That’s a Wrap! Capitalizing on Shark Week, PR mistakes surrounding the death of Robin Williams, the growing pay gap between public relations and journalism and why women are taking over PR

August 15, 2014

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If you haven’t gotten your Shark Week fix, it’s time to act fast. Shark Week ends on Saturday, and plenty of savvy marketers have already capitalized on Discovery Channel’s most popular week of the year. However, while those marketers were cooking with gasoline, others seemed intent on only burning themselves and their clients with ill-conceived public relations pitches surrounding the death of comedic legend Robin Williams. Capitalizing on shark week? Great idea. Capitalizing on a tragic celebrity suicide? Terrible idea.

Here’s the best and worst from the world of public relations this week, along with some new research showing public relations is not only a growing field but also an industry full of women.

Marketers cash in on Shark Week

Cue the Jaws theme…it’s Shark Week! Along with Discovery Channel’s own Shark Week promotions, this week we’ve seen several marketers creatively piggyback on Shark Week. Our very own Heather Kingry tweeted about Shark Week and received a fun and unexpected response. Here was Heather’s tweet:

Season Sardines decided to get in on the Shark Week action and respond to Heather:

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This isn’t your mama’s public relations anymore

August 12, 2014

MediaI’ve worked in marketing and public relations for nearly two decades now, and the only constant in this field throughout those two decades? Change. And while the speed with which this industry changes has greatly accelerated over the past few years, I’m still surprised at how slow many companies are in adapting their marketing and PR strategies to the rapidly changing environment.

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That’s a Wrap! Google’s autocomplete headache, PR firms freeze out climate change skeptics, John Oliver skewers native advertising, Nine West steps in it, B&B’s bad bridal policy

August 8, 2014

As wild weather bombards parts of the nation, it’s time for Reputation Ink’s round-up of the week’s wildest stories in PR, marketing and social media. Which companies and tactics weathered the storm? You be the judge:

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That’s a Wrap! Air New Zealand’s response to delay, Jesse Ventura’s reputation battle, Facebook integrates Instagram into ad strategy, and TSA crowdsources

August 1, 2014


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Thank goodness it’s Friday! We’ve had an exciting week here at Reputation Ink and are about to have even more fun as we move to a new office this weekend (more details to come). Here is what you might have missed in the world of marketing, public relations and social media this week:

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That’s a Wrap! LinkedIn acquires Newsle, Tide may have crossed a line, a Seattle utility’s failed attempt to scrub negative search results and a Comcast customer service call goes viral

July 18, 2014

Another week is almost in the books! We hope you had a great week. Some brands had better luck than others this week when it came to PR, content marketing and social media. We’ve rounded up the good, the bad and the ugly….

THE GOOD

LinkedIn’s acquisition of Newsle gives you the power to stay in touch

It’s easy to send that first email to a new contact saying it was nice to meet them, but how do you find excuses to stay in contact? Newsle makes it easy by allowing you to receive alerts when the person is mentioned in the news or in articles around the web. With LinkedIn’s acquisition of Newsle this week, you can automatically start following alerts for all of your LinkedIn contacts. A similar capability exists for Facebook and your email contacts in Google, Yahoo, Hotmail, Outlook and more. You can also add contacts manually.

Newsle is like Google Alerts on steroids. Not only does it have the capability of integrating your current connections automatically, but instead of delivering email-only alerts you can view updates in a user interface that looks and feels like a social media dashboard.

THE BAD

The fine line between “trendjacking” in social media and breaking the law

A couple of years ago, Tide missed out on a great social media opportunity during the Daytona 500 to capitalize on its product being used to clean up jet fuel that leaked on the track after a crash. The Proctor & Gamble brand has upped its social media game since then, but has it crossed a line?

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Developing your marketing strategy: why an ‘all-of-the-above’ approach is more important than ever

July 15, 2014
Reputation Ink INKsights Developing your marketing strategy why an all-of-the-above strategy is more important than ever

Don’t put all your marketing eggs in one basket

Remember when traditional marketing was dead?

It was only a couple of years ago that everyone from the Harvard Business Review to Forbes magazine was trumpeting the demise of traditional marketing and public relations strategies. In a world of social media and online marketing, they contended, old-school tactics for connecting with customers just wouldn’t cut it.

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That’s a Wrap! American Apparel’s Challenger tweet, retailers under fire for Nazi ‘home decor,’ Time magazine’s winning Facebook strategy, Frontier’s pizza pilot and Kickstarter’s kicka$$ potato salad

July 11, 2014

Congratulations! You made it to Friday. As Germany and Argentina prepare to face each other once again in the World Cup finals, it’s time for INKsights’ look back at the week’s winners and losers in the world of PR, content marketing and social media.

First, the losers: “Insensitive” was the word of the week, as major retailers got raked over the media coals for using images of historic tragedies in their sales and marketing efforts.

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Working with PR agencies: hold the fluff!

July 1, 2014
Reputation Ink PR agency Jacksonville

Fluff belongs on your dessert – not in your press release!

Working with a professional public relations agency can offer significant benefits for both large and small companies alike. So much so, in fact, that USC’s Annenberg Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center reports that 95 percent of all large public companies and nearly half of all small private companies rely on outside PR/marketing counsel.

In selecting a public relations firm with which to work, however, companies would do well to remember three words: Hold the fluff.

In media parlance, “fluff” is the term for the flowery language and effusive frippery in which some publicists drown their copy. Rather than simply stating the facts and letting their client’s product or project speak for itself, some PR reps seem to believe that applying a thick coating of hyperbole to their prose will catch the eye of that jaded reporter and score their client a primo placement.

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How to hook a journalist on your press release from your email subject line

June 26, 2014

156705768I recently participated as a panelist in a webinar by BusinessWire for public relations professionals who pitch to journalists covering sports. I was asked to be a panelist because of my experience as a sports business analyst and reporter for outlets such as ESPN, Forbes, and Comcast Sports Southeast. However, I also brought something to the table the other journalists on the panel did not: I’m also a public relations professional.

Before the webinar, each panelist was asked to think of three things public relations professionals should know before pitching to journalists. I think all three of us on the panel immediately went to some version of advising people to only pitch us content relevant to our reporting and our platform. I would conservatively estimate 60 percent of the pitches I receive are on topics or story angles I would never cover for any of the outlets where I report.

A larger problem I discussed, however, is that I miss pitches that are perfect for my reporting because I simply can’t read every email I receive. That’s why it’s imperative to hook journalists from the subject line of your email.

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Six ways to get the most from your public relations agency

June 24, 2014

PR_brainstormIf you’ve ever worked with a public relations agency—or any consulting firm or professional services provider for that matter—you know that the outcomes can vary widely. There are many, many PR firms out there, and their level of expertise, experience and ability to consistently deliver results varies greatly.

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