Ignoring a brand crisis can REALLY cost you – as United Airlines found out. Their refusal to take responsibility resulted in musicians writing and performing multiple songs and a loss of an estimated $180 MILLION! Some PR agents think of PR from one campaign to the next, but this is the wrong approach for the social media era. Your brand is constantly changing as people talk about it on social media and this is often where crises originate. PR disasters are just as often the result of … [Read more...]
Blogger Outreach: EARNED Versus Paid Media ~ Should Bloggers Work For Free?
Chris Abraham argued in a post on SocialMedia.biz that bloggers should not be paid because the brands they promote “earned” the right to get their PR agency to get you to work for free. Although traditional PR agencies contacting Journalists who are paid salaries CAN be compared to bloggers for major blogs that are also paid, that is a totally different business model than a small blog. Then or now, though, only the very naive can truly believe advertising dollars do not determine media … [Read more...]
How Online PR Complements Traditional Marketing
This is a guest post by Gerald Heneghan on behalf of PR Fire that explains why press releases are still valuable for business promotion. Online PR has been pivotal in lowering the marketing bar for companies up and down the scale, but has arguably been a double-edged sword. Because it’s easier than ever for brands and businesses to promote themselves, competition has intensified rapidly. New tools like social media, blogs and video attract so much of the attention these days that it’s … [Read more...]
NEW: Seek or Shout Platform For Bloggers ~ Similar to Help A Reporter Out (HARO) for Journalists
If you want free publicity for your blog or business you need to know about Help a Reporter Out, better known as HARO. (Twitter @HelpaReporter) You sign up for free and receive daily emails with requests from reporters for specific information or experts to interview. They now have separate emails for different niches to make it easier to see just the inquiries most relevant for you. You can even get alerts ONLY for the Keywords YOU choose! Here are two short videos that explain the NEW HARO … [Read more...]
Did Sacha Baron Cohen's Oscar stunt work? Find out in this week's Future of Engagement!
Sacha Baron Cohen made a splash at this week's Oscars by making fun of the late Muammar Gaddafi, the former Libyan dictator recently seen as an archetype Third World totalitarian despot. Female bodyguards and questionably-deserved medals in tow, Cohen was there to promote his most recent film, The Dictator, and had publicly announced that he'd be dressed as his character beforehand. Cameras were already on him so he got lots of coverage when he … [Read more...]