Mother’s Day is coming up (5/14), and Reddit has published a new guide that explains why its platform could be a valuable consideration for your Mother’s Day marketing push, and how to connect with Redditors around the event.

The 16-page guide includes a range of notes and pointers to help optimize your Mother’s Day approach, which is Reddit-specific, but likely also relates to how other social platforms see engagement around the event.

You can download the full guide here, but in this post, we’ll take a look at some of the highlights.

First off, Reddit provides an overview of its unique audience, and their engagement in Mother’s Day shopping.

As you can see in this chart, Reddit provides reach to users that are not active in other social apps, with one in five Reddit users being moms.

That provides unique insight into relevant conversations and interests.

Indeed, Reddit says that there are over 6,000 communities in the app that are actively discussing Mother’s Day and related topics.

That could provide a valuable pool of research for your planning and marketing, while also enabling you to connect with people researching specific products and offers.

Reddit also provides insight into when Mother’s Day discussion peaks, and how you should plan your marketing outreach accordingly.

There are also notes on specific ad types and promotions which could help to boost your campaigns, in order to connect with Reddit users around the event.

There are some handy notes here, which could be worth considering. And while Reddit may not seem like the most obvious channel for Mother’s Day marketing, there could well be opportunities there, both for market research and outreach, if you go looking.

You can download Reddit’s full Mother’s Day marketing guide here.

LinkedIn has added a new option to forward a LinkedIn feed post to multiple members at once, while you’ll also now be able to create a new group message when forwarding a post.

As you can see in this sequence, you’ll now be able to select multiple recipients when sharing a LinkedIn post, with the capacity to either forward the post to each member separately, or create a new chat group with the selected users. You can also add a personal note to your message to include your own thoughts or points.

It could be a good way to spark more in-depth discussions in the app, and encourage engagement, while you could also use this to introduce connections to each other over shared interests.

With more social media interactions switching to DMs, every platform is now working to optimize DM sharing, and provide additional ways to lean into more private engagement behavior.

LinkedIn also recently added new DM tagging options, to help categorize your messages, along with its ‘Focused Inbox’ approach, which separates your Inbox messages into ‘Featured’ and ‘Other’ folders, which can also help to streamline engagement.

LinkedIn recently reported that conversations in the app are up nearly 20% year-over-year, which is why it’s now looking to improve its DM options, and facilitate even more of these conversations.

And again, the broader usage shift has seen more and more people shying away from public posting, and the angst that can come with it, to enclosed group sharing – which LinkedIn is looking to better facilitate with this update.

LinkedIn’s rolling out the new multi-forwarding option to all users from this week.

Q: What should I consider when choosing a DIY security camera?

A: The options for security cameras that are easy to install, set up and monitor via your smartphone can get overwhelming for even the most tech-savvy consumer.

Several variables will help you determine the best fit for your situation, as there is no one-size-fits-all solution for this growing category.

Location and Infrastructure

The area of your home or business that you want to surveil may quickly narrow your search, as the available infrastructure may limit your options.

If there aren’t any electrical outlets in the area, you’ll likely want to opt for one of the many battery-operated units that can be mounted just about anywhere.

Similarly, if your Wi-Fi signal is weak or nonexistent in the area where you intend to mount the camera, you’ll want to shop for cameras that can connect to a cellular network or extend your current Wi-Fi network to allow for a reliable connection.

Replacing wired doorbells or floodlights with integrated security cameras eliminates the need to run electrical wires or go with a battery-operated unit.

Wired vs. Wireless

Any security camera that doesn’t require an electrical outlet and can connect via Wi-Fi is considered a truly wireless camera, but there can be some downsides.

As with anything that relies on a battery, it’s just a matter of time before you’ll have issues related to battery life.

Some cameras use special batteries that are designed to last a year or so, but ultimately the life of the battery will be determined by the amount of activity the camera senses.

All security cameras use motion sensors to alert you to activity, so if you point the camera in a direction with lots of activity, you could be replacing expensive batteries much more often.

There are cameras that have solar panels to help keep the battery topped up, but even those batteries have a finite life that can be shortened if you live in a very hot climate (heat is a huge enemy of batteries).

Generally speaking, wired is superior to wireless as it pertains to your power source because it eliminates a point of failure that will eventually require maintenance, especially if you have to install the camera in a place that won’t be easy to access in the future.

Cloud vs. Local Storage

Another consideration is how your security video is stored whenever an incident is recorded. Some systems allow you to store the video locally, while others push the video to the company’s servers via the internet (the “cloud”).

Cloud-based storage can be limited unless you pay a monthly or annual fee, so it’s important that you understand what your options are before committing to a specific device.

Existing Platforms

If you already have other ‘smart devices’ such as a thermostat or smart doorbell, the same company likely offers various security camera options that will allow your devices to be monitored from a single app on your smartphone.

If opening multiple apps for your various smart devices isn’t a deal breaker, the existing platform won’t be a factor.

If you want to extend your security monitoring to doors, windows and garage doors, you’ll want to explore the package options that most every company offers.

Ken Colburn is founder and CEO of Data Doctors Computer Services. Ask any tech question on Facebook or Twitter.

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Twitter intends to start taking away people’s blue check marks on April 1 unless they pay up.

The coveted blue check marks that were previously meant to convey the authenticity or authority of users on the social media platform will soon identify people who paid for Twitter’s subscription service.

“On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified check marks,” the company said on Twitter via its @TwitterVerified account. “To keep your blue check mark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here.”

