FIR Podcast Network

This week, we look at the decision of the New York Times to stand behind Sarah Jeong following the trolling controversy. Also, Gini Dietrich offers advice on converting your speaking opportunities into business leads. Finally, in our #IPRMustKnow segment, we talk about how Feedly is involving users in the redesign of its iOS app and how WordPress is moving closer to a full rollout of Project Gutenberg.

Reports of tanking VR headset sales have been plentiful, leading marketers to begin questioning the wisdom of adding Virtual Reality to their arsenals. Shel Israel, co-author of “The Fourth Transformation” — a book about the VR/AR/MR inflection point — joins FIR host Shel Holtz to discuss VR’s viability for marketing. Also in this episode…

* Chat story apps are all the rage among young users. Are they also the next big thing in native advertising?

* A Hawaiian Airlines bot answers travelers’ baggage questions, if only they know where to find it

* An AI-based Alexa skill from lawnmower company Troy-Bilt delivers useful information by linking local weather and your personal calendar

* WhatsApp adds functionality for customer service and engaging with customers directly from Facebook ads

* Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is less and less important to marketers these days

* Google will deliver rich-text search results for Q&As, FAQs, and how-to content

* Twitter reveals how it ranks its search results

* Google employees are upset again, this time about their employer’s plans to introduce a search engine in China with censorship built in

* A new study finds Americans believe CEOs who speak out about their values influence government policy

* Brands are backing away from using stock photos

* One government agency is getting its word out through memes

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 first startup Shel Israel helped was Sun Microsystems; there have been hundreds since. Shel writes on his website, “I gave PowerPoint its name, introduced sound to the personal computer, and was backstage at the Mac launch.” He is best known as a writer and speaker. He writes, “I have been working with disruptive tech companies for a very long time. I have lots to brag about and many lessons learned.” Shel offers four services: writer (he writes speeches, presentations, white papers and books, including Naked Conversations, The Age of Context, Twitterville, Lethal Curiosity, and most recently, The Fourth Transformation); advisor (everyone who talks with a CEO has their own agenda; Shel says his is to serve her or his best interests); anecdotal researcher (market research is a powerful data science, but it misses certain aspects of human behavior; and speaker (Shel has well-received as a keynoter on all continents not covered by ice).

Links from this episode:

* IHOP says fake name change was a big success

* Are Chat Stories the Future of native Advertising?

* Wattpad takes ‘chat fiction’ beyond text with launch of Tap Originals

* Are Chat-Fiction Apps the New YA Novels?

* I wrote a text message thriller, and so should you

* Surfboard? Kid’s Car Seat? Hawaiian Baggage Bot Aims to Help

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This week we talk about new ways that machine learning and artificial intelligence can benefit marketing organizations. While these three news items are all different aspects of this technology, they show collectively how these new technologies are changing the way marketing is done.

First up is a new smartphone app called Truthify that does advertising context analysis (as shown at right). The app interprets the user’s facial expressions to deliver what it thinks the user’s emotional state is, including fear, anger, or happiness, among other traits. The app comes with a web dashboard so you can analyze your campaigns and the resulting demographics. The app is now available for iOS users and soon for Android.

Second is a new influencer platform called AdHive. It is a combination of influencer marketing and AI-powered campaign management. You can sign up for the tool and influencers are paid to participate, while advertisers can choose the right kinds of people to exploit, er, we mean make use of, their tool.

Finally, Google last week announced four new products using machine learning that are aimed at helping marketers create more effective ads. These include responsive search ads, tools to optimize YouTube traction and local campaign management and smarter shopping. Google claims that advertisers who have tested these services have seen clicks increase by 15 percent.

Marketers who have been loathe to adopt new technologies do so at their own peril. These tools are good examples of what the future portends.

2018 PRSA Chair Anthony D’Angelo joins host Shel Holtz in a follow-up Shel’s conversation two weeks ago with PRSA volunteer leader Mary Beth West. In the chat, Anthony outlines his (and the PRSA board’s) perspectives on the controversy that has been the consuming focus of his term as chair. Also in this episode…

* CEOs and other senior leaders are being fired over inappropriate behavior at a record clip. What does this say about the qualifications for a leader in the values-driven marketplace?

* Google is bringing AI-driven grammar checking to Google Docs.

