The Great COVID-19 Unfluencing

Episode 306 – May 3, 2020

Topics:

• Press Freedom Day
• NFL’s Virtual Draft
• NY’s Stay The F*ck Home Festival
• Budweiser’s Wassup Sequel
• The Verification Handbook
• Apple TV+ Defines Home
• Billboards For Doctors
• Successful Email Signoffs
• Meet Google Meet
• The Great Unfluencing
• Unfiltered Zoom Meetings
• Misery Loves Company
• Frankenstein Live!
• Voice Explosion
• Defining SMBs
• The Burn-In Catastrophe
• Daytime Streaming Statistics

During episode 306, BL and David discuss the effect COVID-19 has had on the Influencer economy; the leaders weighing in on #PressFreedomDay; how the NFL conducted its first-ever virtual draft; New York City’s Stay The F*ck Home festival; Budweiser’s coronavirus-inspired sequel to the notorious Whassup Super Bowl commercial; the Verification Handbook is now free for all; Apple TV+’s new docuseries Home; billboards saluting doctors; successful email signature signoffs; meet Google Meet, now available to everyone; what honest Zoom meetings would look like; unemployed special effects; Frankestein Live; the coming voice tech explosion; the definition of small- and medium-sized businesses; the coming burn-in catastrophe; daytime streaming statistics;..and much, much more.

Best Practices

World Press Freedom

Sunday was #WorldPressFreedomDay and world leaders weighed in.

We discussed these tweets about #WorldPressFreedomDay during Episode 306: https://t.co/krPfc1zIQe— Beyond Social Media (@BSMediaShow) May 5, 2020

NFL’s Virtual Draft

The NFL held its first-ever amateur draft conducted entirely via teleconferencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It shattered viewership records.

• NFL Draft scores 55M viewers, breaking ratings records despite shift to virtual format
• Minnesota Vikings 2020 Draft Picks

Stay The F*ck Home

DoNYC.com hosted a live-streamed Stay the F*ck Home Festival on May 1.

• NYC Stay the F*ck Home Festival
• Episode 303: Samuel L. Jackson Reads Stay The F*ck Home!

Budweiser’s Wassup Sequel

Budweiser has updated its notorious Whassup Super Bowl commercial for the coronavirus age.

• Budweiser Brings Back Whassup Commercial During Coronavirus

Verification Handbook

The new Verification Handbook for Disinformation and Media Manipulation is online and available for free.

• Get the Verification Handbook

Home

Apple TV+’s new docuseries is a fascinating exploration of the concept of the living space we call “home.”

Billboards For Doctors

See the brilliance of this simple, yet powerful outdoor campaign.

• Support The Doctors

Thanks In Advance

Email signoffs expressing gratitude work.

• ‘Thanks in advance’ is the most effective email sign-off — here’s why
• Evaluation By Moments: Past & Future [PDF]
• Forget “Best” or “Sincerely,” This Email Closing Gets the Most Replies

Meet Google Meet

Anybody with a Google account will now be able to use Google Meet videoconferencing to create free meetings that can last any amount of time for up to 100 people.

• Google Meet video conferencing is now free for anybody
• Google Meet

Bye, Bye, Influencer?

The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated some areas of the influencer economy while forcing some much-needed realism on other areas.

• Coronavirus Could Finally Pop the Influencer Bubble
• Are Influencers the Escape Social Media Wants During Coronavirus?
• No, Coronavirus Isn’t the End of Influencer Marketing. But It Has Put It Under a Microscope
• Coronavirus Is Disrupting Fashion’s Global Supply Chain. Here’s What Brands Can Do.

View this post on Instagram

bored in the house and i’m in the house bored A post shared by Kylie 🤍 (@kyliejenner) on Mar 28, 2020 at 3:38pm PDT

Zoom Unflitered

This is the Zoom Call you’d be taking part in if there were absolutely no filter.

• This Film Lays Bare All The Horrible Things You Are Really Thinking On That Zoom Call

Misery Loves Company

Things are so bad that even special effects are out of work.

• Watch This Sweet Short Film About an Unemployed Special Effect

Frankenstein Live!

National Theatre’s production of Frankenstein featuring Benedict Cumberbatch as Victor Frankenstein and Jonny Lee Miller as the creature available for one week on YouTube.

Voice Explosion

As consumer usage of voice assistants continues to skyrocket, the companies behind those assistants look for business models to monetize all that voice.

• Voice Assistant Usage Seen Growing To 8.4 Billion Devices

Worst Practices

Defining SMBs

Publicis’ new offering called The Pact, offers clients a 100 percent refund should it fail to deliver on specific business outcomes.

• Publicis’ Definition of Small and Medium Business
• Small Business Revenue Statistics 2020

Burn-in

Cyberwar expert P.W. Singer says the pandemic has raised the stakes on AI, automation and content moderation.

• A futurist on COVID-19 and business: Pandora’s box is now open

Shiny New Stuff

BL’s Finds

• New Yorker podcast recommendations – one or two really interesting podcasts are now listed in each issue.
• Bubble – no code web apps

David’s Finds

VidIQ let’s you save replies to common questions/comments as templates.

• VidIQ

Pro Tips

David’s Pro Tip

Don’t share a link to a SlideShare presentation in LinkedIn’s new Featured tool. It will over compress your cover photo making it look blurry. Upload a PDF of your presentation instead and you’ll get a high-definition cover photo.

Weekly Numbers

COVID-19 Streaming Video Behavior

The increase in daytime viewing more clearly reflects the boost in stay-at-home behavior: the 10AM to 5PM window increased 39 percent between March 9 and 23.

• Conviva report shows big boost in daytime streaming during the pandemic