This week, the old makes itself new again. See how LinkedIn plans to out-clout Klout, which of Facebook's new features are Shazam-like, how Sesame Street feels about selfies, and what you can learn about disrupting industry-standard marketing… from a porn website. (Don't worry, it's totally SFW. Which is kinda the point.)
"#Galaxy11: The Training" topped viral video charts with a dream team of sports stars, drawn together for one reason: Winning a futuristic game of soccer, using an array of Samsung products. If that sounds silly, it is... but the production value is Minority Report-worthy. Also, hey, an alien!
The New York Times meltdown in 96 pages. The media's abuzz with a huge NYT innovation report that was leaked to Buzzfeed. Alarm is palpable in the document, with quotes like "While we receive accolades for our digital efforts like 'Snowfall,' we nevertheless are at risk of becoming known as a place that does not fully understand, reward, and celebrate digital skills." Proposals range from TED-style talks to location-based news. Digiday's summarized the major points, and social media star Scott Monty nailed down what brands can learn from this "bombshell," addressing both audience development and strengthening the core product (in this case, the newsroom). Monty calls the document "essential reading for anyone who thinks of himself or herself as a digital leader." We agree, so here it is:
The Full New York Times Innovation Report
Speaking of Scott Monty, he too made headlines with his decision to leave Ford after six years. He's staying mum on what's next, but AdWeek scored an interview, in which he talks about his favorite initiatives and how he feels about Ford's leadership (it's positive). He also says social media's at a "critical juncture": "The promise of social is about relationship development," Monty says. "While advertising can get you the attention by interrupting people, it's more important to build relationships with customers and other people you want to reach. And I think communications and marketing and customer service have to band together around social." Many happy returns, Scott.
Facebook knows what you're watching. And listening to. Facebook's newest iOS and Android updates include the ability to automatically recognize the song you're listening to, or the show you're watching, so you can add it to your status. Think of it as Shazam for exhibitionists. The feature will also give Facebook valuable insight on what people tune in to, and when. We're sure that data will trickle down to advertisers.
To avoid getting left in the musical dust, Twitter reportedly considered buying SoundCloud, a music and audio-sharing firm, before walking away from the deal just one day later for mysterious reasons. It was all very neat; it simply let the exclusive negotiating period expire. Maybe the lesson here is to sleep before making an impulse buy.
Why are you dating him? A new Facebook feature lets people inquire about your relationship status. No one can accuse this strange addition (unlike the "Poke" of yore) of being too discreet about showing romantic interest. (Slate speculates it's an effort to facilitate more "real" communication. You mean like on Tinder?). No word on whether brand pages can ask (and if they can, maybe they should refrain).
A new way to compare yourself with others. Take a peek at your Who's Viewed Your Profile section on LinkedIn. It now includes a section called How You Rank, which tells you where you rank in profile views for your company, or among connections. The idea is to pressure users into building more visibility on LinkedIn for competitive reasons, bringing to mind this article about why influence site Klout's failure may be social networks' boon: "By internalizing a lot of Klout's ideas," Jon Nathanson writes, social networks will "quietly make their users' news feeds more relevant and useful." But it's important to do this "in the background, carefully avoiding the observer effect by keeping users out of their own 'scores.'" Maybe this is an attempt, scores aside.
