FIR Podcast Network

The June edition of “The Hobson and Holtz Report” features Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz talking about these stories:

* Boeing’s Max 737 crisis is a textbook case of ignoring standards of crisis communication

* Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report has a lot of meat for communicators

* Privacy policies are an incomprehensible disaster

* North Face and its ad agency thought it was clever gaming Wikipedia. Now they’re sorry.

* A privacy issue with precise-location tagging led Twitter to remove the feature despite some noble uses for it.

* Is voice overhyped…even as an Alexa Skill takes home a big prize at Cannes Lions?

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

You can find the stories from which FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog.

The next episode of For Immediate Release will be posted on Monday, June 24.

Links from This Week’s Episode

* Boeing Max 737 jet crisis: we should’ve been more open, says CEO

* Boeing Says It Has No Plans to Change the Name of the 737 MAX

* International Airlines Group Announces Intent to Buy 200 Boeing 737 MAX Airplanes

* Why Airbus isn’t pouncing on Boeing’s 737 MAX turmoil

* Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report: 11 Highlights and Lots of Industry Insight

* 10 Takeaways from Mary Meeker’s 2019 Internet Trends Report

* Mary Meeker’s Most Important Trends on the Internet

* We Read 150 Privacy Policies. They Were an Incomprehensible Disaster

* Hart Scientific Y2K Readiness

* North Face Apologizes For Wikipedia Search Marketing Blunder

* Twitter is removing precise-location tagging on tweets — a small win for privacy but a small loss for journalists and researchers

* Is voice over-hyped? A new survey suggests lower adoption than previously thought

* How 360i Built Marketing’s Most Ambitious Voice Skill to Date in Just 3 Months

* Pandora Debuts Digital Audio Consultancy Ahead of Cannes

Links from Dan York’s Report

Good agencies measure performance — of their projects, their business, and their employees.

On this episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich examine why employee goals matter, as well as how to set them appropriately.

QUOTES

* Chip, on the importance of good manager judgement: “Employee reviews are not an algorithm…. [you] shouldn’t have a fixed formula that you use because there’s all sorts of times where someone may technically reach their objectives, but they didn’t really get the spirit of it.”

* Gini, on applying KPI reviews to compensation: “There is some human piece to it. It’s not just an algorithm that helps you decide who’s going to get a raise and a promotion.”

* Chip, on unintended consequences of quantitative goals: “If you’re managing towards [a specific] number, and that’s the only way you’re looking at it, employees have a tendency to try to hit those numbers any way they can.”

* Gini, on creating custom KPI’s for team members: “One size does not fit all fit all. But it’s something you should be thinking about. And there’s probably should be at least three if not four different areas that you’re considering, as you think about KPIs and metrics for your, for your team.”

RESOURCES

* Measure What Matters by John Doerr

* AIM-GET Framework for Agency Success

* Spin Sucks Community on Slack

[read the transcript]

According to a study conducted by MIT Sloan Management Review and The Boston Consulting Group, three-quarters of executives believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will enable their companies to move into new businesses, and roughly 85% believe AI will allow their companies to obtain or sustain a competitive advantage. At noon ET on Thursday, June 20, a panel of Fellows from the International Association of Business Communicators will look at how AI is maturing and what it means to your company and communication practice.

Four IABC Fellows — Roger D’Aprix, Amanda Hamilton-Attwell, Mary Hills, and Ned Lundquist — gathered for a conversation about the issues facing communicators as AI continues to evolve.

About the Panel

Roger D’Aprix is an internationally known consultant, lecturer, and author who has helped scores of Fortune 500 companies develop more effective communication strategies, embrace cultural change and achieve better business results. His clients have included such organizations as Comcast, Cisco Systems, DuPont, Lucent Technologies, General Motors, Saturn Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, EDS, GE Capital Services, Marsh, Pfizer and others. Before joining ROI Communication’s Board of Advisors in 2005, Roger served as vice president and global practice leader for Towers Perrin’s human resource communication practice, and as a principal and service developer for Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Before that, he led employee communications for Xerox Corporation and held executive communication positions at General Electric and Bell and Howell. Roger has written several books on employee communication, including his best-selling Communicating for Change: Connecting the Workplace with the Marketplace and The Credible Company: Communicating with Today’s Skeptical Workforce.

Dr. Amanda Hamilton-Attwell, accredited by both IABC and PRSA. She is Managing Director of Business DNA, based in South Africa, which provides strategic research and consulting, including communication audits, customer service, and women’s leadership topics. She is licensed in Adobe Connect and WebEx, using these to conduct virtual professional learning and education sessions. and other focused research and training in communication skills. Her career has also included a 15-year stint as a research manager for the National Productivity Institute.

Mary Hills’ career as a marketing and communication professional has been in companies undergoing significant evolution, change, and growth. She has held leadership positions with responsibility for developing plans and schemas to support long-term growth and business sustainability goals. She has more than 20 years experience and expertise in designing and delivering training and development programs for companies and organizations, bringing theories, models, and frameworks into everyday practice. In addition to her role at HeimannHills Marketing Group, Mary serves as Adjunct Faculty in the MS – Global Strategic Communication program at Loyola University Chicago.  Mary speaks internationally and nationally on marketing, communication, standards, and practices.

