HC+T Update: May 16, 2014

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

Subject: HC+T Update: May 16, 2014

Date: May 16th 2014

May 16, 2014
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Here's your weekly curated rundown of news, reports and posts from the past week that, while they didnât go viral or attract much attention, are still interesting and useful for communications professionals. I select Wrap items from my link blog, which youâre welcome to follow at http://tumblr.com/blog/LinksFromShel

News

FCC takes first step to ending net neutrality -- The Wrap is usually reserved for items you may not have heard about anywhere else, but this one is too important to skip. The U.S. telecommunications regulator advanced a proposal on Thursday that would let Internet providers (like Comcast, Verizon and AT&T) charge content companies for faster and more reliable delivery of their traffic to users. While the proposal claims that it would ban providers from slowing down access for anyone else, you can't have a fast lane without also having a slow lane. Consumer prices for these services are also likely to rise as content companies (like Netflix) pass the costs along to their customers. Protests against this assault on net neutrality continue, let by content providers like Google and Amazon. The comment period includes opportunities for the public to weigh in. Read more

Target CMO gets transparent after Gawker publishes employee rant -- Using LinkedIn as a platform, Target CMO Jeff Jones responded to an employee rant about the company published by Gawker. The employee blasted the retailer's leadership and called for the dismissal of the entire executive team. "While we would have preferred to have a conversation like this with the team member directly, speaking openly and honestly, and challenging norms is exactly what we need to be doing today and every day going forward," Jones wrote. "In the coming days and weeks we will embrace the critiques of Target -- whether it's from outsiders or our own team -- like an athletics team puts the negative press onthe wall in the locker room...Our job now is to create a new truth and that is exactly what we are doing." Reaction has been mixed. Read more

Ad injection scheme hits big sites -- You wouldn't expect to see a Target ad in the middle of Walmart's website, but there it was, plain as day. No, Walmart didn't sell the space to its competitor. It's a ploy that uses browser extensions "to place ads on the websites of some of the biggest advertisers in the world." The ads are "forcefully injected" onto the sites by third parties who sell the ads without obtaining the site owner's permission. Those behind the scheme call themselves 215 Apps and sometimes Engaging Apps. "This is an industry-wide problem that needs attention from all advertisers and definitive action from suppliers," according to Amy Furman, Geico's marketing director. Read more

Research

Using social media coverage as social proof can backfire -- Sharing media coverage and publicity as social proof can backfire, according to a survey by Marcia Yudkin, since people don't all react positively. Yudkin wanted to know whether seeing in the media that a local financial adviser had received publicity in national media outlets would lead respondents to be interested in hiring him. "A sizable minority replied that the media coverage made them less interested in hiring the adviser," Yudkin writes. "This surprised me." Comments left by respondents offered three explanations: that the adviser's rates would be higher, that he might not be available, and that he might have an inflated ego that would make him hard to work with. "With no additional information, people jumped to conclusions about fees, availability and personality from the mere fact of media coverage," Yudkin writes. This is information you could use in planning your own publicity. Read more

People read more posts on the weekends -- You write and publish a blog post mid-week -- right when your target audience is working and not likely reading blog posts. TrackMaven's study suggests 87% of blog posts are published during the week, but the 76.1 million blog readers in the U.S. do most of their reading and sharing on the weekend. Content published on the weekend was share more than on any weekday, "indicating that marketers posting to blogs could get a bigger bang for their buck by publishing posts when readers have more time to read and share -- on the weekends." Read more

Americans want original content from brands -- Sixty-two percent of Americans want to see content directly from their favorite brands, according to a WP Engine study conducted by TNS. Their next most desired content feature tips on using a brand's products (44%) customer testimonials (34%) and "anything that does not blatantly 'sell' a company's products," according to a press release. Hardly any customers (only 4%) are interested in how celebrities use a product. Almost half of respondents (46%) read their favorite brands' blogs. These consumers say frequent posting to a brand blogs lets them stay up-to-date, gives them a more personal connection to the company, and gives the brand a voice. Conversely, brands that don't post frequently enough lose their connection with customers and appear lazy. Read more

CEOs get optimistic -- The Trust Agenda, a PwC survey, finds CEOs believing trust in their industries is on the rise. The reasons include greater emphasis on positive growth with a longer-term orientation that is more sustainable and socially responsible. Perhaps those CEOs should take a gander at the Edelman Trust Barometer in order to realign their thinking with reality. Read more

Millennials expect brands to use their data -- Privacy concerns get a lot of coverage these days, but a survey of 1,800 millennials by SDL found that those in the U.S. are more likely to respond to brands when those brands use data specific to the customer to create a contextualized and personal customer experience. Read more

