Author: Wellons team

Babies being served booze

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boozing babesIt’s a parent’s nightmare and an instant public relations crisis.

This article on USA Today looks into a couple of these restaurant mishaps – babies being served booze! Something most of us never thought would happen is now front page news and on the minds of a lot of parents.

Within one month two different incidents were reported at two of the nation’s largest casual dining chains, Applebee’s and Olive Garden.

So how do these restaurants win back the loyalty of worried parents? Well, they can either ignore the issue and release statements like this one made by Applebee’s.

“In an industry that serves more than 150 million meals every day, these are two extremely rare occurrences. However, we believe that even one incident like this is too many.”

Or they could face the issue, react quickly and positively. A couple of suggestions from restaurant operators: retrain staff, rethink alcoholic drink policies, limit bar use, be forthcoming and involve consumers in new regulations. Concerning communications get your messaging clear – from the hostess and servers on the front line, to your media statements.

After all, this juicy story is out and now diners want to know, what restaurants will do to ensure their child will never be served anything more to drink than a soft drink.

@S.O.S.

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SOS JapanTwo tweets to @AmbassadorRoos were all it took to mobilize aid from U.S. troops to Kameda hospital in Japan.

A USA Today article explores the ways help was deployed through social media and more specifically, Twitter, after Japan’s catastrophic earthquake.

Nine days after the disaster hit two urgent pleas for help appeared on the Twitter stream of U.S. Ambassador John Roos.

“Kameda hospital in Chiba needs to transfer 80 patients from Kyoritsu hospital in Iwaki city, just outside of 30km(sic) range.”

“Some of them are seriously ill and they need air transport. If US military can help, pls contact (name withheld) at Kameda.”

These tweets instantly sent an S.O.S. to the top U.S. diplomat in Japan.

During all the chaos Twitter proved to be more reliable than phones, emails and even, Facebook. Two hours after the disaster Red Cross teams in Virginia seized a tweet from a housewife in Japan who reported the roof of a school gym in Kokubunzi had collapsed with students trapped inside. Soon after helicopters were hovering overhead, rescuing everyone inside.

Twitter is quickly leading the way in sharing breaking news and communicating in times of emergency. It’s only been five years and Twitter is already alerting first responders to emergencies, creating crisis maps for rescue teams in disaster zones and helping friends and family find lost loved-ones. What we are learning is it’s not the experts who know something; it’s someone in the crowd.

The younger face of Facebook

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UntitledSocial media is the communications tool of the next generation.  A CNN article noted Facebook is booting 20,000 underage users per day.  The article reports nearly half of all 12-year-olds in the U.S. are using social media websites, even though they don’t meet the age requirements.

Youngsters are flocking to social media and Facebook, in particular.  And really, it is kids of all ages. Facebook has more than 500 million users. The flood of child users poses security risks, which is why Facebook is working to give the youngsters the boot until they are of minimum age.

Yet for trend watchers – the kid’s desire to be part of Facebook and other social media continues to highlight the long-term viability of social media.

Something to quack about

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Aflac duckWhen the world gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  Consider what Aflac is now doing.  Last week it fired Gilbert Gottfried – the voice of its famous duck – who was ousted for making insensitive remarks on Twitter about the disaster in Japan.  Now, Aflac is quickly looking for a new promotional campaign.  They are opening up the new voice to a contest.  Interested quackers can submit a 30-second audio or video file doing the Aflac squawk at www.quackaflac.com.

This shows two things:

1. Aflac quickly turned a negative into a positive

2. They continue to promote their brand.

Best of all, they got great PR out of it.  The note about Aflac appeared in the “Life” column of the USA Today this morning.  Now that’s something to quack about.

Survey says: social media bound to change the face of research

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Are traditional research studies a thing of the past? Maybe not, but a top research buyer for Procter & Gamble Co.  says that research will change dramatically in the next few years because of the advancements in social media.

According to an article this morning in AdAge, marketing firms will have to find new ways to monitor and listen to their customers – thanks to social media. This may not mean the replacement of research, but the days of researchers sticking dogmatically to their numbers in the corner office of marketing companies may be finally coming to an end.

With social media research, testing and customer feedback is no longer a report on the shelf or a presentation in a marketing meeting.  It lives in front of everyone, every second of the day. To read more, visit AdAge.

Japanese earthquake affirms the power of social media

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FB, Twitter, YouTube logosThe massive earthquake in Japan once again shows the power and speed of social media. When people – no matter where they are in the world – need to communicate, they are turning to Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media to reach their loved ones.

This weekend, there was story after story about Japanese citizens reaching their family members from the tragedy-stricken country through Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

The lesson for small businesses becomes clear – they can either learn how to communicate through this medium or their business might be swept away against the competition that does.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media vehicles prove their value in the middle of an emergency. We are all about to see what role social media will play in the rebuilding of a country.