Edward “Ned” Lundquist, a retired U.S. Navy captain with 33 years of professional public affairs and strategic communications experience. He is a principal science writer at MCR Federal in McLean, Virginia, supporting government clients; and has his own company, Echo Bridge LLC, which provides outreach and advocacy support to commercial clients. He served on active duty for 24 years in the U.S. Navy as a surface warfare officer and public affairs specialist. Captain Lundquist was a Pentagon spokesman with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, Director of the Fleet Home Town News Center, and director of public affairs and corporate communications for the Navy Exchange Service Command. His last tour of duty was commanding the 450 men and women of the Naval Media Center...

Mark McClennan hosts a weekly podcast where he explores ethical questions with public relations industry experts and agency leaders. He brings a wealth of his own experience to the mix, as a longtime senior agency executive and former National Chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

Mark joined Chip on this episode to talk about some of the lessons he has learned and the advice he has for agencies as they work to navigate challenging ethical situations.

QUOTES

* Mark McClennan: “There was a really interesting study that came out about probably eight to 10 years ago now, that deals with people making inherently selfish and unethical decisions, when they’re not given time to think. Your first impulse is to go selfish, and just think about yourself.”

*

Mark McClennan: “There needs to be more than just a senior leader leading by example. That’s great. But guess what I can watch a great baseball player hit a home run all the time, but it doesn’t mean I can do it just by watching them. You need to have practice, you need to have experience, you need to really look at what’s going on.”

*

Chip Griffin: “There’s there’s a lot of pressure on employees in PR agencies to get results and to do things quickly … my perception is that that tends to press some of these ethical issues to the forefront because there’s a tendency to want to cut corners, or frankly, a lot of times a client may ask you to cut corners.”

*

Mark McClennan: “It is our job and our responsibility to tell them you know what, what you’re asking me to do, will hurt my brand and could hurt your brand if it comes out. And so … it’s penny wise and pound foolish. You need to resist the temptation for those quick wins, because in the end, it’s going to hurt you and your client a lot more.”

*

Chip Griffin: “I think that a culture of openness certainly helps in ethics, and it helps in other ways within the agency as well. But having the willingness to have those difficult conversations, whether they’re initiated from above or below, will really make a difference to most agencies.”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Mark McClennan

Mark McClennan, APR, Fellow PRSA, has 20+ years of tech and fintech agency experience. Most recently he was a senior vice president and led the financial technology group for MSL Boston. He is now the principal of EV Strategic Communications and runs the industry’s most popular weekly blog and podcast on communications ethics – EthicalVoices.com. McClennan served as the 2016 National Chair of PRSA and drove the creation of the PRSA ethics app. He is a frequent speaker on social media, ethics and the future of PR.

RESOURCES

* Mark McClennan on social: Twitter (@McClennan) / LinkedIn

* Ethical Voices Podcast

* PRSA Ethics

[Read the transcript of this episode]

Hello FIR Podcast Network. We’re excited and honored to be joining this stellar line-up of PR podcasts!

And we hope you enjoy listening to Spin Sucks.

And now on with the show…

In our industry, there are so many buzzwords. And it get tiring trying to wade through all of the corporate jargon. Admit it. We all hate corporate jargon. We hate to hear it and we hate to use it. And yet… we still do.

Why can’t we just talk to each other like real people?

That’s what we’re getting into today, because in this episode, we’re talking about thought leadership.

Thought Leadership Is Not Dead

Buzzwords are like fashion trends; autumn’s treasures are spring’s trash heap.

All of a sudden you’re hearing whatever the new buzzword is at every conference and in so many business conversations. Then, of course, comes the fall from grace. Then said buzzword of the moment keeps popping up, only now it’s in a sarcastic tone or in the cynical dismissals on social media.

It’s understandable. It’s easy to get tired of the hype train and want off at the next stop.

With “thought leadership” it’s not so easy.

While so many of us would love to see the end of the term, we just can’t let it go. It’s a huge part of so many communications plans.

And the fact of the matter is, when it’s used correctly it’s exactly what it sounds like.

Thought leaders are changing industry expectations. They’re on the cutting edge of production for their services. They help others realize their full potential.

Thought leaders are industry experts, they’re facilitators and they’re leaders.

Is It Time to Say Goodbye?

In this episode of the Spin Sucks Podcast, Gini Dietrich dives into why we’re not necessarily saying goodbye to the term “thought leadership” just yet, and shares some ways you can help avoid the challenges that can occur when your organization’s thought leader moves on to another thing.

This recent article in Forbes caught our attention because it neatly sums up some of the biggest differences between B2B and B2C marketing. Unlike many B2C decisions – which are based on emotion, preference or impulse – B2B decisions are practical, thoughtful and undergirded by data, or at least they should be. Among the implications of that:

* Know the who, the why and the multiple decision makers in the chain;

* Tell how you will make the business better;

* Sell solutions, not features; and

* Use personas and create a path to the purchase

Paul co-wrote a book a while back called Social Marketing to the Business Customer that touched on some of these points, and you might want to pick up a copy as they are still relevant.

