December 2016 archive

Not much news of interest to communicators is reported over the holidays, so Ayelet Baron, Eden Spodek, and Brad Whitworth joined host Shel Holtz for a higher-level conversation on these topics:

• Science kits from GE integrate with the Amazon Echo. How far can this kind of integration of cloud-based AI voice tech and real-world products go?
• Mark Zuckerberg admits Facebook is a media company, albeit a new kind of media company. What might this mean for fake news (in the wake of a nuclear threat in response to a fake news story)?
• Is creating a startup a realistic goal for your very first job?
• How can companies attract young workers who are more inclined to try the startup path? (Is a 10-second Snap Spectacles video enough?)
• Dan York reports on Facebook Live Audio.
• Only about half of employees embrace their companies’ strategic narrative. Communicators have their work cut out for them.
• A new report says companies in crisis should apologize quickly, but corporate cultures have to change before CEOs will take that step.
• And speaking of corporate cultures, can they change enough to allow for whistleblowers and prevent suicide from overwork?

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @ayeletb, @edenspodek, and @bradwhitworth.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

FIR is recorded using Zencastr.

About today’s panel:

Ayelet Baron is the author of  “Our Journey To Corporate Sanity: Transformational Stories from the Frontiers of 21st Century,” published just last month. She is co-creator of CreatingIs LLC. Ayelet is passionate about ushering a new path for business as a force of good by helping 21st century leaders imagine what’s possible. She has been building community her entire life and believes trust, relationships and community are the new currencies for today’s human-to-human purpose and experience driven era. Author of Our Journey to Business Common Sense. She spent 15 years at Cisco Systems, most recently as Vice President  of Strategy, Innovation and Transformation for Cisco Systems Canada. Ayelet recently was honored with Watermark’s Women Who Make the Mark Award. She was an innovator in residence at Roche, working on the product development innovation leadership team designing and implementing a connected network strategy.

Eden Spodek, founder & CEO, Eden Spodek Inc. is an award-winning digital communications and social media marketing strategist with more than 25 years of experience on the client and agency side in several verticals. In 2010, she launched her own digital consultancy practice and is a blogger, podcaster and community leader. In 2015, she worked tirelessly on a successful Kickstarter campaign and has been invited to advise on others. Eden co-developed the Digital Strategy and Communications Management certificate program at University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. This week, Eden is hosting a free webinar, the A to Z Blueprint for Planning, Building and Launching a Crowdfunding Campaign. She’s an active participant in the digital community and was lead co-organizer of PodCamp Toronto for five years. A sought-after speaker, Eden is frequently invited to join panel discussions and speak at a variety of workshops and conferences. Eden is the co-host of the technology podcast, Ada’s Sisters.

Brad Whitworth, a communication coach at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, was most recently senior communication manager at Cisco Systems. Brad joined Cisco in 2007 and today leads integrated communication for the part of the company that builds partner ecosystems for new markets. Before Cisco, Brad led communication programs at HP, PeopleSoft and AAA. He earned undergraduate degrees in both journalism and speech at the University of Missouri and an MBA at Santa Clara University. A former broadcaster, Brad has made more than 300 presentations to executives, communicators, and university classes around the world. Brad has a long history with IABC, including serving as chairman of the international board and president of two local chapters. He is one of the authors of The IABC Handbook of Organizational Communication.

The post FIR #67: Let’s launch a startup! appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Kami Huyse, Marshall Kirkpatrick, and Laura Pevehouse join host Shel Holtz to talk about these topics:

• An update on the latest news about fake news, including the steps Facebook is taking to call it out, Germany’s new law that could cost Facebook 500,000 euros for each fake news item it publishes, how big brands are inadvertently funding fake news, how fake news is inspiring people to turn their attention back to mainstream media, and why owned media (especially corporate blogs) are more important than ever
• A new app that lets employees engage anonymously with other workers in their company led 200-plus Amazon employees to critique their employer’s handling of a colleague’s attempted suicide
• A look at how blockchain could play a part in marketing and advertising
• A streaming video update, including Facebook’s introduction of live-streamed 360-degree videos, Instagram’s rollout of Instagram Live, Twitter’s introduction of live-streaming from directly within the twitter app, Twitch’s introduction of live streaming, and the first-ever live-streamed surgery using Snapchat’s Spectacles
• Facbook’s disclosure of measurement errors (and what it means for communicators)
• Whether Mixed, Augmented or Virtual reality headsets will ever become a common consumer appliance (and if not, what will?)
• What to expect from influencer marketing in 2017
• Dan York reports on Evernote’s kerfuffle with its revised privacy policy and adds his $.02 on streaming video

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @KamiChat, @MarshallK, and @LPVhouse.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Kami Huyse founded Zoetica Media. She writes an award-winning blog, Zoetica Talks, on the topic of public relations and social media strategy. Kami is a national leader in the use of social media for public relations. She speaks at social media events and conferences all over the country and her work in social media has earned her the SNCR’s 2008 Reputation Management award and IABC’s 2009 Gold Quill of Excellence Award. Kami was a 2010 fellow of the Society for New Communications Research where she pursued a study on how cause marketing in social communities can benefit companies. She is also the co-founder and organizer of the Social Media Breakfast Houston.

