For Immediate Release

Special thanks to FIR tech correspondent Dan York for stepping in last week to handle hosting chores while Shel was present for the birth of a granddaughter! Shel is back this week with panelists Philippe Borremans, currently director of strategy for PR Media, an H+K Strategies Affiliate, based in Casablanca, Morocco; David Spark, owner of Spark Media Solutions, a brand journalism firm, and author of Three Feet from Seven Figures’ and Jim Ylisela, president of Duff Media Partners, providing journalistic services, communications consulting and training, also a contributing writer for Chicago magazine.

These were the topics of discussion:

* Philippe talked about adjusting to life in Casablanca and the state of PR in Morocco

* The panel responded to Rachel Miller’s audio question from last week about whether we detect a trend in companies shifting from Human Resources to Employee Experience

* A post by a PR agency exec suggests most agencies don’t do media relations well and, as a result, are (inappropriately) minimizing its importance, while a survey of journalists finds the industry is failing at one of the basics, the online media newsroom

* We give a listen to an audio clip about the sorry state of corporate videos and explore solutions

* A U.K. study found most employees either don’t know if their companies have a crisis plan  or, if they do, they don’t know their role when a crisis strikes

* Jim takes on silos in organizational communication functions

* Philippe let us know about BotPages, a directory of bots that looks just like Yahoo did in the early days of web directories

* Is brand journalism dead and, if not, what do we need to do to make it more effective?

* Dan York reports on the revelation of Bitcoin’s creator, the 50th anniversary of BASIC, and Hemingwayapp.com, a tool to make writing more engaging

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @horationelson (Philippe), @dspark, and @jpyjr (Jim).

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Philippe Borremans is a multi-lingual corporate communications professional with more than 20 years experience in both internal and external communications, crisis communications, online reputation management and media relations.  His career started at Porter Novelli in Brussels and continued at IBM for about 10 years. Both functions gave him extensive experience in European Media Relations and Public Relations. A specialist in press relations, issues management and communication campaigns, he is currently director of Strategy at PRMedia. Every week beginning Philippe interviews thought leaders and curates PR news on his podcast, Wag the Dog.

David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder the brand journalism firm Spark Media Solutions. Spark has worked with brands such as IBM, Microsoft, HP, and Indycar Racing. He’s reported on the tech scene for more than 18 years in more than 40 media outlets, and is the author of “THREE FEET FROM SEVEN FIGURES: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows” available at ThreeFeetBook.com.

Jim Ylisela is president of Duff Media Partners, providing journalistic services, communications consulting, and training. He’s still a contributing writer to Chicago Magazine, which he’s been writing for since 1988,

FIR tech correspondent Dan York jumped in to guest-host the episode while Shel tended to new grandfather duties; his daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby girl a few days early! Today’s panel includes digital and visual content marketing, social media, and online reputation speaker and consultant Krishna De (who also hosts the newest FIR podcast, Talking Social Business); author, investor, and networking expert J. Kelley Hoey, who is also one of the 100 most influential women on Twitter; and B.L. Ochman, a digital pioneer and interactive content and social media consultant.

These were the topics of discussion:

* The challenges for marketers in Facebook’s latest algorithm tweak, which emphasizes content people actually spend time reading

* A survey reveals that the public wants CEOs on social media, but they don’t want them to get personal

* A look at the Facebook Live API and how some brands are already taking advantage of it

* The apology from the chancellor at UC Davis, who used ethically-questionable SEO techniques to bury references to the controversy sparked by pepper-spraying of students involved in a peaceful protest

* Dan York reports on the White House’s behind-the-scenes look at President Obama’s trip to Hanover Messe, Snapchat’s filter to raise awareness of the hazards of texting and driving, Snapchat’s face-swap feature, and surprising demographics revealing that two-thirds of Snapchat’s user base are over 18

* YouTube’s launch of 360-degree video

* The inevitable piling on of brands taking advantage of Prince’s untimely passing

* A listener comment from former FIR podcast host Rachel Miller of All Things IC

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @bizgrowthmedia (Krishna De), @jkellyhoey, and @whatsnext (B.L. Ochman).