* LinkedIn is adding voicemail to its messaging tool

* Group video-watching is coming to Facebook Groups

* Teens are using “flop” accounts on Instagram to debate societal issues free of bots, trolls, and dismissive adults

* Dan York reports on user drop-offs on Facebook and Twitter, Slack’s victory in the enterprise messaging wars, vulnerabilities in Samsung’s Internet of Things hub, one tale of a stranger destroying someone’s life, Instagram’s “flop” accounts, and the release of WordPress 4.9.8 on Tuesday.

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 Anthony D’Angelo

Anthony D’Angelo joined Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications as a professor of practice in public relations in August 2015. In 2016 he was named director of Newhouse’s Executive Master’s Program in Communications Management, and of a new academic offering called the Financial and Investor Communications Emphasis. D’Angelo’s career has included public relations leadership roles in the corporate, agency and not-for-profit sectors, most recently for ITT Corporation and previously for the St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation, Magna International, United Technologies and Sage Marketing Communications. His practice areas include change management, reputation management, branding and marketing communications. D’Angelo is 2018 National Chair of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), serving approximately 21,400 professional members and 11,000 students. He is a past chair of PRSA’s College of Fellows and a founder of PRSA’s MBA program to bring strategic communications content to MBA curricula nationwide.

Links from this week’s episode:

* Number of CEOs who exited after bad behavior grows

* Paramount Fires TV Chief Over Allegations of Insensitive Remarks

* Most Americans want more ‘conscious’ leaders—how to be one

* Google will use AI to fix your grammar mistakes

* LinkedIn adds voice messages for some reason

* Facebook’s ‘shared viewing’ video feature is coming to all groups

* Teens Are Debating the News on Instagram

* Study: Satisfaction with social media drops 1.4%,

Gini Dietrich is back with us this week. And that’s a good thing as we dig into the reactions to James Gunn’s firing and the allegations against Les Moonves. Do the responses of the Guardians of the Galaxy cast and the CBS Films’ President Terry Press signal a turning point in the conversation? Are we ready for learning, reconciliation and forgiveness?

The Customer Experience (CX) is defined loosely as the cumulative impact of every interaction a customer has with a company, from first becoming aware of the organization or its product/service through post-purchase touch-points (including using the product and getting support).

CX usually is housed in the Marketing Department with ample opportunities for communication input. Other communications outside of Marketing’s jurisdiction matters, too. From the PR department to internal communications, communicators can help create an outstanding customer experience that inspires loyalty and sets your brand apart. Communicators can play a pivotal role in setting a customer experience vision, defining your organization’s customer experience against the competition, and researching customer needs and desires.

On July 19, four IABC Fellows convened for a live online conversation about the communicator’s role in creating a memorable CX. The panel includes Amanda Hamilton-Attwell, George McGrath, and Jim Shaffer. FIR podcast host Shel Holtz (also a Fellow) served as moderator.

About the panel

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 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.

George McGrath is founder and managing principal of McGrath Business Communications, which helps clients build winning corporate reputations, promote their products and services, and advance their views on key issues. George brings more than 25 years in PR and public affairs to his firm. Over the course of his career, he has held senior management positions at leading strategic communications and integrated marketing agencies including Hill and Knowlton, Carl Byoir & Associates, and Brouillard Communications.

Jim Shaffer is a business advisor, leadership coach, author, and speaker. As leader of the Jim Shaffer Group, he helps organizations accelerate results through superior strategy execution. The Jim Shaffer Group creates hard business results by translating the business strategy to the people who need to implement it, aligning systems, processes, and culture to make the gains sustainable. Jim was an architect and leading practitioner of Towers Perrin’s (now Towers Willis Watson) change management consulting practice. He designed and produced the IABC Academy Course, “Managing Change Communication to Drive Results and Value.” Some of his change management clients have included: Abbott, ConAgra Foods, FedEx, IBM, ITT, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Owens Corning, Pfizer, Toyota.

Picture this: You work for a US-based Fortune 100 corporation with more employees than the population of Buffalo, N.Y. You’re responsible for communications to hundreds of thousands of employees across the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Your assignment (should you have any choice but to accept it): Complete a global internal communications audit in 60 days.

In this episode of EE Voice, Sharon Phillips and Sharon McIntosh reflect on how they not only survived a high-pressure global IC audit for PepsiCo (23 focus groups and in-person visits to six countries!) but walked away with valuable new insights into the very thing they were auditing – internal communications. Tune in to hear them relive the journey and the lessons they learned along the way.

