Fear and Loathing — November 5, 2018
There's been a lot of anger and fear swirling online recently; A.I. is taking on more human qualities (if only the reverse were true); what's next for the autonomous vehicle revolution; make customers want your email; an influencer who doesn't influence; preparing for a social media crisis; the Amazon con is over; Walmart has some improvements to the purchase experience; just as the public is conflicted about it, Facebook is facing its own dilemmas; Halloween week saw zombies like QR codes and Flickr rise from the dead; Netflix is trying for an Oscar; half of U.S. households will have a smart speaker this year; Uber will pay for drivers to go to college; a new online scam; data exhaustion is real; the origins of the dunce cap; a documentary film that needs your support; plus the podcast pick of the week and MUCH more in the Fear and Loathing edition of The Full Monty for the week of November 5, 2018.
The Full Monty makes you smarter faster, by curating the essential business intelligence every week. Links are below with commentary in italics. Please sign up for our email updates to make sure you don't miss a thing. And check out The Full Monty on Flipboard.
Contents:
AnnouncementsTop Story
Speaking Engagements
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
Communications / Marketing / Business Strategy
Retail Apocalypse
Platforms
Media
Privacy / Security / Regulatory
Measurement / Analytics / Data
Mental Nourishment
Announcements
Please be sure that you're also signed up to get some timeless wisdom from my main site. I'll continue the Top Story theme in tomorrow's post over there.
Last week, I talked about being too big to fail (but not really) and how remaining nimble and flexible is a must in a fast-paced environment. Imagine my surprise and delight when The New York Times serendipitously published Farhad Manjoo's column How Mark Zuckerberg Became Too Big To Fail.
Last week, I talked about being too big to fail (but not really) and how remaining nimble and flexible is a must in a fast-paced environment. Imagine my surprise and delight when The New York Times serendipitously published Farhad Manjoo's column How Mark Zuckerberg Became Too Big To Fail.
Top Story
Fear and anger are powerful motivators.As the U.S. midterm elections reach their apex on Tuesday, the rhetoric from one corner is filled with scare tactics about a caravan hundreds of miles from the U.S. border, driving fear into residents as far north as Minnesota, according to one NPR segment (because that's where Honduran migrants naturally settle, evidently).
Whether in business, politics, or personal relationships, fear gets results. It's easier than having to build trust and unity over a prolonged and sustained effort. Hence, fear-mongers are so reluctant to give up their quick and effective tactic.
"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
— Yoda [Click to tweet this quote]
In the last election cycle, anger was the motivator and was effective as well, as we've seen. And like fear, it's irrational. It doesn't take into account facts or likely outcomes.
We've seen this only amplified in recent years online. Conventional wisdom pegged social media as a great connector, allowing people to communicate and collaborate in harmony. The reality is the social web does better at spreading hate. It turns out there's big business in outrage.
Social media doesn't make us worse people; it simply exposes and amplifies who we already are. [Click to tweet this quote]
Much like a certain comedian likened cocaine to amplifying your personality, social media puts a lens on what we are. ("Yes, but what if you're an a**hole?")
Regardless of your situation, resist the temptation to be outraged. Control only what you can. Think logically. Then take action.
About this week's image: In 1754, William Hogarth created a series of four paintings conveying the election of a member of Parliament called The Humours of an Election. This image, Canvassing for Votes, depicts Tory and Whig agents, both attempting to bribe an innkeeper to vote for them. The crowd outside the tavern is visible in the background. In a reference to the antisemitism of the crowd behind, a Jewish peddler is being employed by another agent who is offering jewels and ribbons to the wives of voters. The soldier on the left margin and the sailors on the right represent uncorrupted patriotism.
Speaking Engagements
Always looking for recommendations for venues to share my stories. I connect our digital selves with classical influences, pointing out the universal human truths that can unlock the secret of retaining and growing customer relationships. Feel free to contact me to discuss speaking to your organization or at an event you've been to recently where you think I might stand out.- IDEA: if you're looking to save some of your training and development budget and don't feel like sending multiple members of your team to a conference (high prices, time away from the office, questionable content), I've got an option for you: bring me in for a roundtable experience with your team for an hour or a half day.
