Web of Lies: Astroturfing Threatens The PR Business Astroturfing is like the underbelly of the PR business – large, hidden, and when it pops out, really ugly. A decade ago, that kind of  fake grassroots campaigning was at the edge of public relations, and it happened primarily in politics. Today, the rise of social media has put a new spin on astroturfing, with faux reviews posted all over the Web. And, it’s more closely associated with what many of us in PR do on a daily basis That’s why the recent settlement between the FTC and Reverb, the PR firm caught trying to game iTunes ratings with revi... Read More

Broken Embargoes: Is the End of the Embargo in Sight? This week there have been two high-profile media embargos broken causing a firestorm of tweets and finger pointing. The two embargoes included the launch of Gmail’s Priority Inbox feature and Autodesk’s announcement that it will bring AutoCAD to the Mac platform. With the rise of social media and the 24/7 news cycle, it seems the terms of embargoes are more frequently broken, leaving reporters frustrated and jeopardizing relationships between PR folks and the media. Last night, in response to the broken embargoes this week, founder of GigaOM, O... Read More

Thoughts on BlogHer for tech public relations and marketers In addition to the three exhibit floors filled with more than 125 corporate sponsors, a fair share of brands and companies were represented by public relations and marketing pros attending BlogHer this month.I know, because I was one of them. I first signed up for BlogHer to represent Airfoil and to extend my continuing education, an important pillar in our professional growth here.As the time for the conference came closer, some of our clients wanted to know how to connect with this powerful audience, as well, so my other goal wa... Read More

Navigating the Regulatory Highway When marketing on behalf of regulated industries (such as the healthcare companies that I spend the majority of my time focusing on), working within strict guidelines is a large part of the process - both from an external perspective (FDA, FTC, HIPPA, etc) but often internally as well.  Legal and regulatory experts work to help companies stay within safe boundaries by providing review and oversight, which can often challenge marketers who want to be cutting edge as they draw attention and appeal to their target audiences.... Read More

Driving sales with social media is still a mystery to many The results of a  new survey conducted by IBM indicate that IBM business partners expect social media to drive sales. Of course they do, right? No big news there. The keyword in that sentence, though, is "expect." They want to see the return on investment and most times they want that return to be sales, something that affects the bottom line. But can you really expect something you haven't given much thought on how to actually obtain?  Better yet, can you listen to case study after case study about Company A's success on Facebook... Read More

Why Corporate Responsibility Lives (Despite The WSJ Trying To Kill It) The Wall Street Journal prominently featured an opinion piece this week challenging Corporate Social Responsibility. The article, authored by University of Michigan business school professor Aneel Karnani, argues that it is fundamentally flawed to believe companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest. Professor Karnani takes the position that in most cases, doing whats best for society means sacrificing profits. Since he believes all business decisions should be based on maximizing profits, he warns that CSR is dangerous, and an... Read More

New York Times: "In Case of Emergency: What Not To Do" Occasionally we come across an article related to our industry that is so fascinating (to us anyway) we want to make sure to share it. An article from this past weekend's New York Times, "In Case of Emergency: What Not to Do" by Peter Goodman, is just such a piece. To use his characterization (which I love by the way), we are members of the "protective tribe known as the crisis management industry" (wonder if I can get that on a business card: Tribe member?) and rarely do we read such a spot-on piece about the realities of crisis situations, wh... Read More

A Sorry State: How To Master The Apology As every PR professional knows, an artful public apology is a staple of reputation management – just ask Toyota, BP, or Goldman Sachs. A cottage industry has been created that’s dedicated to what I call “apology PR.” But, apologizing is also a key piece of the social CRM toolkit, which communicators are rapidly learning and adopting. Nowadays, customers don’t just get mad, they get online. That’s why I was fascinated by the recent profile on the Southwest Airlines apology team. The group’s mission: to identify situations where passengers are in... Read More

Make Sure There Isn’t a Fire Drill – and Other Webinar Best Practices We've been conducting several webinars this year to teach health care nonprofits how they can use social media to further their missions. We learn something new with each webinar, so I wanted to share a few of our best practice tips to help you execute a flawless webinar. Showing your presenters on webcams helps create a more personal connection with attendees. However, test out the lighting and makeup before going live. The quality on webcams isn't great, so they can make a room look darker than it is and a presenter look washed out.... Read More

The Resurgence of Public Relations Just a little over a year ago I graduated from Washington State University with a degree in public relations. While I learned a lot about the PR world and am grateful for the opportunity, not one of my classes focused on social media. Interestingly, after a quick scan of this year’s course catalog, I still see no mention of social media. Now that I have been working at Communiqué PR for a couple of months, it is clear how important social media is in the PR and business world these days. Many of our clients are looking to integrate social media... Read More

