Around the Web is your weekly source for curated news, research, reports and posts that may have slipped by unnoticed, but that could prove useful to communicators and marketers. (It's also somewhat abbreviated this week, since my travel schedule has taken away some of the time I would normally spend with the bulletin.) I collect items that I consider including in the Wrap (as well as my podcast) at my link blog, Links From Shel, which you're welcome to follow.

News

Celebrities suing brands for tweets -- The pharmacy chain Duane Read tweeted a paparzzi's photo of actress Katherine Heigle walking out of one of their stores. Now, she's suing. Duane Read used Heigl's name and image to enhance its brand value without her permission. Her attorneys argue the company's distribution of the image suggests she's endorsing the brand. The case raises a lot of interesting issues, many of which are covered here.

LinkedIn a source of internal candidates -- LinkedIn has announced it will begin alerting users to jobs open at their own companies. The move is designed to help recruiters identify internal candidates, helping companies maintain the talent the already have. Read more

Lock-screen app acquisition could remake Twitter -- Twitter has purchased Cover, which makes an app that takes over your Android lockscreen. Cover "senses your movements, watches your daily schedule, and then serves up shortcuts to a shortlist of apps you're likely to want right now, according to a report in Wired, which speculates that Twitter could use the app to push tweets to the front of your phone while replacing other notification systems.

Blogger's caper exposes problems with domain ownership -- Jordan Reid weaves quite a tale of the sting he had to mount in order to retrieve a domain he owns that was stolen from him. The thief used the site host's email confirmation system to authorize the transfer of the domain, which was then put up for auction. Reid's complex scheme worked, but domain owners shouldn't have to go to such lengths to retrieve what's theirs. This is a giant gaping hole in the domain name system that needs to be addressed. Read more

Trends

Social media now a standard job-hunting tool -- 77% of employers used social networking sites to recruit employees last year, a 56% jump from 2011. 21% of those seeking work found their "favorite or best" position via social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Read more

Cosmo's sponsored cover a sign of things to come -- Overlaying the cover of Cosmopolitan's May issue will be a pasted-on cover sponsored by L'Oreal Paris. Distributed to subscribers (not on newsstands), the cover -- designed by Cosmopolitan's editorial staff -- features a tease for a L'Oreal contest. Some are decrying the move as a blurring of the lines and a possible violation of The American Society of Magazine Editors' guidelines, but others see it as the kind of move -- a form of native advertising -- that can save the magazine industry. Read more

Is the strike-through correction on its way out? -- Gawker's new editor has instructed writers "for corrections, rather than strikethrough, change the wording and link from there to a comment noting the corrected text." The strikethrough has been social media's go-to method for corrections, used everywhere from individual blogs to the Washington Post. Editor Max Read's rationale is that strikethroughs don't always appear for readers or appear on all platforms. Read more

Legal matters

Research

Teens still losing interest in Facebook -- Instagram is on the rise as a teen channel of choice as interest declines in Facebook, according to Piper Jaffray's semi-annual survey of U.S. teenagers. Instagram is the most important social network for 30% of those surveyed, the first time it has topped the survey chart. Interest in Facebook fell from 27% to 23%. Twitter also fell, from 31% to 27%. Facebook was the top social network a year ago. None of this means teens are abandoning Facebook. As previous studies note, that's just too hard, given the features Instagram doesn't offer. Read more

Millennials trust peers over professionals -- User-generated content -- media created by your peers -- is 20% more influential among Millennials and 35% more memorable than other types of media. According to an infographic reflecting the results of Ipsos research, 59% of Millennials say they use UGC to inform their electronics purchase decisions, 54% use it to decide which car to buy, 53% for major appliance acquisitions, 46% for mobile phones, 45% for choice of hotel, and 40% for travel plans. Read more

Video improves engagement and reach for CPG brands -- Marketers at consumer packaged goods companies are ramping up video budgets; the number of videos marketers serve up could exceed the current industry-leading 19%, according to eMarketer. The automotive and financial services industries are in second place, each responsible for 12% of videos served daily. Advertisers, media companies and ad agencies agree that video is ideal for targeting customers and reaching consumers who aren't exposed to TV ads. Read more

