If Facebook hosts news, I'm hiring...
Humans are inherently lazy - and product managers are aware of this.
The swiping motion with which we command our phone screens reduces us to the basest of motor skills we learn virtually at birth, while voice commands have superseded even the remote control as our preferred way to interact with entertainment systems in the home.
I mean, why would I read a whole IKEA instruction manual when I can just watch a video instead? (Just kidding - I don't shop at IKEA).
Facebook, never one to miss a trick where the user experience is concerned, is in talks with media groups about hosting news content within the social network, enabling users to consume entire stories without tapping out to external hosts.
While such an alliance presents obvious gains for Facebook and publishers alike, most of which concern economics and reach, it also throws up plenty of positives for content suppliers and the humble reader too.
As a supplier of branded news, I can see demand for our content growing in-line with audience expectations on the channel and the increased needs of the news outlets we provide to – so more video, more visuals, more copy and more stories in general to meet increased publisher outputs. Happy times.
Additionally, and I may be getting a little ahead of myself here, if Facebook were to pull a Vice and launch a standalone Facebook News sub-brand, then it gives me yet another outlet to sell stories in to and potentially partner with - plus they really don’t come bigger in terms of audience size and segmentation.
Back to the user experience and it’s still good news.
Facebook hosting will make shaping content for social consumption mandatory for publishers, ensuring all outputs are visual, digestible, shareable and mobile – marry this to the convenience of consuming content from multiple outlets in a single space (while also doing all of your social housekeeping) and we could easily save 10-15 minutes a day on our reading time.
Finally, and this is of benefit to reader, platform and content supplier alike, Facebook hosting will lead to deeper engagement and all-round satisfaction – longer reads, greater dwell times, more sharing, increased content performance, happier authors and happier clients.
And for those who fear Facebook dominance, there will always be an alternative – there always is.
Just think of this Facebook/publisher partnership as being one of several labour-saving devices delivered over the years, enabling us to open our ever-expanding daily procrastination window to more cat gifs such as this one and Tinder freaks (I don’t use Tinder).
Sledgens and Legends: The 2015 Cricket World Cup in Tweets
At the risk of sounding like a bitter Englishman, the 2015 Cricket World Cup has been a bit of a laborious affair. Ever since that fateful day in Adelaide when England failed to overcome Bangladesh (BANGLADESH!) to reach the knock-out stages I have been huffing and puffing about the long-winded nature (irony of ironies for a cricket fan) of a tournament that has served only to draw attention to the gulf in class that divides India, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand from the rest of the world.
But despite there being a distinct lack of momentous games, there has been no shortage of momentous moments. New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori defied the laws of physics with a spectacular one-handed catch at the boundary this weekend, Windies all-rounder Chris Gayle mirrored Sachin Tendulkar with a double century, Pakistan's Wahab Riaz bowled a mesmerising innings against the Aussies and Martin Guptill’s 237 runs from 163 balls are just a few of many moments that match the gravitas of a World Cup.
And this year Twitter has been there to capture all the action after signing an agreement with the ICC to launch a host of innovative and interactive features. The move, which sets a precedent for future tournaments, positioned the social media platform as a central hub for match commentary, expert analysis and fan insight, transcending geographical and time limits to make the cup a truly ‘world’ affair with fans at the heart of the action.
In true cricketing fashion the Twittersphere responded with admiration and tactical intimidation in equal measure. Old rivalries re-born, fierce competition re-lived and passions personified as the highs and lows of The Imperial Game were played out across Australasia, all of which made great fodder for social media channels.
Here’s a review of how the Sledgend and the Ledgend lit up this year’s tournament on social media.
The Sledge
Australia (gotta love ‘em) initiated the sledging (a form of verbal intimidating) with a campaign by an online bookmaker advertising two cricket balls with the slogan: “Missing, Pair of Balls – if found please return to the English cricket team.” The ad ran before the home nation’s game against England in Melbourne and immediately became a social media success with the hashtag #MissingBalls trending in a matter of hours.
Our Digital Hub team picked up the social media movement and were quick to publicise. The first sledge of the tournament was soon up on the Telegraph, the Mirror and various other online titles who published the story as a good-natured exchange of banter.
But it doesn’t always work out so well. A club cricket final in New Zealand has recently made national headlines after it was abandoned due to one team refusing to play on, citing "bullying" from their opponents as the reason for pulling stumps. As the national team prepare for a feisty encounter with South Africa tomorrow could we see a repeat of the feisty 2011 World Cup quarter-final, or will the intimidating exchanges be left for the Twitterati to administer?
The Ledge
One thing we are sure to see as the semi-finals commence is a good dose of admiration for World Cup legends. The one day format differs from test cricket in that it propels individual performances into the limelight more than the team as a whole, a trait which is conducive to the 140 character limit on Twitter.
