That can only mean one thing … it’s time for our annual episode where we gaze into the proverbial communications crystal ball …

OK, it’s not that dramatic, really. But Gini, Joe and I do talk about three of the trends we’ll be watching over the next 12 months:

1. Natural language generation and AI writing assistants
2. Values-based communication and leadership counsel
3. Impact and consequences of social media algorithms

Check it out and let us know what you think and what other trends you may be seeing on the horizon.

This is our last show of 2021 and we’d like to say a big thank you for listening and for supporting us.

Before we go, here’s that link to Janelle Shane’s AI Weirdness Advent Calendar.

And here’s one more AI Weirdness post, predictions for future top-selling toys.

And now, in the spirit of brevity (and the season), we want to wish you all a wonderful holiday and all the best in the new year.

Stay safe. Stay healthy. And stay tuned :).

We’ll be back with more bi-weekly episodes in 2022!

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

The work that is unique is our intellectual property, yet it’s pretty rare that we spend our resources on protecting it.

On this episode, we talk about what that might look like for you, why it’s important to protect your ideas, and how to go about doing so.

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Perhaps the digital world has become even more pay-to-play and is expecting a higher price from organizations in order for them to achieve decent business results.

That’s what Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley and I talk about on Inside PR. Our conversation is based on a post by digital thought-leader Rand Fishkind called, ‘The Incentives to Publish No Longer Reward the Web’s Creators‘.

TL;DR version: Your content marketing strategy needs a balanced and integrated approach.

Have a read, then have a listen and let us know what you think.

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Kids are going back to school. College and universities are offering more in-person classes. And people are getting revved up for the busiest season of the year.

But are you ready to go back to the office or would you prefer to work remotely or in some type of hybrid situation?

And how will you communicate what you decide to your team?

Of course, there are no easy answers, but if you’re interested in our take, check out this episode of Inside PR.

Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley and Martin Waxman talk about:

• The importance of having a communicator in the room when workplace decisions are being made.
• Why organizations need to listen closely and pay attention to people’s reactions.
• Giving employees an opportunity to voice their opinions and know they’re being heard, rather than simply feeling they’re being talked at.
• Creating a culture of empathy by understanding people’s situations, anxieties and fears.
• Being flexible and letting people know nothing’s set in stone and that you’re prepared to adapt if need be.

And finally a word of advice from Joe: If you’re on a Zoom meeting and someone says something that makes your blood boil. Don’t get into a fight. Shut your camera and mic. Take a breath and try to see things from your colleague’s point of view. Then come back when your temper’s cooled so you can have a more balanced (and hopefully productive) conversation.

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• Why you should stop using spreadsheets in favor of software to help you do your job;
• Media outlets continue to shrink and journalists no longer have beats—and what that means for your future, especially if you have any earned media responsibility;
• How to use paid, owned, and shared media to supplement the work that we do from an earned media perspective;
• That artificial intelligence is already here and already ready to do the more mundane parts of your job so why you should stop waiting for a memo and do something about it; and
• How machine learning can beat all of the best practices and teach you what works best for your organization, your audiences, and your prospective customers.

Enjoy!

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

These are things we all take for granted, sort of like the sewer beneath our cities, but they are necessary for making things work.

And there are things that have transformed the way we’ve done business in the past 18 months. While we certainly used Google Video or Skype or Zoom, it tended to be once or twice a month—at the most.

Now we’ve found that video chat is the primary way work is done and we now all take for granted that it’s the preferred way to communicate.

Even as some organizations go to a hybrid model or even back to the office full-time, there will be times that video is warranted.

And, as schools reflect on the best learning, some students will be in-person while others are at home. Martin speaks to his experience teaching in a hyflex classroom, which is hybrid and flexible.

The classroom is like a studio and students have to sign up to be there in person.

For those that are learning at home, the teacher (Martin, in this case) has a camera that follows them around automatically, capturing the lecture—and then everyone in the class, in-person included, will all Zoom in and any group work will be done through breakout sessions.

It’s a new way of working and, certainly, the plumbing of the internet will continue to evolve as we adapt to new ways of learning, working, and living.

Join us for this episode to learn more!

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Far from it.

In fact, most of us are simply trying to do the best jobs we can for our organizations or clients and behave in an honest and ethical manner.

But let’s just say, there are some less than scrupulous individuals and companies whose approach and choices reflect badly on the industry.

And it’s not just PR pros who are guilty of this. Certain bloggers, journalists, media outlets and influencers are also not as honest or transparent as they could be when it comes to conflicts of interest.

And because social media has given us all a voice, we need to make sure we think through the consequences of how we use it.

That’s what we talk about for this week’s podcast.

We got the idea from a Washington Post story about a site that bills itself as an investigative blog. Turns out, it has financial ties to a PR firm and seems to focus on stories where the agency’s clients have a vested interest.

In our opinion, this contravenes many PR codes of ethics and standards including PRSA, CPRS and the Global Alliance to name a few.

Have a listen and let us know what you think.

And if you want to dig deeper, check out Gini’s Spin Sucks post on the subject.

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Has your boss told you that you have to return to the office fill time? Part-time? Have they talked about flex work? Or even held out the prospect of working remotely on an ongoing basis?

And how do you feel about this? Do you want to return to the office? Full-time? A few days a week? Or do you want to continue to work remotely?

What are the things that you liked and valued about working from the office? What are the benefits of working at home?

Gini, Martin and Joe talk about mistakes that employers are making in the post-lockdown period. High-knowledge, high-skill workers have discovered the freedom of being able to choose where they work – and with the end of the lockdown, many of them will be thinking about what they want to do, and realizing that they have choices. So, the employer who informs their staff that they must return to the workplace full-time may discover that many of their workers not only don’t return, but actually leave.

As with many other key decisions, success in bringing employees back to the office will turn on effective communications. And effective communications starts with listening, understanding others’ interests and objectives. And then speaking to their concerns, not just blustering forward with what you want and care about.

So, this week, let’s talk about effective communication for the post-pandemic return to the office.

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Before you get into the tools, though, we have an important reminder: it’s not about the tools. It’s about whether or not you’ll actually use them. It’s easy for us to discuss our favorites, but if you don’t love something about the tool or your brain works differently, you’ll hate the tools we love.

It’s more important that you and your team love the tools—that’s what will create collaboration and adoption.

With that out of the way, take a listen to the tools we all love. The tools we use for meetings, for collaboration, for project management, for discussions, for videos and podcasting, and for good, old-fashioned documents.

Enjoy!

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our producer is Jacob Waxman, a talented musician, producer, and recording engineer. Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

OK, cliches aside, I’m happy to report that after a hiatus of around 20 months and all the things that have happened between then and now, Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley and I are back recording Inside PR.

Why? To be honest we missed talking with each other about what’s new in PR, social media and digital marketing. We also missed hearing from you.

Our one big change is we’ve moved to a biweekly or fortnightly format, which fits better with our schedules and other commitments. That way, you can expect to hear from us on a regular basis. (OK, given our recent history, my fingers are crossed on that one.)

In our first new episode, we catch up and talk about what’s changed.

Gini: Learned how to teach first and second grade, bakes and rides her bike more than before, and runs her business with an even sharper focus.

Joe: Stared at the same 120-foot view of the street from his home office for days on end and pivoted to a remote business, communicating internally and externally on Microsoft Teams.