The sharing economy is poised to double in a year -- Consumers plan to double the amount they take advantage of sharing services in the next year, according to a new study from Crowd Companies. Much of the growth will come from what the company calls Neo-Sharers, someone who already shares much of their life across goods, services, transportation, space and money. Most of the growth will come in the marketplace for pre-owned goods, but there will also be more sharing of professional services, personal services, transportation, places to stay, and crowdfunding, among other categories. Read more

Great ideas

Social networks at center of Game of Thrones tribute -- HootSuite, using mostly internal resources, has created a stunning video that pays homage to the opening credits of HBO's original series, Game of Thrones. Instead of the kingdoms of Westeros, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and other networks represent the entities vying for supremacy. Watch the video

Zippo engages youth with hashtag campaign -- Zippo, the iconic cigarette lighter brand, isn't on the top of most Millennials' gift list. With smoking on the decline, it's not the popular item it once was. To ignite (sorry about that) interest, Zippo is launching a campaign housed at ShareThePain.com and is introducing the related hashtag, #ShareThePain. The focus is on sharing stories of beloved lighters people have lost. The campaign is based on research that found 68% of Zippo owners have misplaced one. The site will host images people share, accompanied by the tales of their lost lighters. Read more

Clorox hosts a Twitter party -- For the evening of April 9, Clorox hosted a four-hour twitter party in which parents submitted everyday messes they had to deal with and Clorox re-enacted them. The Ick Awards party featured SNL alum Rachel Dratch and members of The Second City Communications improv troupe. The reenactments were available on Clorox's YouTube channel. Read more

Think Spring campaign lets digital gardeners share images and chat -- Troy-Bilt, the gardening and yard care equipment maker, has launched its Think Spring program that lets gardeners share 60-to-90-second partially animated videos offering gardening tips and showing off their own gardens. By uploading pictures and text to the site, users see their content transformed into a video, which they can then share via Facebook and twitter; the content is also collected in a public gallery for consumer voting. Eight finalists will be eligible for product prizes. Read more

Recent posts

Chili's controversy just one case of social media driving a brand to take a stand on a social issue -- Chili's was planning to donate 10% of customer receipts from diners who requested it to the National Autism Association, but backed off when the restaurant chain's Facebook page was flooded with protests from customers who disliked the association's anti-vaccination position. Canceling the one-day program angered those who still believe (mistakenly) that vaccinations can cause autism. Read more

Employee activists are a good thing: one more reason to encourage workers to use social media -- Research that shows the number of employee activists is rising offers organizations one more reason to stop blocking employee access to social media and provide channels that encourage workers to engage on the company's behalf. Read more

This week on FIR

• On episode 750 of The Hobson & Holtz Report, Neville and I talked about a stody finding that third-party reports are more credible than branded content, how to move local customers from your blog to your business, whether Facebook is still a viable channel for brands seeking organic reach, Copyblogger's experiment with a comment-less blog, Google Glass's app that detects emotions and transmits them to retailers, the SEC's approval of third-party social media endorsements for investment advisers, and HPR's experiments with voice-recognition-enabled mobile ads. You'll also hear Dan York report on Twitter ads and A/B testing from Facebook, while Asia correspondent Michael Netzley looks at Asian mothers as Internet users. Listen
• Glenn gaudet talks with Matt Heinz, founder of Heinz Marketing, about social sales on the latest installment of AMP UP Your Social Media. Listen
• Joe Thornley and Martin Waxman talk with their co-host, Gini Dietrich, about her new book, Spin Sucks, on episode 368 of Inside PR. Listen
• Mitchell and Michael talk with Bonny Harvey and Michael Houlihan, the couple behind the success of Barefoot Wine, on Thought Leadership. Listen
• Episode 16 of FIR On Strategy features Andrea Vascellari talking about the methodologies you can use to define your strategies. Listen

• I'm conducting a webinar later this year for PeopleFluent. Details to come.
• Next week, I'm off to Grand Rapids, Michigan to lead a digital planning session for Spectrum Health.
• 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.

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