Dan York

Two of our panelists this week have new employment gigs — Heidi Miller with TimeXtender and Olivier Blanchard with Futurum Research + Analysis — while Cyrus Mavalwala is still with Advantis Communications, the company he founded. Here’s the rundown of our topics of conversation:

• Wells Fargo discussed its crisis management plans during an earnings call. We found a few things to talk about.
• Twitter’s trolls are one of its biggest problems. What can they do (and why haven’t they done it)?
• Press releases are still the best source of news and fact verification for journalists in Asia-Pacific. A survey also reports these APAC journalists are optimistic about the future of their jobs.
• Facebook will allow more graphic or offensive content if it is newsworthy or serves the public interest.
• Dan York devotes his tech report to last week’s cyberattack that closed off access to some of the world’s most popular sites. The panel uses Dan’s report as a launching point for more conversation about the security of the Internet of Things.
• Let’s not talk about the age demographic of Millennials, but the age-spanning demographic of “Perennials.” And while we’re at it, did you know brands have started abandoning gender norms in their marketing and advertising?
• The Harvard Business Review has created a Slack bot while VentureBeat shared 10 bots for office workers.
• Robert Scoble thinks the next iPhone will be a clear glass Mixed Reality viewer. The panel says…well…maybe…

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @CyrusMavalwala, @TheBrandBuilder, and @HeidiMiller.

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:

Olivier Blanchard is a French-born, American-based Brand Management and Digital Marketing consultant, the author of two best-selling books, and an acclaimed keynote speaker. As a Senior Analyst with Futurum Research, Olivier helps organizations better understand the crucial ole that emerging technologies like Cloud computing, Big Data, Virtualization, Augmented Reality, Smart Automation, IoT and AI will play their industries and markets over the next 10 to 20 years. Though based in the US, his geographic range extends beyond North America to Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. Olivier is the author of the best-selling #1 social business desk reference for digital managers and business executives: Social Media ROI: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts In Your Organization (Que/Pearson). Olivier is also a sought-after subject-matter expert and corporate trainer.

Living at the intersection of business and communication, Cyrus Mavalwala, ABC is an award-winning communication strategist, trainer and speaker who has been helping organizations achieve their business objectives for 20 years. After leading teams at global agencies, Cyrus founded Advantis Communications, a B2B PR and content marketing agency that delivers measureable value by integrating traditional, video and social strategies. He also co-founded Act Like An Agency to train communicators on how to evolve from tacticians to strategists within their organization. At the University of Toronto School for Continuing Studies, Cyrus develops curriculum and teaches social media strategy and communications management.

Heidi Miller is Digital Marketing Manager at TimeXtender – The Data Discovery Hub. Heidi is a Content marketing specialist who helps organizations achieve strategized communication and marketing goals by engaging online and offline communities. She is a frequent speaker and is the author of the blog, Talk It Up. Heidi is also a very early podcaster, hosting Diary of a Shameless Self Promoter back in the earliest days of podcasting.

The post FIR #58: Attack of the Things appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

It’s a wide-ranging conversation this week with TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden, Bozell PR and Social Media Strategist Jennifer Stauss, and Zena Weist, director of Marketing and Media Relations for Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. Our topics included the following:

• Google’s plan to introduce a mobile-only search index and its implications for content marketers
• The further blurring of lines between delivery channels as Facebook enables you to watch Live videos on your TV, people watch presidential debates on Twitter and Facebook, and Twitter opens Periscope to any video feed (for approved publishers)
• The increasing personalization of content, with examples including a campaign that delivers video based on your facial expressions and a patent for a technology that will display relevant billboards as you drive by
• A Facebook post by a doctor who was prevented from helping a fellow passenger in distress because the cabin crew apparently couldn’t believe a black woman flying out of Detroit might actually be a doctor (and the problems it has created for the airline)
• Dan York reports on communication implications of the Internet of Things
• We had a slew of audio comments from listeners, including one wondering whether blockchain might play a role in political fact-checking
• The exploding trend of brands producing entertainment content for delivery via online channels (the latest a reality show from the UPS Store)
• The challenges and opportunities from repurposing content

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @leeodden, @jenniferjstauss, and @zenaweist.

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:

Cited by the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes for his marketing expertise, Lee Odden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing, an internationally respected digital marketing agency that provides consulting for some of the most successful companies in the world. Lee’s evangelism for an integrated approach to search, social media, influencer and content marketing has extended over 100 events in 12 different countries. He blogs at marketingblog.com and is the author of Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing. Lee is least known for founding “Marketers with Beards” the most infamous Facebook group dedicated to marketers with beards.