Martin: Moved my office furniture counterclockwise, kept track of who, in the neighbourhood, needed a paint job on their front porch, and started a Digital Marketing Trends newsletter on LinkedIn.

We also talked about how to establish boundaries when you don’t stray too far from the home office and ways to spark creativity.

It’s great to be back!

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn

We’d love to hear what you think and if you have any subjects you’d like us to cover in upcoming episodes.

Leave us a comment on the blog.

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,

Connect with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Oh, and we have a new producer!

Meet Jacob Waxman (yes, he is my son and also a talented musician, producer and recording engineer). Jacob produced the episode and is also the composer of our new theme music. Roger Dey is our announcer.

Linkworthy

• Three ways to determine if an app is worthy of your attention, Gini Dietrich

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, Martin Waxman and Dan York.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Also this week: Open Government, open engagement and open data activists from around the world gathered in Ottawa. So did the grand committee of countries looking at the practices of the social platforms. But it doesn’t matter how many countries come together in one place — Mark Zuckerberg responds to no flag but his own. He was, once again, a no-show.

Linkworthy

• The Open Government Partnership
• OGP Summit 2019
• Ottawa hearings show there is a political will to regulate big tech – but will it spur change?
• Media Relations: Increase your search engine optimization, Gini Dietrich

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, Martin Waxman and Dan York.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Linkworthy

• Booker, Wyden, Clarke Introduce Bill Requiring Companies to Target Bias in Corporate Algorithms
• A new bill would force companies to check their algorithms for bias, Adi Robertson
• Democrats draw up bill that would require tech platforms to assess algorithmic bias, Taylor Hatmaker
• MIT Technology Review
• The Algorithm Newsletter
• It’s Time to Panic About Privacy, Farhad Manjoo
• The Big Nine, Amy Webb
• How to find hidden cameras in your AirBnB, and anywhere else, Michael Grothaus

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, Martin Waxman and Dan York.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

We have big news this week: Dan York is joining the Inside PR team. Dan is well known to Inside PR listeners for his tech segments on Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson’s FIR podcast. And, if you didn’t know, his day job is as Director, Web Strategy, at the Internet Society.

Gini, Joe and Martin are big fans of Dan’s reports. He provides a perspective that combines expertise in communications and marketing with strong technology underpinnings. When Shel and Neville announced that FIR would be moving to a monthly format, Gini, Joe and Martin immediately put out a call to Dan to ask if he would be willing to contribute to IPR on the other three weeks of the month. And, happily, Dan said yes. So, you may hear Dan less often on FIR (and we encourage you to listen to FIR monthly), you’ll be able to hear him the rest of the time on Inside PR.

So, that leads us to this week’s debut of Dan’s Two Minutes of Tech for Communicators segment. We know he’s going to teach us a lot.

Tell your friends. There’s another reason to listen to the Inside PR podcast – and his name is York. Dan York.

A digital charter for Canada

Canada has long taken privacy and consumer rights seriously. And as public concern about the unseen use of our personal by social networks data increased following the Cambridge Analytica scandal, calls for change have mounted. Now, the Government of Canada has made its next move with the announcement of a Digital Charter for Canada. While the Charter sums up established values and points to aspirational goals, it also takes two real steps toward action with references to Canada’s Privacy Commissioner and Competition Bureau. Both have regulatory muscle that they could flex in the near term. And both are in a position to scrutinize the social networks.

Europe, California, and now Canada. Momentum to reign in the previously underscrutinzed use of our data by the social networks is gaining momentum.

We really never are alone

As if we needed another reminder of where the early optimism of the open web and the social graph has taken us, the New York Times offers a thought provoking look at our relationship with Google.

Linkworthy

• Dan York on Twitter
• ISED Minister Navdeep Bains announces Canada’s Digital Strategy
• Canada’s Digital Charter: Trust in a Digital World
• Minecraft Earth goes a step beyond Pokemon Go to cover the world in blocks, Tom Warren
• WordPress 5.2 “Jaco”
• You’re not alone when you’re on Google, Jennifer Senior

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, Martin Waxman and Dan York.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

The FIR Podcast is one of the longest continually-produced podcasts for communications pros. Since 2005, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson have been providing insight into the communications trends and developments that are important to communications practitioners.

But now they are dialing back their production schedule to once a month. And as podcast producers who have followed in their footsteps, we’re glad that they are continuing. Because if you are a communications pro, you’re sure to learn something useful with each and every FIR podcast.

So, kudos Shel and Neville for finding a way to keep it going and keep it fresh.

GarageBand: Creating dreams

It’s been fifteen years since Apple first offered GarageBand with Macs. Since then, it’s become available for PCs and iOS as well. And that means there’s a whole generation of musicians and podcasters who have brought their ideas to life using Apple’s free software. In fact, we use GarageBand to mix and produce the Inside PR podcast. And it couldn’t be easier to do, thanks to the simple, intuitive interface.

So, here’s to GarageBand. And here’s to the community of creators who have grown up around it. And here’s to Apple for giving us this incredibly useful software.

You’re just not important enough for us to take action

The abuse of social media by foreign or malevolent agents is not just confined to the United States. It is a global problem. But that doesn’t mean that the social and search platforms are giving it the same attention in countries other than the United States. Indeed, you need look no farther than across the border to the north to Canada to see Facebook and Google taking very different approaches to the responsibility that national legislators and regulators say they should take on. In this tally, Facebook gains a point. Google loses a point.

If you’re not part of the solution

Facebook’s local news support project, Today In, underlines the news deserts that have been created by the diminution out of the display ad economy that local newspapers relied on. And in doing so, it drives home that the social and search platforms efforts to “support” journalism are not adequately addressing the problems they have created. It’s time for radically different thinking.

Gini is on holiday this week. So, Joe and Martin are alone together.

Linkworthy

• FIR Podcast, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson
• Inside GarageBand, the Little App Ruling the Sound of Modern Music, Amy X Wang
• Facebook introducing measures to prevent election disruption, Elizabeth Thompson
• Social media giants don’t take Canada seriously, say MPs, Joan Bryden
• Facebook’s local news project frustrated – by lack of local newspapers

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Is Mark Zuckerberg’s concept of privacy your concept of privacy? Probably not. And this week we discuss Zuckerberg’s ongoing repositioning of Facebook as “private.”

One more thing: Thank you to Emma Haddad for including Inside PR in her list of podcasts PR pros should listen to.

Linkworthy

• A Privacy-focused vision for social networking, Mark Zuckerberg
• Mark Zuckerberg discovers privacy, Taylor Hatmaker
• Roger McNamee thinks the pivot to “privacy” helps Facebook, not you, Hanna Kozlawska
• Facebook just shoplifted Snapchat’s best idea, Kara Swisher
• Facebook lost 15 million users? Marketers remain unfazed, Amy Gesenhues
• 30 podcasts PR Pros should listen to, Emma Haddad

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Linkworthy

• Report: Cision Explores Sale
• PR Newswire Owner Cision Explores Sale – Sources
• Google to ban political ads ahead of federal election, citing new transparency rules

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

This should be a a must-read for anyone who deals with social media and search, with marketing and online advertising, with community building.

Also, on this week’s show, we pay tribute to Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson’s FIR Podcast, which just hit the 1,000 episode mark. Sometimes weekly, sometimes biweekly and now monthly, Shel and Neville are the seminal PR podcasters. And they’re still going strong and providing insight that we can’t do without. Keep it up guys.

