phone calls. Some less controversial news also earned a fair amount of buzz, such as Facebook's launch of hashtags (which we'll get to in the roundup from around the Web a bit later in this update). As for me, I have a quick overnighter next week to speak at an internal social media conference at Expedia headquarters in Seattle, then I'm off to the IABC World Conference in New York, which should be quite an experience on a number of levels. If you plan to be at IABC, be sure to find me and say hi!

Whistleblowing is coming soon to a private-sector company near you

When Edward Snowden revealed he had leaked documents obtained while employed at Booz Allen, revealing that the National Security Agency was collecting metadata from phone carriers and big online services, he was immediately proclaimed a hero by privacy advocates and civil libertarians, even as others labeled him a traitor. These days, whistleblowing is more acceptable than it was even just six or seven years ago. Millennials in particular, with their focus on doing business with companies that behave ethically, are more inclined to support the exposure of wrongdoing. All of which may well lead to an increase in whistleblowing among employees. In a blog post, I dig deeper into the psyche of a generation that could make whistleblowing cool and explore some of the steps businesses need to take as it becomes more commonplace.

PressReader fits neatly into my news consumption routine

PressReader is a mobile app that brings complete newspapers and magazines to your tablet. In this app review, I offer plenty of screen shots as I explain why reading an entire publication using the print form as an interface actually fits into the bigger news consumption ecosystem evolving online.

A busy week for FIR

In addition to the usual Monday episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report, my podcast partner Neville Hobson and I have posted three interviews this week -- one with Zacharie Sabban and Jonathan Younes, founders of London-based Festicket, whom Neville interviewed at LeWeb London. Neville also interviewed Rossi Mitova, co-founder of Farmhopping. And I spent a few minutes with GaggleAmp founder Glenn Gaudet getting updated on how FIR's GaggleAmp experiment is going.

In case you're interested in more stories than I cover in the Update, you can always check out my link blog, which is where I collect the stories from which I draw the Wrap contents as well as the stories I cover on the podcast. I simply use the Tumblr bookmarklet to save stories to LinksFromShel.tumblr.com, which you're always free to peruse.

Hashtags come to Facebook

The community of Twitter users invented the hashtag, which has evolved into a handy search convention and a ubiquitous marker, appearing on news broadcasts, magazine ads and TV dramas. They are commonly employed by users of Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr and other sites. But not on Facebook. Sure, you could add one to a post if you wanted to, but Facebook wouldn't recognize it as anything special. Until now, that is. As of Thursday, hashtags on Facebook are clickable, "allowing readers to 'add context' to a post, and link it to a wider discussion," as explained by Ryan Huang in ZDNet, one of scores of sites reporting on the news. Marketers already using hashtags can now add the world's biggest audience to their efforts.

Negative social buzz can hurt sales

I know what you're thinking. "Duh," you're thinking. It's easy to know bad buzz can be a drag on sales, but proving it conclusively -- causal, not correlative, proof. It would be great if the data demonstrated that positive buzz can boost sales, but McKinsey & Co. has only been able to connect the dots on the negative side of the ledger. "The consulting firm found bad buzz for an unnamed telecom client hurt signups by 8%, 'offsetting their entire TV spend,' McKinsey principal Jonathan Gordan said," according to an AdAge Digital report.

Washington Post jumps on the sponsored content bandwagon

In a demonstration of the diverse approaches publishers are applying to sponsored content, the Washington Post has announced it will open its opinion pages to paid content from special interest groups. "Sponsored Views" first appeared on Wednesday with items like a wireless association's response to an earlier Post editorial on cyberattacks. That's just the kind of content the Post hopes to attract; it's intended for " trade groups, lobbying firms and advocacy organizations to post a branded response to editorial content appearing on Washingtonpost.com," according to The Wall Street Journal's William Launder. "However, traditional marketers are also able to use the service, a spokeswoman said. The response items are colored in yellow and carry a label to distinguish them from the paper's editorial content or readers' responses."

