Inside PR 455: PR in the Post-RSS, Post-Newsprint World

• • Show Notes

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back with another episode of the Inside PR podcast.  

#IPRMustKnows

From Docs to Podcasts

A sign of the continuing professionalization of podcasts. In a few weeks, Hot Docs, North America’s largest documentary film festival, will launch its first Hot Docs Podcast Festival. The lineup is heavily skewed to mainstream, large audience podcasts. I guess that means that we need to continue to look to community-generated events like Podcamp Toronto to represent amateur niche content. Things like Inside PR. 🙂

Twitter – independent or acquisition?

Can Twitter survive on its own? Would it be better being acquired by a larger entity? I know that, one way or the other, I don’t want Twitter to disappear. As other services have refined their algorithms to present popular content first, I think that Twitter now holds a unique place as our newsfeed. An essential lense on the world that not only allows us to bear witness in real time, but also allows anyone to see it happening in real time.

Google Automated Insights

If you use Google Analytics, you must check out the automated insights that have been added to the Google Analytics mobile app. An invaluable tool that helps you quickly identify the most salient trends and events in the traffic to your site. Little by little, we are moving in the direction of the intelligent assistant. And it’s free!

PR can’t stop changing

For our main topics this week, we discuss the need for PR to accelerate the repositioning of its core business proposition in the face of shrinking newsrooms. PR will not disappear. It just won’t look like it did a few years ago. And companies that haven’t changed their focus away from earned media will find themselves left behind. The rise of Facebook as an aggregator. The decline of newsrooms. Sponsored content as the new norm. The end of print newspapers. PR must prepare itself for the post-newsprint world. Some PR agencies are well down the path of reimagining the business. The new firms seem to understand that the emphasis must continue to be on relationships. But different forms of relationships with different actors and agents (algorithms anyone?) Those that evolve in this way will succeed. Along the way, those that change will have to explain themselves to a marketplace that may not have understood the need for these changes. Those that don’t will disappear. Bet on it.

Now 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 blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on iTunes

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 iTunes.

******************************************************************

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 454: Are you a romantic or a stalker?

• • Show Notes

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley are back with another episode of the Inside PR podcast.  

#IPRMustKnows

Martin Waxman’s Social Media Marketing for Small Business is on Lynda.com

Yes, this is a shameless plug. But since it’s Joe writing this, Martin doesn’t have to be embarrassed. In fact, I think Martin is as smart about social media as anyone I know. And now Martin is sharing this knowledge on Lynda.com. Martin tells us about his trip to California to record a video course, Social Media Marketing  for Small Business.

Buzzfeed News isn’t entertainment

Buzzfeed separated its Buzzfeed news operation from the Buzzfeed entertainment operation. Prelude to a possible sale of Fuzzfeed News. Buzzfeed News Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith says no.

WhatsApp shares user data with Facebook

As happens so often with privacy concerns, after an initial spate of bad press, public protestations about Facebook’s decision to share user data from WhatsApp with Facebook seems to have died down. Our concern with privacy is something that spikes occasionally. But then we put it out of mind as we enjoy the experience of social media.

Wired tells us about teens and social media

A few things in Wired’s profile of teens and social media caught Gini’s eye. There are a lot of do’s and don’t’s. It’s not about understanding young people. It’s about looking at the social mores being established by a cohort that doesn’t have the baggage of previously shaped expectations and behaviour, a cohort that can lead the way in assessing new channels and defining norms of behaviour on them. As Martin says, “One generation’s romantic is another generation’s lurker.” (Apologies to John Cusack.)

The NY Times on Facebook

Liz Spayd, The New York Times Public Editor, recently offered her take on the content that The Times has been creating for Facebook. In her analysis, Facebook Live: Too Much, Too Soon, she states

“…here’s the problem. After watching countless hours of live video in the past few weeks, I have hit upon many that are either plagued by technical malfunctions, feel contrived, drone on too long, ignore audience questions or are simply boring, by I imagine most anyone’s standards.

“Too many don’t live up to the journalistic quality one typically associates with The New York Times.”

This leads Martin, Gini and I into a discussion of the nature of content appropriate to social media. It’s not always going to stand up to The Times’ traditional standards. But it will be effective in its new place, for different reasons.

Also worth noting in this article is something I hadn’t seen before. The New York Times has a contract to produce video content expressly for Facebook.

“While the terms of the deal are secret, the transaction requires Facebook to give The Times a guaranteed sum (reported to be $3 million a year) in return for a prescribed amount of video (so far it’s averaging upward of four a day). Neither Times officials nor Facebook would discuss the deal, citing confidentiality. Several other media companies, including BuzzFeed, Huffington Post and Mashable, have also signed on. Their job: to stock Facebook’s pond with high-quality video so it can compete in the rapidly growing market for live-stream video.”

The Times as content creator for Facebook. That’s something different from The Times posting its stories on Facebook. Different even from The Times posting its stories natively on Facebook. It is instead The Times creating content to meet Facebook’s needs. That is different – and worth watching.

Now 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 blog, send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group, We’re also on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.

Please rate us on iTunes

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 iTunes.

******************************************************************

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.