Quoted, 3.10

Source: Daily Life Australia

Recorded 1.11

1. 2015 is the year that I'll turn 30, so I'm spending lots of time thinking about my next decade. To date, one of my favorite posts on turning 30 is from Mark Manson. Manson crowdsourced his readers to find out what they would tell their 30-year old selves. Unlike most "you're turning 30" listicles, this one is gloriously free of GIFs with insights that actually made me take stock.

Some of the advice I'm taking to heart right now:

“I’d tell my 30-year-old self to set aside what other people think and identify my natural strengths and what I’m passionate about, and then build a life around those.” (Sara, 58)

“Less fear. Less fear. Less fear. I am about to turn 50 next year, and I am just getting that lesson. Fear was such a detrimental driving force in my life at 30. It impacted my marriage, my career, my self-image in a fiercely negative manner. I was guilty of: Assuming conversations that others might be having about me. Thinking that I might fail. Wondering what the outcome might be. If I could do it again, I would have risked more.” (Aida, 49)

2. Also loving this lighter take on approaching 30 (Still GIF free!) from Cecilia Rabess on The Bold Italic.

This is the ugly truth, 20-something friends:

Workwise, I'm digging through the latest from Pew's social media research, released Friday. The research continues to show the major platforms reaching full maturity, with massive chunks of the online population active on them, often with very distinct demographics/behavioral attributes that make life that much easier for online marketers:

• If you want to reach seniors, Facebook is where it's at: 56 percent of adults 65 and older are using it. That's a whopping 31 percent of all seniors.
• Instagram is experiencing the sharpest growth among major platforms, with 53 percent of young adults (18-29) active on it.
• 50 percent of internet users with college degrees are now on LinkedIn. That is...significant to say the least.
• 42 percent of women online are now on Pinterest (who recently announced that they are open for business for ads--brace yourselves for the onslaught, ladies).
• Facebook is still the most actively used site, with 70 percent of its user base visiting daily, giving credence to Nilay Patel's argument that "Facebook is the new AOL"-- the "beginning and end of the Internet for a huge number of normal people.

3. Finally, enjoyed these quick interviews with young female entrepreneurs in this month's Self Magazine.

Recorded 1.4

What I'm thinking about this week:

Capital NY: 60 Second Interview with Callie Schweitzer, Director of Digital Innovation, Time

"In an ever-crowded media landscape, how do you give people news they don’t know they need? I love thinking about ways to infiltrate people’s news reading habits, and I'm focused on building products that will expand our reach and efficiency—from A/B testing newsletter subject lines (our daily newsletter The Brief now goes to 800,000 people and has an average open rate of 40%, the publishing industry standard is 23%) to an initiative like our new weekly subscriber Q&As with the staff."

Re/Code: October announcement on Buzzfeed's promotion of Dao Nguyen to Publisher

"We are redefining the role of Publisher to reflect the way the world works today where technology is the core of publishing. This is very different from the traditional role where the title is inherited within a family business, like the Sulzbergers at the New York Times, or in the magazine world, where the Publisher is often the person responsible for selling advertising and overseeing business operations.

Dao is a new type of Publisher. She isn’t the heir to a newspaper baron and she won’t be responsible for the business, selling ads or physical newsstand distribution. Instead, she’ll lead publishing for the social web, in the most modern sense, where data science, the CMS, technology, and a deep understanding of social networks, mobile devices, and digital video matter most. If publishing is “the activity of making information available to the general public,” then I’m confident Dao will become the very best publisher in a rapidly changing industry where technology and data science are the key to success."

AVC: What just Happened (2014 in review)

"1. the social media phase of the Internet ended. this may have happened a few years ago actually but i felt it strongly this year. entrepreneurs and developers still build social applications. we still use them. but there isn’t much innovation here anymore. the big platforms are mature. their place is secure.

2. messaging is the new social media. this may be part of what is going on in 1. families use whatsapp groups instead of facebook. kids use snapchat instead of instagram. facebook’s acquisition of whatsapp in february of this year was the transaction that defined this trend."

JLL: I'm especially interested in trend number 2 and will be watching how brands and organizations adapt. My prediction: As many brands are forced to operate more as advertisers than as participants on the big social platforms, creating opportunities and incentives for user-generated content on messaging and social platforms will uptick.