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This Week in Digital and Public Affairs – Instagram, Snapchat and The BuzzFeed Dossier

January 16, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

buzzfeed-logoDigital and social media are transforming how government institutions, political campaigns and trade associations are communicating and marketing to their key audiences.

Below is a roundup of key stories in digital and public affairs for this week:

Content, Digital and Social Media

Facebook announced the hiring of Campbell Brown, a former NBC News correspondent and CNN prime-time host, to lead its news partnerships team. While Facebook indicated that she would not serve in a role as editor-in-chief, she would work as a liaison with news organizations so that Facebook can better meet their journalistic and business imperatives.

Snapchat announced the launch of universal search to simplify navigation on the platform. This move was clearly to ward off competition from Instagram’s Stories which has hit 150 million users.  Instagram has now offered an advertising product on Stories that has the targeting capabilities offered in Facebook.

Medium, a platform for long form content, announced it was laying off a third of its employees, mostly in sales. CEO Ev Williams stated that Medium would be renewing its focus away from an ad-driven model to one that rewards writers  “on their ability to enlighten and inform, not simply their ability to attract a few seconds of attention.”

Gov 2.0 and Public Affairs

On DigitalGov, Julia Jackson with the National Institutes of Health explores how social media platforms are becoming one-stop shops for information needs as the platforms become more feature rich and audience share falls away from search engines. Jackson recommends that federal agencies should refocus their attention on content created for social media in 2017 and use the platforms as one of their primary communication strategies.

In Social Media Today, Alan Rosenblatt talks about how public affairs organizations should consider self-publishing strategies to achieve their objectives. Once dismissed by professionals as less worthy than earned media, Rosneblatt argues that self publishing on your own website, blogs and social media is an effective strategy in achieving goals and can have greater impact than placing stories in the news media.

Speaking of effective, self-publishing strategies in public affairs, Associations Now reports on how the American Medical Association created a new content strategy that provided the framework for its website redesign. The new site is easy for its key stakeholders to navigate to content that is tailored to their needs.

Campaigns and Elections

Buzzfeed draws criticism for its publishing of a unverifiable secret dossier on President-elect Donald Trump and Russia. After its posting, BuzzFeed editor-in-chief, Ben Smith took to Twitter to explain how they made the decision. Smith stated that even though “there is serious reasons to doubt the allegations”, he noted that “publishing the dossier reflects how we see publishing in 2017”.

Writing in The Atlantic , staff writer, David Graham agrues that BuzzFeed sidestepped a basic principle of journalism in publishing the dossier. He argues that a reporter’s job is not simply to dump information into the public domain, but to gather information, sift through it and determine what is true and what is not.

On Federalist.com, lawyer turned writer Leslie Loftis argues that BuzzFeed’s decision to publish the dossier may lead to a defamation lawsuit. Loftis argues that BuzzFeed Editor in Chief Ben Smith’s rationale for publishing was the same rationale Rolling Stone’s Will Dana used to justify publishing a fake story that ended in a major court loss in Eramo v Rolling Stone. 

On a side note, Nieman Labs reports on the success of BuzzFeed’s Tasty customized cookbook product which has sold enough copies to make it one of the best-selling cookbooks of the year. Tasty: The Cookbook, a choose-your-own categories, print-on-demand cookbook,  sold over 100,000 copies in the last two months of 2016, earning BuzzFeed an estimated $2.4 to $4 million in sales.

These are some of the reads that matter to us for the week in digital and public affairs. What do you think? What are your favorite stories? We’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Business Advocacy, Campaign Management, Campaigns and Elections, Content Marketing, Government, Public Affairs, Social Media Audits and Listening analyses, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Relations, Website Development Tagged With: Arc 3 Communications, BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed and Trump, BuzzFeed and Trump Dossier, Digital and Government, Digital and Public Affairs, DigitalGov, Facebook, Facebook and News, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Medium, Snapchat, Snapchat and Instagram Stories, social media, Social Media and Government, Social Media and Politics, Social Media and Public Affairs, This Week in Digital and Public Affairs

This Week in Digital and Public Affairs: The 2016 Olympics, BuzzFeed and Ad Blocking

August 4, 2016 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

buzzfeed-logoDigital and social media are transforming how government institutions, political campaigns and trade associations are communicating and marketing to their key audiences.

