Interviews
FIR Interviews
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
FIR Interview: Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer, CEO of AirPR
AirPR has raised a bit of a stir since it was launched with the proposition that startups, unable to spend the kind of money it costs to engage a public relations agency, can do better by connecting with an independent PR practitioner listed on the AirPR site. A sort of online dating service for startups seeking PR, AirPR is the brainchild of Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer, who last year raised $1 million in seed funding for the site.
In a Ragan.com post, Arment-Dietrich CEO Gini Dietrich outlined the pros and cons of AirPR. On the one hand, she wrote, it commoditizes the work of public relations, the 3-4-week timeframe from contact to delivery is inadequate for the launch of a new product or service, the ratings provided by clients don’t include references other prospects can call, and the contracts are so short-term they’re not adequate for a consult to “make payroll on or count on for cash flow.” On the plus side, it dismisses the RFP process and “provides an opportunity for solopreneurs, freelancers, and boutique firms to compete for big dollars without having to pull their entire teams off client work to complete an RFP.” (Gini has decided to give it a try.)
In this FIR interview, Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz speak with Fouladgar-Mercer about his vision for AirPR, how it works, the concerns that have been raised, how the business is faring and what he sees for the future.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (12.6Mb, 31:22)
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- Get the FIR app for your iPhone, and for your Android device from the Amazon App Store
About our Conversation Partner
Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer is the Co-founder and CEO of AirPR, a technology platform to increase PR performance. He was a former Entrepreneur in Residence at Shasta Ventures focused on consumer internet and the social graph. Prior to joining Shasta, Sharam was a Senior Associate at Sierra Ventures focused on consumer internet, enterprise software (cloud computing / virtualization), and mobile. He served as a Board Observer at Makara (sold to RedHat) and TouchCommerce.
Prior to joining Sierra, Sharam was in Mergers and Acquisitions at JP Morgan. Sharam began his career as a technologist at Appian Corporation, a business process management software startup. At Appian, he managed the first enterprise-wide tracking system for the Department of Homeland Security, concurrently managed the development of three software products, delivered training seminars, and authored white papers, best practices documents, and technical notes on Web Services.
Sharam has lectured at universities, events and conferences, and judged business plan competitions at Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, and Syracuse. He is also an advisor and mentor to eLab (Princeton University’s Accelerator), Dorm Room Fund (First Round Capital Accelerator), and Acceleprise (Enterprise Technology Accelerator). Sharam graduated with honors with a BSE in Computer Science from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Born in Syracuse, NY, Sharam played NCAA Division I ice hockey and is fluent in Farsi. He also enjoys barefoot waterskiing and playing with new technologies.
Connect with Sharam on twitter @sharamfm.
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 For Immediate Release podcasts including the weekly Hobson and Holtz Report, subscribe to the full RSS feed.
This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
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Thursday, August 01, 2013
FIR Interview: Corey Connors on intranet activity streams
The activity stream displaying what employees have been doing is one of the key sections of the Fehr & Peers intranet home page. It can be filtered to display just those employees with whom you have connected, along with other views.
After FIR co-host Shel Holtz posted an item to his blog about the future role of activity streams on intranets, Corey Connors got in touch with him to explain his company had been using an activity stream as a key component of the Fehr & Peers intranet home page. Using wiki Confluencesoftware from Atlassian as the foundation of the intranet for the 250-person engineering firm, Connors has developed an approach that inspires regular visits from staff and keeps them in the loop better than traditional articles ever could.
In this FIR Interview conducted at Fehr & Peers offices in Walnut Creek, California, Shel chats with Connors about the role the activity stream has played and how it works, along with other elements of the home page. They also discuss the social aspects of the intranet, including the individual employee profile (Connors’ is pictured below), which includes the activity stream for each individual employee.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (9.69Mb, 24:08)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone, and for your Android device from the Amazon App Store
About our Conversation Partner
Corey Connors is Corporate Communications Director & Senior Associate at Fehr & Peers Transportation Consultants, and also serves as the Senior Marketing & Communications Consultant at Left Lane Advisors. He has 16 years of experience in organizational and marketing communication for small and medium companies. He has unique experience in creating and developing teams of professionals that design strategic business communications: branding, public relations, collateral design/production, internal communications, events, and emerging technologies. Since 2006, Connors has overseen the evolution of an industry-leading social enterprise strategy, and has successfully positioned himself as a valued consultant to the A/E/C industry in that area. Before joining Fehr & Peers, he held management positions in water/wastewater engineering consulting, specialized photo/video lighting products, high-tech public relations, and creative marketing.
Connect with Corey on Twitter: @CoreyConnors.
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 For Immediate Release podcasts including the weekly Hobson and Holtz Report, subscribe to the full RSS feed.
This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
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Thursday, July 25, 2013
FIR Interview: Tony Million, Narrato, on Life Logging and the Quantified Self
Digital start-up Narrato has launched Narrato Journal, an app for iOS which gives you the ability to "log your life" by plugging in a range of popular social media and quantified self technologies to track your activities (and even your mood). Narrato is backed by WayraUK, Telefónica’s tech start-up accelerator programme.
