Companies screw up. Intentionally or not, they at one point do something wrong. That’s easy to understand, as they are opperated by human beings who are extremely prone to error. After they screw up, they do damage control: try to fix the issue and engage in crisis communications. This damage control PR campaign might go either way: it may help present the company in question as human, but trying to fix everything quickly and make amends for their mistake; or it may end up portraying a greedy, careless entity that makes matters worse by improperly handling the crisis they have created.

Once the issue is solved, the press stops buzzing about the error and its consequences, there is no guarantee the company won’t screw up again. The downside is that this strike two will bring to mind the initial booboo they are known for. Doing damage control for this second PR crisis is ten times harder, especially if it’s close enough to the first incident.  Continue reading

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When it comes to social media, a lot of things don’t happen simply because people are afraid to ask for them. You don’t get enough stumbles or tweets or shares on Facebook, your questions go unanswered, and you think it is because people don’t like you or your content enough. The truth is that people might just not see a certain tweet or blog post from you. Most of us follow several blogs and accounts and have our own work to worry about. As much as we try, we miss out on a lot of important things in this information overloaded virtual world of ours.

If it’s something important that you would like to share with the world, why not ask your community for help? If they follow you, that’s because they find what you have to say interesting. They have retweeted and shared your thoughts before, so why not ask them to do it again?  Continue reading

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I have recently ran across some articles about the cost of press releases. While the authors were throwing numbers and averages, no one took the time to also explain what you actually pay for. A press release costs X amount is a limited way of putting it. What does that price refer to in the end? Here are a few things you should consider when analyzing the price of a press release:

You pay for press release writing

The actual press release has to be written by someone. Unless you already have the text, you pay for the service of having a public relations professional writing it for you. Or editing and rewriting it if you have a rough draft of what you want to say. Continue reading

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Guest post by Alexis Bonari

The Fed says we’re in recovery, but there’s no doubt in my mind that there continues to be a great amount of uncertainty about the economy. Looking at various economic indicators like gold futures, gun sales, and home security systems definitely supports this theory. People feel threatened and insecure, and that fear shows up in their spending habits. These are serious considerations marketers need to take into account in order to prosper under these dire circumstances.

We’ve all seen advertising campaigns based in fear, and as much as we may dislike these techniques, they do tend to work. Given the length of time that our current economic troubles have been going on, an increase in consumer awareness, target demographics, and media fatigue this base strategy will not be profitable for every market. A good marketer knows how to make the best of every situation, and what follows is some advice for how to successfully approach these stagnant markets. Continue reading

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There are moments when a certain story simply takes over the world. Or a country, or a city or a small town. The scale really does not matter, the effect is the same: every media outlet will cover that major event. It’s a journalistic rule you learn in the first year of journalism school. If something is really big, it takes over and becomes the most important piece of news, regardless of anything else.

Such events are the royal wedding we’ve just had, big elections, the earthquake in Japan, or Osama being killed. For a longer or shorter stretch of time, they have the spotlight and no one can compete. And it’s not just lifestyle magazines or political newspapers that cover them! Tech blogs and magazines will talk about the Twitter user who live tweeted the attack on Osama, financial newspapers will analyze the cost of the royal wedding or analyze the impact on foreign markets a natural disaster has. Travel outlets will talk about the travelers taking over London or the travel warnings issued after the Osama bin Laden death.  Continue reading

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