For Immediate Release

There's a new brand of influencer. Faceless creators wield their influence while never appearing on camera, while VTubers -- virtual YouTubers -- employ AI-generated avatars instead of showing their faces. This is no flash-in-the-pan trend. One network of faceless creators grew from 5,000 to 21,000 creators in just three months, with some raking in as much as $40,000 per month from brands eager to add their content to the mix. There are numerous reasons this shift is happening, from social networks like TikTok elevating its algorithm over follower counts (enabling someone with few followers to see a post go viral) to the ability for brands to pay for performance instead of impressions. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel look at the pros and cons of faceless creators.Continue Reading → The post FIR #471: Can You Be Influential and Anonymous at the Same Time? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Copyright challenges and intellectual property issues are consistently recognized as a serious, top-tier concern when it comes to Artificial Intelligence (AI). It may not be the top concern — that's usually related to fake news and the trustworthiness of content, followed by privacy concerns — but many creators are upset and worried about the integrity of their work when it's used as fodder for new training models. The courts will inevitably weigh in — in fact, one already has, with a federal court ruling in Anthropic's favor, asserting that its use of authors' books without compensation constitutes fair use due to the transformative nature of what Claude, Anthropic's LLM, does with them. More lawsuits and more rulings are indeed coming, and legislation and regulation are also likely. However, Creative Commons has always preferred a voluntary compliance approach, grounded in a logical framework. In 2004, Creative Commons (under the guidance of Lawrence Lessig, a prominent American academic, attorney, and poli

A growing body of research suggests employees are more disconnected than ever. What are internal communication teams getting wrong? Also in this long-form monthly episode for June 2025: Buzzstream interviewed over 150 digital PR pros to assess the state of digital PR. It looks a lot like it did five years ago. Social media has overtaken television as Americans' primary source of news. Chief Communication Officers are in a precarious position, expected to anticipate and address political and societal upheaval, often sharing information executives don't want to hear. Pope Leo XIV has called for an ethical AI framework in a message to tech execs gathering at the Vatican. In his Tech Report, Dan York looks at Mastodon's updated terms prohibiting AI model training, announcements from TwitchCon, and the impact of Texas's mandatory age verification law on Internet privacy and security.Continue Reading → The post FIR #469: Is Internal Communication Failing? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

While a company's reputation doesn't appear as a line item on a profit and loss statement or a balance sheet, it is nevertheless a critical intangible asset that significantly influences financial performance and long-term success. A strong positive reputation fosters trust among consumers and B2B customers, leading to increased customer loyalty, premium pricing power, and greater resilience in times of crisis. It also makes the company more attractive to top talent, reducing recruitment costs and improving employee retention. A favorable reputation can also enhance relationships with investors and partners, providing better access to capital and more advantageous business opportunities. The public relations profession is in the reputation business. Yet there are new threats to reputations that aren't yet on most practitioners' radars -- and if they are, they haven't found their way into plans and strategies. For example, companies that succumbed to political pressure to back away from their DEI commitments h

Pick a superlative, and it probably applies to Mary Meeker, the venture capitalist and former Wall Street securities analyst best known for her annual Internet Trends Reports. These reports, released in the form of presentation decks, were the culmination of deep research Meeker conducted. Her last report was published June 12, 2019 at Recode's Code Conference, but she just released a new one dedicated entirely to AI. With credibility as strong as hers, it's likely that this report will become the defining source of truth about the state of AI. In this short midweek FIR episode, Neville and Shel break down the report to focus on elements that are meaningful to professional communicators.Continue Reading → The post FIR #467: Mary Meeker’s 2025 AI Trends Report appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Not only are AI chatbots still hallucinating; by some accounts, it's getting worse. Moreover, despite abundant coverage of the tendency of LLMs to make stuff up, people are still not fact-checking, leading to some embarrassing consequences. Even the legal team from Anthropic (the company behind the Claude frontier LLM) got caught. Also in this episode: Google has a new tool just for making AI videos with sound: what could possibly go wrong? Lack of strategic leadership and failure to communicate about AI's ethical use are two findings from a new Global Alliance report People still matter. Some overly exuberant CEOs are walking back their AI-first proclamations Google AI Overviews lead to a dramatic reduction in click-throughs Google is teaching American adults how to be adults. Should they be finding your content? In his tech report, Dan York looks at some services shutting down and others starting up.Continue Reading → The post FIR #466: Still Hallucinating After All These Years appeared first on FIR

Seemingly unrelated trends paint a clear picture for PR practitioners accustomed to achieving their goals through press release distribution and media pitching. The trends: People trust each other less than ever; people define what news is based on its impact on them, becoming their own gatekeepers; and video podcasts have become so popular that media outlets are including them in their upfronts. In this short midweek FIR episode, Neville and Shel find the common thread among these trends and outline how communicators can adjust their efforts to make sure their news is received and believed.Continue Reading → The post FIR #465: The Trust-News-Video Podcast PR Trifecta appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Debate continues about when to disclose that you have used AI to create an output. Do you disclose any use at all? Do you confine disclosure to uses of AI that could lead people to feel deceived? Wherever you land on this question, it may not matter when it comes to building trust with your audience. According to a new study, audiences lose trust as soon as they see an AI disclosure. This doesn't mean you should not disclose, however, since finding out that you used AI and didn't disclose is even worse. That leaves little wiggle room for communicators taking advantage of AI and seeking to be as transparent as possible. In this short midweek FIR episode, Neville and Shel examine the research along with recommendations about how to be transparent while remaining trusted.Continue Reading → The post FIR #464: Research Finds Disclosing Use of AI Erodes Trust appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Google's first Chief Decision Scientist, Cassie Kozyrkov, wrote recently that "The biggest challenge of the generative AI age is leaders defining value for their organization." Among leadership considerations, she says, is a mindset shift, one in which there are "endless right answers".  ("When I ask an AI assistant to generate an image for me, I get a fairly solid result. When I repeat the same prompt, I get a different perfectly adequate image. Both are right answers… but which one is right-er?") Kozyrkov's overarching conclusion is that confirming the business value of your genAI decisions will keep you on track. In this episode, Neville and Shel review Kozyrkov's position, then look at several communication teams that have evolved their departmental use of AI based on the principles she promotes.Continue Reading → The post FIR #463: Delivering Value with Generative AI’s “Endless Right Answers” 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

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.

