This Week in Social Media

Mobile ad spending takes off, Facebook grabs a decent share of it, the first short film shot only on Vine, Twitter acquires Trendrr for social TV measurement, unintentional risks of cloud sharing on personal devices in the workplace, another Facebook privacy policy update, Kevin Spacey teaches us a thing or two about the future of content and more, it's This Week in Social Media.

A roundup of relevant links affecting our industry.

Each week at Ford, I compose a newsletter that includes a series of links about current events and trends in the worlds of technology, social media, mobile, communications and marketing in order to keep the wider team up to date on changes, newsworthy items and content that might be useful in their jobs. These are those links.
If you have additional links, sources or ideas that might be helpful, I'd encourage you to add some via a comment below or tag me in Google+. And if you’re on Flipboard, you can get these links by subscribing to the This Week in Social Media Magazine, which is now available on the Web.

Industry

• Trend: brands buying advertising around earned media about themselves.
• The latest CMO Survey from Duke's Fuqua School of Business has been released. Some highlights include a continued plunge in spending on traditional advertising, a leveling off of digital spending, and a lack of quantitative metrics to demonstrate the impact of marketing spending, the pressure of which 2 out of 3 CMOs are feeling from boards.
• Mobile ad spending is growing: by 2017 it will account for about 36% of global digital ad dollars.
• Want to get into the mind of a college student? As with many things related to college,they're apathetic about following brands. The challenge for brands of course, is how to break through the lack of attention and lack of interest without going overboard.

The Platforms

• Facebook is releasing a new feature that allows multiple users to upload images to the same album. Great possibilities for events, reunions, launches and more.
• We were always told "you're judged by the company you keep." Well, it still holds true:your Facebook friends may affect your credit score.
• Google and Facebook account for almost half of the UK's digital ad spend andFacebook has seen big gains in global mobile ad market share. 

• Two interesting ones on Twitter: how many Twitter profiles does your brand need?In short, it depends on how you're using it. But even so, it's likely that your brand is tweeting too much and not taking time to speak with (not broadcast to) fans.
• Twitter has acquired social TV startup Trendrr to track conversations across media.
• Medium may be the most interesting new platform that you haven't heard of. Or perhaps you have, but you're still wondering, "What is Medium?"
• A recent update of the Instagram app allows users to straighten their photos. But why?
• Instagram is acquiring video-sharing app Luma, thus allowing filters to be added to videos.
• Sina has released WeMeet, a competitor to WeChat; here are some first impressions.
• While it may be seen as lots of "lite" content, Tumblr content has a longer shelf life than on any other social network - largely because of the reblogging feature that allows it to live on.
• Airbnb is making the world's first film shot entirely on Vine; the film will premiere on the Sundance Channel on September 12 and submissions can be found atHollywood + Vines. 

Measurement / Metrics / Big Data

• While the use of services like DropBox, Google Drive and iCloud are commonplace with personal devices, the use of these for company data could be putting those data at risk. Particularly of note, with so many Millennials using tablets and smartphones for both personal and work purposes.
• The Virtual Chief Digital Officer interviews Katie Kaine on her book Measure What Matters. One of the main takeaways for digital is to measure outcomes, not outputs - that is, actions taken, attitudes changed, behaviors altered, rather than simply likes or followers.

Legal / HR

• Good news for brands, bad news for app developers: Facebook no longer requiressweepstakes and contests to be conducted through third party apps.
• A new update to Facebook's privacy policy allows the social network to analyze your profile picture and more.
• Related: Facebook will pay out $20 million stemming from a class action lawsuit about privacy breaches in its Sponsored Stories product.

Content

• As branded content becomes more important, so too does attracting, retaining and leading writers; Contently has three basic tactics for wrangling writers.
• Virool is taking video content to the next level by helping connect brands and publishers to put the most relevant content in front of viewers.
• Content marketing is continuous storytelling. Michael Brito helps under stand how to actually do it. 

Bookmark / Read / Watch Later

• Steve Garfield's success in social media isn't only about his savvy angel investments. It has to do with his entire philosophy, which boils down to building trust by adding value - not by selling.
• One of the most inspiring thought leaders out there is Avinash Kaushik, who writes Occam's Razor. While he publishes new pieces only every three weeks, they are always insightful and inspire deep thoughts from his readers. His latest is See-Think-Do: A Content, Marketing and Measurement Business Framework. He challenges marketers to think of customers in different stages of consideration and map the audience to those stages.
• Just for fun: 10 sites renamed for the reasons we visit them 

Commentary

Without a question, "House of Cards" on Netflix last year was one of the most groundbreaking pieces of content we've seen. Not because it was a great program but because Netflix broke the mold of television shows being released week after week at the pleasure of the networks and decided instead to release all 13 episodes of the season at once.

"We must observe, adapt and try things to discover appetites we didn't know were there." - click to tweet 

This didn't happen by accident. In the James MacTaggart Memorial Lecture a the Guardian Edinburgh Television Festival, Kevin Spacey gave an impassioned speech about the future of content at the entertainment industry based on his experience in shopping around "House of Cards." In this 45 minute-long lecture (and it's worth every minute to watch) he clearly lays out the opportunity for the entertainment industry (or any content-heavy enterprise) to change the future of viewership. Part of the assumption was that the old model of producing a pilot can be put behind us as we now have access to audience preferences, data about their viewing habits and more. 

Spacey said:

"Clearly, the success of the Netflix model, releasing the entire season of 'House Of Cards' at once, proved one thing: the audience wants the control. They want the freedom. If they want to binge, as they've been doing on "House of Cards" and lots of other shows, then we should let them binge."

But this goes beyond the scheduling model. It's fundamentally about realizing that customers and viewers don’t care about the inner squabbles of companies and the way the companies see the world; they want content in every conceivable format. And if it means watching a movie on a streaming service, a television show on a table, or a YouTube video on a television, it doesn't matter what we call it. When they view those shows, it's no longer by appointment and the "water cooler" conversations are no longer happening the day after; they're happening virtually, digitally and socially in real time.

The consumer has the ultimate control. The sooner we realize that and break down the old models of doing business that don't serve them, the better off our industries will be. Really, watch this video when you have a moment.