Cross-posted from the FIR Podcast Network

Deirdre Breakenridge and Ken Jacobs were Shel Holtz’s guest co-hosts this week. The conversation covered these items:

• The FTC has sent warning letters to 90 influencers and the brands that pay them. Meanwhile, the role influencers play is getting bigger (and maybe even a little absurd, give the Fyre Festival situation).
• Forty percent of companies want to replace their communications agency this year.
• Nearly a quarter of employees can’t name their CEO or even pick him 0r her out of a lineup.
• The media bubble is real, and it can have a profound impact on public relations.
• Dan York reports on Mastodon’s growth to half a million users, Turkey’s decision to block all versions of Wikipedia, an algorithm for detecting fake news in real time, the Internet Society’s paper on Artificial Intelligence, Amazon’s Echo Look, and corporate media centers.

Connect with our guest co-hosts on Twitter: @dbreakenridge and @kensviews.

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

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

FIR was recorded using Zencastr.

About our guests:

Deirdre Breakenridge is the CEO of Pure Performance Communications. A 25+ year veteran in PR and marketing, she is the author of six business books with her newest book, Answers for Modern Communicators to be published by Routledge in the fall 2017. Her other recent titles include, Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional,” “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations,” and “PR 2.0, New Media, New Tools, New Audiences.” Breakenridge speaks nationally and internationally on the topics of PR, marketing, branding and social media. She is an adjunct professor at UMASS at Amherst, and an online instructor for Rutgers University. She is also a LinkedIn video instructor with three PR courses published in 2015 and 2016 and two more marketing courses to be published in 2017. Breakenridge hosts the podcast show, Women Worldwide and is a blogger at PR Expanded. She was named by Traackr as one of the top Social Media Engagers in 2014, awarded the Best 50 Women in Business by NJBIZ in 2015, and recognized on the Richtopia 250 Most Influential Women Leaders in the World List in 2016 and 2017.

Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC, an experienced consultant and certified coach, is the principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching. For 10 years, his firm has helped agencies grow and manage business, improve client service and relationships, and enhance staff performance, via consulting and training. Through his executive coaching, he has helped leaders from C-suite executives to managers achieve and surpass their goals by becoming more inspired and inspiring leaders.