Below is a roundup of key stories in digital and public affairs for this week:

Content, Digital and Social Media

Digiday reports on how The New York Times’ T Brand Studio which was born two years ago to assist clients in the creation of native advertising  (sponsored ads and content that look like actual stories in NYT) is now expanding into a full fledged agency. T Brand Studio will now assist clients in the creation of multi-media, stories and content that can be placed in publications beyond The New York Times. In pitching its new services, the Times will be competing not just with established agencies, but other publishers that are also producing content for clients such as Atlantic Media Strategies, started by Atlantic Media, publisher of news magazines such as the The National Journal.

Ad Week rants about the many ways that businesses and brands can get in trouble posting on social media regarding the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. For those businesses that are not official sponsors of the games like Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Visa or P&G, posting on social media regarding the Olympic Games runs legal risks. The many restrictions issued by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) include prohibition against non-sponsors using the Olympics’ trademarked words or phrases such as Olympic, Olympian, Team USA, Go for the Gold; using terms that reference the location of the Olympics, such as the Road to Rio; and using hashtags that include Olympics trademarks such as #TeamUSA or #Rio2016. Non-sponsors are also prohibited from sharing or retweeting content from official Olympics social media accounts.

Gov 2.0 and Public Affairs

The Las Vegas Sun reports on how Las Vegas area governments and authorities such as the City of Las Vegas, Clark County and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority are turning to social media to modernize their communications and engage with citizens. The City of Las Vegas has a social media team of 4 staff members and is present on nine different social media channels including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, Snapchat, LinkedIn, Next Door and Google Plus to promote citizen engagement. Speaking of Snapchat, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority recently tapped hip hop star DJ Khaled to launch its new Snapchat account. The authority’s Snapchat launch generated more than 400,000 views and 25,000 engagements in a 48-hour period thanks to DJ Khaled.

In Associations Now, Ernie Smith reviews a report by the Interactive Advertising Bureau that found that a quarter of all internet users already block ads, which is less than anticipated.  The majority of users who block ads are adult males from 18 to 34. While ad blocking on desktop computers is at 26%, ad blocking on mobile devices is lower at 15%. The IAB has been focused on combating ad blocking over the years, and is recommending that advertisers promote lighter non-invasive ads. The study found that lighter non-invasive ads online encourage ad blockers to turn off their ad blocking software. One interesting note from the study: 40% of internet users believed that they had ad blocking software turned on, but many of the users confused anti-virus and pop-up blockers with ad blocking software.

Campaigns and Elections

Business Insider reports on BuzzFeed Editor-In-Chief Ben Smith sending a memo to the outlet’s news staff to refrain from taking “partisan stands” on social media. The memo was written after a BuzzFeed reporter posted a pair of now-deleted partisan tweets to her account during a video that played before President Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. BuzzFeed’s ethics guide states that “reporters and editors should refrain from commenting in a partisan way about candidates or policy issues.” After acknowledging the unusual nature of this year’s Presidential election, Smith stated in his memo: “I’m writing to remind you about our policy on not taking partisan stands on social media, or in our coverage, for either side. You have colleagues covering this race intensely and an audience who should trust that you, and we, are as fair and accurate as you know we strive to be.”

These are some of the reads that matter to us for the week in digital and public affairs. What do you think? What are your favorite stories? We’d love to hear from you!

