FIR Interviews

The Mayo Clinic, often cited as one of the leaders and innovators in the use of social media, has been an avid user of Twitter’s live-streaming utility, Periscope, as part of its content marketing effort. None of the healthcare icon’s Periscope sessions were quite as ambitious as #ScopeScope, the live streaming of a colonoscopy.

Not just any colonoscopy. Lee Aase, The Mayo Clinic’s director of Social Media Networks, was due for the procedure and volunteered to have his own colonoscopy broadcast live — an event that attracted some 3,000 viewers (not including those who watched during the 24 hours Periscope sessions are available after they’re finished).

In this FIR Interview, Aase talks with FIR host Shel Holtz about the rationale for the event, how other social channels complemented the broadcast, the results, future plans, and other Mayo Clinic uses of Periscope.

As Director of the Mayo Clinic Social Media Network (MCSMN), Lee helps The Mayo Clinic develop the best ways to apply social media to promote health, fight disease and improve health care. MCSMN also helps other health care organizations develop their own social media strategies and plans. By night, he is the chancellor of Social Media University, Global (SMUG), a free online education institution to help mid-career professionals learn to use social tools. Lee speaks at conferences (health care as well as other industries) and teaches workshops and seminars on using social media in large organizations and to meet professional goals.

Connect with Lee on Twitter at @LeeAase.

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Public Relations practitioners routinely attach Word documents, images, and other assets to emails as part of their pitches to journalists and influencers. In an effort to bring document-sharing into the 21st webified world, Jason Kintzler (founder, president, and CEO of PitchEngine) introduced Compressor, which he describes as “a drag-and-drop OR smart bomb.” The idea is simple: Drag a Word document, JPG, PNG, or GIF file onto Compressor, add a headline, and suddenly you can share the files through Twitter, Facebook, email, or other channels. (I tried it out with the For Immediate Release album art. The output is shown below.)

Try Compressor for yourself at http://c.tiny.pr.

About our conversation partner

Jason Kintzler is the Founder and CEO of PitchEngine. He created and bootstrapped one of the marketing industry’s most popular tech startups from small town Wyoming back in 2008. Now, with more than 50,000 users that include such iconic brands as Walmart, Budweiser and the Country Music Association, PitchEngine has grown to employ many of the state’s most talented people at their headquarters on Main Street in Lander. He also authored the book, New American Startup, an inspirational story of how western independence and self-reliance led Kintzler to create a disruptive web technology from the unlikeliest of places.

Jason has been credited with “heralding in a new era of public relations” by creating “one of the PR industry’s most transformative innovations.”

Jason regularly shares his passion for new media and business by speaking to groups of all sizes at events like SXSW, PRSA and at universities like Stanford, USC and Marquette. He believes that success is directly attributed to an incredible work ethic, passion and creativity and requires jumping fences and challenging status quo at every juncture.

Connect with Jason on Twitter at @jasonkintzler.

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Recognizing a need for compliance (and other) employee training on social media, Eric Schwartzman launched a new business called Comply Socially. He created 22 high-end learning modules that were purchased by a wide variety of companies. But recently, Eric changed gears dramatically, changing the name of the site to Social Media Training and licensing every one of the modules through Creative Commons. Now, anybody is free to download, edit, remix, and update these online courses.

In this FIR Interview, Shel Holtz talks with Eric about his reasons for giving the content away, his hopes that the community of users will maintain the currency of the information contained in the modules (as both social media technology and regulations evolve), and his new role that has him returning to the private sector.

About Our Conversation Partner

Eric Schwartzman is Vice President of Technology at Howard Industries. He founded Comply Socially, an online employee advocacy solution (rebranded as Social Media Training) and iPRSoftware (formerly iPressroom), an online corporate communications management platform. He also best-selling coauthor of “Social Marketing to the Business Customer” (with Paul Gillin) and the lead emerging technologies trainer for the Public Relations Society of America. Eric was an early podcaster with On the Record Online, and a regular contributor to The Hobson & Holtz Report for many years. He was also co-host of FIR B2B.

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Ten years ago, I drove from my home in Concord, California, about 50 minutes north to a Napa hotel for a conference intriguingly titled The New Communication Forum. It wasn’t from a known entity. Two enthusiastic early adopters — Jen McClure and Elizabeth Albrycht — created the event because they weren’t finding the kind of information and resources they wanted anywhere else. Several of the attendees remained behind after the event to talk about a way to keep the vibe going. That conversation led to the creation of the Society for New Communications Research, a research and education foundation and think tank dedicated to the emerging digital communication space.

Since then, SNCR has held 14 conferences, published 300-plus case studies and nine volumes of the Journal of New Communications Research, produced several important research studies, hosted an annual awards program, and served as a vital resource to communicators, leaders, and others seeking to make decisions based on a solid foundation of substantive, rigorous research.

Today, Jennifer McClure, who steered SNCR since its beginning and served as its president, announced that the society has merged with The Conference Board, a globally recognized business research organization celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. For at least two years, the Society will be known as The Society for new Communication Research of the Conference Board. McClure will chair an advisory board that will help guide the merger. (As a Founding Fellow, I was invited to join the advisory board.) In anticipation of the merger announcement, I was able to interview McClure and Alex Parkinson, Associate Director at The Conference Board, about how the merger came about and what the two organizations plan for the future.

Resources

About our Conversation Partners

Jennifer McClure is CEO of JEM Consulting, LLC. Prior to founding JEM, Jen was VP of Digital & Social Media and the head of the Digital Center of Excellence at Thomson Reuters. She was Managing Director of Re:Imagine Group, a consulting firm focused on helping clients to re-­‐imagine their business models for the digital age; CMO of Redwood Collaborative Media, a start-­‐up focused on building professional online communities for technology professionals; and Managing Director of Albrycht McClure & Partners, a strategic marketing and communications consulting firm, specializing in serving high-­‐tech Silicon Valley start-­‐ups. She also held marketing, public relations and financial management roles at Ziff­‐Davis and Ketchum Public Relations.

Alex Parkinson is a Senior Researcher and Associate Director in the Corporate Leadership division of The Conference Board. He specializes in corporate philanthropy and communications and marketing. He is Executive Editor of “Giving Thoughts,” a blog and online publication series addressing topical corporate philanthropy issues, and “Framing Social Impact Measurement” and its related Strategic Overview and business implications reports. Visit www.conference-board.org/GivingThoughts for more information. Before joining The Conference Board in September 2013, Alex worked as a Senior Consultant in London and New York for corporate social responsibility (CSR) consultancy Context.

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In episode 100 of #ThoughtLeaderLife, Mitchell Levy, Chief Aha Instigator of the Aha Amplifier (http://AhaAmplifier.com), issues a shout-out to Michael Procopio (@michaelprocopio), who started #TLL with him in 2013. Also in this episode, Mitchell formally introduces his co-host for the month, #ThoughtLeader Kami Huyse, CEO of Zoetica Media (http://www.zoeticamedia.com). This month, Kami has lined up four #ThoughtLeaders to guest on the show to talk about cause marketing and how it can drive success for companies. Mitchell says that cause marketing is an opportunity to tie the company to the community and be in a situation where everybody benefits. Kami emphasizes that cause marketing should not just be part of the company DNA, it should be something the company and its employees are genuinely passionate about. It should represent what the company and its people stand for.

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.

Here are a couple of AhaMessagesTM from the episode. See more in the “Aha Moments from Thought Leader Life” eBooks available in the social media-enabled eBook platform, Aha Amplifier: http://AhaAmplifier.com/.

• In cause marketing, it’s a win-win-win! @kamichat #TLL

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