FIR Podcast Network

Doug Haslam joins host Shel Holtz for a conversation about TikTok and the role it could wind up playing in the social media space. Also in this week’s episode:

* Has Facebook really lost 15 million users? A lot of people don’t think it’s true.

* Facebook’s pivot to secure messaging is about more than just messaging. Mark Zuckerberg wants Facebook to be WeChat for everywhere except China

* Telegram picked up 3 million new users in 24 hours after Facebook’s outage began

* Teenagers are using an old tool for private chat: Google Docs

* Conde Nast has turned a vibrant Facebook Group into a new profit-focused vertical

* Brands on Instagram are cool just because they’re on Instagram

* YouTube’s AI wasn’t up to the task of removing video of the New Zealand terrorist’s live stream

* The investment in podcasting may not be a good thing for podcasters or their listeners

* Firework is a new video-sharing app with a twist (literally, since  you can twist your phone around to change the video view)

* Digg has updated its chart showing what happens on the Internet every 60 seconds

* Nutella is testing giving away free samples via Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant platforms

* Tune is a new Chrome extension that lets you dial down the toxic comments you see

* Twitter’s revamped camera is its answer to Stories

* Dan York reports on the horros of the live-streamed New Zealand terrorist attack and the challenges with moderating live sstreams, Twitter’s upgraded camera, India and video, a bunch of WordPress news, and the web’s 30th anniversary

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.

About Doug Haslam

Doug Haslam’s career has spanned a variety of disciplines within the communications field: radio technology, editorial production, public relations, marketing, social media and digital. Doug began with public radio, producing news and thoughtful sports programs, moving into technology public relations, and currently to social media and content strategy for brands of all sizes and industries. Doug’s love of media has come full circle, as his most recent positions have seen him taking full advantage of his content creation skills, managing social media and brand publishing programs for a wide variety of clients.

Links from this week’s episode

* Facebook lost 15 million users? Marketers remain unfazed

* Facebook’s News Feed era is now officially over

* Marketers say they’ll adapt to a changing Facebook

* Facebook’s messaging ambitions amount to much more than chat

* If you think Facebook has no competition, just ask Telegram

* Why Brands Can Ignore Telegram—for Now

* The Hottest Chat App for Teens Is … Google Docs

* How Publishers Are Using Facebook Groups to Have Frank Discussions With Readers

This episode is the first of a two-part series on hiring and firing in PR and marketing agencies.

Chip and Gini offer advice on when to hire and some guidelines on how to make the process most effective.

With the shape and size of agencies changing significantly in recent years, the show explores things like whether to use contract help versus in-house employees, hiring in a virtual environment, and how to be competitive in the process.

Next, the co-hosts will look at the flip side: when and how to fire employees. It’s not a pleasant topic, but it’s one that agency leaders need to confront periodically.

[read the transcript]

Interview with Humphrey Ho from Hylink USA about the Chinese Tourism Market and how to use video for Destination Marketing.

Humphrey was a previous guest talking about Chinese Tourism and many of the examples in this episode will also use China.

As current Managing Partner of Hylink USA, Humphrey Ho is focused on building the first global advertising agency that natively understands the Chinese digital landscape and the burgeoning group of Chinese companies seeking to go abroad.

Having spent seven years in Shanghai as Wieden+Kennedy’s Business Director and as Leagas Delaney’s Business Operations Director, Humphrey has experience serving clients across the automotive, agriculture, FMCG, tech, and travel sectors.

Humphrey earned his Masters of Business Administration from Ryerson University, and his Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from the University of Toronto and received the ‘Top 30 under 30’ award in 2009.

Hosts: Leif Pettersen of Leif Pettersen PR and Chris Christensen of BloggerBridge.com and AmateurTraveler.com.

In late January, Facebook launched a PR initiative that, on its face, appeared intended to reframe in 2019 the issues that got away from them in 2018, AKA Facebook’s privacy offences that dominated the year since the Cambridge Analytica scandal became public. This week on Inside PR, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley talk about this first phase of what by late February was unmistakably a concerted effort by Facebook to reframe the issues swirling around it.