Finally, a shoutout to Martin on the completion of an important milestone. Huzzah Martin!

Linkworthy

• Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, Roger McNamee
• The Virtual Self, Nora Young
• FIR Podcast, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

A recent report out of the UK suggests that Joe isn’t alone:

Since 2010, around 840,000 15 to 24-year-olds have switched off for good, according to research from Enders Analysis. And among the 6.5 million or so who do still tune in, the amount of time they spend listening has plummeted 29% between 2010 and 2018.

Both Martin and Gini also have noticed a shift in their media consumption. Not just one that adds to their daily information diet. But a shift that has replaced one medium with another.

So, if podcasting is constituting a greater portion of many people’s media consumption, you just know that advertisers are eyeing it and entrepreneurs are looking to provide them with a new medium to reach consumers. We’ve seen Spotify’s big move, acquiring Gimlet and Anchor. This is unlikely to be the last move of this sort.

As others follow, what does that mean for the open podcasting system that has let enthusiast and professional podcasters coexist? Will services like Spotify start to push the enthusiasts off to the side, out of sight, as they promote their own professionally produced podcasts so that they can maximize revenue? Sound familiar? Substitute the words blog and Facebook for podcasts and Spotify.

So, is this the end? Not necessarily. It may be possible for two systems of podcasting to existing together, thanks to things like Patreon, which didn’t exist during the rise of Facebook and the decline of blogs, along with membership-oriented initiatives life that being advanced by outlets like Slate.

If you’re a listener to Inside PR, it’s probable that you too have made room for podcasting by reducing your consumption of other media. Have you done this consciously or has it crept up on you. Do you see a future for enthusiast podcasts like Inside PR — or will we soon go the way of MySpace?

Linkworthy

• I just realized that I don’t have a radio anymore, thornley
• Is streaming killing the radio star?, Mark Sweney
• Spotify. It’s not just for music anymore, Ben Sisario and Michael J. de la Merced
• With Supporting Cast, Slate wants to build the paid-membership layer of podcasting, Nick Quah

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

We also talk about the acceleration of job losses in journalism. In one way, it might be like that old saying that, “I went broke very slowly for a long time, and then very quickly very suddenly.” So, there’s no doubt that the journalism job losses this year have been massive. But even more remarkable is where most of those losses have been this year — in digital media. Digital media, which only a couple years ago many investors and entrepreneurs were betting on as the platform that would replace traditional media. Clearly, online journalism has proven no less immune to the hoovering of advertising support by Google and Facebook. So, in 2019, we’re still waiting for the new model that will save journalism as we know it.

And talking about PR in a world of disappearing and shrinking newsrooms, Martin and Gini argue that PR pros must stay true to the core value of relationships while making the search for the new influencers and news brokers with whom they must establish working relationships.

Having said that, are we in a world in which we are playing for time. Do we need to find a new core to PR to replace the central role that media relations once played. At one time, we thought it would be social media. But that has fragmented. And it seems that the pace of change is accelerating. So, we continue the search for the next key leverage point.

Linkworthy

• More than 2,300 people lost their jobs in a media landslide so far this year, Benjamin Goggin
• 2009: The internet is killing (print) journalism; 2019: The internet is killing (internet) journalism, Jeff Israely
• NYU’s Jay Rosen says 2020’s political journalism will be even worse than 2016’s, Eric Scott Johnson

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Martin doesn’t buy Facebook’s argument that we are getting Facebook’s service for free? Not for a second. We’re paying — and the currency is our data. Gini argues that we are the product when it comes to social media. However, she accepts Facebook’s argument that they are not selling our data. Instead, she focuses on the need for each of us to make our own calculation about whether what we receive is a fair exchange for our attention and what Facebook learns about us. And Joe? Well he’s not buying Facebook’s arguments that they don’t sell our data. They do sell the intelligence and insight that comes from possessing our data. And, as far as he’s concerned that makes them “Data Launderers,” the digital equivalent of money launderers.

Martin picks up on this and says that we can see Facebook as not necessarily selling the data, but being the agent by which our data is used and obtains the value of using it. And they can do this because they are so big. Perhaps too big. And, says Martin, all you have to do is look at what Facebook is doing with WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram — rolling up the data each has about us. Different data from what we view as different platforms gives them an even more granular portrait of us that they can draw on to the benefit of advertisers. What of the trust we established with these platforms when they gave us the reassurance of remaining discrete and protecting us from being rolled into an even bigger data bank?

Gini brings it back to a pragmatic reality. Facebook has become so effective, so pervasive, so dominant, can an advertiser ignore them? And that leads us to accept their assertions of good intent.

Linkworthy

• Understanding Facebook’s Business Model, Mark Zuckerberg
• What Kind of Internet Do We Want?, Sheryl Sandberg
• A Discussion with Nick Clegg
• The Facts About Facebook (paywall), Mark Zuckerberg
• An Anti-Facebook Manifesto, by an Early Facebook Investor, book review by Tom Bissell
• The Digital Winter Turns Apocalyptic, Alex Pareene

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Linkworthy

• Nine Technologies Creeping Us Out in 2019, Ruth Reader
• Bell wants permission to gather and track customer data

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

• Facebook’s commitment to supporting local journalism. (0:55)
• Using Alexa Flash Briefings for your communications program (5:51)
• our take on Gillette’s The Best Men Can Be video ad theme (15:44)

Linkworthy

• Doing More to Support Local News, Facebook blog
• Facebook is funding more programs catering to local news publishers, Max Willens
• The Alexa Flash Briefing Guide for Communicators, Gini Dietrich
• Podnews.net and the Podnews podcast — a template for Alexa Flash Briefings?
• Feedly News Reader, an indispensable tool for communicators
• The Best Men Can Be, Gillette
• “No going back:” Viral Gillette ad sparks fierce reaction,

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

So, if you want to get some insight into what makes Martin, Gini and Joe tick, you’ll probably find out this week. And along the way, we hope that you may get some ideas for things you may want to do this year yourself.

Of course, we’d like to learn from you. So, please share your own resolutions with us. Look at the “It’s your turn” heading below for ways to connect with us.

Linkworthy

• The Agency Leader Podcast, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

So, what’s the smart agency head doing? Definitely not going all in with a bet on a single business line. Smart leaders are diversifying their revenue stream during this time of uncertainty. And as they do this, they have the best chance of identifying the most promising areas for growth and also being able to exit the business areas without a future.

That’s exactly what Gini Dietrich did following the crash of 2008. And since then she has built a very different business – a business that depends on a network of professionals with the range of skills necessary to drive multiple revenue streams. Diversification has been a successful strategy for Gini. And this week Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley pick up on a recent episode of Gini and Ghip Griffin‘s Agency Leadership Podcast to talk about Gini’s strategy and what others can learn from her experience.

Also on this episode, Joe asks Gini and Martin for advice on how they would respond to a pitch that struck Joe as ethically challenged and also how they react to being pitched on pitched on LinkedIn within minutes of accepting an invitation to connect with someone.

We’ll be back on January 1 with a New Year’s Resolutions episode.

