I-PR & business communications
Articles and advice relevant to the use of public relations in the Internet age, from how to attract attention to your PR efforts to how to manage communication crises.
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Faux Citizen Journalist Report Gives Apple Stock a Tumble
A false report from a "citizen journalist" about Steve Jobs' health sparked concern from investors, driving Apple's stock down three percent in a full day -- hitting a 17-month low of $94.65.
The stock later recovered, but the debacle raised questions about the possible negative impact of falsely-reported "crowdsourced" news.
The post was made on iReport, a user-generated content site run by Time Warner's CNN. It claimed CEO Steve Jobs "was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago [...]
Posted: Monday, October 6th 2008
PR Leadership Up for Grabs, Obama in Lead
There's a vacuum in strong leadership in the public-relations and communications industry -- at least that's what top US PR leaders say, according to (pdf) a study released today by Heyman Associates and the University of Alabama -- [...]
Posted: Tuesday, September 16th 2008
How-To: Managing a Blog Crisis Like a Pro
A blogger has just said something bad about your company and it's getting picked up and repeated by others rapidly online … what do you do?
One of the toughest things to understand about responding to a negative situation on blogs is the speed with which the conversations happen. Speed matters because in a matter of minutes, content can go viral and not responding early means that your voice is missing in the crucial early discourse -- and therefore not represented as the conversation is c [...]
Posted: Wednesday, September 10th 2008
Email Nightmare: Carat Staffers Get Talking Points on Job Cuts
An unfortunate email blunder alerted Carat staffers that their jobs could be in peril, and shared with them the specifics on how they would be told of the news, reports MediaBuyerPlanner.
The media agency will restructure its US operations and plans an undisclosed number of layoffs -- news that was shared with the entire agency via an [...]
Posted: Friday, September 5th 2008
Video-Sharing Added to Google Apps Premier
Google has added video-sharing to Google Apps Premier, a suite of online productivity and management tools that directly target Microsoft Office marketshare.
To give users a sense of how Google itself uses video internally, the Googleblog -- which released the news -- posted the following video demonstr [...]
Posted: Wednesday, September 3rd 2008
Predictive Analytics Invade Email, Subscriber 'Personas' Targeted
Email marketing solutions firm iPost has launched a production release of Autotarget, its predictive analytics tool.
Autotarget analyzes data from a company's business channels, segments customers into like-buying "personas," then enables marketers to send targeted emails to each group. It works by defining customers that responded either favorably or poorly to certain offers or campaigns, then "predicting" which are most likely to be [...]
Posted: Friday, August 29th 2008
Tech, Telecom Firms Boast Best Media Reputations
Technology and telecommunications companies nailed down seven of the top 10 slots in the 2008 Q2 Cision Index, a quarterly assessment of how news coverage reflects and helps shape the corporate reputation of the 100 largest US companies, writes MarketingCharts. [...]
Posted: Monday, August 25th 2008
Much Ado Made Over Corporate Social Responsibility
Communications professionals around the world want to raise the profile of their organizations' corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts by increasing communications and promoting standalone CSR departments, according to a poll by Ragan Communications and PollStream, [...]
Posted: Thursday, August 14th 2008
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Learn how to "go social" with widgets, interactive contests, viral video & more.Opinions Sought for Ad Campaign Measurement Guidelines
The Interactive Advertising Bureau released its ad campaign measurement guidelines for community review.
The document was put together to bring uniformity to the interactive ad industry and maintain a standard of quality.
Comment upon the document at the IAB website, which divides commentary by type: publishers, ad agencies, brand marketers and technology vendors. [...]
Posted: Friday, July 25th 2008
Corporate Reputation in Decline; Top Companies Buck Trend
71 percent of US consumers rate corporate America's reputation as poor, but consumers still will buy, recommend and invest in the most visible companies that focus on building their corporate reputations, according to the ninth annual Harris Interactive Reputation Quotient (RQ) survey -- MarketingCharts [...]
Posted: Wednesday, July 2nd 2008
IAB Releases Definitions for Digital Video In-Stream Ad Metrics
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released its 2008 definitions for Digital Video In-Stream Ad Metrics.
The document is organized thus:
1. Linear Video Ad With or Without Companion Ad
2. Linear Video Interactive Ad
3. Non-linear Overlay Ad
4. Non-linear Non-Overlay Ad
Download the definitions (pdf) or review [...]
Posted: Tuesday, June 17th 2008
In Pricing, Brand Equity Makes a Difference
Brand leaders in marketing, advertising and PR firms are more likely to price services at a higher level than competitors (41 percent of brand leaders were premium-priced vs. 24 percent of lesser-known firms) -- and more likely to get higher fees, according to a RainToday.com survey, MarketingCharts writes.
Brand and value are paramount [...]
