This weekend I was on the BBC1 Breakfast sofa with Charlie Stayt and Louise Minchin to talk about Sally Bercow on Twitter. A few weeks ago I was trained for just this moment by The BBC Academy (this link goes to my blog explaining the initiative and tips from the training). So how did it … Grab the subject – 3 media interview tips
We’re always looking for examples of businesses that use social media well. Its immediacy can be both a blessing and a challenge in PR. One company that uses social media really well is Petplan. As a B2C pet insurance company, they have a great presence on Facebook, as they know that’s where their customers are. … Social Media – How Petplan turned bad PR into great PR with an integrated internal communications and social media strategy
Paris Brown, youth police and crime commissioner – Kent Police, demonstrated why young people do not have the skills to manage social media for corporates.
Lucy Kellaway wrote in her FT column this week about the distraction of social media and her own ‘cyber loafing’ at work.
She rightly points out that corporate response to internet abuse is ‘wildly inadequate’, with most companies relying on issuing guidelines and doing some monitoring – but says they might as well not bother.
The Liberal Democrats have had better months. The will they won’t they regarding the Eastleigh By-election is enough to deal with, without the reveal by Channel 4 about Lord Rennard. And of course, there is Chris Huhne’s guilty plea to add to the pile.
Or it could be seen as a good result as the internet is awash with stories, comments and blogs about the controversies surrounding them. And it is all free – you couldn’t pay for such publicity and whilst none of it is positive, it is ensuring daily coverage and encouraging a flock of commentators to come out of the woodwork and blog their two pennies worth.
The horse meat crisis has now been running for a month. How time flies.
Back in January, this blog looked at how Tesco had responded to the initial scare and what a crisis communications plan should look like.
A question from a client made me realise the blog didn’t address internal communications, which of course is as critical as dealing with the outside world.
I was recently asked to give a webinar for Worldmark’s management development programme on understanding the customer.
As always, there is nothing like teaching others to remind yourself of all the things we should be doing in our own businesses.
Tesco has had a busy 48 hours. On Tuesday, Irish food inspectors reported that their ‘value’ burgers had 30% horse meat in them. By Thursday morning newspaper advertisements appeared in all national newspapers with an apology to their customers. In its advertisements, with the headline “We Apologise”, Tesco says: “We and our supplier have let … Tesco apology – how would your organisation deal with unexpected horse meat?
Yesterday, 11 civil servants at Iain Duncan Smith’s department for work and pensions were sacked for using Twitter or Facebook. The DWP’s website says it has 5,345 employees – so 2% of the department have been reprimanded, given written and final warnings, or sacked. Is that shocking?
