Diana Podaski, Linear Retail Properties

It really does feel like March Madness doesn’t it? Between the double-digit seed upsets in college basketball, the alarming presidential election, the famous SXSW Interactive Festival taking place and the closing of the first business quarter, there are a lot of wild things going on right now. This is why I feel like it’s a good time to check in and make sure you’re feeling current on what’s being talked about around social media and tech. Sometimes you hear terms over and over but aren’t exactly sure what anyone is talking about, let me shed some light.

VR – Virtual Reality is arguable THE most talked about technology right now. From what I read, it was the most popular subject at the SXSW Festival this month. The annual festival takes place in Austin, TX and attracts 72,000 registrants and artists from around the globe specializing in film, music and interactive (technology). Essentially, VR allows users to interact with the real (or an imagined) world artificially creating a sensory experience including sight, touch, hearing and smell. How does this affect our industry? I think it will further enhance photography and video. One company, HumanEyes Technology created the Vuze Camera, the world’s first consumer VR 360 degree 2D & 3D spherical camera. Imagine your centers and center events shown in this way, what an experience!

Memes – Just when you thought some people are in the Meme safe zone, you end up seeing multiple Memes of a #SadBillMurray at a Wisconsin/Xavier March Madness tournament game. The word Meme, pronounced Meam, is a humorous image, video or text that is copied, slightly edited and then spread rapidly online. Not overly important but widely used and by now you should definitely know what this is.

Generation Z, the Digital Natives – Generation Z includes those born after 1995 (the generation after Millennials). This generation is unique in that it is the most ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history and they have very different habits than the previous generation. According to Anna Fieler, executive vice president of marketing at Popsugar, quoted in Forbes, Generation Z is “twice more likely to want to shop on a mobile device than Millennials.” They also care more about YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat and less about regular TV and Facebook. This group may have you spending more time on different social channels real soon.

FOMO –This phrase has come up quite a bit in social media lately and means, Fear of Missing Out. People often use this acronym on social media when they are doing something less exciting than other well-talked about events on social media that are going on at the same time. Search #FOMO on Twitter for more examples.

Self-flying Drones – The most popular brand in the self-flying drones market I’ve heard of recently is Lily Robotics out of San Francisco. Just last January the startup collected $34 million in pre-orders for 60,000 units. The drone has an HD camera and microphone. What makes these drones unique is that it does not come with a controller; it is simply thrown into the air and follows you via a wrist device. The Lily Drone can run up to 25 miles-per-hour as far away as 100 feet and lasts about 20 minutes on two hours of battery.

GIFs – I’ve mentioned GIFs before but here is a refresher since they have now been given their own insert button on Twitter (hooray). GIF stands for, Graphic Interchange Format and typically consist of a three second video that repeats, mostly used in a comedic way. GIFs have made social media posting much more fun and can communicate emotions better than text.

Fun Fact: Twitter turned 10 years old on the second day of spring, March 21.

Diana Podaski is VP - marketing and social media at Linear Retail Properties, Burlington, Mass.