Mobile

Snapchat is now the messaging app champ -- Snapchat is the top third-party messaging app in North America by volume, producing more traffic daily than competing apps like WhatsApp, the popular messaging app Facebook acquired. According to network traffic specialist Sandvine, Snapchat's ascent reinforces the importance of video and other media services. Snapchat is "constructed around data heavy features like picture (and now) video messaging, which gives it a major volume impact." Read more

Instagram matches Twitter for US users -- Instagram has surpassed 200 million users, bringing it parallel to Twitter in user and engagement levels among a strikingly similar user base. And the younger end of that user base prefers Instagram, according to a Piper Jaffray study on teen preferences. Another study finds Twitter has the greatest growth potential. Which should get most of your attention? It depends on whom you're trying to reach and what you want to talk them about. Read more

Law and regulation

In Europe, courts expect Google to erase links -- In Spain, Mario Costeja Gonzalez had some debt problems in the 1990s. Apparently, he's put those problems behind him, and now wants Google to eradicate links to content that relates to that part of his life. My first thought was, "That's absurd." Google's role is to index everything on the web without regard to its nature. But in a landmark ruling against Google, the court found that European data protection laws mean Google must erase those links. One hopes there are avenues of appeal, since this is, frankly, ridiculous on a number of levels. At the top of my list: How many bad guys will use the law to erase links to information we really need in order to avoid doing business with bad guys? Read more here and here

Great ideas

Microsoft welcomes Nokia employees with printed history -- Here's another one for those "print is dead" believers. Microsoft gave each Nokia employee who joined the company through the recent merger with a 128-page illustrated commemorative book. The "Day One" book "celebrates the two tech titans' history of innovation and the possibilities their new partnership holds," according to TCOLondon. Read more

Ritz-Carlton wants your six-word wows -- When an Internet meme gains traction, it's worth considering whether there's a way to adapt it to your brand's marketing efforts. That's what Ritz-Carlton did with the popular six-word memoirs and six-word stories sweeping the web. Six-word "wows" are being shared externally with the #RCMemories hashtag. Internally, staff are encouraged to tell their own six-word "wow" stories during daily 15-minute meetings. Read more

Six MORE reasons you don't need to worry about "content shock" -- The idea of content shock, as Mark Schaefer positions it, isn't that there's too much content for consumers, but rather that there's so much choice for consumers that it's not worth the effort for marketers to try to get their own content in front of eyeballs (unless you happen to have the deep pockets required to get it there). It's a notion I reject, and here are six reasons on top of those I posted in January that content shock shouldn't be an issue. Of note: You can market content effectively and profitably to just one person. Read more

This week on FIR

On The Hobson & Holtz Report, episode 755, Neville and I discuss how to create a meaningful social media analytics report leaders will read and appreciate, how to get hashtags right, why digital isn't the savior of the print news business, and why Vine's new website is a big deal for marketers. We also look at marketers' belief that they're underutilizing PR, the new Twitter profile coming your way soon, EasyJet's first-ever use of drones, and how Twitter may boost new users with a move toward recruiting. We also have our usual Asia Report from Michael Netzley and Technology Report from Dan York. Listen
I conducted an FIR Live -- using a Google+ hangout on Air -- to talk with four of the five members of IABC's 2014 class of Fellows. Watch or listen
Host Glenn Gaudet interview Ramsey Ksar, CEO of Blyive, about using social media for event marketing on episode 24 of AMP UP Your Social Media. Listen
On episode 22 of Thought leadership, Mitchell and Michael talk with Julio Viskovich about "sellarketing," social selling and the use of LinkedIn. Listen
Martin Waxman talks with Mark Evans, co-founder of the mesh conference, about to be held for the ninth time, on episode 372 of Inside PR. Listen
Paul Gillin and Allan Schoenberg cover the latest news and reports on B2B social media marketing and speak with Sharon Crost, who is responsible for Hitachi's Social Media Ambassador Club. Listen
On Higher Education episode 10, Kevin Anselmo talks with Jeremy Jurgens, managing director of the World Economic Forum. Listen
Yottaa Sales and Business Develop VP Morris Porter is Chuck Hester's guest on episode 14 of Linked Conversations. They talk about how Porter uses LinkedIn for recruiting, business development and content curation. Chuck also looks at LinkedIn's 300 million user milestone. Listen

I'm conducting a webinar in June for PeopleFluent. Details to come.
I'll be speaking multiple times at IABC's World Conference in Toronto, June 8-11.
On June 25, I'll be in Columbus, Ohio presenting a workshop for communicators from Owens Corning.
I return to Sao Paulo, Brazil, in August for three days of teaching at the national communications association, ABERJE.
In October, I'll head to Warsaw, Poland to speak at an internal communication conference.
In November, I'll speak at the Global Intranet Forum in New York.

Training modules

If the best way to train your employees on social media is through an online interactive module tailored to your company, we should talk. I have developed engaging, multimedia training modules for a number of organizations, including PepsiCo, the Corn Refiners Association, and Ragan Communications.