" width="100%" alt="FIR Podcast #29: Communications and Cancer" class="flexible">

This is cross-posted from the FIR Podcast Network.

Today’s panel includes Doug Haslam, senior consultant at Boston-based digital marketing agency Stone Temple Consulting; Jennifer Stauss, PR and Social Media strategist at Bozell, an integrated marketing services company in Omaha; and Mark Story, Washington D.C.-based communications counsel for the National Cancer Institute and adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins University.

Our topics included…

• A special segment devoted to communication and cancer, based on the connection each of the panelists have with the issue (personally and professionally)
• The Associated Press’s decision to change the case of Internet and World Wide Web from upper to lower, and the resulting uproar
• The sharing economy (or gig economy, or freelance economy, or collaborative economy) and whether it’s sustainable — after so many companies have taken steps to prepare from what they thought was inevitable disruption
• The introduction of a new job title — Platform Relationships Manager — and whether communication departments and agencies may soon be looking for their own platform specialists
• How Hubspot is working to minimize potential fallout from the publication of a book by a former staff member — and well-known tech journalist — that doesn’t portray the company in the most positive light
• How unbranded content can deliver value even though consumers don’t know your brand is behind the content
• Dan York reports from Buenos Aires, Argentina, on content-injection attacks; Dan also shares his thoughts on the AP style news

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @dough, @jenniferstauss, and @mstory123.

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

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

About today’s panel:

Doug Haslam’s career has spanned a variety of disciplines within the communications field: radio technology, editorial production, public relations, marketing, social media and digital. Doug began with public radio, producing news and thoughtful sports programs, moving into technology public relations, and currently to social media and content strategy for brands of all sizes and industries. Doug’s love of media has come full circle, as his most recent positions have seen him taking full advantage of his content creation skills, managing social media and brand publishing programs for a wide variety of clients.

Jennifer Stauss is public relations and social media strategist at Bozell, a creative marketing communications firm in Omaha, Nebraska.  Her work there encompasses public relations and social media strategy and execution, crisis communications as well as social media community development and management.  Jennifer founded SMAC!, which stands for Sock Monkeys Against Cancer – a social enterprise that encourages the giving of SMAC! monkeys – true “creature comforts” for those with or impacted by cancer – reminding them no one fights it alone. The creation of SMAC! was inspired by Jennifer’s mother’s battle with lung cancer (no, she never smoked) and their politically incorrect social media campaign called “WTF? (Where’s the Funding) for Lung Cancer,” that publicly chronicled her mom’s battle to educate the masses that ANYONE can get lung cancer and increase funding for the #1 cancer killer and the LEAST funded. The WTF? campaign gained national notoriety as a finalist in Mashable’s awards for most creative social media campaign.Before entering the cancer world, Jennifer did two stints in the agency world; served as press secretary for the then Omaha mayor and started her career and a television journalist at the CBS local affiliate in Omaha as well.

Mark Story is a one-time contributor to FIR. Mark currently works as communication counsel and social media lead for the National Cancer Institute, and he was director of International Corporate Affairs for the Alibaba Group in Hong Kong, and the first-ever director of New Media for the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mark also put in time on the agency side as a senior VP for Fleishman-Hillard and a vice president at APCO Worldwide. Mark is also the author of the book, “Starting Your Career as a Social Media Manager,” which was published in 2012.