Powerful Communication Podcast

Others look a bit desperate and crass and sometimes even attract allegations of tokenism.

International Women's Day earlier this week is one example and some companies even fell victim to the Gender Pay Gap Bot.

This is a Twitter account, set to find companies using social media to talk up some of their inclusion and diversity credentials but then alongside their original message, adds details of the gender pay gap and highlights situations where women are paid less than men.

As the @paygapapp says in its biography - employers, if you Tweet about International Women's Day, I'll retweet your gender pay gap.

It's another example of how difficult it is to control the conversation on social media.

And a quick bit of internet history…it was this week back in 1995 that the Yahoo search engine launched and it was, for a while, one of the most recognised names on the world wide web.

Twitter users…if you've ever taken to Twitter to share details of a mistake you made - for example putting diesel in the petrol tank or salt instead of sugar in your coffee…it could prove to be a lucrative move.

We've discovered that Specscavers is going round looking for 'blunder' Tweets and then paying the original composer of the Tweet if they give permission for Specsavers to turn it into an ad.

Dan Beasley Harling, who appeared on the Great British Bake Off a few years ago is one example, with a Tweet he sent back in November about putting instant yeast is in tea.

So if you do something similar, don't despair, you might still end up on top.

Elsewhere across the internet over the last 24 hours, the world has been marking International Women's Day with celebrations of all things womanhood along with attention being paid to inequality and some of the obstacles many women still encounter as they go about their lives.

Some big brands got involved too - some with more success than others - catch up with it all at #internationalwomensday on Twitter and Instagram.

Finally, Apple, Facebook, Google, Twitter, IBM and other tech firms are joining the humanitarian mission for the people of Ukraine with donations to relief agencies such as International Medical Corps, International Rescue Committee and Doctors Without Borders.

Unique content that people would pay for is the holy grail in today's content driven digital economy…and podcasts are at the heart of it.

Big tech companies are searching for the next Joe Rogan and they're prepared to pay a lot of money to secure their services and tie them into exclusive deals.

Expect to see podcasts given a more prominent position inside streaming services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, and all the main social media platforms are trying to think of ways to integrate podcasts into their feeds.

There could be something in this for you - think about your hobbies and interests - the more offbeat and niche the better - could you produce a podcast about it? It might not be particularly popular in your immediate local area, but imagine it going worldwide - there could be millions of people interested in that same topic.

Here's a new phrase for you - 'face mute' - we've all done it - turning our webcam OFF on a video call because, well we just don't want to be seen right now.

An article from zapier.com makes some very good points and asks to remove the stigma from 'face muting' insisting it makes sense to prefer to hide your face when eating, checking other tasks during the dull bits of a video call and other times when you just don't feel like showing your face.

As work from home becomes a permanent part of working life for many, having the freedom to 'face mute' is likely to be an important part of company culture.

Listen up if you own a Fitbit Ionic Watch - the fitness trackers are the subject of a voluntary product recall after reports the battery could overheat and cause serious burns.

The company is now owned by Google and says it sold 1.7 million of the Fitbit ionic devices around the world between 2017 and 2020.

The company says 0.01% of the units sold suffered overheating but it's acting out of an abundance of caution.

Anyone who purchased a Fitbit Ionic can receive a £225 refund and a discount on a replacement product.

No other devices in the FitBit range are affected by the issue.

Facebook parent company Meta is celebrating Women's History Month by shining the spotlight on women run small businesses.

There's a range of resources aimed at helping women who run small businesses - find it at fb.com/shemeansbusinesshub

It includes training and advice for getting the most from social media.

The company has also launched what it calls a 'cultural guide' which highlights the challenges women in business face around the world as well as advice for everyone in business to help drive women's equality.

Ultra short social media videos are getting longer and at the same time, expect mainstream TV shows to get shorter!

TikTok has announced it'll soon permit video uploads of up to 10 minutes in duration, potentially paving the way for a whole new genre of entertainment.

The feature will roll out to all users in the next few weeks and is set to heap pressure on YouTube which until now has had the longer form video space all to itself.

BBC 1 recently showed a short form series called 'Cheaters', an 18 part comedy drama, told in 10 minute chapters, Expect to see more of this going forward.

Could podcasts be heading for Twitter?

The platform seems to be testing a new tab for podcasts according to some users who've shared screenshots of how it might look.

One of the issues holding podcasts back is how difficult it is to share them - an integration with Twitter would be a big step forward and could see Twitter becoming the obvious place to discover new podcasts and people you follow could share links to them.

And games fans listen up - 2 new Pokemon games are heading to Nintendo Switch by the end of this year.

Pokemon Scarlett and Pokemon Violet are 2 adventure games coming late 2022.

Businesses and public sector organisations around the UK are being warned to be extra vigilant when it comes to cyber security as the threat of an online attack sparked by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine intensifies.

