Every time you open Facebook, one of the world’s most influential, controversial, and misunderstood algorithms springs into action. It scans and collects everything posted in the past week by each of your friends, everyone you follow, each group you belong to, and every Facebook page you’ve liked. For the average Facebook user, that’s more than […]
Google used to be an amazing channel to get users but growing demand quickly saturated the digital marketing channel of choice of many marketing executives. We are seeing the same thing happening now within the Facebook bubble. Two of your favorite customer acquisition channels, Google Adwords and Facebook Ads, have you feeling locked in. Now, […]
In a recent set of keynotes and consulting engagements in the US, UK and Canada, I’ve had an overwhelming feeling that in very fundamental ways some companies make imprecise choices when it comes to their digital strategy. Not because they don’t have enough money or opportunity or people. But, simply because their broader framing of […]
In the first season of Veep, the brilliant political comedy from HBO, Vice President Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) gets, um, wind that in the coming year, a hurricane will share her name. “Shit!” she says. “What if it hits and we get headlines saying, ‘Selina causing large-scale devastation?’” Needless to say, her staff eventually gets […]
In 2015, news on the Internet no longer belonged to the web alone. This was the year that Snapchat, previously best known as a messaging service for ephemeral photos, launched its own version of the news called Discover. It was the year that Facebook figured news articles on the web loaded too slowly, so it […]
For most of their history, media companies have controlled the two great pillars of publishing success: production and delivery. They owned the content we wanted and the the means of delivering it — and therefore monetizing it. But that’s changing rapidly. Distribution is no longer a competitive advantage: content isn’t constrained to any one time, […]
Coke has for years tried to establish itself as a brand publisher. And just like publishers before it, it is feeling the pressure from social platforms. The big one is Facebook. Coke’s “Journey,” the branded content news site that it replaced its corporate website with three years ago, has also felt the pinch from declining […]
If you’re curious for ways to grow your social media numbers, to have more success, to get more followers and more clicks, the absolute best piece of advice we’ve found is to keep trying new things. Always be testing. Need inspiration? I’ve drummed up 30 new, small, and simple experiments and growth hacks you can […]
Jimmy Iovine spared no words when it came to his opinion of algorithms during the unveiling of Apple Music: “The only song that matters as much as the song you’re listening to right now is the one that follows this. Picture this: you’re in a special moment…and the next song comes on…BZZZZZ Buzzkill! It probably […]
There are about 7 billion people on Earth. Over 864 million of them check Facebook every day. That’s an awful lot of daily habits, and it’s part of the reason Facebook is worth some $200 billion. So why is the social network so addictive? Nir Eyal, a multiple-time entrepreneur and Stanford Graduate School of Business […]
Every so often when I’m tweeting or emailing, I’ll think: Should I really be writing so much? I tend to get carried away. And for the times that I do, it sure would be nice to know if all this extra typing is hurting or helping my cause. I want to stand out on social […]