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Is Your Organization Prepared to Respond to Crisis in the Digital Age?
In the Green Room With Priya Ramesh, Managing Director, Social Media, CRT/tanaka
Crisis can strike an organization at any time and with social media, it takes less than 24-hrs for a simple tweet to go viral and turn into headline news. Do you have a crisis plan that outlines who, what, when and how to respond to customers, media and the public attacking your brand online? We got to move at lightning speed on Twitter, Facebook and blogs when a crisis unfolds online.
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Secrets of World Class CEO Communicators: The Ten Key Techniques
In the Green Room With Virgil Scudder, President, Virgil Scudder & Associates
This webinar will provide the necessary tools and techniques you need to communicate your message to your target audiences–from shareholder meetings to media interviews to handling crises. KEY TAKEAWAYS: You will learn: Keys to successful shareholder communication; Tips for winning in the media-every time out; Expert tips for developing powerful public speaking techniques; How to rally employee support and performance
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5 Crucial Ways to Improve Business Fitness
Corporate Communications…By David Bakke
There’s no question the economy is struggling. Virtually all businesses have been affected by it in some way. It’s also fairly evident that not much will change until at least after the election. In the meantime, small business owners are left to fend for themselves. That said, it’s crucial for an organization to become as “lean” as can be. Business fitness in its most basic sense means making sure your organization is running efficiently and smartly to best maximize profits.
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Blowfish: A Private Life in Public Relations – Episode XI
A serialized business noir…By Steve Lundin
Recap: Jack Vance, the colorful CEO of Blowfish Communications, has been hired to engineer the launch of VGlobe a new online video network. The cornerstone of his launch campaign is Some Will Die, a reality weight loss program engineered to render all contestants dead. Jack has introduced the show’s host, Vladimir Berber, to the executives from VGlobe, only to find that his star is as dangerously chaotic as he is compelling. While he searches for a solution to this new dilemma his former employee and new nemesis, Tom Agness, has learned of the Some Will Die program and is heading to Washington in a gambit to sabotage it.
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Boy Scout ‘Crisis’: Law Firm Releases Files on 1,200 Alleged Sexual Abusers
Time Magazine
A law firm that represented a former Boy Scout who had been the victim of child sexual abuse on Thursday released a large online volume containing more than 1,200 files on Scoutmasters and other volunteers accused of pedophilia or sexual abuse. The files span some 20 years, from 1965 to 1985, and are part of a record compiled by the Boy Scouts of America with the intention of keeping abusers out of scouting and away from vulnerable youth. The full record is believed to date back as far as the mid-1920s and may involve as many as 100,000 children. The so-called “Perversion Files” were made public by a Portland, Ore. law firm that represented Kerry Lewis, who was the victim of abuse by an ex-assistant Scoutmaster in 1984. They had been kept secret under a protective order until Lewis’ 2010 lawsuit against the Boy Scouts, in which Multnomah County Judge John Wittmayer ordered the documents released. He restricted access to the files to just the attorneys for both the plaintiff and the defendant, but that order was overturned earlier this year. Also as part of the suit, Lewis was awarded $18.5 million in punitive damages, to be paid by the Boy Scouts.
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Cause Marketing Update: Top Breast Cancer Charities Agree to Clearly Disclose Benefits of Pink Products
Washington Post
The nation’s two largest breast cancer charities have adopted guidelines for fuller disclosure by those selling pink products and services in their names, New York’s attorney general said Thursday. The so-called best practices, adopted by Susan G. Komen For The Cure and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, include having companies disclose the specific amount that will be donated from each purchase. Companies using pink ribbons and similar symbols on products also are expected to state if a purchase triggers a donation or merely calls attention to the cause. “These best practices, agreed to by the nation’s largest breast cancer charities, will help ensure that cause marketing campaigns provide the benefit that’s expected, and that we protect consumers, charities and above all, the women and families affected by this devastating disease,” Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said.
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AM TV Talk War–’GMA’ Host Laura Spencer a ‘Network’s Dream’, Has ‘Today’ Searching for Answers, Sources Say
Fox Business
The ratings war between NBC’s “Today Show” and ABC’s “Good Morning America” has never been more fierce, with “GMA” now beating the longtime No. 1 morning show week after week. As “Today” brass pulls their hair out trying to figure out what went wrong, sources tell FOX411 that new host Lara Spencer may be what’s going right for “GMA.” The former “Insider” host, who started in May, covers mostly pop culture and celebrities for “GMA.” Her glamorous appearance, smarts and friendliness are successfully translating to the morning television audience, morning show veterans tell FOX 411.
