FIR Podcast Network

Denise Dubie was a technology journalist for more than a decade before switching to corporate content marketing, and her reportorial instincts have served her well. Denise, who recently took a new job as Director of Content at PureB2B in the Boston area, was previously senior principal of content strategy at CA Technologies and before that a senior editor at Network World. It’s rare to find someone who has had such deep experience on both sides of the business.

We discuss how she made the transition from tech journalism to marketing and the value of her journalism background in her new corporate role. Denise comments on how her work style changed between the two types of jobs and where the greatest adjustments were necessary. We also talk about success metrics she used at CA and the surprisingly little value she found for social media as a promotional channel. 

Denise also provides some practical tips on what listeners can do to improve their content marketing programs. It starts with having a thorough understanding of customers, a topic we harp on frequently in this podcast. 

In the latest episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast, Chip and Gini discuss non-traditional revenue streams for PR and marketing agencies.

First, the pair address tax law changes related to meals and entertainment expenses — something that will impact many agency owners.

Next, Chip and Gini look at how agencies can go beyond retainer and project revenue to find opportunities in education, training, products, and software.

They also explore the pros and cons of partnering with startup companies in exchange for equity.

[read the transcript]

Alabama Power communications strategist Ike Pigott joins host Shel Holtz to talk about the correct use — and abuse — of push notifications and alerts in mobile apps. Also in this week’s episode:

* Inbox Infinity poses a dilemma for communicators trying to reach people via email

* Senior citizens are far more likely than any other demographic to share fake news

* Biometrics can predict a viral marketing campaign

* Artificial Intelligence is all about the metaphor (and helped Unilever make ice cream for breakfast a thing)

* VR’s buzz may have faded, but headsets in cars may change that

* Stories have come to YouTube

* Agencies have a problem as companies pull PR in-house

* A whole bunch of copyrights are about to expire

* Dan York reports on government websites that are down during the shutdown, wireless carriers selling user data, and Amazon Web Services’ introduction of a Mondo-compatible document database

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 Ike Pigott

After more than 16 years in television news, Emmy-winner Ike Pigott left to feed his passion for crisis communication. While building his consultancy, he started working with the American Red Cross – first as a local communicator in Alabama, and finally as the Director of Communications and Government Relations for a five-state region. It was during his time at the Red Cross that he pioneered the use of social media, developed the first disaster-response blogs, as well as the non-profit’s Twitter account all the way back in 2007. For the last seven years, Ike has worked as a communication strategist and spokesman for Alabama Power, an electric utility that serves more than 1.4-million customers. He helped shape the Social Media Guidelines for Alabama Power’s parent, Southern Company, and serves on the system-wide Social Media Advisory Council. In addition to media relations duties and serving as editor of the corporate NewsCenter site, Ike works across the company to help individuals and departments get the most out of social media tools. Ike has been a featured speaker at dozens of communication conferences in the United States and Europe, and is considered a thought leader in the integration of social media in utilities and other regulated industries.

Links from this week’s episode

* Don’t Reply to Your Emails: The case for inbox infinity

* People older than 65 share the most fake news, a new study finds

* Can Biometrics Predict a Viral Marketing Campaign?

* How AI helped Unilever discover ‘breakfast for dessert’

* Remember virtual reality? Its buzz has faded at CES 2019

* Audi spins out Holoride to put VR in every car

* Holoride’s in-car VR solution is the best thing at CES 2019

* How to Use YouTube Stories: What Marketers Need to Know

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In this week’s episode, Chip and Gini talk about how to safeguard your most valuable resource: your time.

From setting aside time to work on growing the business to avoiding being consumed by last-minute client meeting requests, this show has lots of actionable ideas.

The co-hosts emphasize the importance of finding the right rhythm for your own work habits to ensure maximum productivity. And Chip points out that time isn’t something you can borrow from a bank, so you need to focus on managing it effectively to be successful.

[read the transcript]

Welcome to the new year and we hope you all have had a nice holiday break. In today’s episode, we talk about what it means to be true to your brand and why marketing managers need to pay more attention than ever to branding in an age in which customers increasingly control the message. 

What makes a brand? First off is understanding what are your core values and what lies at the heart of your business. This post for B2B Marketing tells how Burberry, the British clothing maker, literally torched its merchandise in an effort to sustain its premium pricing, a move that turned out to be a major faux Other prominent examples of companies whose bad actions have undermined their brand are Uber and Facebook.

Will brands without social purpose thrive? A new survey finds that two-thirds of consumers expect companies to create products and services that “take a stand” on issues that they also feel passionate about. A great case study can be found in, of all places, with a new British bank called Monzo. It’s trying a new approach to gain customers: raise funds via crowdfunding, open its API, run meetups and hackathons and become more transparent about trying to attract millennial as its customers. Regardless of whether it’s successful, you have to give Monzo credit for originality. 

Finally, we offer up a few suggestions on how you can stay true to your brand using storytelling and social media techniques. 

 

Liz Scherer joins FIR host Shel Holtz for a conversation about how Virtual Reality can create greater empathy among healthcare providers toward their patients and the role communicators must play. Also in this episode:

* Messaging is poised to surpass social networks as a channel for people to connect with businesses

* TikTok’s growth has been meteoric and brands are already making their presence felt

* Media will use blockchain in a big way in 2019

* The number of Amazon Alexa skills doubled during 2018

* A new Google Snippet feature could damage your advertising results

* A coalition is proposing a nifty new label that (unless we’re missing something) is wide open to abuse

* IMAX has shut down its multi-million-dollar Virtual Reality effort

* Dan York’s Tech Report covers China’s landing of a probe on the dark side of the moon, TikTok Lite, Reuters’ plan to cut 3,200 jobs, hackers dumping data on German politicians, what to expect this week at CES, Om Malik’s take on slowing down, and Dan’s efforts to shift his social media activity to Mastodon.

