We have lots to talk about on this week’s Inside PR podcast.

Martin returned from attending Counselors Academy last week in Toronto. And he tells us about some of the personal highlights. We’ve said it before, Counselor’s Academy is a unique gathering of PR agency principals that mixes both best communications practices with best business practices. A conference well worth attending.

The demise of Klout. We won’t spill any tears. And it’s still a precautionary tale about the danger of trusting a measurement of index which refuses to publish the factors and calculations that are used to derive it.

Last call. This is deadline week for General Data Protection Regulations. Final warning. This may be a European law, but it can be applied to any Website that gathers data from Europeans. Be sure that you are in compliance with GDPR.

There’s a lot of toxicity in social media discussions and comments. However, not everyone is giving up on the potential of social media to give voice to intelligent and constructive conversation. News this week of a project out of Simon Fraser University to to develop algorithms that would identify the most constructive, well-supported comments and raise their visibility. This type of development offers hope to anyone who is attempting to curate and moderate online conversations. We need more of this.

If you’re listening to this podcast, you know how effective on demand media is to reach an audience with specialized interests. And you probably know something that others would like to share. So, why not think about creating your own podcast to share. If you’re thinking about doing this, Martin has a new podcast course on Lynda.com. A great place to start. And if you do start your own podcast, plesae let us know and we will promote it on Inside PR.

And speaking of new podcasts, Gini Dietrich is launching a Spin Sucks podcast. If you know Gini, you know this will be an outstanding podcast. So, hop over to iTunes and subscribe now.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.