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57% Of Marketers Have Trouble Finding Social Media ROI, Survey Reveals
Social News Daily
In a new survey, 469 marketers from different industries, small to large sized companies, and varying levels of expertise, were asked about the current state of Social Media Marketing. 57 percent of marketers said that finding the ROI of social media was their biggest challenge. When it came to what they focus on most, 96 percent measure the number of followers and fans. 78 percent are looking for better customer engagement with 66 percent wanting to increase their presence across social media platforms. The study also found that as social media becomes more and more integrated 50 percent would like much better integration with other facets of their business. Measuring revenue from social media, 62 percent monitor new customers from platforms, 60 percent measure from new leads, and 59 percent from sales. The survey also found that only 16 percent of average marketers are using a social CRM. However, 26 percent plan on using a social CRM system by the end of 2012.
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NFC Mobile Marketing Pilot Delivers for Kraft
Brandchannel
News America Marketing (NAM), publisher of coupons in the U.S. and Canada, in partnership with thinaire, a cloud-based platform for NFC marketing campaigns, and Kraft, recently teamed up on a retail innovation pilot in the San Francisco area using smartphone technology. The experience focused on drill-down user engagement and activation through tap and engage technology, increasingly integrated in consumer’s lives. Predictions are there will be 630 million NFC-enabled smartphone users by 2015. The program launched at five grocery stores in the Bay Area, embedding readable RFID (radio frequency identification) chips within shelftalks promoting the Kraft cheese and Nabisco cookie brands
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Pinterest Marketing Drives Visibility for Retail Brands
Brafton
BizRate recently analyzed the motivations and desires of Pinterest and Facebook users, and the results show distinctions that make Pinterest an appealing option for certain businesses. According to the survey, 70 percent of respondents said they use Pinterest to “get inspiration on what to buy.” On the other hand, only 17 percent said the same for Facebook. Pinterest’s rapid growth in the last year forced many businesses to consider the platform for social media marketing. Last month, Brafton highlighted client data from Shareaholic that showed Pinterest produces more referral traffic than both Bing and Yahoo. Pinterest’s highly visual format lends itself to browsing certain companies’ products online. As such, ecommerce companies and consumer-facing brands stand to benefit from a strong presence on Pinterest perhaps more so than with Facebook or other social platforms. BizRate’s study also found 67 percent of respondents browse Pinterest “to keep up with the latest trends on things that I like.” The survey named fashion, home decor and similar interests as the primary criteria for the response. As such, companies in these industries can vastly improve awareness and drive convertible traffic by sharing content on Pinterest.
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Google Shares Plummet With Mistaken Release of Financial Results
Ad Age Digital Next
Google shocked the financial markets with the early release of its third-quarter earnings statement, which fell short of analyst estimates for revenue and profits. Google shares dropped 9% to $699 before the NASDAQ halted trading. Google blamed the early release on its printer, RR Donnelley, which sent out a incomplete press release with the notation “PENDING LARRY QUOTE,” referring to CEO Larry Page. “Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization,” said Google spokeswoman Rachel Whetstone, in a statement. “We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it’s finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 Pacific Time.” It was an extraordinary mistake, but Google won’t be able to blame the weak financial results on the printer. Profit excluding some items was $9.03 a share on revenue of $11.3 billion. Analysts on average had estimated profit of $10.65 a share on sales of $11.8 billion. The average amount advertisers paid each time a user clicks on a search ad declined about 15% from a year earlier, and was 3%t less than the prior period.
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S.E.C. Settles Insider Trading Case Against Hong Kong Firm
New York Times
Federal securities regulators settled an insider trading case on Thursday against an investment firm controlled by a prominent Hong Kong businessman. The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Well Advantage, a firm based in Hong Kong that is run by Zhang Zhi Rong, agreed to pay more than $14 million related to accusations that it illegally traded in the shares of the Canadian oil producer Nexen in advance of the announcement that it was being acquired by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, known as Cnooc. Mr. Zhang is a Chinese billionaire businessmen who, in addition to controlling Well Advantage, also controlled another company that had a close relationship with Cnooc, the S.E.C. said. Regulators accused Well Advantage of having advance knowledge of the Cnooc-Nexen deal.
