The March episode of “The Hobson & Holtz Report,” aka FIR 193, is a coronavirus communications special with Neville and Shel discussing these topics:

• How Shel and Neville’s respective organizations are communicating during the outbreak
• A study finds employers are the most credible source of coronavirus information for employees
• Snapchat, AI, VR, and LinkedIn are all playing their part
• Shelter-in-place orders could make work-from-home the new normal
• How brands are navigating marketing and social media during the crisis
• Zoombombing is now a thing in public Zoom sessions
• Dan York reports on the internet’s resiliency during the emergency; and on the impending release of WordPress 5.4

Listen Now

(Or download the MP3 file.)

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

Links from This Month’s Episode

• Employers Seen As Most Credible Sources Of Coronavirus Information
• Edelman: COVID-19 Demonstrates the Essential Role of the Private Sector
• Snapchat Might Be Best Positioned for the Coronavirus Outbreak
• White House’s 29,000 coronavirus papers will be fed to AI experts for analysis
• Free VRTL Academy Course
• LinkedIn’s coronavirus content builds a sense of community
• COVID-19 Could Cause a Permanent Shift Towards Home Working
• Farts, cats, naked bodies: People are failing hilariously at working from home
• Webcor CEO’s LinkedIn column on the possible future of work in the construction industry
• Twitter Provides Examples of Positive Brand Communications Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic
• How Brands Are Taking Extra Precaution to Avoid Coronavirus Insensitivities
• Why Every Brand You’ve Ever Bought From is Sending You Coronavirus Emails
• The Best, Worst, and Weirdest of the Random Coronavirus Emails We’re All Getting From Brands
• Zoombombing: When Video Conferences Go Wrong

Links from Dan York’s Report

• YouTube, Amazon Prime forgo streaming quality to relieve European networks
• Is the Internet Resilient Enough to Withstand Coronavirus?
• WordPress 5.4 Development Cycle
• Block Editor updates for the WordPress 5.4 release
• WordPress 5.4 is Coming and It’s Time to Ditch the Classic Editor
• Fullscreen mode enabled by default in the editor

The next episode of For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report will be posted on Monday April 20, 2020.

FIR on Zoom Special

We are hosting an FIR Communicators Coffee Break on Zoom this coming Thursday, March 26, at 4pm UK time (noon ET, 5pm CET). Join us here. The password is 497764. Spread the word to your communications community.

P.S.: No zoombombing please! Thank you.

(Photo at top via Pikrep. CC0)