FIR Podcast Network

Things change fast in the digital world. On the other hand, business tactics can be slow to adapt. Crafting content with the intent of "going viral" has been part of the communication playbook for more than a decade. There was never a guaranteed approach to catching this lightning in a bottle, but that didn't stop marketers and PR practitioners from trying. That effort is increasingly futile, as the social media companies that host the content have altered their algorithms, and people are paying attention to different things these days. This has led several marketing influencers to suggest that it's time to move on from the attempt to produce content specifically in the hopes that it will go viral. Neville and Shel share some data points and debate whether going viral should remain a communication goal in this short midweek episode.Continue Reading → The post FIR #485: Is It Time to Stop Trying to “Go Viral”? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

A Columbia University student was expelled for developing an AI-driven tool to help applicants to software coding jobs cheat on the tests employers require them to take. You can call such a tool deplorable or agree with the student that it's a legit resource. It's hard to argue with the $5 million in seed funding the student and his partner have raised. Also in this long-form monthly episode for April 2025: How communicators can use each of the seven categories of AI agents that are on their way. LinkedIn and BlueSky have updated their verification programs in ways that will matter to communicators. Onboarding new talent is an everyday business activity that is in serious need of improvement. A new report finds significant gaps between generations in the PR industry when it comes to the major factors impacting communication. Anthropic -- the company behind the Claude LLM -- warns that fully AI employees are only a year away. In his Tech Report, Dan York explains how BlueSky experienced an outage even though they're supposed to operate under a distributed model. Continue Reading → The post FIR #462: Cheaters Never Prosper (Unless They’re Paid $5 Million for Their Tool) appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Videos from virtual influencers are on the rise, according to a report from YouTube. And AI will play a significant role in the service's offerings, with every video uploaded to the platform potentially dubbed into every spoken language, with the speaker's lips reanimated to sync with the words they are speaking. Meanwhile, the growing flood of AI-generated content presents YouTube with a challenge: protecting copyright while maintaining a steady stream of new content. In this short midweek FIR episode, Neville and Shel examine the trends and discuss their implications.Continue Reading → The post FIR #461: YouTube Trends Toward Virtual Influencers and AI-Generated Videos appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Media outlets around the world -- and in particular in the U.S. -- are strategizing how to cover the incoming Trump Administration. Some are even planning to shift their focus to more soft news in order to retain readers and avoid drawing the president's ire. We look at the implications for the media relations industry in this short midweek episode.Continue Reading → The post FIR #444: Preparing for Trump 2.0 appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Longtime FIR listener (and one-time contributor) Bernie Goldbach asked Neville and Shel how they find quality conversations. That opened up a discussion about sources of information for staying current on communication and technology trends and how those habits have changed over the years.Continue Reading → The post FIR #345: Sources of Information appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The number of change initiatives companies impose upon employees has skyrocketed from two per year in 2016 to 10 in 2022. That has left employees with a serious case of change fatigue, increasing the likelihood that these initiatives will fail. Shel and Neville look at data from Gartner and advice on how to better handle the surge of change programs, many of which companies are undertaking in response to challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. Also in this episode: Web3 has never captured the public's imagination. The lingo of Web3 may be partly to blame. Over half of public relations practitioners lack confidence in their data literacy skills. That's a problem when the simple but useless AVE metric is no longer the communicator's fall-back metric. The pandemic influenced the ways companies communicated with employees, leading to a shift in the elements of communication that lift organizations' internal brands. A quarter of Twitter users don't expect they'll be using the platform within a year. The uproar over perceived or real copyright violations inherent in the Large Language Models used by generative AI tools is poised to find its way into laws and regulations. Continue Reading → The post FIR #334: Employees Really Do Hate Change appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

While some assume NFTs are on their way out as the value of digital artwork has plummeted, brick-and-mortar retailers are increasingly finding ways to offer the ability to mint NFTs right in their stores. In this episode, Neville and Shel look at some of the latest developments in the evolution of collectible NFTs.Continue Reading → The post FIR #268: NFTs in the Checkout Lane appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In which Neville and Shel take a few minutes to acknowledge FIR's 21st birthday. Continue Reading → The post FIR 21st Anniversary Celebration appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Reddit, the #2 social media site in the US, just surpassed TikTok to assume the #4 slot in the UK. It has no algorithm forcing you to see what's most likely to keep you on the site; just users upvoting what they think is most interesting, valuable, or relevant. Every topic under the sun has a subreddit. Several organizations, from Starbucks to Uber, have taken advantage of it. So why is it absent from most communicators' list of social media platforms to pay attention to? Neville and Shel look at Reddit's growing influence in this episode.Continue Reading → The post FIR #495: Reddit, AI, and the New Rules of Communication appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In the long-form episode for December 2025, Neville and Shel explore the future of news from two perspectives, including The Washington Post's ill-advised launch of a personalized, AI-generated podcast that failed to meet the newsroom's standards for accuracy, and the shift from journalists to "information stewards" as news sources. Also in this episode: WPP founder Sir Martin Sorrell argued that PR is dead and advertising rules all. Is AI about to empty Madison Avenue Should communicators do anything about AI slop? No, you can't tell when something was written by AI In Dan York's tech report: Mastodon's founder steps back, and new leadership takes over; the UN reaffirms a model of Internet governance that involves everyone: and Dan talks about what he'll be watching in 2026, including decentralized social media, agentic AI, and Internet technologies. Continue Reading → The post FIR #494: Is News’s Future Error-Riddled AI-Generated Podcasts, or “Information Stewards”? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

