NewSince January, we’ve been starting the UT SCS Digital Strategy Foundations class with a ‘what’s new’ roundup of some of the latest apps, sites and stories of interest and why they’re relevant to marketers and communicators.

Sometimes I found things, other times students brought them forward.

At our end-of-term tweetup, one of the students, Kara McAulay, suggested I keep this up as a blog series. I liked that idea a lot.

So each week, I’m going to present a sampling of  several social media developments that catch my eye.  

Since our class was on Wednesdays, that’s the day I’m going to publish. Of course the list is by no means exhaustive and I welcome your suggestions.

What’s New for April 17:

Fujitsu has created a technology that turns paper into a responsive touch screen. Good potential to enhance presentations and demos as long as you don’t simply read the chunks of text you copy and display.

Facebook wants to charge brands $1 million dollars for a 20 second video ad that has the potential to ‘take over’ the newsfeed, in the same way that those ad wraps take over the front page of some print publications. In essence, they’re raising the cost of spam and giving the community built on social interactions more unsolicited interruptions they can’t skip. Sounds a lot like the old days of traditional television to me.

And in case you hadn’t heard, WordPress had its servers attacked by over 90,000 botnets that have been targeting site ‘admin’ accounts. Neville Hobson offers easy to follow advice on what you can do to make your site more secure. First, delete the admin account and enable two-step authentication. Then change your passwords and when you do, make them look like a cartoon character that’s cussing.

What caught your attention this week? Do you have anything else to add?

 

About Martin Waxman


Martin Waxman, MCM, is a digital communications strategist. He conducts AI research, leads digital and social media training workshops and speaks at events across North America. He's co-founder of two PR agencies, president of a consultancy and has worked in the industry for nearly 30 years. Martin is a LinkedIn Learning instructor, teaches digital strategy and social media at McMaster University, the Schulich School of Business, University of Toronto SCS and Seneca College. He's a member of the Institute for Public Relations Digital Media Research Center and a past-chair of PRSA Counselors Academy. He has a Master of Communications Management (MCM) from McMaster-Syracuse Universities.