Interviews
FIR Interviews
Thursday, June 09, 2011
FIR Interview: Georgette Tan
Project Inspire is a joint initiative by UN Women Singapore and MasterCard to help participants create a better world of opportunities for women and children in Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa. Under the program, participants submit a video pitch with their idea to help empower disadvantaged women and girls, through education, skills training, financial inclusion, social entrepreneurship. Participants are eligible to win a US$25,000 grant to bring their vision to life. Special recognition will be given to the Best Financial Literacy/ Livelihood proposal which will win a start-up grant of US$10,000. Finalists will get the chance to come to Singapore to present their idea to an expert judging panel and attend a workshop on sustainable social entrepreneurship and presentation skills training.
FIR Asia correspondent Michael Netzley spoke with MasterCard communicator Georgette Tan about MasterCard’s Project Inspire and issues related to communicating in Asia.
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About our Conversation Partner
Georgette Tan Singapore-based Georgette Tan is the Vice President of Communications, Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa, MasterCard Worldwide. She joined MasterCard in 2000 and is responsible for internal and external communications throughout the Asia/Pacific, Middle East & Africa region.
In this role, Ms. Tan has further established MasterCard as a knowledge leader, repositioning the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Confidence and the MasterCard Insights series of ongoing research and analysis of business dynamics, financial policies and regulatory activities in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa region. She also spearheaded the creation of the MasterCard Worldwide Surveys on Consumer Purchasing Priorities, Ethical Spending and Online Shopping, the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Consumer Purchasing Resilience. These have captured media attention and lifted the profile of MasterCard in the region. In the women’s arena, Tan devoted her time to launch the MasterCard Worldwide Index of Women’s Advancement in 2005, as well as other initiatives and scholarships that provide assistance to women and recognize women’s contributions in the workplace.
Tan also spearheaded the launch of MasterCard’s transactional philanthropy platform MasterCard Purchase with Purpose™ in the region. She has led various corporate social responsibility initiatives for MasterCard in the region, ranging from supporting programs in Cambodia, Nepal and the Philippines that teach women skills to make a livelihood, to initiatives in Taiwan, Thailand and the UAE that raise funds to provide needy children a more suitable environment to live in and study.
Previously, Tan spent seven years as the Director of Communications at CNBC Asia, and served as the manager of international publicity services at the Hong Kong Trade Development Council in Hong Kong. Prior to that, she headed up public relations at the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board in Singapore.
Connect with Georgette on LinkedIn.
You can access Project Inspire through Facebook Causes and view a YouTube video about the effort.
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.
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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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Monday, April 25, 2011
FIR Interview: Philip Sheldrake and The Business of Influence
The Business of Influence by Philip Sheldrake provides answers to the pressing questions facing everyone in business in this digital age. Full of perceptive thought leadership, this book offers a framework to help shape an organization’s structural and cultural design.
This framework, the Influence Scorecard, builds on the Balanced Scorecard and similar business performance management approaches.
"Today, every organization is in the influence business," says David Meerman Scott, bestselling author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and the new hit Real-Time Marketing & PR, in an endorsement in the book’s cover. "We influence customers to buy from us, employees to work for us, and the media to write about us. Gone are the days when you could be your own island. Now, to be successful, you need to live within the influence ecosystem and that requires a change of mindset. Fortunately, Philip Sheldrake will show you how."
FIR co-host Neville Hobson was at the launch of The Business of Influence in London on April 21 and talked to author Philip Sheldrake about the book.
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About our Conversation Partner
Philip Sheldrake is a Chartered Engineer, a Founding Partner of Meanwhile, the venture marketers, a Main Board Director of Intellect, the UK trade association for the technology industry, and Board Director of 6UK, a government backed non-profit to promote adoption of the new Internet protocol in the UK.
He co-founded an award-winning PR consultancy at the end of the 90s, selling it to W2 Group, a Massachusetts based marketing services group, to become the European HQ of W2’s PR company, Racepoint.
Philip authored The Social Web Analytics eBook 2008, and the digital marketing chapter of The Marketing Century, a book celebrating the centenary of the Chartered Institute of Marketing. He chairs the Chartered Institute of Public Relations group on measurement and evaluation, presents CIPR TV, and designs and chairs Internetome, the Internet of Things Conference.