The tide is turning. For several years, workers have enjoyed a seller's market. Unemployment has been low, and companies have competed for the best employees. Now, for a variety of reasons, we are experiencing a surge in layoffs, exacerbated by sizable staff reductions in U.S. federal agencies. With so many newly-unemployed workers on the street, employers now have the advantage as we shift to a buyer's market. Emboldened by the flood of potential recruits on the market, and anxious to be on the good side of the current U.S. presidential administration, some CEOs are trading in their supportive servant-style leadership for old-school tough boss talk. And while they may be able to justify this behavior in the short term, the impact on the culture -- and what that will do to the employer brand -- could deter the best potential recruits from taking that job, which will be filled by a mediocre performer desperate for employment. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel explore the reasons behind the layoff

In this episode, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson discuss the evolving landscape of podcast consumption, particularly in light of Satya Nadella's innovative approach to engaging with audio content through AI. They explore the significance of transcripts, the potential for AI to facilitate interactive experiences, and the challenges that come with adopting these new technologies. The conversation highlights the future of podcasts as a medium that can be both passive and interactive, reshaping how audiences engage with audio content. Neville and Shel also examine how these same generative AI tools can make other content interactive and the ease with which users will be able to take advantage of it as LLMs become multi-modal.Continue Reading → The post FIR #459: AI Transforms Content from Passive to Interactive appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

The most common refrain we hear about society and the rapid advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence is, "We're not ready." We're not ready for Artificial General Intelligence, and we're certainly not ready for Artificial Superintelligence. Yet both are approaching uncomfortably quickly. Business (along with government) is near the top of the list of unprepared entities; in business, managers lead the list of employees who need to get up to speed...fast. It could be as soon as this year that managers will be asked to lead hybrid teams of human employees and AI agents that autonomously perform multiple tasks -- emulating what a skilled employee can do sitting at a computer, but much faster and perhaps more accurately. This will need to result in a new approach to managing. In this midweek FIR episode, Neville and Shel look at what this means for managers and how far business is from enabling their managers to succeed in this new work reality.Continue Reading → The post FIR #458: Preparing Managers

There are few business leaders who won't need to explain to various stakeholders the impacts of U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs and the trade war it will initiate. How they position those impacts could determine whether they find their organizations in the Administration's crosshairs. Communicators should counsel leaders on how to address the impacts. Neville and Shel share their thoughts in this short midweek FIR episode.Continue Reading → The post FIR #457: Communicating Tariff Impacts appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

It’s not just jobs that AI will affect. It’s the perception that employees have important expertise. After all, if AI can do the work, it’s easy to view employees’ special knowledge and experience as less important to the organization. Neville and Shel examine the steps communicators can take to continue to be viewed by leaders... Continue Reading → The post FIR #456: Does AI Put Communication Expertise At Risk? appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

In the early days of Web 2.0, several pundits told us that traditional PR was dead, especially for startups, where founders would be better served by handling their own public relations. After some disasters, along with many founders finding themselves overwhelmed by the need to build their business and craft thought leadership pieces while handling media inquiries, that philosophy faded. But now it's back, and getting a lot of attention as Lulu Cheng Meservey, founder and CEO at the agency Rostra, has released a manifesto calling on leaders to skip the agency and "go direct." Neville and Shel share their thoughts about the advice in this short midweek episode.Continue Reading → The post FIR #455: Traditional PR is Dead (Again) appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

At the now-infamous press conference that turned out to be an orchestrated ambush of Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Real American's Voice correspondent Brian Glenn lobbed a hand grenade of a question to Zelenskyy. That single question was emblematic of an entire shift in the way the media works, requiring a comprehensive rethink of how public relations practitioners prepare for a media environment in which engineered outrage is rewarded by the press because spectacle earns more clicks than substance. In this short midweek episode of For Immediate Release, Neville and Shel break down the many implications for the practice of PR and the actions required to prepare brands to be targets of the same kind of treatment Zelenskyy got at the hands of the leaders of the free world and the complicit media at the press conference.Continue Reading → The post FIR #454: When the Media Rewards Spectacle Over Substance appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

It may seem counterintuitive, but playful teasing between brands and customers can produce unexpected benefits. Inspired by research from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, we explore why strategically "roasting" customers with humor and lighthearted banter can enhance brand loyalty and deepen customer connections. Discover how embracing a bit of playful provocation might be the surprising secret ingredient your brand needs to stand out, build lasting relationships, and keep your audience coming back for more. Also in this episode, we follow up our report from FIR #442 (December 26, 2024) about the publicity battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively: A report in the Hollywood Reporter finds that the fallout from this conflict is affecting publicists everywhere.Continue Reading → The post FIR #453: Humor Us — How Playful Teasing Strengthens Brand Relationships appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

“We are once again at a moment in time where things will not — and cannot — be the same again. However it unfolds, the only certainty is chaos will follow.” So wrote global PR practitioner Catherine Arrow in a post on LinkedIn. In this monthly longform episode, Neville and Shel discuss Catherine’s observation that... Continue Reading → The post FIR #452: Communicating in Chaos appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.