The National Cyber Security Centre issued guidance, saying there was a heightened risk of malicious cyber incidents overseas which could have an impact on UK institutions, services and systems.

It did stress there was no knowledge of any current specific threats to UK organisations.

Visit NCSC on Linkedin and Twitter for more information.

Fascinating insight from a socialmediatoday.com survey which asked Linkedin users the most annoying thing about the platform.

With 33% of the vote, the top answer 'unwanted messages'.

Premium LinkedIn users are able to send 'InMail' to others who they don't know and aren't connected to.

No surprise, it caused annoyance - it's the modern equivalent of a telesales phone call. But it's interesting to see just how many people it annoys and I think it's something Linkedin needs to take a look at, but..removing that paid for feature would hit Linkedin in the pocket.

Finally, a handy product whether you live stream, play games or just multi task with your computer - the Elgato stream deck lets you set up hotkeys and shortcuts, letting you do several tasks at the touch of a button.

The major social media platforms have been awash with messages of support for the people of Ukraine across the weekend with some users changing their profile picture to the Ukranian flag and celebrities ditching their usual selfies to highlight charities working with those affected by the conflict and sharing details of how to donate to the relief effort.

There are also reports of millions of pounds worth of anonymous donations being made to the Ukranian military via Bitcoin.

Several YouTube channels are showing round the clock live streams from the centre of Kyiv.

Here's an interesting innovation from Norway which I read on spring wise.com, a start up using virtual reality to help people tackle phobias.

It's thought a quarter of the world's population will suffer from some form of anxiety disorder at some point int heir life and for some patients, exposure to the source of their problem, in a controlled setting, can help.

But this isn't always immediately possible - for example - fear of spiders, heights and so on - Fornix is a start up company offering Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy.

And it's the best example I've seen yet of how the so called 'Meta Verse' might have a positive role to play in our future.

For laughs, check out Canadian star Call Me Kris who has more than 42 million followers for her sketches with a unique range of characters she all plays herself.

Dr Julie Smith is a British psychologist who's gained a huge following and a lot of praise for the way she brings mental health and particularly anxiety to live with simple actionable tips, aimed at the TikTok audience.

There's also content claiming to be from the frontline of the conflict in Ukraine although as with anything online and particularly in times of international conflict not everything is reliable and accurate.

Earlier this year TikTok did say it would put labels on video clips where it can't verify if they're accurate.

If you're still sending large files via email you risk clogging up the inbox of the person you're sending to - tools like WeTransfer, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Hightail and others are all designed to help and many offer excellent free features.

If the material you're sending is sensitive be sure to read the small print about encryption and privacy there's some material that probably shouldn't be sent through consumer focussed online file sharing services.

And there's good news for Canva users - the popular design tool now lets you import from Microsoft - so Word docs, Powerpoints and even Excel spreadsheets can all be opened within canva.

'Reels' are the ultra short 15 second video clips originally launched by Instagram as part of their efforts to combat the rise of TikTok.

They've been a huge success, so much so that Reels have now been extended to Facebook.

So prepare to have your feed filled up with friends and family members as well as businesses you follow sharing video clips of them doing dances, pranks and other content which I guess you'll either love or hate.

I can't see Reels being particularly popular on Facebook - I think most people just want it to go back to its roots and be a place where they keep up with friends.

Look out for ultra short clips making their way to mainstream TV and Netlifx which is said to be testing a series of short comedy clips called 'Fast Laughs'

The tension between Russia and Ukraine is boiling over into the online world with reports of cyber attacks and hacking - now that the UK is part of the sanctions against Russia it's a good time for us all to be extra careful regarding cyber security and for businesses to think about resilience and how they'd operate if key systems were unavailable.

Reports suggest there won't be a new Call Of Duty game next year although it does look as though there will be additional material released for this year's title.

Bloomberg reports we can also expect a free to play online game with the main series returning in 2024.

Blogging is a really enjoyable hobby, a fun way to express yourself creatively and, if you put the work in, could even generate some income or become a whole new career.

It's easy to start, using a free platform such as blogger.com or wordpress.com and you can write about anything you like.

There are successful blogs on almost any niche you can think of - from hillwalking to board games from the 1980s, personal fitness, health and wellbeing, pop culture and much, much more.

I believe everyone has a blog in them,

The posts you write don't need to be long and it's best if they do include some pictures and video where possible.

Business owners often blog because it can improve where their website appears in Google search results and if your blog is seen by someone who shares your passion for a particular topic, and they contact you, it could be the start of a new relationship and collaboration opportunities.

Around the world there are almost 600 million blogs - with some updated every day, some weekly, monthly or just whenever the blogger has something they want to say.

You don't need much in the way of computer literacy to maintain a blog - you can even set things up so that you publish your posts simply by emailing a special address and you don't need an existing website to have a blog.

medium.com, blogger.com, wordpress.com are all good places to start and if you blog or there's one you enjoy reading - get in touch and let me know. You'll find me at colinkelly.net