Wednesday, April 08, 2015

FIR Presents Young PR Pros Episode 100: Does Accreditation Help the PR and Communications Industry?

Young PR Pros This week, our hosts Kristine D’Arbelles and Julia Kent record their 100th episode. Young PR Pros wants to thank our guests, listeners and anyone who has helped spread the word about our podcast. We hope we can continue to share our knowledge with young PR and communications professionals for another 100 episodes.

For our special anniversary show we invited an engaging new guest host, Ross Simmonds, to join our conversation.

Who is Ross Simmonds?

Ross Simmonds is a marketer, strategist and entrepreneur. He founded several small businesses - including Foundation, that specializes in content consulting & creation, Hustle & Grind (a subscription service for entrepreneurs) and Crate (a content marketing software - beta). Ross also shares his thoughts on marketing, business and life on his blog. And he is the author of Stand Out: The Content Guide for Entrepreneurs. You can follow Ross on Twitter, or subscribe to his newsletter.

Ross will be tagging along for the next few episodes offering his ideas and opinions on various topics that are important for young PR and communications professionals. We hope he spark new conversations and offer different perspectives on future topics.

This week’s topic:

This week’s topic has divided the world of PR and communications for decades now: does accreditation really help our industry?

Without missing a beat, Ross jumps in and shares his belief that accreditation is just a money grab scheme from large associations. Kristine is a little bit more on the fence and believes that accreditation might weed out those who bring a bad name to the industry. Julia makes an obvious comparison between accreditation and post-secondary school diplomas - in the end it is experience that matters, not a piece of paper.

Listen to the full episode to get in on the heated debate, and then share your opinion.

Do you think accreditation is necessary for our industry?

Get this Podcast:

FIR Community on Google+Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.
You can also connect with Young PR Pros through their blog our Facebook Page, or on our Google+ page, or send us an email at youngprpros@gmail.com, or send us a message on Twitter @youngprpros, @kristinedarbell, or @kentjulia. You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed. To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

Posted by Kristine on 04/08 at 07:00 AM
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Tuesday, April 07, 2015

FIR Interview: Harry Hawk talks with Facebook marketing expert Dennis Yu

While digital marketing dollars still flow into Facebook, marketers continue to express frustration at the social network, its reduced organic reach, and its ever-shifting algorithms. BlitzMetrics Chief Technology Officer Dennis Yu has a different perspective. A longtime Facebook marketing expert, Dennis believes good content can thrive organically on Facebook but that PR needs to adopt paid amplification of messages. He also makes the case that paid reach via Facebook should be seen as a gateway to using Google and other similar services (e.g., promoted tweets) to amplify messages, and that these buys should be aggregated for a more comprehensive analysis. They’re not traditional ads, however, and should not be viewed that way. They can, however, contribute to ROI and other success metrics.

In this FIR interview, FIR contributor Harry Hawk (@hhawk) delves into a variety of dimensions of Facebook marketing in a detailed conversation with Dennis.

Additional links from the episode:

Get this podcast:

About our Conversation Partner

Dennis YuDennis Yu is the CTO of BlitzMetrics, which delivers Facebook analytics and content generation services. He is an internationally recognized lecturer in Facebook marketing, having been featured in The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, LA Times, National Public Radio, TechCrunch, Fox News, and CBS Evening News. He is also an author at Adweek’s SocialTimes column.

Dennis has held leadership positions at Yahoo! and American Airlines.  He studied Finance and Economics from Southern Methodist University and London School of Economics. Besides being a Facebook data and ad geek, you can find him eating chicken wings or playing Ultimate Frisbee in a city near you.

Connect with Dennis on Twitter at @dennisyu or on his blog.

FIR Community on Google+Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Check the FIR website for information about other FIR podcasts. To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed.

Podsafe music - On A Podcast Instrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

Posted by shel on 04/07 at 08:45 AM
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Thought Leader Life with Mitchell Levy, Episode 63: April 7, 2015

Thought Leader Life with Mitchell Levy

Our co-host for the month of March is Jim Canfield (@jimcanfield) and one of our guest for March was Bruce McLennan (@FarnsworthGrp).