Linkworthy

• The Agency Leader Podcast, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich
• Ethical Voices, Mark McLennan

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

First, up on Inside PR this week, Martin points to Farhad Manjou’s final “State of the Art” column for the New York Times. Some smart advice for these digital times:

• Don’t just look at the product. Look at the business model.
• Avoid Feeding the Giants
• Adopt Late. Slow Down

Don’t Look Now, But Your Apps See You

Another blockbuster story from the New York Times (they seem to be making this routine.) This time, the Times stripped away any illusion that we may have had that those give us your location opt-ins are being used only for the purposes we think they are. Scary stuff.

Linkworthy

• How to Survive the Next Era of Tech (Slow Down and Be Mindful), Farhad Manjou
• Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret, JENNIFER VALENTINO-DeVRIES, NATASHA SINGER, MICHAEL H. KELLER and AARON KROLIK

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

LinkedIn Stories — Putting wings on an elephant?

LinkedIn is beta testing a Stories feature called Student Voices. On one level, it sounds like a good idea. However, if aimed at younger users who have seen Snapchat Stories as ephemeral content that enabled them to be spontaneous and genuine without fear of their mistakes showing up in a data cache. When they use LinkedIn Student voices, will they bring this expectation only to discover that the information lingers on their profile and is being viewed by prospective recruiters? Maybe there is an argument for keeping different social networks separate according to use and audience.

The Washington Post enters the daily news podcast game with Post Reports

The Washington Post has launched Post Reports, an afternoon news podcast. It is the latest in a series of high quality news podcasts, including The Daily, Up First, and Front Burner, that collectively signal a significant shift in the news diet of an increasing number of people.

They also represent a challenge for PR Pros. The one thing these new podcasts all seem to have in common is that they are highly curated. There are limited slots for stories in the short format adopted by all of the news podcasts – and they are cherry picking for their line up from the stories covered on their companion traditional news outlet. So, getting a story placed and covered on the news podcasts is not a linear extension of the traditional pitch. PR pros will have to watch closely to understand the unique perspective and focus of each of the new podcasts in order to find a way to ease a story’s coverage. But a straight up pitch? Probably not.

Damian Collins shows Facebook that it’s dangerous to thumb your nose at Parliament

Facebook may have more members than any country has population. And Mark Zuckerberg may feel he’s too important to accept an invitation from legislators representing eight countries to testify before them. But Mark Zuckerberg definitely isn’t bigger than Damian Collins, MP. Last week, Collins made good on his promise to release the documents from Facebook vs Six4Three court case. And the picture they painted of Facebook’s competitive behaviour and Mark Zuckerberg’s role in decisions that would exploit Facebook user data to advantage Facebook and disadvantage its competitors was …. ugly.

Linkworthy

• LinkedIn launches its own Snapchat Stories. Here’s why it shouldn’t have, Josh Constine
• Jameson Hsu’s LinkedIn story example
• The Washington Post announces programming details for its new evening podcast, “Post Reports”
• The Washington Post has launched a new 20-minute daily news podcast, Max Willens 
• News podcasts we love
  • The Daily, NY Times
  • Up First, NPR
  • Front Burner, CBC
  • Post Reports, Washington Post
• Summary of key issues from the Six4Three files, Note by Damian Collins, MP
• Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers, Carole Cadwalladr
• Facebook Emails Show Its Real Mission: Making Money and Crushing Competition, Kevin Roose
• Facebook Used People’s Data to Favor Certain Partners and Punish Rivals, Documents Show, Adam Satariano and Mike Isaac
• Now eight parliaments are demanding that Zuckerberg answers for the Facebook scandals, Natasha Lomas
• Delay, Deny and Deflect How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis, Sheera Frenkel, Nicholas Confessore, Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg andJack Nicas

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Two hours after we recorded last week’s Inside PR, the New York Times posted a bombshell report – Delay, Deny, Deflect – about Facebook’s management of legislators and manipulation of the truth. 

And in this report, they answered the question that Gini Dietrich has been asking since the whole Cambridge Analytica fiasco broke – where are Facebook’s communications team and what are they advising. Well, as it turns out, the real question should have been, what communications playbook are they using?

Making the world more open and connected? Maybe for you and me. But for Facebook, definitely not more open.

Linkworthy

• Delay, Deny and Deflect How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis, Sheera Frenkel, Nicholas Confessore, Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg andJack Nicas
• What Facebook Knew and Tried to Hide, Michael Barbara, Sheera Frenkel, and Nicholas Confessore
• About NTK Network
• Definers Team
• Now eight parliaments are demanding that Zuckerberg answers for the Facebook scandals, Natasha Lomas
• Concerns grow at Tory link to US lobby firm in Facebook smear scandal, Jamie Doward

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Sometimes, the stars just align perfectly. When we recorded this episode of Inside PR, we did not know that, within hours, the New York Times would publish a bombshell story delving into Facebook’s tactics to avoid full transparency and accountability for the existence and persistence of Russian troll activity and other bad acts on Facebook. In this episode, you’ll hear us discuss that the only truly satisfactory response on the part of Facebook must go beyond simple PR bromides to real actions that align with its promises. Something which the NY Times story suggests Facebook fell far short of.

Ironically, it was the NYTimes Tech Reporter, Kevin Roose, who provided the most succinct definition of what’s really going on in a Tweet following the picture that emerged of a group of boys allegedly giving the Nazi salute prior to their prom. Roose tweeted, “has anyone answered “a generation raised on platforms that reward provocation in a culture with a shrinking list of taboos” yet[?]”

has anyone answered “a generation raised on platforms that reward provocation in a culture with a shrinking list of taboos” yet https://t.co/V9xTaTxO38

— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) November 12, 2018

And it’s not just outside observers who are rethinking the approach the social media platforms took to driving growth and user engagement. Recode reported that Twitter co-founder Ev Williams told a tech conference in Portugal, “I think showing follower counts was probably ultimately detrimental. …. It really put in your face that the game was popularity.” Williams went on to discuss the “suggested user” list that helped new Twitter users start to follow people on Twitter by suggesting well-known are widely followed people for them to follow. Reflecting on this, Williams suggested, “Those weren’t really interest-based follows, and then someone who had grown their following organically compares themselves to them. It’s inauthentic.”

And that brings us back full circle to Facebook. Even before the NY Times story dropped, legislators outside of the US were demanding that Zuckerberg provide some accountability to them for Facebook’s operations in their countries. A few weeks back, we discussed the fact that Canadian legislators were prepared to travel across the Atlantic to attend a joint session with their counterparts in the UK Parliament – if Mark Zuckerberg would agree to appear before them. Last week, legislators from Australia, Ireland and Argentina joined their counterparts from the UK and Canada to provide Zuckerberg with a five for one offer. One appearance for five countries. Yet, at the time of recording Zuckerberg and Facebook still had not agreed to appear.

And then the NY Times story dropped – and we saw in vivid detail the machinations and manipulation Facebook was taking to duck calls for full transparency everywhere. 

Delay. Deny. Deflect. Now that we understand this, could this be only the first of many bad weeks for Facebook?

Faster, Safer Internet Access from Your Phone

Do you ever connect to the Internet via a public WiFi network (think airports, hotels and Starbucks?) Have you read the terms of use you have with your Internet Service Provider (ISP)? If so, you may discover that they can share with “partners” data about your Web surfing and Internet activity from inside your home! Yes, it’s a scary world.

