
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #666: August 27, 2012
Content summary: Shel’s still in São Paolo thanks to Tropical Storm Isaac; what’s behind the number ‘666’?; Giovanni Rodriguez interview is up; Quick News: Facebook launches Edge Studio for agencies, is Feedburner about to be closed by Google?, new features could lure more brands to Instagram, add your social media marketing tip to GaggleAmp’s blog; Ragan promo; News That Fits: McKinsey study ‘Unlocking Value and Productivity Through Social Technologies’; Dan York reports on US political conventions and the media, and more; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; if you want to shop at Jasu, you’ll need a Klout score of at least 40; more Klout: Chevy offers 3-day test drive to well-connected drivers with high Klout scores; social is the new DNA says Movenbank who wants you to know your CRED score; listener comments; Feds try Facebook approach to crowdsource improvements to financial rules; TemboSocial promo; no report this week from Michael Netzley in Singapore; Prince Harry, naked pics and ‘What Happens in Vegas (Doesn’t) Stay in Vegas’; music from Stereomaniacs; and more.
Get FIR:
- Download the MP3 file (32.7Mb, 81:39)
- Subscribe to the RSS feed
- Get the show at iTunes
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
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; and TemboSocial (formerly Pollstream): helping you transform your communications goals into exciting strategies that will enable you to engage, educate and inform your customers and employees online, pollstream.com/fir/.
For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report for August 27, 2012: A 82-minute podcast recorded live from São Paolo, Brazil, 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.
Names of blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Notes pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute time stamps – see the show notes home page for info.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 338 7960 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. 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 stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
So, until Monday September 3…
Monday, August 20, 2012
FIR Interview: Giovanni Rodriguez on the launch of SocialxDesign
Giovanni Rodriguez, one of the earliest communications practitioners to work in social media on behalf of clients, has launched a new social media consulting firm, SocialxDesign. The agency is an independent strategy firm that was developed as an incubator project at Eastwick, a technology communication agency where Rodriguez worked from 2002 to 2006.
SocialxDesign, according to an Eastwick press release, is “focused on helping businesses, government agencies and NGOs to remake themselves for the socially networked economy. Soxial x Design will enable organizations to grow, reduce costs and increase their market value by engaging and empowering people in their ecosystems—customers, employees, industry partners—to take an active part in remaking the enterprise.”
In this FIR interview, Giovanni talked with FIR co-host Shel Holtz about the new firm, how it’s structured and his vision for its future. He also talks about one of SocialxDesign’s inaugural clients, The White House.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (8.75Mb, 21:46)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
About our Conversation Partner
Before launching Socia xDesign, Giovanni Rodriguez served as a senior member of the social-technology team at Deloitte Consulting, chief marketing officer for a publicly traded company, and managing partner of The Conversation Group (TCG), one of the first social-technology consulting firms.
Giovanni has consulted for numerous B2B leaders such as The New York Stock Exchange, SAP, Alcatel-Lucent, and Verizon Business, as well as leading consumer brands such as General Mills, Unilever, and Best Buy. He is also known for his work in positioning technology companies in transition, including FAST Search and Transfer (now Microsoft), Ribbit (now British Telecom), JAJAH (now Telefonica), and VMware, where he worked with the team that led the company’s entry into the enterprise software market (in 2000).
Giovanni is a founding fellow at the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) and a board member at Latinos for Social Media (LATISM). He is a graduate of Princeton University and an MSc candidate at the University of London.
Connect with Giovanni on Twitter at @giorodriguez.
Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 338 7960 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. 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.
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #665: August 20, 2012
Content summary: FIR Interview with Giovanni Rodriguez coming; Mitch Joel to guest co-host FIR on Oct 8; Mark Story has a new job; listen to the Online Marketing and Communications podcast from Jon Buscall in Sweden; is anybody having problems seeing the FIR logo in the iTunes podcast app?; Quick News: Cinch.fm closes down; podcast apps make their way back to iTunes; WalMart censors Thomas Hawk’s Facebook comments about wife mugged in front of store; Ragan promo; News That Fits: the Progressive Insurance kerfuffle; Michael Netzley’s Asia report from Singapore; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; if you’re hiring for a social media management role, here’s how to define your candidate skills profile says Olivier Blanchard; listener comments; TemboSocial promo; Dan York reports on App.net, and more; FastCompany is crowdsourcing "The Rules of Social Media": add your perspective; music from The Felice Brothers; and more.
Get FIR:
- Download the MP3 file (31.2Mb, 77:59)
- Subscribe to the RSS feed
- Get the show at iTunes
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
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; and TemboSocial (formerly Pollstream): helping you transform your communications goals into exciting strategies that will enable you to engage, educate and inform your customers and employees online, pollstream.com/fir/.
For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report for August 20, 2012: A 78-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.
Names of blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Notes pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute time stamps – see the show notes home page for info.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 338 7960 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. 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 stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
So, until Monday August 27…
Monday, August 13, 2012
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #664: August 13, 2012
Content summary: FIR Interview with Cisco’s John Earnhardt posted; Quick News Clips: your FIR co-hosts inspire a PRSA press release about ethics in public relations; try The Crisis Show, a G+ Hangout podcasty thing; HuffPostLive video launches; Connectify Dispatch on Kickstarter; Google Buys Frommers; Ragan promo; News That Fits: online influence scoring is about the context not a single metric says Kred’s Andrew Grill; Dan York reports on App.Net funding and the new version of WordPress’ mobile app for iOS; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; Australian Facebook commenting ruling: the example of Smirnoff and the wider implications for advertisers (and Facebook); listener comments including a report from Suresh Babu in India; TemboSocial promo; Michael Netzley reports from Singapore on mobile information services get critical weather updates to India’s rural farmers, and more; music from Plastic Sky; and more.
