For Immediate Release

Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz unite for the 1000th episode of “For Immediate Release.” (176 episodes of “For Immediate Release” + 824 episodes of “For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report” = 1,000.) In addition to recollections of times past and comments from listeners from throughout FIR’s 14-plus-year history, Neville and Shel report on these stories:

* Is it no longer acceptable to call people “users”?

* Five revelations from Adobe’s survey of digital content consumers

* Employee use of messaging apps that HR probably doesn’t know about

* How some big companies are tapping into crowdfunding to assess the viability of new products

* Siemens’ CEO went off the rails in a Twitter rant

* MasterCard has launched a sonic logo

* Dan York’s Tech Report reports on the evolution of podcasting.

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

Neville Hobson co-founded the For Immediate Release podcast series with Shel Holtz in 2005. In 2017, he and Shel began co-presenting a monthly edition of The Hobson & Holtz Report. Neville also co-presents the monthly Small Data Forum Podcast that he started with Thomas Stoeckle and Sam Knowles in the summer of 2016, the goal of which is to help listeners make Big Data less intimidating, more actionable and thus more valuable. Neville is Director of Digital Marketing at the Internet Society, a global non-profit working for an open, globally-connected, secure, and trustworthy Internet for everyone. He is responsible for the definition, development and implementation of the Internet Society’s digital communications strategy. Follow Neville on Twitter @jangles

Links from this episode

* I Was A Facebook Fact-Checker. It Was Like Playing A Doomed Game Of Whack-A-Mole.

* Calling people ‘users’ is unethical and outdated

* Consumer trends that are shaping digital content consumption

* Employees Are Using Messaging Apps, Whether HR Knows or Not

* Frontline Workers Frequently Turn to Unapproved Messaging Apps for Work-Related Communications Unbeknownst to HR

* How Coca-Cola, Lego, and Gillette tapped into the wisdom of crowds

* Siemens Boss Goes Off the Rails in Twitter Rant

* MasterCard just launched a sonic logo. Here’s what it sounds like

* MasterCard Has a New Sonic Logo

Links from Dan York’s Report

* Spotify Paid Nearly $340 Million to Buy Podcast Startups Gimlet and Anchor

Scott Monty joins FIR host Shel Holtz to discuss Spotify’s acquisition of Gimlet Media and Anchor.fm, as well as Periscope’s new audio call-in feature. Also in this episode:

* Tik Tok is a threat to Snapchat and Twitter; meanwhile, brands are figuring out how to make it fit in their social media toolkits

* Facebook Pages can now join Facebook Groups

* After 15 years, on balance, has Facebook been good or bad for the world?

* Instagram will inject IGTV video clips in your primary feed

* Twitter reveals its daily active users, and it isn’t pretty

* Artificial Intelligence for writing copy is getting common in newsrooms; can PR and marketing be far behind?

* An Alexa update means marketers will have to optimize email for voice

* Dan York’s report looks at the Spotify/Gimlet deal, more from Twitter’s earnings call, Spotify’s fight against ad blockers, Germany’s order to Facebook, and one reporter’s attempt to cut the big five from her life (it was hell)

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 Scott Monty

Scott Monty is an internationally recognized Fortune 10 leader whose background in classics positioned him to see through the shiny objects and drill down to understand the common human needs from throughout history that still drive us all. Scott speaks to and advises executives on understanding trends while embracing the timeless wisdom of human nature through classical literature, philosophy, and history. Scott spent six years as an executive at Ford Motor Company, where he helped turn the company around with an uncanny ability to merge technology with humanity. He served as a strategic adviser across a variety of business functions, leading the company’s global social media strategy. He also has a another decade and a half of experience in communications and marketing agencies. Scott’s clients have included Walmart, IBM, McDonalds, Coca-Cola, and Google, and The Economist ranked him as #1 atop the list of 25 Social Business Leaders. He is a past board member of the American Marketing Association, a trustee of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and an adviser for a number of Silicon Valley companies. He writes about the changing landscape of business, technology, communications, marketing and leadership at ScottMonty.com, and produces the widely acclaimed weekly newsletter and podcast The Full Monty.

Links from this episode:

* Google releases Chrome extension to check for leaked usernames and passwords

* How TikTok is climbing the download charts, taking on Snapchat and Twitter

* Facebook Finally Lets Brands And Publishers into Groups

* Has Facebook been good for the world?

* Instagram will put IGTV videos in your feed

* In a First,

David Murray, executive director of the Professional Speechwriters Association, joins host Shel Holtz to talk about mending the relationship between executive communicators and internal communicators. Also in this week’s episode:

* As many as 2,100 people have lost media jobs in the last two weeks. How much is content marketing to blame?

* It’s time to start using data journalism in content marketing

* One survey reinforces the need for CEOs to take positions on social and political issues. Another looks at what CEOs want to talk about in 2019. Are they aligned?

