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

• Our experience being Zoombombed
• The role of social media during Covid-19
• How toilet paper companies are responding to online criticism over shortages
• 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 fircomments@gmail.com. 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

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio

About Neville Hobson

Neville Hobson is a communicator, social strategist, consultant, digital change agent, writer, and podcaster. He is co-founder and co-host of the 'For Immediate Release' podcast. Since 2000, his career has focused on working with organisations globally to help them leverage his experiences, knowledge and subject-matter expertise of social networks, social media marketing, analytics and insights reporting, to create and build foundations for authentic engagement and to expand online reach and influence. Full bio