Show Notes

LInks to items mentioned in the podcast

Friday, November 02, 2012

FIR Interview: Lee LeFever of Common Craft

The Art of ExplanationLee LeFever, founder of explainer video company Common Craft, is out with a new book, “The Art of Explanation.” Far too few explanations are included in most communication and marketing efforts; the focus is on selling instead of explaining the whats and whys people may be wondering about. Common Craft’s well-known “In Plain English” videos set a standard for how a clear, easy-to-understand explanation can add value to a communication effort.

In this FIR interview, co-host Shel Holtz chats with LeFever about the book, Common Craft and explanations in general.

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About our Conversation Partner

Lee LeFeverLee LeFever is the Chief Explainer, illustrator and voice of Common Craft who is widely credited for inspiring the video explanation industry. Since 2007, the company has won numerous awards, created explanations for the world’s most respected brands including Intel, Google, Dropbox and Ford and earned over 50 million online video views. Today, Common Craft’s mission is to make the world a more understandable place to live and work by inspiring and equipping professionals to become explanation specialists.

Follow Common Craft on Twitter at @CommonCraft. Follow Lee at @leelefever.

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 +1 206 338 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.

Posted by shel on 11/02 at 10:12 AM
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

FIR Interview: Cisco Systems Social Media Listening Team

imageCisco Systems unveiled its Social Media Listening Center at its San Jose, California-based Executive Briefing Center on October 24. The six interactive touchscreens display a variety of data visualizations—such as heat maps and word clouds—that help present a picture of the social media conversation as it relates to Cisco Systems. What visitors see, however, is just a glimpse at the processes and systems that Cisco has developed and deployed throughout the organization.

In this FIR interview, co-host Shel Holtz chats with Jeanette K. Gibson, Charlie Treadwell and Nancy Rivas about the listening command center—both the part that’s visible to visitors and what happens behind the scenes, how subject matter experts are volunteering to address issues the listening team identifies, the means by which Cisco is customizing data visualization for different parts of the company, and how Cisco’s experience with digital signage is taking its listening center to a level beyond those we have seen from other organizations.

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About our Conversation Partners

imageJeanette Gibson, Senior Director, Social & Digital Marketing, leads the Global Social & Digital Marketing team at Cisco. Her team is responsible for the company’s global digital brand presence on cisco.com, social web sites and mobile environments. Her team consists of digital content & site strategy for cisco.com, social media marketing and digital innovation.

Her team is responsible for setting Cisco’s social marketing strategy and success metrics and driving alignment, governance and best practice sharing across the company. This includes overseeing the creation of Cisco branded social sites, such as the company’s social media hub (socialmedia.cisco.com)  the corporate blogging platform (blogs.cisco.com), communities (communities.cisco.com), YouTube (www.youtube.com/cisco), LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Slideshare and whatever else new pops up!

Gibson founded Cisco’s social media marketing organization in 2009 and built its social media center of excellence, which has successfully trained thousands of employees to engage with customers/partners in social media and helped Cisco earn #1 B2B company on Twitter via ComScore.  She also created a Social Media Advisory Council to help guide and direct company-wide social media strategy and governance.

Previously, Gibson led Cisco’s New Media Communications group where she was responsible for extending Cisco’s leadership and innovation with new media and overseeing the vision and direction of Cisco’s award winning online newsroom, News@Cisco (newsroom.cisco.com).

Prior to working with the News@Cisco team, Gibson ran the Corporate Technology PR team at Cisco where she was responsible for promoting Cisco’s technology vision and strategy and securing top-tier business press for Cisco and its senior executive team.

Prior to joining Cisco in 1998, Gibson worked for a start-up, PointCast, which pioneered push technology for delivering news broadcasts directly to users’ desktops. Gibson helped launch the company in 1995 and managed its external reputation via media and analyst relations activity. Prior to PointCast, Gibson held various account management positions at leading public relations firms, Miller Communications (now Weber Shandwick) and Copithorne & Bellows (now Porter Novelli).

