I’m in agreement with 86% of marketers - Facebook is here to stay, and is a critical tool for communicating with your audiences (although, I believe that for consumer brands, the odds of realizing strong ROI are better). In fact, I’m surprised that the statistic from Ad Age wasn’t higher. Consumers are using Facebook for everything – to search for new products and brands, email and chat with their friends, document their daily lives, find jobs, make purchases….the list goes on and on. It’s Read more [...]
It’s one of the Ten Commandments of PR: transparency. Apparently the Coghlan Consulting Group didn’t get the memo. Back in September the PR firm came under fire after the LA Times uncovered that Coghlan was affiliated with fake news site, News Hawks Review, and had been shamelessly promoting their client Central Basin Municipal Water District of California on the site. Coghlan has an agreement between Central Basin’s public affairs office which promises promotional stories “written in the Read more [...]
Earlier this week I gave a workshop of Google+ & PR for PRSA-NY. The class was particularly timely due to the expected announcement in the very near future, of company or brand pages on Google+. Public relations professionals have seen the rise, and fall, of a variety of social networks over the last four to five years but there has never been a social network that was initiated by a company with so much clout, such a significant user base, a global presence and as deep pockets as Google. It’s Read more [...]
I miss Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men. There, I said it. I was curious to see how the show will unfold without him, so I tuned in to the first two episodes and still don’t really know how I feel yet about Ashton Kutcher’s new character. In any case, on the second episode of the season Kutcher’s character is shown on the phone with his soon-to-be-ex-wife and he’s working on a laptop with decals of several prominent companies such as Foursquare, Chegg, Hipmunk, etc. When I first saw Read more [...]
When I got engaged a few months ago, I promised myself that I would not turn into the type of person that blogs the experience. In fact, if I remember correctly – I might have made a few snide comments about people who turn their lives into one big rollicking frolicking wedding planning machine. I may have even swore that I would never torture my colleagues with the details of my wedding (colors, flowers, cake toppers…oh my). And yet, here I am. My excuse for this post is that as a marketing and PR Read more [...]
With more than 200 million users on Twitter, it has become increasingly difficult for people and brands to break through the noise that exists between them and their target audience on this medium. While Twitter may not have a ‘groups’ functionally like LinkedIn or Facebook, communities across the platform are able to directly engage and collaborate with each other through regular Twitter chats. Similar to other types of online chats and forums, a Twitter chat involves a group of online Read more [...]
As everyone in the industry knows, making your clients stand out from the crowd is vital in helping them achieve their PR and marketing goals. At times, this can be much easier said than done, but it’s our job to continue looking for ways to make this happen. I came across a company this week that’s running a campaign to generate buzz through a way no one has done before – by sponsoring the White House. Australian laundry detergent brand, Vanish NapiSan, is attempting to become the official Read more [...]
Google+ made a splash a couple weeks ago, when it launched in private beta, providing marketers and PR professionals another social media venue to study and decide how to use it for sales purposes. While brands can’t create presences on Google+ yet, there are already plans to build Facebook-like brand pages. Once that happens, there’s no doubt brands will be ready to jump into the fray and interact with a new community of people. If you haven’t had a chance to experience the Plus yet, imagine Read more [...]
Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to attend the B2B Social Communications Leadership Forum in NYC, hosted by the Business Development Institute (BDI). Our agency is a big fan of BDI so we were excited to have the opportunity to sponsor this one. In addition to the quality of speakers and program topics, BDI focuses each of its event on a specific vertical or industry, allowing attendees to take a deep dive into their area of expertise. For this particular event, the topic was focused Read more [...]
In an agency setting, one of the things we get to do is work on new and exciting internal and client spot projects. Usually we’ll develop an idea, put together a proposal, and then execute a fantastic campaign for the agency or its clients. We’ll put together a report highlighting all of the amazing results, send it to the client, and then we’re on to the next project. Right? Wrong. One of the most often forgotten – but crucial – last steps of any program should be a project debrief. Read more [...]
