Interviews

FIR Interviews

Saturday, March 31, 2012

FIR Interview: Michael Gale and Jacklyn Allgayer of The PulsePoint Group

imageCompanies that fully embrace social engagement are experiencing four times greater business impact than less-engaged companies, according to a new study conducted by PulsePoint Group, an Austin, Texas and Los Angeles,California-based management and digital consulting firm.

The study, conducted in collaboration with The Economist Intelligence Unit, involved interviews with hundreds of CEOs. The results led to the identification of six types of socially engaged enterprises and offers insights for organizations that want to assess their own social engagement against their peers. According to the study, “The Economics of the Socially engaged Enterprise,” most socially engaged companies are led by CEOs and other leaders who advocate for culture change in order to support deeper levels of engagement. Listening centers and influencer engagement are now the price of admission for the most advanced companies, according to the study, which revealed economic and business values for engagement across 10 distinctive social engagement activities.

Pulsepoint has released a slide deck and an executive summary of the study, and plans to release more details at a webinar set for April 19 (registration details).

In this FIR Interview, PulsePoint partner Michael Gale and associate Jacklyn Allgayer discuss the findings of the study with FIR co-host Shel Holtz.

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About our Conversation Partner

imageMichael Gale is a partner at PulsePoint Group. He is a recognized industry expert in integrated technology marketing, having founded Strategic Oxygen in 2001, which is widely regarded as one of the technology industry’s primary data toolsets for marketers. He has worked directly on over 500 global programs and campaigns for major technology brands for over the last decade and sees the migration of integrated needs to the digital and social landscape as one of the major challenges and opportunities for the next generation of CMOs tasked with taking social beyond a low cost reach alternative. He is part of PulsePoint Group’s team building the social engagement architecture for a range of B2B and B2C industries that range from pharma to high net tech companies. Michael Gale is co-author of “The Economics of the Socially Engaged Enterprise” and continues to lead innovative research initiatives at PulsePoint Group.

Connect with Michael on Twitter at @MichaelGale.

imageJacklyn Allgayer is an associate at PulsePoint Group where she specializes in social engagement analytics. This includes examining online conversations and determining stakeholder perceptions around some of the world’s most influential businesses and institutions. The insights gained from these analyses inform key recommendations for developing or improving social engagement strategies. Since joining PulsePoint Group, Jacklyn has worked with numerous Fortune 500 companies including Delta, Dell, and GE among several higher education institutions to develop and manage social media and reputation management programs that include influencer engagement, digital monitoring and response, content strategy development, issues management and social stakeholder engagement. Jacklyn continues to conduct key research that validates the conclusions reached in “The Economics of the Socially Engaged Enterprise.”

Connect with Jacklyn on Twitter at @JacklynAllgayer.

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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 +1 253 780 9125 (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.

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Posted by shel on 03/31 at 07:35 AM
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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

FIR Interview: Erik Huddleston, CTO of Dachis Group

Dachis GroupAustin, Texas-based Dachis Group defines itself as an organization that "powers the design, development, management and measurement of social business solutions for the world’s leading companies."

To this end, among the products and services the company offers is the Social Business Index,  a tool that, they say, sucks in data from over 100 million social accounts for more than 30,000 brands every 15 minutes to build a real-time picture of the success of brands and companies in their social engagement work.

While social media monitoring helps companies listen to conversations they are not part of, Dachis says the index is about assessing the outcome of conversations initiated by those companies.

In this FIR Interview carried out in Dachis’ London office, Erik Huddleston, the company’s Chief Technology Officer, explains to FIR co-host Neville Hobson how this and other Dachis offerings help global companies like IBM,  Estee Lauder, Telstra, Samsung, Dell, Levi’s, Target, Coca-Cola, Red Bull, Cisco and others uncover insights, take action  on those insights and measure the performance and ROI of those actions.