Gibson is a founding member of the Social Media Business Council (www.socialmedia.org). Cisco.com has received numerous awards including Best B2B website by SiteIQ and the company was recognized as #1 B2B company using Twitter 2nd year in a row, according to ComScore. Gibson holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Follow Jeanette on Twitter as @jeanetteg.

imageCharlie Treadwell is a Social and Digital Media Marketing Manager at Cisco. In this role he develops strategies to leverage social media listening and measurement to generate business intelligence and infuse marketing programs with social intelligence and insights. With over 8 years of digital and social experience, Charlie has experienced first hand the transition for B2B companies into the social era, and is helping to lead Cisco to become a fully engaged social enterprise.

Charlie leads a team of skilled professionals that manage Cisco’s Social Media Listening Center. This team enables social media teams across Cisco listen to conversations, engages with customers, partners and influencers, and measures our marketing programs across the social web.

Follow Charlie on Twitter at CharlieAtCisco.

imageNancy Rivas she is a Social Media Marketing Manager on the Listening and Analytics team.

Her career at Cisco has included positions in Analyst Relations and as an Editor for The Network in Corporate Communications. Nancy’s professional experience includes more than 12 years in public, corporate and community relations. Prior to Cisco she worked at Nortel Networks managing their Community Relations program. Nancy also worked as a Spanish-speaking media representative and legislative correspondent for local government.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science.

Follow Nancy on Twitter at nrrivas07.

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 +1 206 338 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.

Posted by shel on 10/30 at 09:57 AM
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Monday, October 29, 2012

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #675: October 29, 2012

Intro: Communication channels and Hurricane Sandy; FIR Interviews with Cisco, Lee Lefever coming;

Quick News: Five interesting facts about international social media use, Europe’s business elite takes to social media, publishing a court-ordered apology Apple style, Twitter tests a ‘like’ button; Ragan promo;

News That Fits: The rise of the social media listening command center; the science of paying attention: Nestle’s Digital Acceleration Team and social media monitoring; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; Michael Netzley reports from Singapore on his case study on Tata Consultancy Services, recruiting, best practices and more; listener comments; how large companies are addressing the mobile revolution, and responsive design; TemboSocial promo; Dan York reports on Google’s Hurricane Sandy crisis map, impressions from a visit to Moscow, US Supreme Court and content vs global pricing; Clark Kent hangs up his reporter’s mantle to become… a blogger;

Music from Secret Skwirl; 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; 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 October 29, 2012: An 80-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 Show Notes links
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.

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 +1 415 895 2971 (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 November 5…

Posted by neville on 10/29 at 11:40 AM
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Monday, October 22, 2012

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #674: October 22, 2012

Intro: New dial-in comment line number for North America; FIR Book Review of "What the Plus!" by Guy Kawasaki posted; Shel contributed to new Mayo Clinic social media book; FIR’s one-year GaggleAMP anniversary;

Quick News: Welcome to new business podcast ‘Shift’ from Euan Semple and Megan Murray; LinkedIn updates profile pages; by 2014, up to 15% of likes/reviews will be fake says Gartner; how Bodyform reacted to criticism with humor and got 1 million views - a lesson Thomas Cook could learn; Ragan promo;

News That Fits: The future of "smobile"; Dan York reports on a trip to Moscow, Facebook’s Global Pages, 8 million concurrent views for the leap from space, supporting Michael O’Connor Clark, and more; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; GOV.UK signals a mindset shift in open government online; listener comments; no report this week from Michael Netzley; TemboSocial promo; is the rise of digital and the demise of print such as the Newsweek closure an inevitable outcome for the mainstream media?;

Music from Wild Flag; 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; 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 October 22, 2012: A 79-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 Show Notes links
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.

