The April episode of “The Hobson & Holtz Report” continues the coronavirus theme from March with conversations about…

• Our experience being Zoombombed
     
• How toilet paper companies are responding to online criticism over shortages
• The role of social media during Covid-19
• Microsoft’s belief that coronavirus will forever change the way we work and learn
• The UK Automobile Association’s belief that coronavirus will transform UK work and travel
• Emojis in the time of coronavirus
• The big data behind Disney’s magic
• The good news people are craving and how media is accommodating them
• In his Tech Report, Dan York covers his experiments with Twitch TV; improvements to Instagram’s IGTV; Instagram Live, Instagram DM and Facebook Messenger’s arrivals on the desktop; Google’s plan to charge for reCAPTCHA; and Earth Day’s 50th anniversary.

We are hosting an FIR Communicators Coffee Break on Zoom each Thursday during the stay-at-home period at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials, 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.

The next episode of For Immediate Release will be posted on Monday, May 18.

Links from This Week’s Episode

• Securing Your Zoom Meetings (PDF)
• More top companies ban Zoom following security fears
• The Giant Work-From-Home Experiment Has One Winner
• Zoom Burnout is Real
• PoliteMail’s Crisis Communications Resource Center
• PoliteMail’s Research on Email Volume Accelerating with Covid-19 Cases
• Do the Right Thing: The Role of Social in Covid-19
• We Are Social “Do the Right Thing” Slide Deck
• AdAge’s Regularly Updated List of Marketers’ Responses to the Coronavirus
• How 5 Toilet Paper Brands are Responding to Customer Complaints on Social Media
• What Everyone’s Getting Wrong About the Toilet Paper Shortage
• Microsoft thinks coronavirus will forever change the way we work and learn
• Coronavirus will transform UK work and travel, says AA
• Horizon Media Charts Emoji Use During the Pandemic
• Psychologists say using emojis is more important than ever right now. Seriously
• Coronavirus Will Delay Release of New Emojis Until 2022
• Spread of the Coronavirus Emoji
• Big Data Behind Disney Magic
• The News Is Making People Anxious. You’ll Never Believe What They’re Reading Instead.

Links from Dan York’s Report

• Experimenting with Twitch.tv (are any other FIR listeners experimenting with Twitch?)
• Improvements to Instagram’s IGTV (but is anyone using it?)
• Instagram Live on the desktop
• Facebook Messenger comes to the desktop
• Instagram DMs down on the desktop
• Moving from reCAPTCHA to hCAPTCHA
• Cloudflare Dumps reCAPTCHA as Google Intends to Charge for Its Use