✅ Monday briefing: Journo to comms, diversity and media, social trends, strategic value of PR, ESG clampdown, AI warning, Adidas, practitioners abused, Twitter alternatives, and more...

Media, Research and Insight, Risk Planning, Industry, Social Media and Platforms, and Tools

This newsletter is crowdsourced each week from our blog and community of practice for people studying and working in marketing, media and PR. It’s a hive mind, newsroom and source of information, help and support. You’d be welcome to join us.

Media

🗞️ JOURNO TO COMMS: The appointment of ITV’s head of news Amber de Botton as No 10 Head of Comms has been celebrated by journalists. Public relations practitioners are less impressed, pointing out the need for broader stakeholder engagement and the unhealthy nature of close relationship between political journalists and the government. Spotted Sarah Waddington.

📱 PUSH NEWS: Most publishers are now using mobile push alerts whether the content merits a news-flash or not. Research by Press Gazette shows approaches vary widely - in a recent 17-day period The Washington Post sent 147 alerts, followed by The Daily Telegraph (140) and Reach-owned MyLondon (125). iNews sent just two. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.

Research and Insight

📒 DIVERSITY AND MEDIA: A Google Think paper explores identity and media choice; how the media and advertising industries are focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion; and the role of platforms in distribution. 10,000 people from across the UK were surveyed about how their identity shapes what they watch. Source Andy Barr.

🔮 SOCIAL TRENDS: Cookie dunking, decentralised social networks, the rise and fall of social commerce, and marketing personas versus communities are among trends we can get behind in Talkwalker's Social Media Trends report. We’re less confident about its upbeat predictions for the metaverse. Source Jack Richards.

ℹ️ STRATEGIC VALUE OF PR: The Institute of Directors (IoD) and Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) are collaborating on a research project to understand how well the contribution of public relations is understood by directors. Please share this survey with your management team. Source Sarah Waddington.

Risk Planning

🌳 ESG CLAMPDOWN: The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed a package of measures to stop greenwashing. It suggests restrictions on how terms such as ‘ESG’ ‘sustainable’ and ‘green’ are used to promote investment products. The FCA has launched a consultation that is open until January 2023 (opens as a PDF). Spotted Alan Morrison.

👨‍💻️ AI WARNING: The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has cautioned organisations to assess the public risks of using emotion analysis technologies, deeming the technology immature. The ICO will deliver fuller biometrics guidance in Spring 2023. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.

Industry

👟 ADIDAS INFLUENCER PARTNERSHIP: Adidas has ended its partnership with Kanye West, saying that it does not tolerate antisemitism. The rapper was suspended from Instagram and Twitter over offensive posts. Adidas said it would lose $250 million as a result. Spotted Michael Greer.

😡 PRACTITIONERS ABUSED: Local government public relations practitioners can become the target of public anger when working on issues of heightened public concern. An article by an anonymous practitioner cites an example of abuse targeted via social media accounts after practitioners were quoted in the media. Source Darren Caveney.

✍️ CONTENT OUTSOURCING: The huge volumes of content demanded by brand marketing on social media and the web is leading agencies to outsource work to freelancers. The research by Verblio reports that a quarter of agencies get more than half of their income from content creation. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.

Social Media and Platforms

🐦 TWITTER DEAL: ​Elon Musk signalled the completion of his acquisition of Twitter with a series of layoffs and the promise of a greater level of free speech on the platform. That’s only possible by weakening moderation. Abuse on the platform has increased since the acquisition. Spotted Nigel Sarbutts, Andrew Bruce Smith, and Stephen Waddington.

🤳 TIKTOK ACADEMY: TikTok has launched a free education program for marketers. It includes an overview of TikTok products, brand safety, and creative best practices. It takes between two to four hours to complete. Spotted Andrew Bruce Smith.

🔑 LINKEDIN SECURITY: LinkedIn has added new security features to spot fake profiles. The new tools will be better able to spot AI generated profile images and give warnings if a user is in danger of being scammed. Spotted Alan Morrison.

Tools

🆕 META IP TOOLS: Meta is planning to help brands better protect their intellectual property rights with an overhauled set of tools to attract more ecommerce activity. There is no news on improving customer service, the biggest issue cited by SMEs. Spotted Alan Morrison.

📤 TWITTER ALTERNATIVES: There isn’t an alternative to Twitter that has the same scale for news and public conversation. A potential future may lie in smaller niche communities built around special interests using platforms such as Discord, Guild, Slack, and WhatsApp. Source Stephen Waddington.