Filed Under: Business Advocacy, Campaigns and Elections, Civic Innovation/Gov. 2.0, Content Marketing, Government, Social Media Audits and Listening analyses, Social Media Relations Tagged With: BuzzFeed, BuzzFeed and social media, Content Marketing, Internet Ad Blocking, Social Media and Government, Social Media and Local Government, Social Media and the 2016 Olympics

This Week in Digital and Public Affairs – BuzzFeed, Mobile Websites and Twitter

April 25, 2015 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

buzzfeed-logoDigital and social media are changing how government institutions, political campaigns and trade associations communicate and achieve their goals. Below is a roundup of the more interesting stories that we read over the last week:

Content, Digital and Social Media

Gawker reports that BuzzFeed deleted posts under pressure from its own business department. An internal review found at least 3 instances in which complaints from the site’s business and advertising departments led Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith to delete posts by staff. The 3 deleted posts criticized or mocked an Axe body spray ad campaign (a brand of Unilever), Pepsi’s Twitter account and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser. Unilever, Pepsi and Microsoft all are major advertisers with BuzzFeed.

TechCrunch reports LinkedIn’s launch of Elevate, a paid mobile and desktop app for social media management. The app suggests articles to its users based on algorithms from its news recommendation services Pulse and Newsle as well as “human curation”. Users are then able to schedule and share those links across LinkedIn and Twitter.  The app will be available to users in the 3rd quarter of this year.

Gov 2.0 and Public Affairs

Ernie Smith, the social media journalist for Associations Now provides an analysis of Google’s implementation this week of an update of its algorithm to favor mobile-friendly websites and its impact on trade associations. Smith provides things for associations to consider as they redesign or retrofit their mobile unfriendly site.  Smith notes the challenges facing associations who have lots of legacy content on their websites.

William Powers and Deb Roy of MIT’s Laboratory for Social Machines provides insights on Medium into their research of the town of Jun in southern Spain. For the last four years, the town has been using Twitter as its principal medium for citizen-government communication. Leading the effort is Jun’s Mayor, José Antonio Rodríguez Salashas  who has been recruiting the town’s 3,500 residents to join the social network and have their Twitter accounts locally verified at town hall.

Speaking of municipalities, the City of Philadelphia unveiled on its website this week a real-time analytics tool showing how people are visiting city websites. This tool may promote better civic engagement between staff and residents.

Campaigns and Elections 

Dave Weigel reports in Bloomberg Politics  on the launch of the app Clear by Ethan Czahor, the former CTO for Jeb Bush’s presidential exploratory committee. The free app which works as an add-on to Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram allows users to scan their social media for a series of problematic terms that could harm their public reputation in the future. Czahor resigned his position with Jeb Bush earlier this year after it was discovered he had sent tweets disparaging women. Czahor believes that the app can help millennials avoid repeating his fate.

These were some of Arc 3’s most interesting reads in digital and public affairs over the last week. What were your favorite stories? Let us know if there is a neat story that we missed! We’d love to hear from you.

 

Filed Under: Business Advocacy, Campaign Management, Campaigns and Elections, Civic Innovation/Gov. 2.0, Content Marketing, Government, Social Media Relations, Website Development Tagged With: BuzzFeed, City of Philadelphia, Clear App, Clear App and Jeb Bush, Digital and Campaigns and Elections, Digital and Government, Digital and Public Affairs, Digital and Trade Associations, Elections 2016, Jeb Bush, LinkedIn, MIT, MIT and Laboratory for Social Machines, Mobile Friendly Websites, Social Media and Campaigns and Elections, Social Media and Election 2016, Social Media and Government, Social Media and Public Affairs, Social Media and Trade Associations

The Top Ten Politicians on Instagram

February 5, 2014 By Patrick L. Burns 2 Comments

Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms. Taking quick snapshots or 15 second videos and applying funky filters of different colors and hues and sharing them with your friends isn’t just for hipsters any more. More and more politicians are joining Instagram to reach out to voters in a more personal way through photos and videos.

With its acquirement by Facebook and the addition of short video capabilities to the platform, Instagram is a powerful tool for helping politicians reach the ever growing mobile audience. Instagram’s new 15 second video feature is ideal for mobile video watching and integrates seamlessly with other social networks for instant sharing.