Artificial Intelligence / Autonomous
The latest in AI, machine learning, bots, and blockchain, mobility, and autonomous everything.Aʀᴛɪꜰɪᴄɪᴀʟ Iɴᴛᴇʟʟɪɢᴇɴᴄᴇ / Mᴀᴄʜɪɴᴇ Lᴇᴀʀɴɪɴɢ
- Google software engineer Cliff Young explains how the explosion in deep learning algorithms is coinciding with a breakdown in Moore's Law, the decades-old rule of thumb of progress in computer chips, forcing radical new computer designs. (ZDNet) Deep learning works.
- A.I. is learning to keep learning: a new machine-learning technique mimics the brain’s ability to adapt to new circumstances. (Scientific American)
- How will people and machines learn to co-exist as machines become more like humans? (AdWeek) I'm still waiting for the part where humans learn to co-exist with each other.
- Oxford University researchers developed an A.I. system that mimics human society to better understand what causes sectarian violence. The model has thousands of agents representing various ethnicities, races, and religions. (BBC) Just in time for the elections.
- For the first holiday season ever, Amazon is hiring fewer temporary workers: 20,000 fewer as it happens. The reason? Better robots. (CNBC)
- Uber, Lyft, Lime and various public transit authorities are offering free and discounted rides to the polls on Tuesday, to encourage voter turnout. (Curbed)
- The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has just granted Waymo the first permit in the state to begin driverless testing on public roads. (Medium) We'll see how long it takes one of those to get frustrated with L.A. traffic.
- The $4 trillion disruption: what's next for the autonomous vehicle revolution. (Axios) A deep dive into this multifaceted issue.
Sᴛʀᴀᴛᴇɢʏ / Mᴀʀᴋᴇᴛɪɴɢ / Cᴏɴᴛᴇɴᴛ
- Specialized ad agencies are cropping up to meet the direct-to-consumer brand boom. (Digiday) I wonder if they operate on a subscription (retainer) basis?
- Believe it or not, QR codes, Bluetooth, and RFID aren't dead for marketing purposes. (Fast Company) We've just figured out ways to make them more useful. That is "I'm getting betterrrrr!"
- How to make customers look forward to your email. Customers who purchase through emails spend 138% more than those who don’t receive them. (Marketing Insider) Courtesy of Michael Brenner.
- Some characteristics of top-performing B2B content marketers include: they are more likely to enjoy executive buy-in, to use technology proficiently, and to personalize content. (Marketing Charts)
Jᴏᴜʀɴᴀʟɪsᴍ / Cᴏᴍᴍᴜɴɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴs / Rᴇᴘᴜᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴ
- Luka Sabbat, a 20-year-old actor and model with over a million Instagram followers has been sued for $90,000 by the powerful fashion public relations firm PR Consulting for failure to influence. (Variety) He might want to work on his acting skills.
- B2B influencer marketing efforts are on the rise. (Christopher Penn)
- Don't let fear overtake you; how to prepare for a social media crisis in 9 steps. (Convince and Convert) The most important article I hope you never need. via Jay Baer
- Recode and Vox.com are joining, putting tech and business reporting under the same roof. (Recode) Smart move here, as tech news is becoming more intertwined with mainstream news. And let's face it: many in society could use a dose of understanding of tech to help them make better decisions, whether they're regular citizens or lawmakers.
Retail Apocalypse
Humans are a transactional species, and the practice — if not the very notion of what retail is — is undergoing a historical metamorphosis.- Amazon is in advanced talks to put HQ2 in Northern Virginia. (Washington Post) This puts nearly an end to over a year of speculation and abject begging by municipalities to let Amazon accept their
bribestax breaks at the expense of schools, fire departments and other facilities. - Scott Galloway, as always, has the best take on this. (L2)
- It seems unlikely, but Kohl's figured out the Amazon era. How'd they do it? Women's clothing. (CNN Business)
- What do J. Crew, Neiman Marcus, Bed, Bath & Beyond, and J.C. Penney have in common? Like Sears, they need to succeed this holiday season. (USA Today) Now taking bets.
