by Adam Felgar
Working from home, a coffee shop or other locale has become more acceptable and even expected for some employees. Staying connected is easy, so why not blow a morning working at a coffee roaster, right? For me though, the concept seems nice but doesn’t quite stack up to the actual workplace. READ MORE
Instagram pinch hitting for the New York Times?
Instagram made big news this week, and not for pictures of half-eaten Chipotle burritos. Once cited as “Twitter for people who can’t read,” the photo sharing platform made headlines, literally, with a picture of Alex Rodriguez that was taken with the app featured above the fold on the Sunday Edition of the New York Times.
TAMPA, FL – FEBRUARY 27: (EDITOR’S NOTE: Image was shot with an iPhone using Instagram) Alex Rodriguez #13 of the New York Yankees poses for a portrait during the New York Yankees Photo Day on February 27, 2012 in Tampa, Florida. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)
What this means for Instagram: it’s not just for #thinspiration anymore. If a pic taken on an iPhone, even one taken by a pro, can make the cover of the NYT, who needs a camera? Is traditional photography (even) dead(er)? Or does this open the door for professional work from folks who can’t afford professional equipment?
What this means for the New York Times: Coming off of quite a few big hits, the Times is proving that ‘traditional’ doesn’t mean ‘antiquated’. Keeping the full-length feature alive online and bringing social media to the front page, the NYT is on time and on trend. And digital subscription numbers continue to rise two years after the paper introduced its paywall, proving that readers are willing to pay for quality journalism. And that they really love #earlybird.
Still wondering why your Facebook feed went red this week? As two high profile same-sex marriage cases were argued before the Supreme Court, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) capitalized on the momentum of the movement by launching one of the most impressive viral campaigns in recent history, calling marriage equality the “civil rights battle of our generation.”
The HRC shared this red and pink version of its logo on Facebook on Monday with the following message:
Follow @HRC on Twitter and at www.hrc.org/blog for live-updates from the first day of the Supreme Court hearings. Make sure you wear red to show your support for marriage equality. And make your Facebook profile red too!
By Tuesday afternoon, the post had been shared over 45,000 times and had received over 13,000 “likes.” Facebook claimed a 120 percent increase in profile photo updates over the course of the day.
Last week Twitter turned seven and Facebook is hoping this is the last birthday the social network will celebrate. To help with that, Facebook is preparing to introduce hashtags (maybe).
Twitter made the hashtag famous and Instagram added to the frenzy. Some people are hashtag crazy. FYI, you don’t need to hashtag generic words in your captions or tweets. Hashtags should be reserved for conversation.
Currently Facebook users can tag people, pages and location and check in at a physical location (which kind of killed Foursquare for awhile). However, the search functionality really hasn’t been there. READ MORE
On Feb. 25, Marissa Mayer, the CEO of Yahoo!, announced that all employees working remotely must now work from an office. Then all hell broke loose. This decision has spurred conversations both for and against working remotely. Mayer has been portrayed in the media as a traitor to working mothers, especially since she brings her baby and nanny to work daily to a customized nursery she built with her own money.
At Metzger, working remotely is only an option when necessary, but staff has strong opinions on both sides of the spectrum. READ MORE
We were fortunate to have Stephen J. Schultze, the associate director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University, join us Friday for the Metzger Open Access Forum. During his talk, Stephen covered a number of topics that affect many of us in the technology and start-up communities, but all too often fly under the radar. READ MORE
by John Metzger
I hadn’t been in a big Denver newsroom in a while, and felt a little nostalgic while visiting tech reporter Andy Vuong at the Post’s offices this week. After our team debriefed him on a client’s pending product launch, Andy was kind enough to give us a quick tour of the ‘ol newsroom. Though not really that old – the shiny new “joint operating agreement” building went up not even ten years ago – it stands as a brick and mortar monument to a short-sighted newspaper industry that once lived in two-newspaper towns and that the Internet hadn’t eaten for lunch yet. READ MORE
posted by Andrea Davis
Public relations professionals today are—rightly so—highly focused on the rapidly changing media landscape and how to harness social media for the good of their companies and clients.
However, great value remains in good ol’ fashioned media relations—developing a strong pitch to a carefully targeted reporter who then writes a positive story.
Metzger began pitching a story on our client the Denver Rescue Mission and their outstanding work with the Family & Senior Homeless Initiative (FSHI) to Matt Branaugh, writing for Christianity Today. It was a large story which required many hours of research from Matt, but the result was a positive story in a targeted media outlet that may lead to expansion of a program that has proven to improve the homeless situation in Denver.
After the story was published, we went back to Matt and asked him about our pitch and what drew him to the story. Below is the Q&A with his insights on what makes a compelling story and what they look for or reject in pitches.
With the proliferation of smartphones, mobile data is suddenly infinitely more important to people who might want to use it to their advantage in a bad way. As such, it’s important that we take proper steps to keep that from happening. But often times, people don’t realize what these steps are and thus risk becoming victims of hackers, identity thiefs, bank drainers, etc.
Since we work with a security client, our office learns more about the mobile security sector than most folks who own smartphones. To help them get the down-low, our President Doyle Albee wrote an article on the five quick tips for protecting your mobile data, which was then featured on Mobilephones.com.
To learn more about how you can protect your mobile data, read his article “The Top 5 Security Tips for Today’s Mobile Devices.”
