For Immediate Release

Deloitte, the global consulting firm, has launched "Unlimited Reality," a practice designed to help clients "harness next-generation strategies, tools, and technologies to create and connect virtual worlds for industrial, workplace, enterprise, and consumer contexts." In other words, Deloitte wants companies to engage with them to find their way into the metaverse. Neville and Shel discuss what all this means and look at the role the metaverse is beginning to play for enterprises.
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The post FIR #226: The Metaverse Goes Corporate appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

As interviewing job candidates switched from in-person to video during the pandemic, some candidates have been paying shills to stand in for them. Others have shelled out money to be fed answers to interviewers' questions. Neville and Shel dive into one case of a job candidate who had someone else interview on his behalf and discuss ways to detect this unique and baffling new fraud.
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The post FIR #225: Bait and Switch appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

What does it take for a business to get attention on TikTok? In the case of Duolingo, the language training app, it's a giant green owl and the kind of content that is outside most organizations' comfort zones. Neville and Shel review the program and talk about how going viral on TikTok requires a different mindset than any other social media channel.
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The post FIR #224: Viral and Unhinged appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

LinkedIn labeled its news item, "Do we have a failure to communicate?" The article expanded on details shared in a Bloomberg article that found "after so many fits and starts, employees are losing faith that their managers can get this right." What employees believe managers can't get right is the return-to-the-workplace agenda that has created headaches for all involved. Employees are feeling uneasy with all the changed dates. Fully three-quarters of executives believe they are being "fully transparent" about their remote working policies but less than half of employees agree, according to one survey. In this episode, Neville and Shel take a look at the story from the communicator's perspective.
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The post FIR #223: COVID, Return to Work, and the Growing Trust Gap appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

An artist is selling NFTs of Hermès Birkin bags which (unsurprisingly) provoked a response from the company in the form of a cease-and-desist letter. The artist, Mason Rothchild, has fired back, claiming he has a First Amendment right to create art representative of the world around him and suggesting that NFTs represent an evolution that Hermès should be part of. Do the legal precedents favor Hermès or Rothchild?

Note: Since we recorded this episode OpenSea has removed Rothchild's art from its NFT marketplace.
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The post FIR #222: NFTs, the First Amendment, and Trademarks appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The world's first multicultural podcast agency network has signed a multi-year deal with McDonald's to produce custom segments and content feature McDonald's menu items along with specialized targeted ads. It's not the first business Pod Digital Media has signed, suggesting companies are interested in reaching diverse audiences through podcasting. It makes sense, since podcast audiences are pretty diverse -- unlike the ranks of podcast hosts.
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The post FIR #221: Filling the Podcasting Diversity Gap appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In the January Hobson and Holtz Report, Neville and Shel dive into the 2022 Edelman Trust Barometer. Also in this episode, disinformation is now available as a service -- DaaS; we review some journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions for 2022; TikTok and LinkedIn are both copying successful features of other social media services but adding their own twists; authenticity in virtual communication doesn't mean what you think it does (according to one researcher); organized labor is having a moment in the U.S., which should lead internal communicators to rethink some of their strategies. In his tech report, Dan York looks at Twitter Spaces' capabilities, the rebirth of Tumblr, Instagram's test of a chronological feed, Instagram and TikTok testing subscriptions, and some reports on NFTs.
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The post FIR #220: Pssst. Wanna Buy Some Disinformation? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Selfridge's -- the high-end UK fashion retailer -- is making NFTs available at its retail stores. It's not alone. Can NFTs at the Walmart checkout counter be far behind?
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The post FIR #219: Get Your NFTs at a Brick-and-Mortar Retailer appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The Walt Disney Company's parks division is looking for two part-time, on-site TikTok creators to generate content. The Disney Parks Experiences and Products account on TikTok may be the official account but there are also hundreds of Disney influencers sharing videos, too. When it comes to this kind of content, though, we still mostly hear about Instagram, even though Disney has far more followers on TikTok than on Instagram and Twitter combined. What does this mean for other brands?
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The post FIR #218: Disney Is Auditioning TikTok Creators appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The Associated Press has announced it will launch an NFT marketplace for some of its most iconic photos, including some that have won Pulitzer Prizes. The possibilities for other businesses are mind-boggling.
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The post FIR #217: Would You Buy an NFT of a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photograph? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.