HC+T Update: April 10, 2015

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

Subject: HC+T Update: April 10, 2015

Date: April 10th 2015

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

The HC+T Update is a weekly review of news, posts, reports, and other items appearing in the last week that will help you stay on top of the forces shaping communication in this fast-paced, ever-changing environment. These are stories that may have been lost in the flood of headline news stories. I collect all of the items from which I choose the Update stories in my link blog, which you're welcome to follow.

News

About those teens fleeing Facebook... -- Facebook continues to be the number-one social network among teens, according to new research from the Pew Research Center. Seventy-one percent of all teens use it. The study also found that 73% of teens have access to smartphones. Only 11% of teen cell phone users are using anonymous apps like Whisper and YikYak. What's clear to Pew is that teens are diversifying their use of social media platforms. They're "not leaving Facebook; they hold onto those profiles," according to Pew's associate director of research, Amanda Lenhart. But they may not use their Facebook accounts as much as they also spend time on apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Vine. Read more

Twitter launches "retweet with comment" -- Adding a comment to a retweet can be tough if the original tweet is already 125 characters long. To address the problem, Twitter has launched a "retweet with comment" feature that lets you embed the original tweet in your own, adding to the character count you can include in your own commentary. The feature is available on the Twitter website and the iPhone app, with integration into the Android app due soon. Read more

YouTube offers ad-free subscription -- If those pre-rolls on YouTube videos frustrate you, this is the news you've been waiting for. Soon, you'll be able to subscribe for a monthly fee to get those videos without the ads. A launch date and exact price hasn't yet been announced. Read more

Facebook Messenger comes to the desktop -- Facebook's Messenger app -- which has amassed half a billion active users -- is now accessible via the desktop at messenger.com. The service is separate from the primary Facebook page, but users need their Facebook accounts to log in. Messaging will continue to be available on the main site. Read more

Google wants to connect you with local home-service providers -- If you label Google a search engine, you may want to reconsider. Google is a personal information service company, a category it's expanding with a new service designed to connect searchers with local home-service providers, such as electricians and plumbers. It's part of a larger effort to connect users and businesses. Google Compare, for instance, has launched a car insurance service that displays a rate comparison for a user's zip code; a similar service for mortgages could be in the works. Read more

Judge okays Facebook as a channel for serving divorce papers -- A woman trying to serve divorce papers on her husband, who has no fixed address, is free to notify him via Facebook. The notifications will appear weekly for three weeks, with the papers serving their purpose -- severing the marriage -- whether or not he acknowledges the notifications. The ruling opens the door for anyone to file divorce papers through the social network. Read more

LinkedIn buys Lynda.com -- LinkedIn, the social network focused on business, has paid $1.5 billion for Lynda.com, an online learning site. Courses on Lynda.com cover business, technology, software, and creative skills. The purchase gives LinkedIn's 350 million users access to the learning platform. Read more

JP Morgan's program identifies rogue employees -- How's this for Orwellian? A new financial services-industry surveillance program from JPMorgan Chase will review dozens of inputs, such as attendance records at compliance classes, violation of personal trading rules, or breaching market-risk limits. The data will be fed into the software to identify employees who are likely to go rogue before they cause too much trouble. Read more

You can buy a book on Oyster -- Oyster has been a subscription service: Pay a monthly fee and read all you want from the book site. But the startup has announced it's launching an e-book store, taking on Amazon in the digital book sales category. The world's biggest publishers are backing the move, hoping the competition will give them some leverage over Amazon. Some of the publishers getting on board resisted the subscription model. Hachette, for example, wouldn't have joined Oyster had it remained a subscription-only service. Read more

Trends

Consumer use of ad blockers grows, fueling publisher concerns -- If everybody installs ad blocking software, how much incentive will there be for businesses to buy online ads from publishers? Privacy and security are the main reasons people are loading ad blocking software, along with a general dislike of ads and the fact that pages load faster without them, according to the Internet Advertising Bureau. The latest numbers show 5% of Internet users worldwide have installed ad blockers, up from 3% a year earlier, and the trend is continuing upward, with mobile ad blocking getting popular, as well. As the trend continues, native advertising could look even more attractive to both publications and advertisers. Read more

