✅ Monday briefing: Accessibility and diversity, digital news, new holding group, authenticity gap, consumer personas, YouTube trends, SEO spellers, and more…

Media, best practice, industry, research and insight, tools, social media and platforms

WaddsCon last Friday raised important issues about accessibility and diversity. It was the most thoughtful event that we've hosted yet.

George Coleman spoke about the importance of making content accessible; Tom Rouse urged practitioners to reclaim their confidence; Sarah Waddington discussed social-economic diversity and in work poverty; and Martin Agunwa discussed the importance of making public relations attractive to school children.

Thanks to delegates we’ve donated another £500 to The Bay Foodbank. Catch the replay on YouTube and signup for next month.

Media

🤳 DIGITAL NEWS: Trust in new media has climbed to 44% a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry itself has been hit hard by the pandemic. It has acted as an accelerant to the shift to digital with mobile phones the most popular devices for news consumption. These headlines are from The Reuters Digital News Report 2021. Spotted Stuart Bruce.

📰 HEADLINE PERFECTION: The New York Times has been widely praised for a headline that caught the attention of the internet - When an Eel Climbs a Ramp to Eat Squid from a Clamp, That's a Moray. Spotted David Gallagher.

Best practice

👨‍🎓️ THE LOST CLASS: Former NRA president David Keene was tricked into speaking at a fake graduation. 3,044 empty seats represented the students who did not graduate this year because they were killed by gun violence. The Lost Class was organised by Change the Ref, an activist group that aims to raise awareness about mass shootings. Spotted Stephen Waddington.  

Industry

👪 NEW HOLDING GROUP: Simon Lucey, Paul Stollery and Darryl Sparey have launched a new marketing services holding group. The Family, parent company of Hard Numbers and Hype Collective, aims to provide seed capital and support to help start three further agency businesses by the end of 2022. Source Maja Pawinska Sims.

Research and insight

🤥 AUTHENTICITY GAP: Half of consumer perceptions are shaped by a company’s impact and behaviour. Customer benefit (47%), societal impact (32%) and management behaviour (21%) are the three drivers of brand reputation according to FleishmanHillard’s Power of Authenticity 2021 report. Spotted Kate Hartley. 

💑 CONSUMER PERSONAS: The routine ritualist, the prioritised parent, the new nomad, the eco evangelist and the emerging entrepreneur, are five personas identified by Pinterest as society emerges from the pandemic. A new report spotlights their habits and the implications for marketing. Spotted Alan Morrison.

📹 YOUTUBE TRENDS: Community viewing, relatable content and immersive videos are three trends for video as we emerge from the pandemic according to YouTube. The YouTube Culture and Trends Report reports on changes in collective behaviour and culture over the past year. Spotted Andy Barr.

Tools

🤖 AUTOMATED OUTREACH: Intelligent Relations has built a platform to automate media relations. What could possibly go wrong? It’s an example of the very worst application of artificial intelligence. You can’t automate relationship building using robots. Spotted Stephen Waddington. 

📬 SOCIAL POSTS: Sprout Social is consistently recommended by my community for scheduling social media posts across all platforms. The social media management platform provides reporting on engagement, reach and impressions. Most importantly it has an off button for when news events overtake your marketing or public relations campaign. Spotted Marika Sylvain Groendyk.

Social media and platforms

🔍 SEO SPELLERS: Spelling mistakes and grammar are significant quality metrics that contribute to a website’s SEO ranking according the Google’s John Mueller. Spotted Stephen Waddington.

🕴 TIKTOK JUMP: TikTok Jump enables creators to share their content on other platforms. Jumps are mini-programs and services that creators can link to within their videos. Spotted David Gallagher.

🤑 SUPER FOLLOWS: Super Follows enables Twitter users to earn a monthly income by charging followers for premium content. The tool has been rolled out in the US to users with more than 10,000 followers with other markets to follow. Spotted Andy Barr.