At the start of 2014, who are the most savvy politicians on Instagram? Through an analysis of Instagram followers and individual photo likes, Arc 3 has compiled a list of the top ten politicians on Instagram:

1. President Barack Obama  @barackobama 2.73 million followers

The top ten most liked political photos on Instagram are shared by the President’s account. These photos range from a “Thank you” photo on Election Night with 294k likes to birthday wishes for the President with 86k likes. Upon the President joining Instagram, the social media platform announced  that “We look forward to seeing how President Obama uses Instagram to give folks a visual sense of what happens in the everyday life of the President of the United States.”  So far the President’s team has done that and more.

2. Mitt Romney @mittromney 71k followers

The former Governor of Massachusetts and Republican nominee for President has the second largest following of a politician on Instagram.  The account largely contains photos from campaign stops during the 2012 Presidential election with his last post being November 6, 2012. The most popular photo on his account was a get out the vote photo on election day that received over 17k likes.

3. George W. Bush @georgewbush 64k followers

The 43rd President has taken to painting and his artistic talents show in his Instagram account. Posting touching photos of family and new grandchildren, he also adds in beautiful landscapes of his native Texas. The former Texas Rangers owner’s love of sports is also on full display with photos of trips to professional football and baseball games.

4. Senator Cory Booker @corybooker 33k followers

The former Mayor of Newark and newest member of the U.S. Senate is also one of the most adept at using social media for civic engagement, responding to constituent requests and comments personally. Senator Booker’s Insta feed contains a wide variety of content, including savvy use of short video and uploading of press clips.

5. Congressman Kevin McCarthy @repkevinmccarthy 11k followers

The House Majority Whip, McCarthy was recognized by BuzzFeed as the best Republican Congressman on Instagram. McCarthy’s Insta feed is full of photos of D.C.’s who’s who, his family dog and “Throwback Thursday” photos of his family. McCarthy’s video of playing Frisbee with the family dog received over 2k likes.

6. Governor Chris Christie @govchristie 5k followers

The potential 2016 candidate for President and Republican Governor of New Jersey has a balanced mix of celebrity photos, family “Throwback Thursday” photos and behind the scenes photos in his role as Governor. Governor Christie’s photo shares reflect his team’s understanding of emotion and imagery to garner support on social media.

7. Michael Bloomberg @mikebloomberg 4k followers

Having completed his term as Mayor of the Big Apple, Bloomberg has set up a philanthropic foundation to advance his favorite causes. His Insta feed is loaded with photos of groundbreakings, ceremonies and events in the performance of his duties as Mayor. Since leaving the Mayoral office, he has posted a stream of photos related to his campaign for immigration reform, Iamimmigration.org.

8. Gabby Giffords  @gabbygiffords 4k followers

The former Congresswoman from Southern Arizona retired from Congress after her courageous return from a 2011 shooting that nearly claimed her life. Founder of the PAC, Americans for Responsible Solutions, Gifford’s Instagram account is full of photos of her advocacy work.

9. Speaker John Boehner @speakerboehner 3k followers

The Speaker is the king of  ‘Throwback Thursday”, posting photos ranging from his high school football days under legendary Coach Gerry Faust to school field trips to family photos with his brothers and Santa Claus. The photos personalize one of the most powerful men in the country, who is 2nd in the line of succession to the Presidency. His Insta feed also includes hundreds of behind the scenes photos of his official duties as Speaker.

10. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard @tulsigabbard  2k followers

The 32 year old Army veteran, surfer and representative from Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional district is one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party. Her Insta feed is chalked full of beautiful Hawaiian landscapes as well as behind the scenes photos of her duties as a Congresswoman for the Aloha state.  A fitness enthusiast, the Congresswoman’s account has photos of her many physical activities such as running, hiking, sking, and yoga.