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Note: Delicious has been down for a couple days. The links for this episode can be found on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Krishna De is a digital strategy and social media communications speaker, commentator, educator, and mentor. She manages the Certificate in Social Media Communication for the PR Institute of Ireland. Before establishing her own business, Krishna was on the board of a FTSE 100 company in Asia, North America, Western and Eastern Europe. She now works with clients from around the world. Krishna is particularly interested in visual storytelling using short form video and mobile live streaming, and how to develop visual content from quote images to GIFs, and from photographs to online video with just your smartphone. She has a website and a show, Live Stream Insiders, and is the host of Talking Social Business here on the FIR Podcast Network, Talking Social Business.

Author and investor Kelly Hoey is a networking expert whose forthcoming book Build Your Dream Network is to be released in January 2017 by Tarcher Perigee. Kelly has reinvented her career from corporate lawyer to influencer, author and investor. In addition to her portfolio of angel investments (Levo League, Hullabalu, Smigin, CloudPeeps, flowthings.io), she is a LP in Laconia Capital Group. Kelly advises several emerging company initiatives (NZTE and CTA) and is an adjunc...

Today’s panel includes Blogger Bridge CEO Chris Christensen (who also hosts the Amateur Traveler podcast), Voce Communications Senior VP Christopher Barger (who is about to open Christopher Barger Communications), and CustomScoop founder Chip Griffin.

Our topics included…

* The implications for communicators of the growing trend of corporations embracing gay rights and issuing public statements opposing statewide legislation that restricts those rights

* Egypt’s plan to win back tourists despite no recognition in the plan of terror risks, while Mexico has found a way to address the Zika virus

* The widely reported story of an executive who deleted his entire startup with a single line of code, which turned out to be a publicity stunt

* The decline in personal posts on Facebook and how it affects communicators who have invested heavily in Facebook as a channel

* Dan York’s report on Facebook’s F8 developer conference

* The pivot to video by many news organizations and whether company communicators need to follow suit

* Communication jobs opening up focused on writing the scripts chatbots use

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @chris2x, @cbarger, and @chipgriffin.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Christopher Barger is Senior Vice President of Global Programs at Voce Communications, a Porter Novelli company, helping clients around the world develop and execute social media strategies. Christopher has been in the Porter Novelli family since 2011, arriving after nearly seven years of leading social media programs at Fortune 50 companies, and has a decade and a half’s experience building corporate communications strategies. Before joining PN, Christopher was director of global social media at General Motors, building the company’s social media program and leading its presence across multiple social networks. Christopher also previously managed social media initiatives and corporate communications for IBM, serving from 2005-2007 as that company’s first “Blogger-in-Chief” and playing the pivotal role in the development of IBM’s social media program. Christopher is the author of the book “The Social Media Strategist” (McGraw Hill, 2012), and was a contributor to Forbes’ CMO Network through his blog, “The Social Media Report.” He and his family are proud to call the Detroit area home. Catch him on Twitter @cbarger.

Chris Christensen is the CEO at BloggerBridge.com, a website that helps connect companies with relevant bloggers, writers, podcasters, videographers, and other content creators. He’s also the host of the Amateur Traveler Podcast, which he’s been producing almost as long as this show, since June 2005. Chris is also a coder; he was a director of Engineering for TripAdvisor, Executive VP of Engineering and Operations for LiveWorld, and a manager at Apple, designing and programming server solutions.

Chip Griffin is a writer and entrepreneur with a particular interest at the intersection of communications and technology. Chip has helped clients communicate more effectively through strategic messaging, writing, digital advice, and innovative web-based software. He sold one of his companies, CustomScoop, in the summer of 2015. After first getting involved with digital marketing and communications in the mid-1990’s, Chip became one of the first individuals to serve as a Chief Digital Officer of any major public relations firm.

Today’s panel includes internal communications consultant and speaker Steve Crescenzo; ROI Communications CEO Barbara Fagan-Smith; and Frost Bank’s Vice President of Employee Communications, Culture, and People Development, Sheri Rosen.

Our topics included…

* For the first time, Edelman has issued a report that dissects data from the Trust Barometer to find out how much employees trust their employers. The results weren’t pretty.

