FIR Interviews

Chris McGrath, co-founder of intranet company ThoughtFarmer, saw the the rise of chatbots coming and recognized the potential for chatbots in the enterprise. He is readying the launch of TangoWork, a platform for creating and deploying chatbots for employee communication. In this FIR Interview, Shel Holtz talks with McGrath about the rise of chatbots, how they will enhance internal communication,...

Alabama News Center looks like a well-executed news site. It should; the staff at Alabama Power works hard to make sure the site delivers "the news and information that matter most to Alabama power customers," according to the site, which "also tells the stories of the people and businesses powering our state, striving to make Alabama a wonderful place to live and work."  In this FIR Interview, Al...

As search has evolved, practitioners of public relations and search-engine optimization (SEO) technicians have frequently founds themselves at odds with one another. Both are tasked with ensuring an organization's content can be found. Each takes a different approach to achieving that goal. As Google has shifted its priorities (and algorithms) to reward quality content over keywords, and works to...

Josh Bernoff is on a mission: Rid the world of bullshit in business writing. Since leaving his job as a senior vice president and analyst at Forrester Research, where he worked for 20 years, Bernoff has been calling out BS in writing on an almost daily basis via his Without Bullshit blog , where he analyzes emails, reports, and other missives that fail to state clearly what they mean.  In this FIR...

As a profession, Human Resources has been transforming from a transaction-focused activity (benefits, compensation, etc.) to a more strategic business partner. In that role, HR is facing a series of challenges from attracting the right talent from among a population that has different expectations than their predecessors to driving a culture that translates into employee engagement and delivery of...

Inspired by news video innovators NowThis and AJ+ -- along with the employee-focused Paypal in 90 Seconds  -- Peter Vogt, global head of Employee Communications and Experience for Madrid-based financial services company BBVA , led the effort to create "What Just Happened," a weekly video news brief that never exceeds 2-1/2 minutes. Continue Reading → The post FIR Interview: Peter Vogt on New...

Snapchat wasn't made for internal communications but that doesn't mean it can't be  used for that purpose. At the MediaMath New Marketing Institute, employees are sharing content both serious and lighthearted using the popular messaging app. In this FIR Interview, host Shel Holtz talks with Elise James-DeCruise, MediaMath's vice president responsible for the Institute, about how staff came to empl...

In this FIR interview, Shel Holtz talks with Jeff Corbin, CEO of APPrise Mobile, about the origins of the company, how communicators can use branded communication apps, and what's ahead for mobile communication. Continue Reading → The post FIR Interview: APPrise Mobile CEO Jeff Corbin on Branded Communication Apps appeared first on FIR Podcast Network .

While some brands are making waves with their Snapchat campaigns (some of which can cost millions of dollars), most are holding back. Some experts are discouraging its use because the company is not delivering usable analytics marketers can use to assess the results of their efforts. But a few companies have taken to Snapchat and are able to demonstrate results without spending a nickel or needing...

In this episode of Chats with Chip,  Karen Swim , President of SoloPR Pro  and Words For Hire , joined me in discussing a wide range of issues related to independent public relations practitioners. Among the topics we discussed were: The benefits of being a SoloPR Pro member The difference between being an entrepreneur and a PR practitioner Achieving work-life balance as an independent consultant...

Lee Aase , The Mayo Clinic's director of Social Media Networks, was due for the procedure and volunteered to have his own colonoscopy broadcast live -- an event that attracted some 3,000 viewers (not including those who watched during the 24 hours Periscope sessions are available after they're finished). Continue Reading → The post FIR Interview: Mayo Clinic’s Lee Aase on Periscoping h...

Public Relations practitioners routinely attach Word documents, images, and other assets to emails as part of their pitches to journalists and influencers. In an effort to bring document-sharing into the 21st Webified world, Jason Kintzler (founder, president, and CEO of PitchEngine) introduced Compressor, which he describes as "a drag-and-drop OR smart bomb." The idea is simple: Drag a Word docum...

Recognizing a need for compliance (and other) employee training on social media, Eric Schwartzman launched a new business called Comply Socially. He created 22 high-end learning modules that were purchased by a wide variety of companies. But recently, Eric changed gears dramatically, changing the name of the site to Social Media Training and licensing every one of the modules through Creative Comm...

