Research finds that corporations no longer see AI as a novelty; it’s a full-blown business tool, one that is so critical that its development is mostly being done in-house. In the November long-form episode of “For Immediate Release,” Neville and Shel review new research about AI’s place in the business world and among employees. Also in this episode, we take a look at social media in 2024 — a consequential year — and what to expect in 2025. Beutler Ink has published its principles for ethically engaging with Wikipedia. Companies will twist themselves in knots deciding whether, and how, to respond to social and political issues that arise during the next four years of the second Trump Administration. Bluesky’s growing popularity, and an open API, has led to a burgeoning collection of third-party apps. And Coca-Cola misfired with an AI-generated holiday commercial…or did they? In his Tech Report, Dan York looks at the post-Twitter social media world, Bluesky’s looming challenges, X’s reminder that it owns your account; the impending court decision on the TikTok ban, and Australia’s new law banning social media for children under 16.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, December 23.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. To obtain the credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request them in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.

Links from this episode:

• 
  
  How Are Companies Really Using AI? A New Report Has Answers
  
  


• How generations feel about AI at work


• Employees Are Open to AI, But Want Businesses to Support AI Literacy


• The Year Ahead in Social


• Think Forward 2025


• Trump’s return sparks a high-stakes communications test for corporate America


• Kim Clark on LinkedIn: Axios affirmed why Janet M. Stovall, CDE and I wrote our book, The Conscious Communicator


• Setting the Standard: How Beutler Ink Champions Ethical Wikipedia Consulting — Beutler Ink


• FIR Interview: William Beutler on PR and Wikipedia – FIR Podcast Network


• Ethics Statement | Beutler Ink + Wikipedia | Beutler Ink


• The Ultimate Directory of tools and applications for Bluesky


• Autoblue – Easily add Bluesky to your WordPress site


• Adding Bluesky-powered comments to any website in five minutes


• Chat Catcher lives on – NevilleHobson .com


• AI Ads Can Look Weird. Coca-Colka Keeps Making Them Anyway.

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report:

• Bluesky adds 1m new members as users flee X after the US election


• Bluesky user count hits 20 million and continues to grow: What to know about the platform


• Exclusive: Threads adds 35M new sign-ups this month


• Bluesky now displays replies by ‘hotness’


• How decentralized is Bluesky really?


• X’s Objection to the Onion Buying InfoWars Is a Reminder You Do Not Own Your Social Media Accounts


• TikTok Ban Ruling Expected Soon


• Australia passes law to keep under-16s off social media – good luck with that, mate


• Techmeme coverage of Australia’s social media ban

Coca-Cola’s AI-Generated “Holiday Magic” TV commercial

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Decision Tree for Public Statements on Social and/or Political Issues

Transcript:

Hi everyone and welcome to for Immediate Release. This is the monthly long form edition, episode 4 3 7 for November, 2024. I’m Neville Hobson coming to you from crew Kern Somerset in England. On a time when the weather’s weird as usual. We have high temperatures at the moment compared to snow.

We had a week or two back, but here we are with another episode. And boy do we have topics here. We do, I’m Shell Holtz in Concord, California. It’s California. It’s sunny and nice. That’s why I live h