This year’s semi-finalists demonstrate this well. Australian fast bowler Mitchell Starc is at the centre of social media hype in the run-up to their clash with India who have every chance of upsetting the host nation in their own backyard if the likes of MS Dhoni, Mohammad Shami and Ajinkya Rahane can repeat their heroic performances. And if New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill can #Guptill South Africa tomorrow he will become a social media saint overnight.
With three of the best games of the tournament yet to come, prepare to see a frenzy of social media activity kick off as the sledgend meets the legend.
Lack of Female Role Models for Girls in the Media
It’s painful just how hugely teenage girls obsess over beautiful celebs, isn’t it?
Even more painful is remembering being exactly the same way.
As an awkward pre-teen, the waist of my trousers still that bit too high, I directed all my adolescent envy towards two TV babes: Holly Valance (Neighbours fan – weren’t we all) and Frankie, of the highly-regarded eight-piece ensemble, the S Club Juniors. Pause for emphasis.
They were older than me; I guess around 14 - slim, clear-skinned and so unbearably good-looking.
Call me a shallow kid but if someone had said to me, ‘What do you want in life?’ I’d have thought, ‘Flick Scully’s complexion’ without pausing. I didn’t know what else to put my energy towards. School?
Perhaps it was a blessing then, that my only exposure to these girls was through music videos, CBBC and my monthly Sugar mag, so I was only mildly hateful of myself. Imagining what my life would have been like if I were 11 years old today….to endure the social media noise that teenagers have now… well that’s too stressful to think about.
It’s likely I’d be drip-fed a continuous stream of Holly and Frankie through their Twitter feeds; lapping it up as they churned out duck-faced selfies, holiday pics strewn with product placement, bikini mirror shots - at a Kardashian regularity. In a misplaced brainwave I’d probably have uploaded a ‘vlog’ of myself re-enacting a Fast Show sketch with a toy panda or something, which, years later, I would almost kill myself trying to remove. I might have even… enjoyed Zoella. It’s frightening, what might have been.
Imagining what my life would have been like if I were 11 years old today….to endure the social media noise that teenagers have now… well that’s too stressful to think about.
But the next generation – the millennials (apparently I might be a millennial, a fact I’d rather hide away from)- live each day in this media frenzy, which is barely being contained. We’re only beginning to see the dark side developing from this parallel world - the Instagram culture, the trolling, cyber bullying, revenge porn – and what an obsession with narcissistic, selfie-addicted reality stars might do to a teenager’s sense of self.
The problem lies in the fact that the really cool women – the explorers, zoologists, scientists, entrepreneurs, are NOWHERE to be seen. And the Kardashians, the Jenners, the cast of Towie - who are solely famous for publicity and looks, are EVERYWHERE. They aren’t particularly admirable, aren’t representing a viable career move and are spreading their own message of ‘you don’t look good enough’ to their young fans like a disease.
It’s mostly ‘the Kylie Jenner effect’ (the influx of girls getting lip fillers due to her sudden enormous pout) that made me write this post, as it got me thinking about idols. Aside from their own family members, not to be downplayed, and a stock list of historical figures like Marie Curie that are churned out in school, there are just reams and reams of glitzy celebs. Throw in a Karen Brady, a Michelle Obama and a Mary Portas and that’s it, really.
A space-travelling woman going to Mars may be mentioned in the news one day, or an athlete on another day, or a CEO on another And then she fades into obscurity as a ‘What has she done to her face?!’ story dominates the air time for weeks.
Put simply, there is no PR for the real idols girls need. No scientists, world explorers, chemists, psychologists. No web designers, charity workers, astronauts or business owners. And if we, as adults, don’t know anything about the women making real changes in the world but constantly seeing Kim Kardashian’s blonde mop gets a news headline, no wonder girls are chasing their goals right into the cosmetic surgeon’s office instead.
There is no PR for the real idols girls need
I want to hear about women that are worth looking up to and emulating, who have made something of themselves based on more than their cheekbones. Who have seen a problem and looked to solve it, through hard graft and innovation.
And we should research them, and talk about them, and share them, and give them the PR they deserve – but also (cue the Miss. World bit) because it’s what young girls deserve. The scope of what women are achieving isn’t bleak; they’re just humble enough not to be yelling about it. It’s up to everyone else to yell about them instead. It’s up to us change the situation.
International Women's Day is the 8th March. Don't forget to join the conversation using #IWD2015
So Much for Silly Season
Well, that was that…
‘Silly season’, by far and away the best time of the year to deliver PR content to the UK’s national newspapers, passed by in a blur of war, death, phone hacking and paedophilia.
(By the way, they are not in order of seriousness, they merely read quite nicely in that order).
No room for tales of great white sharks being spotted off the Cornish coast this year – and subsequently very little room for PR stories.
Last year was very different, the country was enjoying a feel good factor, the birth of the young Prince and Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory gave the nation a huge boost, and opened the door for bucket-loads of PR fun within the pages of the national press.