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Facebook Fiasco: The Stock is 50% Below its IPO Price Again
Forbes
In early September, with Facebook’s stock down by more than 50% since its IPO, the world’s biggest social networking company moved to shore up its stock price. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, conducted his first public interview since the debacle. He also promised he wouldn’t sell any of his personal shares for one year and the company said it would withhold 101 million shares. But the rebound in Facebook’s stock that the company tried to engineer appears to be over for now. Facebook’s shares changed hands on Thursday for less than $19 and the stock closed around $18.99
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Fazed and Refused: News Corp Shareholders Get a Chance to Vote Their Feelings About Coporate Governance
The Economist
PRESUMABLY News Corporation chose to hold its annual shareholder meeting on October 16th at its Los Angeles film studio to show off the profitability of its entertainment unit. But the location must have also reminded investors of the Hollywood-like drama dogging the media company over phone-hacking and bribery at News of the World, a British tabloid owned by News Corporation until it was closed last year. As if they needed reminding. Shareholders arrived at the meeting ready to challenge Rupert Murdoch, News Corporation’s octogenarian boss, about the company’s corporate governance. Many investors, such as CalPERS, America’s largest public-pension fund, complain that he serves both as chief executive and chairman; that executive compensation is too high; that a dual share-class structure disadvantages independent shareholders; and that the board of directors is too passive. Mr Murdoch’s sons, James and Lachlan, and his grandson’s godfather, Viet Dinh, are all board members.
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Volunteerism — Creating Community Impact
Chicago Tribune
On a recent morning Northern Trust Chairman & CEO Rick Waddell and 30 colleagues left their daily responsibilities behind and arrived at The Chicago Lighthouse for People Who Are Blind or Visually Impaired, one of the nation’s most comprehensive social service organizations for the blind/visually impaired. As United Way’s long-time top corporate partner for giving and volunteerism, Northern Trust is committed to giving back to the communities in which they work. The Chicago Lighthouse provides job opportunities, learning programs and social experiences for thousands of clients each year, and the Northern Trust staff did everything from cleaning up a sensory garden to reading stories on air for a radio station geared toward those with visual impairments. This volunteer engagement is one of the more than 100 Northern Trust groups that United Way will send into community agencies this year alone. This represents one of hundreds of volunteer opportunities United Way will coordinate over the next year. In fiscal year 2012, nearly 4,000 volunteers contributed more than 15,000 hours of service, saving United Way partner non-profits a total of $348,239 – equal to 2,000 days of full-time work.
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Study: On Facebook, Money Alone Can’t Buy Political Popularity
TechCrunch
Political campaigns are set to spend over $159 million online in 2012, and Facebook is happy to soak up the advertising binge. However, a first-of-its-kind experimental study finds that Facebook banner “ads had no politically consequential effect on knowledge of the candidate, his favorability, or support for his election among voters.” While others in the media have misinterpreted this study to mean that Facebook ads don’t matter at all, the more accurate lesson is that candidates need users to also voluntarily share their content. Recent large scale research proves definitively that widely shared Facebook political ads do have a material impact. In other words, on Facebook, obscure brands can’t buy popularity; they need friends, too. And, this portends good things for democracy, as political ads are increasingly forced into an online arena of conversation. Berkeley graduate study David E. Broockman teamed up with the academic titan of campaign science, Donald P. Green, to test how popular Facebook ads could make an obscure state legislature candidate. According to Broockman, the local race provided the perfect natural laboratory, since most politicians aren’t running for President, nor are they household names
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After 79 Years in Print, Newsweek Goes Digital Only
Chicago Tribune
Newsweek, one of the most internationally recognized magazine brands in the world, will cease publishing a print edition after nearly 80 years.The decision to go all-digital underscores the problems faced by newsweeklies, as more consumers favor tablets and mobile devices over print in an increasingly commoditized, 24-hour news cycle. The final print edition of the weekly current affairs magazine will hit newsstands on December 31.The move was not unexpected given both the macro changes affecting the magazine industry and, more specifically, the comments made in July by Newsweek’s owner Barry Diller, head of IAC/Interactive Corp, about the expense of producing a print magazine. Immediately after Diller’s comments, Tina Brown, editor-in-chief of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, wrote a post on the magazine’s Tumblr page titled, “Scaremongering,” that sought to downplay speculation that it would go all-digital.
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