BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social Some brands and influencers are starting to change their public Instagram accounts to private, or create new accounts that are private from the get-go. Adding a barrier to fans wanting to follow you might seem like a strange idea, but it’s gaining traction. So, we…

FASTCOMPANY.COM — Now former Virtue execs are taking that exact premise into the cannabis industry by officially launching a new agency this week called Gram x Gram, an off-shoot of the Merry Jane digital media company founded by Snoop Dogg and Ted Chung. Led by president Ryan Archibald and chief strategy officer Badr El Fekkak, Gram x Gram launches headquartered.

BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social What is TikTok in three words? Real short videos. Or, as The Verge put it in a few more words, it’s “the closest thing we have to Vine,” the former video-sharing app owned by Twitter. According to TechCrunch, TikTok is “the Instagram for the mobile video age.” No…

MASHABLE.COM — In September 2016, Apple released iOS 10. With it came the iMessage Tapback, the convenient and highly ambiguous reaction feature that — nearly three years later — no one quite knows how to use. Tapbacks were created, one assumes, to make texting more convenient. It’s true that they’re nearly effortless to employ: Simply press on a message until you’re presented with the Tapback options — a heart, a thumbs up, a thumbs down, a HAHA, a double exclamation point, and a question mark — and pick the one you want.

MASHABLE.COM — While women’s gripes about frigid workspaces have long been dismissed as a sign of oversensitivity, a study published in PLOS ONE argues differently. The University of Southern California and the WZB Berlin Social Science Center had 543 students in Berlin perform tasks and steadily raised the temperature of the environment.

MASHABLE.COM — It true that it used to be a lot easier to judge which mega hit dominated the airwaves during the heatwaves. How do we measure the success of a single that you can’t escape during the summer months now? Billboard charts? Spotify streams? Music video hits? Inspired memes? . We’re taking a look back at the last decade of sizzling summer smashes, bops, and jams to give you unequivocally the best of the best.

MASHABLE.COM — It’s about to be Pride season, the time of year when brands cash in on “diversity” and emblazon a bunch of crap with the rainbow flag. Every once in a while, however, a brand does something that actually moves the LGBTQ community forward. Take the latest ad from Gillette, which was posted on Thursday and which features a young trans teen from Canada by the name of Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, shaving for the first time.

MASHABLE.COM — Hoopy froods of the Sub-Etha network: I have many things to say on the importance of towels. Because I fear we’re all starting to forget. Some of you, even now, may not know where your towel is. . May 25 is Towel Day, when science fiction lovers the world over remember the late great Douglas Adams, creator of that wholly remarkable and staggeringly hilarious franchise, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

TECHCRUNCH.COM — News just in from security reporter Brian Krebs: Fortune 500 real estate insurance giant First American exposed approximately 885 million sensitive records because of a bug in its website. Krebs reported that the company’s website was storing and leaking bank account numbers, statements, mortgage and tax records, and Social Security numbers and driving license images in an enumerable format — so anyone who knew a valid web address for a document simply had to change the address by one digit to view other documents, he said.

FORBES.COM — Mark Miles isn’t an IndyCar champion. He hasn’t won the Indianapolis 500. In fact, he’s never even raced competitively. But following him around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway ahead of the 103rd running of the Indy 500 this Sunday, you would have thought he was one of the sport’s biggest stars….

MASHABLE.COM — Like the sun promises to rise each morning, hordes of crimson salmon — numbering in the tens of millions — faithfully return to Alaska’s Bristol Bay each summer. This land of untrammeled rivers, streams, and lakes is home to the richest run of sockeye salmon on Earth. And largely for that reason, it’s also the realm of Alaska’s gloriously fat bears, who gobble the hefty 4,500 calorie fish — sometimes a dozen each hour — throughout the fleeting summer.

LOLLYDASKAL.COM — Everyone wants to have good meetings, especially the one-on-one meetings with their boss. Many people dread them, but those meetings are the foundation for success. It’s possible to not only excel in them but to come away from them feeling more productive and energized. Whether you meet with your…

BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social Twitter chats (or Tweet chats) are public conversations organized around a specific topic on Twitter. These moderated discussions take place at a predetermined time, with a predetermined hashtag. They’re a great way to build community around your brand. With more than…

BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social In this guide we’ll show you how to build an employee advocacy program using the power of social media. We’ll also tell you about an employee advocacy platform that makes execution easy. But before we get to the how-to, let’s take a minute to look at the what and…

MASHABLE.COM — Amazon has been conducting research that involves digital 3D “scans” of people’s bodies in exchange for a $25 Amazon gift card. Mashable became aware of the research program after a staff member was targeted with an advertisement on Instagram. The ad led to an where would-be participants were able to sign up for a 3D body scan session.

MEDIUM.COM — When Cat Jones left her job at a large health care company to join a small nonprofit, the first moment of culture shock happened before her training even started?—?because, as the organization’s sole employee, she wouldn’t be having any.Without any formal process in place for her onboarding (or…

TECHCRUNCH.COM — The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. Millions of Instagram influencers had their private contact data scraped and exposed. A massive database containing contact information for millions of influencers, celebrities and brand accounts was found online by a security researcher.

BLOG.HOOTSUITE.COM — Blog / Social Social media customer service is exactly what it sounds like. You use social media tools to provide online customer service and support. In today’s digital world, people use social to channels to connect with businesses. And they expect businesses to be available on…

PEOPLE.AI — The Future of Work is Here andIt Starts With The Wire People.ai captures all the customer contacts and activities you need to be successful. Now, using that data, The Wire offers personalized, actionable insights when and where you need them. Like a brilliant personal assistant who’s always on…