Cloudflare, the company that many developers rely on for Domain Name Server (DNS) and Content Delivery Network (CDN) services, is making it easier for all of us to increase the security and privacy of our connections to the Internet – whether at home or in public places. Last April, the company launched its 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver service that enables you to keep your Web activity private – even from your ISP. Now, they have introduced apps to bring the service to your mobile phone. I’ve installed the 1.1.1.1 app on my iPhone. It took less than three minutes. You too can download the app from the iOS and Android stores. It’s an easy, simple step to protect yourself online.

It’s about the links

When you pitch an article to an online news outlet, do you expect them to include a link back to the source you provided to them? Do you see this as good SEO for the news outlet? As important to your client? A recent PR article on obtaining links in articles referencing clients got us thinking.

The challenge and rewards of Nanoinfluencers

Finally, we talk about  the emergence of Nanoinfluencers. From a thousand points of light may come great influence?

Linkworthy

• Delay, Deny and Deflect How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis, Sheera Frenkel, Nicholas Confessore, Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg and Jack Nicas
• Mark Zuckerberg Defends Facebook as Furor Over Its Tactics Grows, Cecilia Kang, Matthew Rosenberg and Mike Isaac 
• has anyone answered “a generation raised on platforms that reward provocation in a culture with a shrinking list of taboos” yet[?], Kevin Roose
• Twitter Co-founder Ev Williams says in retrospect that showing how many followers you have wasn’t healthy, Teddy Schleifer 
• Pressure grows on Zuckerberg to attend Facebook committee hearing, Alex Hern
• 1 Thing You Can Do to Make Your Internet Safer and Faster, Mohd Irtefa
• Announcing 1.1.1.1: the fastest, privacy-first consumer DNS service, Matthew Prince
•  Journos don’t appreciate being used as a marketing tool – PR Pros urge caution against SEO link requests, Arvind Hickman
• Are you ready for the Nanoinfluencers? Sapna Maheshwari

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

• Do you want to understand the Paid/Earned/Shared/Owned approach to PR and marketing? Martin tells people that Gini’s SpinSucks site is a top site for info on PESO.
• Is Facebook really bigger than every government in the world? Does this mean that Facebook is above the oversight of the political leadership of nation states? Well, you might think so, as politicians in Canada and the UK band together to request that Mark Zuckerberg attends a joint hearing. Canadian politicians will fly across the ocean to question Zuckerberg, who will not fly four hours to speak to them directly in Ottawa.
• Still, some political bodies are determined to move forward to protect our privacy rights. The Canadian Privacy Commissioner announces new disclosure requirements for privacy breaches. Only in Canada, you say? Pity.
• Twitter’s Q3 financial results showed that, while monthly active users may have decreased, daily active users continue to increase. And that’s a good thing. Suggesting that Twitter is succeeding in reestablishing itself as a place that users like you and me will want to treat as one of our principal social networks on a daily basis, not just on an occasional basis.
• Finally, Kara Swisher gives us much to think about in her rumination on Silicon Valley’s links to and dependence on investments from organizations and individuals who would never be considered to be friends of liberal democracy and free speech. And Ezra Klein‘s discussion with Jay Rosen of the media’s turn to entertainment logic from news logic underscores the media’s weakness in helping us to come to grips with the true underlying issues.

Linkworthy

• I thought the Web would stop hate, not spread it, Kara Swisher
• Jay Rosen is pessimistic about the media. So am I, Ezra Klein‘s podcast
• The PESO model on SpinSucks
• UK and Canada MPs unite to demand that Mark Zuckerberg answers questions, Jim Waterson 
• New data breach reporting requirements come into force this week, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada
• Twitter Investor Relations Tweetstorm of Q3 2018 financial results

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

We also discuss Twitter’s release of the Tweets from foreign Trolls trying to influence the US election. It’s clear that the mischief makers are constantly revising their approach, presenting a moving target for researchers and members of the public who are trying to protect themselves form their influence. The bottom line: they targeted the most active people, presenting extreme positions on both sides of wedge issues, with the intention of undermining trust and pushing people into extreme positions.

Finally, we look at reports that Twitter soon will provide greater transparency about whether a tweet was removed voluntarily or was in fact taken down for a violation of the platform’s terms of use. Displaying a notification that a tweet has been removed because of a violation of the terms of reference will provide even casual readers with a visual cue about the quality of an account. A small move, but one that will make a contribution to our ability to spot trollish accounts.

Linkworthy

• Chip Griffin’s comment on his experience with social media in a crisis
• Shannah Hayley’s Tweetstorm about Joe’s expectations of social media in a crisis
  
• Sean O’Driscoll on Twitter
• Twitter releases archive of 10 million tweets from state-backed troll accounts, Kelly Makena
• Twitter’s post: Enabling further research of information operations on Twitter, Vijaya Gadde and Yoel Roth
• #TrollTracker: Twitter Troll Farm Archives, Ben Nimmo, Graham Brookie, and Kanishk Karan.
• Twitter will soon indicate when a reported tweet was taken down, Nick Statt

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

• Google+ has gone away. We reflect on its demise and what it did and didn’t mean for us in its prime and at the end.
• The retro-lovers among us may have noticed the return of the Palm brand name. It may go to show that there’s always a demand for people who turn left when the rest of us turn right.
• There’s a new podcast for PR agency leaders, aptly named the Agency Leadership Podcast. And Gini Dietrich is co-hosting it with former Custom Scoop CEO Chip Griffin. Each week, Gini and Chip will provide insight into the challenges, skills and moves necessary to run an agency in the gig economy. This is Gini’s third podcast. She will continue to co-host Inside PR with Martin and Joe and she will also offer advice for practitioners on Spin Sucks. The era of Gini Dietrich podcasting truly has arrived. 
• Is your boss an Algorithm? Algorithms are everywhere. They determine the content we see. They rate our performance at work. And their influence over us is expanding and growing. Is this something we should simply accept or should we become proactive in examining and shaping how and when they can be applied?
• What do you do when clients refuse to call back? Last week, an agency owner raised the question in the Spin Sucks Community on Slack of how to handle a non-responsive client. We’ve all seen clients who get busy, who disappear for a while, or who are chronically late with feedback. And we have a good discussion of how we have dealt with that in the past.

Linkworthy

• Google Plus Shut Down After User Information Was Exposed, Daisuke Wakabayashi
• Project Strobe: Protecting your data, improving third party APIs, and sunsetting consumer Google+, Ben Smith
• Palm returns as an ultra-mobile smartphone, Brian Heater
• Agency Leader Podcast, Chip Griffin and Gini Dietrich
• When your boss is an algorithm, Alex Rosenblat
• Spin Sucks Community

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

• Pew research data that suggests a flattening in the growth of social media use and device ownership in the US;
• Data from LastPass that shows that there is much we can do to improve the security of our online accounts
• PR Week released data on the process of reinvention in PR.

Linkworthy

• Internet, social media use and device ownership have plateaued after years of growth, Paul Hitlin
• The 2018 Global Password Security Report by LastPass, Katie Petrillo
• PR is in a state of reinvention. Is it up to the challenge? Chris Daniels

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

We also talk about how realistic it is to expect agencies and organizations to respond to individual people during a crisis. The case is Joe’s over-two-day return to the dark ages when he and 250,000 other Hydro customers lost their power following a tornado in Ottawa. Is it good enough for organizations to simply publish general information – or should they attempt to respond to individuals and communicate information that would be useful to specific groups, such as neighbourhoods.

