For Immediate Release

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Selfridge’s — the high-end UK fashion retailer — is making NFTs available at its retail stores. It’s not alone. Can NFTs at the Walmart checkout counter be far behind?
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The Walt Disney Company’s parks division is looking for two part-time, on-site TikTok creators to generate content. The Disney Parks Experiences and Products account on TikTok may be the official account but there are also hundreds of Disney influencers sharing videos, too. When it comes to this kind of content, though, we still mostly hear about Instagram, even though Disney has far more followers on TikTok than on Instagram and Twitter combined. What does this mean for other brands?
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The Associated Press has announced it will launch an NFT marketplace for some of its most iconic photos, including some that have won Pulitzer Prizes. The possibilities for other businesses are mind-boggling.
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The “For Immediate Release” podcast is joining the Marketing Podcast Network (MPN), the new podcast network from Jason Falls. What does this mean to current listeners? Not a damn thing. The podcast will continue to be available on the FIR Podcast Network and your current subscription will work just fine. But we wanted to let you know about the MPN and why we’re making our show available there. Listen for details.
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This is the first of our new shorter episodes that will complement the monthly “Hobson & Holtz Report.” Today, Neville and She share their thoughts on trends that will affect communicators in 2022.
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In the December Hobson and Holtz Report, Neville and Shel make a few announcements about the future of the show, including an imminent listener survey and plans for short conversations multiple times per week in addition to the monthly flagship show. Also in this episode: A Facebook executive blames society for misinformation and absolves MetaPKAFacebook of any responsibility; the top communicators at better.com resigned after the company’s CEO sacked 900 employees on a Zoom call they all thought was just another town hall; a British comedian and commentator has produced a documentary that argues social media gins up anger in its users; propaganda-as-a-service is a possible outcome of the introduce of Large Language Model (LLM) software like Jarvis; there’s a lot of hype out there about Web3, so Neville and Shel spend a fair amount of time dissecting it. In his Tech Report, Dan York looks at the State of Word and some elements of Web3.
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The metaverse is front-and-center in this episode of The Hobson & Holtz Report as the future of the metaverse begins to take shape and businesses start to pay attention. Also in this episode: You.com is a new search engine that delivers clear advantages over Google for anyone conducting research (as opposed to simply looking for the answer to a question), a look at a methodology for businesses to ramp up their TikTok efforts, and Neville shares his observations about the Center Cam webcam. Updates to social audio services are at the heart of Dan York’s Tech Report.
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Gaming. Blockchain. NFTs. The Metaverse. They are all colliding, creating something bigger than any single one of these platforms. In the October episode of For Immediate Release, Neville and Shel talk about this phenomenon and some of the companies making it happen. Also in this month’s Hobson & Holtz Report, Neville and Shel discuss the rise of robo-voices, how some companies are taking a more authentic and organic approach to influence, the widening gap between employees and leaders when it comes to policies for returning to the office, ways to encourage employees to engage and share on an intranet, and whether now is the time to hire a chief metaverse officer. Dan York’s Tech Report looks at the recent Facebook outage, Facebook Reels, TikTok’s billion-user milestone, Slack Clips, Twitch’s code base, and Global Encryption Day.
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The September installment of The Hobson & Holtz Report includes reports on these stories:

• Apple, Google, and Facebook are all in the news and none of it is good. In fact, some employees are up in arms.
• Gartner’s Emerging Technology Hype Cycle for 2021 is out.
• There are CEOs who won’t touch social media with a 10-foot pole. Then there are those who want nothing more than to post a meme that goes viral.
• Artificial Intelligence’s place in the Gartner Hype Cycle gets its own deep dive.
• People tune out bad news for a variety of reasons. Knowing why can help you overcome obstacles and get your message heard.
• There’s a wide gap between how executives think their companies’ cultures have done during the pandemic and how employees feel about it.
• Dan York’s Tech Report covers a gamut of topics, from LinkedIn ending Stories and Twitter introducing Tips to TikTok enhancing livestreaming and introducing a SiriusXM radio channel.

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The August installment of The Hobson & Holtz Report includes reports on these stories:

• Whatever it turns out to be, the metaverse is absolutely coming as the next iteration of the internet
• An update on NFTs: They have more staying power than we originally predicted
• Unpacking the vicious cycle of anger, hostility, and outrage on social networks
• Internal communicators need to get more involved in how managers manage
• Shades of Dooced! How a boss discovering a secret blog changed an employee at a company in Belgium

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