Best Neville Hobson Podcasts (2024)

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FIR #427: The Metaverse Lives! Just Don’t Call It The Metaverse. 18:28

9d ago18:28

18:28

When OpenAI released Chat GPT 3.5 in November 2022, conversations about virtually any other technology were sucked into the vacuum of space. Venture capitalists and other investors shifted priorities overnight, sinking billions into Gen AI and often turning their backs on other endeavors. That and the colossal failure that is Meta’s Horizon Worlds …

1
FIR #426: We’ve Got Your Share of Model Right Here 15:43

15d ago15:43

15:43

“Share of model” refers to the frequency or prominence with which a particular brand, keyword, or phrase appears in an LLM’s responses to user prompts relative to competing brands or related terms. It measures how often and favorably an LLM mentions or discusses a specific entity or concept in its outputs. Marketers and PR practitioners were accust…

1
FIR #425: Stand Up, Stand Out, or Shut Down? 1:36:08

19d ago1:36:08

1:36:08

The desire to stand out has declined significantly over the last 20 years, according to a new study. That has serious implications for society, business, and communicators. Meanwhile, shutting off comments on your social media channel could have worse repercussions than putting up with comments you don’t want to see. Also in this episode, The fediv…

1
FIR #424: The Rise of the Hybrid Communication Officer 20:11

24d ago20:11

20:11

As we reported nearly a year ago, communication’s influence is growing among organizational leadership. However, in many companies, executive acceptance of communication may be taking a worrisome turn as additional responsibilities are being tacked onto the communication role, including sustainability and DEI. Is this because some companies see a n…

1
FIR #423: As Op-Eds Fade into History, Where Does Thought Leadership Belong? 15:52

1M ago15:52

15:52

Op-eds pay off. According to one analysis, New York Times opinion articles get 37 percent more readers than the newspaper’s general news coverage. Wall Street Journal op-eds attract 571 percent more readers than its general news. (That’s not a typo. Five hundred seventy-one percent.) However, more and more news outlets are shuttering their opinion …

1
FIR #422: Will AI Kill the Consulting Billable Hours Model? 18:41

1M ago18:41

18:41

Neville and Shel both spent time at a global Human Resources consulting firm in addition to their long tenures as independent consultants. At the core of all consulting is the labor-intensive work that takes time, and time is money. Every consultant has an hourly billable rate, and even when quoting project fees, those fees are based on the hours r…

1
FIR #421: GenAI Is Paying Off for Individual Employees 25:59

2M ago25:59

25:59

The End of the Generative Artificial-Intelligence Bubble The End of Investors’ Generative AI Honeymoon Will Generative AI Really Pay Off? Generative AI Seed Funding Drops 76% As Investors Take A Wait-and-See Approach Is Generative AI Worth the Investment? These are all headlines from the last several weeks suggesting, as Gartner believes, that gene…

1
FIR #420: How Well Did CrowdStrike Handle Its Crisis Communications? 1:25:59

2M ago1:25:59

1:25:59

A faulty software update caused the biggest IT outage in history, affecting everything from commercial airline flights to hospitals. The crisis communication demands on CrowdStrike were enormous. How well did the company acquit itself? Neville and Shel look at the company’s response and share what some crisis experts have said. Also in this episode…

1
FIR #419: Is Shadow AI an Evil Lurking in the Heart of Your Company? 14:25

2M ago14:25

14:25

The headline is a bit dramatic but it was hard to pass up the “Shadow” reference. In fact, Shadow AI refers to employees covertly using generative AI tools at work without IT, HR, and other departments knowing about it. A recent report found vthat 27.4% of the content employees fed into AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, and Gemini was sensiti…

1
FIR #418: These Are Our Rock-Solid Beliefs — Unless You Don’t Like Them 15:43

2M ago15:43

15:43

For years, Tractor Supply has touted its values and how firmly it has committed to them, as demonstrated by the fact that the Tennessee-based retailer recently set new targets, having already met the ones it established in 2018. But a vitriolic campaign by a right-wing podcaster led the company to summarily abandon those values, leading some employ…

1
FIR #417: As AI Adoption Grows, Is Share of Model the New Metric? 13:36

2M ago13:36

13:36

Share of voice, share of search, share of conversation—brands are forever measuring their share in whatever space they want to dominate. Now that people are seeking answers from generative AI models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, brands will need to know whether they show up in the responses these models deliver. There is already a proposal to c…

1
FIR #416: No Likes, No Follows, No Stress! 18:41

2M ago18:41

18:41

Maven is a new social network that eschews likes and follows — the features of other social networks that induce stress and anxiety in users who feel compelled to grow their numbers rather than have meaningful conversations. But if brands can’t build a follower base or measure engagement on their posts, is there a use case for establishing a presen…

