It’s 2016 and if you’re like “What’s Snapchat?” all of your younger coworkers are going to laugh at you. Seriously, you need to know what’s happening on social RIGHT NOW because, like Zen has taught us, the present is all we have. On social, the present was 5 minutes ago, 5 minutes ago was a month ago and 2015 is so far behind us everyone still had a Livejournal.

Grab a cup of coffee and get familiar with this enlightening listicle on all things currently Facebook. Skim your way down to numbers 13 and 15 for the scoop. Everyone already knows too much about Facebook, but it’s important to be able to understand the ever-changing platform, how audiences are using it and how you can use it to your advantage. We’re no longer fishing in the ocean, but a man-made lake. Start approaching Facebook like Google searches where the algorithms for search engine optimization change frequently and you’re targeted based on what you’ve done previously. Ahem, judgy-judgy.

Big internet news: @WhiteHouse is now on…drum roll… @Snapchat. But the real news is that their first story features White House apples, with which Black Sheep is very familiar.
Now, it’s officially legit for any last minute Snapchat believers. Take a seat for a snappy retrospect on the importance of the platform for marketers. Step outside of digital and think of yourself as a museum curator. Your job is to collect, represent and display culture in the form of art, whether it’s understood or not. One wrongly positioned plaque, misprint, disagreeable angle and your career as a curator is done. That’s a lot of pressure.

Snap back to reality in front of your computer screen with three tabs open to social media feeds; feeds and feeds and feeds of curated, scrutinized content. Snapchat gives the freedom to not give a f*ck, and only give pieces of your culture to those that care in real time.

You might have seen a glimpse of the new app Peach, created by the Vine founders, that launched last week. We downloaded it and still think it’s a tad like GroupMe or WhatsApp with a glorified feed, but we’re ready to be proven wrong. Here’s the gist, says the New York Times:

​They can “shout” a message in big letters, use “here” for a place check-in, share the weather, reveal the charge remaining in their iPhone’s battery, tag the name of a favorite TV show or a book, and more. The app has several Slack-like shortcuts called “magic words” for these actions.

​Other misc. items that you should know:

Pinterest hired its first head of Diversity – Cheers!

Facebook Messenger is about to break into the business with more than 800M users – Think Slack.

Twitter thinks they can interact with text messages soon—we’re interested.

​Consider yourself in-the-know. ​and watch for other spontaneous social rants in the future. 

WTF Is Peach and Other Stuff You Need To Know Now

Staying up to date on new technology and social media

Regular

Like we’ve said before, we’re not too keen on New Year’s resolutions. They’re outdated, they’re cumbersome and they’re based on the idea that you make changes ALL AT ONCE. Nope. That’s BS. Unless you’re a caterpillar or the universe, changes happen over time—not in a big bang.

“But we’ve been over this before,” you might be saying. “Why are we talking about resolutions again?” Good question.

We’re talking about them because it’s officially Ditch Your Resolutions Day. Yep. There’s a day for that—and we wholeheartedly endorse it. So much so, we’re going to add on some other things you should ditch, too.

First things first: Ditch those resolutions. Toss ‘em right out. You don’t need them where you’re going next. Change everything about yourself overnight? Sounds like a drag. Let’s just focus on getting better over time. Remember, perfecting, but not perfect.

Ditch your attitude. Work got you down? Can’t stand your best friend’s boyfriend? Life’s too short to wallow in it. Take this hallowed day as an excuse to throw off the bad vibes you’re having and think positive. Grumpiness isn’t a typical quality of change-makers.

Ditch the expected. Typical isn’t an ideal solution to any problem—creativity is. Find what expected, shake it up and flip it around, then see what you’ve got. Take a new road, find a new way and whatever you do, don’t go for whatever’s “on trend.” Just the thought of that makes us cringe.

Ditch the couch. Real talk: We don’t care if you want to sit on your couch all Saturday and watch the X-files. That’s not the issue. Be lazy. Chill. Enjoy your weekend. BUT you’ve gotta get off that couch sometime and get some fresh air. Get outside, see the actual world, meet some new people and get to know your city first hand. It’s a beautiful world out there and you should be a part of it, too.

Ditch the “Me. Me. Me.” mentality. You are unique, special and, gosh darn it, people like you. But you’re not the only one on this earth. It’s time to stop thinking in terms of “What’s in it for me?” and start asking yourself “How can I make an impact?” The world needs you and there are plenty of ways you can help.

While you’re creating a giant bonfire for all the things you no longer need, what else are you going to toss in? 

Ditch Your Resolutions (And These Things Too)

New Years revolutions that you can actually stick to