Linkworthy

• Just Don’t Call It Privacy, Natasha Singer

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Twitter users everywhere heaved a sigh of relief last week, as Twitter gave users the option to again view tweets displayed by recency. No more need to see stale tweets that Twitter thinks you’ll be interested in. As you did in the earliest days of Twitter, you can again see the tweets displayed in reverse chronological order. Hurrah. At the same time, Martin reports that he is seeing a button on the top of his Twitter feed that highlights live videos.

Meeker moves on

Mary Meeker, who has provided data driven insights on the state and evolution of the Internet, has left Kleiner Perkins to start her own company. Meeker’s insights have been influential among communicators and marketers, pointing the way to emerging channels and opportunities that have opened new opportunities connect with consumers. Hopefully, this venture will give Meeker new energy and scope to stay on the leading edge. We all benefit from her insights.

Adjusting to Facebook’s declining share of youth attention

The trend of young people abandoning Facebook continues. What happens to communications programs and planning in light of the continuing shift of young people away from Facebook? Are you shifting your programs to allocate more resources to YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat or other channels to compensate for shifts in usage of Facebook?

Linkworthy

• Twitter brings back the chronological feed, Nick Stat
• Twitter promotes livestream video, Amy Gesenhues
• Twitter Timeline Help
• Mary Meeker leaves Kleiner Perkins, Teddy Schleifer
• Teens are abandoning Facebook, Olivia Solon

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Martin Waxman has a show? No, a LinkedIn course.

Martin Waxman’s new LinkedIn Learning course has just been released. Check out Martin’s advice for using Blogging for Your Business.

SpinSucks, but you don’t

The latest episode of the SpinSucks podcast provides a good refresher on the PESO model. If you are looking for a good overview, check it out.

Let’s go Inside P2

Joe has started a series of interviews with leaders of the public engagement community from around the world. He published the first of these on the current edition of Inside P2, an interview with the President of IAP2 Canada, Bruce Gilbert.

Nike and Colin Kaepernick

Gini and Martin see Nike’s Colin Kaepernick endorsement as a laudable example of corporate activism. Joe is not so sure.

Linkworthy

• A Crazy Dream Becomes Reality When You Just Do It
• Why information bubbles on Twitter are so hard to pop, Corinne Purtill
• Why a business blog? Blogging for Your Business, Martin Waxman
• How to Use Paid Media in Your Communications Program, Gini Dietrich
• IAP2 President Bruce Gilbert on What’s Next in Public Engagement, Joseph Thornley

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Nike highlights the value and perils of corporate activism (Inside PR 520) by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Snooze Keywords on Facebook

Facebook is working to make it easier for you to avoid those annoying spoilers about the program you’re half way through binging with a new keyword topic filter. The keyword filter has been available to some lucky users in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. Let’s hope that it becomes available to us all soon. I know I’ll be using it to hide anything to do with cats and kittens.

Rooting out bias

Facebook and Google’s role as gatekeepers of what we see is under scrutiny again. Farhad Manjou directed our attention to the built in biases that Google’s algorithms and AI can display. We’ve talked about this before. And the platforms have acknowledged that they do have problems that they are trying to fix. But when they do, their solutions are opaque to end users and citizens. Can we trust the platforms to self regulate? Can communications professionals play a more active role in calling for more transparency? Can government establish a legal or regulatory regime that will achieve a better balance between the public interest and the interest of the platforms’ shareholders?

A Lasting Reputation Hit for the New Yorker?

It seemed like a good idea at the time – invite Steve Bannon for a featured interview with David Remnick onstage at the New Yorker Festival. And then the reaction started. Other speakers pulled out. People weighed in on social media (of course!) And before you could turn around, Steve Bannon was uninvited. Some said this was the right thing to do. Others suggested that it was another example of an institution caving to the Twitter mob. So, what does the New Yorker do now? How do they avoid a permanent reputation hit?

Linkworthy

• Keyword Snooze: People Turn Down the Noise
• Here’s the Conversation We Really Need to Have About Bias at Google, Farhad Manjoo
• Alex Jones said Bans would Strengthen Him. He was Wrong, Jack Nicas
• New Yorker Festival Pulls Steve Bannon as Headliner Following High-Profile Dropouts, Sopan Deb and Jeremy W. Peters
• Who’s Right About the New Yorker’s Steve Bannon Mess?, Simon Demenco

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 519: Do you see the bias? by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

This week on Inside PR 518, we talk about the upgrade to the Twitter app that makes creating Tweet Threads as easy as clicking on a plus sign at the bottom of your tweet composition window. Twitter threads are a great way to tell more complex stories over time. And they have the extra value of pulling all the tweets in the thread to the top of your followers’ timelines whenever you add a tweet to the thread. This is a great way to stay in front of your audience without repeating tweets.

Sidewalk Labs paves a bumpy path

Sidewalk Labs, a Google/Alphabet company, has big plans to redevelop an industrial section of Toronto’s waterfront into a demo of the smart city of the future. Sounds like a great idea! But Sidewalk Labs’ path to make Toronto a showcase has raised controversy around the stewardship of the data about people that willl be collected. And skepticism has only been accentuated by suggestions that Waterfront Toronto, the agency that is responsible for the lands Sidewalk Labs wants to develop, has been so eager to make the deal that they have become too cozy with Sidewalk Labs too early in the negotiation process. A communications challenge at any time. But an especially big challenge post-Cambridge Analytica.

Ethics! Ethics! Ethics!

The New York Times profile of the fake Youtube views business is the latest example of the social platforms rewarding bad actions. This is just plain wrong. But for PR folks, salt was rubbed in the wound by the suggestion in the article that most of the views are purchased by PR and marketing agencies. It’s hard to imagine who those agencies would be. Do you work at a PR firm or know someone who works at a PR firm that buys YouTube views? If you do, we’d love to hear from you and maybe even get you to come on the show to talk with us about this practice.

Linkworthy

• How to use TweetThreads, Joe Wadlington
• An example of how the New York Times uses Twitter Threads
• Sidewalk Toronto scrambles to prepare for public meeting, as criticism mounts, James McLeod
• Google affiliate’s grand ambition runs into Waterfront Toronto’s reality, Jennifer Wells
• The Flourishing Business of Fake YouTube Views, Michael H Keller

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 518: Buying YouTube Views? You’re cheating! Everybody knows you’re cheating. by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

First, a couple #IPRMustKnows, things worth noting and acting upon:

• WordPress is one more step closer to the full rollout of Project Gutenberg. This week, WordPress pushed out a maintenance update that included a prompt to all users to turn on the Gutenberg update. Gini did this for SpinSucks – and she raves about how great the new experience is. This may be the final release before WordPress 5.0 is pushed out to all users. And with WordPress 5.0, Gutenberg 5.0 will be turned on by default for all users. So, if you publish on WordPress and you haven’t turned on Gutenberg yet, now is your time to try it out.
• Feedly is, in Joe’s opinion, the best newsreader available for people who want to curate their online information sources via RSS feeds. When Google closed down Google Reader, a substantial part of the Reader community migrated their reading lists to Feedly. That was a time of rocket ship growth for Feedly, which enabled users to access, read and curate their news sources on every device – desktop, tablet and mobile phone. Now the good folks at Feedly have initiated a major rewrite of the Feedly iOS app – and they have invited their community of users to test the app as it is being developed and provide their feedback. The Feedly team have set up a dedicated Slack Workspace for the beta phase, to announce the new features introduced or refined with each week’s release and asking for feedback on these features. And to enable participants in the beta to see that their input is being incorporated in the development team’s work, they’ve gone a step further, setting up a Trello workspace and posting links to it so that the participant community can see the state of work. The Beta program is just about to hit its midpoint. But new users still are joining. So, if you use Feedly and want to make it better, you too can still sign up to participate in the beta. Kudos to Feedly for building their app the right way, co-creating with their community will yield a much better product that meets both mainstream and specialized needs.

