One of the key revelations in the last week or so has been that technology companies are not necessarily our friends when it comes to the best interests of society as a whole. As someone pointed out, the oligarchy of Google, Facebook and Apple have taken on the roles of gatekeeper for each other, occasionally … Continue reading Google Wants to Manage the Open Web
Maybe We Let People Buy What They Like
The debate about what people should or shouldn’t be able to purchase using food stamps or other assistance programs has been raging for decades. Ronald Reagan famously used the “Welfare Queen” example (since debunked) to say that public safety net programs were being abused and should therefore be eliminated. Less drastically, politicians have tried to … Continue reading Maybe We Let People Buy What They Like
Let’s Get Back to Owned Media
“Should We Replace Facebook with Personal Websites?” I had to audibly sigh when I saw that Vice headline considering Facebook (and other social network platforms) are what replaced personal websites in the first place. Back before status updates were a thing, we all had our own blogs and sites where we shared our thoughts and … Continue reading Let’s Get Back to Owned Media
Google Rebrands Feed, Retains All Its Problems
Last year Google introduced Feed, a personalized feed of news and updates appearing below the main search bar within the Google mobile app. I took issue with that at the time, specifically calling out how it was another example of a company feeling it knew better than the individual what someone might be interested in … Continue reading Google Rebrands Feed, Retains All Its Problems
Snapchat Opens Up User Content to Media Brands, But Something’s Missing
Repurposing user-generated content in marketing programs has been a practice since about a day after people started creating that content. Marketers quickly realized, all the way back in the early 2000s, that people reacted more positively to material generated by others like them than to staid, sometimes boring advertising material. The latest iteration of this … Continue reading Snapchat Opens Up User Content to Media Brands, But Something’s Missing
My Challenges to Media
Media organizations are capable of so much better, especially in a few areas.
It’s a Matter of (Media) Trust
The headline used by Nieman Lab on its recap of a study conducted on how labeling the source of a link within a story impacts the trust assigned to that story is this: When a link to a news story shows the source of the story, some people end up trusting it less That’s technically … Continue reading It’s a Matter of (Media) Trust
Media Challenge: Abandon the David vs. Goliath Narrative
Something weird happens when a company attains a certain scale, and particularly when it moves into the position of largely dominating its market: The media begin to treat it as an assumptive leader, the yardstick by which all others in that market are measured. See if this headline framing seems familiar: “WeWork Competitor X Emerges … Continue reading Media Challenge: Abandon the David vs. Goliath Narrative
Media Challenge: Stop Saying “Tweet”
For years now, many of those in my generation of social media marketing professionals have been trying to get people to stop using outdated terminology. Sometime around 2007 it was no longer really accurate to say “new media” when referring to blogs and podcasts because those media had largely gone mainstream. Words, terms and phrases … Continue reading Media Challenge: Stop Saying “Tweet”
Media Challenge: Only Use Demographic Labels When Pertinent
I don’t need to reiterate here how ridiculous the whole “Millennials Are Killing [industry/company/category]” press narrative is. The stories that have become a laughing stock seem to be predicated on two assumptions: That this is the first time in the history of civilization that one generation has dared to exhibit different consumer preferences or tastes … Continue reading Media Challenge: Only Use Demographic Labels When Pertinent
Chris Thilk 