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).
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Chris Abraham, digital strategist and technologist, is a leading expert in digital: search engine optimization (SEO), online relationship management (ORM), Internet privacy, and online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet crisis response. He operates his consultancy at 
Cindy Crescenzo brings more than 15 years of research, measurement and planning expertise to the corporate communications world. Her passion for numbers and audience research have helped thousands of communicators all over the world transform the way they communicate, by teaching them the power of surveys, metrics, focus groups and executive interviews. She and her husband and business partner, Steve Crescenzo, founded Crescenzo Communications more than 20 years ago and together they have energized the communication industry with their proven tactics and strategies to combine research and strategy with creativity and best-practice 
Steve Farnsworth has over 15 years as a senior digital marketing executive, and is currently the Chief Marketing Officer for the @Steveology Group, a content marketing for demand generation agency serving high tech B2B organizations. He works with mid-sized and large companies, and funded start-ups to develop and implement multimedia content marketing programs that increase inbound leads and grows brand reputation. Steve is a Forbes top 50 social media influencer. He is a digital marketing educator and has moderated panels, spoken at, or managed industry events at Google, Intel, PayPal, Yahoo!, Cisco, Adobe, Electronic Arts, HP, SAP, Wells Fargo, TEDx, Applied Materials, Symantec, NetApp, and Stanford on brand, social, digital, and content marketing.
Jim Hawker is Co-Founder and Business Development Director of Threepipe, a PR and digital marketing agency of 70 people based in London. The agency runs campaigns across PR, SEO and paid media for clients across business, consumer, sports and entertainment sectors. Jim has 20 years’ experience working both in house and agency side in both the UK and US. In his spare time he is a big sports fan as well as an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes (hence the connection to the Threepipe name).
Andrea Vascellari is an Experience Architect. He works at the intersection of digital transformation and experience design to help organizations develop their communications strategies. Andrea is an award-winning communications professional with over 15 years of professional experience and a deep understanding of marketing and communications, including public and media relations. He worked as Director of Digital and Content at WPP, world leader in advertising and marketing services, as Digital Planner at the leading global communications marketing firm Edelman, and as CEO of Itive an international digital strategy agency he founded with offices in Finland and New York.
Howard Greenstein is a marketing technology strategist, working with companies to form strategies for online communities, social networking, blogs, and other media. He helped found the Social Media Club, which he served as CEO and executive director. Currently, Howard is chief operating officer at DomainSkate, which helps companies protect themselves from brand fraud and cybercrimes. And he is an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University.
Liz Scherer is a digital communications strategist specializing in health & wellness, nonprofits, regulated industry and agriculture. A pioneer in the social web healthcare movement, Liz has been involved in moving the envelope in terms of health and gender equity and is a former social media advisory board member for Health Justice CT. She is especially interested in how novel & emerging players are ultimately impacting agility marketing and in the disruption of content/communication-driven customer experiences. In addition to her extensive experience as a strategist, Liz has worked as a journalist, medical writer, copywriter and blogger and maintains active memberships in the National Association of Science Writers, the Association of Health Care Journalists and Journalism and Women’s Symposium. Currently, she is a curator of Emerging Infectious Diseases for univadis.com’s Clinical Essentials, and recently took a role to direct strategic communications for a mHealth publisher. Liz sits on the Advisory Board for the Center for Health, Media & Policy, Hunter College, NYC. In her spare time, she mentors health start-ups at GA/1776 DC and Village Capital, and is active in the D.C. Tech Community.
David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder the brand journalism firm 
Christine Perkett founded PerkettPR in 1998 and SeeDepth, a PR analytics platform, in 2013. She has been named one of the ‘Top 25 Authorities Moving PR Forward’ in a recent industry study, and is routinely recognized as one of the most social media-savvy CEOs – currently ranked as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women on Twitter (by Hubspot), a “Top Influential Woman in Tech on Twitter” (by Google’s Don Dodge, alongside such greats as Marissa Mayer, WSJ’s Kara Swisher, Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington, and others), and featured two consecutive years in BusinessWeek’s Social Media Special Report (keeping company of notable CEOs from Zappos, Virgin, Digg, HDNet, Mint and more). Christine was also awarded “Best Communications, IR or PR Executive” by the American Business Awards.
Augie Ray is a Research Director covering customer experience for marketing leaders at Gartner. He has had a diverse career, including leading a digital experiential agency, directing social business at USAA and managing a global customer experience team at American Express. In his present role, Augie researches and advises clients on topics such as Voice of Customer, customer journey mapping, customer experience strategy and virtual reality.
Lynette Young is co-founder and Director of Marketing 
Deirdre Breakenridge has been in PR and marketing for more than 25 years helping senior executives in mid-to-large organizations communicate to their stakeholders. She’s currently CEO of Pure Performance Communications, which she started in 2011. Pure Performance specializes in integrated marketing strategy, training, and workshops. Before that, she was president of Mangol Marketing, and was an adjunct professor at NYU. She co-authored Putting the Public Back in Public Relations with Brian Solis – and appeared with Brian in an FIR interview about the book back in 2009. She also wrote Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional.
An experienced social media strategist, Irene Koehler is passionate about helping small businesses and entrepreneurs unlock the marketing potential of online tools and technology. Most executives and business owners know they should be active online, but are overwhelmed and under-resourced, and not looking for a one-size-fits-all solution. Focused on each client’s unique needs and objectives, Irene’s strength lies in her ability to create and execute a customized strategy to drive business results and growth. In addition to client work, Irene teaches social media marketing courses at University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, California State University.
Donna Papacosta is a writer, speaker, podcaster and consultant, operating Trafalgar Communications in Toronto. In addition to leading workshops on social media and communications topics, Donna teaches Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. In 2005 Donna launched Trafcom News, one of the first business podcasts in Canada. Since then she has expanded her expertise in both social media and multimedia, and helps people integrate these tools into their communications. She is the co-author, with Steve Lubetkin, of the recently launched book, The Business of Podcasting, and the author of The Podcast Scripting Book. A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, Donna holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from New York University and a Certificate in Magazine Journalism from Ryerson University.
Christopher Barger is a partner at 
Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of 
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 
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.
Cited by the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes for his marketing expertise, Lee Odden is the CEO of 
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.
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.