We know that many listeners to this podcast speak about their area of practice to conferences and at professional development events. If you do this even once a year, you’ll be interested in a post that Gini Dietrich wrote on the SpinSucks blog, Six ways to generate leads from a speaking engagement. Martin and I both thought it offered practical advice that we would put to work – and we asked Gini to discuss it with us.

Finally, on this episode, we talk about the Sarah Jeong controversy that erupted this week. If you aren’t familiar with this, we’ve posted links to key articles that will provide the backgroud. Here’s a quick recap. Last week, the New York Times announced that Sarah Jeong would be leaving the Verge to join the NY Times as lead writer on technology. And then a Twitter storm erupted as attention was drawn to tweets authored by Jeong that were derogatory of white people. The Times quickly reaffirmed its decision, pointing to the context in which Jeong wrote those tweets and indicating that they would not be acceptable in future now that she has joined the Times. Coming in the wake of the James Gunn and Les Moonves controversies, could we indeed be seeing the a restoration of the balance between nuance and absolutism? As Martin asks, could we be back to a time in which we can admit to a mistake, own it, show contrition, and move on? We can only hope so.

Linkworthy

• Try Gutenberg in WordPress 4,9,8
• Feedly invites users into the design and testing phase of its new iOS app, Edwin K
• Six ways to generate leads from a speaking engagement, Gini Dietrich
• Sarah Jeong Joins The Times’s Editorial Board
• New York Times stands by new tech writer Sarah Jeong after racist tweets surface, Brian Flood
• Statements in Response to Criticism of the Hiring of Sarah Jeong to the Editorial Board in Opinion
• Newsrooms must stand up to targeted campaigns of harassment,  T.C. Sottek, Nilay Patel, Helen Havlak, Dieter Bohn, Eleanor Donovan, and Thomas Ricker
• CBS Films Chief Terry Press on Leslie Moonves: “Story Generates as Many Questions as Answers”, Abid Rahman

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

There’s no such thing as “trolling for good” – Inside PR 517 by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Linkworthy

• Dave Bautista Stands For Felled ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’s James Gunn As Free Speech Chill Sets Into Hollywood, Mike Fleming Jr.
• Les Moonves and CBS Face Allegations of Sexual Misconduct, Ronan Farrow
• CBS Films Chief Terry Press on Leslie Moonves: “Story Generates as Many Questions as Answers”, Abid Rahman

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 516: Learning, Reconciliation and Forgiveness by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

• The Canadian Civil Liberties Association issued an open letter to Toronto Mayor John Tory asking that he hold off a municipal council vote on installing “ShotSpotter” microphone technology across the city. Less than a day later, Toronto was struck with a horrific mass shooting that left a 10-year-old girl and an 18-year-old woman dead and thirteen others injured. What would you do now if you were the CCLA? Respect the grief of the bereaved and victims as well as the trauma being experienced by the community as a whole and back away from your position? Or would you persist in advancing your position?
• Burberry was caught out by environmentalists engaging in a long-established practice of luxury goods manufacturers, destroying unsold stock to keep it off the market and avoid dilution of their brand. That may have worked twenty years ago. But not in the era of social media when any person perusing a company’s annual report can spot something like this and deliver the news directly to an audience that will be critical of it. So, what’s a company like Burberry to do? Change its approach to be more in keeping in the times? Or keep its head down in the belief that this too will blow over? Watch with us in real time.
• Finally, we raise an example that we plan to discuss next week when Gini returns to the show – the James Gunn firing and the rehabilitation of Leonard Lopate. Every action leads to a consequence. What do we do now?

Linkworthy

• Civil rights organization urges city hall to delay purchase of gunshot-location technology, Wendy Gillis
• Burberry’s bonfire of the vanities is brazen and ecologically reckless, Lucy Siegle
• Dave Bautista Stands For Felled ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’s James Gunn As Free Speech Chill Sets Into Hollywood, Mike Fleming Jr.
• After WNYC, Leonard Lopate’s return to WBAI is met with protest, Karen K. Ho and Alexandria Neeson

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 515: Good judgment or an abandonment of principle? by Joseph Thornley, Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Have you wondered where the ideas for them comes from, how the instructors are chosen, how the courses are produced or how the sessions are targeted at you? Well, this week, Martin Waxman is in California recording his next course for LinkedIn. And we took the opportunity to invite Martin’s producer, Hilary White, to give us insight into these and many more questions we have about online courses.

Bonus: Do you think you might like to offer an online course with a major platform like Lynda.com or LinkedIn Learning? Listen to the end for info on how you can put yourself forward for consideration as a LinkedIn Learning instructor.

Linkworthy

• Martin Waxman’s LinkedIn Learning author page
• Hilary White’s LinkedIn profile

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Behind the Scenes at Lynda.com and LinkedIn Learning by Joseph Thornley, Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

WordPress 5 with Gutenberg

WordPress users have something big to look forward to – the release of WordPress 5. WordPress published an update forecasting that WordPress 5 will be released as early as August. Why is WordPress 5 such a big deal? Because it will incorporate the new Gutenberg editing system.

Gutenberg will be the first significant change in WordPress’ core editing dashboard in ten years. And when it is introduced, WordPress users will have, for the first time, a true WYSIWYG interface that will enable them to create, format and arrange their content as they create it, seeing the results as they make the changes. As long time WordPress users, this is something that we have been looking forward to. August can’t come soon enough.

Sometime good enough video is good enough

We know that video is the most engaging of social objects. But we also know that it takes a lot of work to produce highly polished “professional-looking” videos. Digiday reports that The Guardian has adjusted their approach to video on Instagram. They concluded that the uptake of their videos does not justify the high cost of production of highly polished videos. On the other hand, they also noticed that less polished videos were being viewed as often as higher quality, higher cost of production videos. So, from now on, the Guardian is producing less polished videos such as 12 to 15 screen “explainers.”

We think there is a lesson here for all of us – sometimes it makes sense to aim for “good enough” to achieve your objectives. If you can achieve your objective at lower cost, doesn’t it just make sense to do this?

If you fail to disclose, this could be you

A few weeks ago we talked about the less-than-transparent disclosure made by matte story distributors and publishers. This week, Buzzfeed threw daylight on another lapse in disclosure. They highlighted the behaviour of one marketing company that routinely places bylined articles in online news outlets such as Forbes and Entrepreneur without disclosing that references to their clients within the articles are in fact references to clients of the marketing firm.

Nobody is served well by this practice. Not the client. Not the publisher. And not the marketing firm. Just one more reminder to us all that trust is built over time, but can be lost with a single action. Let’s remember, when in doubt, disclose.