In this episode, Mitchell Levy introduces his co-host for the month of March, Jim Canfield, who is the CEO of Renaissance Executive Forums, a membership organization that helps companies become successful. Along with this episode’s guest, Bruce McLennan, Jim providesinsights on how forum groups can help top executives become better leaders and managers, make better decisions, and get through what is called “being lonely at the top.”Having organized a couple of CEO forums himself, Mitchell notes that such groups can havea powerful impact on its members. Bruce agrees, saying that he was amazed with the depth of what he could take away from the dialogues. He also narrates how forum groups helped him and his company get through dark times by providing support and guidance, as well as fresh ideas and perspectives. 

Bruce McLennan

Being part of a forum group means having informal accountability partners, people you respect askingabout where you are now and where you want to gonext.You will have people in the forum who will tell you straight up,”Look,you’re doing it the wrong way,” and check on your accountability in a good, friendly way. Jim also notes that, in executive forums, you get a genuine, objective third-party view of issues. Although members of the forum come from diverse backgrounds, Bruce points out thateveryonehas commonality in the issues they face every single day. According to Jim, because all of us are smarter than any of us, the idea that we can get a good collaborative group together,andcome up with a better solution thanwe would have on our own, should be important to every executive out there.

To learn more about Thought Leadership and how it can help you be successful, subscribe to the channel: http://youtube.com/user/thoughtleaderlife.

Here are a couple of aha moments from the episode. See more in the “Aha Moments from Thought Leader Life”eBooks available in the social media-enabled eBook platform, Aha Amplifier: http://AhaAmplifier.com/.

• It’s nice to be able to sit in a closed room witha group of peers who really understand what you’re doing. @FarnsworthGrp#TLL
• Finding accountability partners is always relevant. @happyabout #TLL
• It’s really important for a CEO of an org to have a point of view. @jimcanfield #TLL
• All of us are smarter than any of us. @jimcanfield #TLL

Join us 11 am PT / 2 pm ET / 7 pm GMT on Saturday every week. The show blog is Thought Leader Life.

Any comments or suggestions for the show please send them. Thank you for listening and if you like what you hear, please leave a review on iTunes!

This episode was sponsored, in part, by THiNKaha.com, helping experts become thought leaders.

You can connect with Mitchell at MitchellLevy.com, @HappyAbout on Twitter, or join his Thought Leadership Best Practices Group.

Get this podcast:

FIR Community on Google+Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed. To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

Posted by Michael Procopio on 04/07 at 04:15 AM
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Monday, April 06, 2015

FIR B2B #25: How Yamaha Harmonizes a Diverse Customer and Channel Community

FIR B2BIn this episode:

News & Trends

New McKinsey research makes the case that B2B purchasing decisions are not only growing increasingly complex but also evolving to resemble B2C buyer journeys. “Many more influencers and decision makers are now involved in the purchasing process, and business buyers too have been shaped by their consumer shopping experience,” McKinsey researchers Oskar Lingqvist, Candace Lun Plotkin, and Jennifer Stanley write. “Just as the digital revolution has transformed once-predictable consumer purchasing paths into a more circular pattern of touch points, so too business-to-business selling has become less linear.”

That means the pressure is on B2B companies to understand the buyer journey better, and the only way to do that is by speaking to buyers. Unfortunately, many sales reps still jealously guard access to their customers, inhibiting the flow of information that can make all sales and marketing professionals more productive.

Government agencies are loosening the reins on their scientists and increasingly allowing them to speak freely about their research, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. However, improvements are inconsistent, with agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention getting strong reviews for openness, but the Occupational Safety and Health Administration scraping the bottom of the barrel. Still, the improvements are an encouraging trend both for science and for vigorous scientific discussion.