Get FIR:
- Download the MP3 file (31Mb, 77:18)
- Subscribe to the RSS feed
- Get the show at iTunes
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
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; and TemboSocial (formerly Pollstream): helping you transform your communications goals into exciting strategies that will enable you to engage, educate and inform your customers and employees online, pollstream.com/fir/.
For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report for August 13, 2012: An 77-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.
Names of blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Notes pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute time stamps – see the show notes home page for info.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 338 7960 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. 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 stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
So, until Monday August 20…
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
FIR Interview: John Earnhardt on Cisco’s content portal, The Network
Cisco Systems launched The Network about a year ago. At that time, we interviewed John Earnhardt, the communicator responsible for the site, about the goals and aspirations for the content portal that folded in the company’s former media center. A year later, FIR co-host Shel Holtz chats with John about the experience and results to date, including the use of The Network’s content by third parties. Of particular interest are two video series launched on the site, My Networked Life and Songo, a video series for the Korean market. John also talks about the use of freelance journalists to achieve the company’s brand journalism objectives.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (13.4Mb, 33:29)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
About our Conversation Partner
John Earnhardt manages the social media team responsible for the “The Network: Cisco’s Technology News Site” and other corporate communications channels such as The Platform blog and Facebook page, Twitter @CiscoSystems (2010 B2B Twitterer of the Year), LinkedIn, Ustream and Flickr site. He also manages the corporate PR team, including CEO and CFO media strategy, legal, M&A, finance, op-eds, broadcast media strategy and executive media training. Follow on Twitter @urnhart. John was a finalist for PRWeek’s “PR Professional of the Year” Award for 2010.
Previously, he managed policy communications in Cisco’s Global Policy and Government Affairs department where he was responsible for using communications channels to advance Cisco’s state, federal and global public policy objectives. This is where he started the first blog for Cisco in 2005. He also handled media relations on public policy issues in addition to starting and managing Cisco’s political action committee. He joined Cisco in 1999 as Corporate Public Relations Manager in the Office of the President.
Prior to Cisco he was the Director of Media Relations for the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, DC. Earnhardt previously worked for Senator Joseph R. Biden, the Senate Judiciary Committee and for the Presidential Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission. In 1996, he worked for Vice President Al Gore doing press advance on the Clinton/Gore Presidential campaign.
John is married, has a young son and lives in Menlo Park, CA. He graduated from Wake Forest University with a BA in English and Philosophy.
Connect with John on Twitter: @urnhart.
Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 338 7960 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. 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.
Monday, August 06, 2012
The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #663: August 6, 2012
Content summary: FIR Interview with IABC executive director Chris Sorek published; new interview with Cisco’s John Earnhardt coming; Canada’s super holiday; Be Positively Social on August 14, says Frank Eliason; Ragan promo; News That Fits: Is the PR world underestimating Reddit’s importance?; Michael Netzley reports from Singapore on social media used for recruiting in China, and more; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; with influence rank, Salesforce.com shows the shape of recruitment to come; listener comments; new angles on content marketing; TemboSocial promo; Dan York reports on Mars Curiosity, the Olympics via VPN, radio and podcasting, and more; how Alaska Airlines is addressing online criticism; music from Anouschka; and more.
Get FIR:
- Download the MP3 file (29.6Mb, 73:55)
- Subscribe to the RSS feed
- Get the show at iTunes
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
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; and TemboSocial (formerly Pollstream): helping you transform your communications goals into exciting strategies that will enable you to engage, educate and inform your customers and employees online, pollstream.com/fir/.
For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report for August 6, 2012: A 74-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.
Names of blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Notes pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute time stamps – see the show notes home page for info.
Share your comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 338 7960 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. 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 stay informed about occasional FIR events (eg, FIR Live), sign up for FIR Update email news.
So, until Monday August 13…
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
FIR Interview: IABC Executive Director Chris Sorek
The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) welcomed Chris Sorek as its new executive director effective July 1. (Read the press release.) Sorek’s appointment follows a lengthy search to replace Julie Freeman, ABC, APR, who left the post after 10 years at the helm.
Founded in 1970, IABC provides a professional network of about 15,000 business communication professionals in over 80 countries. Members hold positions in a wide variety of communication positions ranging from public relations and employee communications to public affairs and community relations, employing strategic planning and management skills along with capabilities including writing, editing, photography, video production, and digital communication management.
In this FIR interview, co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz talk with Sorek about what he has heard from IABC members, how he envisions the staff and board working together, the key areas of focus for the organization at the outset of his term, his views on membership growth outside of North America and a host of other topics.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (15.4Mb, 38:35)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
About our Conversation Partner
Christopher Sorek has a master’s degree in international marketing and communications and has worked on public information and humanitarian issues in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He started his career as a journalist and editor for newspapers and magazines in the United States. He then turned to internal communication and political action committee activities for a large regional bank before moving to Unisys’s international public relations team. He was asked to join Ogilvy & Mather in 1987, where he headed offices in Taiwan and Singapore and helped develop the agency’s Asia-Pacific network before joining Cohn & Wolfe in New York to lead and manage global corporate clients.
In 2001, Sorek joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva as head of communications. He returned to the private sector to work for SAP AG in Germany, De Beers, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development before joining Drinkaware as chief executive in 2008.
Connect with Chris on Twitter: @chrissorek.
Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 338 7960 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR. 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.