Meet Upworthy, the fastest growing site in history

Pinterest once held the title as the fastest-growing Website in history, an impressive feat considering it was accomplished while the image sharing site was still in invitation-only beta. But the crown has passed to a new champ, Upworthy. Until I read about it in FastCompany, I have to admit I hadn't heard of Upworthy. As Anya Kamenetz explains, the site is "dedicated to resharing stories with social impact." By "leveraging emotional data," the site attracted 8.7 million monthly visits in its first six months; currently it's pulling in more than 10 million per month. Launched by MoveOn founder Eli Pariser, is "kind of like a soulful Buzzfeed," Kamenetz writes.

Why disclosure beats ghost-writing in social media

I have opposed ghost-writing in social media since the earliest days of blogs. I know all the arguments supporting it. Like it or not, though, your audiences expect authenticity. The latest case study: George Takei. Takei (Star Trek's Mr. Sulu) has become a beloved contributor of charming content to a legion of Facebook users, many of whom were chagrined to learn that someone else is cranking out some of that content. Journalist Rick Polito let it slip Takei pays him "$10 per joke for producing content -- some of which 'got 10 likes per second for hours,'" writes Sam Laird for Mashable. Takei wasn't concerned, since he believes his role is to be there "to greet my fans with a smile or a giggle every morning." But the whole issue would never have been an issue in the first place if Takei had simply disclosed the fact that he pays for material from a number of sources. It won't matter much for Takei, an individual, but a similar disclosure about a CEO or thought leader could have longer-term implications for credibility and trust. If you're not the sole originator of the content that bears your name, disclose it and spare yourself potential future grief.

A like isn't worth squat to most social media users

Social media users have no problem liking brands. They click that like with wild abandon. Nearly 60% of socia media users have done it. "But when asked what impact their friends' likes had on them, the most common answer (35 percent) was none," according to AllFacebook's David Cohen, reporting on a new study from Adobe.

A preference for moving pictures

There's no denying Instagram's popularity, but six seconds of moving images appears to have even greater appeal. Videos shared on Twitter via the five-month-old Vine service are surpassing shares of Instagram photos. An analysis of traffic on June 7 found that Vines were shared 2.86 million times while Instagram shares came in at 2.17 million. "Vine also surpassed Instagram in user downloads on Google Play today (June 10)," writes Alana Abramson for ABC News. "Vine was the fourth most downloaded application in Google play, preceded only by Facebook, Candy Crush Saga and Pandora. Instagram was fifth." These shifts in the attention given to emerging platforms will undoubtedly have an impact on how communicators use them.

More multi-screen campaigns on the way

Consumers are looking across multiple screens for all kinds of content, so what marketer wouldn't want to have a presence on all of those screens? According to a Mixpo poll of industry professionals, almost three-quarters of advertising agencies are already "pushing multi-screen content to their consumer base," writes Kristina Knight in BizReport. Ninety percent will mount multi-screen campaigns in the next year. Mixpo's CEO touts multi-screen as a new way to view media mix. The article quotes Razorfish's Global Chief Media Officer Jeff Lanctot: "Every marketer should be thinking multiscreen first."

I'll be in Seattle on Wednesday discussing how to segment internal communications to different employee groups, part of Ragan's internal social media conference taking place at Expedia's headquarters.
I'm speaking on real-time marketing at the IABC World Conference on Sunday, June 22 in New York.
Barnes Jewish Hospital has hired me as a keynote speaker at a conference set for July 23.
I'm presenting three sessions at the World Council of Credit Union's annual meeting in Ottawa, Canada July 14-17.
I'm speaking on employee audience segmentation at an Expedia conference on June 19 in Seattle.
In August, I'm off to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to teach an executive communications certificate program for ABERJE.

Bring your communication staff up to speed

Just before knocking out this edition of the Update, I was wrapping up a call with the International Monetary Fund on preliminary research I've conducted as part of a traning engagement. Next month, I'll be conducting a 1-1/2-day workshop for the communications and public affairs staff to get them up to speed on social and digital media. If your staff could use training, and you want to make sure the training is relevant, targeted and geared to produce measurable results, give me a call at +1.415.881.7435. We'll talk.

Since 1996, HC+T has helped organizations communicate effectively in the emerging online space using intranets to reach employees and various dimensions of the Internet to communicate with other stakeholder audiences.

HC+T provides a full range of services for large organizations, from speaking and training to communication audits and strategic plan development.

Visit us at Holtz.com.

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