Earlier in his career, William Murray, my boss at PRSA, spent 20 years working under Jack Valenti as the COO of the Motion Picture Association of America. Along the way, he learned a little bit about what goes into the production of the Academy Awards, and he always has entertaining stories to share.
(Full disclosure: Keith Trivitt, a founding PRBC blogger, also works for PRSA.)
So Bill was a bit puzzled when I asked if he had seen the Tweet sent on Oscar night by Richard Robbins, AT&T’s director of social innovation. In it, Robbins suggested that the producers of live broadcasts put contingency plans in place for making mid-production changes when the social media buzz turns ugly, as it did in the case of this year’s Oscars.
Today on PRBC, we launch a new series called “Ask the Overpriced Social Media Guru, “where self-professed social media experts will weigh in periodically with advice about hot-button PR, marketing and social media issues. We hope to charge $500 per hour for your reading time with this new service …”
Dear Overpriced Social Media Guru:
What does last week’s disastrous tweet from Kenneth Cole portend for the future of social media use by companies and executives? Will they ever learn the mistakes of their colleagues?
In this age of social media, there are a few situations that every PR pro prays will never happen to them. One of the most dreaded inquiries that one can get from a client is:
“I was at a networking event the other night and I met a social media consultant. She said that we should really be on Twitter and that she would give us a session on using it for $2,000. Why haven’t you built us a Twitter page yet?” (Ok, so that’s probably second to “I want a viral video… you know, like the inmates performing Thriller.”) Continue reading →