The weekend read

Did you put out fires this week, communicators? Or just get hosed? I've sifted through the ashes to save my finds of the week, shared on Twitter and curated here just for you. Rise like a phoenix and get the weekend started:

• Empty building: Forget email. Here's how to set up an out-of-office reply on Twitter. You can practice this over the holiday weekend next week.
• Five-alarm fire: Tumblr has teamed up with company Ditto to capture all the marketing data in photos you post to the site. Think about capturing all those Starbucks cups and Nike swooshes as data...
• We didn't start the fire: Convert videos to GIFs easily with GIF You Tube. Just put "GIF" before "youtube" in the URL of any video and you'll be redirected to the app.
• Where there's smoke...Gizmodo looks at why you keep seeing all those uplifting posts in Facebook's rose-colored new feed.
• I don't think SOS is on the list. A new study looks the 50 most-used acronyms on Twitter. LOL tops the list, of course.
• Burn, baby, burn: Here are some practical ideas and tips for using Instagram for your small business marketing.
• Local fire trucks: BIA/Kelsey gives you the basics of location-based mobile marketing in this presentation.
• Spreading like wildfire: Living up to its name, ride service Uber has opened its API to developers so they can incorporate the service into other apps. Initial partners include Starbucks, OpenTable and United Airlines.
• Fired up: Snapchat will start serving up news reports from traditional media outlets, starting in November.
• A hotter fire: SlideShare is opening up premium features like custom profiles and analytics to all users. They'll be rolled out one a month, starting in September.
• Smoldering: Vine, catching up with Instagram, will now let you import existing videos on your phone.

I've got workshops coming up and they're not as taxing as what the fire-fighters go through. Are you in?

• I'm launching a new workshop, Speechwriting for Communicators, in Washington, DC, on October 9. If you find yourself writing speeches, remarks and talking points, but have never learned how to do it, find out what you may have missed in this one-day session--including how to do more with boring speech occasions. Every participant gets an online toolkit of resources, too. You can save 15 percent by registering by August 29. That's just a week from today, kids.
• My subversive workshop on women and public speaking, Be The Eloquent Woman, takes place October 23 as a pre-conference session at the European Speechwriters Network conference, being held on October 24. Americans traveling from the US to the conference can use code "eloquentwoman" to get a 200-Euro discount.

I get a warm glow just thinking about the way you keep showing up here on Fridays. Have a great weekend!