“Pity Marketing” is having a moment. Multiple reports have surfaced of people sharing tales of woe, mostly on the X (formerly Twitter) social network, leading many who see the posts to pull out their wallets. Could the same technique work for bigger brands? Also in the August long-form episode of “For Immediate Release”:

• The Associated Press has published its AI guidelines for journalists
• Big advertisers are rushing to take advantage of AI
• Gartner has pegged AI at the peak of inflated expectations
• Motion identities are now a requirement for brands
• Brands are starting to sound alike on social media

In his Tech Report, Dan York reports on Twitch’s plans to roll out blocking, new features on Threads, developments with Mastodon, a new fediverse report, and scientists scaling back their use of X (formerly Twitter).

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The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, October 2 (but it will be the September episode).

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Link from this report:

• The Associated Press sets AI guidelines for journalists
• From Mad Men to machines? Big advertisers shift to AI
• Gartner Places Generative AI on the Peak of Inflated Expectations on the 2023 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies
• Gartner hype cycle
• Emergent Properties of AI
• Take a Page From the Motion Identity Playbook
• The rise of pity marketing
• Why brands are still trying to be funny and chronically online — even in ‘late stage social media’

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report

• Twitch Will Let Streamers Block Banned Users from Watching Streams
• Threads gets retweets — sorry, reposts — in the reverse-chronological feed
• Twitter’s Rival Threads Is Already Unraveling
• The BBC on Mastodon: experimenting with distributed and decentralised social media
• The Fediverse Report (Search is coming to Mastodon)
• Erin Kissane’s excellent essay about why people leave Mastodon
• The Fediverse Report (a great way to keep up on the fediverse)
• Thousands of scientists are cutting back on X/Twitter

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