Expect to see mobile live streaming in the upcoming election -- Among the early adopters of Meerkat, the mobile live video streaming app, was presidential hopeful Jeb Bush, who streamed a radio appearance. U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez released a jobs report via Periscope, Twitter's live video streaming app. Recently announced presidential candidate Rand Paul has been live-streaming, too. Outgoing White House communications czar Dan Pfeiffer expects that "Every minute -- literally every minute -- of every day of the campaign will be available live to anyone who wants it, no matter where they are." He has dubbed 2016 "the Meerkat election." Read more

Business travelers take to Uber -- Uber may constantly be at the center of controversy thanks to its scandal-inducing CEO and a host of other issues, but business travelers seem to love it. Uber accounted for 47% of all rides expensed by employees whose companies use Certify, one of the more popular travel and expense management tools. During the period Certify studied, the amount spent on taxis, limos, and airport shuttles dropped 33%, from 85% to 52%. Read more Business travelers also move to AirBnB -- Business travelers are booking rooms via AirBnB, opting to avoid the typical hotel experience. Workers appreciate having AirBnB as an approved lodging option from their employers. Two workers for VOX Media paid $320 a night for a two-bedroom apartment in San Francisco -- less than $150 a night per employee, less than a typical hotel would have cost -- and it came with a full kitchen. Read more

Racially-diverse emoji debut on latest iOS update -- iOS 8.3 features an expanded set of racially diverse emoji. Tap and hold the icon of any human-looking emjoi and you'll see the options available, that include various shades of skin color. Read more

Facebook attracts 75% of all social ad spending -- There are no signs that Facebook's dominance in social advertising will abate any time soon, with the social network attracting 75% of all ad spending on social networks in 2014. Twitter drew an 8% share. Total social ad spending is expected to reach nearly $20 billion by the end of this year and $24.2 billion the end end of next year. Read more

Brands find ways around Facebook's video rules -- Facebook's rules are clear: You can't post a third-party branded entertainment video unless there's an ad sale involved with Facebook getting its cut. That hasn't stopped Epic Meal Time from featuring Chevrolet branded videos on its page. YouTube series Taste Buds has started sharing videos on Facebook with heavy branding from Ford. One reason they're able to get away with the rules violation: Facebook's failure to police the practice. That could change as more brands break the rules. Read more

Newspapers tap Instagram to find new readers -- In the short month since The New York Times launched its Instagram account dedicated to general news coverage, 55,000 users have followed the newspaper. Other large newspapers have taken to Instagram as well, mostly to build awareness among users of the publications' brands. This American Journalism Review looks at six papers that have taken to Instagram. Read more

Mobile and Wearables

YouTube enhances mobile ad interactivity -- YouTube's new service, TrueView ads, let viewers skip pre-rolls before they end, but also let advertisers add "cards" that highlight related content as the video plays. TrueView will also direct links to outside websites via mobile, a feature previously only available on desktop computers. Read more

Ello to launch a mobile app -- Remember Ello? It's that social network that got a ton of attention when ad-hating users migrated to it from Facebook. The company is about to launch an iPhone version of the site, which "looks like an art director's take on Tumblr, with an emphasis on clean, sparse design and Ello's social feed," according to The Daily Dot. Ello is also readying a redesign of its website. Read more

Smartphone app enables audio search -- A smartphone app from Casio Computer lets iPhone users search audio recordings by typing in the words they're looking for. Read more

Is Augmented Reality coming to the U.S. Postal Service? -- The USPS inspector general has suggested that Augmented Reality could help grow its business by offering a "digital layer of information on top of real world images." AR glasses could allow letter carriers to better load and unload their vehicles. "While looking at the back of their truck, the glasses could add a layer of information displaying exactly where the letter carriers should place each package," according to a Government Executive article. Letter carriers could also verify a package is being delivered to the right person via facial recognition. Read more