* Spotify wants to spend $200 million on a podcast production company

* The Economist is the latest entry in the crowded daily news podcast field

* Google is adding a microphone the query field on Android phones — and you’ll get the answer in audio, too

* Starbucks is telling employees how to respond when Howard Schultz’s presidential ambitions come up

* It may be getting close to bidding farewell to the URL

* Leaving Facebook may make you happier, but there’s a negative consequence, too

* Sharing Instagram Stories privately is just one new product feature Facebook plans for 2019

* Dan York’s Tech Report covers Apple’s decision to drop apps from Facebook and Google in its App Store, 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 David Murray

For 20 years David Murray has written and spoken frequently on corporate, political and personal communication issues—particularly employee communication, and speechwriting. He also done extensive feature writing on wide-ranging subjects: politics, golf, murder, hairpiece making, boxing, ballet, homelessness, motorcycling, the state supreme court, sailing, dinosaurs, professional poker and other related subjects, for publications and media outlets as disparate as the The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, Sailing Magazine, Golf Magazine, Car Collector Magazine, Chicago Magazine, Advertising Age, Vibe.com and the Huffington Post. He is the executive director for the Professional Speechwriters Association, publisher of Vital Speeches of the Day, author of two books, and a prolific blogger at Writing Boots.

Links from this week’s episode

* The New Branding Strategy: Churn Out ‘Content’

* As Many As 2,100 People Have Lost Media Jobs in the Past Two Weeks

* 2009: The internet is killing (print) journalism. 2019: The internet is killing (internet) journalism.

* How to use data journalism in your content marketing

* New York City, St. Petersburg, Fla., Ramp Up Data Storytelling

* Doing Journalism with Data (a MOOC)

* Brand purpose is the future for the majority of marketing leaders

* New Survey Finds CEOs Want to Talk Sales, Not Social Issues, in 2019

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Kami Huyse, CEO of Zoetica Media and co-host of the Communities that Convert podcast joins FIR host Shel Holtz to discuss ways companies can benefit from a study that finds people are asking their questions on independent forums instead of big social networks. Also in this week’s episode:

* A dive into the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer

* A look at the 2019 State of Social Media report from Buffer

* Less than 10% of people can tell a native ad from original content

* Roo is a new chatbot that answers teens’ questions about sexual health

* Executive communicators really dislike internal communicators

* Facebook will integrate its three messaging apps

* Rosetta Stone adds AI to its iPhone app to help you describe objects

* Twitter is testing an “original tweeter” label for threads

* Girl Scouts can now earn a cybersecurity badge

* Google lobbied U.S. government so it could ban employees from organizing via email

* Dan York’s Tech Report includes a LiveJournal retrospective, a model online community, algorithms and bias, and the State of the Net 2019 conference.

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 Kami Huyse

Kami Watson Huyse is a national leader on the topic of public relations and social media strategy. A 20-year-veteran of public relations, she speaks at social media events and conferences all over the country and her work in social media has earned her two Society for New Communications Research Social Media awards and IABC’s Gold Quill of Excellence Award. She is the strategic architect for many successful social media campaigns and oversees account management for Zoetica Media. Her ideas and work in social media have been featured in several books. She serves on the Board of Directors of Civilination, a nonprofit dedicated to taking a stand against online harassment, character assassination, and violence. She was named PR Professional of the Year in San Antonio, was recognized for a Social Media award by the Austin-American Statesman, has been named one of the 100 most powerful Women on Twitter by Twitter Grader, was listed as one of the 30 top people to follow in PR on Twitter by e-Releases, one of AG Beat’s Top 50 Influencers, a Top 100 Power Influencer in Houston, and one of 50 Follow-Worthy Marketing Measurement and Digital Analytics Experts. She is also a founder and administrator of the Social Media Breakfast of Houston. Kami and Madlyn Sklar co-host the Communities That Convert podcast.

Links from this episode

* 7 Podcasts for CCOs

* Kraft Takes Out Newspaper Ad Seeking Support of Furloughed Workers Amid Shutdown

* 10-Year Challenge: How the world has changed in a decade

* 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer

* Employees now deeply trust their employers — and 5 other takeaways from the 2019 Trust Barometer

* State of Social

* State of S...

Neville Hobson joins host Shel Holtz for the January installment of “The Hobson & Holtz Report” to talk about these stories:

* Lost trust in Facebook led to wariness about a user-generated meme.

* Adobe is bringing part of “Minority Report” to life.

* The Internet of Things was everywhere at CES.

* A picture of an egg is the most viewed Instagram post ever. What does that bode for influencer marketing?

* Picture what Google will look like if the EU implements Article 11 of the Copyright Directive.

* Brands are weighing in on the U.S. government shutdown.

* Dan York reports on the web’s growing complexity, Jeff Jarvis’s Facebook screed, stats from the global social network composed of nodes that talk to each other, and how content management systems will shape the future of media.

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

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.

Links from this week’s episode:

* Fourth Annual Global Communications Survey from the USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations

* Think the #10YearChallenge is fun? It’s a surveillance nightmare

* Facebook’s ’10 Year Challenge is Just a Harmless Meme — Right?