At the start of 2014, these are the top ten politicians on Instagram.  As social media continues to become more and more visual, we expect more politicians to adopt Instagram as a necessary part of their social media efforts. Who are your favorite politicians on Instagram? Let us know!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Campaigns and Elections, Government, Public Affairs, Social Media Audits and Listening analyses, Social Media Relations, Uncategorized Tagged With: BuzzFeed, Chris Christie, Congresman Kevin McCarthy, Cory Booker, Facebook, Gabby Giffords, George W. Bush, Instagram, Instagram and Politics, John Boehner, Michael Bloomberg, Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama, Social Media and Elections, Social Media and Politics, Throwback Thursday, Tulsi Gabbard

Vine, Instagram and the Role of Short Video in Politics

July 6, 2013 By Patrick L. Burns 1 Comment

Candidates, elected officials and the media are beginning to experiment with short video platforms such as Vine, Tout and Instagram Video. Because of the shortness of the videos created and shared on social networks, these platforms are ideal for the emerging mobile market, which is growing exponentially.

C-SPAN used Tout at the 2012 GOP Convention in Tampa. Delegates to the RNC Convention were encouraged to submit 15-second Tout videos of their experience. Several submitted videos by RNC Delegates were aired on C-SPAN. Earlier in 2012, C-SPAN sent its Campaign 2012 bus on a week-long tour of universities and towns in North Carolina to get feedback from students and citizens on the Presidential campaign, asking them to submit their thoughts and ideas via Tout.

Vine, a mobile app owned by Twitter has grown significantly in popularity.  Vine allows users to create six-second videos and share them via Twitter and Facebook. President Obama recently signed up as a Vine user and has posted short videos ranging from the White House Science Fair to a note commemorating the anniversary of the Library of Congress. Several members of Congress have used Vine to mark everything from the submittal of legislative bills to the welcoming of constituent visitors to the Capitol.

The National Republican Congressional Committee produced one of the first political ads on Vine in April targeting Elizabeth Colbert-Busch in South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District special election. The ad focused on Colbert-Busch’s support from Union groups after a recent controversy regarding the National Labor Relations Board and its initial opposition to the location of a Boeing plant in South Carolina. The ad received a good deal of earned media coverage.

Instagram video is new to the short video platform scene having been just released by Facebook in June. Instagram video allows users to create 15-second videos and share them via Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, Foursquare and e-mail. In another differentiation from Vine, Instagram has a “cinema feature” which helps to stabilize video shot within the app. Those elected officials who have long had Instagram accounts such as the White House and members of Congress, are starting to utilize the Instagram video feature. First Lady Michelle Obama recently uploaded videos of her South Africa trip with the President to her Instagram account. House Majority Whip, Kevin McCarthy recently uploaded an Instagram video of him playing Frisbee with the family dog at his home in California. Congressman McCarthy’s video received over 2k likes on Instagram.

Will other campaigns and elected officials follow suit in using  short video platforms? Only time will tell. One current challenge with using these platforms, are that they only allow you to shoot video with a mobile device and do not allow for the uploading of professional quality video shot separately. This results in less quality production of video for an ad. For example, Vine political ads have the quality of early release bootleg video recordings of movies playing in theaters, as they are a smartphone recording of a video produced elsewhere. Campaigns may be well-advised to use Vine and other short video platforms for  “insider” type shots and quick interviews that are shot originally on a smartphone.

Due to the continued growth of mobile, platforms such as Vine, Instagram and Tout are idyllic for the sharing of short video which users can view quickly while running errands or taking a break at work. Short video fits into the BuzzFeed news model of heavy and light content that the news is evolving into. However, these short video platforms are best for producing light hearted content until they have the capacity to upload production quality video.

Filed Under: Campaign Management, Campaigns and Elections, Civic Innovation/Gov. 2.0, Digital Marketing, Government, Public Affairs, Social Media Audits and Listening analyses, Social Media Relations, Strategic Communications Planning, Uncategorized, Web-based Video Tagged With: BuzzFeed, C-SPAN, Elizabeth Colber-Busch, Facebook, First Lady Michelle Obama, Flickr, Foursquare, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, Instagram, Instagram Video, NRCC, President Obama, Short Video, Tout, Tumblr, Twitter, Vine

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