They’ll review the what and why of the audit and the five key takeaways, including:

* What your workforce really thinks of your electronic employee newsletter

* Why employees want and need candid communication – the good with the bad

* Why managers want more, not less, communications training

It’s a classic case study in planning and executing an IC audit for communications professionals at all levels. We hope you’ll listen in.

 

This week on Inside PR 515 we consider examples of tough issues and crisis points. Is it wise to keep your powder dry and hold off communicating? To avoid feeding the beast? Or should a communicator always look for a way to communicate the core principles and truths that he or she believes in.

* The Canadian Civil Liberties Association issued an open letter to Toronto Mayor John Tory asking that he hold off a municipal council vote on installing “ShotSpotter” microphone technology across the city. Less than a day later, Toronto was struck with a horrific mass shooting that left a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman dead and thirteen others injured. What would you do now if you were the CCLA? Respect the grief of the bereaved and victims as well as the trauma being experienced by the community as a whole and back away from your position? Or would you persist in advancing your position?

* Burberry was caught out by environmentalists engaging in a long-established practice of luxury goods manufacturers, destroying unsold stock to keep it off the market and avoid dilution of their brand. That may have worked twenty years ago. But not in the era of social media when any person perusing a company’s annual report can spot something like this and deliver the news directly to an audience that will be critical of it. So, what’s a company like Burberry to do? Change its approach to be more in keeping in the times? Or keep its head down in the belief that this too will blow over? Watch with us in real time.

* Finally, we raise an example that we plan to discuss next week when Gini returns to the show – the James Gunn firing and the rehabilitation of Leonard Lopate. Every action leads to a consequence. What do we do now?

Neville Hobson joined FIR host Shel Holtz for the July edition of “The Hobson & Holtz Report” and conversation about these topics:

* British Airways asks customers to post personal data on Twitter ‘to comply with GDPR’

* Will Facebook Stories (and Instagram Stories, Messenger Stories, WhatsApp Stories, and Snapchat Stories) change how marketers use social media?

* Whatever the EU does about copyright laws, expect it to change social media globally

* Chatrooms come out of closed beta at Reddit

* Facebook has suspended Crimson Hexagon from accessing data while it investigates how that data is being used

* New buyers of smart speakers want to reduce the amount of time they spend looking at screens

Also, Gini Dietrich shares her thoughts on companies shrugging off the “E” in the PESO model she helped develop, Dan York has his Tech Report, and more.

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 Neville Hobson and Gini Dietrich

Neville Hobson was co-host of The Hobson & Holtz Report for over 10 years. For over 15 years, Neville has been a voice of experience and influence when it comes to speaking about digital technologies, disruptive change in workplaces and marketplaces, relevant trends to pay close attention to, and what it all means for your business. His experiences embrace deep understanding and subject-matter expertise in contemporary business issues that include social, digital and cognitive technologies, connecting that with a career in traditional public relations, marketing communication, employee compensation and benefits communication, and investor relations. Based in the Thames Valley some 30 miles west of London, Neville works either from his home office or from a client’s location; or from wherever he has a good network connection. Neville is on Twitter at @jangles.

Gini Dietrich is the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, a Chicago-based integrated marketing communications firm.  She is the lead blogger at the PR and marketing blog, Spin Sucks, is co-author of Marketing In the Round, and is co-host of Inside PR, a weekly podcast about communications and social media.  Her second book, Spin Sucks, is now available! She speaks, she writes for Crain’s Chicago Business and other publications.

Links from this week’s episode

* British Airways asks customers to post personal data on Twitter ‘to comply with GDPR’

* British Airways asked customers to post personal information on Twitter ‘to comply with GDPR’

* ‘No Comment’: The Death of Business Reporting

* The Future of Connection on Facebook: How Stories May Change the Marketing Game

* Brands that are crushing it with Instagram Stories

* Three important ways new EU copyright laws could affect social media globally

* Reddit expands chat rooms to more subreddits

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Martin Waxman is in California recording his next course for Lynda.com/LinkedIn. And we took the opportunity to invite Martin’s producer, Hilary White, to give us insight into these and many more questions we have about online courses.

Bonus: Do you think you might like to offer an online course with a major platform like Lynda.com or LinkedIn Learning? Listen to the end for info on how you can put yourself forward for consideration as a LinkedIn Learning instructor.