The Full Monty — December 19, 2016
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Trump tests tech titans; this week in fake news; the future of work; preparing for a Twitter attack; Facebook is a media powerhouse; Microsoft makes a surprising comeback, partly related to A.I.; Yahoo gets hacked again; Uber ignores the DMV; Michigan passes autonomous vehicle regulations to allow for testing and development; speed listening is a [bad] thing; influencers are in for 2017; you have the right to leave a bad review if it's true; make a business impact with your analytics; the best memes of 2016 and more in this week's edition of The Full Monty. Trivia and the poem of the week are now exclusively on The Full Monty podcast.
Virtually everything you need in business intelligence. If you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links — and those that didn't make the cut for publication — by subscribing to The Full Monty Magazine at smonty.co/fullmontymag.
Program Note
This is the final edition of The Full Monty for 2016. We'll pick up again on January 2, 2017. Feel free to browse past issues or check out the Flipboard magazine meanwhile.Upcoming Speaking Engagements
- I'll be keynoting at Social Media Marketing World 2017 in San Diego, March 22-24, 2017. See you there.
Industry
- It's likely that President-elect Donald Trump and the tech industry are on a collision course, as they have contrasting values, interests, and visions for the future.
- So to shore things up, Donald Trump held a well-publicized meeting with a number of tech leaders, many from Silicon Valley. They were there ostensibly to discuss the cyber, and we have the remarkable transcript from the public portion of the meeting. But leave it to the inimitable and well-sourced Kara Swisher, who brings us behind closed doors with who said what inside the Trump tech meeting.
- Interestingly, there was no one from Twitter, Trump's favorite platform. Twitter says it was a retaliatory move, as the company refused to create a #CrookedHillary emoji for the campaign; Trump's team says "the conference table was only so big." Well, if you take a good look at it, there were four seats at one end of table and three at the other; and 16 percent of the attendees were Trump relatives.
- The President & CEO of the NY Times delivered this speech at the Detroit Economic Forum this week. It included this plea: "The big search and social companies must do more to sustain the economics of real journalism."
- Maybe Blendle, the Spotify for news, can convince people to pay for journalism.
- Looking a little deeper at the technology, here's how Google's algorithm spreads false information.
- Jeff Jarvis reminds is that lies, propaganda, fake news, hate, and incivility won’t be “fixed” with any product or algorithm or staffing tweaks — "it is critical that we in journalism and we the public not push off our responsibility," he writes.
- The top 5 workplace trends for 2017 include the transformation of HR and nontraditional benefits.
- Four areas to hack for transforming the future of work are: digital transformation, workplace flexibility, career development, and more contingent workers. Not coincidentally, these are areas of focus for my company, Brain+Trust Partners.
- There are many challenges ahead for agencies, including balancing account upkeep with new business development. Among the most frustrating: lack of access to clients and lack of clarity.
- Meanwhile, marketers are facing a tech overload with so many vendors under their management. Add to that the incessant push by new vendors to review their capabilities and make sense of it all amid digital transformation efforts. Another Brain+Trust Partners service.
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Platforms
TWITTER / PERISCOPE / VINE
- Twitter's iOS app gives users the ability to stream live video, powered by Periscope but not requiring a separate download. Stay tuned to see how this compares to Facebook's version.
- Donald Trump's denunciation of individuals on Twitter, which often leads to harassment by his followers, tests the limits of Twitter's rules against incitement. Well, no wonder he didn't want Jack Dorsey at the meeting.
- Putting the bully in the bully pulpit, Trump harassed government contractors and unions on Twitter. Other companies like Walmart and Booz Allen Hamilton could be next. Here's what to do if he comes after your company. The first step is to be vigilant in the early morning hours when he tends to be the most worked up.
- The Washington Post has developed an extension for Google Chrome that allows users to fact-check Trump's tweets directly within the tweets.
FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM / WHATSAPP
- In an attempt to address the fake news issue, Facebook will be using Snopes and third party fact checkers. If you happened to listen to The Beancast two weeks ago, this is exactly what I recommended.
- Facebook is hiring a head of news in the follow-up to all of this hoo-hah. The real question is: will they still deny that they're a media site?
- Germany will impose sanctions on platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter, that don't do enough to address hate speech. This is a bit of a slippery slope. Will Germany also go after towns that are plagued by hate-filled graffiti?
- The decline of Yik Yak highlights why Facebook is still so popular with brands: audience, metrics, retention and growth. To drive this point home, WPP CEO Martin Sorrell said that Facebook may become the holding company’s second biggest media supplier next year behind Google. The advertising conglomerate spends $5.5 billion with Google and will spend $1.75 with Facebook in 2016.
- Google's AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) is now showing Google Image Search results. When you consider the importance of visual communication, this speedier image search functionality will have an appreciable impact. How are your visuals?
MICROSOFT / LINKEDIN
- Microsoft has done a remarkable job of turning itself around, changing its insular culture by acquiring more companies, and incorporating new leaders from those companies. Microsoft, Rebooted, Emerges as a Tech Leader.
YAHOO
- Because 500 million hacked accounts wasn't enough, Yahoo revealed that 1 BILLION accounts were hacked in a separate case. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Marissa A. Mayer, Will You Please Go Now!
SNAP
- Snapchat Discover publishers have seen viewership drop by 33 percent after a tweak to the Stories page.
- Snapchat has added four new features to the service, trying to stay cool and keep up with the competition. These include group chats, more editing features, and the ability to identify songs playing in the background.
Collaborative/ Autonomous Economy
LODGING
- On demand meeting space company Breather is expanding into additional cities amid at $40 million Series C round.
- After years of playing the nice guy, Airbnb now finds itself on the defensive in some of its biggest markets, and the pressure doesn’t suit. The company has unleashed lawsuits, held rallies, and spent millions on lobbying campaigns. It has decried political adversaries and brandished opposition research on hotels. The clashes lay bare an ugly truth: Under fire, Airbnb is a corporation like any other. It’s not that nice at all.
TRANSPORTATION
- Uber is expanding a partnership with WageWorks that allows users of UberPool to pay for commutes to and from work with pretax funds.
- Google is developing a ride-sharing service with Fiat-Chrysler.
- Uber said that it protected rider data; the opposite is true, as thousands of Uber employees had access to where riders were going, and even after their trips ended.
- Uber wants UberPool passengers to stop hitting on each other. And for God's sake — NO SEX in the vehicle! Hop on a plane and use AirDates if you want a Tinder/transportation mash-up. Again, we were ahead of our time when we highlighted Uber for Tinder in our August 10, 2015 issue.
AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
- Google is spinning out its autonomous vehicles division. Waymo will have former Hyundai executive John Krafcik as its CEO (continuing in a similar role he's held at Google for a few years) and its future may include trucking, ridesharing and more.
- You can now hail an autonomous Uber on the streets of San Francisco. And it only has twice as many Uber employees in the vehicle than typical Ubers!
- In true Uber fashion, they did this without permission and have thumbed their noses at the DMV, who has requested them to stop.
- On the other hand, General Motors is testing self-driving Bolts on Michigan roads and is in good standing with the authorities, as Michigan became the first state to pass comprehensive self-driving regulations that affect the development, testing and sale of autonomous vehicles.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE / BOTS / BLOCKCHAIN
- If you're wondering how we got here, the BBC has a history of artificial intelligence.
- Despite popular believe, automation can actually lead to more jobs. Evidence shows increased productivity leads to more wealth, cheaper goods, greater spending power and ultimately, more jobs.
- How Google used artificial intelligence to transform Google Translate, one of its more popular services — and how machine learning is poised to reinvent computing itself. The Great AI Awakening.
