For Immediate Release

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Micro-learning is the formal label for the upbeat, music-backed TikTok videos that demonstrate how to accomplish tasks on Excel, Microsoft’s ubiquitous spreadsheet tool. The videos are racking up billions of views and the influencers behind the videos are making fistfuls of cash. Microsoft played no part in getting the video trend started; the company is just taking advantage of what the influencers are producing. Lessons abound for companies and communicators.
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Google used a short video to tease a feature for its Augmented Reality (AR) glasses that could be AR’s killer app. They don’t look bad, either.
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Search “blockchain” and you’re sure to find plenty of commentaries that proclaim the core Web3 technology doomed. It can never work, they say, and they outline a broad range of reasons. Yet blockchain is already managing processes in the background — some of which you may already be using in your own home. Neville and Shel explore some of the ways blockchain-based technologies are becoming everyday tools and what this means for communicators.
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Matthew Rechs confesses that he was not a great manager at first but he learned some fundamental rules that will benefit anyone who hopes to be more than an old-school boss. For internal communicators, Rechs’ “promises” — first published as a series of tweets — can serve as the foundation for a targeted effort to elevate effective management in your organization.
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POAPs are getting to be a big deal, with Warner Music inking a deal with the organization behind them. Never heard of POAP? It’s the Proof of Attendance Protocol, used to mint a special kind of NFT that serves as proof you were there, whether it’s a concert, a conference, or some other kind of event or activity. Their use by businesses is inevitable. Even internally, companies can award POAPs to employees who attend the town hall, for example, some of which could wind up being highly coveted. In this episode, Neville and Shel break down POAPs and their potential for organizations, especially those looking to engage Gen Z-aged individuals.
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Nissan and Toyota are entering the metaverse, one with a focus on employees and the other targeting consumers. They join some other auto manufacturers that have already established a metaverse presence. Fidelity Investments is also setting up shop, as is Vanity Fair. And these are a drop in the bucket among the businesses staking metaverse claims.
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For those who are weary of the staged, curated images people share on social networks like Instagram (as if their lives were truly that enviable), BeReal wants to be the antidote. It is finding favor with the college-aged crowd but there could be untapped opportunities for businesses to participate, too.
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Cross-posting your social media posts is a great way to extend reach and get more bang for your image/video/text buck. It can also backfire when not done well and some platforms actively discourage it. Neville and Shel share some thoughts on cross-posting in this episode.
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https://traffic.libsyn.com/fir/forimmed-247.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:44 — 6.0MB) | EmbedSubscribe: Google Podcasts | Email | RSS | Subscription OptionsMining big data is a routine activity among many organizations. That’s exactly what a company called Hiq was doing with data it obtained from public LinkedIn pages. LinkedIn sued and now an appeals court… Continue Reading →

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In the April edition of The Hobson and Holtz Report, Neville and Shel discuss these stories:

• The advertising industry weighs in on an Ogilvy policy banning influencers from photoshopping their images
• A metaverse company plans to offer a form of immortality with its “Live Forever” mode
• Coca-Cola is offering a limited-edition drink that tastes like pixels and includes a Fortnite code
• Corporate America seemed bound for a more purposeful existence. Has it all fallen by the wayside?
• Elon Musk believes in unfettered free speech, a key reason he wants to buy Twitter. Is it a good thing?
• Research reveals consumers care more about how a company donates than how much

Dan York’s Tech Report covers how the Russian war against Ukraine is splintering the Internet (along with other tech-related fallout from the invasion); Wikipedia’s decision to stop accepting cryptocurrency donations; how much Jack Dorsey’s first tweet — initially purchased as an NFT for $48 million — attracted in an auction; the state of the Ethereum merge; TikTok’s rollout of AR capabilities; Spotify’s rebranding of its Clubhouse clone; and more.
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