Snapchat drops Best Friends list in favor of Friend Emojis -- Snapchat's Best Friends feature listed people a user interacted with most frequently. The lists were public, allowing others to sneak peeks at who you were sending your snaps to. In January, an update made the lists private, but now they're going altogether. In its place, Snapchat has introduced a Friend Emoji feature only you can see. The emojis will appear beside your "best friends" contacts in your feed, displaying clues like "You're Each Other's #1 BF" and "You're Their BF...But They're Not Yours." Read more

Great Reads

Podcasting can serve a company's advocacy agenda

The lawyers for Adnan Syed -- the subject of the wildly popular Serial podcast -- have launched their own podcast to make the case for Syed's innocence. Why couldn't companies do the same? If there's a social or political issue important to the organization, a podcast series could be a brilliant way for the company to make its case. Read more

This week on FIR

Episode 802 of The Hobson & Holtz Report features conversations about the wisdom of live Q&A sessions via social media on channels like Twitter and Reddit, the potential for live-streaming video apps for internal communications, the importance of the Millennial category called Gen-narrators, and whether social media continues to be treated as an afterthought by PR agencies. We also report on alarming declines in social media use by the Inc. 500, the BBC's updated social media guidelines, and what reporters want from online newsrooms. We also have the Asia Report from Michael Netzley and the Tech Report from Dan York. Listen
Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman cover the latest news and trends in B2B communication on episode 25 of FIR B2B. McKinsey research reveals the B2B purchase journey is starting to look a lot more like the B2C path and government agencies are letting scientists talk more freely about their research. Paul and Eric also interview Yamah's customer experience director, Jeff Hawley. Listen
On episode 63 of Thought Leader Life, Mitchell Levy and guest co-host Jim Canfield (CEO of Renaissance Executive Forums) talk with Bruce McLennan, the Franswroth Group's national strategy manager for commercial development. Listen
In an FIR interview, contributor Harry Hawk chats with Dennis Yu, a Facebook marketing consultant, about organic reach and the increasing importance of supplementing free posts with paid media. Listen
On the 100th episode of Young PR Pros, Kristine and Julia discuss the value of accreditation with Ross Simmonds, a marketer, strategist, and entrepreneur. Listen
Major disruption to traditional news media from live streaming apps and Facebook's desire to serve as a delivery mechanism for news from The New York Times (among others) is the theme of episode 406 of Inside PR. Listen
Chuck Hester explains some new LinkedIn features, including LinkedIn Security and LinkedIn Education, on Linked Conversations #26. Listen

On April 23, I'll present a pre-conference workshop at Ragan's conference on visual communication in Portland, Oregon. (Information and registration are here
Ann Wylie and I are bringing our two-day writing workshop to Thrivent Financial in Minnesota in April.
Ann and I are also presenting our workshop to IABC's Pacific Plains region in Minneapolis in April.
I'll be in Nebraska in May to present a two-day workshop on social media to the leadership of a national financial services institution.
I'm speaking twice at the IABC World Conference in San Francisco in June. (Information and registration are here)
In June, I make my annual trek to Sao Paulo, Brazil, for three days of instruction for senior communicators, part of the ABERJE/Syracuse Univesity certificate course in executive communications.
Also in June, I'll deliver another precon at another Ragan Visual Communications Summit, this time in Denver.
On August 6 (my birthday), I'm presenting a pre-conference session in Chicago at Ragan Communications' Visual Communications Summit.
In September, I travel to the U.K. to teach a two-day social/digital media workshop for the International School of Communication.
In October, I'll speak to the Association of Public Relations Professionals of Puerto Rico at their conference in San Juan.

Does your team's skill set match your company's digital strategy?

If you read the item above about expanding skill sets, you have an idea how important it is to be prepared for the specific activities you and your team will be required to execute. My colleagues and I have identified more than 30 specific skills that could be necessary, depending on the nature of your company's digital and social strategy. Are your skills aligned with the strategy? What new skills do you need? We can audit the skills among your communicators and find the gaps that need to be filled in order to deliver the best possible performance. Let's talk. (In the meantime, you can find more information at SME Squared.)