Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Oprah Winfrey, one of the world’s richest women valued at over 2.9 billion dollars, was refused 3 times the opportunity to examine and purchase a 37 thousand dollar Tom Ford handbag. This happened at a posh upscale boutique in Switzerland.

The resulting news and social media backlash for the boutique involved and Switzerland itself (the country’s tourism office also apologized to her) was rapid and explosive, with negative commentary from news organizations, Facebook, Twitter, media publications and the like chiming in. Don’t be surprised by this! Anything that touches on deeply personal values (racism, gender equality, lifestyle, health, etc.) will quickly mushroom into an immense social media unconscious event. It will either become a social media dream or in this particular case…the ultimate social media brand reputation management nightmare.

This wake up call provides a powerful opportunity for businesses regarding their reputation management process. Not every business has a plan in place and for those who don’t know where to start, consider these 3 compelling reputation management tips....

Tips for dealing with trolls in a public forum...

As a web user I believe that many of us are probably a bit fed up of having to register on so many different websites any time we want to gain access to something (cloud services, music, movies, etc.). But when it comes to posting comments on blogs, Twitter, forums or other online networks, we aren’t always required to pass an identification test. So how does this affect our behavior? Do we sign in or do we choose to stay anonymous?