✅ Monday briefing #10: Rogue reviews, pimping on Pinterest, focus group tool, AI hype, planning what’s next, hiring collective, election manipulation, and more
Internal communications, social media and platforms, tools, strategic comms, agency news, data, research, and must read
Good morning. My name is Stephen Waddington. This is a mix of articles from my own blog and content discussed in the marketing, media and PR community that I oversee. My thanks to all the contributors.
Internal communications
👥 STAFF ON SOCIAL: New BBC boss Tim Davie is to stop staff airing their views on social media. Plain speaking journalists are part of the appeal of its content, yet as a public broadcaster, staff are expected to be impartial. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
📣 LINKEDIN BACK CHANNEL: A new My Company tab enables employees on LinkedIn to engage with each other. It is intended to celebrate company news and milestones, and to curate and share company news. Spotted by: Alan Morrison.
Social media and platforms
👎 ROGUE REVIEWS: Amazon has launched an investigation following a report by the Financial Times that found suspicious behaviour by nine of the top ten UK contributors on product feedback. Bots, pods and payment are common means of gaming reviews according to the FT. Spotted by: Andrew Smith.
🎞️ CAROUSEL ENGAGEMENT: A study of more than 22 million Instagram posts found that carousels are the most engaging type of post. They have an average engagement rate of 1.92% per post, compared to 1.74% for images and 1.45% for videos. Spotted by: Alan Morrison.
🖼️ PIMPING ON PINTEREST: Hilton is using Pinterest to show off the cleanliness of its hotels. It’s an interesting case study but also targeting dream seeking travellers seems an overstretch. Pinterest numbers are up. It’s deemed to be a safer place than Facebook and Instagram. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
Tools
🤔 FOCUS GROUPS: A new Brandwatch Social Panel tool is intended to disrupt focus groups, panels and polling as an alternative means of market research. Its strength is its limitation. The tool is focused on conversation, past and present, from public users and areas of the web. Source: Stephen Waddington.
👤 ASSEMBLE AVATARS: Looking a bit rough this morning? Exhausted by video meetings? Hyprmeet enables you to create your own avatar for video meetings. It works across all the main platforms. Spotted by: Kerry Sheehan.
❗ AI HYPE: A report by Accenture suggests that AI is oversold and under delivers. It's certainly the case in the PR market where most tools that claim AI capability are limited to functional automation. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
Strategic communications
🗓️ PLANNING WHAT’S NEXT: The next four months are likely to be as chaotic as the last eight. Here are the issues that should be front of mind as we head towards 2021: strategic comms; return to the office; job market; Brexit deal and no deal planning; and leadership. Source: Stephen Waddington.
💯 COMMERCIAL BREAK: I support agencies and communication teams as a non exec or professional adviser but offer a limited number of one-to-one mentoring slots each month. Please hit reply if I can help you. Source: Stephen Waddington.
Agency news
💼 HIRING COLLECTIVES: Radioactive’s Rich Leigh has started Gloucestershire Kickstart Collective to find enough local businesses to employ 30 people and qualify for government funding. Shayoni Lynn is keen to do the same in Cardiff. Darryl Sparey is targeting London.
👔 AGENCY BOSSING IT: If you run an agency, you'll love Andy Barr's article about founding and running 10 Yetis over the past 15 years. TLDR: recognise your weakness, hawk over cash, act quickly when anyone takes advantage of you, and don't take yourself too seriously. Source: Andy Barr.
Data
📉 AD CARNAGE: Non digital ads are set to plummet: print down 33%, telly down 24%, and outdoor down 46%. However, digital display is set to rise 15%, paid social 25%, and paid search 26%. It’s US data via IAB but a good benchmark for other markets as brands look to plug sales. Spotted by: Andrew Smith.
📊 USEFUL CHARTS: Zoom boom as revenues double in a quarter (Statista). User numbers by social medial platform (Battenhall). Social media communications by platform channels (Sarah Evans). Source: various.
Research
🚨 ELECTION MANIPULATION: Research by Princeton University has catalogued almost 100 incidences of foreign influence in a range of countries including the UK, between 2013 and 2019. Microsoft has launched tools to identify synthetic media ahead of the US election. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
😂 EMOTIONAL BOOST: Tweets receive a 20% boost in reach for every emotion or moral keyword used. A research team led by NYU’s William J. Brady discovered that social media platforms actively encouraged people to share divisive, outrageous and emotional content. Spotted by: Andrew Smith.
Must read
🦠 THEY ARE THE VIRUS: Paul Clarke published a photo story about the march against the pandemic in London. It’s a thoughtful article that explores the breakdown of trust in society, disinformation and the public psyche. “Be careful who you call stupid, or informed, or normal.” Source: Paul Clarke.
🆗 AI ETHICS GUIDE: A new guide published by the UK's CIPR and Canada's CPRS foresaw the “mutant” A Level algorithm. The guide sets out a process based on the CIPR's ethical decision-making tree for testing algorithms and other applications of AI. Spotted by: Stephen Waddington.
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