Connect with Philip on Twitter: @sheldrake.
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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This podcast was first published as an FIR Audioboo podcast on April 21. It was recorded on an HTC Desire smartphone using the Audioboo app for Android.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
FIR Interview: Sean Duffy on WeFeedback.org and social media
WeFeedback is a social media initiative of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the world’s largest humanitarian organization. Each year, WFP brings food to millions of people so they can move on with their lives, receive an education, find employment and create a better life for their families.
In this FIR Interview, Philip Young, Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at the University of Sunderland, talks with Sean Duffy, founder of The Duffy Agency, about the WeFeedback social media programme.
The conversation sets the scene for charitable giving by describing the overall programme, adding a simple analysis of what tends to motivate us to contribute money to charitable appeals. It explores the scope and scale of online donation mechanisms as key elements in creating a "guilt-free zone" for donating and the range of social media tactics employed.
Sean Duffy explains the difference between inbound and outbound marketing, talks about ways in which imaginative organizations can become involved to enhance their brand values, and outlines the vision for developing WeFeedback into a broader global community.
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About our Conversation Partners
Philip Young is a Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at the University of Sunderland and co-author, with David Phillips, of Online Public Relations 2nd edition. He blogs at Mediations.
Philip is also a lead researcher for the EuroBlog project of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (Euprera) which acts as a focus for practical and scholarly research, most notably expressed by papers presented at symposia. Initiatives include the annual Social Media Awards which ran for the first time in Ghent, Belgium, in 2010.
Connect with Philip on Twitter: @mediations.
Sean Duffy is founder of The Duffy Agency and Duffy Consult, and is focused on helping CEOs build strong brands across borders. He has 25 years’ experience working with advertising and brand strategy in Boston, San Francisco, Stockholm and Copenhagen.
Sean began his career in the US as a copywriter with BBDO in Boston and later as creative Director for Knight Advertising in San Francisco. In 1991 Sean moved to Stockholm to work as Creative Director at Sweden’s largest ad agency, Lowe Brindfors. After 10 years with Lowe, Sean started The Duffy Agency in 2001 and Duffy Consult in 2004.
A frequent speaker on strategic marketing and brand development, Sean draws on his experience working with dozens of global brands including Ikea, Saab, Volvo, Absolut, Sony Ericsson, InWear/Matinique, Q-Med, Gambro, Pfizer and GSK.
Sean co-chairs the European Chapter of the Trans-world Advertising Agency Network (www.TAAN.org). Based in Malmö, Sweden, Sean splits his time between Sweden and the States.
Connect with Sean on Twitter: @BrandRanter.
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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Tuesday, April 19, 2011
FIR Interview: Lynette Young on BlogWorld’s Podcast Pavilion
In this FIR Interview, co-host Shel Holtz talks with Lynette Young, about the Podcast Pavilion, the special podcast space that will be part of the BlogWorld and New Media Expo taking place in New York May 24-26.
Young—known online as Lynette Radio—is a podcasting pioneer. In this interview, she discusses the origins of the Podcast Pavilion and what attendees at BlogWorld East can expect from the special podcasting venue that will be set up on the trade show floor.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (9.84Mb, 24:30)
- Get the show on iTunes
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- Get the FIR app for your iPhone and for your Android device (visit the Android Market from your device)
About our Conversation Partner
Lynette Young has been a pioneer in social media since she began blogging in 1997. An expert in podcasting and virtual worlds since 2004, she founded Purple Stripe Productions, a social technology and strategy firm, in 2006. She works with companies and organizations to help them have more meaningful conversations with their customers in new and engaging ways. Lynette is a frequent speaker at conferences around the country. She is an organizer for the Podcamp Philly conference, and is the Program Director for Social Media Club Princeton NJ. Lynette was also inducted into the NJ Social Media Hall of Fame.
Connect with Lynette on Twitter: @lynetteradio.
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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Monday, April 04, 2011
FIR Interview: Azeem Azhar, Founder of PeerIndex
In this FIR Interview, co-host Neville Hobson talks with Azeem Azhar, founder and CEO of London-based PeerIndex, a company that is algorithmically mapping out the social web. PeerIndex aims to become the standard that identifies, ranks, and scores online authorities, helping those individuals benefit from the social capital they have built up.
