In this short midweek episode, Neville and Shel dive into PRWeek's "The Evolution of Influence" report, exploring the dynamic shifts in how public relations professionals exert influence in today's fast-changing landscape. We break down the seven key themes revealed by the survey, including the growing challenges of decentralization, the increasing importance of AI in PR, and the ever-present threat of fake news and deepfakes. Join us as we unpack these insights and discuss how communicators can stay ahead of the curve in maintaining consumer trust, authenticity, and influence in a digital-first world.
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Much of the content in this monthly long-form episode of FIR spotlights rising trends in marketing, including employee influencers, Gen Z's rising power as influencers, the role of influencers in the 2024 U.S. presidential election, and AI's growing presence in the marketing space. All of this is raising alarms about the need for marketers to be transparent and laser-focused on what matters to their stakeholders. Also in this episode: the dominance of chat podcasts and Dan York's Tech Report.
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The post FIR #430: Influencers, Memes, and AI Boost Marketing Transparency Mandate appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.

Debunkbot was designed to talk people out of their beliefs in conspiracy theories -- and it works. To discuss this remarkable chatbot, we turned to PDF2Audio, a tool that creates an audio podcast discussion (or summary or lecture) from any uploaded PDF. It's not Google's NotebookLM, which features a similar capability within a more robust note-keeping tool, nor does it replicate the easy-going, conversational flow that Notebook LM delivers. It does, however, offer multiple voices, avoiding the sameness of NotebookLM's outputs. Both tools -- though jaw-dropping -- have flaws, but given that the technology is just months old, it's not hard to imagine what the technology will be capable of in the next few years.
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The post FIR #429: Fake Podcasters Discuss Real Debunkbot appeared first on FIR Podcast Network.