Corporate Disclosure Takes a Hit with Goldman-Facebook Deal

January 25, 2011 Keith Trivitt 3 Comments

The headline in The Wall Street Journal said it all: “Facebook Flip Riles Goldman Clients” A more apt headline, though, would have been: “Facebook Flop Exposes Goldman Disclosure Issues.”

Harsh? A bit, perhaps. But in reality, it’s likely closer to truth than fiction. For if anything over the past two weeks has shown us, let alone the past two years, it is that some large corporations continue to struggle with the modern standards of corporate disclosure and transparency, even with their own clients.

To be fair, Goldman has made a number of well-publicized attempts in recent months to thoroughly review its client services and its level of transparency with the public and government regulators. Just last week, the company unveiled a 63-page report that examined its business practices. Included in this report was a 39-point plan of action for ensuring ethical standards and best practices are utilized throughout its business. Continue reading →

Nathan "PRCog" Burgess

A Conversation Economy

January 21, 2011 Rachel Wells 8 Comments

In the olden days, public relations was a one-way channel where communication professionals would share information while the public and media would consume it. The channels of engagement were tightly defined and controlled by brands and brand mouthpieces. If X brand wanted it so, well darn-it, X brand got it like so. Suffice it to say, since then, times have changed, the industry has evolved, and the consumer got smarter.

Audiences that were once spoken to are now Continue reading →

CTMichaels

If You Don’t Have Something Nice To Say…

January 20, 2011 CT Michaels 7 Comments

As many of you know, I speak my mind, sometimes without censorship, but I speak it. Whether it is an attack on someone, talking about bodily functions, making fun of public figures, whatever, sometimes I have diarrhea of the mouth. It’s a blessing and a curse I guess, but I am learning to calm it down a bit. (I guess old age is setting in…)

I say it how I see it, regardless of what it is, and regardless of who is around me. Sometimes that gets me in trouble, sometimes it doesn’t, but it always sparks a conversation, which is the point 99% of the time.

In the generation that we are currently living in, with Internet and blogs at our fingertips, sparking a conversation is easy. There are a plethora of people out there that probably feel the same way that you do or completely disagree, which is awesome. There are some posts on this blog that have sparked conversations for days and it’s amazing and only helps us all grow. Continue reading →

Tina McCormack Beaty

Do You Have A Groupon Strategy In Your Communications Plan Yet?

January 19, 2011 Tina McCormack Beaty 15 Comments

Get a table of friends together and it’s likely that most of them have tried Groupon at least once. And if you’re in my circle of friends, it’s a near guarantee that at least one of those friends is addicted to a group-buying website- Groupon or otherwise. That was definitely the case recently, when a friendly conversation turned into story after story about the lure of huge discounts, and how those discounts seem to so effectively blur the line between a want and a need. There are a few companies that we hear about a lot – Groupon, Living Social, Capital Dish – as well as so many others who offer strikingly similar good deals and fun bargains, but not so similar levels of service. It seems everyone has a bad story to recount about the experiences in redeeming something purchased from a group-buying site.

And it’s not just the buyers complaining. The stories on the seller side of the group-buying transaction are often the same. I talked with the owner of a spa recently who confessed that she doesn’t get repeat business from these sites and from an owner in the food industry who remarked that he doesn’t think these “discount seekers” will become his main customers. Continue reading →

Jeff Esposito

Flack Wanted – Department of Winter

January 18, 2011 Jeff Esposito 5 Comments

Over the past few months, you may have noticed that the weather outside has become increasingly colder. While it might seem alarming, it is actually one of the year’s four seasons, albeit one that comes with some detractors.

Unfortunately, the season has been hit by a lot of bad press lately and has not done a great job marketing or branding itself. For every great story, ad or video on a ski resort or some outdoor hockey game, there are three or four negative mentions. These range from a NYC plowing fiasco to newscasts reporting accidents and the Twitteratti claiming the end of humanity as we know it with hashtags for #Snopacolypse, #snoloko or #snowmaggedeon.

Reading the paper during the latest storm in the Boston area, I came across an interesting job listing for a PR person in the Department of Winter that read: Continue reading →

Eric Berto

Unicorn Metrics

January 14, 2011 Eric Berto 12 Comments

Caution: I am not a Social Media “Expert,” “guru,” “ninja” or “shaman.”

When we counsel our clients about what metrics are important for measuring a successful communications campaign, we often lob oral grenades such as engagement, influence and interactions. These kinds of metrics make you feel great.

But they don’t really exist. They have the possibility to exist and some folks have come close to making them a reality, but for the most part, these metrics are figments of our social media dashboard’s imagination. They’re Unicorn Metrics. Continue reading →

Rebecca Denison

How to: Keep Your PR Measurement Resolutions

January 13, 2011 Rebecca Denison 1 Comment

It’s that time of year. Everyone is making New Year’s resolutions, and if you’re like most other PR or marketing professionals, measurement is on your list initiatives for the year ahead. If not, it’s likely that you want to continually improve and be able to make a greater impact with the same budget, for example. And if you’re like most other people in this world, you’ll probably lose some (or all) of your motivation as the year goes on.

One of the most important ways to ensure proper measurement is to set benchmarks. It’s hard to measure if you have “moved the needle” or made an impact if you don’t know where you started.

The tricky part about using benchmarks to measure, though, is that you have to measure or set the benchmarks in the first place. And as new clients and campaigns emerge throughout the year, sometimes setting the proper benchmarks gets lost in the shuffle. Below are a few tips to ensure measurement will be a part of your New Year. Continue reading →

Mike Schaffer

Fixing the Toxic Talk PRoblem

January 12, 2011 Mike Schaffer 4 Comments

I am not what you would call a “politico.” The closest I come to being a political junkie is staying up late to watch election returns.

However, I do live and work in Washington, DC, where it is impossible to NOT get pulled into the machine from time to time.

Over the course of my career, I’ve dabbled in a few political events. I’ve met politicians from “my” persuasion that I didn’t enjoy spending time with and had terrific encounters with officials from the “other team.”

I’ve spent the majority of my career in sports, where there is a clear winner and a loser. (We won’t get into the head-scratching NFL overtime rules here.) Continue reading →

Shelly Kramer

Etsy – The Latest Brand to Disappoint

January 11, 2011 Shelly Kramer 88 Comments

Etsy, the online marketplace self-described as “Your place to buy and sell all things handmade, vintage and supplies,” is the latest brand to suffer a full on image meltdown. And, like BP, Tiger Woods and Toyota before them, they’re also the latest brand to resolutely stick its head in the sand as a way of dealing with PR crisis and the resultant public outcry.

A friend alerted me late last week to the fact that Etsy was allowing a vendor to sell some very offensive greeting cards and shared Change.org’s petition requesting Etsy remove the cards–to date supported by almost 16,000 signatures. This friend has a daughter with Down Syndrome and was especially horrified by a card like the one in the image above.

Let me back up and say that I’ve been a huge Etsy fan and supporter for a long time now. I love dealing with craftsman and artisans and have patronized Etsy vendors for years, buying things like hair bows, laptop sleeves, jewelry, reusable snack bags and mesh produce bags and a myriad of other handmade things. And I’ve often preferred to go to Etsy for the things I’m looking for rather than eBay because the community they’ve created has always evoked a good feeling. A feeling of trust. I’ve felt that the people I’m buying from are people I might actually want to get to know and maybe even want to hang out with – and I certainly want to support them by buying their wares. For me, that kind of feeling is like shopping at the local specialty store versus at a big chain – and Etsy did it for me. Continue reading →

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