Interviews

FIR Interviews

Sunday, August 21, 2011

FIR Interview: Lee Hopkins on Twitter and symbolic convergence theory

Lee Hopkins, FIR’s first correspondent and a social media strategist, has been working on a Ph.D. that originally focused on communication and virtual worlds. He recently shifted his attention to whether the decades-old communication theory of “symbolic convergence” is applicable to Twitter.

In this FIR Interview, co-host Shel Holtz met up with Lee in Sydney, Australia, and recorded a brief video interview about the research. You can read Wikipedia’s explanation of symbolic convergence here.

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About our Conversation Partner

imageLee Hopkins is the CEO of Better Communication Results, a consultancy that has assisted companies worldwide to communicate better for better results. He has consulted to a range of organisations, from the medium sized up to the multi-national. Lee holds Honours degrees in Applied Psychology and Sociology from the University of Surrey in England, a Management Diploma from Brunel University in England, and is currently conducting doctoral research at the University of South Australia in order to achieve the award of Doctor of Communication. He is looking into how the tried and tested ‘Symbolic Convergence Theory’ can be applied successfully to today’s online conversation milieu in order to create positive outcomes for organisations and their publics. He has hosted his own podcast and co-hosted another with Alan Jenkins (the return of which we continue to anticipate).

Lee blogs at leehopkins.net. Follow him on Twitter at @leehopkins.

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 08/21 at 02:27 PM
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Thursday, August 04, 2011

FIR Interview: David Spark on content marketing

David Spark, of Spark Media Solutions, produces content for clients that helps them establish their voice within their industries. He calls content “the currency of social media.” “If you want to be visible, you must have an editorial voice that can be traded via social media, and found via search engines,” he explains on his webiste. “Marketing, PR, and branding alone are not sufficient, they can only amplify your voice. You must become a media network and have your own voice.”

In this FIR Interview, co-host Shel Holtz talks with David about the notion of companies becoming publishers, how to ensure that content is shared and how to assess its value. David also shares a case study involving security company Tripwire, the focus of a recent Spark Media Solutions white paper.

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About our Conversation Partner

imageDavid Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder of Spark Media Solutions, a media consulting and production company. Acting as the “media” of “social media,” Spark Media Solutions helps its clients be seen as leading voices in their field through brand-quality media production and distribution through top tier media channels.

For more than sixteen years Spark and his articles have appeared in more than 30 media outlets including eWEEK, Wired News, PCWorld, ABC Radio, John C. Dvorak’s “Cranky Geeks,” and TechTV. He blogs regularly on the Spark Minute and is a regular contributor for Mashable, Socialmedia.biz, Technologizer, and KQED’s “This Week in Northern California.”

Connect with David on Twitter: @dspark.
Download the white paper, “How to Become One of the Most Respected Companies in Your Industry”

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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 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 08/04 at 02:37 PM
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Wednesday, July 20, 2011

FIR Interview: Jonny Bentwood on Tweetlevel and Bloglevel

imageIdentifying who are influential voices online is fast becoming an art if not a science. More technology tools and services are coming to market that help communicators identify people with high influencer rankings - typically, the types of people who create original ideas that are amplified by others, and those who engage most meaningfully with their followers.

In this FIR Interview, Neville Hobson, talks with Jonny Bentwood at Edelman London about BlogLevel and version 2.0 of TweetLevel, free tools that allow communicators to identify who is influential on a particular topic, on a designated platform. Dubbed by Edelman as "a GPS for navigating influence on any topic," TweetLevel finds the influentials on Twitter and BlogLevel does the same in the blogosphere. Both were launched in July 2011.

The conversation embraced an explanation of what the two tools enable communicators to do, how Tweetlevel in particular is positioned against other ranking tools such as Klout and PeerIndex, and considers the different types of influencer - it’s not just one bucket.

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About our Conversation Partner

Jonny BentwoodJonny Bentwood joined Edelman as Head of Analyst and Influential Engagement in 2006. An advocate and evangelist of social media, Jonny created TweetLevel, BlogLevel and the Social Media Index and is the author of a white paper focussing on online influence. His work has featured on CNN, Sky News, the BBC, Reuters, the Guardian, Mashable, AdAge, The Next Web and ReadWriteWeb.

Previously at Metia where he created and developed the company’s successful analyst relations division where he led all of Microsoft’s AR in EMEA. Jonny has led a range of campaigns for technology vendors covering both consumer and enterprise segments. His experience on clients include Intel, Xbox 360, HP, Orange, Motorola, Microsoft, Adobe, HDS, Reuters, FileNet, BT, Misys, AMD and Siebel. Prior to this, he worked at Informa, the telecoms analyst house, and as an IT consultant.

Understanding how AR has evolved over the past 10 years, Jonny monitors analysts use of social media and publishes a league table of analyst bloggers and tweeters every quarter and has the highest ranked analyst relations blog (Technobabble 2.0).

Jonny is a director and founding member of the Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR) and is a regular speaker on analyst relations and social media, including the Royal Institute, Forrester’s IT Forum, Oxford University and Social Media Week. Jonny is a Leeds Metropolitan University graduate.

Connect with Jonny on Twitter: @JonnyBentwood.

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 neville on 07/20 at 11:08 PM
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Thursday, July 14, 2011

FIR Interview: Cisco’s John Earnhardt on ‘The Network’ social newsroom

A piece of content that is shared with a friend, or friends, or followers, or the world is the ultimate measurement of its success, says John Earnhardt about Cisco’s new technology news site, The Network.