1
FIR #415: A Staggering Failure of Leadership and Communication 16:55

3M ago16:55

16:55

The UK Post Office scandal is a stark example of leadership and communication failures. When a faulty computer system was implemented, it erroneously flagged financial discrepancies, leading to the wrongful conviction of numerous subpostmasters for theft and false accounting. Instead of addressing the software’s errors, the Post Office’s crisis com…

1
FIR #414: Companies Treat Remote/Hybrid Like It’s Temporary. It’s Not. 18:17

3M ago18:17

18:17

Organizations need to adopt policies and communication strategies based on the acknowledgment that remote/hybrid work is here to stay. The current state of play is rooted in an assumption that it’s temporary, creating tensions between workers and leaders and leaving pre-pandemic company cultures in shambles. In a survey conducted jointly by the Int…

1
FIR #413: AI Is Coming for Copywriters 20:43

3M ago20:43

20:43

We are told, “AI won’t take your job.” Instead, “Someone who knows how to use AI will take your job.” Tell that to the scores of copywriters who have already lost their jobs to generative AI. With ChatGPT and its competitors in the frontier LLM space being used to write more than anything else, agencies and organizations are figuring out how to cra…

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FIR #412: Don’t Let the Door Hit You on Your Way Out 1:29:01

3M ago1:29:01

1:29:01

You work for one of the biggest consulting firms in the world. You’ve been told that taking a voluntary separation package from the company is in your best interest. When you agree (not that you had much choice), you’re asked to sign an agreement that not only won’t you disparage the company, but you’ll use the language provided to you to let your …

1
FIR #411: Are We Unnecessarily Panicked About Online Disinformation?

3M ago

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Several studies seem to suggest that a small cadre of “supersharers” was responsible for spreading 80 percent of “fake news” on X (formerly Twitter) in 2020. Further, by removing these supersharers from the platforms they use to spread misinformation and disinformation, the number of lies appearing on the social network plummeted. What’s more, anot…

1
FIR #410: Who’s Behind All Those Fake LinkedIn Profiles?

4M ago

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PRovoke Media broke a story about at least 11 fake profiles of people who listed a PR recruitment firm as their employers. LinkedIn removed them as fakes—an action with which the business-centric social network is all too familiar. So far, no other media outlets seem interested in the story. Still, Neville and Shel wonder about the motivation behin…

1
FIR #409: Just Another Fad

4M ago

—

Despite the excitement over the possibilities generative AI provides, it was easy to predict that doubters would insist it’s just a fad — the same naysaying we heard about email, the web, social media, podcasting, live streaming, and a host of other digital technologies. In this case, the reports conflict with other research showing rapid adoption,…

1
FIR #408: AI’s Impact on Jobs, Quantified 15:47

4M ago15:47

15:47

PwC has released a detailed report analyzing over half a billion job ads from 15 countries representing over 30 percent of global GDP. The goal: unearth empirical evidence of AI’s impact on jobs. The results are remarkable, if unsurprising. For example, the analysis found 4.8 times higher growth in labor productivity in AI-exposed sectors and 25 pe…

1
FIR #407: AI Is Changing How Managers Manage

4M ago

—

White-collar employees everywhere are embracing AI, even if they’re using their own accounts and not telling their colleagues or bosses. This widespread adoption of AI among workers is already creating challenges for managers, who traditionally evaluate their team members based on outputs that may now be coming in whole or in part from an AI. In th…

1
FIR #406: Alas, SEO, We Knew You Well 1:25:21

4M ago1:25:21

1:25:21

Among a flood of AI announcements in the last week — including remarkable advances in ChatGPT — Google’s move to produce narrative results called “overviews” instead of web links caused the most consternation. Neville and Shel break down all the news and focus in on Google’s overviews in this long-form episode for May. Also in this episode, a Baidu…

1
FIR #405: Gen Z’s Connection with Influencers 14:47

5M ago14:47

14:47

Just how much influence do online influencers wield? According to a Sprout Social report, nearly half of all consumers make purchases based on influencer recommendations, and influencers appear to nobody more than Gen Zers. Those born between 1997 and 2012 — the oldest of whom are now in their mid-20s with increasing buying power — are even partial…

1
FIR #404: Purpose Without the Peril 17:22

5M ago17:22

17:22

For several years, bolstered by research showing the public trusts business more than any other institution to address societal issues, companies have taken positions on everything from the environment to LGBTQ rights. As the U.S. population grew more polarized, though, those on the other side of a company’s position made things increasingly diffic…

1
FIR #403: Does Marketing Need a Separate Ethics Standard for AI? 1:22:44

5M ago1:22:44

1:22:44

The author of an AI-focused newsletter suggests that companies need to establish discrete ethics policies for using Artificial Intelligence (AI). With all the codes of ethics out there designed to address anything and everything, is this really necessary? Neville and Shel don’t see eye to eye in April’s monthly long-form FIR episode. Also in episod…