Google filters out SEO cheaters

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By Will Wellons

UntitledThe Wall Street Journal this week had a story on how Google is revamping the secret formula it uses to rank web pages in order to keep people from cheating.  Those dastardly cheaters are companies fighting for search engine optimization positions.  Google’s closely held secret formula has always created the need for SEO, marketing and public relations firms to generate tons of content in hopes of getting pages ranked higher and higher.  It’s much more complex than that, but that’s the simple form.

Here is our stance on SEO and the Google formula:

  • Worry about your message.  If you worry about your message and get your message out consistently, your audience and the Google formula will take care of itself.
  • You know your business better than anyone else.  Tell your story.  Tell it again.  Tell different elements of your story – educate your consumers.

If you take the time to follow these steps and some other easy steps, you will consistently rank fairly well in Google searches (assuming other SEO tactics have been taken care of when you built your website).  But the message here is: consistent, positive, educational content goes a long way – no matter what Google does to its secret formula.  To read more, visit The Wall Street Journal.

Be Careful Oversharing on Facebook

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By Vanessa Tostes

You may want to think twice before posting your next status update on your Facebook page – especially if you are in the market for a new job.

More and more companies are using Facebook as background check for new hires.  According to Dan Schawbel, personal branding expert and author of Me 2.0, Facebook is not only a social media engine, but also a reputation branding engine.  Today, 53% of companies are using Facebook as background check, that is, for every other job interview you go to, one of these companies are surely looking at news on what you ate for lunch or what kinds of activities you engaged in last weekend.  Facebook also serves as a catalog of all your wall posts and pictures, which might transfer that information into Google and Yahoo! search engines, depending on your privacy settings.

It is always important to filter what you write on Facebook.  Writing what you had for lunch may not hurt your chances of being hired; however, if you post interesting observations or questions, you are more likely to be viewed positively by a company who is interested in hiring you.

PR Job – put a new Sheen on this one

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0203-charlie-sheen-tmz-credit

By Cori Pope

By now everyone’s heard of the self destructive, downward spiral of beloved Two and a Half Men star and Golden Globe winner, Charlie Sheen.

Just in the past month Sheen’s reputation has gone from notorious bad boy to infamous binge drinking, coke smoking, ever in the presence of porn stars partier. To put the icing on the cake, all this comes as he’s still on probation for his domestic violence spat with ex-wife Brooke Mueller.

Recently, a video surfaced of Sheen dancing, with three scantily clad women at the inception of his 36-hour cocaine fueled party binge last week. Of course, this marathon resulted in a trip to the hospital and rehab.

Now, Charlie’s speaking up about the rumors saying, “All crap. Believe nothing. I will never speak about any of this as long as I’m alive. You’re all gonna have to keep towing the same redundant line, guessing wrong.”

Later his rep spoke on Sheen’s behalf of his remorse and new work ethic.

“I have a lot of work to do to be able to return the support I have received from so many people. I want to say thank you to my fellow cast members, the crew of Two and a Half Men and everyone at CBS and Warner Bros., especially [CBS CEO] Les Moonves and [Warner Bros. TV President] Bruce Rosenblum for their concern and support. And to my fans, your good wishes have touched me very much. Like Errol Flynn, who had to put down his sword on occasion, I just want to say thank you.”

Right now his reps need to put on their best public relations hats to turn his reputation around, which will not be an easy fix.

But here’s a little encouragement, look at Robert Downey, Jr., Ben Affleck, Drew Barrymore, Brittany Spears and Whitney Houston.

What you can learn from Khloe Kardashian’s Twitter trauma

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Khloe-Kardashian-Kim-Kardashian-Critics-Choice-Awards-01171113-580x803Khloe Kardashian has stopped tweeting. Oh, the humanity!

It turns out she’s tired of being bashed in the Twitter-sphere. “The negativity that I see, hear, or read today is out of control.”

Clearly Khloe and her merry band of reality TV clones (khlones?) attract at lot of negative attention because they seem to find every paparazzi and TV camera in the free world. But the Kardashians are also a very popular brand – and one that is being forced to deal with Twitter fans turning on them, rather than tuning them in. With more than 2 million fans, there are a lot of eyeballs at stake.

The same can hold true for any business using social media. One negative Tweet can spread far and fast. What do you do when the masses turn on you?

First, learn as much as you can about the negative Tweeter. Look at their feed. Someone who regularly complains about anything and everything isn’t going to carry as much weight as someone who doesn’t make a habit of going negative via Twitter. In the worst case, it could be a journalist, blogger or very loyal customer.

Next, contact them directly, hear them out and see if their problem has an easy fix. A hotel might give them a free room in the future, a restaurant may offer up a free meal. Making it right can often make the problem go away quickly.

Do not – under any circumstances – decide to engage in a Twitter war. This is neither a battle you want to engage in nor a war you have any hope of winning. Your social media war of words will just attract an even bigger audience as people retweet.

Done correctly, your Twitter nightmare may land you a loyal customer and let others know that you genuinely care about your customers.

And you can rest easy – Khloe has started tweeting once again.

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