In case anyone missed it, on Tuesday of last week the FTC settled their eight-count complaint against Facebook alleging they “misled users about the use of their personal information.” Essentially the FTC was claiming that Facebook had knowingly made changes to their privacy settings in December of 2009 that automatically made aspects of user’s profiles public by default without their permission.
At issue is the inability for Facebook users to have control over who sees their private information (name, picture, city, gender, friends, etc.) and who doesn’t. Twitter has also been a Target of the FTC, and settled a similar case back in June of 2010 for failing to safeguard user information. Continue reading →
Another month, another college sports scandal allegedly involving a respected coach. This scenario is (unfortunately) too familiar now. An assistant coach from a prominent athletic department is accused of molesting young boys.
The latest scandal involves the Syracuse University men’s basketball team and it’s associate basketball coach, Bernie Fine. A longtime coach under hall of fame head coach Jim Boeheim, Fine is being accused by two former university ball boys. They say they were molested by Fine starting in the late 1970s and continuing into the 1990s. Continue reading →
I’ve talked about measurement’s unsolvable problem before. Attribution is quite impossible with all of the complex and untraceable connections between our offline and online lives.
That being said, there is still plenty you can do to reduce your attribution problem. While you won’t be able to give credit to each and every piece of marketing or activity that led someone to purchase your product or visit your site, you will be able to reduce a great deal of uncertainty. Continue reading →
I woke up to my parents’ frantic voices, breaking glass and the sound of an intruder’s footsteps coming from downstairs. It was 3:00 a.m. on a Monday morning and the absolute last way I thought I would begin my week.
Even as I heard my dad yell, “Get out!” and my mom warned, “Don’t you dare go downstairs,” it was still hard to comprehend what was happening in my home. I finally put it together when my mom said the land line didn’t work and we needed to call 911. As a millennial who sleeps with her phone in hand, that I could understand and take action.
My hands shook as I dialed ‘9’ and just one ‘1’ before ‘Emergency Call’ came across my phone’s screen. Within minutes, the police were in my driveway. Continue reading →
It’s still out there. The dreaded auto-dm. As long as the scourge exists we shall continue to post our “best” finds in our five-year never-ending mission to explore strange new worlds make this a better SM world… (and in case you need ’em – part I and part II). Continue reading →
When you’re beginning a new campaign, it’s important to think through and execute at least two rounds of measurement: preliminary research and results. (There is a good argument for measuring along the way to make adjustments as well, but these two should be your priority.)
Once you have set your campaign goals (remember to make ‘em SMART), dig into pre-campaign research: Continue reading →
I wrote this question in a note in my iPhone late one night last week. For those who don’t know me, I’m a bit of a nerd, and yes, these are the things I think about. Primarily, I posed this question to myself as part of my job at PRSA, which includes advocating the business value of PR. But I also ask it because I’m genuinely interested in finding the answer.
Who among my generation of PR pros — those old enough to remember Bacon’s before it became Cision but young enough that our entire careers have evolved online — will create the next great PR firm? The next Edelman or Burson-Marsteller or SHIFT Communications. The type of PR firm that comes to define a generation within the industry and advances the business of PR well beyond the status quo. Continue reading →
I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes we need to get creative in the world of PR—how can I get this person to email me back; how can I get this person to see that my idea is the best; how can I make this company look a little bit less boring. It can be tough, and in some situations creativity is absolutely the key to success. However, PR professionals are often in charge of creating press releases, helping with interviews, and creating campaigns for the eyes and the ears of the public. In other words, PR departments have the entire public analyzing their work. This led me to wonder: Can being too creative be too risky? Continue reading →