In a wide-ranging conversation recorded on March 31 during the Geeknrolla tech start-up conference in London, Azeem explains how PeerIndex works and its focus on opinion-formers and -leaders rather than influencers. He discusses the benefits for companies in understanding online authorities and their reach, shares his insights on the evolving ecosystem of online monitoring and measurement in the wake of the Salesforce acquisition of Radian6, and more.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (11.3Mb, 24:49)
- 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
Azeem Azhar is an internet entrepreneur and investor with a background in journalism having worked previously at The Economist and Guardian.
He has been active developing services on the Internet since 1992, as a student. He was involved in the launch of The Guardian, The Economist and BBC web services during the 1990s; he had a fin-de-siècle/internet bubble escapade with an incubator between 1999 and 2001. More recently, he has been an investor in Powerset, New Energy Finance, Daylife, Seedcamp and Dopplr.
Connect with Azeem on Twitter: @azeem.
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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Sunday, March 27, 2011
FIR Interview: Edelman Japan President Ross Rowbury on earthquake-tsunami communications
In this FIR interview, guest interviewer Jon Hoel talks with Ross Rowbury, president of Edelman Japan, about communications in the wake of the devastating Japan earthquake and Tsunami.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (5.15Mb, 12:52)
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About our Conversation Partner
Ross Rowbury President, Edelman Japan. Ross was formerly Senior Managing Director and COO at PRAP, Japan’s largest independent PR firm.
During his seven years at PRAP, Ross worked with both Japanese and multinational clients in the consumer, finance, healthcare and high technology industries.
Ross has worked in the Japan market for 30 years and is fluent in written and spoken Japanese. He has a wealth of experience in management training, strategic consulting and comprehensive communications disciplines. Prior to PRAP, Ross was Managing Director at the Tokyo Office of Gavin Anderson & Company (now Kreab Gavin Anderson) as well as Director at BZW Securities, Tokyo.
About our guest interviewer
Jon is an independent PR consultant currently living in Singapore. Jon has previously worked as a digital strategist for Burson-Marsteller (Singapore), private media consultant in Australia, and as a communications officer for the Australian Consulate in Japan. Jon is also the creator and host of the PR Junction podcast and can be found at jon_hoel on Twitter.
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.
Monday, March 21, 2011
FIR Interview: RealWire CEO Adam Parker on the value of press releases
In this FIR interview, co-host Shel Holtz speaks with Adam Parker, chief executive of RealWire, a UK-based press release distribution service. RealWire recently launched PR Filter, a search engine that searches press releases from a broad range of distribution services; he has conducted research into the nature of releases that PR professionals produce and discusses the match between subject matter and what journalists and bloggers are interested in. he also discusses the social media news release (SMNR) and RealWire’s SMNR service, along with the second study in 18 months to determine which format—traditional or social—gets more pickup.
Get this podcast:
- Download the MP3 file (12.06Mb, 30:01)
- Get the show on iTunes
- Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed
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About our Conversation Partner
Adam is Chief Executive of RealWire, the UK news release distribution company. He is responsible for the strategy and development of the business and took on his executive role in early 2006, having been a Non Executive Director since the company began in 2001.
Adam is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and has previously spent over nine years with PricewaterhouseCoopers working in the Corporate Finance, Business Advisory and Audit practices.
In early 2010 he acted as spokesman for the “An Inconvenient PR Truth” campaign that sought to bring the debate around the issue of irrelevant press release emails, aka PR spam, into the mainstream arena. The campaign lead to the production of a set of guidelines on media relations, a “Media Spamming Charter”, by the three UK professional PR bodies - Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and the Investor Relations Society (IRS) - which were endorsed by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He blogs at www.showmenumbers.com, a title taken from one of his favourite TV shows - The West Wing.
Connect with Adam on Twitter at @AdParker.
Links
- RealWire
- PR Filter
- PR Filter Blog
- PR Filter technology rankings release
- Analysis of social media release coverage
- RealWire social media release video
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.
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