After a successful career blazing trails in new media as one of the top tech bloggers in the world (first hired writer at TechCrunch, co-editor of ReadWriteWeb), Marshall Kirkpatrick led the Little Bird team building software for enterprise marketers to do research, real-time market intelligence and marketing amplification. The tool for influencer marketing, content marketing, and research was acquired recently by Sprinklr, the full-service social media management system, where Marshall now serves as director of R&D.

Laura Pevehouse is Chief Blogger for Direct2Dell. Laura brings 16 years of experience in corporate communications and digital marketing roles to her work,  including jobs in public relations, employee communications, branding, community engagement, event management, online commerce, social media and virtual world development. In her role as Dell’s Chief Blogger, Laura is responsible for the development, coordination and execution of strategy and content for Dell’s corporate blog, Direct2Dell. Since taking the Direct2Dell reins, Laura has recorded an 80% increase in time on page at the end of the first year in this role. She also leads the company’s cross-business unit editorial team and engages with marketing, product line, operations and corporate communications colleagues worldwide to enhance the company’s brand.

The post FIR #66: Detached from the real world appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Maris Callahan, Justin Goldsborough, and Tim Hayden join host Shel Holtz to talk about these topics:

• An update on the latest news about fake news, including a boycott of the new Star Wars movie, companies waking up to the threat, and data showing most Americans believe fake news headlines when they see them.
• PR is still saddled with a reputation as spin doctors, liars, and sharks circling startups in order to take a chunk of their flesh.
• As automated systems replace real people, what happens to the human-fueled customer experience?
• Do marketers need to move beyond branded content if they’re going to contribute to the company’s revenue stream?
• Corporate values used to be fairly mundane but today they can provoke partisan anger and blowback. “Pretty much every charitable donation, advertising dollar, and policy position has become a political statement with the potential to anger a sub-section of the company’s employee and customer base,” writes Paul Holmes.
• Advertiser excitement over Snapchat Live Stories is waning while Instagram Stories are producing massive swipe-throughs.
• One company has introduced a bot as an influencer while another is looking to a team of influencers with less klout than the big go-to celebrities. Is the shape of influencer marketing changing?
• In his Tech Report, Dan York looks at WordPress 4.7 and JetPack 4.4, as well as Telegram’s new “Telegraph” lightweight blogging service.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @MarisCallahan, @JGoldsborough, and @TheTimHayden.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Maris Callahan is director of Public Relations at Donuts Inc., the world’s largest registry of new gTLD’s (or as the folks at Donuts call them, “not-com” domain name endings). With over 10 years of experience in public relations on the agency side and as an independent consultant, Maris is responsible for the planning and execution of Donuts’ B2C and B2B public relations strategy. Before Donuts, she was an independent consultant to small and mid-size businesses seeking brand awareness. She also worked for some of the top PR agencies in the world, including Edelman, Burson-Marsteller and Lippe Taylor. Maris is also the creator and writer of In Good Taste, a food and lifestyle blog founded in 2008.

Justin Goldsborough is a senior vice president and social media lead at FleishmanHillard Kansas City and is a member of the agency’s Social Innovation Leadership Team. During his 7.5 years at FH, he’s led communications strategy for clients such as Sleep Number, Hallmark Cards and Children’s Mercy Hospital. Before coming to FH, Justin was at Sprint for two years where he managed the company’s employee social network, Sprint Space, and led efforts to improve customer outreach via social media, specifically Twitter. Justin also spent some time in the food biz when he managed employee communications, including the company Intranet and initial social media efforts, for Applebee’s International. Justin is a past president of Kansas City IABC, where he led his local chapter to the highest honor IABC bestows – International Chapter of the Year. Justin is also a diehard Kansas City Royals fan and is much more eager to talk baseball these days than he was from 1986-2013.

Tim Hayden has two decades of experience in leading high-growth technology firms and marketing agencies. Before Brain+Trust, he was head of marketing at Zignal Labs, a real-time media intelligence platform, and produced marketing technology and process improvement programs for clients of TTH Strategy, a consultancy Tim founded. He is also former head of the Mobile program at Edelman Digital in North America, and been founder of agencies and technology ventures (NION Interactive, GamePlan, Captix) serving as a catalyst for innovative change in some of the world’s leading brands (CafePress, Dell, Bacardi, AMD,ExxonMobil, Hilton Worldwide, Kraft Foods, Edison Research and others). Tim serves on the advisory boards of Zignal Labs, Rivet Works, Wonder Technologies and Captix, and is co-author of The Mobile Commerce Revolution (QUE Biz Tech, October 2014).

The post FIR #65: The Inhuman Experience appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.