Beth Becker’s latest “Political Social Grab Bag” e-newsletter is out, and you should check out the whole April issue archived right here, an Epolitics.com online exclusive. Sign up now to get the next Political Social Grab Bag delivered straight to your inbox.
Besides the reading list and tool updates excerpted below, the full version includes a look at upcoming webinars, the ever-popular “don’t try this at home” section, who’s winning the internet, and more. Take it away, Beth:
Political Social Media Grab Bag: April, 2016
What I’m Reading
The most informative or thought-provoking articles of the month (IMHO)
- Are Algorithmic Feeds Becoming the Norm on Social Media? and The real reason all the big social networks have introduced filtered feeds – Both of these articles are good reads on the state of social algorithms.
- 4 ways to misinterpret your measurement — “Data are like political prisoners: Torture them long enough and they’ll say anything”. Just read it.
- Why "Go Viral" Is Not An Effective Content Marketing Strategy — we ALL know this, but in case you need something to show your boss when they ask you for their own Ice Bucket Challenge.
- It's time for charities to stop wasting money on social media — In which the guardian proves they don’t really get the true value of social media for a nonprofit.
- Viewing of long-form content is on the rise — Good read on long form content in a short attention span world- and Repurpose like a pro: 3 ways to extend your long-form content
- What's the state of social media in 2016? — Just read this one.
- Impressions are a sham: the path to better media metrics — Agreed!
Tools
Make yourself look good with the most interesting and promising tools of the month.
- CrowdTangle Chrome Extension — I’ve been using this for a while. Check any link to see share counts, referrals sources and even comments.
- ActionSprout Profile Campaigns — note these are now available in a more limited capacity on Facebook itself but the AS version is more customizable for our uses in the political space imho.
- Designfeed.io — Type in any text and it will find fair0use images and overlay it with all kinds of fonts etc that you can then go in and customize even further. Use THIS link to directly bypass the beta invite phase and start using it right away.
- Crowdskout — Just had a demo of this one today so I haven’t used it yet but it looks to be a very robust toolbox for managing data across platforms.
- If you must use stock photos….
But wait, there’s more! That was just a taste — continue on to the full April edition.