Corona Beer Crisis

Beyond Social Media - Corona Beer Virus - Episode 298

Episode 298: BL and David discuss absurd Corona Beer Virus searches and fears; CNN weatherman’s face filter forecast; Giphy and Jif peanut butter’s Gif or Jif debate ad; students learning media literacy in school; Walmart’s reply to David’s Tweet shows smart earned media strategy; Stars & Stripes deleted by vindictive Trump; LinkedIn adds pinned updates; podcast rankings and Netflix rankings released; anti-Putin blogger assassinated; Leap Year baby finally turns 21; Greta Thunberg responds like a heroine; Bloomberg will send Trump a pink slip for you…and much, much more.

Read More

Alexa Answers

Episode 280: Co-hosts BL Ochman and David Erickson discuss Amazon’s crowdsourcing of responses to Alexa users’ questions; Google’s Recover Together website of resources for addicts; Twitter’s new arrangeable photos feature; Google’s ‘original reporting’ algorithm designed to give more visibility to primary source, trustworthy journalism; WordPress’ purchase of Tumblr; the Zooniverse crowdsourcing network supporting science experiments; an example of a great follow-up PR pitch; the Attorneys General investigating Google; Ledo Pizza’s ill-advised 9/11 tweet; …and much, much more.

Read More

Marketing Of The Christchurch Shooting

Beyond Social Media - Marketing Of The Christchurch Shooting - Episode 263

Episode263: BL and David discuss discuss role social media played in the Christchurch terror attack and the deliberate marketing plan the terrorist put in place to spread hate; Google Arts & Culture’s Once Upon a Try online exhibition; Beto O’Rourke’s hacker credentials; Twitter’s new prototype app, twttr; Twitter’s new podcast, Character Count; how high school kids are using Google Docs to chat with one another; the marketing flywheel; Google’s abuse-filtering Chrome extension, Tune; facial recognition training data sets; YouTube’s new augmented reality Stories; an ill-advised jaguar selfie; Reddit’s Chinese trolls;…and much, much more.

Read More

Technological Totalitarianism & Facebook's Deception

Beyond Social Media - Technological Totalitarianism - Episode 249

Episode 249: BL and David discuss the new revelations of Facebook’s shady response to the Russian infiltration of its network; China ZTE’s exporting of the technological tools of totalitarianism to Venezuela; the Wall Street Journal’s efforts to detect deepfakes; the long-form video trend at YouTube; Firefox Monitor’s data breach notifications; a hilarious response to cheap clients; Facebook’s Most Amazing Dog show; Pandora’s Podcast Genome project; Iceland Foods’ banned Christmas commercial; Coca-Cola’s sappy social media wipe; the GoFundMe fraud story gets fraud-ier;…and much, much more.

Read More

Star Wars Rogue One Live Stream & OK Go In Slow Mo

Beyond Social Media - Rogue One and OK Go - Episode 166

Episode 166: Co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discuss the Internet Archive moving to Canada; obnoxious podcasters; spying headphones; the new Telegra.ph blogging platform; the Diageo VR drunk driving experience; first-person video of the Tennessee wildfires; OK Go’s amazing new music video; Amazon’s conciliation ad; Planned Parenthood donations in Mike Pence’s name; detecting fake news; Instagram’s shopping tags; Twitter’s Star Wars Rogue One Live stream, and much, much more.

Read More

Virtual Reality Concerts & Google Radar

Beyond Social Media - Brian May Virtual Reality Concerts - Episode 145

Episode 145: BL and David discuss Queen guitarist Brian May’s new virtual reality headset; Google’s Project Soli reducing radar to fit on a computer chip; Mary Meeker’s new Internet Trends report; a Vox editor endorsing anti-Donald Trump riots; Facebook’s DeepText AI; a racist Chinese detergent ad; Facebook’s continuous live stream video; a Google Chrome extension used by white supremacists; Podtrac’s podcast audience ratings; landlords likegating their tenants; faive new Medium features; Airtime’s relaunch; France banning after work email; a new set of emojis; and much, much more.

Read More

Gmail's Minion Mic-Drop

Co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discussed Gmail’s Minion mic-drop April Fools fiasco; Mattel’s phishing scam scare; Google Cardboard Plastic; Microsoft’s bet on conversational computing; Twitter Stickers; a smartphone gun; Facebook for Business posts; the State Department’s #SpringBreakBadly campaign; Instagram’s minute-long videos; #ProjectLiteracy, the #TheBananaPeelChallenge; plus great new apps and important stats and a lot of stuff in between.

Read More

Back To The Future Sneakers & Drone Racing

Beyond Social Media - Back To The Future Sneakers - Episode 135

During episode 135, co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discussed Mucinex’s spokesnott appearance at JFK airport; the ethical obligations of personal digital assistants; Nike’s Back To The Future sneakers; Dunkin’ Donuts pistachio coffee; the drone racing trend; Google’s nofollow dictum; the disappearance of Honey Nut Cheerios’ bee mascot; Medium Collections; Keith Richards vs Donald Trump; an update on AlphaGo; plus great new apps and important stats and a lot of stuff in between.

Read More

Google's DeepMind AI Takes A Great Leap Forward

Beyond Social Media - Google DeepMind AI - Episode 134

Co-hosts B.L. Ochman & David Erickson discussed a dermatologist’s gross videos that have gone viral; another viral video of a disgusting Kellogg’s employee peeing on a cereal assembly line; Joe’s Crab Shack’s stunning decision to use a lynching photo as table decor; Google’s DeepMind AlphaGo program beats the world’s best Go player; Facebook vying for NFL’s Thursday Night Football; an agricultural innovation using the Internet of Things; 4chan’s founder joins Google; Teens react to Windows 95; plus great new apps and important stats and a lot of stuff in between.

Read More