* Facebook Live is now available to everybody using the Android or iOS Facebook app. Facebook Live essentially puts a broadcast studio in everyone’s pocket. What are the implications for internal communications?

* Barbara shares her takeaways from the Arthur W. Page Society’s spring conference, which focused on communicating to Millennials.

* One suggestion for improving the “employee experience” is to have all functions that touch the employee report up to a Chief Employee Experience Officer. Is this a good idea or just one more unnecessary corporate officer position?

* Dan York’s Tech Report looks at WordPress’s announcement that all its WordPress.com sites now have HTTPS-level security built in, Facebook’s update to its branded content policy, Facebook’s F8 conference taking place this week, Facebook’s instant articles, and the anticipated introduction of a chatbot store to the Messenger app.

* Speaking of chatbots, Kik has added the Chatbot Shop to its app. Is there a future for chatbots in internal communication?

* Identifying internal influencers and tapping into them can accelerate change initiatives.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @crescenzo, @bfagansmith, and @sherirosen.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Steve Crescenzo  started Crescenzo Communications 15 years ago after leaving his post as Editorial Director and VP of New Product Development at Ragan Communications. I should point out that Steve does a lot of great communication work, but his wife Cindy runs Crescenzo Communications. Both Steve and Cindy do presentations, internal communication audits, and internal communication consulting. Steve and Cindy both present frequently, together and solo, at a number of communication conferences at events, and Steve has been recognized as the top speaker at IABC’s world conference a number of times.

Barbara Fagan-Smith, the founder and CEO of ROI Communication, has more than two decades of experience in corporate communications and journalism. She leads ROI’s work with a wide range of Fortune 500 companies, helping them strengthen communication within organizations to engage, empower and inspire employees. Before founding ROI Communication and Family ROI, Barbara was the Director of Employee and Electronic Communications at Quantum Corporation, and Director of Interactive Communications at Simply Interactive, Inc. Before her career in corporate communications, Barbara worked as a London-based television producer for ABC News, where she covered the revolutions in Eastern Europe and the 1991 Gulf War for ABC’s PrimeTime Live and World News Tonight. Earlier, she covered international business and produced national radio programs for ABC. She earned a B.A. in Journalism and Communications from Humboldt State University. Barbara was named one of Silicon Valley’s most influential women by the San Jose/Silicon Valley Business Journal. Barbara was also selected as a winner of the Enterprising Women of the Year Awards,

Today’s panel includes Doug Haslam, senior consultant at Boston-based digital marketing agency Stone Temple Consulting; Jennifer Stauss, PR and Social Media strategist at Bozell, an integrated marketing services company in Omaha; and Mark Story, Washington D.C.-based communications counsel for the National Cancer Institute and adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University.

Our topics included…

* A special segment devoted to communication and cancer, based on the connection each of the panelists have with the issue (personally and professionally)

* The Associated Press’s decision to change the case of Internet and World Wide Web from upper to lower, and the resulting uproar

* The sharing economy (or gig economy, or freelance economy, or collaborative economy) and whether it’s sustainable — after so many companies have taken steps to prepare from what they thought was inevitable disruption

* The introduction of a new job title — Platform Relationships Manager — and whether communication departments and agencies may soon be looking for their own platform specialists

* How Hubspot is working to minimize potential fallout from the publication of a book by a former staff member — and well-known tech journalist — that doesn’t portray the company in the most positive light

* How unbranded content can deliver value even though consumers don’t know your brand is behind the content

* Dan York reports from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on content-injection attacks; Dan also shares his thoughts on the AP style news

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @dough, @jenniferstauss, and @mstory123.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Doug Haslam’s  career has spanned a variety of disciplines within the communications field: radio technology, editorial production, public relations, marketing, social media and digital. Doug began with public radio, producing news and thoughtful sports programs, moving into technology public relations, and currently to social media and content strategy for brands of all sizes and industries. Doug’s love of media has come full circle, as his most recent positions have seen him taking full advantage of his content creation skills, managing social media and brand publishing programs for a wide variety of clients.