- Microsoft isn't being left behind in the AI advance. Cortana could be the backbone of the connected home with the Windows 10 Creator update.
- And the new Microsoft Translator feature enables real-time, in-person, multi-language translations for conversations across multiple devices.
Virtual Reality / Audio
VR/AR
- The US Postal Service has launched an augmented reality app for the holidays. If you purchase a Priority Mail box for a package, you can scan the blue shield logo with your phone and select two different animated messages to send to the recipient of the gift.
- Oculus is hoping to make VR less isolating with the addition of Parties and Rooms for Gear VR. You'll only be isolated (physically and socially) from the people around you as you wear the headset.
- Oculus's CEO is now the head of Facebook's PC-based VR division. This indicates that Facebook is getting serious about VR outside of the dorky headset option and looking at more mainstream options for this burgeoning technology.
AUDIO
- A deleterious new trend is speed listening. Don't. Do. It. See? I wrote that in slow motion, just in case you're speed reading.
- Apple unveiled 2016 stats and it revealed that there were over 10 billion downloads and streams of podcasts over the last 12 months. And at least 17 were of The Full Monty.
- The future of transit might be exactly what these podcasts from 2035 say it will be.
- Program of the Week: If you'd like a boost of caffeine to your brain, try Marketing Over Coffee. John Wall and Christopher Penn break down advanced marketing techniques for you. Do you have a program to recommend? Add yours to our Google Sheet: smonty.co/yourpodcasts.
- And don't forget to subscribe to ours via email or on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spreaker or SoundCloud.
Content / Customer Experience / Influencer Marketing
- What's the difference between sales collateral and content marketing? A fascinating discussion on this and a number of other issues in the latest episode of PNR: This Old Marketing.
- Nearly half of marketers in the US plan to ramp up their budgets for influencer-focused campaigns in 2017. Spend wisely and find consulting and agency partners that know what they're doing. And let me know if we can be of help.
Privacy / Security / Legal
- The story of how one couple fought for the legal right to leave a bad online review. Some companies hide a non-disparagement clause in the fine print of their terms of service and sue individuals who post truthful bad reviews about them. Congress unanimously passed the Consumer Review Fairness Act and President Obama signed it into law. Can you imagine Donald Trump signing that? He previously mentioned he'd "open up the libel laws" to pursue newspapers that wrote negative things about him.
- Cyber attacks—and president-elect Trump’s criticism of encryption and interest in expanding government surveillance—warrant more vigilance. Here are a hacker's tips for protecting your digital privacy.
- You might call 2016 the Year of the Hack. Yahoo's disclosure is the latest in a string of cyber attacks and consumers are concerned. But most are unlikely to do anything about it. If you'd like to try out a top-notch password management system that comes with warnings for breaches and can automatically change your passwords across sites, my favorite is Dashlane.
Measurement / Metrics / Data
- Avinash Kaushik is always the best source on analytics, and this article proves that to be true. Five Key Elements for a Big Analytics-Driven Business Impact should put your mind at rest with regard to technology (pick one and stick with it), having the right measurement model and dashboard, looking at the big picture vs. the small, and focusing on people.
- Marketing technology budgets are on the rise for 2017.
- Now for the fourth time, Facebook admits that it has erred in reporting its measurement metrics. In this case, comScore found the social network was undercounting traffic from iPhone users to their Instant Articles content.
- And just what should we do with such broken social media metrics? Christopher Penn has the answer.
Essential Watching / Listening / Reading
- What's next for the media industry in 2017? Retro, ethics, machines, programmatic, out of home and a new beginning for news are among the ideas that some pundits have.
- LitHub has an aggregation tool for the Most Talked About Books.
- If you're an Anglophile, you'll want BritBox, the new streaming service that brings British TV to the US.
- To many people, 2016 was a painful year. Maybe the best memes of 2016 make it a little less so.
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Photo credit: Boardwalk Sunrise by Geoff Livingston (Flickr)
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