Saturday, January 03, 2009

Starting the Fifth Year of the FIR Podcasts

FIR Four years ago today – on January 3, 2005 – we published the first episode of a new podcast called “For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report.”

Describing ourselves as “Neville Hobson, ABC, and Shel Holtz, ABC, a pair of communication professionals who think they have something to say,” we set out to introduce something new into organizational communication by using a then-emerging tool such as podcasting to demonstrate how such a tool could work for communicators.

During these four years, we’ve grown FIR into a series of podcasts embracing interviews with interesting people, book reviews and more, and expanded the main Hobson and Holtz Report podcast into a twice-weekly show of about an hour per episode.

On January 1, we produced the 410th episode of the Hobson and Holtz Report.

Doing FIR also led us to get to know Yvonne De Vita and a deal with McGraw-Hill to write and produce How To Do Everything With Podcasting, a book that walks you, step by step, through the process of creating, broadcasting and promoting your own podcast, in the summer of 2007.

Most important, though, is the fact that doing FIR has given us a unique opportunity to create and help build a community of people around the world who take an interest in our brand of talk about that intersection of online communication, business and technology and what it might mean to communicators and their organizations.

So as we begin our fifth year of FIR, we’d like to say thank you to an awful lot of people – our listeners, fellow communicators, clients, journalists, other podcasters, other influencers… the list really is long – who have knowingly (and unknowingly) influenced and informed us and have been or have become members of this community.

We’d especially like to mention our correspondents, present and past, who form integral parts of FIR:

  • Dan York – reporting from New Hampshire on Thursdays on communication from the technologist’s point of view.
  • Michael Netzley – reporting from Singapore on Mondays on the communication scene across Asia.
  • Lee Hopkins – ‘our man in the Adelaide Hills,’ Lee was our first correspondent, reporting from Australia from 2005 until early 2008.
  • David Phillips – occasional reports from the shadows of Stonehenge in England.
  • Eric Schwartzman – occasional reporting from Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world.
  • Sallie Goetsch – doses of reality from The Podcast Asylum.

And our two sponsors:

To each and every one of you: Thank you.

We plan to continue providing you with great content. And if you have ideas or suggestions for any of the FIR podcasts, just let us know.

If you’re new to FIR, why not give us a try? You can subscribe right here via the RSS feed or in iTunes, or choose which FIR podcast you’d like to get.

And finally, if you’re feeling nostalgic, here is episode #1 from four years ago. Enjoy!

Posted by neville on 01/03 at 02:07 AM
News • (2) Comments • Permalink

Thursday, January 01, 2009

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #410: January 1, 2009

Content summary: Happy New Year and Speedy Alka-Seltzer; four years of FIR on Jan 3; vote for FIR at Podcast Alley; yesterday’s podcast panel on Talkshoe; the demise of Podango; Dan York reports from New Hampshire; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; News That Fits: Demotix reinvents the newswire with UGC, Israel’s social media assault, 10 reasons why journalism schools should get rid of PR, Consumers Union to buy Gawker blog “Consumerist”; listeners’ comments discussion; music from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals; 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.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for January 1, 2009: A 62-minute podcast recorded live from Concord, California, USA, and Wokingham, Berkshire, England.

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

FIR on Friendfeed
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 +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR, or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. 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.

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

So, until Monday January 5…

Posted by neville on 01/01 at 12:49 PM
Show Notes • Hobson and Holtz • (1) Comments • Permalink

Monday, December 29, 2008

FIR Cut: Blubrry Lifeline for Podango Customers, Introduces Powerpress Plugin

download For Immediate Release podcast

Download the file here (MP3, 4.24Mb, length 9:09), or sign up for the RSS feed to get this cut segment and all future ones automatically.

Posted by neville on 12/29 at 01:39 PM
Show Notes • FIR Cuts • (0) Comments • Permalink

FIR Cut: Opacity in Coal Industry Blogger Outreach Program

download For Immediate Release podcast

Download the file here (MP3, 1.87Mb, length 3:58), or sign up for the RSS feed to get this cut segment and all future ones automatically.

Posted by neville on 12/29 at 01:37 PM
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The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #409: December 29, 2008

Content summary: ‘Get well soon’ wishes to Chip Griffin and Jason Falls; the Shorty Awards; from Singapore, Michael Netzley discusses recent events in Australia, Papua, and China; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; News That Fits: state of the Twittersphere report, do people want Twitter to have ‘search by authority’?, FedEx best practice mixing internal and external communications; listeners’ comments discussion; music from 20 Reasons Taken; 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.

For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, for December 29, 2008: A 63-minute podcast recorded live from Wokingham, Berkshire, England, and Concord, California, USA.

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

FIR on Friendfeed
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 +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR, or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. 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.

Join the FIR Discussion Forum and extend your conversations with the FIR community. You can also join the FIR Facebook Community and become an FIR friend.

So, until Thursday January 1, 2009…

Posted by neville on 12/29 at 10:54 AM
Show Notes • Hobson and Holtz • (3) Comments • Permalink

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

FIR Interview: Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions

Shashi Bellamkonda joined Network Solutions—which once held the monopoly on dot-com domain registrations—as a customer service representative. His use of social media in all of his jobs led to his appointment as the coordinator of social media efforts for the company. In this interview, Shashi shares with Shel Holtz how he coordinates with other departments, how social media has been used to improve the company’s reputation, the metrics applied to his efforts, and a variety of other topics related to organizational adoption of social media.

Get this podcast:

About our Conversation Partner

imageShashi Bellamkonda works for Web hosting company Network Solutions as the first-ever Network Solutions “Social Media Swami”. Helped Network Solutions aggressively move into the online space to listen to and interact with its customers and win the 2008 SNCR Excellence in New Communications Award for Online Reputation Management/Corporate Division. A prolific Twitterer, blogger , and product innovator, Shashi loves technology, testing new things and helping people. A self-described “Internet junkie,” Shashi has presented previously on “How to Sell Social Media to Your Boss” and “Social Media tools for Small Business”.  Shashi Bellamkonda started his blog to keep his many on and offline friends up to date on the coolest new things to check out and answer their questions on social media and technology from what to use and how, how to prevent popups, how to avoid viruses, how to save computers from hackers, and the ever popular “Why is my computer freezing?” A resident of Maryland, Shashi Bellamkonda speaks 7 languages and ardently works to turn his hobbies into his profession.

FIR on Friendfeed
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 +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. 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 twice-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.

Posted by shel on 12/23 at 10:20 AM
Show Notes • Interviews • (0) Comments • Permalink

Monday, December 22, 2008

FIR Cut: IBM Launches Enterprise Social Network for Research Purposes

download For Immediate Release podcast

Download the file here (MP3, 2.68MB; length 5:45), or sign up for the RSS feed to get this cut segment and all future ones automatically.

Posted by shel on 12/22 at 01:48 PM
Show Notes • FIR Cuts • (0) Comments • Permalink

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