The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #86: November 17, 2005

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #86: November 17, 2005

Content summary: Listeners’ comments (the FIR comment line; FIR RSS feeds; Shel’s website calendar; group vs. individual blogs; blogs and podcasts as conversation; the appropriateness of blogs as part of integrated marketing programs, Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits blog); Neville’s trip to the University of Sunderland, FIR has a Frappr map, more on Waxmail, Heather Green’s new podcast, an update on Typepad’s service levels, Krause Taylor Associates and SixApart respond to blogger criticism, GM Fastlane gets heat for an out-of-synch post, an airline introduces a blog for its loyalty program, Dan York’s report (PR companies that get it; Business Week’s article on “50 Smart Ways to use the Web;” the accuracy of podcast download statistics, Neville’s trip down memory lane recalling HTML Assistant, and why podcasts are different from streaming audio), the Sony rootkit crisis and why communicators need a seat at the management table, Neville and Shel react to Shel Israel’s post about blogs and integrating marketing, a government agency in Florida yanks a blog, and music from the Podsafe Music Network.

Show notes for November 17, 2005

download mp3 podcast

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 85-minute conversation recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and almost live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Download the file here (MP3, 35MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as the free Juice (previously known as iPodder), DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

OPML
[Show notes OPML file to come]: Get the show notes on your own PC, Mac, PDA or other device. To use this file, we suggest trying Dave Winer’s OPML Editor (for Windows).

In this Edition:

Intro:

  • 00:31 Shel introduces the show; what the show’s about; what’s in this edition; where to send comments; show notes

Listeners’ comments discussion:

  • 01:54 First comment from Bryan Person is read by TextAloud text-to-voice software; Bryan thinks he knows what happened to the FIR comment line and asks about our RSS feeds and Shel’s website calendar.
  • 04:46 Shel answers Bryan’s questions (the website calendar, by the way, is part of a larger open-source CMS package called PHPWebSite)
  • 10:02 Lloyd Grosse on whether corporate blogs are better written by individuals or groups
  • 12:56 Sallie Goetsch discusses whether blogs and podcasts constitute “conversations”
  • 15:56 Bryan Person points us to Shel Israel’s post dismissing blogs’ potential as elements of integrated marketing strategies.
  • 16:40 Judy Jones points listeners to the Poynter Institute’s E-Media Tidbits blog

The Show:

  • 18:11 Neville on his trip to the University of Sunderland
  • 19:01 FIR has a Frappr Map; please visit and add yourself so we can see where all our listeners are!
  • 21:17 Neville waxes eloquently some more about Waxmail
  • 23:07 Heather Green from BusinessWeek will start a podcast on podcasters
  • 27:00 Neville updates us on how SixApart has handled its TypePad performance issues; he also updates us on his move to Wordpress
  • 343:30 How Krause Taylor Associates, a PR agency, and Six Apart, the agency’s client, handled a potentially damaging blog post by commenting on the blog
  • 44:46 GM takes some heat over a Fastlane post that sounded more like an advertisement
  • 48:52 An airline starts a blog associated with its loyalty program
  • 51:48 Christopher Bennett gives us a shoutout before Shel idents the show
  • 52:05 Dan York‘s report begins with a report of a PR agency that gets it, moves forward, and drinks the Kool-Aid
  • 55:05 Dan on accuracy in podcast download statistics
  • 55:29 Dan enjoyed Neville’s walk down memory lane as he remembered Howard Harawitz as the programmer behind HTML Assistant
  • 55:46 Dan explains how podcasting is different than streaming audio
  • The Sony rootkit PR crisis shows just why communications should have that proverbial seat at the management table
  • 63:26 Neville disagrees with Shel Israel’s contention that blogs have no place in an integrated marketing strategy
  • 70:52 Shel agrees with Neville, not with…umm…Shel
  • 75:39 Neville discusses Josh Hallett’s post about a Florida government agency that yanked a blog that seemed to be working just fine

Outro:

FIR Show Notes links

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are now posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute - see the home page for info.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at fircomments@gmail.com, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222-2803. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Monday, November 21…

Posted by shel on 11/17 at 03:13 PM

  1. Good show, gents, but I’m left with more questions for Shel. If it’s appropriate to announce that you’re going to Hawaii to celebrate your wife’s 50th birthday, why wouldn’t it be appropriate to say, when there, that spending time with her was one of the attractions? Neither statement gets anywhere near the “it would turn me off” zone Amy Gahran found when surveying her readers about how much personal information was appropriate on a blog. Isn’t being personal and letting your personality out part of the point of podcasting, as it is with blogging? I have trouble imagining a prospective client thinking less of you because your marriage is a priority; indeed, the enthusiasm for the beach over work would be more likely to draw disapproval.

    I was amazed to hear that your wife doesn’t listen to your podcast. Why on earth not? I mean, who would pass up FIR? (And anyway, if you hardly see each other at home, it would be a way to feel connected, but that’s getting back into that dangerous personal stuff again.)

    Posted by Sallie Goetsch (rhymes with "sketch")  on  11/18  at  07:11 PM

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