Posted: Thursday, June 12th 2008
Ad Spend Up 4% in UK, Internet Spend Up 40%
UK advertising expenditure totaled 19.4 billion pounds in 2007, up 4.2 percent from 2006, and compared with annual growth of just 0.7 percent in 2006 according to (pdf) figures recently published in the Advertising Association's Advertising Statistics Yearbook 2008, reports M [...]
Posted: Thursday, June 12th 2008
Twitter Braces for Today's Apple Announcements
Geek chat hub Twitter has strengthened its servers in anticipation of today's Apple announcements at the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC).
"We are expecting approximately 10 times our normal daily traffic," writes the Twitter blog.
The microblogging site is known [...]
Posted: Monday, June 9th 2008
Email Leaks Lead to Increased Firings, at Least in Australia
Workers are increasingly fired for "leaking" company secrets via email, according to an Australian survey by Proofpoint/Forrester (via Australian IT).
The survey found one in five (23 percent) of Australian businesses fired an employee for email-related grievances in the past year, citing harm to their businesses due to the public exposure of embarrassing or proprietary company data.
Major avenues for [...]
Posted: Tuesday, June 3rd 2008
Journalist Views on Social Media's Influence on Reporting Differ by Beat
Journalists actively read and create online content, but their level of engagement varies by beat.
And political reporters lead the pack, according to a new study of North American journalists' views of social media, particularly blogs, MarketingCharts reports.
The study from Brodeur and [...]
Posted: Tuesday, May 27th 2008
Comcast Launches 'Feedback Loop' for Email Marketers
With help from Return Path, Comcast has launched a complaint feedback loop.
feedback.comcast.com forwards mail reported as spam back to firms that mass-mail Comcast customers.
The loop also enables admins to receive copies of complaints that originate from their networks.
The system helps filter spammers that send objectionable mate [...]
Posted: Wednesday, May 7th 2008
Environmental Marketing Messages Often Misunderstood
To minimize green marketing confusion, most Americans (59 percent) support government regulation of key phrases commonly used in environmental marketing and advertising, according to the "2008 Green Gap Survey" by Cone and The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, MarketingCharts [...]
Posted: Friday, May 2nd 2008
Edelman to Pair Creative Production Talent with PR-Thirsty Brands
PR firm Edelman is exploring creative opportunities to connect clients. Edelman Studios, its new virtual arm, will pair emerging and professional talent with brands seeking engagement opportunities for traditional media and online.
Edelman Studios will develop content from producers, directors and screenwriters -- which in turn get a chance to strut their stuff for major marketers, Advertising Age writes.
[...]
Posted: Monday, April 28th 2008
Global Mobile Ad Guidelines Published by Mobile Marketing Association
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), which presides over 600 companies in the mobile marketing space, has published a set of industry ad guidelines (pdf).
Designed to protect customers while encouraging global advertisers to explore the space, the guidelines include the following:
Recommended aspect ratios are 6:1 (default) and 4:1 (extended)
[...]
Posted: Thursday, April 24th 2008
How-To: Using Twitter to Build Brand Integrity
Enterprise blogging has been lauded for its ability to "humanize" a company and make distant executives feel available to ground-floor customers. Twitter can serve the same purpose much more quickly.
Twitter spearheads the "microblogging" trend, where people air thoughts and share information in real-time while observing a 140-character limit. Here are tips for get [...]
Posted: Wednesday, April 23rd 2008
Break Media Spearheads Launch of Online Video Industry Coalition
Break Media has announced plans to launch an industry group for promoting the efficacy of online video advertising.
The coalition shall include agencies, technology providers and online video companies. The Online Video Advertising ROI Council will also contribute research and education on video advertising.
Ogilvy One, truTV, AT&T, the National Geographic Channel, AT&T, and Initiative Media will serve as charter members alongside Break Media, among myriad others.
The group will gather [...]
Posted: Tuesday, April 22nd 2008
American Idol Charity Effort Tests Sponsors' PR Savvy; ExxonMobil Proves a Peach
Direct marketing firm SendTec examined the TV sponsors for Idol Gives Back, an event during which American Idol viewers were admonished to donate to charities.
Sponsors included ExxonMobil, Ford, Coca-Cola, AT&T, iTunes, Allstate and the M·A·C AIDS Fund. The study profiles how well ExxonMobil, iTunes, Ford and Coca-Cola maximized their public relations.
ExxonMobil [...]
Posted: Monday, April 14th 2008
Marketers' Role More Strategic Than in Years Past, a Ways to Go Yet
Marketing's role has become more strategic over the past three years as marketers help drive innovation and new business development at their organizations, according to a joint study by the Association of National Advertisers and BtoB, [...]
Posted: Wednesday, April 9th 2008
Environmental Action, Sustainability Hot Blogosphere Topics
Online sustainability buzz grew 50 percent in '07.
People are using the internet to air concerns about green issues, focusing primarily on personal actions (e.g., recycling, carpooling, avoiding excess packaging) -- noted Nielsen Online in a recent report (pdf), [...]
Posted: Wednesday, April 2nd 2008

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