The new rules of public relations and press releases distribution
The Internet has returned public relations to the public! That is you can now take material you want to announce and use the internet to send it out so it accessible to the public, press releases have stopped being limited to the media and a narrow group of stakeholders. Through the likes of eNewsWire you can now reach potentially millions of possible evangelist that are likely to pick up your story and advocate it and when I say millions I mean millions, Face book users in the US are well over 60.000.000 and in the UK they are nearly 18.000.000 and that is just one of the options you have to distribute content through, then there are the hundreds of sites that accept press releases for a free distribution over the Internet and some even direct to the inbox of the media.
Does Airbus have a public relations problem?
I have been speculating about whether Airbus has a public relations problem, after two major accidents involving airplanes from Airbus there is no reaction from the company on the Internet, so they seem to be taking the typical large organization "look but don't touch" approach.
It unbelievable how the Internet does not seem to play a role in their Public Relations strategy as I mentioned in my previous blog post called When should you use PPC as a part of a PR strategy?.
How do they deal with this? "Actor Ashton Kutcher cautioned his fans on Wednesday that a pilot recommended to him not to fly on Airbus until the manufacturer's composite tail is declared safe." - I am afraid that this will not blow over and they need to get their act together if the Internet is not to harm them more.
Airbus use the Internet, use PPC, use online PR, use Twitter and Facebook! Don't fall into the "Look - Don't touch" thinking as other major organization seem to have the habid of doing.
Nordic eMarketing does this, works on creating online crisis management solutions for companies and governments to deal with crisis through the Internet using effective online assets.
Reputation Management Online
Next week I am speaking at an event on reputation management, the date is October 21st and the events location is the Dorchester Hotel, London. The event is held and managed by Augure - Corporate Communications Solution, you do not have to pay anything to enter, but there is limited seat availability so better book now than later.
"Reputation has become a board level priority affecting an organisation's ability to raise capital, attract and retain staff, sell products and services and ultimately compete in today's marketplace."
Really good speakers are doing this event and it looks like a great event for those that are looking to learn about the latest in reputation management.
Online lookalike swindle, web shoppers getting scammed
I was reading a magazine the other day and I found and article in it that I found quite remarkable. So this is the scenario when Virgin MegaStore became Zavvi in the UK, they opened a website as can be expected under their brand name zavvi.co.uk and it was business as usual. But it was not, because around the same time a UK based company opened another website called zavvidirect.co.uk looking strikingly similar to the original site, this did then easily fool unsuspected online shoppers and when they advertised a limited special offer on a gaming computer people when out and ordered, filled in their credit card information, clicked on enter and waited excited for the delivery that never arrived. Just to cut a longer story short, this was corrected and Zavvi has now, through copyright laws, closed this site.
For more information on the WebUser article buy issue 192, 2008 and you should find it there on page eleven to the right above the “Gordon Ramsay Cooks up Game” article and beside the “Internet cafes under attack”.
So how can you try to prevent this?
1. Don’t shop online, just kidding… I have shopped online for over 10 years and never had problems
2. Shop with established online shops such as Amazon
3. If you don’t want to do that, Google the name of the shop you want to buy through
a. If there only or mostly negative activity, don’t shop
b. If there no activity, then that should also ring bells, I would then wait a little to see how things evolve
4. When looking at the forums or blogs and you see one or two negative posts and you really want to shop with them, send the company an email and ask them to explain why these customers are negative
5. Only shop with companies that use PayPal or other recognized payment systems
6. Don’t use debit cards use Credit Cards, they work in a different way and are to my knowledge more secure
Good luck shopping!