Jennifer Stauss is public relations and social media strategist at Bozell, a creative marketing communications firm in Omaha, Nebraska.  Her work there encompasses public relations and social media strategy and execution, crisis communications as well as social media community development and management.  Jennifer founded SMAC!, which stands for Sock Monkeys Against Cancer – a social enterprise that encourages the giving of SMAC! monkeys – true “creature comforts” for those with or impacted by cancer – reminding them no one fights it alone. The creation of SMAC! was inspired by Jennifer’s mother’s battle with lung cancer (no, she never smoked) and their politically incorrect social media campaign called “WTF? (Where’s the Funding) for Lung Cancer,” that publicly chronicled her mom’s battle to educate the masses that ANYONE can get lung cancer and increase funding for the #1 cancer killer and the LEAST funded. The WTF? campaign gained national notoriety as a finalist in Mashable’s awards for most creative social media campaign.Before entering the cancer world, Jennifer did two stints in the agency world; served as press secretary for the then Omaha mayor and started her career and a television journalist at the CBS local affiliate in Omaha as well.

Zena Weist is a Digital Practitioner and Business Strategist with over 20 years of integrated marketing expertise including executive leadership in digital start-ups, account management with interactive agencies and client-side roles in brand engagement, communications, social media strategy and web implementation. Named one of the 25 Women Who Rock Social Media from TopRank in 2011, Zena shifted to Non-Profit work two years ago becoming the Marketing and Media Relations Director of Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas. Her “For Purpose” gig has allotted her the opportunity to create and lead a “silo-bashing” integrated marketing and communication team for this over 250-person social service agency with 20 programs serving over 25,000 neighbors in need a month and partnering with over 1200 volunteers a month.

The post FIR #57: PR on TV appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

We’re thinking of Cindy Crescenzo as she deals with a difficult time and had to bow out of this week’s episode, but David Grossman and Mark Story still joined me for a stimulating conversation about these topics…

• Another brand — this time, Tic Tac — that dealt in close to real time with an unwelcome cultural reference
• A survey that found nearly 70% of company staffs don’t know what the company strategy is (and bad communication is the top reason)
• As CCOs and CMOs face the shift to digital, a study from Pew Research Center finds that a lot of people in our audiences aren’t ready, especially to learn via digital channels
• A growing number of companies are applying sentiment analysis to internal communication. Is that good or is it to Big Brother-like for employees?
• Dan York’s Tech report covers the changes to iMessage (part of the iOS 10 update), Facebook’s introduction of the Marketplace (taking on CraigsList), and DuoLingo’s introduction of bots to help you learn a new language
• Another survey found 91% of executives believe their organizations’ change initiatives fail (largely due to failed communication)
• Google studied its teams to find out what made some work and others falter, lessons that could be applied if they decided to acquire Twitter (which they’re passing on but Bloomberg thinks they should pursue)
• Young adults prefer reading news to watching it on video. How does that affect your news strategy?

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @ThoughtPartner and @MarkStory_.

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:

David Grossman is founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, an award-winning Chicago-based communications consultancy focusing on organizational consulting, strategic leadership development and internal communications. For nearly 30 years, David has counseled leaders on the importance of effective leadership communication to drive employee engagement and business results, and served as a thoughtpartner™ to top organizations including AOL, DuPont Pioneer, Eastman Chemical Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Hill-Rom, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, McDonald’s, Motel 6 and Tyco, among others. He also teaches Internal Engagement to graduate students as an adjunct professor at Columbia University in New York City.

Mark Story is a one-time contributor to FIR. Mark currently works as communication counsel and social media lead for the National Cancer Institute, and he was director of International Corporate Affairs for the Alibaba Group in Hong Kong, and the first-ever director of New Media for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mark also put in time on the agency side as a senior VP for Fleishman-Hillard and a vice president at APCO Worldwide. Mark is also the author of the book, “Starting Your Career as a Social Media Manager,” which was published in 2012.

The post FIR #56: Strategy? What strategy? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Three PR agency thought leaders were on the panel: Gerry Corbett, Phil Gomes, and Joe Thornley. Our topics included…

• A couple brands — Ford and Skittles — had a chance to market themselves in real time when their names were invoked during the presidential campaign. Both declined, sticking strictly with public affairs messages. Is real-time marketing over? (And how did Ford and the UAW do when they responded to allegations claimed during the first debate?)
• Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, thinks the future of PR is integration with other disciplines, focused on digital and data. Is he a visionary or just catching up? And what’s the future of traditional PR?
• Who would want to be part of the communications team at Wells Fargo these days? The panel looks at everything that the bank has done wrong from a crisis communication perspective.
• Scientific American ran an expose into practices by the U.S. FDA and other government agencies and scientific organizations designed to control the press and prevent publication of interviews with people who might have opposing points of view. One practice, the “close-hold embargo,” was new to everyone on the panel. But would they advise clients to give it a try?
• Dan York reports on the expiration of the IANA contract and the politically-motivated opposition that demonstrated a remarkable lack of understanding of just what was really happening. Internet Society employees who supported their employer’s point of view were trolled. How can other companies prepare their employees for some truly vile backlash to their efforts to advocate on behalf of their employer?
• Moz’s founder wrote a post that was a model of transparency and detail in the wake of layoffs and a repositioning of its offerings. In the process, he shared some disdain for the idea of “inbound marketing.”