Jennifer Stauss is public relations and social media strategist at Bozell, a creative marketing communications firm in Omaha, Nebraska.  Her work there encompasses public relations and social media strategy and execution, crisis communications as well as social media community development and management.  Jennifer founded SMAC!, which stands for Sock Monkeys Against Cancer – a social enterprise that encourages the giving of SMAC! monkeys – true “creature comforts” for those with or impacted by cancer – reminding them no one fights it alone. The creation of SMAC! was inspired by Jennifer’s mother’s battle with lung cancer (no, she never smoked) and their politically incorrect social media campaign called “WTF? (Where’s the Funding) for Lung Cancer,” that publicly chronicled her mom’s battle to educate the masses that ANYONE can get lung cancer and increase funding for the #1 cancer killer and the LEAST funded. The WTF? campaign gained national notoriety as a finalist in Mashable’s awards for most creative social media campaign.Before entering the cancer world, Jennifer did two stints in the agency world; served as press secretary for the then Omaha mayor and star...

Today’s panel includes Liz Bullock, director of Digital and Paid Media at Rackspace, the managed cloud company, and former director of Social Media & Community at Dell; Cory Edwards, Director of the Social Media Center of Excellence at Adobe, and former Director of Social Media and Corporate Reputation at Dell; and  Lionel Menchaca, director of corporate and strategy at W2O group, and communications consortium, and former chief blogger at Dell.

Our topics included…

* A conversation about how the Dell experience has shaped the panel’s post-Dell careers

* A recap of last week’s Adobe Summit, a digital marketing conference (Cory and Liz were both there)

* The announcement by E!, the cable entertainment news and gossip  network, is launching a 20-minute live broadcast on Facebook Live; does the surge of media programming on Live suggest brands can play, too?

* How big a deal will chatbots be for organizational communicators?

* Companies need to adopt social strategies around people, both among influencers and employee advocates

* A new generation of tools will affect the customer experience

* Income inequality is due, in large part, to the gap in workers’ computer skills (the hottest LinkedIn skill that led to a job in 2014 was statistical analysis/data mining)

* The era of free social media marketing is over

* Dan  York reports on the upcoming Internet Engineering Task Force meeting in Buenos Aires, the upcoming RightsCon that will address freedom of expression and encryptiong, new Snapchat data, and Netflix’s plan to target content based on your interests instead of your demographics

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @lizbbullock, @coryedwards, and @lionelgeek.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Liz Bullock is a marketer, storyteller, and retired artist. She currently is Director of Digital and Paid Media at Rackspace, focused on driving best in class marketing experiences for the company’s customers. Lis is founder of Social Arts & Science Institute, LLC (SASI), which is focused on empowering organizations to scale employee social engagement to build trust and business results. She formerly wasDirector of Social Media and Community for Dell, focused on embedding social media within the organization, activating customer connected employees and operationalizing Dell’s social enterprise. In that role, Liz was a senior leader within Dell’s central social media team focused on strategy, governance, best practices, measurement and training. She founded and managed Dell’s social media training and certification program (SMaC University) to activate employees to engage online on behalf of Dell.

Cory Edwards is a Communications professional with experience in corporate PR, product PR, M&A Communications and social media. At Adobe, Cory leads a team that is at the heart of enabling our business to be social: from sales and marketing to support and HR. We’re aggressively trying new things and evolving our approach to social media to meet the demands of our business and the expectations of our customers. During the past 7 years, his primary focus has been on corporate social media. Cory has been part of the social revolution in the corporate world leading social media initiatives, programs and teams at Symantec, Dell and now Adobe.

Lionel Menchaca serves as director of Corporate & Strategy for W2O Group. In this role, he helps clients of all sizes to develop content and engagement strategies so they can conne...

Today’s panel includes JEM Consulting & Advisory Services CEO Jen McClure (who is also the founder of the Society for New Communications Research) and John Wall, VP of Marketing at Event Hero and co-host of Marketing Over Coffee. Our topics included…

* South by Southwest: a communicator’s must-attend conference, a boondoggle, or something in-between?

