HC+T Briefing: The rapid devaluation of likes

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

Subject: HC+T Briefing: The rapid devaluation of likes

Date: July 10th 2015

July 10, 2015
Want to unsubscribe from this newsletter? Click here.

HC+T Briefing 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) on my link blog, which you're welcome to follow.

News

Facebook likes no longer a factor in calculating CPC -- The value of a Facebook like has been waning for some time, despite the desire a lot of companies still have for them. Likes have taken another hit with Facebook's revised calculation for what it charges for an ad, the CPC (cost-per-click). Likes, comments, and shares -- the trinity of content engagement -- are no longer part of the formula. Instead, Facebook is focusing on what it sees as the objectives of ads: clicks to visit another website, call-to-action clicks to another website, clicks on "Call Now" buttons in click-to-call ads, clicks to install an app, clicks to Facebook Canvas apps, and clicks to view a video on another website (such as YouTube). Read more

Facebook cedes more News Feed control to users -- Facebook has announced a set of features that gives individuals more control over what they want to see. Key among these features is a new control that lets you indicate which friends and pages are important to you; as a result, you'll see everything they post, and it'll appear at the top of your News Feed. Read more

How will Subway fare in the wake of the Jared scandal? -- No charges have been filed. In fact, nobody has suggested Subway spokesman Jared Fogle is guilty of anything. But since his home was raided in a child-porn investigation (his foundation's executive director was arrested on child-porn charges), speculation has been rampant that Subway will have a hard time dealing with the issue. In fact, Subway has "suspended" (not terminated) its relationship with Fogle. But brand experts quoted in USA Today don't think the situation will hurt the sandwich franchise operation. In fact, they've been handling the PR crisis just fine, the experts say. Read more

Brands were present for emoji game -- #NewMeaningsForEmojis quickly became a trend as people redefined what the graphic images really mean. Brands were there, too. In fact, according to one analysis, most of the tweets containing the hashtags came from brands. Among those jumping on the bandwagon were Domino's Pizza, Nissan, GE, Perrier, and Yankee Candle Co. Read more

ALS Association wants to bring back the Ice Bucket Challenge -- When the Ice Bucket Challenge flooded social media last year, it was clear that its success was purely organic. Nevertheless, the ALS Association -- the beneficiary of the grass-roots campaign -- is planning to bring it back in August. The association will use advertising to jump-start the campaign. I don't expect this will go well, since most of us have already been there/done that. Read more

Mobile and Wearables

New York Times plans to report on Pope's visit via WhatsApp -- The New York Times will conduct its first experiment with news delivery via chat app when it reports on Pope Francis' visits to Ecuador, Bolivia, and Paraguay via the chat app WhatsApp. Subscribing to the reports involves saving a phone number to your contacts, then texting POPE to that number. If this doesn't get you thinking about the kind of content you might deliver via chat app, I'm not sure what will. Read more

Clickable Paper could displace QR codes -- QR codes aren't dead. I scanned one the other day -- a Heinz ketchup bottle in a restuarant that let my wife and me play a trivia game. It had been scanned by nearly 2,000 people, according to my QR code app. But Ricoh's "Clickable paper" technology could render the QR code obsolete. Clickable Paper lets you scan an image, click on it, and get to useful related content on the web. Consider it Siri for print. Read more

There's branding potential in Meerkat update -- A new Meerkat feature lets users invite friends to take over their livestream. Users tap a viewer's profile and encourage him or her to view their stream. The feature -- called Cameo -- then lets the invited viewer take over the stream for up to a minute; his or her Twitter followers and Facebook friends get an alert about the stream. Either party can end the Cameo, sending it back to the person who started it. Several brands are already using it, including TMZ, Southwest Airlines, Applebee's, and Hulu. One possibility for brands is inviting "special guests" to a broadcast. Read more

Chat apps nip at Facebook's heels -- Six of the world's top 10 apps are messaging tools like WhatsApp, WeChat, and Line. These apps are used an average of nearly nine times per day; other apps are used only about twice a day. Deutche Bank estimates its messages in WhatsApp and Messenger are tapped 25-30 times per day, compared with 15 clicks for its Facebook posts. There are a lot of reasons these apps are gaining ground on more traditional social networking tools, with the expectation of a quick response one of the primary advantages. Don't expect messaging apps to make Facebook irrelevant any time soon -- after all, it owns both WhatsApp and Messenger -- but the challenge of earning revenue on chat apps is a daunting one. Read more

Line is now the fastest growing messaging app -- Line has overtaken WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger as the fastest-growing mobile messaging app. The Japan-based app rose 99% compared to 82% growth for Snapchat, 49% for WhatsApp and 71% for Messenger. Messenger and WhatsApp still have considerably larger audiences. Read more

