Did you hear the rumor that American Airlines was offering free flights to Haiti? It gave American quite the social media headache. Here’s how it started — and how American reacted to the situation: Someone in Haiti tweeted (falsely) about the free American flights; film critic Roger Ebert saw it and retweeted the info to his 50,000 followers. That sparked countless more retweets, including one from actor Rainn Wilson, who has more than 1.8 million followers. Yikes. But American acted quickly to squelch the rumor. The airline tweeted media outlets informing them about the rumor and updated its own Twitter account with correct information. Soon, word that the rumor was false appeared on The New York Times Twitter feed and on CNN.com.
The author of this blog received lots of pitches when he worked for a TV show. One of those pitches came from a real clown. “I’m not just calling him a clown; he really was a clown – in full makeup, the big shoes, red nose and wig.” The clown's pitch: He did birthday parties and bachelorette parties. Don’t be that clown. Here are four tips for better pitching.
So your company’s on Facebook and you want to grab people's attention. But you know who else wants their attention? Their family and friends — the people they care about. Social media consultant Jay Baer explained how your brand can stand out among everyone’s loved ones on Facebook.
Feeling overwhelmed by social media? Need to learn best practices in the field quickly? Attend this “total immersion” workshop on March 11 in Chicago; it's tailored specifically for employee communicators. Plus, Ragan CEO Mark Ragan is taking everyone to Second City afterwards. And the tickets are on him!
Are you tired of hearing that traditional e-mail pitches don’t work? PR pro Keith Trivitt is. “Like it or love it, it’s still common practice within public relations for PR folks to send out what they think are highly targeted, well-written and witty pitches to reporters — via e-mail — that immediately grab their attention and have them sit up and say, ‘YES! I have to write this story!’” Trivitt wrote for PRBreakfastClub. “OK, so it may not exactly go this way all the time, but hey, this PR pro can always have a little hope, can’t he?” Trivitt highlighted an article in The Wall Street Journal that actually mentioned a publicist’s effective e-mail pitch — and he cited statistical evidence that 80 percent of journalists prefer to receive pitches via e-mail.
The Alzheimer’s Association national office in Chicago is seeking a Web content manager/information architect to join its e-strategy department. This position will manage the content needs for large and small projects. Read more about this job. Related Advertising Age 10 things that will make you more employable in 2010.
The Poynter Institute, a school for journalists, offered social media tips for PR and marketing pros at a January event, which PR pro Kathleen Taylor attended. She condensed Poynter’s advice into these four items.
Did you know it’s Social Media Week in NYC? Yep, it kicked off Monday. What does that mean, exactly? (Because, as social media consultant Shel Holtz tweeted: “Every week is social media week.”) Here’s the scoop, from Social Media Week founder Toby Daniels: “Social Media Week ... aims to advance the uses of social media in the corporate, public, and nonprofit sectors, and engage communities on a local and global level.” Phew. Next week they're going to tackle peace in the Middle East. WebNewser is keeping tabs on the weeklong event; you can also stay informed via Twitter. Related Jared Hendler The significance of Social Media Week. Related NYU Local Too bad the week’s best events are absurdly pricey — and probably sold out.
So you want to launch a blog, but someone at your company is wary about nasty comments. In that case, do what popular blog Engadget did after its comment section grew too unruly: Turn off comments for a while. “We're going to crank things down for a little bit to let everyone just cool off, and we'll switch them back on when we feel like we've shaken some of the trolls and spammers loose from the branches,” Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky wrote. “See you on the other side!”
MyRagan-ites continue to discuss the importance of print publications at their organizations, along with strategies for print. Take a look and weigh in.
Communicators attending Ragan's AWE Conference in London shared their thoughts on the meaninglessness of jargon with CEO Mark Ragan and former publisher Jim Ylisela.
RSS
CART
Comments
