đĄ The đ to success.
Pulse #134 â Believe in Yourself; and BE YOU; especially, if others think youâre weird.
Authenticity. Itâs one of those over-used words in todayâs marketing world. Maybe not just in todayâs, but definitely over-used now. And you know what, I donât mean it shouldnât be, we actually need more of it, but it has to be authentic; not fake authenticity.
Being yourself is the best approach to competition [at least in my opinion] as thereâs literally no one better at it than you. Itâs where youâre not running the risk of looking absolutely stupid in a conversation because youâre the best at it. But everything else is probably not so⌠What do I mean?
I mean donât act like youâre the best in something if youâre not, coz others might be [or probably are] better at it than you and you look like a fool if youâre acting like youâre a know-it-all in that topic.
But if youâre real, authentic, and acknowledge that you know some stuff (and sometimes a good amount), but youâre not the best/only/most knowledgable in the topic, youâve eliminated that risk.
âThat thing that made you weird as a kid could make you great as an adult â if you donât lose it.â â Kevin Kelly
People are okay with you not knowing something [unless itâs an exam lol], but they more often than not, are not okay with you pretending you know when you actually donât; coz that could be costly.
If you havenât seen Avisâ âwe try harderâ campaign, read this. Itâs one of the longest-running marketing campaigns, built on authenticity and owning the reality of Avis being the no. 2 in the marketâŚ
Itâs super smart and no one would put Avis on the spot for claiming to be the no. 1 or the best or whatever the superlative adjective is in a domain, but we all appreciate Avis trying harder and not taking their customers for granted mentality.
This resonated with me so much that I decided to write about it in this weekâs issue, instead of writing about how iXDaily, my daily news telegram channel, turned 1 yesterday.
I think, in a way, this suits the birthday even more as I started the channel knowing that I want to fill [at least] a part of the gap in attention-worthy news in the tech world. Something Iâd love to have, but didnât. Easy access and readable news, not overloaded with ads and promos⌠somewhere I can catch up with the things I care about⌠hoping someday itâd become a really good source of tech news without the noise on one of my favourite platformsâŚ
Now, after a sudden surge in interest, in the same week my channel turned one, we passed a milestone too. iXDaily now has over 1,000 subscribers! And it feels really good!
Iâm just trying to be myself. Thank you for reading.
I know many of you here read iXDaily, and I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your attention; regardless of the platform.
News
Facebook and Instagram notices in iOS apps tell users tracking helps keep them âfree of chargeâ [link]
President of Elon Muskâs Neuralink venture tweets that heâs left the company [link]
Former Netflix executive convicted of money laundering [link]
Florida bill would fine social media platforms for banning politiciansâ with the exemption for Disney [link]
No more YouTube TV on Roku, Basecamp employees leaving, and social media boycott in England [link]
Microsoft throwing shades at Apple, EU charging Apple, a $500k meme [link]
Netflix fighting decision fatigue, Amazon suing Trump, and lots of earnings calls! [link]
Spotify goes for Apple Podcasts, Apple Silicon M2, and Instagramâs new features for influencers [link]
Appleâs OS updates, antitrust cases, and bugs + some other stuff [link]
Indiaâs influence on social media, Clubhouseâs latest, and Elon Musk on SNL [link]
đŹÂ a gift for you. [ocean eyes x dunder mifflin]
Worth Your Attention
TikTok and the vibes revival â Kyle Chaykaâs piece in the New Yorker on how social media weâre after moments of audiovisual eloquence; and not narrative or personality.
itâs a super-interesting read; and it begins from Manchester, England :]
PS. this was a really good explanation of vibes: vibes are a medium for feeling, the kind of abstract understanding that comes before words put a name to experience.
99 additional bits of unsolicited advice by Kevin Kelly.
happy birthday KK.
Confusing identity with strategy; another fantastic [and short] post by Seth Godin.
abandoning possibilities and walking away from opportunities simply because they doesnât resonate with the person we are in this moment⌠thatâs not rightâŚ
Chart of the Week
Social Audio Apps Reach 20m Downloads So Far in 2021, Led by Clubhouse
Clubhouseâs worldwide installs quadrupled month-over-month in February, climbing 300 per cent from 2.4 million in January to 9.6 million.
While the appâs downloads fell 72 per cent to 2.7 million in March, that was still up 13 per cent from January. The app has now reached approximately 16.4 million installs to date, the majority of which occurred this year.
read more on SensorTower.
& more stats
Downloads of the top US gig work apps grew 25% YoY in Q1 2021 [link]
The entire GAFAM group, namely Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft, saw profits surge at the beginning of 2021 [link]
Pinterest data shows searches for a post-pandemic life are on the rise, with Gen Z (searches up 96% YoY) leading the way out [link]
Amazon spent $11bn on Prime video and music content in 2020, up 41% from 2019 [link]
Tools & Apps
Talium: Publish beautiful web pages in under 3 minutes
itâs pretty good; and itâs free!
Toucan: Learn a new language just by browsing the internet
Estoy aprendiendo EspaĂąolâŚ
YesPromo: Free database of 100+ successful self-promotion Reddit posts
Reddit can be a huge channel for launching and scaling a business, but redditors arenât usually the biggest fan of self-promotions⌠however, some people do it successfully, and thereâs a lot we can learn from themâŚ
Spotted
Instagram is working on collaborative posts [link]; itâs available for Creator accounts [link]
Instagram keeps working on the Limited Comments option by adding a new Privacy option [link]
Instagram is working on a new option for Reels: Stitch [link]
Instagram will indicate trending reels with a flame Fire icon [link]
Instagram is working on the ability to add multiple audio tracks to a Reel [link]
Instagram is working on an option to allow business accounts to show their contact info in the profile [link]
Facebook is rolling out a new menu option on Desktop [link]
Facebook is working on end-to-end encrypted rooms [link]
Pinterest Story Pins are now available [link]
đŚ Tweets of the Week
Fun Stuff
and now weâre done for this week
What did you think of this issue? Your feedback matters â more than you think!