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Imagine posting to your favorite social network, the one you want your brand to be associated with, and having it appear for all of your followers in the social networks of their choice. It could be possible if the ActivityPub standard continues to spread the way it has been lately. And that could be an important evolution given the meltdown that Twitter is undergoing. Those are just two of the stories in the April long-form edition of the “For Immediate Release” podcast. Also in this episode…

• The “have a go” era of podcasting could be coming to an end, depending on how you interpret the data
• LinkedIn is going through some changes that not everyone likes
• A coalition of 500-plus ad agencies is taking a stand against fossil fuels
• A song reportedly produced using AI imitated the voices of some A-list artists, and the music industry isn’t happy
• Dan York reports on the demise of Spotify Live, some Twitter news, Wikipedia’s one-minute video, and more

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, May 22.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat each Thursday at 1 p.m. ET. For credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request the credentials in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

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. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. Neville’s Asides blog is also available.

Link from this report:

• No Brainer – An AI Podcast for Marketers
• Podcasts: Is the ‘have-a-go’ podcaster era coming to an end?
• Podcasts as a Source of News and Information
• 41+ Podcast Statistics For 2023 (Listeners & Market Size)
• Can ActivityPub save the internet?
• Making ActivityPub Your Social Media Hub for Mastodon and Other Decentralized Services
• Automattic acquires ActivityPub Plugin
• Tumblr to add support for ActivityPub, the social protocol powering Mastodon and other apps
• Decentralized Social Media Rises as Twitter Melts Down Mastodon is just the start—here comes the Fediverse
• A Creator of ActivityPub on What’s Next for the Fediverse
• How LinkedIn is changing and why some are not happy
• 21 LinkedIn Best Practices for Business Professionals to Follow for Success
• Aht, Aht—Don’t Do That! These Are The LinkedIn Etiquette Tips You Need For 2023
• Six kinds of LinkedIn messages you should never send
• The Future of Social Media Is a Lot Less Social
• Is Twitter finally dying?
• Twitter begins removing blue checkmarks from all legacy users
• Neville Hobson on Twitter
• In a campaign called #BlockTheBlue, some Twitter users, including popular ones like @dril, are asking people to block anyone who subscribes to Twitter Blue
• About profile labels and checkmarks on Twitter
• More newsrooms bail on Twitter as Musk meddles with account labels
• NYT editor says company won’t leave Twitter
• WBUR backs NPR by leaving Twitter after Musk’s ‘state-affiliated’ labeling
• CBC ‘pausing’ Twitter after ‘government-funded media’ label
• Sweden’s Public Radio Ceases Activities on Twitter
• What Is Hive Social? The Twitter Alternative You Should Try
• Why can’t Twitter and TikTok be easily replaced? Something called ‘network effects’
• Why Are So Many Twitter Alternatives Struggling to Succeed?
• Here’s a first look at Bluesky, the decentralized social network from Twitter’s cofounder
• Post, a publisher-focused Twitter alternative, launches to public
• Substack launches its Twitter-like Notes just days after Twitter throttled Substack links
• A new Twitter alternative is trying to lure users about to lose their old checkmark
• Over 500 agencies have now pledged to cut ties with world’s biggest polluters
• AI song sounds an alarm in music
• An A.I. Hit of Fake ‘Drake’ and ‘The Weeknd’ Rattles the Music World
• The Music Business Will Never Learn

Links from Dan York’s Report

• Another social audio company bites the dust – Spotify shuts down Spotify Live
• The legacy blue checkmarks are finally going… unless of course Elon pays for them to keep the illusion that celebrities pay for Twitter Blue
• Twitter shuts down the automation that enabled the National Weather Service and many other public service accounts
• Wikimedia has a sound logo
• Wikipedia’s one-minute videos
• Microsoft drops Twitter from its advertising platform

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