Who am I listening to? Part 2: Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson: For Immediate Release

For Immediate Release is a podcast presented by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson and is described as being at the intersection of PR / communications and the online world. I sometimes find this description a bit limiting as there is certainly a lot more discussion than online PR and communications as they delve into all sorts of (relative) topics and especially things within this environment that I may not have thought of before. I usually get turned off by PR blogs / casts as it’s not really my field of interest as but this is one of my favourite podcasts, it can’t be ‘too Pr’ can it?

I would also say that FIR (as it is commonly referred to) is a leader in podcasting in terms of listeners and innovation. It sounds to me like they have the largest listenership in the We 2.0 / marketing-esque podcast environment but what really sets them apart is how they involve their audience. It’s the only podcast I listen to where the listeners are able to leave voice comments about a topic which are subsequently played during the following episodes.

They also have a very ingenious (possibly lazy) system by which the readers can use a Wiki to write up the show notes for each podcast themselves. Lazy or not, this kind of interactivity around their podcasts certainly answers some of those critics with too much time on their hands that question whether a podcast is a true Web 2.0 application because of it’s supposed lack of opportunities to interact with the audience.

If like me, you listen to marketing podcasts to stay up with the latest trends, FIR is definitely one to add to the ol’ subscription list.

As a side note, I have also bought Shel Holtz’s book ‘Corporate Conversations’ which I am looking forward to reading but I unfortunately picked up my copy of Spud (a South African comedy) first and now cannot put it down! I’ll definitely get around to reading it though Shel!

Who am I listening to? Part 1: Anna Farmery

In this series of posts (labelled 'Who am I listening to') I'll keep you up to date with which Podcasts I am listening to.

Everytime I turn the proverbial Podcast corner, there's Anna Farmery! And what a pleasant suprise it always is. I find her Northern English accent and friendly quips completely refreshing after listening to gruff old business men drumming away on other Podcasts. She's also well known on the blogosphere from what I can gather as her name seems to come up often on other Podcasts and blogs.

Asides from the freshness and the strange looks I get in the traffic because I am laughing at (what appears to be) myself, Anna is also very well versed in her chosen subjects and she has definitely been an influence in my decision to move towards web 2.o marketing.

On her Podcast, The Engaging Brand, she deals with issues of employee engagement, branding and social media and judging from her blog she like the colour red!

She also co-hosts another Podcast that I subscribe to called The Podcast Sisters with Krishna De and Heather Gorringe (who I will get to in the near future!), that focuses on all things Podcasting and Web 2.0 and how you can use them in business. It does seem to be pitched towards ladies but that by no means excludes men from listening in too, just like I do every time there is an update.