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @gerardcorbett, @philgomes, and @thornley.

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:

Gerard Corbett is Chair and CEO of strategic communications consulting firm Redphlag LLC., Founder and Partner of Wise Counsel, and CMO of real estate tech startup Producers Forum, Inc. in Palo Alto. He also is an award-winning career coach, blogger and Past Chair & CEO of the 32,000 member Public Relations Society of America, having served as Chair and CEO in 2012. Gerry is a versatile branding, marketing, public relations and communications executive and coach having served four decades in senior marketing and communications roles at Global Fortune 100 firms and earlier in his career in aerospace engineering and information technology with Silicon Valley firms and NASA.

Phil Gomes is senior vice president at Edelman, working in U.S. B2B Digital, advanced community engagement and special situations, a role he developed that focuses on preparing clients for advanced issues and special situations regarding online corporate reputation and emerging technologies. Phil has been with Edelman since 2005; before that he was with Dryden Marketing Group working as a media programs manager. Phil co-founded CREWE – Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Engagement, and he’s a founding fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. Phil was a recent FIR Interviews guest talking about blockchains and their potential role in communications, a topic that will come up again in today’s show.

Joseph Thornley Joseph Thornley is CEO of Thornley Fallis Communications, which comprises several well-known brands:

• Thornley Fallis Communications, a digital engagement and communications consultancy,
• 76design, a digital design and software development studio
• 76engage, an online public participation platform,
• 76insights, an analytics tool focusing on the resonance of social objects and gestures, and
• 76BrandFilms, a video studio.

Joe recognized early the power of social media to change extend and transform our relationships to one another and the institutions in our society. He actively uses social media to explore the evolution of those relationships. Since 2005, he has blogged a ProPr.ca, and is co-host with Gini Dietrich and Martin Waxman of the Inside PR podcast, which, since its launch in March 2006, is now the second longest continuously running public relations podcast. (Shel Holtz’s FIR For Immediate Release podcast is the longest continuously running PR podcast.). He is @thornley on Twitter, thornley10 on YouTube and Joseph Thornley on Google+ and Facebook.

The post FIR #55: Beating Back the Trolls appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Employee engagement was a constant theme in this week’s conversation with iCology founder Chuck Gose, internal communication measurement thought leader Angela Sinickas, and BBVA’s global head of employee communication, Peter Vogt. (Don’t worry; if you’re not involved with employee communication, there’s plenty to sink your teeth into in this episode for you, too.) Our topics included…

• A Harvard Business Review article suggests there’s a dark side to engagement.
• Internal communication departments are not adopting mobile solutions.
• There’s your corporate brand, your product brand, and your employer brand. Is that enough, or do you also need a talent brand?
• Can employer branding improve your internal communications?
• The best places to work seem to get engagement right.
• Millennials increasingly drive employee culture, particularly as they move into management.
• Company missions aren’t resonating with employees, according to Gallup.
• Starbucks’ “Upstanders” program was suggested by an employee during a town hall meeting.
• Dan York’s tech report focuses on messaging.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @chuckgose, @sinickasa, and @plvchicago.

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:

Chuck Gose is the founder of ICology, a resource dedicated to “interesting people doing interesting things in the world of internal communications.” As part of iCology, Chuck hosts the ICology podcast, which features practitioners and experts sharing their advice and insights. As the Corporate Communication Practice Leader and Sales Director at BroadSign, Chuck knows software isn’t the end-all solution and takes a very hands-on approach with clients to ensure they develop a solid digital internal communication strategy. Chuck works directly with clients to ensure any new technology maximizes its impact through consultation and a solid strategy.

Angela Sinickas is the founder of Sinickas Communications, which has worked with companies, organizations and governments in 32 countries on six continents. Her clients include 25% of the Forbes Top 100 largest global companies. Before starting her own consulting firm, she held positions from editor to vice president in for-profit and government organizations, and worked as a senior consultant and practice leader at Hewitt and Mercer. She is author of a manual, How to Measure Your Communication Programs (now in its third edition),and chapters in several books. Her 50+ articles in professional journals can be found on her website,www.sinicom.com. Her work has been recognized with 20 international-level Gold Quill Awards from IABC, plus her firm was named IABC Boutique Agency of the Year in 2015. She holds a BS degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MS in Leadership from Northeastern University.

Peter Vogt  is helping drive BBVA’s cultural transformation through the creation of its Employee Value Proposition, defining an end to end employee experience, and driving an exceptional conversation with our people everywhere. There’s nothing better than creating a company of 138,000 brand advocates who truly believe in the power of the company’s purpose. Before joining BBVA (and moving to Madrid), Vogt was CEO of Keystone Richmond Communications, based in San Francisco. He was also vice president of Employment Brand for Visa and senior director of Employee Brand Strategy for eBay (where he progressed through several employee-focused positions). Peter was Internal Communications Director at Microsoft and the Asia Pacific Communication Practice Leader for Watson Wyatt.

The post FIR #54: Our most engaging episode appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.