Welcome back to another weekly blog, let’s dive right in!
Jennifer Aniston breaks Instagram!
The headline of the week goes to Jennifer Aniston who excited the world by joining Instagram. Her first photo was a snap of her with the entire FRIENDS cast huddled into frame. The excitement of her joining Instagram coupled with the cast photo sent world-wide fans into a frenzy – so much so they she’s actually broken a Guinness World Record for the fastest account to reach one million followers, previously held by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle at 5 hours and 45 minutes. The traffic headed toward her profile became so high that it actually crashed her account and meant the follow button wouldn’t accept your follow request, which no doubt broke millions of hearts. This issue has since been resolved and Jen now sits with a very impressive 13.1M followers, easily out-doing all her FRIENDS co-stars. In a recent interview with Jimmy Kimmell she says she doesn’t really know why she joined, quoting, ‘what you resist will persist, so why not give it a go’. She also mentioned that she’s currently working on ‘content creation’, so I reckon we’ve got plenty to look forward to before the year is out!
Pop-ups, but not the annoying kind
The Donald Trump impeachment interest has been seen as an opportunity for media publishers all around the world who are now offering pop-up podcasts, newsletters, and alerts for those wanting to stay in-the-loop.
Podcasts: Vox Media launched a new weekly "Impeachment, Explained" podcast last week hosted by Ezra Klein. WNYC also launched an "Impeachment with Brian Lehrer" podcast earlier this month.
Newsletters: CNN launched an impeachment tracker newsletter that amassed over 11,000 subscribers in a few days, per CNN. The New York Times also launched an impeachment briefing newsletter.
Alerts: CNN's digital app impeachment-related app alerts attracted 300,000 subscribers in just a week, a spokesperson said.
If these concepts sound familiar, it’s because they are. We’ve seen the same happen around the series conclusion of Game of Thrones, the World Cup and various other high-interest events. The bottom line is: if there's an appetite for more coverage, companies these days can build products pretty quickly to satisfy it. It’s something worth thinking about if your company is involved in reporting or informing people on relevant events – could you build a product to satisfy your audience? Maybe it’s something we can help you with.
Uber is looking to help you find jobs
In amongst Uber’s scramble to secure diminishing market share, the app is now helping temporary workers find work. It will connect temporary workers looking to work shifts with businesses trying to fill up rosters. The Uber Works app will only be available in Chicago during its testing period. It will display information about shifts such as gross pay, work location, required skills, and dress code. Temporary workers can track their shifts and breaks using the app. New laws in California may require Uber to classify drivers as employees from January 1. It’d be really interesting to see this roll out in other countries to see what sort of impact this has.
And that’s it for another week, enjoy your weekend.