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For Immediate Release

Hosted by Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz

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About the show

Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz analyze the month’s news in digital and social media for communications professionals.

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50 recent
August 13, 2026Episode 52522 min

FIR #525: The Consequences Businesses Will Face from Work Slop

We have been hearing about work slop for a while now, and evidence is mounting that it can create long-term problems for companies. Yet we are hearing very little (if anything) about what businesses are doing about it. There's new research, which Neville and Shel discuss in this episode, along with some thoughts about actions companies can take.Continue Reading → The post FIR #525: The Consequences Businesses Will Face from Work Slop appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

August 3, 2026Episode 5248 min

FIR #524: Are Managers Ready to Lead an AI-Fluent Workforce?

Most companies are experiencing some level of turmoil over their adoption of Artificial Intelligence. They should be able to lean on their managers to interpret these issues at the ground level. Research, however, finds that training has left managers out. They may be getting some of the same training all employees are getting, but nothing... Continue Reading → The post FIR #524: Are Managers Ready to Lead an AI-Fluent Workforce? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

July 27, 2026Episode 52345 min

FIR #523: No Brand Is An Island

Neville has been ill and unable to record, so Shel is on his own in this episode (except for Dan York's Tech Report). This shorter-than-usual monthly long-form episode includes reports on rethinking thought leadership, maintaining "brand sovereignty" in the AI era, and whether hedging in your communication can serve a useful purpose. Dan's report was recorded in Vienna, Austria, where AI was front and center at the 126th meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force. Dan also reports on Bluesky's Attie AI feature, Instagram's plans to charge for AI access, Beehiv's new community feature, WordPress's plans for version 7.1, and some UK social media regulatory updates.Continue Reading → The post FIR #523: No Brand Is An Island appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

July 13, 2026Episode 52221 min

FIR #522: Is Podcasting 2.0 The Future of Podcasting?

Podcasting 2.0 is the open-source movement launched by Adam Curry and Dave Jones to preserve and extend podcasting’s open, RSS-based ecosystem. In this episode, Shel and Neville explore the initiative's core features — including the Podcast Index, enhanced RSS metadata, transcripts, chapters, podrolls, live notifications, and listener-supported “Value for Value” payments — while weighing its potential to reduce dependence on dominant platforms such as Spotify, Apple, Amazon, and YouTube. The discussion also addresses obstacles to adoption, including limited awareness, uneven support across hosting providers and apps, added complexity, and the need to demonstrate clear benefits to listeners. For communicators, the larger implications involve channel ownership, accessibility, content reuse, AI discoverability, resilience, and the risk of building audiences entirely on rented platforms.Continue Reading → The post FIR #522: Is Podcasting 2.0 The Future of Podcasting? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

July 13, 20261 hr 0 min

AI, trust and the answer economy – Pete Blackshaw on the future of brand credibility

Your brand is no longer defined solely by what you say about yourself. Increasingly, it is defined by the answers AI gives when someone asks about you. That simple but profound shift lies at the heart of The Answer Economy, the forthcoming book by Pete Blackshaw, entrepreneur, founder of BrandRank.ai, and former Global Head of Digital and Social Media at Nestlé. As AI assistants and agents become increasingly influential in how people discover information, evaluate products and make decisions, organisations face a new communications challenge. It's no longer enough to tell your story well. Your organisation also needs to be accurately understood by the AI systems that increasingly act as intermediaries between brands and the people they serve. In this FIR Interview, Pete joins Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz to discuss why AI should be viewed less as another marketing channel and more as an auditor of organisational credibility. Together, they explore why trust, transparency and evidence are becoming more important than marketing claims, how different AI models develop different perspectives on brands, why communicators need to think beyond traditional search optimisation, and what organisations can do today to prepare for an increasingly agent-driven future. For communicators, the implications are profound. Success in the answer economy won't depend on producing more content. It will depend on whether an organisation has earned the evidence, transparency and trust that AI systems increasingly use to evaluate every claim it makes.Continue Reading → The post AI, trust and the answer economy – Pete Blackshaw on the future of brand credibility appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

July 6, 2026Episode 52121 min

FIR #521: AI Layoffs Are Here. Wait. Strike That. Reverse It.

Everyone from CEOs to politicians has been talking about the likelihood of AI-related job loss, and several companies have already let people go in anticipation that AI can do their work. Ford Motor Company is the latest to rehire those workers when AI proved inadequate for the job. Elsewhere, many of the managers who have let people go regret their decisions, and some companies are revising their hiring plans. To remedy the chaos, Neville and Shel discuss the importance of strategy and knowledge management systems, among other things.Continue Reading → The post FIR #521: AI Layoffs Are Here. Wait. Strike That. Reverse It. appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

June 29, 2026Episode 5181 hr 36 min

FIR #520: AI’s PR Meltdown

In the long-form FIR episode for June, Neville and Shel consider the causes and implications of surging anti-AI sentiment in the US (which is also growing in other developed countries), as well as the increasing use of "shadow AI" in organizations. Other reports include studies documenting the continued erosion of trust in mainstream news media, the growth of personal branding among communication professionals, a shocking self-inflicted reputation crisis for a UK business, and evidence that employees aren't reading your internal communications (unless maybe they are). Dan York shares information on Collections in the Mastodon 4.6 release and the W Social situation in his Tech Report.Continue Reading → The post FIR #520: AI’s PR Meltdown appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

June 23, 2026Episode 51917 min

FIR #519: Is Misinformation Biased Against You?

We have known about media bias effect for decades: the belief that the media is biased against your side of a debate. New research finds that the same belief applies to misinformation. While the research was focused on political issues, the underlying cause applies equally to misinformation about brands, companies, and business issues. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel find that the PR industry has not yet acknowledged the phenomenon, which requires strategies to address it.Continue Reading → The post FIR #519: Is Misinformation Biased Against You? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

June 15, 2026Episode 51723 min

FIR #518: Is the PR Industry Blowing It Again?

he history of public relations over the last 30 years is a litany of one failure after another -- failures to recognize and embrace technologies that represented seismic shifts in how people and organizations communicate. The internet. The web. Social media. Smartphones. The video shift. And now, with AI, the industry seems poised to do it again. As many organizations explore how AI will reshape them, PR agencies still seem unable to figure out billing models to replace the now-useless hourly rate. In this short midweek episode, Neville looks at a post from Stephen Waddington that laments the industry's intransigence, and Shel and Neville discuss what PR should be doing.Continue Reading → The post FIR #518: Is the PR Industry Blowing It Again? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

June 9, 2026Episode 51725 min

FIR #517: How to Communicate AI Whiplash to Employees

First, they were told to use AI. Experiment! Add it to your workflows! Go wild! Then the bills started piling up, and companies realized the cost was not tenable. Now the walk-backs are happening. Usage caps! Caution! Slow down! Among the issues communicators need to address is employees questioning leadership's judgment. In this short midweek episode, Shel and Neville explore approaches communicators can take to help employees understand the pivot while maintaining the perception of leader competence.Continue Reading → The post FIR #517: How to Communicate AI Whiplash to Employees appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

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