• FIR #205: Are NFTs Nifty or Not?

The March installment of The Hobson & Holtz Report includes reports on these stories:

• The road to hell is paved with good intentions, which Burger King learned after one well-meaning but poorly thought-out tweet
• Do you subscribe to a podcast or follow it? (Or listen to it?) These verbs may have consequence, especially in attracting new podcast listeners.
• Another company has fired another employee who built a following sharing work-related TikTok videos.
• A racing drone’s 87-second flight through a bowling alley has captured Hollywood’s attention.
• Neville is trying Timely, an Android-based competitor of Clubhouse.
• NFTs—non-fungible tokens—are a hot topic right now. Will they become a staple of marketing and communication or will remember them as a flash in the pan in a few years’ time?
• Dan York has updates on WordPress and Google in his Tech Report.

Our FIR recording sessions are now being streamed live, because why not? We already stream it in order to capture a backup recording on YouTube; we’ve just been making these restricted streams. We have decided to make them public so you can watch and comment. Our next recording is Saturday, April 17 at noon ET. You’ll see our pre-recording conversation as well as seeing how the sausage gets made. Watch live here.

(You can watch the video of the making of this episode, though it’s clearly too late to share comments we can read right into the show.)

We are hosting an FIR Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday during the stay-at-home period at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly or request the credentials in our Facebook group or send an email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Spread the word to your communications community.

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

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Neville’s link blog, Outbox, is available, as well.

Links from This Month’s Episode

• Latest Politemail Internal Comms Benchmark Report
• Burger King UK under fire for tweeting ‘Women belong in the kitchen’ on International Women’s Day
• Burger King’s Snafu Puts Focus on the Danger of Using Shock Value as a Social Media Strategy
• KFC Gaming tells Burger King to delete ‘women belong in the kitchen’ tweet
• Burger King Gets Grilled for ‘Women Belong in the Kitchen’ Tweet Supporting Female Chefs
• Podcasting: What word to use instead of “subscribe”?
• Subscribe or Follow a Podcast: What’s in a Word?
• Brands: Let your internal culture out
• A Drone Went Bowling. Hollywood Noticed.
• Tweet inviting you to join Timely
• Reddit invitation to join Timely
• The Non-Fungible Token Bible: Everything you need to know about NFTs
• Why Some Brands Are Considering Social Tokens to Monetize Engagement
• NFTs are both priceless and worthless
• Taco Bell Draws on the NFT Craze for Digital Art Sale
• A Word on NFTs
• Kings of Leon to release new album as a non-fungible token
• Kings of Leon Will Be the First Band to Release an Album as an NFT
• JPG File Sells for $69 Million, as ‘NFT Mania’ Gathers Pace
• NFTs are a dangerous trap
• Jack Dorsey is offering to sell the first tweet as an NFT and the highest bid is $2.5 million
• Get to know ‘non-fungible tokens,’ NFT for short
• NFTs on the hype cycle
• DC Comics Tells Artists to Stay Out of NFT Business or Else
• NFTs Are Hot. So Is Their Effect on the Earth’s Climate
• CNN: We Bought an NFT. Here’s What We Learned

Links from Dan York’s Tech Report

• Introducing WordPress Stories, A New Way to Engage Your Audience
• Blocks: Story Block
• WordPress 5.7 “Esperanza”
• WordPress 5.7 Field Guide
• Lazy-Loading iFrames in 5.7
• FIR On Technology #7: Understanding Core Web Vitals: A New Google Search Ranking Factor in May 2021