* Why can’t more government agencies (and businesses, for that matter) exhibit the transparency and candor that BART displayed in its Twitter feed last week?

* The Pope is on Instagram

* Dan York reports on Instagram’s adoption of an algorithm in favor of a chronological feed

* Most brand social content is 1:1, not 1-to-many. Why isn’t that reflected in the way we allocate social media resources?

* The number of companies publishing sustainability reports jumped 61% in four years. What’s going on here?

* Sea World capitulated to activists and shut down its killer whale breeding program. There are PR implications in the theme park’s decision.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @JenMcClure and @JohnJWall.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

John Wall speaks, writes and practices at the intersection of marketing, sales, and technology. He is the producer of Marketing Over Coffee, a weekly audio program that discusses marketing and technology with his co-host Christopher S. Penn, and has been featured on iTunes. Notable guests include Chris Brogan, David Meerman Scott, Simon Sinek and Seth Godin. His work has been profiled by Forbes, CBS Evening News, The Associated Press, NECN, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, DM News, and the Yahoo! Year in Review. John is Vice President of Marketing at EventHero. He has held positions specializing in Customer Relationship Management, Marketing Automation and sales support systems at both venture funded and privately held businesses, working with clients such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Salesforce.com. Read more on LinkedIn.

Jen McClure is CEO of JEM Consulting & Advisory Services. Prior to founding JEM, Jen was Vice President of Digital & Social Media and the head of the Digital Center of Excellence at Thomson Reuters. In 2005, Ms. McClure founded the Society for New Communications Research, a nonprofit research and education foundation and think tank and was President of the Board of Directors from 2005-2016, when the organization merged with The Conference Board. She now chairs the Advisory Board of the new organization.

Today’s panel includes Kristine D’Arbelles, public affairs manager for the Canadian Automobile Association and co-host of the Young PR Pros podcast; Kathy Klotz-Guest, chief storyteller, author, and speaker at Keeping It Human; and 4L Strategies Partner Jennifer Zingsheim Phillips. Our topics included…

* An update to the JCOPE saga, with some high-profile New York PR agencies filing suit against the rule that treats PR agencies as lobbying organizations, while PRSA (along with the PR Council and the Arthur W. Page Society) have filed affidavits opposing the rule

* A report suggests most charities aren’t getting their money’s worth out of social media and advises their time and resources would be better spent on other activities

* A Harvard Business Review article cites a study reporting that two-thirds of managers are not comfortable communicating with employees, which should make it hard to accommodate the taken-for-granted principle that we need to communicate internally primarily through supervisors (who are often cited as employees’ preferred source for information)

* Hollywood has undertaken efforts to figure out how to tell stories using Virtual Reality, something that isn’t happening (near as we can tell) in the communications industry, despite an intensified focus on storytelling

* A study used facial coding technology to assess the emotional response to branded content. The results were positive, but is the technology a little too creepy?

* Tennis star Maria Sharapova has been losing endorsement contracts since revealing she had tested positive for a recently-banned substance; some are calling Sharapova’s handling of the situation a case study for businesses on how to manage a crisis

* Reddit is ramping up its advertising services, but is it still too unpredictable a place for most brands?

* More than a fifth of all American s– about 57 million — listened to a podcast in the last month. What’s holding brands back from embracing the medium?

* Dan York reports on Pi Day, IANA’s transition, International Women’s Day (and the #ShineTheLight hashtag), and the continuing smartphone revolution.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @KristineDarbell, @KathyKlotzGuest, and @JenZings.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Kristine D’Arbelles is the manager of public affairs for the Canadian Automobile Association. In her role she manages public education campaigns on issues that are of importance to Canadian consumers, such as, road safety, environmentally friendly driving practices, travel tips and safety,  and data privacy. Kristine’s passion is podcasting. She co-hosts Young PR Pros alongside Julia Kent and Ross Simmonds. The podcast, which is also part of the FIR podcast network, is for the young and young at heart PR pros looking for tips and advice on how to build and advance their careers. The show has listeners worldwide and has been downloaded more than 20,000 times.