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About our Conversation Partner

Erik HuddlestonErik Huddleston is the Chief Technology Officer at Dachis Group. He leads the go to market and product delivery for Dachis Group’s groundbreaking Social Business Intelligence as a Service (SBIaaS) platform, SaaS applications, and managed services. Erik is passionate about the transformational potential of social and big data for the world’s largest companies.

Erik came to Dachis Group from Inovis, where he served as Chief Technology Officer and drove the vision, development, and evangelism for their cloud integration, analytics, and social supply chain offering. Erik joined Inovis through the acquisition of BetweenMarkets, the leading provider of partner performance management applications, where he served as founder and CTO. While at BetweenMarkets, Erik drove an agile product and development organization and helped dozens of the world’s leading companies solve their Business Community Management challenges.

Prior to founding BetweenMarkets in 2000, Erik architected consumer and retail analytics products at two enterprise software startups: eCustomers, a retail merchandising software provider; and SMART Technologies, an ecommerce and consumer personalization software provider acquired by i2 Technologies.

Connect with Erik on Twitter: @ehuddleston.

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 +1 253 780 9125 (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.

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Posted by neville on 03/28 at 03:13 AM
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Friday, March 23, 2012

FIR Interview: PRSA Chairman and CEO Gerard Corbett on the Senate inquiry into PR spending

imageFIR co-host Shel Holtz interviews Gerard Corbett, Chairman and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) about the association’s advocacy effort that was launched after the announcement that a U.S. Senate committee would investigate government spending on public relations.

Additional resources:

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About our Conversation Partner

imageGerry Corbett is Chair and CEO of strategic communications consulting firm Redphlag LLC and Chair and CEO of the 32,000 member Public Relations Society of America.

Gerry is an experienced and versatile branding, marketing, public relations and communications executive and coach having served four decades in senior marketing and communications roles at Global Fortune 100 firms and earlier in his career in aerospace engineering and information technology with Silicon Valley firms and NASA. He has effectively and deftly managed a range of communications, marketing and customer service functions in order to advance corporate culture, enhance brand understanding and trust, and enable organization harmony and effectiveness.

Connect with Gerard on Twitter: @gerardcorbett.

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 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.

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Posted by shel on 03/23 at 11:20 AM
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Thursday, February 23, 2012

FIR Interview: PepsiCo Employee Communications Sr. Director Sharon McIntosh

imageFIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz interview Sharon McIntosh, Sr. Director, Employee Communications at PepsiCo. Sharon has led an effort to get employees trained on social media policies, platforms and practices, then get those who want to to engage with their online communications about PepsiCo—in an authentic and transparent manner that bolsters the company’s reputation. (Disclosure: PepsiCo is one of Shel’s clients.)

One of those efforts—letting employees share content from the daily internal email newsletter with their social communities—was covered recently in Information Week magazine. Among the items the article reported was Inside Scoop, a page on PepsiCo’s website that lists employee-shared items. The article points out these links have generated about 30,000 visits, comparable to the number of visits to a company-issued press release.

Sharon also talks about the extensive internal research that led to the initiative, along with the internal social media training program that has empowered employees to share information about their employer online.

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About our Conversation Partner

imageSharon McIntosh is senior director of Global Internal Communications for PepsiCo, overseeing the internal strategy and channels for the company’s nearly 300,000 associates.  She previously worked in internal communications, corporate communications, marketing and media relations at a range of companies, including Sears, Waste Management and the Illinois Hospital Association. 

Connect with Sharon on Twitter: @mcintoshs.

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 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.

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Posted by shel on 02/23 at 11:12 AM
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Saturday, January 21, 2012

FIR Interview: Walgreens Social Media Director Adam Kmiec

walgreensFIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz interview Adam Kmiec, director of social media for Walgreens, the largest drug store chain in the U.S. and a Fortune 50 company. Walgreens has engaged in the last 10 days or so in a social media-focused effort to build awareness among customers of alternatives to Express Scripts, the prescription benefit manager through which hundreds of thousands of people pay for the prescription medications. Unable to reach an agreement to renew their contract, Walgreens no longer accepts Express Scripts but using mechanisms like Prescription Savings Club membership (left) to retain customers.

