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On the eve of the election, Deirdre Breakenridge, Irene Koehler and Donna Papacosta joined the FIR panel to talk about the election’s impact on PR, marketing, and social media, along with a number of other topics. Here’s the rundown…

• Brands can prepare themselves for future assaults based on how political campaigns have engaged in an epic bot war to game online polls and inflate social media traffic.
• Candidates used some channels many brands have ignored in their effort to reach Millennials and GenZ.
• Social media itself is going through some convulsions based on this unique election cycle.
• In one town in Macedonia, teens are influencing the U.S. election — and injecting fake stories into the news that get tremendous reach — by creating Trump-supporting websites that attract clicks that, in turn, produce revenue for the teens.
• Facebook has launched a massive global ad campaign to attract more users to Facebook Live — with all video shot on smartphones using Facebook Live.
• Kickstarter has introduced its own live video channel in an effort to give backers more confidence in the people behind projects.
• Chobani’s founder, an immigrant himself, has supported the hiring of immigrants and refugees, earning him some attacks from the right. Fortunately, his customers have rallied to his defense.
• Dan York’s report includes an appeal for your suggestions about an editorial calendar tool that works across multiple sites.
• Artificial Intelligence and chatbots are going to be huge. Why aren’t PR agencies training their staffs? Why haven’t the professional associations offered any learning opportunities?
• Ditto data, which has become a vital influencer.
• Is Twitter finally dealing with its troll problem?

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @dbreakenridge, @irenekoehler, and @donnapapacosta.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

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

About today’s panel:

Deirdre Breakenridge has been in PR and marketing for more than 25 years helping senior executives in mid-to-large organizations communicate to their stakeholders. She’s currently CEO of Pure Performance Communications, which she started in 2011. Pure Performance specializes in integrated marketing strategy, training, and workshops. Before that, she was president of Mangol Marketing, and was an adjunct professor at NYU. She co-authored Putting the Public Back in Public Relations with Brian Solis – and appeared with Brian in an FIR interview about the book back in 2009. She also wrote Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional.

An experienced social media strategist, Irene Koehler is passionate about helping small businesses and entrepreneurs unlock the marketing potential of online tools and technology. Most executives and business owners know they should be active online, but are overwhelmed and under-resourced, and not looking for a one-size-fits-all solution. Focused on each client’s unique needs and objectives, Irene’s strength lies in her ability to create and execute a customized strategy to drive business results and growth. In addition to client work, Irene teaches social media marketing courses at University of California at Berkeley, San Francisco State University, California State University.

Donna Papacosta is a writer, speaker, podcaster and consultant, operating Trafalgar Communications in Toronto. In addition to leading workshops on social media and communications topics, Donna teaches Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies. In 2005 Donna launched Trafcom News, one of the first business podcasts in Canada. Since then she has expanded her expertise in both social media and multimedia, and helps people integrate these tools into their communications. She is the co-author, with Steve Lubetkin, of the recently launched book, The Business of Podcasting, and the author of The Podcast Scripting Book. A dual U.S.-Canadian citizen, Donna holds a Masters degree in Public Administration from New York University and a Certificate in Magazine Journalism from Ryerson University.

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