FIR Interviews

As search has evolved, practitioners of public relations and search-engine optimization (SEO) technicians have frequently founds themselves at odds with one another. Both are tasked with ensuring an organization’s content can be found. Each takes a different approach to achieving that goal. As Google has shifted its priorities (and algorithms) to reward quality content over keywords, and works to punish black-hat SEO efforts, more and more PR agencies are ensuring they have SEO capabilities in-house.

Threepipe, a UK PR agency, recently acquired an SEO shop, possibly the first UK-based agency to take a step that has been more common in the US. In this interview, FIR host Shel Holtz talks with Jim Hawker, Threepipe’s co-founder and business development director, about why the company made the acquisition and how SEO fits into PR activities.

Connect with Jim on Twitter at @JimJimhawker.

About our conversation partner

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).

The post FIR Interview: Threepipe’s Jim Hawker on PR and SEO appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Josh Bernoff is on a mission: Rid the world of bullshit in business writing. Since leaving his job as a senior vice president and analyst at Forrester Research, where he worked for 20 years, Bernoff has been calling out BS in writing on an almost daily basis via his Without Bullshit blog, where he analyzes emails, reports, and other missives that fail to state clearly what they mean. (He most recently has taken his red pen to Samsung’s statement about the Galaxy Note 7 recall, Dropbox’s call for customers to change their passwords, and American Airlines’ new ad campaign.)

Bernoff just released his “State of Business Writing 2016,” based on a survey of 547 business writers.

According to Bernoff, there are several categories of BS in writing, including…

In this FIR Interview, host Shel Holtz talks with Josh about these transgressions, why business writing is so bad, some of the causes of writing that seems to get worse over time, and how to impress readers with clear, concise messages.

About our conversation partner

Josh Bernoff is Chief Troublemaker at WOBS, LLC, blogging daily at Without Bullshit, describing the BS that surrounds us and how we can cut through it with clear, powerful writing. He is the author of “Writing Without Bullshit” from HarperBusiness, which will be released on September 13. Before striking out on his own, Josh spent 20 years at Forrester Research, ultimately as Senior Vice President for Idea Development, developing ideas and analyzing consumers, technology, media, social, and mobile. He c0-authored three books while at Forrester: “Groundswell,” “Empowered,” and “The Mobile Mind Shift.”

The post FIR Interview: “Writing Without Bullshit” Author Josh Bernoff appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

As a profession, Human Resources has been transforming from a transaction-focused activity (benefits, compensation, etc.) to a more strategic business partner. In that role, HR is facing a series of challenges from attracting the right talent from among a population that has different expectations than their predecessors to driving a culture that translates into employee engagement and delivery of tthe customer experience. HR leaders are expected to drive culture, maintain a positive employee experience, and promote trust and transparency in their companies.

These challenges were identified through a series of interviews with HR leaders and outlined in a report from ROI Communications. In this FIR Interview, Shel Holtz talks with report authors Lesli Gee and Nolan Sundrud about the findings and their relevance to internal communicators.

You can get the report — 2016 HR Challenges Report: Diversity, Data and the Downfall of the Annual Review —  here.

About Our Conversation Partners

As an expert in change management, Lesli Gee helps organizations achieve their full potential. “Change management and communication are two sides of the same coin. You can’t achieve change without communicating effectively, but communication alone won’t transform organizations unless you also shift strategy, structure and culture,” she said. “I love helping organizations do all of that.”

Lesli, who joined ROI Communication in 2002, has spent more than two decades helping executives design and execute large-scale change initiatives to strengthen organizational culture, streamline processes and improve performance. She has worked closely with leaders at Adobe, Cisco, Gap, Hewlett-Packard, PepsiCo, Safeway, Toyota, Walgreens and other leading companies to help their organizations adapt to new challenges and achieve their business goals.

Prior to joining ROI Communication, Lesli was the director of Internal Communications and Organizational Development for Maxtor Corporation, where she built internal communication, organizational development and training capabilities following the $6 billion Maxtor-Quantum HDD merger. Earlier, Lesli worked as director of Talent Development at Quantum Corporation, and managed Aetna Life & Casualty’s Training and Development Field Services team.

Lesli earned a B.S. in Business Administration from University of California, Berkeley, and an M.S. in Organization Development from the University of San Francisco. She is also past president of the Mt. Diablo Chapter of the American Society for Training and Development. She has won numerous industry awards for her work, and in 2012 was named as one of the “Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business.”

For more than 20 years, Nolan Sundrud, ABC, has provided strategic thinking, expert counsel, and creativity to organizations in the manufacturing, retail, health care and human resource industries. During that time, Nolan has developed the judgment to guide clients through virtually any challenge involving change, communication and culture. “Power comes from knowledge, and the more you share that knowledge, the more you empower people to achieve common goals,” he said.

He joined ROI Communication in 2014, and his internal communications work for Toyota earned PRWeek’s 2015 Best Internal Communications Campaign of the Year, and a 2015 Gold Quill for Change Communications. Nolan also teaches communications theory and public relations in the University of Denver’s master’s program.  He holds a degree in Public Relations from Brigham Young University and an MBA from Colorado State University.

The post FIR Interview: Lesli Gee & Nolan Sundrud on Challenges Facing HR appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Video is nothing new to employee communication but few internal communicators have embraced the trend of short news videos that can be consumed without audio. NowThis and AJ+ are among the early adopters of this format, designed to allow people thumbing through Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and other channels to watch the short video without disturbing people around them with blaring audio. (The default audio setting for videos on Facebook is off.) Now even CNN and other mainstream media organizations have embraced the format.

So has Peter Vogt, global head of Employee Communications and Experience for Madrid-based financial services company BBVA. Inspired by NowThis and AJ+ — along with the employee-focused Paypal in 90 Seconds (the subject of an episode of TV @ Work back in October 2013) — Vogt led the effort to create “What Just Happened,” a weekly video news brief that never exceeds 2-1/2 minutes.

In this FIR interview, Vogt discusses the video and a new initiative to engage managers in addressing stories covered in the video with employees. He also explains the broader responsibilities of his job, which go beyond traditional employee communications by addressing the end-to-end employee experience.

UPDATE: Here’s the sample of “What Just Happened” Peter promised to share when he returned to Madrid:

About our conversation partner

The post FIR Interview: Peter Vogt on News Video for Employee Communication appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.