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 +1 415 895 2971 (North America - new number), +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 October 29…

Posted by neville on 10/22 at 12:23 PM
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Thursday, October 18, 2012

FIR Book Review: What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us by Guy Kawasaki

What the Plus!Google+ is Google’s social network, launched publicly in September 2011 following a three-month beta test phase. According to its Wikipedia entry, as of September 2012, it has a total of 400 million registered users of whom 100 million are active on a monthly basis.

In What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us Version 2.0, author (and unashamed Google+ evangelist) Guy Kawasaki explains how to get started, create an enchanting profile, optimize your content for social searches, share posts and photos, conduct video hangouts, and gain followers.

Each of the 15 chapters in the book’s nearly-200 pages offers practical advice and great tips that help you quickly grasp much of the specifics and get up to speed with using Google+.

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What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us Version 2.0, by Guy Kawasaki.

Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Ebook and paperback (208 pages) editions
Published in the US: September 2012
ISBN: 978-0-07-181010-4
MHID: 0-07-181010-2

Purchase the book online at:

FIR on Friendfeed
Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future shows, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 415 895 2971 (North America), +44 20 3239 9082 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/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 Book Review is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.

Posted by neville on 10/18 at 01:35 AM
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Monday, October 15, 2012

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #673: October 15, 2012

Intro: Shel speaking at PRSA conference today (and was at a special wedding yesterday), Neville solo this week; FIR nominated for 2012 European Podcast Award; discount for FIR listeners to Social Media Marketing 2012 conference in London on October 25;

Quick News: Ford connects again with PeerIndex, with 3D printing and more for a Fiesta car in a new influencer outreach programme in Europe; print’s not dead as the Evernote Smart Notebook from Moleskin suggests; Kickstarter UK launch set for October 31; the return of micropayments with Google Wallet for Content; Ragan promo;

News That Fits: Is there any point today in blogging? Recap of #FTDLW12; Dan York reports from Mumbai, India, on the reliance of the internet for so many of our activities, Marco Arment of Instapaper launches "The Magazine", and more; the Media Monitoring Minute with CustomScoop; Flipboard is the publishing tool of the future and it can also raise your Klout score; listener comments; TemboSocial promo; no report from Michael Netzley in Singapore this week; tips for using LinkedIn’s new Endorsement feature;

Music from May Stands Still; 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; 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 October 15, 2012: A 56-minute podcast recorded live from 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 Show Notes links
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.

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 +1 206 338 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 October 22…

Posted by neville on 10/15 at 09:34 AM
Show Notes • Hobson and Holtz • (0) Comments • Permalink

Monday, October 08, 2012

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #672: October 8, 2012

Intro: Neville’s delivering a talk after a trip to Sweden; Mitch Joel was unable to guest co-host as planned due to an illness, so Shel’s on his own; FIR listeners can get a discount to an upcoming Social Media Marketing conference;

Quick News: QR codes beat out direct mail in driving response; Twitter rolls out promoted tweet surveys; Instagram beats Twitter for daily mobile users; Facebook lets individuals pay to promote their posts; LinkedIn offers influencers to follow and an opportunity to endorse colleagues based on their skills; you can now search attachments inside Gmail; Ragan promo;

News That Fits: As businesses plan to invest in digital and social, communicators need to strategize the channels and platforms they embrace and make sure their content meets needs; Michael Netzley’s Asia report looks at a kerfuffle and a couple of studies; Media Monitoring Minute from CustomScoop; Neville discusses recent talks, first on socializing the enterprise at the Arthur W. page Society’s Global Media Summit in London and then on the future of PR at the NEMO Launch Conference in Helsingborg, Sweden; listener comments; converged agencies were at the heart of the success of an Oreo digital campaign; TemboSocial promo; Dan York’s report; Neville will be solo next week while Shel is at his daughter’s wedding.

Music from Spicehouse; 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; 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 October 8, 2012: A 68-minute podcast recorded live from 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 Show Notes links
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.

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 +1 206 338 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 October 15…

Posted by shel on 10/08 at 11:51 AM
Show Notes • Hobson and Holtz • (0) Comments • Permalink

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