Bonjour, Dear Reader!
Have you spent any time on Clubhouse, the latest social media rage? I get most annoyed about Clubhouse when I tap my iPhone just as a notification about a new room pops up. Suddenly I find myself in a "room" listening to somebody chatting about online marketing or Instagram or Bitcoin.
When it happens, I need to tap the "leave quietly" button. Have you ever attended a conference (back in the day) where you joined a breakout room and realized that, oops, you didn’t want to hear about that topic afterall? Same feeling. You have to "leave quietly."
The Water’s Not Bad
Other than that, I’ve moved past the toe-dipping phase with Clubhouse and have waded in with both feet. So far, I like it, and here’s why:
- Somehow, it actually feels a bit like being in a room with other people. No doubt, that’s because our social lives have been in quarantine for a year.
- It feeds my constant need to learn. I’ve listened to some marketing industry leaders pass along great advice -- for free.
- People in Clubhouse are excited about Clubhouse. It’s hard to listen to a room without getting jazzed about it and its potential for brand building and getting known.
Naturally, I’ve spent most of my Clubhouse time in rooms related to online marketing. Michael Stelzner from Social Media Examiner runs a regular Saturday morning room that I plan to listen to regularly. I’ve also enjoyed listening to the Marketing Club, Small Business Owners Worldwide and the Social Media for Business Club.
Concerns about Time
I’m a little concerned about whether Clubhouse will turn into a time-suck, and it’s already clear that it’s going to send me into some rabbit holes (Ohhh, maybe I need to create a business Instagram account!).
But it’s worth checking out, even if you’re not interested in marketing. There are clubs and rooms about the arts, entertainment, sports, languages, dating, parenting, world affairs and travel.
Right now, Clubhouse is still iPhone-only. If you’d like an invite, I’ve got some to share. Just make sure I’ve got your mobile number.
What the FLoC?
Today, we break down an acronym that’s relatively new and that you’ll be hearing more about -- FLoC -- Federated Learning of Cohorts. The operative word is "cohorts," a word used in tech and marketing communities to describe a group of people with similar characteristics.
FLoC has been flying around in conversations about internet privacy and marketing because Google is planning to use FLoC as a replacement for third-party cookies. Third-party cookies are tiny bits of code that websites can place in your web browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.) that tell other websites where you’ve been. For example, if you’ve been browsing for information about planning software, an ad for Trello that you see on CNN.com was generated by a third-party cookie.
Marketers LOVE Cookies
Cookies have been an extraordinary boon for marketers, who rely on them to show you ads of interest where you happen to be browsing. But concerns about online privacy have finally swayed Google to abandon third-party cookies in its Chrome browser (used by more than half of us).
Instead, Google -- ever the marketer’s friend -- will algorithmically plop internet users into cohorts, groups of people with similar interests. Grouping people into cohorts will make it more difficult to identify one particular user, Google says, while maintaining 95 percent of target marketing’s effectiveness.
Want to learn more about it? Google says it’s gonna be great. The Electronic Frontier Foundation hates it, and Github lays out the pros and cons.
(If you need one of my definitions for an online marketing term, visit my online glossary.)
Spring!
This Saturday is the first official day of spring. I hope you all take a few minutes to enjoy and appreciate this annual season of renewal.
The next newsletter will appear in your inbox in two weeks. Please share this note with anyone you think might like it. If you’re reading this because somebody shared it with you, you can get your own here.
Thanks for spending some of your time with me,
Mark
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