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Over the last year, chatter between brands and agencies continues to circle around the top of the defining and understanding the value of a Facebook fan.  There is no direct answer given the multiple of impacts that go into a Facebook brand strategy.  Many fans are gained through a combination of organic growth and paid acquisition – in light of GM’s announcement that it will no longer use Facebook ads, will other brands follow suit and change the conversation again on the value of a Facebook fan?  Read the rest of this entry »

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Worried! © by photoloni

For the most part, I find the PR industry’s trade publications — PRWeek, PRNewser, PRNews, etc. — to be good standard-bearers for effectively covering the ins-and-outs of this diverse and growing industry. Sure, they tend to focus too much on AOR announcements  — the old-time stock ticker-tape reports of PR — but they do the job.

So I try to do my best not to critique. Look, reporters and editors have a tough job at those publications. They are reporting on the very people — PR pros — who know how to promote a cause or a person better than anyone. So I imagine there is quite a lot of pushback and calls for fluffier fluff pieces than at your standard trade reporter’s job. Read the rest of this entry »

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All too often, we see CEOs put their foot in their mouths. Remember Netflix CEO Reed Hastings’ “apology” last year? Or how about former BP CEO Tony Hayward and his “relatively tiny” Gulf oil spill comment? These types of words cannot only stain a chief executive; it can also hurt a company. In the cases above, both Netflix and BP suffered mightily.

These types of instances are very preventable though. One of the things that are often forgotten about in our PR planning is media training. Read the rest of this entry »

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I’m old enough to remember the days of bringing a Walkman into my bed at night to try and listen to baseball. On the clearest of nights, I could hear the radio home of the Chicago Cubs, the St. Louis Cardinals, and sometimes, the Boston Red Sox from my New Jersey bedroom. However, most times, I’d have to deal with plenty of static and interference.In our social media world today, we have the same issues. While we can “hear” some of the most influential PR/social media/marketing folks, we still need to get through the “static” to actually listen. Why? Our Facebook and Twitter streams are clouded with too much noise and clutter that affects what we take in.

So, how can we better listen and engage our followers? Here are five tips to fine tune your focus on social networks. Read the rest of this entry »

I struggle with ROI in the social sphere, as I've talked about before. Google has taken a huge step forward this week in measuring the ROI of social media, as it announced the first concrete effort at valuing efforts in this arena. The three main reasons Google made this change (from the Analytics blog): Read the rest of this entry »

In my very first communications class, I was taught the first step of the writing process was to know your audience. Everyone knows that understanding your audience is important, but sometimes it doesn’t hurt to revisit the communication basics by celebrating the success of our fellow PR professionals. The success of a current campaign by the American Mustache Institute, H&R Block and Millions from One is rooted in their deep understanding of their audience. Inspired by a 2010 white paper by tax professor John Yeutter, AMI launched a humorous campaign called the “Million Mustache March.” The campaign revolves around mobilizing mustache aficionados to pressure Congress to pass the STACHE Act (Stimulus To Allow Critical Hair Expenses), a $250 tax deduction for Americans with mustaches, as they make America significantly more attractive. Read the rest of this entry »

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Do you know the history of your company? Aside from the date it was founded, do you know when the important milestones occurred? If you don’t, use the new Facebook for Timeline feature to find out!

You company has a rich history and your clients (fans in Facebook lingo) most likely don’t know about all those great things you did in the past. This is an opportunity to politely brag about your past accomplishments and reiterate to your customers that you are around for the long haul.  Read the rest of this entry »

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I’ve seen a lot of changes happen when it comes to social media and public relations – how the two fit together, and where they fit within a company’s organizational structure, has changed over the years.  A few years ago, when I was agency-side, I witnessed firsthand the struggle between creative shops, interactive agencies, and public relations agencies to win social media accounts.

Since then, social media has grown exponentially.  In that growth and wide acceptance, it’s been carved into pieces – content, software and creative.

PR pros have won the content battle.  But creative resources from an in-house designer or creative team are essential.   Today’s social networks are becoming more and more visual and without the help of a great design team, your initiatives aren’t going to be as successful.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Much has been made of Google’s unified privacy policy that went into effect last week. In my Twitter feed, I saw the usual suspects; threats of dumping all Google products, enraged people shouting about how Google is out to take over the world, you know, a whole lot of this. Perhaps these people are unaware of how commerce on the Internet works. This is always a good reminder for us as PR pros, and for our clients. The number of companies that collect your data for their own marketing purposes or for their partners is astronomical. However, let’s rundown a few of the major names to put this in perspective: Read the rest of this entry »

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In the last 24 hours I’ve happened upon two excellent examples of SM strategies and tactics.  One excellent because it’s good, one excellent in its badness.  First, the bad. Read the rest of this entry »