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FIR #402: Your Favorite Social Network Just Shut Down. Now What? 24:01

5M ago24:01

24:01

It has been five years since Google Plus closed down. While it never amassed the number of users of some of its rivals, many called it home and were cast adrift after its demise, unable to find an alternative that offered the same features and vibe. One Google Plus user lamented the loss and reflected on the lessons learned from her attempts to fin…

1
FIR #401: The Battle Between PIOs and Journalists 18:08

5M ago18:08

18:08

While public corporations employ (or contract with agencies that provide) media relations professionals, government agencies are likelier to have Public Information Officers (PIOs). Agencies, however, are not the only entities with PIOs, who differ from media relations practitioners by virtue of their engagement with multiple external stakeholder a…

1
FIR #400: Love Them Or Hate Them, Press Releases Can Still Deliver Value 19:02

5M ago19:02

19:02

In a LinkedIn post, Techcrunch Sr. Enterprise Editor Frederic Lardinois lamented the ineffectiveness of an event-related press release he received. To date, 42 comments have agreed, many condemning the utter uselessness of press releases and the incompetence of those who produce them. Neville and Shel understand their frustration based on the poor …

1
FIR #399: No More Cookies For You 19:23

6M ago19:23

19:23

Google is ending third-party tracking cookies on Chrome, the last of the major browsers to take this privacy-enhancing action. Without these cookies, advertisers could see as much as a 70-percent decline in revenue from online ads. What are the alternatives? Neville and Shel break it all down in this short midweek episode. Links from this episode: …

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FIR #398: The AI Version of Your (or Anybody’s) Voice 19:55

6M ago19:55

19:55

Artificial intelligence (AI) is making significant strides in various domains, and voice technology is no exception. OpenAI, a prominent player in the AI industry, has recently announced Voice Engine, a groundbreaking development in AI text-to-voice technology that will create natural-sounding voices based on a 15-second clip of your (or anybody’s)…

1
FIR #397: Some Thought Leadership on Thought Leadership 22:09

6M ago22:09

22:09

“Thought leadership” is a term that gets bandied about a lot. (A Google search for the term produced over 100 million results.) You have to question whether everything labeled thought leadership actually is, suggesting the quality of thought leadership leaves something to be desired. In fact, a recent study from Edelman and LinkedIn finds doubts ab…

1
FIR #396: Will AI End Google’s Search Dominance? 22:19

6M ago22:19

22:19

AI-powered tools like Perplexity are replacing Google as the go-to search resource for a growing number of people. Even AI tools that are not focused on searching the web, like Microsoft’s Copilot and Claude’s pro version, provide links to resources in their results. Is it enough to dethrone Google, which has held sway over search for decades? Some…

1
FIR #395: Extra! Extra! Read All About It! (In Print!) 1:21:59

6M ago1:21:59

1:21:59

We have expectations from our use of social media, but in two recent studies, there is evidence that the outcomes we expect aren’t necessarily what we get. Also in this episode, we look at Gini Dietrich’s latest update to her PESO model for using various media channels in integrated communication efforts, the schoolkids who are bringing back print …

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FIR #394: Marketers, Boards, and AI 21:00

6M ago21:00

21:00

Companies whose boards include a member with marketing experience deliver higher investor returns than those whose boards lack marketing expertise. That higher return increases among companies losing market share. Does Artificial Intelligence (AI) threaten the path to board membership by dramatically reducing the number of marketers? OpenAI CEO Sam…

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FIR #393: Will Jinfluencers Eclipse Traditional Journalism? 15:15

6M ago15:15

15:15

A new type of influencer, known as “Jinfluencers,” is emerging in the media landscape. These influencers, who combine the roles of journalists and influencers, are gaining attention and challenging traditional media outlets. The media landscape has become fragmented, catering to niche interests and creating opportunities for trusted sources with lo…

1
FIR #392: Going Below the Surface into Dark Social Media 16:27

6M ago16:27

16:27

Unsavory and nefarious things happen in the Dark Social Media. But Dark Social is not exclusively a place for ne’er-do-wells, criminals, and extremists. Dark Social includes messaging apps, private discussion groups on popular public forums, and even email. An increasing share of conversations about brands is taking place on the Dark Web, according…

1
FIR #391: Match Group Swipes Right on AI-Generated Press Release 19:59

7M ago19:59

19:59

Match Group wanted the world to know it had secured 1,000 business licenses from OpenAI. In a press release, the company claimed that giving employees access to the full suite of ChatGPT tools has not only improved productivity but also altered the culture. The company disclosed in the press release that it was written by ChatGPT and edited by the …