The Narrato Journal powers integration with services that currently include Twitter, Foursquare, and Instagram - they say others are coming - enabling you to pool and manage your own personal data. In essence, Narrato curates your “lifestream” so that information is available in one place, in a private cloud, and exportable for you to manage and save, helping you create a rich picture of your activities.
In this FIR Interview by co-host Neville Hobson, Narrato co-founder Tony Million explains what Narrato Journal is and how it works, using the iPhone app (versions for iPad and Android are in development) to gain insight from the data it curates and processes.
Million explains what ‘quantified self’ means and looks ahead over the next five years or so to offer his insight on how the market for life-logging and tools like Narrato Journal could develop where wearable technologies are on the rise; where trusted and usable insight from data about individuals’ behaviors has real value to those individuals, including in the workplace; and where genuine possibilities for how an individual can gain monetizable insight from his or her own life data are beginning to emerge.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (10.3Mb, 22:27)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone, and for your Android device from the Amazon App Store
About our Conversation Partner
Tony Million is Chief Story Teller and co-founder of Narrato.
A serial entrepreneur, previous to founding Narrato, Tony co-founded Sonique, one of the first MP3 players. It achieved over 100 million downloads and was acquired by Lycos for £55 million. He then founded Bababoo and was involved in iViews, which was acquired by Microsoft.
Tony is passionate about technology and the quantified self movement.
Connect with Tony on Twitter: @TonyMillion.
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 For Immediate Release podcasts including the weekly Hobson and Holtz Report, subscribe to the full RSS feed.
This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
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Picture at top via Lifehacker.
Monday, July 01, 2013
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #710: July 1, 2013
Intro: Two FIR Interviews posted: with Nick James, and with Tansley Stearns and Brian Rooney ; FIR Speakers & Speeches coming of Neville’s panel at Imperial College London; evening event in London with Brian Solis on July 12; IABC update (conference, David Murray’s post, new interim executive director); Ragan promo;
Quick News: Introducing the NSA-proof font, astroturfing comes to the EU, a week after Instagram’s video launch Vine sharing tanks on Twitter, Second Life turns 10 and may have a second life of its own;
News That Fits: 70% of employees "emotionally disconnected" at work; Michael Netzley report from Singapore on Huntsworth in Asia, a new documentary telling the story of Alibaba.com and Jack Ma, video trends in Asia Pacific; Alastair Campbell explains why the world of PR is changing; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; listener comments; print is not dead; Dan York reports: Happy Canada Day!, Project Loon, O3B Satellites, and more; Yammer and Klout bring social ranks to the workplace;
Music by John Kadlecik; and more.
Get FIR:
- Download the MP3 file (37.4Mb, 93:00)
- Subscribe to the RSS feed
- Get the show at iTunes
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device from the Amazon App Store
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.
For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report for July 1, 2013: A 93-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.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the online FIR communities on Facebook, Friendfeed and Google+.
You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: @FIRpodcast. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.
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So, until Monday July 8…
Friday, June 28, 2013
FIR Interview: Tansley Stearns and Patrick Rooney on employee social media training
While between 30 and 42 percent of companies (depending on which research you cite) still block employee access to social media, research increasingly suggests that training employees is more effective than trying to keep them from engaging. The Filene Research Institute—which conducts research for credit unions—wanted to offer training to credit union employees, and asked QUEsocial to modify their off-the-shelf product (one screen of which is pictured above) to address the specific needs of the credit union industry. The results: hard data that shows employees in the pilot group from 30-plus credit unions achieved meaningful results (like bring in new customers) as a direct result of the training.
In this interview, with FIR co-host Shel Holtz, Filene’s Tansley Stearns and Que Social’s Patrick Rooney talk about the training program, the online approach (that includes a heavy dose of gamification) and how the pilot cohort was activated, along with the broader issue of training and employee access to social channels.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (9.9Mb, 24:43)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone, and for your Android device from the Amazon App Store
About our Conversation Partner
Tansley Stearns takes research and innovation by their tails, spins them into submission, and turns them into practical application for credit unions. As Impact Director with more than 14 years of credit union leadership experience across a variety of functional areas, she knows how to help an organization move ideas forward to drive business results. She has a passion for learning, creating, and executing.
In her previous roles at credit unions she was responsible for developing and implementing strategy and leading and driving business with all frontline teams including the call center, branches, lending, training, compliance, marketing & business development. Tansley has been a key member of the Guiding Coalition at two credit unions, helping to build and develop sales and service cultures. She also helped her credit union win first place in both the Dora Maxwell & Louise Herring awards.
Tansley was one of the original credit union professionals chosen to be a participant in the Filene Research Institute’s i3 program. In her three years with i3 she worked with other credit union executives to create two innovative projects including SmartScore, Decision Point and Debt in Focus.
