Episodes

There’s a lot of corporate rubbish spoken in and around the PR industry. From over-elaborate brand statements and communications jargon to pseudo-propitious CSR initiatives. Companies and brands hide behind walls of carefully constructed marketing initiatives that present a polished veneer instead of what really goes on inside those organisations. But what if we remove that veneer? In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to John Brown, founder of Don’t Cry Wolf, about honesty. We...

B2B influencer marketing is a discipline that, far from being in its infancy, has not reached the maturity of the consumer sector. While the latter is plagued with Instagram and YouTube ‘stars’ who flog their supposed influence to the highest bidder, the B2B sector is relatively untouched. Many communications professionals are unsure of how to best utilise B2B influencers and of what the differences in approach are to the consumer sector. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk t...

This episode of the Digital Download podcast was recorded live at Digital Download Live 2018. The event presented a challenging set of developments for the communications industry that necessitate ensuring you are up-to-speed with technological change, namely fake news, a potential crash in influencer marketing, the decline of content visibility and the threat of artificial intelligence. In today’s show, some of those attending Digital Download Live 2018 discuss what they heard at the event and ...

Instagram is arguably the most creative of all of the social media channels, and yet so many brands, companies and marketers struggle with how to utilise it. While many corporate accounts are dull and predictable, there are individuals using Instagram to build their personal brands in highly creative ways, and it is from these examples that inspiration can be taken. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to Bronte Huskinson about her phenomenal rise from 3000 to 42,000 Instagram...

Public relations has had issues with measuring return on investment for, arguably, the entirety of its life. Competitive disciplines such as digital marketing, advertising and SEO have mopped up business for little other reason than PR has struggled to prove its worth. A new methodology, however, promises to guide PR professionals towards a process that demonstrates its value once and for all. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to Iliyana Stareva, Global Partner Program Mana...

The CIPR’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) panel has published new research revealing the impact of AI on public relations and communications practice. It highlights where AI is already impacting skills, predicts the impact on the profession in the next five years and makes interesting and, depending on your perspective, challenging reading for anyone working in communications. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to past President of the CIPR Stephen Waddington, who is leading ...

Podcasting has undergone a massive resurgence in popularity over the last couple of years, and the boom shows no signs whatsoever of slowing down. In fact, with Google entering the fray listening could as much as double in the next two to three years. Communications professionals, however, seem to be reluctant to embrace podcasts as a medium perhaps due to unfamiliarity with the technology and processes. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to MD of Brighter Comms and self-co...

Personal branding is a term that few people like, but that many people understand the huge value of. We all have a personal brand, whether or not we like it or whether we understand what it is. In the first episode in Season Two of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to blogger, podcaster, speaker and author Mark Schaefer about his new book ‘Known’ and ask the question: is it really possible for anyone to become known? And if so, how? Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode: Why you can sta...

In early March I wrote a blog post entitled ‘The Four Horsemen of the PR-pocalypse’. It outlined four key threats to the public relations industry, each of which represents a threat but in combination could quite possibly wipe out large swathes of agencies, freelancers and in-house communications practitioners. It created quite a stir within the industry. This is the final show in Season One of the Digital Download podcast, and to round off the Season, founder of virtual PR agency Aby Hawker gr...

You know how sometimes you read the latest thoughts of a social media guru and get swept away by the wisdom they impart? You know how sometimes you can read two contradictory articles and be convinced by both of them? There’s a lot of rubbish out there in the world of digital communications. In this straight-talking episode of the Digital Download podcast I chat to Danny Brown, a marketer with 20 years’ experience and formerly rated as one of the world’s most important marketing bloggers. I say...

We’ve all got mobile phones with 8 or even 16 megapixel cameras on them. And we all know that imagery is vital when it comes to social media marketing. Which means we have the ability to fill our Instagram profiles without having to go anywhere near a costly professional photographer. Doesn’t it? In this episode of the Digital Download podcast I talk to Andy Sutton, a commercial photographer with 15 years’ experience of product and lifestyle photography about how social media photography has ev...

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has caused much confusion within the communications industry around the responsibilities of different parties and who needs to do what in order to comply. Very few seem to have any clarity and, rather like the movie franchise, it’s all a bit fifty shades of grey. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to founder of KC Communications Katrina Cliffe about the core areas of GDPR that PR and communications professionals need to understa...

Internal communications is an area of public relations that often gets missed when digital technology is discussed, largely because the likes of Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are all external-facing. But innovation in IC is arguably greater than outward-facing communications channels, with the likes of Office 365, Facebook Workplace, Yammer and Slack providing internal communicators with a plethora of platforms to choose from. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to Rachel M...

Contemporary PR and communications professionals face a challenging but exciting time. The explosion of digital technology, questions over ethical practice, the data revolution and the evolution of both internal and external facing digital platforms has prompted as many questions as it has provided answers. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I seek to answer some of those questions with Deirdre Breakenridge, author of the unique new book ‘Answers for Modern Communicators’. Describ...

Website design is normally overlooked by communications professionals as ‘the thing that the geeks do’. But if we want our campaigns to fly in an increasingly digital and mobile world, we have to understand some of the basics of website development and web browsers. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to veteran website developer Richard Shea about how website design has changed over the last few years and what communications professionals now need to be aware of in order to...

Barely a week goes by without one company or another attracting the ire of the mob on Twitter and Facebook. Brand trolling seems to have become an acceptable way to behave, causing no end of problems for the unwary and ill-prepared. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to Tamara Littleton, CEO of both The Social Element and crisis simulation platform Polpeo, about the rise of brand trolling and how companies can best deal with and prepare for a social media crisis. Here’s wh...

2018 has been labelled by some as ‘the year of the smart home’. Driven by the adoption of Google Home and Amazon Echo, voice recognition promises to transform not only the way we interact with the internet of things but also the way we use the internet itself. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to co-founders of marketing communications agency Threepipe, Jim Hawker and Tony Thomas, about how the communications industry has to adapt to this technology and about how brands th...

When the White Moose Cafe published a scathing review of vlogger Elle Darby’s request for a free five night stay in return for a positive YouTube review, the ensuing storm captured the attention of the world’s media. There are strong arguments to be made on both sides about what does and does not make someone ‘influential’. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, one of the UK’s leading parental influencers Emily Leary and I dissect what went wrong in this very public spat, and we disc...

Public relations had a turbulent year in 2017. With a perceived lack of self-confidence and new technologies such as artificial intelligence, messaging bots and voice recognition looming on the horizon, the industry faces a potentially defining 12 months ahead. In this episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to 2018 CIPR President and author of #FuturePRoof Sarah Hall about the way the public relations industry is developing and some of the big opportunities and threats if faces in the ...

To stay ahead of the game in digital media, you have to be informed about what technological and best practice trends are developing. You can only prepare for what you know. In the first ever episode of the Digital Download podcast, I talk to leading PR blogger and author of Spin Sucks and Marketing in the Round Gini Dietrich about what communications professionals need to get to grips with over the next 12 months. Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode: Why you have to start paying attenti...