* Adobe To Make DOOH Perform — Is There A Place For Search?

* Procter & Gamble shows off surprisingly cool tech in ordinary products

* Intelligence Brief: Voice and IoT dominate CES

* An Egg, Just a Regular Egg, Is Instagram’s Most-Liked Post Ever

* Opinion: The murky practice of influencer marketing

* This is what Google says search will look like under EU copyright laws

* The Internet is Facing a Catastrophe For Free Expression and Competition: You Could Tip The Balance

* Bran...

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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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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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...

Neville Hobson joins Shel Holtz for the December installment of “The Hobson & Holtz Report.” The stories Neville and Shel covered include…

* The passing of PR fixture Jack O’Dwyer

* Marketers are turning their attention to messaging apps

* Not everyone is free to leave Facebook, even if they want to

* The death of keywords (or is it?) as audiences become key to targeting in search

* Rising Instagram stars post fake sponsored posts to get brands’ attention

* What we learned about GDPR in 2018

* Research reveals how journalists can rebuild trust in media; could it work in business?

* Dan York reports on the Quora data breach, rural connectivity, free (for now) LinkedIn Learning courses, more on Facebook’s woes, Slack banning users with links to Iran, and a new podcast all-in-one mixing desk.

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

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.

Links from this week’s episode:

* Jack O’Dwyer, Chronicler of PR, Dies

* Going where the customer is: Marketers are coming for messaging apps

* Why Marketers Need to Use Ads in Messaging App

* Tips for Marketing through Messaging Apps

* Why Should Anyone Believe Facebook Anymore?

* Facebook says companies got access to data only after user permission

* NAACP Joins Growing List of Civil Rights Groups Criticizing Facebook

* Facebook’s Sandberg cites need to do more after reports of Russia meddling

* ‘We want these platforms to be healthy’: Why top marketers won’t quit Facebook after 2018 scandals

* ‘They don’t care’: Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties

* Cost to walk away from Facebook for a year? More than $1,000, new study finds

Two conversations anchor this week’s podcast. Jen Phillips and Sherrilynne Starkie chat with host Shel Holtz about the real impact of fake news on public relations and what practitioners can do about it, and Sharon McIntosh and Shel riff on internal communication predictions for 2019. Also in this week’s episode:

* FIR made three lists of must-listen podcasts in one week

* Edelman’s Digital Trends 2019 is a long but important read

* For the first time, social media is a bigger news source for Americans than print newspapers

* There’s some fun to be had in an internal communication contest from Contact Monkey

* Google will shut down Google+ sooner than expected

* Voice messaging has come to Instagram

* Some useful observations about voice tech

* “Brand purpose” is the marketing word(s) of the year (according to the ANA)

* Dan York says he may give up on Facebook. Dan’s report also covers the Intelligent Edge, Facebook’s “Today In” feature, YouTube Stories, and TechMeme leaderboards.

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 Sharon McIntosh

Sharon McIntosh is president of And Then Communications. She also co-hosts EE Voice on the FIR Podcast Network. With more than two decades of communications experience, she has a passion for creating and executing new ideas to drive employee engagement at companies both large and small. Most recently Sharon served as PepsiCo’s vice president of Global Internal Communications, overseeing the company’s efforts to connect with its more than 274,000 employees worldwide. She and her team launched a number of innovative employee initiatives, including the company’s first social media training (SMART U), a social tool to share internal news externally and PepsiCo’s award-winning employee ambassador program. She and her team also developed a communications strategy to support the company’s first comprehensive, global and multi-year transformation initiative. Before joining PepsiCo in 2004, Sharon spent seven years at Sears. Among her greatest contributions there, she launched a marketing strategy for life events, ran user experience for the company’s e-commerce site and introduced the company’s first intranet. Prior to Sears, she worked at Waste Management, publishing more than 14 annual reports for various business units, managing shareholder meetings, drafting senior executive speeches and handling media relations. Sharon graduated with a B.A. in journalism from Marquette University and an M.A. from DePaul University. She lives in Norwalk, CT.

About Jennifer Zingsheim Phillips

Jennifer Zingsheim Phillips is partner at 4L Strategies. Before returning to her practice, she was director of marketing communications at CARMA. She previously ran 4L Strategies, consulting and providing content development for a variety of industries. She has worked in communications and public affairs for 20 years. Her background includes work in electoral politics, government, lobbying, and public affairs PR work.

About Sherrilynne Starkie

Sherrilynne Starkie is IABC Ottawa’s past president with an international reputation as a PR social media pioneer. She is an independent consultant and in the past, has held leadership agency roles in Canada, the UK, and the USA.  She’s a prolific blogger, a frequent contributor and, until now, only a sometimes podcaster. Have an idea for the show or want to connect? Reach out to Sherrilynne on LinkedIn and Twitter. Have an idea for the show or want to connect? Reach out to Sherrilynne on