Prepping for the FTC’s New Green Guides There’s no denying the recent growth in environmental awareness among consumers today, especially in the home and building industry. From water conserving fixtures to recyclable building materials; high-efficiency windows to low VOC finishing products, consumers everywhere are aiming to reduce their environmental impact through the use of sustainable building products and practices. Unfortunately, as the sustainable building market grows, so does the clutter of marketing claims such as green, recyclable, environmentally friendly or biodegradab... Read More

Breaking Down Silos Does Not Just Apply to Communications How often do you hear that communication silos don’t work? Quite often, right? We’ve probably read at least 10 posts on that over the last couple of years. They are right, of course, that for communications to truly be successful all parts of the engine need to be working together. Marketing needs to be talking to PR needs to be talking to customer service and so on… Without true integration, you’re a ship that’s dead in the water. Funny thing about this silo concept… it can also be applied to research.... Read More

Reminder to B2B Marketers: Social Media is NOT Spectator Sport, its Contact Sport By Priya Ramesh (@newpr) I jump-started my Monday morning helping a CRT/tanaka client with the social dilema of “to comment or not to comment” on a competitor’s blog post that calls them out openly and has received several favorable comments from third party industry experts favoring the competitor’s viewpoint. Hence the inspiration to write this post for all my B2B social media peeps. I realize B2B is a whole different beast and the rules of engagement, blog comment/response strategies are different compared to B2C social medi... Read More

The Integrated Marketing Mess What’s wrong with the integrated marketing plan?  Well according to a recent Bloomberg BusinessWeek article by Steve McKee, it’s a mess!  The once simple integrated marketing plan has become more complicated.  Not only must traditional media vehicles stay tied together, but they now need to align themselves with PR, website content, internal communications and digital.  Adding to the confusion, agencies are taking on more as they move outside their practice areas to offer additional services.  Ad agencies are offering PR services and PR firms a... Read More

Networking: It’s What You Do AFTER the Meeting! by Dayna Steele, Vollmer Community Manager As an author and a speaker, I am often called upon to talk about networking -- like there’s a big secret to how it’s done.  It’s actually quite simple.  Networking is not about getting out and meeting people. Networking is about what you do after you meet people, the follow-through and keeping in touch.Speaker, author and Help A Reporter creator Peter Shankman likes to tell the story of Paramount Pictures executive Barry Diller. Barry used to go through his Rolodex every day and call 10 different filmm... Read More

The new rules It’s no surprise that starkly reduced spending from hospitals and healthcare providers is changing the game for those that market to them. What’s less clear is what to do about it. Some companies are accelerating their push into digital marketing. Others are experimenting with social media. And others are revamping their brochures with messaging to fit the current environment. While adjustments like these have the potential to improve marketing effectiveness, if they’re not undertaken as part of a more fundamental shift in strategy they may be... Read More

Taking the Plunge into B2B Social Media In my 7+ years working with professional services firms and B2B brands, I’ve experienced first-hand, the conservative nature of these companies and their marketing practices. So imagine my surprise in 2009, when these generally risk-averse companies began flooding my inbox with requests for counsel on the implementation of social media programs. B2B marketers, long considered by some to be two-steps behind their B2C counterparts, are beginning to dip their toes in the unfamiliar waters of social media, as they quickly realize how they can pinp... Read More

Managing product recall risk: consumers Following on from last week’s post featuring Zurich’s online product recall risk management game, we thought (based on some fairly shirty feedback from an individual with a disappointingly low score) that we’d provide some additional information that may be helpful. There are five stages in the game, which correspond with stages in the manufacturing-consumption process, each with a series of risks that you need to categorise. The different stages are: Manufacturing, Packaging, Distribution, Retail and Consumer.... Read More

It’s Time to Retire ‘Cyberchondriacs’ Earlier this month, the Harris Poll announced the results from its annual poll of online health behavior, which dates back more than a decade, to 1998. Also dated is the term Harris helped introduce in 1998: “cyberchondriac.” This year’s survey results were published under the headline “Cyberchondriacs on the Rise?” Whatever the results of the new poll tell us, there is one point that comes through clearly: it is time to retire the phrase “cyberchondriac.” There are three good reasons why we should never be subjected to that term again: 1.... Read More

Risk Management Driving Reputation Interest Korn/Ferry just released some new research among executives and board members worldwide. Risk management is clearly a topic du jour among the executive class. The survey found that nearly six in 10 (57%) are spending more time and attention on risk management. In light of the rolling crises that seem to be playing out in the media over the past eight months, it pays to be prepared and know what’s on the horizon. In our business at Weber Shandwick, crisis response and crisis preparedness seems to be on the upswing, thereby highlighting top execs... Read More