We are PR - 2.0 & beyond

The news spread like wildfire as it appeared HMV’s account had been hijacked and was being used to show how angry, upset and disappointed staff were at the way they were being treated.

Revolutionary cries, which would resonate with others who’d faced similar situations, were published on the micro-blogging site:

“Under usual circumstances, we’d never dare do such a thing as this.

“However, when the company you dearly love is being ruined and those hard working individuals, who wanted to make hmv great again, have mostly been fired, there seemed no other choice.”

However while the tweets themselves were unauthorised, the use of the account was readily available to employees in the communications team.

The employee behind the tweets, revealed by The Mirror this morning, was HMV’s Online Marketing and Social Media Planner, Poppy Rose Cleere, 21. It’s of course not a surprise that the person behind planning a company’s social media presence would have access to the official twitter account, but what really stood out was one tweet in particular.

“Just overheard our Marketing Director (he’s staying, folks!) ask “How do I shut down Twitter?”

Sorry, did I read that right?

HMV’s Marketing Director asking how to shut down Twitter?

There aren’t enough face palm memes in the world.

Is Twitter becoming less useful?: 

 

Former Twitter evangelist Matt Lewis writes that the platform has stopped being a useful community and has become a noisy, crowded place dominated by crude and mean-spirited people. But Rebecca Greenfield writes that a look at Lewis' Twitter feed suggests he's making basic mistakes, such as following spambots and failing to unfollow dull Twitter users.

A Whopper of a Funeral Gives Burger King PR - 

David Kime Jr. “lived by his own rules,” daughter Linda Phiel said. "He considered the lettuce on a burger his version of healthy eating," she said. To give him a whopper of a send-off Saturday, the funeral procession stopped at a Burger King where each mourner got a sandwich for the road.

Granted, as noted in other stories, Kime was a borderline diabetic and had a pacemaker but the guy was 88. George Burns smoked stogies until his 90s, so I think Kime earned his right to shovel grilled all-beef patties down his gullet. And it was that way until the very end. In fact, Kime's Whopper Jr. for the road was placed on his American-flag adorned coffin during the ceremony. Phiel said the display wasn't a joke, rather a happy way of honoring her father and the things that brought him joy.

See there, we are thinking the same thing. Two things would survive burial — a Twinkie and a fast-food burger, which leads us to the dilemma. Should BK embrace the life of a hero that walked through its doors every day to gorge on a Whopper Jr. or just sit there and take the jokes of "Well, it was the burgers that killed him"? Either way, Burger King is getting some divine PR out of this. And why? It's the human-interest angle. 

Most of the time, we know the mantra, "If it bleeds, it leads." While that may be true in the news, it's the touching human-interest stories that people remember, discuss, and embrace. I'm not the biggest fan of BK but I understand having a favorite dish to the point where if I was missing, I wouldn't be found on a milk carton...rather, a pizza box.

Brands differ on social component of Super Bowl ads
Brands are pondering the value of social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook as a supplement to their Super Bowl ads. Whereas automakers typically measure every step along the way to a sale, companies such as Century 21 are using the social chatter more for "lead-generation or long-tail than social," writes Christopher Heine. In contrast, consumer packaged goods advertisers Doritos, Wonderful Pistachios and Oreo will be gathering Big Data from the big game, and Pepsi will want brand equity metrics from the social media buzz.

Through PR, all things are possible. Maybe............

What goes to Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas?

Life in Five Seconds

From Marie Antoinette to E.T., the creative minds at Milan-based agency H-57 have produced a book of pictogram flowcharts that simplify the lives of historical figures and cult movie plots. The brief infographics in "Life in Five Seconds" are humorously irreverent and reductionist in their approach to the complexities of life.

Subway is Inches Short in Terms of PR

It was just a matter of time before this really happened, but hallowed sandwich franchisor Subway was actually taken to task for coming up inches short for its claim of "footlong subs." Well, one inch, to be exact. As reported by Bill Miltenberg of PR News via Business Insider

 

 

 

 

Subway's answer to crisis communications: Blame the franchisee and his or her crappy staff. You stay classy, Subway. I get it. That bread looks like my grandpa getting out of the pool anyway. Maybe it shrunk even more once toasted? Who knows. You can visit the Subway Facebook page to check the new numbers or new excuses. Unfortunately, Subway believes that comment was enough and they are sticking to the 12" claim. Anyone else demanding a 45-cent refund next time you saunter into your local submarine sammich establishment? This PR may create funnier things to happen. 

The moral of this story? MEMO to Subway: Size really does matter.

How a little media training can help a lot --
Media training, which focuses on how to interact with members of the media, can be useful for business leaders who will need to interact with the press, writes Alex Honeysett. "It only takes one bad interview for media training to become your biggest priority -- so you might as well invest in bringing in the pros now," she writes.

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to send out his first tweet on Dec. 12, few wait with greater anticipation than Monsignor Paul Tighe. As Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Tighe is the Pope’s social media guy. I spoke with the Irish-born priest about how he’s easing the leader of the Catholic Church—who will tweet under @Pontifex—into the digital world.