FIR Podcast Network

FIR Podcast Network

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FIR Podcast Network episodes

  • FIR #324: Pitching Original Content

    Some PR pros think you should withhold original research, infographics, and other original content from a pitch to a journalist. Others think you can share it, but only under some circumstances. Still others think it best to give reporters what you have. Neville and Shel explore the various recommendations in this short, mid-week episode.
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    12 min
  • ALP 184: Keeping an eye on your agency’s finances

    Agency owners can be reluctant to involve employees or contractors in managing financial aspects of their businesses, especially anything that involves access to bank accounts or credit cards.
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    16 min
  • FIR #323: Outright Theft Or Fair Use?

    All generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) works fundamentally the same: AI neural networks learn from large training sets, gleaning patterns from the contents of those training sets in order to create original content based on their understanding of those patterns. When the companies behind those AI tools use content available on the web for training, do they need to ask permission from the content creators? You and I don't. We can look at as much as we like and learn as much as we can. Is it the same for AI training sets or is it something else altogether, more akin to Napster using existing music without compensating the artists? Neville and Shel are on opposite sides of the debate. Also in this episode:

    • The University of Iowa's school of business has introduced a program to teach students how to tell stories. Storytelling is a crucial business skill that few businesses value. Communicators can help change that.
    • A BBC football analyst -- a contractor, not an employee -- made some partisan remarks on a social network and was punished for violating standards by which employees are required to abide. It reopened a long-dormant discussion about social media policies.
    • Did Silicon Valley Bank communicate too little, contributing to its failure? Or did it communicate too much? Is it possible the bank did both?
    • ChatGPT and Midjourney have both been upgraded and the updates are substantial. Midjourney images are scarily photo-realistic and ChatGPT can now create a web page -- Javascript included -- based on a sketch of a wireframe. And that just scratches the surface of these updates.
    • Microsoft has introduced Co-Pilot, the tool that will let users of its software tap into the power of Artificial Intelligence.

      • Dan York shares news from WordPress, WhatsApp, the world of ChatBots, and more in his Tech Report.
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      1 hr 40 min
    • Circle of Fellows #90: Communicating Change

      Everybody hates change, right? You hear that all the time; it’s why organizational change is so hard. The fact is, people love change. They willingly and enthusiastically make changes all the time. They change their fashions, their hair styles, their cars, their homes, their vacation spots, their furniture, their spouses…

      If change is hard in organizations, it’s not because people just don’t like change. If there is resistance to change, you have to know why. Even if resistance is not a major issue, managing change is still a complex challenge for communicators, who play multiple roles during a change initiative, creating alignment so employees and leaders are on the same page about where we are, where we’re going, why we’re going there, how we’ll get there, and so on. And that doesn’t even account for dealing with the ongoing, day-to-day change that is a fact of life in any business. (As they say, change is the only constant in life.)

      On Thursday, March 16, 2023, four Fellows of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) discussed a wide variety of communication-related change issues.
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      1 hr 1 min
    • EPISODE #69: JASON ANTHOINE ON BECOMING A COMMS TRUSTED ADVISOR

      As communicators, we are often at our best while functioning as trusted advisors to executives, colleagues and other key business stakeholders. But trust isn’t gained overnight. How do you build trust for the long-term?

      Enter Jason Anthoine, the managing founder and “head honcho” of Audacity, a communications consultancy that helps companies inform, involve and inspire their employees by immersing themselves in businesses and absorbing as much as possible, from balance sheets and organizational goals to day-to-day operations.

      “We will never be able to understand what their world is like unless we insert ourselves into it,” Jason told us. “We're here to understand you better so we can give you more of what you want and, more importantly, less of what you don't want.”
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      29 min
    • FIR #322: If Not Twitter, Then Where?

      Network outages. Fleeing advertisers. Disaffected staff. News reports of abusive behavior. Rents in arrears. And news feeds are increasingly swamped with posts from trolls and bots. Things are not looking good for the bird site. But if it fails, what's the alternative? The fediverse is questionable. LinkedIn is solid, but its focus is on business. Jack Dorsey's Bluesky is coming, but it's federated, too.  Is there anything out there that can serve the function Twitter does? Neville and Shel examine the situation and explore the alternatives in this short midweek episode.
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      21 min
    • FIR B2B #158: Anna Griffin on Marketing in Uncertain Times

      We are back after a hiatus and speaking to Anna Griffin, who recently joined cloud storage provider Commvault as Chief Market Officer. Anna has held marketing leadership positions at Smartsheet, Intercom, Nortel, CA and Juniper Networks, among others. That longevity has helped her gain perspective in how to operate in good times and not-so-good times, and... Continue Reading →

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      19 min
    • FIR #321: Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Crisis Comms

      In the laundry list of mistakes and missteps from Norfolk Southern in the wake of the disastrous train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, what stands out the most is that the company seems to be making it all about them and not the people suffering the fallout of the crisis. (At a town hall meeting, a company representative kept repeating how awful everyone at Norfolk Southern felt about the incident. Nobody in East Palestine cares how anybody at Norfolk Southern feels.) You have to wonder if they're getting and ignoring good crisis counsel, if the counsel they're getting is bad, or if they're not getting any professional input at all.
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      20 min

    About FIR Podcast Network

    From the publisher's feed

    For Immediate Release: Podcasts for Communicators