Trends

Did Oreo do us all a disservice? -- Ever since the 2013 Super Bowl, marketers have been tripping over themselves on a rush to send out clever, real-time tweets about cultural events and breaking news in hopes of matching the buzz Oreo got with its "You Can Still Dunk in the Dark" tweet during the power failure at the Super Dome. The Oreo tweet set a dangerous precedent, according to Lars Dilberbauer, global social and search leader at Lego. Silberbauer argues that the compulsion to attach your brand to a news moment has distracted marketers from achieving real-time marketing's real potential. "Real-time is the opportunity to feel the pulse of our present and future consumer. Why should this be lumped into only one aspect of our marketing strategy?" Read more

Black Twitter gets its own Los Angeles Times beat reporter -- The Los Angeles Times has hired a beat reporter to cover Black Twitter, an increasingly important Twitter collective the media has so far been shrugging off. Freelance journalist Dexter Thomas will cover Black Twitter as part of the Times' effort to boost its overall digital reporting. Read more

Virtual Reality will affect shopper and B2B marketing -- Brands will go where consumers are, and consumers are about to flock to Virtual Reality. Using VR, brands can create stories that aren't possible using screen-based technology. Rather than building test stores (as companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, and Kimberly-Clark do), tests can be conducted in people's homes or offices, delivered through head-mounted displays. As for B2B, companies with large equipment can use the technology to demo or train people without spending a lot for travel or shipping. Read more

Marketers want to mine data from emojis -- As more and more people use emojis to communicate, brands are seeking ways to quantify value and measure brand sentiment based on the small images that are being substituted for words. Some agencies are already assessing the meaning of social posts that include emojis for brands like Campbell's and Allstate. Read more

Is web design dead? -- Designers need to shift their focus to products and ecosystems to stay relevant in the face of web design's demise. With the decline of web pages in the overall mix of the internet experience, web design has no future, according to Sergiou Nouvel, a users experience designer. A number of influences are killing web design, including the adoption of templates, the maturing of web design patterns, Facebook's dominance, and the rise of mobile. Designers aren't obsolete, though, he argues, since UX design is increasingly important. Read more

Hilton goes online for LGBT outreach -- Hilton Worldwide has partnered with award-winning journalist, author, and LGBT expert Steven Petrow to serve as an adviser and advocate for the hospitality company's inclusive marketing and outreach efforts. So far, he has conducted a Twitter chat on same-sex weddings and produced a recap of the GLAAD Media Awards and the Capital Pride Festival in Washington, D.C. Petrow's focus has been on etiquette and manners, with much of his effort appearing on Hilton's "Go Out" pages. The hospitality industry has been focusing on the LGBT community as a significant source of revenue. The outreach effort is one key point to pay attention to here; the other is the partnership with an established voice as a key element of the outreach plan. Read more

Can the love affair with apps last? -- Apps are wildly popular, but contextual information on mobile devices could displace apps. Google Now already knows its users well based on its ability to absorb information from your activities, calendar, contacts, and location, delivering contextual information to you before you know you need it. Google Now already delivers information from 100 services, and as its popularity increases, more will sign on. Google Now On Tap lets you get contextual information from anywhere, even inside another company's app. Some experts prect that contextual information could eventually displace third-party apps. Read more

Verizon poised to become a top distributor of OTT video -- Video delivered via Over-the-Top (OTT) services is booming, and Verizon wants a piece of the pie. Its Verizon Digital Media Services works with content publishers and broadcasters to distribute their content; the company delivers over 150 million hours of streamed content each month. Read more

Upworthy shifts from curation to creation -- Upworthy's reputation was built on writing incredibly effective clickbait headlines for videos and other content it had found elsewhere on the Web. The company announced this week that it plans to tell its own stories, producing more original socially-minded editorial and video content. Read more

Research

Finding and engaging influencers is harder than it looks -- Social media influencers have become more sophisticated and marketers are having a hard time keeping pace with them. A report from SoftwareAdvice notes that marketers are worried about beating their competitors at securing influencers for their campaigns. They're having trouble, though, finding the right brand advocates, reaching them, and predicting their behavior. Read more

Tablets are replacing laptops at work -- Forty percent of business users rely solely on a tablet for their enterprise computing; the figure rises when you add two-in-one hybrid devices to the mix. According to research from IDC, the percentage of workers using tablets exclusively is posed to rise. Read more

Social media drives shift in consumer preferences for sports content -- Sports fans are more and more interested in user-generated content in addition to traditional sports media. Sports brands are incorporating social media into their marketing mix, and even ESPN has a SportsCenter feature called #Fantake. Among the top 10 sports content creators are two energy drink companies that have gotten into the content game -- Monster and Red Bull -- the GoPro camera brand, and Dude Perfect (a group of former high school basketball players who have become YouTube stars with social media reach exceeding 20 million). Social media reach has also powered the content produced by FC Barcelona, the NBA, and UFC. Sports Illustrated didn't make the top 10. Read more

You also need to know...

