I Don’t Really Care ‘bout my Bad Reputation (and Other PR Blog Jots)

Dell's Swell?

Crisisblogger

In examining just how a corporate reputation can be tarnished—and ultimately repaired (in particular in the case of Bausch and Lomb’s recent sale following product concerns), Gerald Baron can’t help but notice that the rhyme “Dell Hell” remains in full effect.  He ponders what exactly a company can do when their name has been so synonymous with disaster, and in an age when journalists—mainstream and citizen alike—are so ready and willing to propagate the negativity. “How do you get rid of that? Start a campaign that says “Dell is Well”? “Dell Haters go to Hell”? How about the Dell Smell? Or Dell Farewell? The simple answer for companies like Dell or BP who have their reputations tarnished, fairly or unfairly, is to go about your business, do the best job you can, get better at operations than ever before and time heals all wounds.”

Igniting Word of Mouth

Strategic Public Relations

Kevin Dugan relates a successful word of mouth campaign run by Tremor, in promotion of city holiday events in Cincinnati. Kevin offers several tips for getting a word of mouth campaign off the ground, and ensuring its success. Among many other factors, he underlines proper preparation for the campaign: research, “hook” development, networking. Many PR pros want there to be a simple trick to conjure up good word of mouth, when really it boils down to lots of hard work. “The numbers don’t lie. The main reason I’m serving this story up is that, far too often, marketers seem to want a silver bullet that will incite word of mouth. As Tremor shows, it usually takes a lot of the usual preparations for a good marketing campaign…a deep understanding of the target market that drive the right mix of tactics to reach the program’s goals.”

Social Media Rx

Pop! PR Jots

Asking PR practitioners (particularly ones inclined to send generic pitches to bloggers) to envision the blogosphere as a closely knit town hall meeting, where you need to be known to be heard, Jeremy Pepper tackles the issue of social media in healthcare. If the blogosphere in general is like a small town meeting, he argues, then the healthcare blogosphere is like a hospital room—ie, you can’t just walk into someone’s hospital room an drop off a press release in the name of outreach. “Put yourself in his shoes - or any other healthcare blogger that is a patient. You have to be smart in reaching out to any blogger, but hypersensitive in reaching out to healthcare bloggers. Pitch things that are relevant - new medicines (yes, that can work), new procedures or needles, new fundraising efforts - but don't pitch vertical products that can be view as just, well, insulting.”