The Conference Board and the Society for New Communication Research announced today that they are merging. In this FIR Interview, Shel Holtz interviews SNCR co-founder and president Jen McClure and Conference Board Associate Director Alex Parkinson about the merger and the organizations' plans for the future. Continue Reading → The post FIR Interview: Jen McClure and Alex Parkinson on SNCR-C...

In episode 100 of #ThoughtLeaderLife, Mitchell Levy, Chief Aha Instigator of the Aha Amplifier ( http://AhaAmplifier.com ), issues a shout-out to Michael Procopio (@michaelprocopio), who started #TLL with him in 2013. Also in this episode, Mitchell formally introduces his co-host for the month, #ThoughtLeader Kami Huyse, CEO of Zoetica Media ( http://www.zoeticamedia.com ). This month, Kami has li...

Blockchains are databases that maintain a continuously growing list of data records that are hardened against tampering and revision, even by operators of the data store's nodes (according to Wikipedia). If you've heard of them, it's most likely because you've done some reading about Bitcoin, the increasingly popular cryptocurrency. But Phil Gomes -- senior vice president at Edelman Digital -- see...

The collaborative (or sharing) economy is heating up, with dramatic increases in both the number of startups that employ the model and the number of consumers who use them. In its annual survey on the collaborative economy, Crowd Companies has crunched the data to identify (among other things) key opportunities for traditional companies to compete as collaborative-economy companies increasingly th...

Good morning, In a recent panel discussion, Startup Saturday Bangalore, had an opportunity to meet with Veda, head of marketing for StayZilla, also known as the airbnb of India. https://www.stayzilla.com About our Conversation Partners: Vedanarayanan V. Stayzilla.com Vedanarayanan possesses more than a decade of professional experience, spanning: E-commerce Management, Digital Marketing, Team Buil...

Babbler, already a success in France, comes to the US in September as a solution to the email mess that media relations has become. Designed as a platform to connect and provide for collaboration between PR representatives and journalists who cover their clients/companies/industries, Babbler is free for journalists, while it provides a single place for brands to make their digital assets (from pre...

Infegy Marketing Director Rion Martin discusses the company's service, News Ninja, which ranks the topics people are talking about based on analysis of reams of data, and updated every 10 minutes. The free service is a boon to newsjackers and real-time marketers. Continue Reading → The post Interview: Infegy’s Rion Martin on News Ninja appeared first on FIR Podcast Network .

Suresh Babu had an opportunity to have Prasant Naidu, the Founder & blogger at Light House Insights, visit the Web Marketing Academy and share his experience on how he organizes content, Indian social media stories and more. Continue Reading → The post Interview: Light House Insights Founder Prasant on Content appeared first on FIR Podcast Network .

Note: this interview comes courtesy of the producers of our new podcast, Digital India. World Social Media Day Bangalore, brought some of the top social media professionals in India on one stage.  Students from the Christ University and many more digital marketing enthusiasts witnessed a great deal of passion, motivation and the nitty gritty of...  Continue Reading → The post Social wit...

In this FIR Interview conducted immediately following the end of IABC's 2015 World Conference in San Francisco, 2015-16 Chair Michael Ambjorn discusses the state of the association, his goals for the next year, how the association can remain relevant, how communicators can benefit from membership, and how IABC can serve non-members. Continue Reading → The post Interview: IABC 2015-16 Chair M...

In this FIR interview, Netvibes CEO Freddy Mini and UX and Press Relations Director Kim Terca join FIR co-host Shel Holtz to talk about the addition of the Interent of Things to the dashboard and how communicators can take advantage of it. Continue Reading → The post Interview: Freddy Mini, Kim Terca on Netvibes’ Dashboard of Things appeared first on FIR Podcast Network .

FIR co-host Neville Hobson interviews Leila Janah, CEO Sama Group, on the future of work, recorded at Quartz' The Next Billion conference in London on May 19, 2015. Continue Reading → The post Leila Janah and The Future of Work appeared first on FIR Podcast Network .