Kathy Klotz-Guest, MA, MBA, is a business storyteller, creative facilitator, and speaker. Founder of Keeping it Human, it’s her mission to help organizations turn jargon-monoxide into compelling stories and uncover bold ideas for marketing. A podcaster and comic improviser who launched her one-woman show in 2015, she is also the author of an upcoming book on humanizing business storytelling by blending elements of improvisation (2016). Her work has been featured in Convince and Convert, SNCR.org, Business of Story,

Today’s panel includes public relations strategist Sally Falkow, marketing CEO Lee Odden, and social/digital thought leader Ekaterina Walter. Our topics included…

* An update on the New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics’ decision to require PR agencies to register as lobbyists if they try to sway political votes by influencing editorial boards (0:03:23)

* Multiple studies show brands are cranking out more content than ever, but engagement is dropping. Is it a crisis, and what can marketers do about it? Could email newsletters be one solution? (0:08:00)

* Live streaming update: Consumer and retail brand leaders are making live streaming a regular part of their marketing mix, yet Meerkat is calling it quits and pivoting into a small group video chat utility (0:34:00)

* We lament the decline of the newspaper because there are fewer paid journalists with the resources to cover stories in the public interest in which the public may not know it has an interest. Is this good or bad for PR? (0:44:00)

* Dan York reports on ICANN meetings in Marrakech and the launch of a new audio app, Anchor (0:53:00)

* Do brands need a Chief Experience Officer? Regardless, they do need to coalesce around the customer experience (1:02:00)

* There’s a gap between board members’ confidence in their companies’ ability to handle crisis and their belief that their companies are prepared for one (1:14:00)

* Land’s End didn’t foresee the consequences of politically-charged content. Does that mean brands should always avoid politically-charged content? (1:26:00)

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @sallyfalkow, @leeodden, and @ekaterina.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

In 2014, Sally Falkow was recognized as one of the Top 50 Social Media Influencers on Twitter and one of the 25 Women Who Rock Social Media. Sally currently lives two lives: one as a strategist for social media and digital PR agency Meritus Media in Pasadena, California, a role she has had for nearly eight years, the other as president and co-developer of PRESSfeed, an online tool for marketing and PR practitioners that lets them share news content online. Sally also publishes the Proactive Report, and is a Founding Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research. She is the author of the book, Smart News.

Cited by the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes for his marketing expertise, Lee Odden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing, an internationally respected digital marketing agency that provides consulting for some of the most successful companies in the world. Lee’s evangelism for an integrated approach to search, social media, influencer and content marketing has extended over 100 events in 12 different countries. He blogs at marketingblog.com and is the author of Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO,

Today’s panel includes Profitechture’s Paul Gillin, Ike Pigott of Alabama Power, and the National Cancer Institute’s Mark Story. Our topics included…

* The Mayo Clinic will broadcast a colonoscopy using Periscope

* Brands need to spend more time understanding (and adopting) messaging apps

* Branded content can’t win when subcultures drive the conversation; we need to look at “crowdcultures”

* Dan York reports on Facebook Live coming to Android, Instant Articles coming to Facebook everybody and Facebook reactions has launched (and Dan has questions)

* Can Facebook Reactions produce better sentiment analysis for brands?

* Virtual Reality Update: Mobile VR will hit $861 million in revenue; VR for B2B; and the US Soccer Federation’s use of VR to promote its new crest with fans

* Richard Edelman says CEOs should have active Facebook pages for engaging with stakeholders, but a CEO.com study says few Fortune 500 CEOs are active on social media at all

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @paulgillin, @ikepigott, and @mstory123

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Paul Gillin writes, speaks, and trains marketers and corporate executives to think like publishers as part of Profitecture. He specializes in social media for B2B companies – in fact, he co-wrote Social Marketing to the Business Customer with Eric Schwartzman (who was an FIR panelist last week) and currently co-hostsFIR B2B with Eric. Paul has written four other books, including Attack of the Customers, his most recent book. He co-authored The Joy of Geocaching with his wife, Dana. Before striking out on his own, Paul worked for TechTarget and, before that, was editor-in-chief and executive editor of Computerworld Magazine.

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.

Mark Story is a one-time contributor to FIR. Mark currently works 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.