Friday Five: Purple Edition

Can't believe Prince has died. I've probably spent more time listening to his music than anyone else. Seeing him in 2004 was the best concert I've ever been to. He's been my go-to karaoke artist for years. First we lost David Bowie, and now Prince. 2016 sucks.

But these links don't suck, so let's get on with the show.

1. Big Changes for LinkedIn University Pages

Remember a few years ago when LinkedIn was trying to target teenagers and created university-specific pages that actually had some really great statistics and information? Well, those are going away. Karine Joly has all the details at College Web Editor.

2. Snapchat Explained

Are you still, like me, trying to understand what Snapchat is all about and why it's so popular with the kids these days? I thought this conversation with their VP of Content was really interesting.

3. Pinterest Goes Public

Speaking of social media sites that confound me a bit... Pinterest is preparing to go public, and is updating and improving its platform in advance of that. Though to be honest, I've gotten to know Pinterest quite a bit better now that I'm planning a wedding... so much so that we actually had to "ban" Emily from Pinterest for a week because it was keeping her up at night. 

4. Takeovers!

Is there still a place in higher ed social media for takeovers (i.e. having a student or alumni or someone else "take over" a social media platform for a day.)? I say yes, and Eric Stoller provides some great examples at Inside Higher Ed.

5. Blocking AdBlockers? You're Blocking Traffic

Digital publishing and the future of news is something near and dear to my heart, and the war raging over the use of adblockers is something I have done a lot of soul-searching about. But here's a new twist - sites that have blocked visitors using adblockers have seen a dramatic drop in traffic. Maybe not surprising, but that means people who use adblockers are more likely to just click away than to "white list" a site or temporarily disable the adblocker to see the content.

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No surprises here in today's music selection... of course it's going to be a jam from the Purple One. There's hardly any of his music readily available online (unless you subscribe to Tidal), but I came across this amazing gem of Prince singing the joyously infectious "Starfish and Coffee" with the Muppets. Amazing.