The Network is very much about sharing. Launched in mid June 2011, The Network is an evolution of Cisco’s well-regarded "News&Cisco" site. According to Earnhardt, The Network is Cisco’s effort to tell stories and share information on the topics that are the most important to Cisco: Video, Collaboration, Core Networks, Mobility, Security, Data Center, Cisco Culture and Social Media.

In this FIR Interview, co-hosts Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson talk with John Earnhardt, Cisco’s Director of Corporate Communications, about The Network, discussing its objectives, its structure and focus, content sharing and widgets such as you see here - a good example of the sharing concept at the heart of the new website that lets you take Cisco content to your website.

(This widget uses Flash which won’t display on devices that don’t support Flash.)

Our discussion includes considering The Network‘s role in making Cisco become a media company (the concept that is the topic of the next FIR Live podcast on July 30). Looking ahead, John shares some thinking on how The Network is planned to evolve to embrace Cisco worldwide.

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About our Conversation Partner

John EarnhardtJohn Earnhardt, Director Corporate Communications, manages the social media team responsible for the The Network, Cisco’s Technology News Site, and Cisco’s other corporate communications channels such as The Platform blog, Facebook page, Twitter @CiscoSystems (2010 B2B Twitterer of the Year), LinkedIn, Ustream and Flickr site. He also manages the PR team’s media strategy, corporate op-ed program, broadcast media strategy and executive media training. John was a finalist for PRWeek’s "PR Professional of the Year" Award for 2009.

Previously, he managed policy communications in Cisco’s Global Policy and Government Affairs department where he was responsible for using communications 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.

Connect with John on Twitter: @urnhart.

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 neville on 07/14 at 10:39 AM
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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

FIR Interview: Bill Calder, managing editor, Intel Free Press

imageFIR co-host Shel Holtz explores how Intel is taking steps to become a media company in this interview with Intel Free Press managing editor Bill Calder. According to the “about” page on the site, “The Intel Free Press is a tech news beta from Intel Corporation, covering technology and innovation stories that are often overlooked or warrant more context and deeper reporting. The stories here are reported and produced by writers employed by the company with a focus on people, technology, events and topics relevant to Intel.”

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About our Conversation Partner

imageBill Calder is managing editor for Intel Free Press who’s been with Intel since 1994. Prior to Intel, he served as press secretary to Sen. Mark Hatfield in Washington D.C., and before that he served as a regional correspondent for The Oregonian and a freelancer for the Eugene Register-Guard. Follow Bill on Twitter @billcalder.

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. 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 06/29 at 08:24 AM
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Friday, June 24, 2011

FIR Interview: Brian Solis

FIR co-host Shel Holtz talks with Brian Solis about the update to his book, Engage, among other topics including social business and the role of frontline employees in representing their organizations online.

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About our Conversation Partner

Brian SolisBrian Solis is a Principal Analyst at Altimeter Group. Brian works with businesses on new media strategies and frameworks to build bridges between companies and customers, employees, and other important stakeholders. Additionally, he specializes in change management to help businesses (and the leadership team) introduce new media resources, systems and processes, and management layers to effectively embrace and excel around the connected customer. As a result, CRM Magazine named Brian as an influential leader of 2010.

Brian is globally recognized as one of the most prominent thought leaders and published authors in new media. His latest book Engage is an award winning reference guide for businesses to build, cultivate and measure success in the social web. A digital analyst, business strategist, and futurist, Brian has studied and influenced the effects of emerging media on business, marketing, and culture.

His blog, BrianSolis.com is among the world’s leading business and marketing online resources, ranking among the top 1% of all blogs tracked by Technorati. Brian is also ranked as one of the leading voices in the AdAge Power 150 index of worldwide marketing bloggers. He actively contributes to FastCompany, BusinessWeek, AdAge, Harvard Business Review, and Mashable. joining Altimeter Group, Brian led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 startups since 1999 as Principal of FutureWorks.

Connect with Brian on Twitter at @BrianSolis.

Engage (336 pages, from Wiley) is available from Amazon in the U.S., Canada and the UK.

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. 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 06/24 at 03:38 PM
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Friday, June 10, 2011

FIR Interview - Kansas City weather podcaster Ed Roberts

imageThe Kansas City Weather Podcast began almost-daily episodes in February 2005. Addressing local weather in a format that is longer than most news outlets give to the subject, meteorologist Ed Roberts has attracted an audience and become a known resource in the Kansas City area. His podcast is also a marketing tool for his weather-related business.

FIR co-hosts Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson spoke with Ed about the podcast.

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About our Conversation Partner

imageEd Roberts  is co-owner of LRC Weather, LLC, founder and past president of the Kansas City Chapter of Social Media Club and producer of the Kansas City Weather Podcast. He’s a former broadcast meteorologist at WSBT-TV in South Bend, Indiana and at KSHB-TV in Kansas City, Missouri.

Ed’s Kansas City Weather Podcast has more episodes produced than all but one or two other shows since the advent of podcasting. His ability to personalize and interact with people online quickly gained him a niche in the community. Ed was able to apply his notoriety gained through his online presence to start LRC Weather, LLC in 2008. LRC Weather provides decision support to facets of businesses impacted by the weather. He has served a wide range of organizations including international clients such as Compass Minerals and more localized clients such as the Kansas City Chiefs, and Kansas City Power and Light.

He was honored with a Podcast Peer Award in 2005 for the best Regional-Themed Podcast. As founder and past president of the Kansas City Chapter of Social Media Club in 2008 he was able to grow the club to become one of the largest chapters of the organization worldwide. Social Media Club of Kansas City provides education, best practices, case studies, and networking to people and organizations wishing to utilize online social media.

Connect with Ed on twitter at @KCWeather.

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. 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 06/10 at 10:54 AM
Show Notes • Interviews • (0) Comments • Permalink

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