Category: For Immediate Release

Jan 23

FIR #312: The Social Media Press Release Redux

Everything old is new again, the saying goes. Despite touting the idea of a press release as a destination being a new idea, it actually dates back about 15 years — and retains all of its value. Neville and Shel explore the idea of defeating paywalls with destination press releases in this monthly long-form episode of “For Immediate Release.” Also in this episode:

  • Follow-ups to stories about Artificial Intelligence (AI) interns and facial recognition used for nefarious purposes.
  • The 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer — and whether Edelman can claim to be trust experts
  • A roundup of news and commentary about ChatGPT
  • A decline in Mastodon users
  • Dan York’s Tech Report, which looks at some Twitter changes, good news for Mastodon users, a Mastodon instance for Medium users, Getty’s lawsuit targeting the generative AI image tool Stable Diffusion, Wikipedia’s new look-and-feel, and WordPress’s upcoming 20th birthday.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, January 23.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Links from this report:

Links from Dan York’s Report

The post FIR #312: The Social Media Press Release Redux appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Jan 12

Measuring Stuff That Didn’t Happen

In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel tackle a question from listener Kris Hansen about developing a metrics dashboard for her organization’s leadership.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, January 23.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #309: Measuring Stuff That Didn’t Happen appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Dec 26

FIR #305: We See You And You Can’t Come In

A petulant venue owner is using facial recognition software to keep people with whom he has issues from entering his spaces — including a mom with a Girl Scout troop. Also in this monthly long-form episode of the “For Immediate Release” podcast, Neville and Shel discuss the value of virtual goods and whether brands should start taking them seriously; business schools are exploring the potential for teaching in the metaverse — especially classes about digital technology; it hasn’t been a great year for metaverse activations, but at least brands are learning; it has been a year since Lush closed its Instagram and Facebook accounts, which means it’s time to see how that decision turned out; and the better ChatGPT (the AI text-generating chatbot) gets, the more worried some people get about its impact on truth; and Dan York shares a year-end Tech Report with a range of updates including using WordPress for newsletters, WordPress’s State of the Word 2022, and Tumblr Live.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, December 26.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Links from this report:

Links from Dan York’s Report

The post FIR #305: We See You And You Can’t Come In appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Nov 21

FIR #299: From the Metaverse to the Fediverse and Back Again

Despite the forecasts of some pundits, it is still too early to predict Twitter’s complete collapse. Still, it is not outside the realm of possibility. (Since we recorded this episode on Saturday, November 19, CBS has halted its activity on Twitter, blaming Elon Musk’s “turbulent and potentially devastating moves following his takeover of the company,” according to Variety. It is worth considering the consequences of Twitter’s demise. How big a loss to society at large would it be? We can take that idea one step further. With Facebook experiencing its own declines and Gen Z demonstrating a preference for smaller social networks over broadcast-style social media, what would happen if social media completely faded into the background? Also in the November episode of The Hobson and Holtz Report:

  • Thousands of Twitter users are migrating to Mastodon, a Twitter-like interface with some important differences, the key being that it is not owned by a single entity. Instead, it is a federation of Mastodon “instances” (including one Shel has launched for communicators). The fediverse could be awesome, one report suggests, assuming we don’t screw it up — and average users are able to figure it out.
  • Gallup has released a study on how connected people feel to others, whether it’s in person or online. It’s a field of study that has gotten scant attention in the past and the results could be useful to marketers.
  • There’s some nation-building going on in the metaverse, with one Pacific island country building a digital twin to preserve its heritage as global warming raises sea levels, threatening to completely submerge it. Another country — a physical entity not yet recognized by the global community of nations — is working with an architectural firm to build a metaverse version that it hopes will be the primary place its citizens interact.
  • Whether you believe it is ethical or not, there is a fair amount of ghostwriting going on in the social media space, notably with ghostwriters cranking out LinkedIn thought leadership posts for executives. But there’s more than that, with one social media ghostwriter, for example, earning close to $200,000 so far this year writing mainly Twitter DMs for employees. We’ll dive into this emerging cottage industry.
  • Dan York’s Tech Report is a buffet of topics this month, ranging from the fate of Twitter Spaces to Walmart’s Augmented Reality effort, and from enhancements to TikTok Live to Google’s “Live View in Maps.”

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 21.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

Links from Dan York’s Report

The post FIR #299: From the Metaverse to the Fediverse and Back Again appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Nov 15

FIR #297: A Stirling Example of Augmented Reality

The Scottish city of Stirling is investing in the creation of Augmented Reality (AR) layers throughout the city, available on a free dedicated app, to become what they claim is “the first augmented reality city.”

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 21.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #297: A Stirling Example of Augmented Reality appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Nov 09

FIR #296: What Elon Musk Can Learn From Patrick Collinson

Twitter and Stripe both laid off employees last week. The contrast between how these layoffs were conducted is striking. One CEO went to great lengths to ensure the employees remaining post-layoff would feel the least amount of survivor’s guilt and be ready to move forward. The other didn’t seem to care how survivors felt. Neville and Shel examine these approaches and some of the other fallout from Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in this short midweek episode of “For Immediate Release.”

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 21.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #296: What Elon Musk Can Learn From Patrick Collinson appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Nov 03

FIR #295: The Value-Add Potential of NFTs

Neville attended NFT.London, the UK version of the NFT.NYC, which has been held since February 2019. There, he attended sessions that covered various topics, but he was particularly struck by those addressing the value-add potential of NFTs as well as their community-building characteristics. He reports from a semi-quiet corner of the conference in this short mid-week episode.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 21.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #295: The Value-Add Potential of NFTs appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Nov 01

FIR #294: What Hath Elon Wrought?

It’s not exactly a news flash that Elon Musk now owns Twitter (Chief Twit, he calls himself). Does he know what he’s gotten himself into? It’s doubtful, according to much of the evidence we’ve seen so far, in addition to some stinging commentary.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 21.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #294: What Hath Elon Wrought? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Oct 27

FIR #293: Big Changes at Wikipedia

For virtually all of its 22 years, Wikipedia has confined its technology to the wiki, which was already nearly 10 years old when the online encyclopedia was introduced. But some big changes are in store, including the use of machine learning, all in service of enticing more people to become editors.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 21.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #293: Big Changes at Wikipedia appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Oct 26

FIR #292: The Sure and Steady Evolution of NFTs

To hear the media talk about it, NFTs are overpriced works of digital art on which a lot of gullible people will lose bundles of money. In fact, NFTs have utility far being investments, and savvy marketers are figuring it out, right down to local car washes. Neville and Shel share a handful of stories about such applications in this short midweek episode.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, November 21.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s “asides” blog, Outbox, is also available.

Links from this report:

The post FIR #292: The Sure and Steady Evolution of NFTs appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.