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Marietta Public Information OfficeThe Friday Wrap 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, along with stuff I just want to remember to read) on my link blog, which you’re welcome to follow.
News
Ad blocking impact not felt yet—It has been a week since Apple enabled ad blocking on iPhones. So far, few of the ad-blocking apps available have made it to the top 10 paid mobile apps and several publishers report little or no impact on their mobile traffic. The fear that ad blockers will wipe out revenues, ultimately leading content sites to shut down, could still come to pass, and a lot of publishers are taking steps to address the anticipated ad-blocking Armageddon. The Washington Post, for example, is blocking content from phones using ad-blocking apps, offering instead the opportunity to pay a subscription fee to get its articles. The takeaway: Advertisers need to do a better job with ads that don’t irritate consumers enough to drive them to install the apps or that the apps will ignore. For PR practitioners, there’s a huge opportunity to elevate native advertising, which ad-blocking apps will treat as content and not block. Read more
Facebook introduces 360-degree videos in the News Feed—Immersive content is going to be a bigger deal than most communicators realize, but Facebook (which owns Oculus Rift, the Virtual Reality company) definitely gets it. The latest evidence is the introduction of 360-degree videos to the News Feed. The first to be shared: a Walt Disney Company video tour of an alien planet from the upcoming “Star Wars” movie. Basketball superstar LeBron James has also uploaded a 360-degree video. These videos allow you to view a scene from any angle: up down, side-to-side, and behind you. Some consider this a form of Virtual Reality. The takeaway: Inventory your content and look for opportunities to produce your own 360-degree videos if it makes sense for the product, the brand, and/or the audience. These will be a big deal. Read more
Mayo Clinic joins the sponsored content fray—The Mayo Clinic—perhaps the most revered name in hospitals—will sponsor content in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. (The main Mayo Clinic campus is in Rochester, Minnesota, about a 90-minute drive from Minneapolis.) Mayo will produce infographics for the Star Tribune addressing health, disease, and condition treatment. Mayo says the native advertising deal is an opportunity for the hospital network to distribute medical content and introduce itself to a broader audience, while the Star Tribune sees it as a means to provide useful content from a trusted source through its website and its Sunday Science + Health section. The takeaway: While most of the chatter about native advertising is focused on ads masquerading as content in media outlets like The New York Times, there are other avenues for brands to take that would ignite little (if any) controversy while still elevating awareness of the brand. Read more
HBO’s reaction to Emmy stunt was perfect—Premium cable network HBO has said in the past that it’s aware that people share their HBO Go passwords with friends, and that they’re fine with that. Just how fine they are was put to the test when Emmy host Andy Samberg gave away a password during the award ceremony primetime broadcast. HBO reacted via Twitter, first tweeting, “Lucky for you, Andy Samberg is a very generous #Emmys host,” then, “If anyone needs some @HBO recommendations, we’ll be here all night. Apparently.” Then, HBO let people know that if the password wasn’t working, they could set up their own accounts free for 30 days. HBO Now received more than 8,000 mentions on Twitter after Samberg disclosed the password. The takeaway: Your company may not like what a public figure says about it, but responding with good humor may very well result in more business than going into attack mode. Read more
Periscope introduces web profiles—If you’re one of the 10 million Periscope users, you now have a dedicated desktop profile. The company said in a blog post that it’s important for broadcasters to have a home on the web. The introduction of profiles is just the beginning, according to the post. Periscope currently is streaming about 40 years’ worth of content (350,000 hours) every day. The takeaway: Streaming social video is no short-term fad, with even Facebook venturing into the streaming video waters. Look for opportunities to use live streaming apps to support brand activities. Also, since Periscope videos vanish after 24 hours, you’ll need to keep up a fairly aggressive pace lest your profile look bleak and empty. Read more
Facebook’s Signal lets journalists find and embed content—You’re reading an article on a news site—CNN, for instance—and see tweets embedded in the piece. Facebook would prefer it be their content, not Twitter’s that journalists use to enhance their reporting. That’s the idea behind Signal, a new Facebook tool for journalists that makes it easy for reporters to find, filter, and embed content from both Facebook and Instagram. Signal will feature content that’s trending. The takeaway: Journalists used to have to venture into events or make phone calls to get relevant quotes. Today, they find tweets (and could use Facebook or Instagram as an alternative.) Crafting your own content with this in mind could get your posts into news articles, which carry greater reach and enhanced credibility. You could get the same impact by amplifying the messages your biggest fans are sharing about you. It’s also an argument for maintaining a real-time marketing mentality, but applying it in ways that produce better results than simply firing off some clever tweet during an awards ceremony, music festival, or some other trending event. Read more
