The weekend read

If you've felt like you were lost in the ocean like Nemo this week, communicators, now hear this: You're headed in the right direction, straight for the weekend. Time to plunge in and explore my finds of the week, shared on Twitter and curated here just for you, 'cause you didn't come this far to be breakfast:

• Fishbowl? Snapchat now offers video and IM.
• Take the bait: Google Docs and Google Sheets are now available as standalone iOS and Android apps.
• Beyond the seaweed: The New York Times takes a look at Vine's creeping success.
• Davy Jones's locker: Here's a trove: Buffer lists 61 best social media tools for small business. Click on the section headers to get the details in any category.
• Data, ahoy: Pew released a statistical portrait of Hispanics in the United States.
• School of fish: Share this with someone in HR, about how Shutterstock used big data to cut employees' commute times.
• Charter a captain by handing over the keys to your company blog -- in this case, when launching it in another country.
• A quiet cove of treasures: 10 little-known features you can use on Amazon.
• Un-bury that treasure: You know you're missing tweets from many of the people you follow. Here's a new service that will find and tweet them to you.
• Buy the sea: If your Twitter and Amazon accounts are linked, adding the hashtag #AmazonCart when you RT an item will put it right in your Amazon shopping cart.
• Move over, Jacques Cousteau: Facebook is rolling out new metrics for videos. And a must-read for most is Sometimes, the video doesn't have to go viral.

This week marks 10 years since I started this consultancy. Time flies...and I'm glad you've been here to explore the vast seas with me. Thanks for being in my school of fish, this week and every week.

It's the last day to grab the early discount for my June 19 Washington, DC, session of Be an Expert on Working with Experts that's open to the public. Designed for communications pros who work with subject-matter experts, scientists and policy researchers, this is a popular workshop. This is the workshop I wish I'd had earlier in my career, based on my own effort to understand why the smart folks I work with weren't always willing to cooperate with my communications efforts.