Special Guest: Jeff Hawley, Director, Customer Experience Group, Yamaha Corp. of America

Although Yamaha is a household name in music circles, its sales and marketing strategy has until recently been strictly B2B. Like many big Japanese electronics firms, Yamaha makes a huge variety of products, with a particular focus on musical instruments and sound engineering technology. The company’s social media strategy needs to enable product groups to speak to customers in their own distinct language without losing the benefits of brand consistency. Yamaha also needs to communicate directly with consumers while being mindful of the needs of its B2B channel.

The company has recently been consolidating and unifying its Facebook presence in response to research that indicates that customers have a strongly positive association with the Yamaha brand regardless of the products they use. It’s dipping its toe into direct-to-consumer marketing for the first time. Jeff Hawley explains how customer insights are guiding his group’s thinking as it builds a consistent social media identity.

Follow Jeff on Twitter.

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About Your Hosts

Paul GillinPaul Gillin is a veteran technology journalist and a thought leader in new media. Since 2005, he has advised marketers and business executives on strategies to optimize their use of social media and online channels to reach buyers cost-effectively. He is the author or co-author of five books, including Social Marketing to the Business Customer (2011), the first book devoted entirely to B2B social media marketing. He is also a social media trainer and coach at Profitecture, a training firm for B2B companies and their channel partners.

Send Paul an email or connect with him on Twitter: @pgillin

Eric Schwartzman is a digital strategist with 15 years of experience selling and leading teams on the agency side in the development and delivery of innovative integrated marketing initiatives for multinational corporations, NGOs, federal government agencies and military commands. He is a frequent speaker at conferences all over the world on the topic of how technology is changing the way organizations communicate and the way people use media and information.

Follow Eric on Twitter at @ericschwartzman.

Eric’s expertise is in digital strategy, digital governance, content marketing, database marketing, user experience design, employee advocacy, education technology, digital multimedia production, B2B lead generation, search engine optimization and social media engagement techniques. He’s also the best-selling co-author of Social Marketing to the Business Customer.

FIR Community on Google+Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed. To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

Posted by Paul Gillin on 04/06 at 03:07 PM
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The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #802: April 6, 2015

FIRThanks to Ragan Communications for their almost 8 years of sponsoring FIR; Gini Dietrich is guest co-host with Shel on the May 4 show while Neville is in Boston;

Quick News: Collaborate/London intranet workshop from Igloo Software on April 16, alarming declines in social media among Inc 500, good advice in BBC’s updated social media guidelines, companies just aren’t listening to what reporters want from their online newsrooms; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop;

News That Fits: Does it make sense to do online Q&As on Reddit, Twitter, etc?; Michael Netzley’s Asia Report: Gushcloud controversy and smear campaigns conducted by blogging cartels; would you use Periscope for employee communication as one CEO did?; listener comments in the FIR Podcast Community on Google+ and via email; The Economist study identifies Gen-narrators who could be effective brand advocates; Dan York’s Tech Report: Turkey blocks social networks, Flickr and the public domain, NASA space image library, and more; Igloo Software promo; the past week on the FIR Podcast Network; with social still treated as an ‘afterthought’ by PR agencies, we offer some advice;

Music from Adri-Ann Ralph; and more.

Get FIR:

Messages from our sponsors: Save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial, at www.customscoop.com/fir; Igloo Software, providers of an intranet you’ll actually like, delivered securely with our cloud platform: learn more at www.igloosoftware.com/fir.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report for April 6, 2015: An 87-minute podcast recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Wokingham, Berkshire, England.

Links to websites, blog posts and other content we discuss in the show are posted as Delicious bookmarks to facilitate your connection with the discussions and sharing of that content.

