Why do some videos go viral while others seemingly underperform? HBR looks at how psychological response and social motivation drive video sharing. Apparently it doesn’t hurt to reach the “supersharers,” who are responsible for 82.4% of total video shares. Slack’s integrations — from GitHub to Giphy — make the team collaboration app delightfully sticky. This week Slack announced a …
Friday 5 — 8.21.2015
A new report from Pew delves into mobile messaging for the first time, and updates social media trends. Mobile messaging apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat continue to grow, with 49% adoption among 18-29 year old internet users. Also of note: 59% of Instagram users reported using the app daily,and 35% several times per day. Giphy doubles down on its bet that GIFs will …
Friday 5 — 8.14.2015
Are you getting started on Slack to increase your productivity, reduce your email, and fuel your dependence on animated GIFs? Here’s a helpful how-to explaining all the basics. Technology has consequences, positive and negative. This week a new refereed online publication forum, Technology Science, launched as a place to share timely academic papers exploring the benefits and …
Friday 5 — 8.7.2015
Smaller color palettes, large fonts, and meaningful microinteractions are among the trends highlighted in this article on the current state of mobile UI/UX. A recent Pew report highlights ways video games, social media, and mobile phones play a role in teens’ friendships. Interesting findings include: Boys are more likely than girls to make online friends: 61% of boys …
Friday 5 — 7.24.2015
Social media success is about much more than mastering the platforms and tools. Finding a voice that resonates, developing terrific content, and building an engaged community require a culture of experimentation and continuous learning. Quartz reports how NASA developed a smart social media strategy that fueled its global reach. Instagram has enabled desktop search for users, hashtags, and …
Friday 5 — 6.5.2015
Google Photos, a free tool to store and organize your photos, has launched. Having finally shuttered Google+, Google is recognizing photos as the stickiest feature for user retention. The new service raises legitimate concerns about privacy — a photo repository reveals a great deal about our family structure, travel habits,and health. An automated “Assistant” creates animations and stylized …
Friday 5 — 5.15.2015
The big news for publishers this week was Facebook Instant Articles. The New York Times and Buzzfeed were among the first publishers on board, reaping the benefits of reach, fast-loading articles, revenue sharing, and data access. While some fear it’s a deal with the devil, Poynter is more measured in its assessment. What do Facebook Instant …
Friday 5 — 5.1.2015
Facebook is up to 4 billion daily video viewers, and some think it may unseat YouTube as the go-to video destination. Not much of a present for YouTube’s 10th birthday. Instead of bucketing content referrals by each social network, BuzzFeed launched a new technology to track content shares across social networks. Dubbed Process for Optimizing and Understanding Network Diffusion …
Friday 5 — 4.24.2015
If you are responsible for a high-volume brand homepage, be sure to read this Nieman Lab take on the Atlantic re-design. I particularly like this framing from Bob Cohn: “In an age of social traffic, a homepage is less about traffic triage — directing lots of direct visitors to the content of their choice — than …
Friday 5 — 4.10.2015
The first round of many Apple Watch reviews are in — here’s my favorite one, although it’s derided capably here. Certainly no one is suggesting it’s a digital must-have, but most agree it packs a few canny features. (For the optimists: Pre-order here.) New Pew research covers teens’ 2015 use of social media and technology. A solid …