Social Media & SEO

For a crash course in how not to communicate with millennials, take the time to visit /r/FellowKids, a “subreddit” of gigantic content-aggregation site Reddit. It’s a site dedicated to mocking examples of “advertisements and media that totally appeal to the radical youth of today. Cowabunga!”

Autodesk, producer of 3D design software, is one company that takes the “radiation” approach to YouTube as opposed to the passive storehouse approach. The company devotes much of its communications resources to its YouTube channel, and that devotion has paid off in 220,000 subscribers. The immediate goal for its YouTube channel might surprise you, considering this is a software company we’re talking about.

On Nov. 1 Instagram said it was testing a feature that will allow users to buy what they see in their feeds directly from brands. The beta involves 20 brands, including J.Crew, Macy’s and Levi’s. The user clicks on a button and up pops the product’s name and price. Another click provides a more in-depth description of the product. Then there’s the ever-popular “shop now” click, which takes the user to the retailer’s website. Seems simple, right? Actually, the implications could be enormous.

The vending machines, styled “Snapbots”—are distinctively bright yellow, with a smiling mouth and one big cartoonish eye, like a Minion without the blue overalls. Also, they are elusive: The Snapbots will only be in one place at a time, for one day only.

Want to create a powerful video ad on Instagram that will get people to stop scrolling and pay attention? First, you have to know your brand story, but then it’s important to communicate in the correct visual language. You don’t want to be salesy, you want to be relational.

At a networking event last week, an industry colleague asked me if I’ve ever Googled myself. She whispered the question to me as if to self-Google were verboten. Fortunately, we were interrupted by a mutual… Continued

The Chicago Cubs taught the world last week that nothing lasts forever, especially when you define forever as 108 years. And Sir Isaac Newton, well before Blood Sweat & Tears’ Spinning Wheel, said, not sang, “What goes up, must come down.”

Those two bits of knowledge explain this week’s Data Dive, where, for the first time in quite awhile, consumer engagement with U.S. B2C brands’ posts are down, according to Shareablee data provided exclusively to PR News Pro.

M&A: W2O Group early today acquired Marketeching Solutions, LLC, a research and social listening consultancy specializing in healthcare and life sciences. Founded in 2008 by Kevin Johnson, Marketeching has offices in New Hope, PA, and Philadelphia. Johnson will remain, operating Marketeching as a subsidiary of W2O. Earlier this year, Mountaingate Capital secured an investment position in W20 to propel growth through acquisitions.

So you’ve been thinking about finally getting started with a brand Snapchat account, and all of a sudden, a new competitor comes along: Instagram Stories. An admitted copycat of Snapchat, Instagram Stories seems like a platform where you could produce the same content, which would be viewed in the same way. What’s your next move? Flip a coin?

From the typically right-brained perspective of PR, securing a high rank in search results can seem like an opaque process. While a comprehensive knowledge of search algorithms and web crawlers is handy, there’s more to SEO success than understanding the numbers. In fact, it’s possible to rank highly on Google with small teams and a tiny budget.