In PR terms the summer of 2013 was the summer of love. Positivity flowed through the streets of Britain and through page after page. Boasting tans and clutching a glass of Pimms, the media opened their arms to light-hearted content.
Stories which may have squeezed in at the middle or back end of the news pages landed in the first five to seven, leaving the PR industry with a glow as warm as Kate and Wills’.
Fast forward – and this year could not have been more different.
This summer has been flat. A bit like arranging a posh barbecue, inviting 22 friends, spending £300 on steaks, fresh fish and couscous from Waitrose, only for your mate and his not-so-sociable girlfriend to be the only guests to turn up.
Time and time again I have seen good quality PR content, which would have sat nicely up the front of papers, being given a smallish show in the later pages.
Whilst this time last year was the summer of love, we are now in the midst of our very own annus horribilis.
Thinking about it – why didn’t we see it coming?
Should have gone to Specsavers, perhaps.
The tone of the year’s news seemed to be set quite early in March when within six days three massive global stories kicked off, pushing PR-based content off the news list.
First the Oscar Pistorius trial began in South Africa, and the world hung on every piece of evidence put before the court.
Page after page of coverage followed for days on end as the grim final moments of Reeva Steenkamp’s demise were made public.
The trial of publicist and all-round Mr Fix It, Max Clifford, dubbed the showbiz trial of the decade, followed and again took up page after page of the papers.
An art and sub desk’s dream, maybe. Having a string of belters to place on the flat plan after the morning news conference. But a complete nightmare for the PR industry.
They always say things come in threes, and just when we were all hoping things would quieten down and free up a few pages reports started emerging of a missing passenger jet.
And so the greatest mystery in the history of aviation was born.
Never before has a packed passenger jet just vanished without a trace – but it did this year.
Malaysian Airlines MH370, which took off from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing, lost contact with air traffic control less than an hour into its flight.
The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200ER, carrying 12 Malaysian crew members and 227 passengers from 15 nations, left Malaysian airspace with a casual ‘good night’ from the co-pilot and is still missing.
Search and rescue teams from around the world joined the hunt for the doomed airliner, hundreds of ships – including dozens of naval vessels were scrambled to the area where experts pinpointed as a possible crash site.
Harrowing photographs of friends and relatives of the missing passengers collapsing under the sheer weight of their grief filled the pages of the world’s media.
Around a month later Britain was stunned by the initially mysterious death of Peaches Geldof at her home in Kent, hours after she posted a photo of herself as a child with her late mum Paula Yates.
From grief and disbelief, the nation’s emotions quickly turned to disgust and deceit and even the feeling we were all duped, when the trial of Rolf Harrisbegan.
Surely at some point there would be some respite for the PR industry, a shard of light at the end of the tunnel – or even a triangular-shaped fin off the coast of St Ives.
But no, the death destruction and mood of media misery continued, this time when after a thoroughly public laundering of the industry’s own dirty washingAndy Coulson was found guilty of conspiracy to hack phones of celebrities, royals, grieving families and even fellow staff from the now defunct News Of The World.
Sandwiched between the Harris and Coulson cases came the sad and untimely death of comedian and all-round good guy, Rik Mayall.
More recently – and right smack bang in the middle of our beloved ‘silly season’ – came another potentially fatal blow for Malaysian Airlines.
The mid-air annihilation of MH17, a packed passenger jet, amid the disputed skies over eastern Ukraine, in what looks likely to be an attack by pro-Russian guerrillas, left the world shocked to the core.
Again, alongside stories of those who died, subsequent tributes and heart-breaking family photographs, those who should have been on the flight but weren’t for one reason or another, told their stories. Within hours graphic images of charred human remains amongst the twisted fuselage of the downed jet, the most haunting pictures of the year in my opinion, began to filter through.
As the ramifications rumbled on, and President Putin did his best to distance himself from the rebels who will surely be held responsible for the atrocity,trouble escalated in Gaza.
Hamas troops launched rocket after rocket over the border at the Israelis, who responded in kind, devastating buildings and leaving hundreds dead, including dozens of schoolchildren. This again providing news outlets with a plethora of horrific images with which to fill their pages and illustrate the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding before us.
Social media and instant news and images have also helped give these stories a shelf life far longer than would have been the case in years gone by.
Each one of these stories has held great images. The visual element of most of them has been gripping to say the least.
Bar the missing Malaysian flight every story, even Harris’s trial in the shape of his arrival at court each day with his wife Alwen and daughter Bindi, and his final trip to court by boat, enabled the media to splash photographs across the pages to accompany the copy.
And each one of these stories has been what we call a ‘runner’; a tale which focuses attention on a ‘day two’ and a ‘day three’ and so on, leaving us PRs facing an uphill battle to snatch a page lead or two.
So – as I write we have around three and a half weeks to go before the PR industry begins to focus on Christmas.
Perhaps there is still time for some good news – or even a shark or two,
I live in hope…
Hang on, seems a global Ebola epidemic may be brewing.…