BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social This is an edited version of Simon’s complete Digital 2019 analysis, which you can read in full over on DataReportal. The new 2019 Global Digital suite of reports from We Are Social and Hootsuite reveals that there are now 4.39 billion people around the world using the…

ECONOMIST.COM — THE AVERAGE woman in Niger has seven children. The average South Korean has barely one. The future size of the world’s population depends largely on how quickly child-bearing habits in places like Niger become more like those in South Korea. If women in high-fertility countries keep having lots…

TECHCRUNCH.COM — Facebook’s lead data protection regulator in Europe has asked the company for an “urgent briefing” regarding plans to integrate the underlying infrastructure of its three social messaging platforms. In a statement posted to its website late last week the Irish Data Protection Commission writes: “Previous proposals to share data between Facebook companies have given rise to significant data protection concerns and the Irish DPC will be seeking early assurances that all such concerns will be fully taken into account by Facebook in further developing this proposal.” Last week the New York Times broke the news that Facebook intends to unify the backend infrastructure of its three separate products, couching it as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg asserting control over acquisitions whose founders have since left the building.

BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social If you’re a social marketer, having the right social media apps makes your job much easier. Whether you’re at your desk, in a meeting, or at a coffee shop—these tools allow you to get things done effectively and efficiently (and in some cases, on the go). Read on for a…

JEFFBULLAS.COM — Have you noticed how much more prevalent video has become on LinkedIn? That’s no fluke. Throughout 2018, LinkedIn ushered in a suite of changes that made video content a first-class citizen. From its video advertising rollout to the ability to upload videos natively to company pages, it’s obvious that LinkedIn is really pushing and rewarding B2B video content on their platform.

WIRED.COM — In September, members of Google’s Chrome security team put forth a radical proposal: Kill off URLs as we know them. The researchers aren’t actually advocating a change to the web’s underlying infrastructure. They do, though, want to rework how browsers convey what website you’re looking at, so…

ADWEEK.COM — Super Bowl LIII was a low-scoring affair both on the field and in the ad breaks, leaving viewers with little to cheer or even boo about. But it certainly wasn’t a complete wash. Here’s a recap of our picks for 2019’s best Super Bowl spots: 5. Bud Light: “Special Delivery” Agency: Wieden + Kennedy…

TECHCRUNCH.COM — If you haven’t been paying attention to TikTok, you haven’t been paying attention. The short-form video app hailing from Beijing’s ByteDance just had its biggest month ever with the addition of 75 million new users in December — a 275 percent increase from the 20 million it added in December 2017, according a recent report from Sensor Tower.

FORBES.COM — SendGrid CEO Sameer Dholakia is joining forces with Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson after multiple near misses.Twilio When business software companies Twilio and SendGrid announced they were joining forces in October, to many industry trackers, the deal felt like a no-brainer. But the all-stock…

THEVERGE.COM — Even if you’re not a huge fan of electronic music or have never heard of the EDM producer Marshmello, Fortnite’s live in-game concert was still a shockingly stunning sight to behold — it was also an unprecedented moment in gaming. It truly felt like a glimpse into the future of interactive…

BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social Social media is ever-changing, evolving, and taking on new roles in the world we live in. That means it’s also changing the way we do business. Although it’s definitely picked up in the last few years, the idea of social media marketing for your business has been…

MASHABLE.COM — In the late fall of 2018, one of the most viral sports stories was about a new Minor League Baseball (MILB) team in Madison, Alabama. The reason for all the hype wasn’t their game so much as their name: the Rocket City Trash Pandas. The name was unveiled in September 2018, after the “Trash Pandas” moniker won a public vote, beating out four similarly absurd space-animal combinations: Moon Possums, ThunderSharks, Space Chimps, and Comet Jockeys. .

TECHCRUNCH.COM — Notification spam ruins social networks, diluting the real human interaction. Desperate to gain an audience, users pay services to rapidly follow and unfollow tons of people in hopes that some will follow them back. The services can either automate this process or provide tools for users to generate this spam themselves, Earlier this month, a TechCrunch investigation found over two dozen follow-spam companies were paying Instagram to run ads for them.

TECHCRUNCH.COM — Turns out training a robotic arm to play Jenga is a surprisingly complex task. There are, so to speak, a lot of moving parts. Researchers at MIT are putting a modified ABB IRB 120 to work with the familiar tabletop game, utilizing a soft gripper, force-sensing wrist joint and external camera to design a bot that can remove a block without toppling the tower.

TECHCRUNCH.COM — Wannaby, a startup out of Belarus that is building “AR commerce” experiences, has launched a beta of its latest app, which aims to make it easier to find the perfect sneakers. Dubbed “Wanna Kicks,” the iOS app uses augmented reality to let you “try on” various pairs of sneakers. You simply choose a pair of kicks from the list of 3D models, point your camera at your feet and — bingo — you’re now virtually wearing your chosen footwear.

TECHCRUNCH.COM — Desperate for data on its competitors, has been secretly paying people to install a “Facebook Research” VPN that lets the company suck in all of a user’s phone and web activity, similar to Facebook’s Onavo Protect app that Apple banned in June and that was removed in August. Facebook sidesteps the App Store and rewards teenagers and adults to download the Research app and give it root access in what may be a violation of Apple policy so the social network can decrypt and analyze their phone activity, a TechCrunch investigation confirms. Facebook admitted to TechCrunch it was running the Research program to gather data on usage habits.

MASHABLE.COM — On Monday, Ashton Kutcher tweeted that he’d be “changing [his] social media strategy.” On Tuesday, he tweeted out his phone number. No, Kutcher probably wasn’t hacked. And if he did actually give out his private phone number, he probably has a new one now. The number he shared is connected to an ostensibly new messaging service provider called Community, which, according to its privacy policy, allows subscribers to send messages to their “fans and followers.” When I sent the number a text, I received this message in response.

BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social “Sorry to hear that. Please send us a direct message and we’d be happy to assist you.” For the majority of brands, this is what customer service on social media looks like. Polite, respectful, and helpful. But not for every brand. Businesses now use their social…