Five things on Friday #235

_________

1. SPOTIFY TIME CAPSULE

If you have Spotify account then you have probably seen this already. If you haven’t seen it – go and listen to it at once!

Basically, it’s another algorithmic turn from the music-service-of-choice that serves up a personalised playlist that is GUARANTEED* to take you BACK IN TIME.

Now, there are two reasons why this is in at number one.

Reason 1: It’s a pretty awesome use of the Spotify data/algorithm/magic to make yet another playlist for your enjoyment.

Reason 2: MY TIME CAPSULE IS AMAZING.

LOOK:

AMIRITE?

You’ll find your own Spotify Time Capsule int he Browse section of the Spotify app.

AND YOU CAN FIND MINE RIGHT HERE.

xxx

Sidenote: I realise I am quite excited about this – it might be the sugar kicking in from the huge slab of chocolate I just demolished. Hmm. Should hurry onwards, before the crash hits… 

---

2. SEVEN TIPS TO HELP YOU BECOME A BETTER SPEAKER

Do you speak? Like, at things?

Are you considering taking up public speaking?

Do you work somewhere where speaking in front of a large group of people while not entirely part of your current JD may indeed one day be something you have to do?

Then, dear reader, you could do a lot worse than go and read this super informative blog post from Rob Mansfield.

It’s a solid list. The first tip (spoiler alert) talks about how introducing yourself is a waste of time. People know who you are (they’ve read the schedule etc) and, if you launch straight into the meat of what it is you’re trying to communicate, you’ll make the audience sit up and pay attention.

I was taught this particular skill by a chap named Scott Gould (unrelated: Scott has just released his first book – congratulations dude! – I’m yet to read it but I will, and you can find it on Amazon (free on Kindle!)) at the Like Minds conference way back when. As with most stuff like this, sometimes it sticks, sometimes it doesn’t. This one stuck for a while but then I forgot about it – that was until I was developing a talk for the One Question conference earlier this year.

When I was rehearsing (see: tip seven), I made a conscious effort to notintroduce myself. To start strong. To go straight into ‘THIS IS WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT’ vs ‘THIS IS WHO I AM AND WHERE I’M FROM AND OH, THIS IS WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT’ – I had super lovely feedback and, rather brilliantly, a fellow speaker came right up to me and said ‘I LOVED how you started that!’ – so yeah, I was happy, the listeners were happy, and – from experience – I’m telling you this stuff works.

Go read Rob’s tips.

---

. BIG BANG THEORY IS TERRIBLE

Big Bang Theory isn’t funny.

I mean, this is a known thing, right?

Well, here’s something I didn’t think I’d write today:

I just watched this 20min video on how it’s a misogynistic piece of trash that contributes to ongoing societal problems with homophobia, racism, and men’s mental health generally.

The video is called ‘The complicity of geek masculinity on the Big Bang Theory‘. Watch it. It’s awful.

…

Excuse me, I might need to go be sick.

(via)

---

4. CROCODILES LOOK TINY WHEN THEY’RE EATING A HUMPBACK WHALE

Look closer.

More, here.

---

5. HEY ADVERTISING/CONTENT EDITOR FOLK, FACEBOOK IS COMING FOR UR JOBZ

Facebook has a new thing out called ‘Dynamic Creative’. Which, in laymans terms means: ‘Give us your creative and we’ll cut it how you want it and see how each of those cuts works with the audiences that you’re targeting so you can see and learn what kind of creative works best and with whom’.

In a (weirdly now deleted) blog post, Facebook said that Dynamic Creative was rolling out for a few select partners with a feature set that looks something like this:

• Objectives: Conversions, mobile application installs, website traffic
• Formats: Single image, single video
• Insights metrics: Basic asset-based insights
• Breakdowns by asset type: Video, image, title, description, body, link for all non-unique metrics
• Breakdowns per asset plus demographics: Image, age, gender, title and so on
• Placements: Desktop and mobile Facebook News Feed, right-hand column, Facebook Audience Network, Instagram feed
• Creative variations dimensions: Title, image or video, body, description, CTA

Which is all super interesting and ALSO MASSIVELY CONCERNING to people that work in content marketing. Why pay an editor to make 17 cuts of your ad for you when Facebook can just simply ‘do it’ as part of your Power Editor?

Can you say ‘Automated Creative’ ?

Found via Adweek – with more from HuffPo. 

Last updated by James Whatley at November 11, 2017.