The campaign to build awareness and retain customer loyalty has been largely focused on social media, including paid tactics like promoted Twitter trends and sponsored blog posts. In this wide-ranging interview, Kmiec outlines the challenges of the campaign, discusses the importance of statistical insights to drive decision-making, and the use of paid social media, as well as outcomes of the effort to date.

(Note, the Walgreens campaign was covered by Advertising Age and was the subject of a story covered on FIR #634. The FIR report was covered by the Best o’ Pop blog.)

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About our Conversation Partner

Adam KmiecFor more than 14 years, Walgreens Social Media Director Adam Kmiec has worked for some of the most forward thinking organizations in the world, while helping some of the most dynamic brands find success in the interactive and social space. His career spans both the client and agency sides of the marketing and advertising industry, covering stops at renowned organizations that include Fallon, Leo Burnett, and ConAgra Foods. His focus has always been on solving business problems by leveraging consumer driven insights to fuel creative ideation. He is a frequent speaker and news contributor. He is currently working on a book titled, “Yes, It’s Hypocritical,” due for completion next summer.

Connect with Adam on Twitter: @adamkmiec or via other social networks.

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 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.

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Posted by shel on 01/21 at 12:01 PM
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Friday, January 20, 2012

FIR Interview: Social Media Monthly Publisher and Editor Bob Fine

The Social Media Monthly

In this FIR Interview, FIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz chat with Bob Fine, publisher and editor of The Social Media Monthly, a new print publication that is also a current Kickstarter project.

The Social Media Monthly was conceived at the 2011 South by Southwest Interactive conference and launched a mere 53 days later, on May 20th, 2011 at BlogWorld in New York. Three weeks later Fine secured national distribution for the magazine with Barnes and Noble. The magazine was honored as one of the top magazine launches of 2011 by MIN, an organization that reports on the publishing industry.

In the interview, Fine recounts the magazine’s origins, why he opted to produce a print magazine about social media, the audience he’s trying to reach, the motivation of article authors, and a host of other topics.

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About our Conversation Partner

Bob FineRobert Fine is the founder of Cool Blue Company, LLC, and author of “The Big Book of Social Media Case Studies, Stories, Perspectives”. Robert has over 17 years experience as a systems and sales engineer with various companies including CMGI, Hughes Network Systems, and most recently as Senior Director of IT for Global Strategy & Development at Conservation International (CI). He is currently pursuing his PhD at George Mason University where he is researching links between investments in information technology and achieving conservation outcomes.

Connect with Bob on Twitter: @bobfine.

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 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 01/20 at 05:04 PM
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Friday, January 13, 2012

FIR Interview: Stuart Bruce and Phil Gomes on PR and Wikipedia

FIR co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz host a Google+ Hangout with Stuart Bruce, principal, Stuart Bruce Associates, and Phil Gomes, Sr. VP, Edelman Digital, to discuss efforts to improve the ability of corporate representatives to make ethical, transparent, disclosed and factual revisions that are independently verifiable to Wikipedia entries.

Currently, a host of communication professionals report having revised entries to reflect accurate financial numbers, spellings of executive names, new or departing board members, employee headcounts and the like. Yet because they are identified as “paid editors” without a neutral point of view, their revisions are often reversed and many are banned from the site. Gomes posted an open letter to Jimmy Wales on his blog at the same time Stuart Bruce Stuart Bruce post on his. Within days, the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) CIPR announcementit would engage in talks with UK Wikimedia representatives. At John Cass’ urging, Gomes created a Facebook group to host a conversation on the subject.

In this interview, Gomes and Bruce discuss the various dimensions of the subject and potential outcomes of the discussion.

Connect with Phil at @PhilGomes; reach Stuart Bruce at @StuartBruce.

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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. 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.

Posted by shel on 01/13 at 10:57 AM
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