One suggestion is to build an emotional attachment to the product, which isn’t always easy to do in B2B scenarios. However, buyers have a lot on the line, and that can give you an emotional connection.

ChiefMarketer.com tells how Caterpillar did that. Just because you sell big tractors doesn’t mean you can’t create a story that resonates with the community. People who drive tractors care about their work, so Caterpillar focused on the pride they take in what they do. Decisions aren’t just about features.

This story reminded us of this brilliant video Volvo produced several years ago to promote its tractor trailers. The appearance of Van Damme is unexpected, powerful and memorable, as evidenced by its 93 million views and the fact that we both recalled it eight years later.

Finally, one item that has nothing to do with trucks is the spillback a year after the implementation of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. A piece in eConsultancy talks about how the rules have benefited B2B marketers by helping them weed out bad practices, improve lead quality and better focus their companies’ marketing efforts.

On this episode Glenn Gaudet is joined by Corey Tomlinson, Content Manager at Nuix. Corey works on a wide range of content to support the company’s global marketing. Nuix creates software that finds focus in big data and complex formats for digital investigations, cybersecurity incident response, insider threats, litigation, risk management, and many other essential challenges. Along with content management, Corey is a freelance author.

In this podcast you will learn about:

How the digital marketing landscape has changed

Getting over the hurdle of finding content

The importance of organization and accessibility for sales teams

Filtering through large amounts of information

Wrapping engagements around a piece of content

Getting your best content to the eyes and ears that need it

Connect with Corey on LinkedIn

Dan York joins the IPR Team

We have big news this week: Dan York is joining the Inside PR team. Dan is well known to Inside PR listeners for his tech segments on Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson’s FIR podcast. And, if you didn’t know, his day job is as Director, Web Strategy, at the Internet Society.

Gini, Joe and Martin are big fans of Dan’s reports. He provides a perspective that combines expertise in communications and marketing with strong technology underpinnings. When Shel and Neville announced that FIR would be moving to a monthly format, Gini, Joe and Martin immediately put out a call to Dan to ask if he would be willing to contribute to IPR on the other three weeks of the month. And, happily, Dan said yes. So, you may hear Dan less often on FIR (and we encourage you to listen to FIR monthly), you’ll be able to hear him the rest of the time on Inside PR.

So, that leads us to this week’s debut of Dan’s Two Minutes of Tech for Communicators segment. We know he’s going to teach us a lot.

A digital charter for Canada

Canada has long taken privacy and consumer rights seriously. And as public concern about the unseen use of our personal by social networks data increased following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, calls for change have mounted. Now, the Government of Canada has made its next move with the announcement of a Digital Charter for Canada. While the Charter sums up established values and points to aspirational goals, it also takes two real steps toward action with references to Canada’s Privacy Commissioner and Competition Bureau. Both have regulatory muscle that they could flex in the near term. And both are in a position to scrutinize the social networks.

Europe, California, and now Canada. Momentum to reign in the previously underscrutinzed use of our data by the social networks is gaining momentum.

We really never are alone

As if we needed another reminder of where the early optimism of the open web and the social graph has taken us, the New York Times offers a thought provoking look at our relationship with Google.

For technology companies, the conventional wisdom is wrong when it comes to pitching a conference or webinar session. Instead of having your CMO or other C-suite executive tell your story, trust the technical people in your shop. Your audiences will thank you for it.

Here are some of the reasons:

* Audiences want black-and-white issues. CMOs usually see the world in nuance and infinite shades of gray. Techies value certainty.

* Facts are an endangered species these days.  So who better to deliver facts that a techie?

* Audiences want to hear stories. First-person experience from people on the front lines can deliver authenticity and credibility that the audience relates to.

* Techies steer clear of self-promotion, which is the fastest turnoff for an audience.

* Techies can be more effective at reaching potential customers precisely because they don’t try to promote or sell.

* Techies can be trained to be good and sometimes great speakers. We have some tips for how to do it.

David wrote more about this for Sam Whitmore’s Media Survey. It is normally gated, but today you can read the post here.

 

Every agency comes across a potential client that simply isn’t a good fit. In a previous episode, Chip and Gini discussed how important it is to walk away from prospects and clients that don’t match up with the agency’s needs.

But how do you do that well?

On this show, Chip and Gini look at how you can effectively refer these prospects to other agencies in your network. They will share the experiences of other agency owners, as well as offering their own advice.

“One of the important things for a lot of agency owners to overcome is that too many agency owners view other agencies as their competitors. And as soon as they start thinking competitor, they think enemy. And that’s really not true,” explains Chip.

Gini shares how she used to think that way, but came around to seeing opportunities with other agencies. “[I thought] wait a second, we can all do work together. And if they don’t have the capacity, or it’s not the right client for them, and vice versa, we can certainly share the wealth.”

[read the transcript]