Since acquiring the platform last year, Twitter CEO Elon Musk has replaced the freely dispensed check marks with a system making people pay Twitter for the badges.

The subscription service costs users in the U.S. monthly fees of $8 for subscriptions on the web and $11 for using the service on mobile operating systems, per the company’s website.

Twitter is asking organizations that want to be verified with gold and gray check marks, square avatars and other features to pay a $1,000 monthly fee plus $50 per month for each affiliate of the group, according to the company’s website.

“Any individual person’s Twitter account affiliated with a verified organization is automatically verified,” Mr. Musk said Friday on Twitter.

Along with different color badges, users who pay Twitter will also have access to different editing tools and the ability to upload longer videos.

Some Twitter users view Mr. Musk’s plans skeptically. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York Democrat, does not appear to be a fan.

“Last time they tried this someone pretended to be Eli Lilly and tanked their stock price by pretending insulin was free,” she tweeted via her @AOC account that displays a gray check mark conveying she is a government official.

Twitter’s website said the company has taken steps to minimize the risk of imposters, including requiring subscribers to provide a verified phone number.

“New Twitter accounts will not be able to sign up for Twitter Blue for 90 days,” the website said. “Twitter accounts that haven’t been active within the last 30 days or that have changed their profile photo, display name or username (aka @handle) within the previous 3 days may also be unable to sign up.”

STANTON, Tenn. (AP) — Ford said Friday that its assembly plant under construction in western Tennessee will be able to build up to 500,000 electric pickup trucks a year at full output, part of the automaker’s drive to produce 2 million electric vehicles worldwide annually by late 2026.

The company made the announcement as it provided updates on the so-called BlueOval City project at an event attended by Ford executives, project leaders, politicians and residents who live near the sprawling Tennessee site.

The Dearborn, Michigan, automaker announced the project in September of 2021 that would build the truck plant and a battery factory on 3,600 acres (1,460-hectares) in rural Stanton, located in Haywood County northeast of Memphis. Known as the Memphis Regional Megasite, the land designated by the state for industrial development sat unused for years before Ford moved in.

Ford’s assembly plant, and the battery plant run by South Korean battery maker SK On, will employ about 6,000 people with an investment of roughly $5.6 billion, Ford said.

The joint venture will also construct twin battery plants in Glendale, Kentucky, with an estimated $5.8 billion investment. The projects are expected to create more than 10,800 jobs and shift the automaker’s future manufacturing footprint toward the South while putting an emphasis on green energy.

Construction on the Tennessee site began last year. Ford plans to start production by 2025, and that timetable remains in place, company officials said

Construction is about 50% complete, said Donna Langford, Ford’s project manager. Media members who joined a bus tour of the site in the rain Friday saw steel skeletons of the massive, partially built structures that will house the battery plant and the truck assembly factory. Once finished, the site will also include a Tennessee Valley Authority substation to help power the plants and a Tennessee College of Applied Technology, where workforce training will take place.

The automaker said its second-generation electric truck is “code named Project T3,” and Ford CEO Jim Farley touted the truck’s simplified design and high-quality technology.

Ford did not release images of the new truck during the event, but it did display colorful drawings made by Tennessee schoolchildren with suggestions for its design — including some trucks that would fly.

In a reference to the fast and tough Star Wars ship, Farley said the new truck “is going to be like the Millennium Falcon, with a back porch attached.”

Speaking with reporters, Farley acknowledged that the Tennessee truck factory would be the most environmentally friendly new plant Ford has ever built.

“Not even close,” said Farley, adding later that “this is a new industrial revolution about clean, carbon neutral manufacturing.”

Ford says the plant is designed to be its first carbon-neutral vehicle manufacturing campus. It will have a 30% smaller general assembly footprint than traditional plants by simplifying sub-assemblies and reducing the number of stations on the line, Farley said.

“We shrunk the plant because we have less people, we have less stations,” Farley said.

Ford also said it will use recovered energy from the site to provide carbon-free heat for the assembly plant and save water by reducing evaporation from the site’s cooling towers.

Before landing the Ford project, Tennessee had invested more than $174 million in the unused Memphis megasite. Tennessee lawmakers have committed to spending nearly $900 million on state incentives, infrastructure upgrades and more as part of a sweeping plan with Ford. The agreement included $500 million in capital grant funds.

The lease essentially grants the land to Ford through December 2051. The rent is $1 for the entire lease term.

Some of the rural West Tennessee counties surrounding the plant hope it will help boost their economies.

With an economy based largely on farming, Haywood County saw its population shrink by 4.9% to 17,864 people from 2010 to 2020, one of 14 counties to lose population as Tennessee grew as a whole by 8.9%, according to census data.

The factory is expected to bring both small and large businesses to the area, including hotels, restaurants, health care facilities and suppliers for the plant, among others. Real estate values also could increase.

Ford’s leaders have pledged to help the communities near the plant. The Ford Motor Company Fund announced Friday it has awarded 17 grants of $75,000 to $100,000 each to fire departments, arts and parks conservancy groups, a community center, local governments and other organizations in six counties.

The $1.2 million grant program received 200 applications, said Mary Culler, president of the Ford Motor Company Fund.

“Those are the kinds of grass-roots, capital projects that these towns and municipalities are looking for,” Culler said.

As it seeks to develop its workforce in Tennessee, Ford said it has begun a talent development program that will support STEM instruction in K-12 schools, bring advanced manufacturing education to schools, and expand certification, dual-enrollment and internship opportunities for students.

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AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed to this story from Detroit.

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