PR Blunder

Blunders in public relations happen all the time. You have two ways you can handle the way it turns out when it happens. One of those ways would be to try and make it an opportunity out of it or you cannot do anything about it and let it have a negative look or effect on your company.

The public relations blunder I researched and talked about is when McDonald’s promoted tweets didn’t go as they planned on it going.  They launched a campaign where people were supposed to tweet good McDonalds story by hash tagging it afterwards with #McDstories.  Well instead of people telling good stories or things about McDonalds, they told the bad experiences that they had at McDonald’s.  One person even said they found a used Band-Aid in the bottom of their bag. To find out more information about this story you can go to ABC News website. This is where I found all the information for this blog.

The way I would have tried to make this blunder into an opportunity, is to try to turn those bad things into something good. I would have said that all of those people that could prove that those stories were really true would receive a free apple pie the next time they went to McDonalds to eat. By doing this I would be getting those customers that were unhappy, to come back to the restaurant to get their free apple pie and probably buy something else while they were there. It also would weed out those stories that weren’t true.  Also I would take them as compliments not negative things. I would do this by saying these things would be changed as soon as they possibly could be fixed. It is kind of what Domino’s pizza has been doing for the last few years now.

photo credit: Ben Heine

Crisis at it’s Worst

When talking about an event that needed crisis communication, you first need to understand what crisis communication is. Crisis communication is defined as the effort taken by a company to communicate with the public and stockholders when an unexpected event occurs that could have a negative impact on the company’s reputation. This can also refer to the efforts of business or governmental getting the word out to the public of a potential hazard such as a storm that could have a catastrophic impact. I got this definition from a dictionary online called business dictionary.

The event I will be talking about in this blog will be the Boy Scouts admits it failed to protect children from abuse. The first thing the company did was admit that they did do something wrong, but will work to their best to make sure that it never happens again. They plan on doing this by increasing youth safety measures. The president of the Boy Scouts of America apologized to all the children’s families that had children involved in the abuse. It doesn’t say exactly if this was a successful crisis communication or not, but I believe it helped a lot and probably was very successful in the end. 

The way I would have handled this event would be kind of the same way but a little more involved with upping youth’s safety at the camp. First I would except that the company did actually do something wrong here, and are planning on fixing the problem.  Then I would make sure all of my employees that were around the children were safe people and have gone through safety training seminars. Then I would make it a rule that all employees must make sure that all children are in sight of more than on adult at all times.

photo credit: David Flam

NFL Goes Pink

October is not just known for the holiday Halloween anymore, it is also known for breast cancer month. Every year when October comes around everyone starts to wear pink, in order to support breast cancer. Many big companies participate in this event, but the one I am going to talk about the most is the National Football League. This is better known as the NFL. 

NFL players support this month by wearing pink socks, gloves, towels, hand warmers, cleats, and even little pink ribbons on their jerseys and helmets. The coaches will wear pink hats or a hat that has some type of pink on it for breast cancer month.  As my friend in my Public Relations class, Cody Zimmerman, once said, “The players and coaches wear so much pink, you would think one of the teams colors were pink.”  I don’t know if all the fields have this but I do know that most of the fields have at least one big pink ribbon painted on the field, if not more. Most of the fields also have banners that go around the field and in the stands too. They sell pink hats and other types of clothing to support the month. The footballs themselves have pink ribbons printed on them.  They even have made a web page that people can go to in order to find out more information about programs or events they are having. It also has a place where you can go and buy breast cancer supporting clothes and other things online. On this web page you can donate to the American Cancer Society and they have tips on ways to help prevent women from getting breast cancer.  The last main thing they have on this web page is tips and things for other schools to get involved themselves in supporting breast cancer awareness month.

Photo Credit: Buisnessinsider.com

How to Get the Word Out

Whether you are promoting a book, talking up a new business event, or even just fulfilling an interest of your own, a press release is a very helpful tool that will allow you to do all of these things.  I am going to provide you with some tips on how to make a successful press release.

I myself have not ever done a press release but I have done a lot of research on this topic so that I can make them myself in the future and to provide everyone that reads this with accurate information on how to make a successful press release. 

When researching this topic I got a lot of great information from the press release sample on the internet. The first thing I learned when making a press release is you must always provide the audience with who, what, when, where, why, and how, for the thing you are making a press release for.  Another thing I learned is to always remember that a press release needs to be short, to the point, and contain the specific details that you think would attract the customer/audience the most.  You also need to make sure to not have any mistakes on it so that you don’t look unintelligent.  Next you should make sure all of the information you give on your topic is accurate and correct. That way you are not misleading to the audience and don’t embarrass yourself to everyone. On the top of the press release you need to put information on how people can contact you. For example, phone numbers they can call, e-mails people can e-mail, and a website they can go to in order to get more information about the topic. You can find temples and easy format of press releases by going to Marketing Sources.

Photo credit:Flickr.com

Success or Failure

Success or Failure, there is a very fine line between them. That is why I am going to explain a few simple ways that you can do in order to have a successful public relations campaign.  Before I tell you about how to make a successful campaign, I will tell you what a campaign and the reason public relations use them so much.

The definition of a campaign is a series of coordinated activities, such as public speaking and demonstrating, designed to achieve a social, political, or commercial goal. I got that information from dictionary.com.  The reason people in public relations use these so much is because it is an easy and fast way to promote whatever it is that they are wanting the public to see at the time.

The first thing you need to know is that there are very many different types/examples of public relations campaign.  So before you even start your campaign you need to figure out which one you are going to have. Kate McFarlin has a blog that gives you different types and has great examples of those types. Next you need to do plenty of research on the topic so that you don’t use false information.  The third step would be to know the situation and the location of the campaign. In other words know your completions and your own strengths and weaknesses. Then figure out your objectives, your audience that you’re trying to reach, and how you are going to present that public with your message.  Figure out the best tools to use that would get your message out the best and in the most profitable way. For example would a simple newspaper posting be better that a big billboard ad. Next you need to execute your campaign the way you planned it out. The last thing you need to do would be to evaluate the success of that plan. So that next time you can find ways to improve it next time.  To find these steps in much more detail you need to look up 12 Steps to a Successful PR Campaign

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Photo Credit: Parker Micheal Knight

Research and it’s Importance

Research in public relations is very important in many ways. Have you ever had someone come up to you and start talking to you about something they clearly don’t have a clue about what they are talking about? I bet you were thinking how unintelligent can someone be even though they may be really smart with other things. Well that could be you if you don’t do research on something before you speak.  

By doing research on things it makes you have way more credibility with what you are talking about or are sending a message to someone. The more credibility you have the more people will want to listen to or read something and they will actually believe what you are trying to tell them.  

Also in public relations you have to really watch what you say because everything can say can be used against you to make you look bad or embarrass you. So if you say something that you may think is true but turns out it was it could make you look really stupid and will embarrass you really bad, and that may stick with you the rest of your time that you are in public relations. The simplest and easiest solution to solving this problem is simply just by doing a little research on the topic.

Now I will tell you the best way to do research and to know if the information you are getting is a reliable source or not. The easiest way to do research now days is to do it on the internet with web browsers like google.com and yahoo.com. The down fall though is that there is so much information is that it is hard to know if you can believe it or not. That’s when you have to find and see if the person that wrote it or posted it is a credible source. The other way would be in paper materials like books or newspapers. These sources are usually very credible sources to use because they wouldn’t be allowed to publish it if it wasn’t.  

Photo credit: Drexel.edu