Since 2000, the Edelman Trust Barometer® has measured attitudes about the state of trust and credibility in business, government, NGOs and the media worldwide.

The annual Edelman survey’s results often confirm, sometimes surprise and always motivate us as internal communicators – and this year is no different. The 2019 report shows profound changes in the perception of employer-employee contracts, a finding that holds special significance for internal communicators.

In this episode of EE Voice, we talk with Tamara Snyder, who heads up Edelman’s Employee Experience Team, about the shift in employee mindsets revealed in their latest report. (Tamara’s a bit of a rock star in our EE Voice podcast world, as this was the third time she’s been on the show.)

Listen in as Tamara digs beneath the surface of this year’s Edelman report to help us understand why it’s more relevant than ever for internal communicators. You’ll learn:

* Why trust between employers and employees has become paramount

* How companies can increase employee trust and engagement

* How to help CEOs navigate the pressures around taking a social stand

* Why companies need to become trusted partners in driving social change

In today’s business climate, this is a critical conversation for any organization. Don’t miss it!

Kevin Anselmo joins host Shel Holtz to discuss a university that has opened itself to criticism for what may have been an ill-advised case of social activism. Also in this episode:

* Amazon may soon become the most important platform for influencers

* Employee loyalty is falling and culture is to blame

* Longer videos on Instagram are driving traffic to publisher sites

* Podcasting has reached a tipping point

* Virtual Reality could make your boss nicer

* Advice on doing CEO advocacy well

* Dan York reports on Edison Research’s Infinite Dial study, Facebook’s pivot toward privacy, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to break up tech giants.

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.

About Kevin Anselmo

Kevin Anselmo is founder and Principal of Experiential Communications, a consultancy that aims for important ideas to be heard in a world of misinformation, distracted audiences and alternative facts. He does this by deploying smart communications strategies to disseminate organizational key messages, important research findings, and insights based on expertise. This is primarily accomplished through strategic storytelling, engaging education and robust reviews. He is the author of “Maximize Your Impact: How Academics Can Communicate Knowledge Through Traditional and Digital Media” and host of the Learning & Development Stories podcast. Previously, Kevin was Director of Public Relations for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and prior to that managed the media relations for IMD in Switzerland. Currently based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Kevin lived and worked in Switzerland for eight years and in Germany for two years. He has led public relations initiatives in various countries around the world.

Links from this episode

* Writing Boots, David Murray’s blog

* Bobbi Brown Cosmetics experiments with Facebook AR ads

* After dropping runway fashion, Calvin Klein turns to TikTok

* Why Do So Many Big Fashion and Beauty Brands Want to Support Startups?

* Three Fashion Tech Incubators and Accelerators That We Have Our Eye On

* 6 hi-tech devices and apps that will redefine your beauty regimen

* Forget Instagram, Amazon Is The Influencer Platform Of The Future

* Employee loyalty is down — and weak company culture is to blame

* Longer videos are powering Bloomberg’s Instagram growth

* Podcasts, smart speakers soar as social media stalls, based on new survey

*

In this episode, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich explore a variety of ways that agency owners can expand their business development and sales efforts — without taking on the expense of a salary.

Some of the approaches discussed include:

* Commission-only sales reps

* Partnerships with other agencies

* Referral fee programs

Chip and Gini discuss the pros and cons of the various tactics, as well as their differing experiences with them.

Be sure to listen in and find out why they’re calling this the “wine and scotch” episode, too.

[read the transcript]

In this episode, Mitchell Levy (http://aha.pub/CreatingThoughtLeaders), TEDx speaker and the AHA Guy at AHAthat (https://AHAthat.com), introduces his co-host for the month, #ThoughtLeader Orly Amor (http://aha.pub/OrlyAmor), an author, personal life mentor, international speaker and Executive Producer of the Social WOW Factor Cruise Summit who inspires and motivates others to be the best they possibly can and bring the WOW factor back into their personal and business lives (http://www.hwncc.com/). This month’s episodes will be fun and motivating, as they will focus on the importance of public speaking and communicating effectively in the world of business.

