A faulty software update caused the biggest IT outage in history, affecting everything from commercial airline flights to hospitals. The crisis communication demands on CrowdStrike were enormous. How well did the company acquit itself? Neville and Shel look at the company’s response and share what some crisis experts have said. Also in this episode, there’s increased reporting on the strike between journalists and media relations professionals. People are still searching on Google, but they are not clicking on any of the results, creating headaches for websites that need visitors to survive. Ogilvy has introduced a service to deal with rogue influencers. A newsletter has made its way into the fediverse as social networks like Threads continue to expand their fediverse presence. NATO is taking its case to the public in a novel format: a graphic novel. In his tech report, Dan York shares his thoughts on the U.S. Supreme Court decision dealing with content moderation and why it’s important for communicators, the release of WordPress 6.6, and the CrowdStrike outage.

The next monthly, long-form episode of FIR will drop on Monday, August 26.

We host a Communicators Zoom Chat most Thursdays at 1 p.m. ET. To obtain the credentials needed to participate, contact Shel or Neville directly, request them in our Facebook group, or email fircomments@gmail.com.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

You can find the stories from which Shel’s FIR content is selected at Shel’s Link Blog. Shel has started a metaverse-focused Flipboard magazine. You can catch up with both co-hosts on Neville’s blog and Shel’s blog.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this podcast are Shel’s and Neville’s and do not reflect the views of their employers and/or clients.

Links from this episode:

• Mark Borkowski on the journalist-PR rift (LinkedIn)
• ‘So many damn follow-ups’ – journalist Jay Rayner slates ‘unfocused’ PR outreach
• By the Numbers: What journalists really think of your pitches – PR Daily
• Beyond the battlefield: rethinking the journalist-PR dynamic in modern media
• 2024 State of the Media Report | Cision
• Key Crisis Communication Learnings from CrowdStrike Falcon Disruption
• CrowdStrike backlash over $10 apology voucher for IT chaos
• 1 big thing: CrowdStrike strikes out on comms
• Louis Corriero CrowdStrike Commentary on LinkedIn
• Microsoft blames EU rules for allowing world’s biggest IT outage to happen
• Could international standards have prevented the CrowdStrike incident?
• CrowdStrike offers a $10 apology gift card to say sorry for outage
• From CrowdStrike: To Our Customers and Partners
• Neville’s Post on CrowdStrike Crisis Lessons
• 2024 Zero-Click Search Study: For every 1,000 EU Google Searches, only 374 clicks go to the Open Web. In the US, it’s 360
• Ogilvy launches service to deal with rogue influencers
• Michelle Garrett (@prwritergal) on Rogue Influencers on Threads
• Rob Cottingham (@robcottingham) on Rogue Influencers on Threads
• The dark arts social media influencers are using to get your likes
• Meta is connecting Threads more deeply with the fediverse
• Threads adds more fediverse features but its integration faces headwinds
• Substack rival Ghost federates its first newsletter
• Mastodon debuts feature highlighting journalists on the fediverse
• Fediverse Explained by Common Craft (VIDEO)
• NATO 2099 graphic novel imagines the future of the Alliance
• NATO 2099
• NATO 2099 Press Release

Links from Dan York’s Report:

• US Supreme Court Upholds Right of Websites to Moderate Content  – Internet Society
• Global Tech Outage Demonstrates Need for Resiliency in Software Systems – Internet Society
• WordPress 6.6
• Falcon Content Update Remediation and Guidance Hub | CrowdStrike

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