22 Mar Interesting Stories of The Week- BRG’s Friday Roundup, March 22, 2013
Happy Friday everyone! How was your week? Today we’re sharing a roundup of some of the more important, interesting and heartwarming public relations and social media stories from this week. It’s been a busy one! Ready? Here we go!
Are Google Alerts going away?
A few months ago we noticed that our Google Alerts were on the fritz. Did you notice this too? If so, you’re not alone. SearchEngineLand.com and Mashable are both reporting that Google Alerts are broken. As you may know, last week Google announced that they would be terminating Google Reader, so unsurprisingly; this news is sparking fear for Google Alerts users. If you’re a PR pro you probably use Google Alerts regularly to keep up with client and industry coverage.
Google Alerts alternatives
Whether Alerts are going away is unknown. What we do know is that as of this moment, Alerts aren’t working. Instead of waiting and wondering, take a minute and try Topsy and SocialMention. Both tools enable you to monitor news and social chatter in real-time.
Facebook quietly changed their cover page guidelines.
Last year when Facebook rolled out Timeline for brand pages, they issued some really stern rules about what brands could and could not put in their cover photos. This week, Facebook quietly changed their page guidelines. Brands can now share anything they want in their cover images, as long as there is no more than 20% text in the image itself.
Facebook clicks might be worthless, and that’s okay.
This week Slate.com reported that people aren’t clicking on Facebook ads, but they’re still buying based on those ads anyway. The philosophy is that Facebook isn’t trying to get people to take an immediate action. Instead they’re looking to plant an idea that later results in a purchase. This is an interesting perspective for those businesses that are tying Facebook ad clicks to ROI. It’s a long article, but it’s worth the read.
Congress met this week to discuss the regulation of mobile health.
The FDA hasn’t reached any decisions about mobile health regulation yet (see our previous blog post about this subject here), but the talks did discuss some interesting information. For example, the FDA isn’t planning on regulating any applications that track individual activities or refill prescriptions. They only review around 20 mobile apps per year, though this number could go up after new guidance is passed. Guidance is expected to come before October 1.
Twitter turned seven.
To celebrate their seventh birthday, Twitter shared this cute video showcasing some of the biggest tweets since their birth.
http://youtu.be/Bl-FpuehWGA
Just for fun
Today Wired published a video from 1974 wherein Arthur C. Clarke predicts the Internet, and provides accurate details as to how it will be used. Watch it for yourself:
