What You Need to Know Today: March 18
Good afternoon, Early Risers!
Here’s what you need to know
TECH
Executive by day, wild man by night — LOL. Your Friday is about to get a lot better after you read this. According to YouTube founder Steven Chen, YouTube was originally supposed to be a video dating site. Wait for it… “People would have uploaded videos describing themselves and what they were looking for in a partner, as with the video dating services of the pre-Internet era. Which are now, ironically, immortalized on YouTube.” The Daily Dot found a montage of these retro dating videos — ETR readers will appreciate Steven, eligible bachelor #1. Watch this.
Google is having a yard sale. The fun and games, and HR-harassment complaints are over. Bloomberg says Google is selling Boston Dynamics — its robot company. No word on why they’re looking to sell, other than, it might be to offload some of the negative press about robots taking our jobs.
+ Panasonic is still all about the bots. Panasonic published a new video demonstrating its new line of assist suit ninja robot exoskeletons (say that five times fast). If I had to describe them in one word: Ghostbusters.
Facebook’s productivity killer. Enjoy responsibly.
CAREER
The real key to success. “When it comes to getting initial traction, here’s the one thing few people will actually tell you: There are no shortcuts (well, there are, but the companies that take them get exposed pretty quickly) and there are no playbooks (or else that guy you always see on stage talking about growth tactics would have gone out and started multiple successful companies). Getting traction is all about the hand-to-hand combat—one lead, one customer, one loyal fan at a time,” says Drift founder Dave Gerhardt. Dave was kind enough to share a few of his best tactics for getting traction. Read this. P.S. There’s a familiar face about a quarter of the way down the page.
What is content marketing? Comic books are one of the greatest examples of what content marketing is. “When Hasbro and Marvel cooperated to launch their comic book series G.I. Joe – A Real American Hero!, in 1982, all they wanted was to create what Kenner Star Wars action figures already had — a rich back story for their action toys. Within two months of releasing the first comic book, which contained two short stories, about 20% of boys between the age of 5 and 12 had two or more G.I. Joe toys,” says Neil Patel. This is a long read. Consider Pocketing this for Saturday morning. But if you’re looking for a step-by-step guide on how to content market properly, this should do it.
LIFESTYLE
Brb, just going for a quick “smog yog.” Mark Zuckerberg’s new thing is jogging, or as we at ETR like to call it, yogging — because what’s more exciting than going for a slow run. The Zuck’s been visiting Beijing and he uploaded this pic of him out for a morning yog. There’s an ongoing debate at our office whether or not this was photoshopped? You be the judge.
You know that movie with the guy. You know, THE guy, who… Sorry, mom. I have no clue what movie you’re talking about. Maybe you should checkwhatismymovie.com. #lifesaver.
#NOWYOUKNOW
A True Millennial Website
Twenty-five years ago today, the world’s first website went live. And boy, did it look pretty.
Do you like this newsletter? Please send it to a friend! If you don’t like this newsletter, please send it to an enemy. If you have questions or feedback, hit “reply” to talk to me.
Did someone send you this? Get your own copy of The Daily Brief sent straight to your inbox every weekday. Click here.
Check out what you missed in the last Daily Brief here.