Gini’s podcast, Spin Sucks, launched with three episodes. We talk about Gini’s approach to packaging and launching the podcast, and how she hopes to use it to build the Spin Sucks community. Not surprisingly, there’s real method to Gini’s actions. A text book example of how to launch a new podcast.

We also talk about the trend to building geographically dispersed teams freed of the need to show up at the office each day. Automattic, the company behind WordPress, just celebrated their 15th anniversary. And they also gave up their last office. Automattic has built a business that lasts with a team that works from the space that works for then. We see this happening more and more in communications and marketing. But there’s one important lesson from Automattic’s experience. It is important to bring people together at key times.

We all had two years to prepare for GDPR. So, are you surprised that so many organizations were not prepared for its May 25 effective date? Well, it’s clear that many weren’t. It’s also clear that GDPR is having an impact on advertising, with significant drop offs in advertising volumes reported in days following its implementation.

Also, Martin is shares some of the discussions that stood out for him at this year’s CPRA Annual Conference in Charlottetown.

The post Gini Dietrich shows us how to launch a podcast appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

This week, Gini, Martin and Joe talk about:

The post Inside PR 507: GDPR is here appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In the past two weeks, there has been a lot of discussion around Will Oremus’ article “Are You Really the Product? The history of a dangerous idea.” In a nutshell, Oremus argues that the “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product,” aphorism doesn’t really apply in the case of Facebook.

Gini and Joe have different perspectives on this. Gini sees a lot of value in Oremus’ arguments. Joe thinks that his arguments are beguiling, but convoluted, bringing us to the same conclusion: “If you aren’t paying for it with money, you are paying for it in other ways.” Ultimately, he who pays for something sets the terms.

AND

LinkedIn. Can it really be 15 years old? It seems like only yesterday we first met.

LinkedIn is not as big as Facebook. It doesn’t sit at the middle of the news cycle like Twitter. And it doesn’t have the love directed at Instagram. But it is older than all of these social networks – and it occupies a unique place for business. We talk about how it has changed over the years and our ongoing love/hate relationship with it.

The post Yes, you ARE the product. But you don’t have to be. appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

A White House Press Corps that falls over themselves to distance themselves form a comic who spoke truth to power. The remarkable performance of Rudolph Giuliani and the rapid shift in the President’s tweets from “Rudy’s got it right” to “he has to get his facts right.” What is truth? Where is truth? And is the news media even less capable of providing us with the information we need as citizens. Or are they locked in a race to the bottom?

In the wake of these events, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley revisit how we felt in the days after President Trump was elected. We struggled then, as we do now, to understand the new President, the people around him, and the effectiveness of news media outlets weakened by a deterioration in their business and distribution models.

So, after several weeks of reflecting on Facebook and social media, let’s take a step back and replay our conversation from Inside PR 464 about the new Trump administration and whether the news media is too weakened to do its job.

And as you listen to it, we think you’ll find that the questions we asked in January 2017 are as apt today as they were then.

The post Oh What a Week it Was appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

What’s the matter with mat stories? Quite a bit, in the absence of full disclosure. We talk about the different approaches to mat stories taken by the two largest providers in North America, NAPs in the United States and News Canada north of the border. We talk about where the responsibility for disclosure resides and we see that there may be failings at all three points in the news chain, PR agencies, mat distributors and publishers.

We also look at Facebook’s curious performance during and after its testimony before a Canadian Parliamentary Committee. Called to testify about its privacy policies, Facebook’s spokesperson first told Parliamentarians that Facebook has its own interpretation of Canadian lobbying laws. An interpretation that resulted in Facebook having no lobbyist registration, despite the fact that Facebook was on record having meetings with several Cabinet Ministers. Curious, said the NDP’s Charlie Angus. But, there’s more. To top it off, Facebook, the distribution platform on which many Canadians receive their news, refused to take any questions from reporters. This, even thought the reporters accompanied Facebook’s Canadian rep down three stories from the Committee hearings to the building exit where he could finally flee them.

Actions speak loudly. And the failure to disclose fully speaks volumes.

The post Inside PR Goes to the Mat[tresses] appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Should you use Reddit for your business communications? Will the Reddit community welcome you or even accept you? Mike Connell’s recent article on the Spin Sucks blog launched this week’s discussion.

And Gini, Martin and Joe have very different takes on Zuckerberg’s performance and its impact and potential consequences.

The post Is Reddit right for my business? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

We CAN change the balance of power between people and the social networks. But to do so, we need to be aware that it is our presence that makes social networks economically viable. And we need to look to government and public interest groups to champion and, if necessary, force the changes that will assert our rights and interests as a precondition to social networks being able to operate in our country.

Well worth your time:

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Mark Zuckerberg is quiet no more. After a period of uncomfortable silence that saw Facebook savaged by privacy advocates and users like us, Zuckerberg gave a remarkable interview to Ezra Klein, suggesting a Facebook governance structure that would transcend national boundaries. Huh?

And what does 1.1.1.1mean to you? Thanks to Cloudflare, you now have another means of protecting your privacy from your Internet Service Provider.

The post A Facebook Senate? WTF! appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

It’s episode 500 and, like the World Wide Web, we’re not going away anytime soon.

The post Inside PR 500: The End is Not Near appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich and Martin Waxman talk about the introduction of ethics into tech education, a move that’s long overdue. Could ethics in Tech turn on the concept, “Do no harm?”

Facebook users are skewing older as younger people move to other platforms. Can geritol ads be far behind? And Google AMP Stories shows another platform moving to take advantage of the trend to package and present content as stories. Finally, we talk about the introduction of ethics into tech education, a move that’s long overdue. Could ethics in Tech turn on the concept, Do no harm?

The post Inside PR 499: Ethics and Tech Education appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.