- Despite ups and downs in the subscription commerce segment, it's still a subject of great interest in the retail industry. Lessons from Subscription Commerce Companies. (eMarketer Retail) Which makes the news of D2C agencies above all the more dicey.
- Walmart announced several improvements to its purchasing experience in time for the holidays, including an ability to check out items in store aisles, digital store maps and a redesigned website to make shopping and returns easier, and allowing customers to return marketplace items to any one of its 4,700 stores, starting in mid-November. (Retail Dive)
- Sam's Club is opening its own version of Amazon Go next month. It's called Sam's Club Now and is located in Dallas. The store has no registers, checkout lines, or cashiers. Customers must scan and pay for items using the app. (Business Insider)
"No one has ever become poor by giving." – Anne Frank
SPONSOR
Platforms
News to know about relevant social, virtual, and augmented reality platforms that may affect your business.
Fᴀᴄᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ / Iɴsᴛᴀɢʀᴀᴍ / WʜᴀᴛsAᴘᴘ
- Workplace, Facebook's counterpart to Slack, is moving onto a website domain separate from Facebook.com in an effort to build trust with customers. (CNBC) Good call on that trust thing. Let's make sure every division (and executive) gets the memo.
- There's an exodus going on at Facebook: 44 percent of users ages 18 to 29 deleted the app from their phones in the past year. (CNBC) Think it might have to do with trust? The joke's on the youngsters, though: they're still using Facebook-owned Instagram.
- It's official: WhatsApp will be showing you ads. (Gadgets Now) With the exit of the WhatsApp founder last month, who could have predicted this?
- Investigative reporters posed as 100 U.S. Senators in order to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all 100 of them. (Vice News) Well that escalated quickly.
It's a good thing there aren't elections this week. - Frontline ran a two-night special event called The Facebook Dilemma. The film looked at whether Facebook is more harmful than helpful. (PBS) One might ask that of the leadership as well as they struggle to address this issue that is clearly beyond their means.
- When Twitter doubled the length of tweets from 140 to 280 characters, it had little impact on the length of tweets. But it did make users more polite and abbreviations less frustrating. (9to5 Mac)
- Twitter is testing a button to display tweets by chronologically, instead of showing an algorithmically picked feed. (The Next Web)
- What do we want?
- A chronological Twitter feed!
- When do we want it ?
- 2 hours ago !
- 18 hours ago !
- Sponsored post !
- 43 minutes ago !
- 2 hours ago !
- Sponsored post !
Oᴛʜᴇʀ
Vɪᴅᴇᴏ
Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ
Do you like what you see here? Please subscribe to get essential digital news, hand-curated, and delivered to your inbox each week. And why not share this with some colleagues?
- Flickr is getting back to its roots as a photographer-centric community and will be charging users $49 a year for a Pro account. (Flickr) Interesting to note how they used data to arrive at the photo limit and pricing. But more importantly is their statement on user data:
"[Y]ou can tell a lot about a product by how it makes money. Giving away vast amounts of storage creates data that can be sold to advertisers, with the inevitable result being that advertisers’ interests are prioritized over yours...SmugMug, the photography company that recently acquired Flickr from Yahoo, has long had a saying that resonates deeply with the Flickr team and the way we believe we can best serve your needs: 'You are not our product. You are our priority.'"
Media
The latest in the world of streaming video, audio, and the advertising, pricing and bundling models related to them.Vɪᴅᴇᴏ
- Netflix released the final season of House of Cards last Friday. The streaming era owes much to House of Cards. It introduced the concept of binge-watching, among other things. (Variety) Smart move too, releasing the final season just before Election Day and during the change to Daylight Saving Time, when we'd have an extra hour to watch.