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 Liz Scherer

Liz Scherer is a digital communications strategist specializing in health & wellness, nonprofits, regulated industry and agriculture. A pioneer in the social web healthcare movement, Liz has been involved in moving the envelope in terms of health and gender equity and is a former social media advisory board member for Health Justice CT. She is especially interested in how novel & emerging players are ultimately impacting agility marketing and in the disruption of content/communication-driven customer experiences. In addition to her extensive experience as a strategist, Liz has worked as a journalist, medical writer, copywriter and blogger and maintains active memberships in the National Association of Science Writers, the Association of Health Care Journalists and Journalism and Women’s Symposium. Currently, she is a curator of Emerging Infectious Diseases for univadis.com’s Clinical Essentials, and recently took a role to direct strategic communications for a mHealth publisher. Liz sits on the Advisory Board for the Center for Health, Media & Policy, Hunter College, NYC. In her spare time, she mentors health start-ups at GA/1776 DC and Village Capital, and is active in the D.C. Tech Community.

Links from this episode

* Here’s How Messaging Is Positioned to Dominate in 2019

* What’s Going to Be Big in Chatbots for 2019? [Infographic]

* What’s Behind the Sudden Growth of TikTok?

* Inside TikTok, the premier app for firefighters who enjoy lip-syncing to ‘Baby Shark’

* What to expect from blockchain in 2019

* The number of Alexa skills doubled in 2019

* New Feature In Google Search Could Give Publishers More Ad Headaches

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It’s our beginning of year promises show. So,  if you want to get some insight into what makes Martin, Gini and Joe tick, you’ll probably find out this week. And along the way, we hope that you may get some ideas for things you may want to do this year yourself.

For the first episode of the Agency Leadership Podcast for 2019, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich discuss how to use a virtual assistant, in-house help, or other solutions to relieve the burden of repetitive tasks.

Agency owners and executives need to maximize the impact of their own time, which means prioritizing which tasks they need to do themselves versus those that can be delegated or outsourced.

Unfortunately, bad help is sometimes worse than no help at all. So understanding what to farm out — and how to manage those resources — represents an important skill to hone.

Chip and Gini share some of their own experiences and the lessons they have learned along the way.

[read the transcript]

The final episode of 2018 — and the end of our 14th consecutive year of podcasting — features two conversations: Frank Eliason joins host Shel Holtz to talk about customer retention vs. new-customer acquisition; then Mark Story (aptly) chats with Shel about the rise of Stories. Also in this episode:

* Some businesspeople are defending Facebook

* Journalists are ditching press releases (but that doesn’t mean PR people should)

* More of the Internet is fake than you may have thought

* Brands are finding ways to combat ad blockers

* 2019 predictions from PR pros

* Dan York’s Tech Report covers Jetpack 6.8, Netflix’s interactive Black Mirror movie, Netflix’s decision to no longer bill through iTunes, the malware that interrupted newspaper printing across the country, 99 good news stories you may have missed in 2o18, and Dan’s plan to spend more time on Mastodon (and why you should try new social media platforms).

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 our guests

Frank Eliason is a renowned customer experience leader who introduces disruptive and transformative strategies to revolutionize businesses. Working for Comcast, he was recognized by BusinessWeek as “the most famous customer service manager in the U.S., possibly in the world.” At Citi he was recognized as one of the most innovative people in banking, not once, but twice by Bank Technology News. He drives the right behaviors at all levels by bringing focus to the customer and their story. Besides working for Comcast, Citi and Vanguard Investments, he has advised many Fortune 500 companies. He is the author of “@YourService” (Wiley, 2012).

Mark Story is a one-time contributor to FIR. Mark currently works director of strategic communications at American University. He has also served as communication counsel and social media lead for the National Cancer Institute, and he was director of International Corporate Affairs for the Alibaba Group in Hong Kong and the first-ever director of New Media for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mark also put in time on the agency side as a senior VP for Fleishman-Hillard and a vice president at APCO Worldwide. Mark is also the author of the book, “Starting Your Career as a Social Media Manager,” which was published in 2012. Mark also teaches at Johns Hopkins University.

Links from this episode

* Amid Criticism For Facebook’s Data Scandal, Business Pros Offer Support

* Report: Journalists are ditching the press release

* How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually.

* Here’s How Brands like KFC Are Combating Ad Blockers

* Why You Should Be Focusing on Customer Retention, Not Acquisition

* To stem falling sales, Blue Apron is pivoting to a more flexible distribution model

* PR predictions for 2019: 11 industry pros weigh in

* Instagram’s botched experiment is a reminder tha...

With discuss working with bloggers with Keith Jenkins from iambassador, one of the first blogger run agencies.

Keith Jenkins founded iambassador and began offering social media marketing and digital content services in 2011. Keith is also the Founder and Publisher of the Velvet Escape luxury travel blog. He has visited more than 80 countries across six continents. Keith often speaks at travel and social media conferences and has been featured in The New York Times, BBC Travel, Lonely Planet, and National Geographic Traveler, and has spoken at TEDxTalk.

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