Tag Archives: Social Media Gurus

Caveat Twittor

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.

“Say that again,” Bill asked. “He suggested what?” Continue reading

PRBC’s Social Media Guru On Kenneth Cole’s Twitter Fiasco

Kenneth Cole could really use my social media guru skills!

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?

Twitterized in Tacoma

Dear Twitterized in Tacoma: Continue reading

Blippy’s #EpicFail Demonstrates Importance of Public Relations

Credit card cut into mulitple pieces beside scissors, close-upDid you see the big social media news that broke Friday afternoon? Probably best to read up about how location-sharing site Blippy, which allows users to broadcast to their friends any and all of their credit card purchases, somehow managed to allow four users’ credit card numbers to slip through a public Google search.

This whole Blippy incident is an unbelievably epic fail, and frankly, not a good sign for the emerging, yet at times, controversial, location-sharing industry.

Here’s the explanation Blippy gave on its blog (from WSJ.com):

In a post on its blog, Blippy said the problem was “a lot less bad than it looks.” “While we take this very seriously and it is a headache for those involved (to whom we apologize and are contacting), it’s important to remember that you’re never responsible if someone uses your credit card without your permission,” the company wrote. Continue reading