FIR Community on Google+Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed. To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Monday April 13…

Posted by neville on 04/06 at 01:06 PM
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Monday, March 30, 2015

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #801: March 30, 2015

FIRA new podcast, Wag the Dog FM, from Philippe Borremans; FIR Interview coming: a second conversation with Millennials at Syracuse University London Campus;

Quick News: Brands flock to Periscope, being seen as innovative boosts a company’s bottom line says Ketchum survey, Slack is killing IRC, all 650 Members of Parliament in the UK will receive an iPad Air 2 after the May election; Ragan promo;

News That Fits: New apps - including Periscope, Meerkat and NewsByMe - could boost citizen journalism; Dan York’s Tech Report: Periscope and live streaming, Dave Winer’s MyWord, Facebook; drilling a social media crisis with Polpeo; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; listener comments in audio and in the FIR Podcast Community on Google+; wearable tech will shift from novelty to norm in the next five years; the past week on the FIR Podcast Network; Igloo Software promo; summary of what we learned from Facebook’s F8;

Music from Moon Taxi; and more.

Get FIR:

Messages from our sponsors: FIR is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years, www.ragan.com; Save time with the CustomScoop online clipping service: sign up for your free two-week trial, at www.customscoop.com/fir; Igloo Software, providers of an intranet you’ll actually like, delivered securely with our cloud platform: learn more at www.igloosoftware.com/fir.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report for March 30, 2015: A 92-minute podcast recorded live from Wokingham, Berkshire, England, and Concord, California, USA.

Links to websites, blog posts and other content we discuss in the show are posted as Delicious bookmarks to facilitate your connection with the discussions and sharing of that content.

FIR Community on Google+Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also send us instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed. To stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.

So, until Monday April 6…

Posted by neville on 03/30 at 12:37 PM
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FIR Presents Inside PR #405: Starbucks Starcrossed

FIR Presents Inside PROn this week’s Inside PR, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and I talk about three issues: Starbuck’s #RaceTogether initiative, the change to Google’s search algorithm to penalize Websites that are not mobile-friendly, and another move by Facebook to make itself more inviting to advertisers.

Starbucks #RaceTogether

Looking back at Starbucks’ #RaceTogether campaign, I can’t help but feel that, while laudable in intent, RaceTogether showed a remarkable lack of self awareness on Starbucks’ account. Martin and Gini disagree. They see more positive than negative in Starbucks’ initiative and its handling of the subsequent fallout.

Gini feels that Starbucks succeeded in getting us to talk about the issue. I think that Starbucks succeeded in getting us to talk about Starbucks – and not in a positive way. I think the issue came apart because of a lack of self awareness on Starbucks’ part. I see it as an unequal power relationship. A chain that sells premium-priced coffee to a well-heeled clientele asks its fairly low paid employees to raise a highly sensitive topic across the counter. Gini pushes back. She talks about her experience of her local Starbucks. Martin sees it as a grand gesture in the finest tradition of liberalism. Gini gets the last word. We’re talking about it. Starbucks had some success and she suggests they should not be timid about this type of social initiative in the future.

Mobile-friendly by April 21 or else

But that’s not all we talk about. We also point to the pending April 21 change to Google’s algorithm penalize Websites that are not mobile-friendly. Communications execs, make sure that your sites are up to date or be ready to see them disappear from the front page of Google Search.

Facebook entices advertisers

Finally, we discuss the disappearance of comments from corporate Facebook pages. Just one more step by Facebook to make Facebook a more attractive platform for advertisers.

We’d love to hear from you

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the FIR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

We’d ask one favor of you. If you like this podcast, please rate us on iTunes.

Get this podcast:

We’d love to hear your thoughts!

FIR Community on Google PlusShare your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future podcasts, in the online FIR Podcast Community on Google+.

You can also reach Inside PR’s hosts by email at insideprcomments@gmail.com, or join the InsidePR Google Plus community or Facebook group. InsidePR is on Twitter at @Inside_PR. You can send us an instant voicemail via SpeakPipe, right from the FIR website. Or, call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments. You can tweet us: @FIRpodcast. And you can email us at fircomments@gmail.com. If you wish, you can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR: Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Check the FIR website for information about other FIR podcasts. To receive all podcasts in the FIR Podcast Network, subscribe to the “everything” RSS feed.

FIR presents Inside PR is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years.

Posted by shel on 03/30 at 12:24 PM
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