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Note: This episode is the first of several that experiments with a streamlined format: two guest co-hosts instead of three panelists and fewer stories. The goal is to slim FIR down to a more listenable length. This first effort shaved more than 30 minutes off the usual length and next week we hope to reduce even more. Please let us know how you like the format — and the length by sending an email to fircomments@gmail.com. 

Christopher Carfi and Serena Ehrlich join Shel Holtz for this week’s episode, which covered these stories…

• At least three Super Bowl commercials were forthright in addressing issues that are controversial in the early days of the Trump Administration and the increasingly polarized political atmosphere
• President Trump was referenced in 32 of the S&P 500 quarterly earnings calls in January, 20% more than  President Obama was in 2009. Do Investor Relations professionals need to factor the president into their planning?
• Not too long ago, some columnists and analysts predicted Volkswagen might not survive its emissions-fraud scandal. Today, they are the world’s top automaker. How did crisis communication help save the company?
• Dan York reports on a new report from the International Red Cross about using messaging apps in humanitarian crises and Snapchat’s introduction of Snapcodes that let users open your company website
• Hundreds of thousands of people deleted Uber’s app from their phones during the three days the #DeleteUber hashtag trended. What did Uber do wrong?

Connect with guest co-hosts on Twitter at @ccarfi and @serena.

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

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

FIR is usually recorded using Zencastr.

About today’s panel:

Christopher Carfi is GoDaddy’s Director of Content Marketing, and leads the team responsible for GoDaddy’s global content marketing strategy and its execution. A veteran of both startups and the enterprise, Chris also has a deep track record in developing customer community and evangelist programs for brands such as Adobe, H&R Block and Aruba Networks while holding executive positions at Ant’s Eye View and Edelman Digital, and he was co-founder and CEO at Cerado. He currently lives in the Bay Area with his family. Chris holds a degree in Computer Science from Northwestern University and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University.

Serena Ehrlich, Director of Social and Evolving Media, provides guidance for internal and external content creation and distribution services, ranging from PR programming to mobile marketing to social media updates. Throughout her career Ehrlich has worked to provide guidance on investor relations, public relations and overall consumer behavior relations trends. Before rejoining Business Wire in 2013, Ehrlich designed and implemented successful local, national and international social, influencer, mobile and traditional marketing campaigns for brands including Kraft, Kohls, Avon, Mattel, Mogreet and more. A ’91 graduate of Brandeis University with a B.A. in History, Ehrlich was named one of the 2013 Top 25 Women in Mobile to Watch by Mobile Marketer.

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