Last week the news outlet Mic became the latest player to join the trend of laying off staff as part of a (clears throat) pivot to video. [genuflects] As Peter Kafka notes at Recode, there are a few common factors publishers cite when doing so, the biggest being the desire to tap into the pool … Continue reading Video is Everywhere, But Time and Money are Finite
Pew Shows Facebook Keeps Getting Bigger, Young Women Rule on Social
There’s a new Pew Internet study that covers just how much U.S. adults - specifically those who are regularly online - are using social networks. The research continues to reinforce some patterns with social media that have been pretty standard over the years. First, social media is primarily women. Of the five networks Pew tracked … Continue reading Pew Shows Facebook Keeps Getting Bigger, Young Women Rule on Social
LinkedIn Adds Publishing Features
In its continued quest to be a full-fledged publishing platform and not just a social network, LinkedIn has introduced a set of new features and functionality for those who want to write longer posts. It's updated the interface to be a little less clunky, made it easier to add and edit in-post media like photos … Continue reading LinkedIn Adds Publishing Features
LinkedIn Adds Conversion Tracking
LinkedIn wants to help advertisers prove return on investment and so is adding conversion tracking to the ads it displays. That tracking, which requires the addition of a bit of code to the goal website, will help see how LinkedIn ads have lead to sales, signups, downloads or other actions designated by the advertiser. The … Continue reading LinkedIn Adds Conversion Tracking
LinkedIn Ramps Up Mobile Search
LinkedIn is upping its search game, at least through the mobile app. You can now search for keywords in your own feed of updates, search for topics to see who's talking about something broad or specific and click through hashtags to see what's been posted using those. Right now those upgrades are available only on … Continue reading LinkedIn Ramps Up Mobile Search
Facebook Messenger Bots, NFL on Snapchat and More: Quick Takes for 8/3/16
WNYC is open sourcing its tool for generating “audiograms,” shareable audio clips for social media (Nieman Lab, 8/1/16) This is a great move. I hope other companies who are developing tools specifically to create different media types for use on social platforms follow suit and open source them, letting anyone access and build off the … Continue reading Facebook Messenger Bots, NFL on Snapchat and More: Quick Takes for 8/3/16
Sponsored Content, Twitter’s Brand and More: Quick Takes for 7/27/16
How Sponsored Content Is Becoming King in a Facebook-Dominated World (New York Times, 7/24/16) I have no commentary here. It's a must-read, partly because this reads like the last gasp of an industry about to willfully and with absolute intent put itself out of business. Everything here is disheartening. See What's Happening (Twitter Blog, 7/25/16) … Continue reading Sponsored Content, Twitter’s Brand and More: Quick Takes for 7/27/16
Medium Wants to be the World’s Op-Ed Page, But We’re Better Off On Our Own
The Washington Post today is talking about Medium and the disruptive role it’s trying to play in the media world, positioning the site as the go-to outlet for politicians, celebrities and others to post their op-eds. There are an increasing number of media outlets who are using Medium as their primary long-form publishing outlet. Backchannel … Continue reading Medium Wants to be the World’s Op-Ed Page, But We’re Better Off On Our Own
Quick Takes: 5/20/13
Brian Steinberg hits a home run in his first column for Variety (which desperately needs to fix its RSS feed) as he talks about how the media, whose business models depend on viewers' full attention, have been simultaneously making it clear that the viewers' full attention is not necessarily. They've been doing this by including … Continue reading Quick Takes: 5/20/13
Quick Takes: 3/18/13
I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that the last thing I will ever do is connect my Netflix account with Facebook. That sounds absolutely awful, both in terms of what I would be sharing with people and seeing what they would be sharing with me. An interesting defense of Quora's weekly … Continue reading Quick Takes: 3/18/13
Chris Thilk 