Peanutize
Here we go: another popular TV show or movie, another chance to change your social media profile pictures in the style of the characters. The latest is to promote the upcoming “Peanuts” movie, so now you can “Peanutize” yourself.
First of all, kudos for not calling it “Peanutsize” (say “I’m posting my Peanutsize on Facebook” out loud and tell me that’s not hilarious).
Also, mine didn’t go so well.
Long-Form Content Experiment
BuzzSumo did an extensive study of content types to see which kinds get more links and shares. As someone involved in SEO, I appreciate the distinction, and definitely pay attention. One finding, that long-form content (longer than 1,000 words) tends to get more links AND shares, caught my eye. It syncs with things I have been hearing the last year or so, that long-form content is more engaging and that people will share it because it’s substantive. Perhaps you can also assume that the people who do share it have done so more thoughtfully than they would in sharing or linking to, say, a cat photo.
That said, I wondered; if I put some fake long content, would people share it without reading it? I published the verbal equivalent of two $100 bills wrapped around plain paper, thanks to a handy lorem ipsum generator. The results? As I write this, the post got about 5-6 times the normal share rate of one of my blog posts; it’s not a definitive finding, as I’m sure several people simply got the joke and passed it along, but I do wonder how many people share longer-form content without actually reading it.
Shocker: Another Hashtag Fail
This is obvious and inevitable, but I just wanted to mark it here so I remember it for reference. Yes, Donald Trump’s presidential campaign had a hashtag to ask him questions, and yes people trolled it. At this point, I’m not sure anymore that these things are such a terrible idea. Someone like Trump will have hecklers anywhere he goes, so trolls are pretty easy to ignore in this setting, and as easy to embrace. Is it any different from any other campaign event, whether he is an active or passive participant? Probably not. It’s time for any brand looking at hashtag campaigns to decide if they are worth it based on the potential return, rather than the predictable risk. One generally outweighs the other.
Universal New Yorker Cartoon Caption
Apparently, there are “universal New Yorker cartoon captions.” Apparently, there’s a new suggestion that you can apply to any New Yorker cartoon, because that’s a thing.
OK, fine, but these might be better.
On the other hand, we might as well just make fetch happen.
Groupon Layoffs
I saw this coming when I got a Groupon for Groupons. It usually is true for restaurants, so maybe that would have been as good a method as any to announce layoffs.