Cross-posted from the FIR Podcast Network

Jen McClure and Liz Scherer are worried about a number of issues that arose out of this week’s conversation, which covered these topics:

• Burger King has walked back its poll on who Belgians see as their king (King Philippe or BK) after blowback from the royal family. Mary Meeker’s 2017 Internet Trends 350-plus-page report included several nuggets of interest to communicators, including the share of online advertising that belongs to just
• Facebook and Google (and what it might mean to media companies); the growth in the number of Internet users and smartphone users; the volumes of data creating a virtuous cycle of innovation for the healthcare industry; the amount of time people spend on mobile media communications; the rise of voice technology; brands sourcing content from fans; the shift in search from typing words to speaking them or showing images; the impact of a bad online experience on customer retention; and the importance of immigration to tech innovation.
• Facebook is making it possible for Groups to create online courses.
• Can brands learn anything from The New York Times’ success with email newsletters, especially those that curate content from other sources?
• Thought leadership has an impact on the B2B purchase process, according to a study from Edelman and LinkedIn.
• President Trump’s tweets in the wake of the London Bridge terrorist attack and his explanations for withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord hold lessons for leaders and communicators.
• Liz, Jen, and Shel also weighed in on a listener comment about the student walkout during a commencement address by U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence.
• Dan York reports on the African Internet Summit, Apple’s World-Wide Developers Conference, and Google’s plan to block ads that don’t meet its standards from directly within Chrome.

Connect with our guest co-hosts on Twitter at @jenmclure_JEM and @lizscherer.

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

Jen referenced two surveys underway, both of which are open for your input:

• 2017 Corporate Communications Practices Survey
• State of Employee Advocacy Survey

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

About our guests:

Jen McClure is CEO of JEM Consulting & Advisory Services. Prior to founding JEM, Jen was Vice President of Digital & Social Media and the head of the Digital Center of Excellence at Thomson Reuters. In 2005, Ms. McClure founded the Society for New Communications Research, a nonprofit research and education foundation and think tank and was President of the Board of Directors from 2005-2016, when the organization merged with The Conference Board. She now chairs the Advisory Board of the new organization.

Liz Scherer is a digital communications strategist specializing in health & wellness, nonprofits, regulated industry and agriculture. A pioneer in the social web healthcare movement, Liz has been involved in moving the envelope in terms of health and gender equity and is a former social media advisory board member for Health Justice CT. She is especially interested in how novel & emerging players are ultimately impacting agility marketing and in the disruption of content/communication-driven customer experiences. In addition to her extensive experience as a strategist, Liz has worked as a journalist, medical writer, copywriter and blogger and maintains active memberships in the National Association of Science Writers, the Association of Health Care Journalists and Journalism and Women’s Symposium. Currently, she is a curator of Emerging Infectious Diseases for univadis.com’s Clinical Essentials, and recently took a role to direct strategic communications for a mHealth publisher. Liz sits on the Advisory Board for the Center for Health, Media & Policy, Hunter College, NYC. In her spare time, she mentors health start-ups at GA/1776 DC and Village Capital, and is active in the D.C. Tech Community.