For somebody who posts on X or other social media platforms to become recognized by the media and other offline institutions as a significant, influential voice worth quoting, it usually takes patience and hard work to build an audience that respects and identifies with them. There is another way to achieve the same kind of reputation with far less work. According to a research report from the Network Contagion Research Institute, American political influencer Nick Fuentes opted for the second approach, a collection of tactics that made it appear like a huge number of people were amplifying his tweets within half an hour of posting them. While Fuentes wields his influence in the political realm, the tactics he employed are portable and available to people looking for the same quick solution in the business world. In this short midweek episode, we'll break down the steps involved and the warning signs communicators should be on the alert for.Continue Reading → The post FIR #493: How to (Unethically) Manufacture Significance and Influence appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The communication profession stands at a pivotal moment. Artificial intelligence is transforming how we create and distribute content. Trust in institutions continues to erode while employees demand authenticity and transparency. The hybrid workplace has permanently altered how we reach our audiences. And the pace of change shows no signs of slowing. In this environment, what... Continue Reading → The post Circle of Fellows #123: The Future of Communication — 2026 and Beyond appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this short midweek episode, Shel and Neville dissect the communication fallout from the $13.5 billion Omnicom-IPG merger and the controversial pre-holiday layoff of 4,000 employees. Among the themes they discuss: the stark contrast between the polished corporate narrative aimed at investors and the raw, real-time reality shared by staff on LinkedIn and Reddit, illustrating how organizations have lost control of the narrative. Against the backdrop of a corporate surge in hiring "storytellers," Neville and Shel discuss the irony of failing to empower the workforce — the brand's most authentic narrators — and analyze the long-term reputational damage caused by tone-deaf leadership during a crisis.Continue Reading → The post FIR #492: The Authenticity Divide in Omnicom Layoff Communication appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the importance of strategic planning for 2026.Continue Reading → The post ALP 291: Embracing innovation to survive and thrive in 2026 appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Josh Bernoff has just completed the largest survey yet of writers and AI – nearly 1,500 respondents across journalism, communication, publishing, and fiction. We interviewed Josh for this podcast in early December 2025. What emerges from both the data and our conversation is not a single, simple story, but a deep divide. Writers who actively use AI increasingly see it as a powerful productivity tool. They research faster, brainstorm more effectively, build outlines more quickly, and free themselves up to focus on the work only humans can do well – judgement, originality, voice, and storytelling. The most advanced users report not only higher output, but improvements in quality and, in many cases, higher income. Non-users experience something very different. For many non-users, AI feels unethical, environmentally harmful, creatively hollow, and a direct threat to their livelihoods. The emotional language used by some respondents in Josh’s survey reflects just how personal and existential these fears have become. And yet, across both camps, there is striking agreement on key risks. Writers on all sides are concerned about hallucinations and factual errors, copyright and training data, and the growing volume of bland, generic “AI slop” that now floods digital channels. In our conversation, Josh argues that the real story is not one of wholesale replacement, but of re-sorting. AI is not eliminating writers outright. It is separating those who adapt from those who resist – and in the process reshaping what it now means to be a trusted communicator, editor, and storyteller. Continue Reading → The post AI and the Writing Profession with Josh Bernoff appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Big Four consulting firm Deloitte submitted two costly reports to two governments on opposite sides of the globe, each containing fake resources generated by AI. Deloitte isn't alone. A study published on the website of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) not only included AI-hallucinated citations but also purported to reach the exact opposite conclusion from the real scientists' research. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel reiterate the importance of a competent human in the loop to verify every fact produced in any output that leverages generative AI.Continue Reading → The post FIR #491: Deloitte’s AI Verification Failures appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this episode, Chip and Gini discuss the  the challenges of finding skilled, reliable employees who align with agency values.Continue Reading → The post ALP 290: Balancing skills and personality when hiring a new team member appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Studies purport to identify the sources of information that generative AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude draw on to provide overviews in response to search prompts. The information seems compelling, but different studies produce different results. Complicating matters is the fact that the kinds of sources AI uses one month aren't necessarily the same the next month. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel look at a couple of these reports and the challenges communicators face relying on them to help guide their content marketing placements.Continue Reading → The post FIR #490: What Does AI Read? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The forward-looking discussion was joined by five seasoned leaders: two professors shaping the next generation of communicators and three senior practitioners traversing today’s real-world pressures. Together, they bridge campus and workplace, theory and execution, to define what readiness really looks like in a world of constant change. Shel Holtz, SCMP, IABC Fellow, will moderate the session. This episode featured a candid, fast-paced discussion on the skills and mindsets that matter now — and the ones you’ll need next. From AI literacy and data comfort to ethical judgment, change agility, and human-centered storytelling, the panel will share practical frameworks you can apply immediately. You’ll hear how universities are evolving curricula, how employers can cultivate lifelong learning, and how individual pros can future-proof their careers without losing the craft that sets them apart. You’ll get actionable guidance, plenty of examples from classrooms and boardrooms. Whether you lead a team, teach, hire, or are building your own career path, this conversation will help you set priorities for the year ahead. If you can’t attend the live session, you can watch the video replay or listen to the podcast, which will be available shortly after the panel concludes. Continue Reading → The post Circle of Fellows #122: Preparing Communication Professionals for the Future appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In this episode, Chip and Gini tackle the difficult subject of firing an underperforming and problematic employee.Continue Reading → The post ALP 289: Firing underperforming team members appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.