Reputation

For Immediate Release 109: CEOs Torturing English

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Artificial Intelligence, Business, Communication, For Immediate Release, Investor Relations, Marketing, Politics, Public Relations, Reputation, Social Media, Software, Technology, Web

Shel and I recorded the October edition of the monthly Hobson & Holtz Report. This month’s topics: Three distinguished PhDs propose a Magna Carta for Artificial Intelligence. Too soon? Research establishes a connection between CEOs who mangle English during analyst calls and falling share prices. What can PR agencies and associations do to build a reputation of trust in the wake of the Bell Pottinger scandal? New data points reinforce the importance of companies taking positions on social and political issues. Most importantly, Edelman’s 2017 Earned Brand study found that 30% of consumers are “belief-driven” buyers. In the UK, political activists are using an app to influence party conference votes. Two crises — one from Facebook and one from Unilever’s […]

Continue reading

Social media stars breaching rules on promoting brands, watchdog says

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Advertising, Business, Communication, Ethics, Marketing, Reputation, Social Media, Web
songofstyle Instagram

The Guardian reports on a rise in complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the UK advertising regulator, who says ‘influencers’ on social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter fail to declare that they are being paid to publicise products. The newspaper defines ‘influencers’ thus: Social media celebrities who have large and engaged followings online. They get paid money to publicise products and can command tens of thousands for one post. This is about disclosure where the influencer publicising a product or service would makes it clear in his or her post that there’s some kind of relationship with the brand owner and/or that the influencer receives compensation for that post, financial or otherwise. It’s common sense to disclose such […]

Continue reading

Fake news is a global concern says BBC survey

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Communication, Mainstream Media, Online Media, Public Relations, Reputation, Social Media, Social Networks, Society, Trends, Web

To many people, the phenomenon known as fake news is something that’s moved beyond just a news item itself and into the realm of trust. With so much reporting and commentary about fake news, it’s no surprise that we’re placing greater importance on verifying the truthfulness of what we read, listen to and watch that is called ‘news.’ Whether it’s online or via the traditional mainstream media, or from companies, governments and others, we want to feel assured that what we encounter as news is real and not fake or propaganda. Take the image above, a snapshot from the news I saw earlier today in the BBC News app on my Android tablet. To me, some of the news items […]

Continue reading

For Immediate Release 105: Centre Stage for Credible Sources

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Business, Communication, Ethics, For Immediate Release, Marketing, Public Relations, Reputation, Social Media, Society, Technology, Trends, Web

Shel and I got together for the September edition of The Hobson & Holtz Report to talk about these topics: The self-inflicted downfall of the UK PR agency Bell Pottinger (and kudos to the PRCA for putting teeth in its ethics code) How various fields will be affected by speech recognition (including PR and communications) Mitch Joel’s open letter to the advertising industry: Let’s not mess up ads for voice The proliferation of fake scientific journals (and what it means for the PR industry) The Pew Research Center has identified five “types” of people who search for facts and information, with implications for content marketing Are Americanisms killing British English (and does it matter)? In his Tech Report, Dan York […]

Continue reading

SDF podcast 11: From winning with data to the future of fake facts

Neville Hobson Leave a comment Business, Communication, Innovation, Marketing, Politics, Public Relations, Reputation, Small Data Forum, Social Media, Society, Technology, Trends, Workplace

For the 11th time, the SmallDataForum convened – this time to explore questions related to the opportunities and challenges of data in business, the rational and emotional side of decision-making, and the continuing erosion of trust and confidence in the truthfulness of information. Stephen Fry’s fabulous narration of the complete works of Sherlock Holmes formed the backdrop to musings about data sleuthing and the skill sets required for successful forensic analytics. This episode’s show notes were written by Thomas Stoeckle. Big Data’s Business Value A recent Harvard Business School article discussed the issue that Companies Love Big Data but Lack the Strategy to Use It Effectively. Neville sums this up succinctly: “You don’t need big data strategy, you need a […]

Continue reading