This week on FIR

• On episode 744 of the Hobson and Holtz Report: Latest CIPR State of the Profession survey prompts a challenge to communicators from CIPR President Stephen Waddington; companies hunt for employees with clout; five tips from BuzzFeed on making content shareable; is it possible to cultivate idea carriers?; Chevron apologizes for fracking well explosion with free pizza coupons, Virgin Galactic looking for a PR agency, Groupon claims its President's Day gaffe was intentional, Sprinklr acquires Dachis Group. Listen here
• On All Things IC, Rachel Miller examines a knowledge framework for internal communications, the Institute of Internal Communication nuts and bolts series, the CIPR Inside awards, and the State of the Sector survey. Listen here
• On Thought Leadership with Mitchell and Michael, an interview with Dave Gardner about the thought leadership journey. Listen here
• Episode 14 of FIR On Strategy with Andrea Vascellari dives into audience analysis. Listen here

The Wrap this well will be shorter than usual. My visit to Copenhagen, Denmark -- to speak at the annual IntraTeam intranet event -- has occupied most of my time, and my flight home is in just a few hours. There were, however, far too many interesting reports to skip it completely! So, here's your abbreviated wrap-up of news you may have missed. (On the other hand, let me know if you prefer this shorter format.) You're welcome to follow my link blog, where I collect the items from which I draw material for the Wrap, as well as for my podcast, For Immediate Release.

The bad and the ugly

As a 35-plus-year member of the International Association of Business Communicators, I'm always hopeful I'll see the group get mainstream media coverage -- but not like this. The 2013 IABC Cleveland Communicator of the Year has been the subject of reports from the likes of CNN and Adweek over contemptuous emails she sent to job-seekers looking to tap the job bank she maintains. Her wholly inappropriate responses have gone viral, leading her to eradicate her social media footprint. It's a reminder that everything you do must be considered through the lens of how the social media space will react. Read more

Here it comes

Google is enabling a simple unsubscribe feature for email you get from marketers (or email prospects get from you). Unsubscribe rates could skyrocket as a result. Smart marketers will make sure they send emails people want to get. Read more

There's CNN, BBC News, The New York Times, and...Reddit? The news sharing site is testing a live-blogging utility that will allow any user to fulfill the role of a Reddit-based news reporter. The open-source journalism effort will let you create and update breaking news coverage. Read more

Tired of Twitter's lowbrow trending topics? Try the new Current.ly, which uses the Twitter firehose to compile its own trending topics based on news, sports, and viral discussions. Read more

Movie theaters are about to start running 60-second Twitter films as part of the pre-movie package. The feature will be "branded entertainment...fuled by Twitter data with insights about movies and stars that users are abuzz about." Read more

LinkedIn is now letting users block other users. Don't care for the pitches you keep getting? Block the user and neither of you will have access to the other's profiles. Read more

Think creatively

Similarly, Saks Fifth Avenue is turning to Vine to offer up six-second beauty tutorials. Read more

While most marketers are still shaking their heads at the $19 billion price tag Facebook paid for WhatsApp, some are examining how to tap the OTT mobile messaging app for business. One key answer: Direct, one-to-one engagement with customers, especially around customer service and support. Read more

Coca-Cola's Journey website -- one of the more intriguing content marketing plays from a big company -- is launching "The Opener," a section made up of material from third-party bloggers, photographers and "other creative publishers." For now, the content will focus on food, culture and innovation. Think LinkedIn influencers. Read more

Slate, already an enthusiastic producer of original podcasts, is introducing a daily drive-time podcast to compete with radio. The new show is configured to capture "the best possible audience." Read more

CF Frost is the name you see on credit cards used in American Express advertising. The name is that of a 1960s-era adman, but the fictitious character from commercials is now leaving images of his experiences for the curious to follow on Instagram. Read more

Trends

I'm not convinced this is a good trend, but marketers are trolling customers. Does it really count as a PR stunt to pretend to use questionable judgment just to get attention? Read more.

What can you do with "big data?" You can identify trends that you can then turn into a new approach to reaching customers. For instance, new data reveals that mothers and daughters follow the same retailers on social media -- and they do it together -- and retailers are responding with campaigns encouraging them to shop together. Read more

Marketing with surveys and studies is nothing new. HR consulting firms are among those who have been issuing research results in order to get press for decades. Does the practice fit into a content marketing strategy? You bet, according to TopRank. "The ability to attract substantial citations, social shares and attention is a very powerful capability for agencies and corporate marketing marketing departments to have right now." Read more

Research

A study from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology finds that letting workers take breaks to tweet or check Facebook "may positively influence their perceived well-being at the end of the workday." Read more

Fear-based marketing could be on the way. A study shows when you're alone and afraid (like when you're watching a scary movie), you not only remember the brands around you more, you develop an increased emotional attachment to them. Read more

The social media messages we share get shorter when we share during major events, like awards programs and sporting events. During periods of lower activity, tweets run 70-120 characters, but when the number of tweets we send during an event increases, the length of eah tweet drops to about 25 characters. Read more

Non-profits and trade associations favor Facebook -- by a lot -- as their preferred social media channel. Eighty-two percent leverage Facebook, versus 54% for Twitter, 49% for LinkedIn, and 42% for YouTube. Read more

• I'm conducting a webinar in April for PeopleFluent. Details to come.
• I'll be on the program at IABC's Global Intranet Forum on March 6 and 7 in Los Angeles. Get details and register here.
• On April 2, I'll do two sessions at the Ragan Communications conference at Walt Disney World.
• I return to Sao Paulo, Brazil, in August for three days of teaching at the national communications association, ABERJE.
• In October, I'm off to Warsaw, Poland to speak at an internal communication conference.

It's time to audit your internal communications

HC+T provides a full range of services for large organizations, from speaking and training to communication audits and strategic plan development.

Visit us at Holtz.com.