Tansley earned her Bachelor of Arts dual degree in Psychology and English at the University of Michigan. She is a Credit Union Executive Society Certified Marketing Executive and Certified Senior Executive. She is an Alumni Emeritus of Michael Neill and Associates.
Connect with Tansley on Twitter at @Tansleys.
Patrick Rooney, founder and CEO of QUEsocial, is a recognized thought leader and innovator in integrated marketing and social media. He has been a frequent speaker about the trends and business applications of social media, and has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, B2B Magazine, Chicago Tribune, and AdAge, among others.
Prior to creating QUEsocial, Patrick was co-founder and Executive Vice President of Zócalo Group, an award-winning word of mouth and social media marketing agency (part of Omnicom Group). Previously, Patrick was founder and president of Expand Communications, an influencer communications firm
that focused on identifying and harnessing a brand’s most important advocates. Prior to that, he worked in public relations, with an emphasis in technology marketing, and held senior positions with Ketchum, Ogilvy PR and Cunningham Communication. His previous in-house leadership roles in marketing and communications helped shape his solutions-focused approach to delivering measurable and meaningful business results.
Patrick holds a BA in Political Science and an MBA from San Jose State University. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two incredible children.
Connect with Patrick on Twitter at @patrick1rooney
Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, in the online FIR communities on Facebook, Friendfeed and Google+. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: @FIRpodcast. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (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 For Immediate Release podcasts including the weekly Hobson & Holtz Report, subscribe to the full RSS feed.
This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
FIR Interview: Nick James on the future for towns, shopping and digital marketing
A big topic of debate in many countries today concerns the future of towns and cities and their roles as places people go to shop. A big element in the debate concerns digital, the internet, social channels of communication, and their disruptive effects on people’s behaviours when it comes to shopping (think of new consumer behaviours such as showrooming).
In this FIR Interview, co-host Neville Hobson talks to Nick James, founder of freshbusinessthinking.com, and organizer of the Digital Marketing Show in London in November which intends to tackle the key issues that every business is facing - social, content, local, mobile, data, and cloud.
James also organized a Bar Room Brawl in London, a soapbox debate with people offering their opinions on how we can stop any more household names going out of business due to their inability to ‘get’ digital.
In a wide-ranging conversation, James shares his thinking in this interview about the issues facing the High Street today where too many businesses don’t understand what digital marketing can help them achieve, and offers some ideas on what attendees can expect to gain from being at the Digital Marketing Show.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (7.3Mb, 15:57)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone, and for your Android device from the Amazon App Store
About our Conversation Partner
After a 20 year career in events on both sides of the Atlantic, Nick James has spent the last seven years ‘in digital’. Nick specialises in creating compelling content online and off-line.
In the age of the internet, the combination of face-to-face and digital communication is powerful. Produced by Freshly Made Content, this is the first year of the Digital Marketing Show which is aimed at the UK Marketing Industry. Nick believes the show will provide an insight into how digital marketing works and give businesses that attend core competitive advantage that is essential for survival.
Connect with Nick on Twitter: @Freshnick.
Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, in the online FIR communities on Facebook, Friendfeed and Google+. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: @FIRpodcast. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (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 For Immediate Release podcasts including the weekly Hobson & Holtz Report, subscribe to the full RSS feed.
This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
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(Image at top via Aaron Weiche.)
Sunday, June 23, 2013
FIR Interview - Carla Johnson on content’s role in sales enablement at #ContentMktgNow
In a presentation at the Content Marketing Strategies Conference in Berkeley, California, on May 8, 2013, speaker, author and B2B content marketing expert Carla Johnson explained how marketing as the ‘promise makers’ and sales as the ‘promise keepers’ are often not on the same page.
The result is marketing making brand or product promises that sales and implementation can’t keep.
In this FIR Interview, correspondent Michael Procopio spoke to Carla after her presentation to hear more on how she helps reduce this gap with a three step process: collaboration, education, and liberation.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (6.56Mb, 14:20)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone, and for your Android device from the Amazon App Store
You can view the PowerPoint deck Carla used in her presentation. embedded below (or see it at Slideshare).
About our Conversation Partner
Carla Johnson started college as an engineer and then moved to the “other” side. She is principal at Type A Communications, and a consultant to the Content Marketing Institute. She writes, trains, speaks and works with companies to help them discover their story, then use it as a foundation for their branding, messaging and content marketing initiatives.
Her clients have included companies such as Motorola Solutions, Sybase, VMware, TeleTech, Encana Oil & Gas and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She’s a contributing writer to “Advice From The Top: The Expert Guide to B2B Marketing,” as well as Chief Content Officer magazine,CMSwire and other industry and business publications.
Find out more about Carla on LinkedIn or her website. Follow her on Twitter: @carlajohnson.
Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, in the online FIR communities on Facebook, Friendfeed and Google+. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: @FIRpodcast. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (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 For Immediate Release podcasts including the weekly Hobson & Holtz Report, subscribe to the full RSS feed.
This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.
Podsafe music - On A Podcast Instrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.