“Things I’ve Learned from Lately” is a regular compilation of articles that have made me a smarter marketer. Hopefully, they’ll help you, too.

Marketing for Kids - I’ve made it a habit to look up YouTube videos covering complicated subjects explained for kids because it distills a topic down to its purest form. This content series breaks down marketing for, you guessed it, kids.

Twitter Runs this Town - This piece from the New York Times covers the town of Jun, a town in southern Spain that basically runs on Twitter. Half of the town has Twitter accounts, and they use it as their main way to communicate with the government and the local community. They do everything from finding a doctor to reporting suspicious activity. It’s kind of incredible.

Meet at McDonald’s - Across America, McDonald’s has become a town square of sorts for many, and it’s not because of anything McDonald’s has done. People are doing it organically. Many are doing it, and how they use McDonald’s is vastly different.

Using Search to Predict Cancer - Microsoft has found a way to use search engine queries to identify users with pancreatic cancer before they even know it. The research sheds light on the potential of big data to affect health but also raises concerns around privacy.

One Star for Online Reviews - This piece looks at the murky world of online reviews and how we might have killed off any value they might have otherwise provided.