Navigating the Changing Online Landscape for Communicators

A few weeks ago I had the chance to sit down with Shel Holtz for his newly relaunched For Immediate Release podcast.

I also was joined by friends Shonali Burke, President and CEO of Shonali Burke Consulting, Inc. and Dave Fleet, Senior Vice President at Edelman Digital.

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We had a wide ranging discussion about the changing online landscape for communicators. We discussed crisis communication and the role an integrity officer might have in a company (does anyone else hear ombudsman?); the role and impact of advertising on the future of organic social media; the changing face of the media and fractured news; the rise of “Internet Kids” being hired for their creativity instead of their communication experience; and, a fascinating discussion about an Indian company called Flipkart (the Indian Amazon), who shut down its Internet site and went app-only. It is a strange world.

You can check out the full list of what we discussed below and listen by going to iTunes, listening to the embedded player (see above) or going to the post on the FIR Podcast Network site.

FIR #5: ONLINE ADVERTISERS MESSED UP RUN LIST

• Volkswagen has brought a new board member to the company, who most recently applied her expertise to bringing a culture of integrity to Damiler. What impact can she have at the beleaguered VW?
• The Internet Advertising Bureau has confessed, as ad-blocking continues to expand, that “We messed up” In response, the IABC has introduced a new alternative set of standards called LEAN to improve online advertising. Is it too little too late, and is the solution from advertisers to invest more in earned media?
• Meanwhile, native advertising continues to be a big deal that may (or may not) elude ad blockers. A new study explores consumer perceptions of native advertising.
• Facebook is getting ready to release a new app called Notify that will dish up notifications — filtered by users — when publisher partners like The Washington Post publish content directly to Facebook. It’s one more sign of the fracturing of news. Given that PR practitioners spend much of their time earning media coverage, these changes have profound implications for the practice of public relations.
• Dan York’s tech report covers the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) meeting in Dublin this week, a United Nations meeting on the so-called “zero draft” of the World Summit on the Information Society, the Internet of Things, and more.
• The New York Times has introduced a new component to its newsroom, which will cover the web’s most compelling and fast-moving stories. With PR “newsrooms” churning out little more than clever tweets associated with news and cultural events, is the Times model one agencies and brands should adopt?
• Ad agencies are giving up on new hires with ad agency experience and are turning instead to “internet kids.” Is it a replicable practice in PR?
• Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce company, has raised customer hackles by announcing its services will be available by app only — no more website.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Delicious.