FIR Interviews

Snapchat wasn’t made for internal communications but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for that purpose. At the MediaMath New Marketing Institute, employees are sharing content both serious and lighthearted using the popular messaging app. In this FIR Interview, host Shel Holtz talks with Elise James-DeCruise, MediaMath’s vice president responsible for the Institute, about how staff came to employ Snapchat at work, how it has expanded, and what its future potential might be.

James-Decruise also explains the role of the Institute, helping marketers (and other communicators) learn about programmatic buying and other dimensions of the fast-evolving online marketing field.

About our conversation partner

 Elise James-DeCruise brings 15 years of experience managing, facilitating and building targeted training programs from the ground up to empower students to navigate increasingly complex technological industries.

Elise joined MediaMath in 2012, where she founded an educational institute within the company, the New Marketing Institute. NMI focuses on the skills gap within the advertising industry at large, building the sophisticated media traders that have made MediaMath’s platform into the most visionary DSP for advertisers, according the Gartner Magic Quadrant. She leads a global team of 29, touching 16 countries.

Elise holds a B.A., in Communications, PR & Advertising and a M.S., in Instructional Leadership/Business Communications from Robert Morris University. More details on James-DeCruise’s background is available in her bio on the MediaMath website.

The post FIR Interview: Elise James-DeCruise on Snapchat for Internal Communications appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

A lot of startups have their origins in the recognition of a marketplace need and the technical chops to fill it. APPrise Mobile — which offers apps companies can brand for delivery of news and information to four distinct corporate audiences — came at it from a different perspective. Jeff Corbin was CEO of KCSA Strategic Communications, a 40-year-old integrated communications firm specializing in investor relations, public relations, and marketing services, including advertising, web design and development, and corporate ID. While there, it became clear that the shift to mobile was fueling the need for delivery of IR content via an app. The software was initially developed within the agency before it became clear that it could serve as the foundation for an entirely new business.

Today, APPrise Mobile has expanded its offerings to include an app for delivery of content to employees (which taps into the company’s employee directory), one for conference attendees, and one for other stakeholders.

In this FIR interview, Shel Holtz talks with Jeff about the origins of the company, how communicators can use these tools, and what’s ahead for mobile communication.

You can connect with Jeff on Twitter at @jcorbinIR.

About our conversation partner:

Jeff Corbin is the CEO and Founder of APPrise Mobile, the creator of theEMPLOYEEapp for mobile employee communications.  Prior to founding APPrise Mobile, he was the CEO of KCSA Strategic Communications, a public relations and corporate communications consulting firm in New York City.

Jeff is the author of Investor Relations: The Art of Communicating Value. He has been a leading voice and advocate for the use of mobile technology and social media in communications. He has been published in IR Magazine, PR Week, PR Daily, Inside Investor Relations, Sci-Tech Today, Alister & Paine and Social Media Today and has appeared on CNBC, Bloomberg, Voice of America, and Canada’s Business News Network. He has been interviewed and sourced as an expert on the subject of mobile technology and social media by The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, MarketWatch and CNBC.com among other top-tier media outlets.

Jeff is a licensed attorney and before entering the communications industry practiced securities and bankruptcy law in New York City.

The post FIR Interview: APPrise Mobile CEO Jeff Corbin on Branded Communication Apps appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

While some brands are making waves with their Snapchat campaigns (some of which can cost millions of dollars), most are holding back. Some experts are discouraging its use because the company is not delivering usable analytics marketers can use to assess the results of their efforts. But a few companies have taken to Snapchat and are able to demonstrate results without spending a nickel or needing a single data point. Among them is Cisco Systems, which has multiple Snapchat accounts, including the We Are Cisco account, used exclusively for employer branding, the work a company does to establish its reputation as an employer and its value proposition to employees.

We Are Cisco is also an example of a Snapchat “takeover,” in which the keys to the account are handed over to someone for a defined period of time. In this case, a different employee each day contributes snaps that convey the company culture along with the environment in which that employee works. At other times, employees handling the account cover live events.

The account is managed by Carmen Collins, the social media lead for Cisco’s Talent Brand team, the group responsible for Cisco’s employer branding. In this FIR interview, Carmen talks with FIR host Shel Holtz about how the program came about, how it’s implemented, and the kinds of results it has achieved (and she adds some hints of what’s to come). Use the Snap Code at right to follow the account. You can also read a post Carmen wrote about We Are Cisco for the Cisco blog.

You can connect with Carmen on Twitter at @CShirkeyCollins.

About our conversation partner:

Carmen Collins is the social media lead for Cisco’s Talent Brand team. There, she uses the WeAreCisco social media channels to share and grow that Talent Brand by creating personal connections to the great employees we have and the cool projects they work on, so that prospective talent will choose Cisco as the place to bring their top-notch skills.

As a professional social media enthusiast, she thinks she “has one of the greatest jobs on the planet” – and has been doing this since before “social media” was even a term in the lexicon. Over her social media career, she has helped several Fortune 500 companies engage with their audience through great content and building relationships.

Outside of her work at Cisco, she’s a world traveler and a published author (find her on Amazon) with another book underway, and finds that kittens and bacon rule the Internet. :)

The post FIR Interview: Cisco’s Carmen Collins on Snapchat for Employer Branding appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this episode of Chats with Chip, Karen Swim, President of SoloPR Pro and Words For Hire, joined me in discussing a wide range of issues related to independent public relations practitioners.

Among the topics we discussed were:

The post #8: Karen Swim of SoloPR Pro appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.