Orly shares amazing techniques on how to communicate effectively through public speaking and how to use this tool as a weapon to advance our careers and grow our businesses. For her, a man who has mastered the art of public speaking would be able to sell everything he wants as long as his mindset is right. She believes that if a person is knowledgeable enough and good at what he does, all he needs to do is provide the information and propose a solution, and his clients will hire him without selling anything. Four more stellar thought leaders will be speaking in the next episodes to share their valuable ideas on how to effectively market your business.

Here are a couple of AHA messages from the episode. See more in the “AHA Moments from Thought Leader Life” eBooks available in the social media-enabled eBook platform, AHAthat: https://AHAthat.com.

* You don’t have to be in the business for at least three to four years just to be able to know what works for your business. How well do you know yours? #GrowYourBusiness #TLL http://aha.pub/OrlyAmor

* Business professionals are often hesitant to speak up on stage thinking that the audience always expects that there’s always something to buy, and they are tired of it. Learn to #SellYourself. #GrowYourBusiness #TLL http://aha.pub/OrlyAmor

* People are more likely to pay attention to a #PublicSpeaker who speaks in sound bites. Are you speaking clearly and concisely? #GrowYourBusiness #TLL http://aha.pub/OrlyAmor

* Mastering the art of #PublicSpeaking is also mastering the art of #Connecting with other people. Are you mastering both? #GrowYourBusiness #TLL http://aha.pub/OrlyAmor

* A great #PublicSpeaker knows how to process their speaking without selling. Do you? #GrowYourBusiness #TLL http://aha.pub/OrlyAmor

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

How many times have your or another agency owner answered “word of mouth” when asked how you get new clients?

In this episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich discuss why this is not a good answer — and what you should be doing instead.

You also won’t want to miss a special guest appearance by Jack Bauer — so listen in for that plus lots of practical business development advice for your PR or marketing agency.

[read the transcript]

4L Strategies Partner Jen Phillips joins FIR host Shel Holtz to discuss the expanding definition of “journalist” and what it means for communicators. Also in the episode:

* Microsoft workers protest plans to weaponize the HoloLens; CEO Satya Nadella fights back

* Delta Airlines’ CEO throws communicators under the bus in a New York Times interview

* Facebook lets you share Events in Stories

* TikTok reaches 1 billion downloads, pays record fine to the FTC

* Nike launches year-long series on IGTV

* The Momo Challenge would be worrisome if it were real

* Pandora launches Stories, mixing podcasting with playlists

* Reese’s pranks its own fans on Twitter while a barbecue chain crosses the line

* Cedars Sinai is putting Amazon Echoes in 100 patient rooms

* Consumers find voice ads more engaging than any other kind

* Retailers are using employee communication platforms to improve customer service

* Dan York explains why communicators should care about an Internet Society report about the trends of consolidation and centralization in the Internet, LinkedIn’s live streaming test, and nominations for the Internet Hall of Fame.

* Dan also wants you to know that a data breach has hit ShareThis, a service used by many communicators

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.

About Jen Phillips

Jennifer Zingsheim Phillips is partner at 4L Strategies, where she consults and provides content development for a variety of industries. Before returning to 4L, she was director of marketing communications at CARMA. She has worked in communications and public affairs for 20 years, including a stint as a senior account executive at Fleishman Hillard. Her background includes work in electoral politics, government, lobbying, and public affairs PR work,

Links from this week’s episode

* Microsoft workers protest: ‘Cancel US Army HoloLens super-soldier contract’

* Microsoft CEO defends US military contract that some employees say crosses a line

* CEO writes something by self; announces it in newspaper

* David Murray’s Facebook post about his blog entry (including comments)

* Facebook lets you share events in Stories

* TikTok Has Been Downloaded More Than 1 Billion Times Globally

* TikTok has been illegally collecting children’s data

* Nike leans into empowering IGTV series with “Fight for Your Dream”

* Don’t Freak Out About The ‘Momo Challenge,’ Which Is Not A Real Thing

* Pandora Stories launches, combining music and podcasting in a new format