- Finding hidden categories on Netflix used to involve searching for special codes and then going to each hidden category page manually. A new plugin makes the hidden categories visible. (BGR)
- Netflix will debut three of its original films in theaters before they're available online, an unprecedented move for the streaming service meant to draw Academy Awards attention. (New York Times)
- At TwitchCon, the CEO of Twitch shared a vision for expanding beyond streaming video games as 1 million viewers are logged on at any given moment. The Amazon-owned company has been partnering with traditional sports leagues such as the NBA and NFL, and the company is growing its arsenal of streamers and producers dedicated to broadcasting content outside of the traditional gaming sphere. (CNBC)
Aᴜᴅɪᴏ
- A once-promising medium of podcasting risks being squandered in a sea of sameness and self-indulgence. Advertising is getting worse, discovery is stuck in 2006, and an echo chamber exists. Please Fix Podcasting Before It Jumps the Shark. (Folio)
- Waze is integrating a number of new apps to its navigation, including TuneIn and Pandora. (The Verge)
- Close to half of all U.S. consumers will own a smart speaker after the holidays. (Variety) "Alexa, what's your market share?"
- Program of the Week: Our pick this week is Annotated, Book Riot's audio documentary series about books, reading, and language. Thanks to Rebecca Romney for the tip.
And don't forget about The Full Monty podcast, our own 5-minute weekly business commentary. Try this: "Alexa, play the latest episode of The Full Monty."
Privacy / Security / Regulatory
Business disruptions in the legal, regulatory, and computer security fields, from hacking to the on-demand economy and more.Pʀɪᴠᴀᴄʏ / Sᴇᴄᴜʀɪᴛʏ / Hᴀᴄᴋɪɴɢ
- Up to 120 million private Facebook messages were being sold online by hackers this fall, according to a report from the BBC. (Digital Trends)
- A 'sextortion' scam uses stolen passwords and blackmail, demanding payment in bitcoin. (Fox News) Sounds like a Black Mirror episode.
- With the release iOS, you should be using these 9 critical iPhone security and privacy settings. (Fast Company)
- Uber has expressed contrition over the accident that killed a pedestrian earlier this year, and hopes to reopen its autonomous driving efforts in Pennsylvania, petitioning state officials. (Washington Post) Makes sense, given the Waymo announcement in California. But a little grabby on the heels of the apology, isn't it?
- Uber is launching a program called Uber Pro, which rewards good driver behavior with things like 5% fuel discounts, car maintenance, and even free tuition at Arizona State’s online program for drivers and their family. (BuzzFeed News)
Measurement / Analytics / Data
The future is not in plastics, but in data. Those who know how to measure and analyze it will rule the world.- Here are five bite-sized data summaries, each in 5 minutes or less. (Towards Data Science)
- Data assessments are getting a makeover as advertising trade groups are changing how data gets labeled. With any luck, it'll help make it easier for marketers to understand their data segments. (eMarketer)
- Fantastic tool for #NaNoWriMo: a free emotion arc analyzer to help authors and proofreaders determine how the story works within chapters and overall. (Trust Insights)
- Many marketers are concerned about data exhaust, which refers to the massive data trail that users accumulate as they browse the internet. As a result, they often scrap excess data rather than sift through and make sense of it. (eMarketer)
Mental Nourishment
Other links to help you reflect, improve, or simply learn something new.- Feel-good story of the week: A doughnut store owner had to keep working long days and couldn't visit his ailing wife. So the neighborhood starting buying out all of his doughnuts in the morning so he could leave early. (Orange County Register) And you know, doughnuts.
- Shirley Jackson's The Lottery has been digitized, 70 years after it was first published. The response to its original publication was something else. (Mental Floss) I was thinking of holding a drawing for a copy, but...
- On the origins of the dunce cap. (Atlas Obscura)
- When was a word first used in print? Get your accelerometer (1875) ready, Merriam-Webster's Time Traveler tool is quite capacious (1606) in that regard. And that's no baloney (1922).
- My friend Bryan is making a first-of-its-kind full-length documentary film about what to expect when you're adopted or adopting. (IndieGogo) Can you help support this film that will touch so many lives?
Do you like what you see here? Please subscribe to get essential digital news, hand-curated, and delivered to your inbox each week. And why not share this with some colleagues?
Top image credit: The Humours of an Election - Canvassing for Votes, William Hogarth, 1754 - Wikipedia (Public Domain)
November 05, 2018
#pastprologue, Ethics, Facebook, influencers, leadership, News, regulatory, trends, Uber
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