Tag Archives: tech stack

The Scoop from Sree on Good Talks, Listening and Journalistic Integrity

May 28, 2020business, Episodes, Uncategorizedb2b, branding, business, Calvin and Hobbes, CNBC, coronavirus, COVID-19, Digital Media, E.B. Moss, Facebook, insider interviews, livestreaming, marketing, media, Metropolitan Museum, mossappeal, New York Times, NY Times, podcasting, podcasts, radio, Readalong, Roopa, social media, Sree, Sree Sreenivasn, Stonybrook, tech stack, zoomE.B. Moss

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 34:03 — 46.8MB) | Embed

As we crave connection during these isolating times, Sree Sreenivasan has stepped up to bring people around the world together, sometimes several times a day. While almost 80 straight days in a row of recording his Global COVID-19 show drove his family to furlough him from his own home during livestreaming hours, this social and digital media expert, known by many as “@Sree”, has an expanded family of connections that faithfully gather round for a dose of positivity.

And every Sunday, they tune-in again for his New York Times “readalong,” now five years running, with his own scintillating and scholarly guests perusing the paper and op-eds alongside him. So, that’s 80 days in a row and literally twice on Sunday. Did I mention his 21 years of conducting Social Media Weekend gatherings to educate on the latest tools and tactics? How about his frequent appearances on radio, or CNBC as a tech-expert?

Hear why this the former chief digital officer for The Metropolitan Museum of Art is now focused on the art of generous content both altruistically and, candidly, as a business development vehicle for his digital marketing and virtual event business. Less generous, perhaps, in his opinion of social ISSUES, Sree’s stories – from adjusting to new countries and his quirky love of comic strip Calvin and Hobbes to how he adopted new communication tactics to connect people through every crisis of the past two decades – are equally passionate. The throughline is also his ardent belief in journalistic integrity, veracity and humanism.

We joke about how his livestreams and social sharing are the perfect outlet for a man who likes to talk, but with Sree, people want to listen. He’s learned the art of that, too.

Listen to the inaugural Marshall Loeb visiting professor at Stonybrook University, and former Columbia University journalism professor, Sree Sreenivasan, and you’ll hear why.

We also discuss:

His humble and sometimes humiliating path to acculturating to America
The evolution and promise of his Global COVID-19 Show
How reading the New York Times out loud on Facebook Live become bigger than he could have imagined
How he competes with – or defers to his wife, Roopa
How that love for Calvin and Hobbes has played a role in his life

The Scoop On Growing Brand and Work Relationships…Even From Home

April 8, 2020Episodesbranding, business, collaboration, COVID-19, E.B. Moss, Erica Keswin, humanity, insider interviews, Keswin, Lyft, marketing, mossappeal, Notch, remote work, tech stack, Warby Parker, WFHE.B. Moss

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:02 — 20.6MB) | Embed

Ironically, at a time when we cannot physically touch, adding a human touch is more essential than ever — especially at work, even while we WFH. I turned to Erica Keswin, a “workplace strategist,” bestselling author and advisor to major companies aiming to improve performance by improving relationships.

There are plenty of tech stack suggestions for working from home, but once the software or the scanners are set up, how do we tackle the human side of remote work now and pivot in how we communicate?

Zooming in on Workplace Strategies with Erica Keswin and E.B. Moss

As a deeper dive to her recent webinar with The Female Quotient on some of the tenets of her last book, Bring Your Human to Work, Keswin shared more suggestions that companies can bank on. While her advice spans all industries, frankly everything a brand marketer does in today’s COVID-19 environment has to be run through the lens of humanity.

The following time codes are points in the podcast of particular interest:

(2:30) “The definition of being human means honoring relationships — with colleagues, your boss, the people that work for you, your customers.”
(4:30) The impact of technology on our relationships – good and bad: “When ‘left to our own devices’ we’re not connecting”.
(7:55) Why bringing your human to work helps employee attraction and customer retention
(8:30) Why communicating a brand’s values has to “get off the walls and into the halls”; in other words, from a framed set of platitudes to a select set of three or four values that are reflected by all it does and guideposts for marketing decisions.
(10:05) The imperative of speaking in a human voice across all mediums of communication and why defaulting to the technological end of the spectrum are not best practices during socially distanced times.
(12:00) How to start: tap all employees — and even companies — to gauge if values are resonating
(15:20) Why even with the ability to connect these days through Zooms or Teams, it’s still best practices to “mind your meetings” and not be beholden to “business as usual” for the sake of having a meeting.
(16:30) A refresher on the “three Ps”: purpose, presence and protocols.
(18:25) Finally, Keswin, who will detail this is a forthcoming book, explains why a company needs to have rituals – like a “corporate habit” with a higher level of meaning — which employees can count on.

The Scoop from Shelly Palmer on WFH Tech and Keeping Connected

April 1, 2020Episodesb2b, business, CNN, collaboration, coronavirus, COVID-19, E.B. Moss, Google Suite, insider interviews, LinkedIn, marketing, PGX, podcasting, podcasts, Ross Martin, shelly palmer, tech, tech stack, voice, westwood one, WFH, zoomE.B. Moss

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 42:12 — 38.6MB) | Embed

One of the smarter ideas I’ve had recently was to invite the even smarter Shelly Palmer to guest on this episode of the Insider Interviews podcast. I had an ulterior motive: I’d been challenged by my work-from-home (WFH) tech set up and he is the go-to guy for keeping us all on point.

Palmer, of CNN, CNBC, Fox 5 NY contributor fame, advises companies on their “digital transformation” and was also a LinkedIn Top Voice in Technology. And I needed help. Our conversation went from scientific explanations to fun anecdotes about his own podcast on the Westwood One network, Think About This with Shelly Palmer and Ross Martin, to the topic of his most recent interactive online chat, hosted on his new tech-focused social network, PGX: what a post-Corona Virus society might look like. Palmer is not shy about airing strong opinions without much prompting.

You’ll hear thoughts, recommendations and advice on:

On Choosing One Tech Tool Over Another: (“In some cases, it’s just personal preference. In others it has to do technologically with where you are and what you’re trying to do.” He uses Zoom for meet-ups with 150 or so attendees and Webinar Jam for one-to-many.)

On Adapting to Technology: (“People have been accepting of technical glitches that they never would have before… like when smartphones [drove] vertical video. It’s been fascinating to see how fast people are willing to adopt bad lighting, camera angles, and bad hair. It’s fantastic because the most important thing is that we figure out how to be social animals in a time when COVID-19 is forcing us to be less social.”

On Using A Personal Tech Stack More Personally: (“If you’re working for a bigger corporation, they’ll likely dictate the VPN and office suite you’re going to use. [A good choice] for small collaborative companies is Google Suite and have Slack running to interact with clients without having to send email. But a lot of clients are using Microsoft Teams. But when you’re working totally by yourself right now, the most important thing you can do, I think, is send an email or a text message to everybody you know in the world — and find out how they’re doing.”)

On AI (replacing for journalists?!), and “Truthiness” in media, and if we will continue to Zoom like crazy?: That you’ll have to listen to the podcast for. Bonus: you’ll learn which recording platform I picked too.

And visit shellypalmer.com for his very robust list of resources for your own WFH tech set up. Whether or not it involves a podcast.