Vine stars aren’t happy with Facebook—You see a wonderful Vine video you want to share with friends. So you download it, then upload it to Facebook where your friends can see it. The creators of those Vine videos, many of whom earn considerable sums on Vine, don’t earn a cent when the video is copied and posted to Facebook. It’s the same gripe YouTube producers have with Facebook. They’re also not happy that their videos show up on YouTube, which also costs them views that translate into income, although YouTube and other Google-owned properties have the means to identify videos uploaded without permission from their creators; Facebook has no such capability. The takeaway: Digital content is easily copied and shared, even if you don’t want it to be. It’s important to be aware of the remedies available. As for your own behavior, know when you share a Vine or YouTube video on another platform, it could hurt the video’s producers. Read more
Research
Ideology not a factor in Americans’ perception of corporations—It doesn’t matter if you’re a liberal or a conservative. Odds are, you think America’s biggest corporations are “going in the wrong direction.” A survey of 40,000 Americans by independent nonprofit Just Capital found that most respondents from every political grouping believe corporations are getting worse instead of better. The organization’s executive director blamed a “feeling of vulnerability” for the skepticism. “They feel that companies are too focused on meeting the needs of the shareholder…corporations have become distanced from wider society and no longer prioritize things that matter to them,” said Martin Whittaker. The one group that believes corporations are headed in the right direction: those earning more than $200,000. The takeaway: Allowing this perception to persist can have an impact on everything from investments to recruiting. Communicators should focus on building better relationships with non-shareholder publics. Read more
User-generated content is marketers’ holy grail—What you say about your brand isn’t worth nearly as much as what your customers say. A new study from ratings and review company Reevoo found that 70% of consumers view peer recommendations more favorably than professionally-produced content from the company. The takeaway: Your social media strategy should include tactics that will inspire customers to create their own content. In addition to focusing on your existing brand advocates, you can host a contest, encourage photo sharing (with a designated hashtag), give away product people will talk about, and encourage customers to review your products. (Hospital network Inova, for example, is now asking patients to review doctors on the network’s website.) Read more
Facebook gets more attention from B2B marketers—B2B marketers are seeing more ROI from their Facebook investment than they were a year ago, according to an AdRoll report. According to the report, “B2B marketers’ click-through rates on Facebook have increased 140% while the average clicks-per-thousand-impressions have increased 115%. Further, average spend per advertiser has leaped 60%.” The takeaway: Yes, LinkedIn remains the top social network for B2B, but Facebook is getting increasingly harder to ignore, particularly for marketers willing to behave a bit more like B2C companies in order to produce leads. Read more
About that decline in referrals from Wikipedia…—A report that referral traffic from Wikipedia had dropped 40% led some to believe Google was favoring its own properties over Wikipedia. A study by Stone Temple Consulting found that Wikipedia appears in the top 10 search results more than half the time, with the online encyclopedia showing up in 7.33% of commercial search results, compared to 6.29% of informational queries. “The bulk of the Wikipedia traffic loss appears to be driven by rankings drops, as Wikipedia’s overall representation in the SERPs changes only slightly, but the site did lose many of its #1 and #2 ranking positions,” writes Eric Enge. He also notes that the prevalence of Wikipedia is greater than the degree to which Google displays its own properties. The takeaway: No, it’s not all over for Wikipedia, which may have dipped in rankings but continues to be a web behemoth and worthy of brands’ attention. Read more
Trends
Disney invests in VR startup—The Walt Disney Company is among the lead investors in Jaunt VR, a startup that has developed “an end-to-end cinematic virtual-reality content-creation platform that includes a custom camera capable of shooting high-end, professional-quality 360-degree footage, software for stitching the footage together, a distribution system, and a Los Angeles VR production studio.” The investment round totaled $66 million. The takeaway: There will be a huge pool of content from which early adopters of VR headsets will be able to choose. I know I keep hammering on this point, but you really do need to review your content strategy to see where VR could make sense for your audience and familiarize yourself with the technology as it gets easier and easier to develop VR content. Read more
Are you overlooking customer retention as a social media metric?—Laura Donovan, writing for the site B2C, says companies that rely on repeat business or renewed memberships need to pay attention to the various ways effective social media marketing can keep customers or members coming back for more. Most businesses, she writes, are “so focused on sales and new customers they overlook the necessity of their current customers to keep their business running.” The takeaway: Customers want to be acknowledged by the brands they buy from. They also want special offers and deals, and they want to learn. Directing some of your social media efforts to the middle of the marketing funnel can produce big returns. After all, it has long been believed that it’s easier to get your existing customers to do more business with you than it is to acquire a new one. It makes sense to add retention to your social media metrics. Read more