1
FIR #390: The Fall and Rise of NFTs 15:51

7M ago15:51

15:51

Based on the plunge in the value of NFTs last year and the evaporation of business on NFT exchanges, it would be easy to think these tokens were just a passing fad, like Pet Rocks and Beanie Babies, especially given the resounding death knell produced by media. But NFTs never left, with companies like Starbucks and Nike continuing to invest in them…

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FIR #389: Bloated C-Suites (and Some Alternatives) 15:23

7M ago15:23

15:23

The list of CXO titles is proliferating. The addition of chief culture officers, chief AI officers, chief data officers, chief wellness officers, chief diversity officers, chief learning officers, chief experience officers…the list goes on…has increased the size of C-suites across industries. There is strong evidence that larger executive teams can…

1
FIR #388: Watch Me Get Fired 1:30:24

7M ago1:30:24

1:30:24

GenZers are recording their firings and layoffs, and the videos are going viral on TikTok and elsewhere. This is shining a harsh spotlight on organizations’ approach to letting people go, and it’s not pretty. What’s worse is how some companies plot to avoid being subjects of these videos. Also, in this episode: Bluesky has taken its first big steps…

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FIR #387: Sentiment Analysis, Risk Mitigation, or Big Brother Surveillance? 16:39

7M ago16:39

16:39

A long list of A-list companies from across the spectrum of industries have embraced Artificial Intelligence in a way that is raising eyebrows: monitoring employee emails and posts to messaging and collaboration services like Slack and Microsoft Teams. Privacy experts are raising red flags over the trend. When CNBC reached out to these companies ab…

1
FIR #386: Is AI Too Generic A Label? 16:53

7M ago16:53

16:53

In a LinkedIn post, internal communications thought leader Monique Zytnik wonders if there is not enough specificity in the “AI” label. “It’s like trying to have a conversation about different animals and only being able to use the word animal. One person is talking about lions and tigers 🦁and the other about cute chicks 🐣 but you’re only using the…

1
FIR #385: Amazing Search Results That Drive Little Traffic 18:54

8M ago18:54

18:54

Artificial Intelligence is revolutionizing all manner of things. It should be no surprise, then, that it is bound to revolutionize online searching, which has been dominated by Google. A new search engine, Perplexity, threatens Google’s dominance by delivering answers in narrative form with links to the resources from which the narrative was derive…

1
FIR #384: Social Networks Shift Away from the Public Commons 16:50

8M ago16:50

16:50

People are spending less time on the big open public social networks, opting instead for closed communities, hidden away from public scrutiny. In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel examine the phenomenon and share their thoughts on the challenges this presents to organizations trying to reach their stakeholders through social media. Links…

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FIR #383: Leadership Traits Aren’t What They Used To Be 16:01

8M ago16:01

16:01

Back in 2012, business executives thought the most important traits to exhibit when interacting with stakeholders included things like forcefulness, a blue-chip pedigree, and physical attractiveness. No more. A repeat of the study 10 years later found that inclusiveness, a “listen to learn” orientation, and authenticity are among the new traits for…

1
FIR #382: Brain Implants Are a Thing Now 15:47

8M ago15:47

15:47

Elon Musk’s company, Neuralink, claims it has successfully implanted a device in the brain of a human subject who is recovering well. These devices are designed to enable severely disabled individuals to manipulate computers with their minds, moving cursors, typing, clicking, and so on. It’s the stuff of science fiction, but, like AI, it seems dest…

1
FIR #381: The State of Trust in 2024 1:23:03

8M ago1:23:03

1:23:03

It happens every January, as surely as the Tiffany ball will drop in Times Square on New Year’s Eve: Edelman has released its annual Trust Barometer with a focus on the public’s views on innovation and the pace of change, along with the usual dimensions of trust the survey tracks every year. Neville and Shel examine some of the study’s core finding…

1
FIR #380: Vanguard Leaves Investors Twisting in the Wind 13:04

8M ago13:04

13:04

When the word came down from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that investment companies could offer Bitcoin ETFs, Vanguard shrugged off the opportunity — but didn’t make an effort to let its investors know, leading to high volumes of online criticism and some investors closing their accounts. Neville and Shel dig into the communication f…

1
FIR #379: Top Communication Trends for 2024 21:30

8M ago21:30

21:30

When blogs first got hot, every December, it was the rare PR agency and independent communicator that didn’t feel compelled to post their predictions and assessments of trends for the new year. That practice has not slowed down. Rather than try to find and read through them all, just sit back and listen to this short mid-week episode of “For Immedi…

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FIR #378: AI for Crisis Communications 15:50

9M ago15:50

15:50

Deepfakes! Volumes of disinformation generated at scale! Hallucinated information shared as fact! Inherent bias underlying official communication! The number of crises people can imagine AI creating continues to grow. But do AI’s abilities to aid in crisis communication outweigh these risks — especially if we find ways to minimize or eliminate the …

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Neville Hobson Podcasts

Podcasts Worth a Listen

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