The right to take pictures of public places is under threat -- In Europe, the right to share pictures of public places is restricted, and it could get worse, according to Wikimedia co-founder Jimmy Wales. The lights on the Eiffel Tower at night are considered a separate artistic installation, which makes it illegal to publish pictures of them without permission. Wikipedia's article on the Belgian Atomium includes no photos because pictures of it are restricted from free use. Pending European parliament legislation could extend this restriction of "panorama" photos to all of Europe. Read more

My blog posts this week focused moreo n leadership issues than communications. I didn't plan it that way, but these were top-of-mind issues for me.

Cross-functional teams don't need to go bad

According to a Harvard Business Review report, three-quarters of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional. I found that odd, considering two big successes I'm aware of were the result of work done by cross-functional teams. What it takes to make a cross-functional team work is a combination of clear goals and a mandate from the C-suite. Read more

Team-build exercises unrelated to work don't build teams

Ever been to a Ropes course with colleagues from your department? Depending on your personality, it may or may not have been a fun weekend. Odds are, though, it didn't help when it came time to tackle a serious departmental issue. In fact, all of those team-building exercises unrelated to the real work of the team amount to very little. Read more

This week on the FIR Podcast Network

Neville returned from his month-long break for episode 815 of The Hobson & Holtz Report. We covered the communication challenges Microsoft faces in releasing Windows 10, the shift in consumer behavior that makes content discovery an important consideration for marketers, PR's role amidst the increase in citizen journalism, and brands' sudden interest in Virtual Reality. We also reported on Meerkat's role in Discovery Channel's Shark Week, MasterCard's plan to use selfies instead of passwords, the US Postal Service's plan to offer digital mail, and a new podcast series from Ireland. Dan York reports on the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses and more in his weekly Tech Report. Listen
Martin, Joe, and Gini discuss Apple's swift response to Taylor Swift's objection to Apple's decision not to pay artists for music streamed from its new service during a free three-month trial period. Listen
On Digital India #5, staff and students of Bangalore's Web Marketing Academy share news and updates about Prime Minister Narenda Modi's social media diplomacy and the Indian government's preparation of a comprehensive dossier on media coverage of events. Listen
Kevin Anselmo talks about how live mobile streaming apps can be used in institutions of higher education. Kevin's guests are Clemson Markeeting Director Jimmy Sanderson, University of Louisville Assistsant Professor Karen Freberg, and Georgia Tech Assistant AD for Communications Chris Yandle. Listen
FIR B2B #30 looks at paid digital marketing with guest Greg Johns, who runs digital strategy for Initiative. Listen
On Thought Leader Life episode 77, Mitchell Levy and Todd Van Hoosear welcome guest Paul Gillin (host of FIR B2B) to talk about empowering frontline employees. Listen
In an FIR interview from the Digital India team, you'll hear Prasant Naidu, founder and blogger at Light House Insights, discuss his experiences in the India content business. Listen
Inside PR #414 features Joe, Gini, and Martin talking about three items PR practitoners need to know about: Meerkat's embeddable video viewer, the new streaming video app Yeplive, and new code enabling Google's hotword feature. Listen

In July, Ann Wylie and I co-present our writing workshop for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Washington.
On August 6 (my birthday), I'm presenting a pre-conference session in Chicago at Ragan Communications' Visual Communications Summit.
Also in August, Ann Wylie and I will present our web writing workshop at PRSA Puget Sound.
In September, I travel to the U.K. to teach a two-day social/digital media workshop for the International School of Communication.
I'm delivering the opening keynote at a joint session of CorpComm Expo and EduComm Expo in Atlanta in early October.
In October, I'll speak to the Association of Public Relations Professionals of Puerto Rico at their conference in San Juan.

Advice and help on demand

Organizations like the International Monetary Fund, Robert Half, Florida Power & Light, and others have had me on retainer so they can call on a moment's notice for help and advice on issues ranging from digital and social media to employee and crisis communications. A retainer guarantees a set number of my hours each month are available to you -- and those hours are steeply discounted from my standard hourly rate. Interested? Give me a call.