At least one company sees the connection between social media and sales—Social media’s great failure, we’re told with increasing regularity, is its failure to drive actual revenue. Not so fast, says Unilever. According to Shawn O’Neal, Unilever’s VP of global people data and marketing analytics, won’t disclose details of his analysis, but notes it was convincing enough for the company to commit tens of millions of dollars for the company to continue its social media activities. The data team also found that only one out of every 1,000 TV ad impressions drove a sale. The takeaway: You may not have the resources to analyze data that correlates social media activities with sales, but you can at least present evidence that it works at other companies. But keep an eye out for new measurement practices that can help you connect those dots (or refine your strategy so it begins producing more measurable sales). Read more
Washington Post expands Instant Article footprint—Despite concerns that Facebook’s Instant Articles will keep readers on Facebook rather than send them to the publication that produced the articles, the Washington Post is going all-in with the service. Rather than publish selected articles to the Facebook format, the Post will now publish every article both to its own site and to Facebook Instant Articles. Publisher Fred Ryan says the move will complement the increase in readership coming from Millennials and people accessing the Post via mobile. “Working with partners like Facebook allows us to further attract and engage those readers,” Ryan said. Instant Articles open much faster than it takes to follow a link to a new site, but they conform to Facebook design standards. The takeaway: While the growing popularity of Instant Articles is seen by many as a threat to the open Web, its popularity opens opportunities for businesses, ranging from advertising in the articles to developing a content strategy that includes the possibility that Facebook will open the service to businesses other than media companies. Read more
Harvesting images for marketing could draw regulatory attention—It’s not uncommon for brands to scour Instagram and other image-sharing sites for photos that feature their brands—like a child wearing your company’s clothes—and then share then in galleries on their own sites. Instagram says it’s not responsible for what people do with images outside of its own site and nobody else seems to be policing this kind of activity. Still, including photos of people on a site for marketing purposes usually requires permission, and nobody seems to be policing this kind of activity. The takeaway: Don’t wait for regulators, like the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, to force you to get permission to use an image someone shared. Work with your Legal department to make sure your use of such images is on the right side of the business ethics ledger. Read more
Enough about Virtual Reality—let’s talk Augmented Reality—Virtual Reality immerses you in a virtual environment. Augmented Reality applies layers of information on the real world. Microsoft’s HoloLens is a good five years away from store shelves, but CEO Satya Nadella says the earliest applications will be in the enterprise. “If you’re an industrial designer and use AutoCAD or Maya on HoloLens, there’s no going back,” he said. “You literally see the output of what you’re designing right next to you. The same goes for architects. Those (applications) are easy to imagine.” The takeaway: The first time I heard of AR being used in the workplace was during the construction of Boeing’s 777. Workers stringing electrical wires across the plane wore glasses with a heads-up display of what the wiring was supposed to look like. They simply matched what they were installing to the augmented view of what they were looking at. As these tools become more sophisticated, businesses should look at processes that can be enhanced by AR. Read more
Dooce is done with mommy blogging—Heather Armstrong was one of the first (and most successful) of the mommy bloggers, but she has given up her lucrative Dooce blog after getting fed up with advertiser expectations that she would pitch their products even if she wasn’t enthusiastic about them. The straw that broke the camel’s back was advertisers insisting she include her children in in their pitches. The takeaway: There have to be better ways for advertisers to work with the blogs they sponsor than insisting on blogger actions that make their children cry. Read more
Mobile and wearables
Deep linking gets a boost in iOS 9—Linking on the desktop web is a no-brainer, but in the mobile world, it’s another story. Yet it’s a feature of Apple’s iOS 9 that many have overlooked. You could, for example, have your Twitter app open where someone has linked to a restaurant. Tapping the link traditionally opens the restaurant website. iOS 9, however, knows you have Foursquare installed on your phone, and opens the app, taking you directly to that restaurant’s listing. It also adds a link making it a matter of a single tap to return to Twitter. That, according to one analyst, is an important step. The takeaway: For brands, it could be problematic that a reference to your company won’t drive traffic to your site. It should motivate organizations to pay attention to how they’re presented in apps like Foursquare. Read more
Boomers aren’t sold on smartphones yet—Baby Boomers are avid online shoppers, but that behavior hasn’t yet made the transition to mobile. Nearly 37% of Millennials use their smartphones to search for local deals when shopping, but among Baby Boomers, that’s a behavior exhibited only by 13.4% of the population. More than 27% of Millennials will accept ads sent to their phones in exchange for something of value, compared to only 12.6% of Boomers. Almost 20% of Millennials are likely to buy products they see advertised on their phones, but that’s true of only 7% of Boomers. Boomers were also significantly less likely to view text messaging as favorably as they do voice conversations. The takeaway: If boomers are your target market, selling over the web will, for the time being, produce better results than mobile will. Read more