Linkworthy

• Gutenberg is coming to WordPress
• The Guardian finds less-polished videos work best on Instagram stories, Jessica Davies
• One Of The Web’s Most Prolific Online Marketing Writers Has Been Promoting His Clients In Articles For Forbes, Entrepreneur, And Inc. Magazine, Jon Christian

Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 513 It’s about disclosure, stupid! by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

It’s six weeks since the effective date of GDPR. And many people think that, now that the flood of emails telling us about GDPR has ended, they won’t hear anything more about GDPR. Well, the reality is that we haven’t finished with GDPR. Not by a long shot. Many publishers and websites are going to be found to come up short on their implementation of GDPR. Some implemented opt-out instead of opt-in. Others buried their approvals out of plain sight. Some gave us an all or nothing approval. And all of these sites may find themselves being scrutinized in future. On top of that, California passed what may be the toughest privacy law in the United States, with an effective date of 2020. So, GDPR and privacy laws are not in our rearview mirror yet.

After Facebook: A return to a more diverse, more open online publishing ecosystem?

More evidence of the impact Facebook’s retreat from news had on publishers. Slate shared the 87% decline in traffic that they received from Facebook. But that’s not entirely the bad news it may seem at first blush. Because Slate didn’t go all-in on Facebook. They maintained a multi-channel promotion and publishing strategy – and that is serving them well now. Traffic to their home page is up. Traffic from sources other than Facebook are up and podcasts now constitute 25% of Slate’s revenue. Gini shares some of the stats for Spin Sucks – and they mirror what Slate revealed. Yes, Facebook referrals are down. But increases in traffic from other sources more than compensate for this loss. The bottom line — Facebook’s retreat from news has given a more diverse social system a chance to reestablish itself. And, as tough as the past 18 months have been, we’ve arrive in a much better place, a place that reminds us of the pre-Facebook open web.

Learn how to produce better videos the Instagram way

Have you been spending time on IGTV? Are you wondering how to produce better video to reach your friends and others? If you are, Instagram wants to help you. They have published a 48 page guide on how to produce better videos. And if equipment and software are a mystery to you, fear not. The Instagram guide provides tips on the apps and accessories you can get and use to make better video.

Audiograms really do work

Audiograms – the social posts that add video animations to soundclips – really do work. New data from audiogram provider Headliner showed that audiograms are much more effective at actively engaging your potential audience than are social posts with static images.

Linkworthy

• GDPR compliance efforts are falling short, Jessica Davies
• California passes sweeping law to protect online privacy, Daisuke Wakabayashi
• The Great Facebook Crash, Will Oremus
• Instagram released a handbook for creating video content on IGTV, Ann-Marie Alcantara
• Audiograms really work, Headliner

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 512 by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Apple News and Reddit’s new news tab both offer something useful to news consumers. And Instagram’s IGTV offers a fresh take on long form video. But Google’s Podcasts app doesn’t appear ready for prime time.

Serious news consumers have two interesting new news aggregators. We already know about the value of RSS feeds in a newsreader like Feedly. And a smart feed of news through Google News. Now two new promising sources of news from Apple and Reddit. Apple is offering a new channel of reliable news about the mid-term US elections. Reddit has added a news tab to its IOS interface. These are encouraging takes on news delivery that fill the gap left by Facebook’s retreat from news.

Also, Instagram celebrates 1 billion users with the launch of IGTV – long form video on Instagram. IGTV has a winning format for video added to an app we love.

Finally, Google introduces Google Podcasts for people using Android. And it’s receiving brutal reviews. Gini, Martin and Joe all use iOS devices. So, we don’t have direct experience with podcasts on Android. If you listen to Inside PR on an Android device, please let us know if you’ve tried the new Google Podcast app and what you think about it.

Linkworthy

Can Apple’s new unbiased, “fact-based” news section really remain unbiased? Andy Meek

Reddit is testing a news tab in its iOS app, Kris Holt

TL;DR: Some iOS users will see a news tab we’re testing and we want your feedback

Google Podcasts is pretty but basic, Terrence O’Brien

Welcome to IGTV, Instagram release

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 511 by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

In her Internet Trends 2018 report, Mary Meeker suggests that we’re living in a Privacy Paradox. We found this to be the most important section of her report and we discuss its implications.

Linkworthy

Mary Meeker at Code 18, full transcript and video

20 Takeaways from Mary Meeker’s 2018 Internet Trends Report, Lisa Lacy

MeWe review, Andrew Orr

MeWe

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 510 by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Last October, Facebook de-emphasized news in the Facebook Newsfeed. The bottom dropped out of many publishers’ traffic. New data from Chartbeat suggests that the system is returning to a healthier mix in which traffic to publishers from Google Search and direct has increased to provide a more balanced flow of traffic. Balance is good, in that it reduces the relative importance of any single platform.

Linkworthy

How Instagram’s algorithm works, Josh Constine

Mobile traffic rises for news sites, Christine Schmidt

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 509 by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

PRSA Counselors Academy

Martin returned from attending Counselors Academy last week in Toronto. And he tells us about some of the personal highlights. We’ve said it before, Counselor’s Academy is a unique gathering of PR agency principals that mixes both best communications practices with best business practices. A conference well worth attending.

No Klout

The demise of Klout. We won’t spill any tears. And it’s still a precautionary tale about the danger of trusting a measurement of index which refuses to publish the factors and calculations that are used to derive it.

GDPR Last Call

Last call. This is deadline week for General Data Protection Regulations. Final warning. This may be a European law, but it can be applied to any Website that gathers data from Europeans. Be sure that you are in compliance with GDPR.

Don’t give up on constructive conversation on social media

There’s a lot of toxicity in social media discussions and comments. However, not everyone is giving up on the potential of social media to give voice to intelligent and constructive conversation. News this week of a project out of Simon Fraser University to to develop algorithms that would identify the most constructive, well-supported comments and raise their visibility. This type of development offers hope to anyone who is attempting to curate and moderate online conversations. We need more of this.

A course to get you started podcasting

If you’re listening to this podcast, you know how effective on demand media is to reach an audience with specialized interests. And you probably know something that others would like to share. So, why not think about creating your own podcast to share. If you’re thinking about doing this, Martin has a new podcast course on Lynda.com. A great place to start. And if you do start your own podcast, plesae let us know and we will promote it on Inside PR.

Gini Dietrich launches the Spin Sucks podcast

And speaking of new podcasts, Gini Dietrich is launching a Spin Sucks podcast. If you know Gini, you know this will be an outstanding podcast. So, hop over to iTunes and subscribe now.

Linkworthy

• PRSA Counselors Academy Spring Conference
• Farewell Klout, Liriel Higa
• Spin Sucks on being complicant with GDPR, Mike Connell
• WordPress helps users ensure they are compliant with GDPR
• SFU Algorithm is worth watching
• Learn to podcast with Martin Waxman
• Subscribe to the Spin Suck podcast on iTunes.

It’s your turn.

We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.

• Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
• Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com,
• Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
• And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.

#IPRMustKnow

Our hashtag is #IPRMustKnow. If you are tweeting or posting about the podcast, please include our hashtag so that we can find your post.

Please rate us on Apple Podcasts

We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.

Subscribe on the podcast app of your choice

We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.

• Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
• Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.

Inside PR 507 by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.