The circle is round: we're moving back to AOL-like portals

In his first interview as the new CEO of Huffington's Post, Jared Grusd talks about what he calls the "post-social era".

He sees a trend in which the majority of people are changing their behavior on social media from generating content to consuming content.

Additionally, companies like Facebook are taking a new stance towards third party content creators. Rather than referring the customers to their websites, they are now introducing tools to consume third party content on their own (e.g., Facebook) platforms. Recently launched tools are Facebook Instant and Snapchat Discover. Both allow third parties to publish articles directly on Facebook.

In fact, Jared Grusd believes that the circle is becoming round, as these moves by Facebook and others would, in practice, move people back to portal websites such as AOL. The difference remains that the content you see depends on your network and the companies that you follow.

While Jared sees the risk that Facebook will demand an ever increasing share of ad revenue, he also sees the opportunity for Huffington Post to expand globally.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/dec/06/huffpo-jared-grusd--facebook-huffington?CMP=share_btn_link

Pinterest generating increasing amount of traffic, but not suited for all companies

Pinterest is becoming more important in generating traffic for a narrow selection of companies.

One example is Pottery Barn. Pottery Barn has a similar number of Pinterest followers as Target, which is a much bigger company. The key to success is to have an overlap with the typical Pinterest user and posting lots of content. The social media platform seems particularly suited for a "certain type of aspirational or life-stage-driven shopper".

http://www.wsj.com/articles/these-e-commerce-companies-are-seeing-lots-of-referral-traffic-from-pinterest-1448449201?mod=ST1

EU ruling: reminder of regulatory risk for firms relying on big data

On Tuesday , October 6th, the European highest court struck down a transatlantic pact that allowed thousands of companies to transfer personal data of European citizens to the United States. The court ruled that national regulators can override the 15-year old "safe-harbor" pact, as it exposes European citizens to indiscriminate surveillance by the US government. As billions of dollars of digital marketing depend on personal data, this ruling poses a threat to many businesses relying on this kind of ad spending.

Even though the ruling came as a surprise, most of the largest companies are prepared to dealt with the aftermath of this ruling. Google and Amazon, for example, have already set up data centers in Europe, allowing them to store the data locally.

However, for many smaller businesses, this ruling can pose a serious threat to their profitability as opening European data centers could easily double their operating costs.

Whatever happens further, the event reminds us of the regulatory risk for companies that rely on big data.


Link to article:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/small-firms-worry-as-big-data-pact-dies-1444256220

Brand emoji's as a new marketing tool

Over the last few days, you may have seen the hashtag #shareacoke pop up on twitter, accompanied with an emoji of 2 coca cola bottles. The company is going for the biggest cheers on the web.

This is the result of Twitters first paid emoji campaign, of which Coca Cola Co. is its first partner. With this innovation, Twitter aims to cash in on on the craze for emoji's.

So far, Twitter only aims to use this service as a sweetener to large advertising accounts, and will not open this up for all its advertisers. Instead, it is currently talking to only 10 of its biggest clients to launch similar campaigns.

In a similar effort, Snaps, a new startup, has recently raised $6.5mn and is helping companies navigate the booming messaging market. It has launched custom emoticons for large companies such as Burger King, Victoria's Secret, etc. So expect more to come!

Link to the article:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-teams-with-coke-for-emoji-branding-1442613526

Cheers!