For Immediate Release

It's easy to fall into the assumption trap: assuming the right message is always about outcomes. In the case of research conducted about organizations dealing with the prevention and countering of violent extremism, promoting outcomes didn't produce the intended effect -- in fact, it could actually produce unintended negative results. Building trust with key stakeholders required a different approach. It takes a professional communicator to conduct the stakeholder analysis that will surface this kind of information, but many organizations continue to believe they can handle communications without professional assistance.
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The post FIR #236: Crafting the Right Message appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Russia is experiencing a stampede of companies exiting the country, either permanently or temporarily, in support of Ukraine and in some cases under pressure from consumers and shareholders. Is there a case for remaining in Russia and how much damage can a brand sustain by staying?
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The post FIR #235: Is It Tenable to Keep Doing Business in Russia? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

With declining trust in media, many media outlets have found themselves in the position of reinforcing and re-explaining what it means to be "on background" and "off the record," because too many organizations and their PR representatives don't seem to understand it -- or they do understand it and are wilfully abusing it. Neville and Shel take a look at the extent to which some news organizations are going to make their positions clear.
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The post FIR #234: You’re Always On The Record appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

While some of us are immersed in Web3, most Americans are pretty clueless about it, according to a new survey. But survey responses also reflect dissatisfaction with Web 2.0, identifying issues Web3 is meant to fix.
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The post FIR #233: Wondering About Web3 appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

One DAO -- a Decentralized Autonomous Organization -- is taking its visual brand very seriously. And true to its nature, Cabin DAO has decided to decentralize the creation of its brand. As DAOs grow in popularity, expand the scope of their focus, and become a routine approach to some kinds of business activities, could decentralized branding become more common?
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The post FIR #232: Decentralized Branding appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

A Gallup-Knight Foundation survey finds a precipitous decline in the number of Americans paying attention to national news. For many organizations, some national news provides important context to company decisions and actions. Is it incumbent on businesses to make sure their stakeholders know that news? And given that 25 percent of Americans get news from podcasts, is audio a key channel for delivering pertinent news?
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The post FIR #231: Are All Companies In the News Business? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

After learning their company was planning a cloud-based NFT service, a group of Salesforce employees sent a letter to leadership expressing their vehement opposition. They are part of a growing backlash against NFTs, objecting to everything from their impact on the planet to the scammers and fraudsters they attract.
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The post FIR #230: Employees vs. NFTs appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

It will not go down in business history as one of the most consequential mergers or acquisitions of all time, but The New York Times' acquisition of the extraordinarily popular word game, Wordle, has produced an avalanche of criticism and even threats to cancel subscriptions. There are lessons here for any organization acquiring a company with an engaged fan base, and even for companies planning to make changes to existing popular products.
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The post FIR #229: Much Ado About Wordle appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Conventional wisdom argues that silos in business are bad, preventing knowledge and information from spreading beyond the silo's walls. When it comes to returning to work, proponents of all hands on deck in the office insist that remote work creates silos and all but eliminates the opportunity for chance encounters that lead to new ideas or shared knowledge. A new study from Harvard, which analyzed billions of employee emails from 2020 and 2021, found that silos did solidify but that the results were actually positive.
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The post FIR #228: Rethinking Silos appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In his Tech Report, Dan York reports on "static videos" becoming a thing on Instagram, a British band's protest against Spotify's algorithm, a Twitter test to send DMs by bypassing the DM button on your profile, Wired's review of the messaging app Telegram, the release of WordPress 5.9, and a new project Dan's working on.

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The post FIR #227: DAOS and Crypto and Blockchain (Oh, My!) appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.