The PR Voyeur

o.b. apology song

Remember when o.b. tampons withdrew their Ultra Tampons from the market in early December 2011? No? That’s ok, I had forgotten as well.

They fell under a FIRESTORM of controversy for that product discontinuation, as few leading feminine hygiene makers create anything similar. BUT did you ever see the amazing pseudo-personalized MUSIC VIDEO they made to pass along their regrets, along with a coupon?

A VERY inventive use of social media I must say. 

11 things that annoy journalists and bloggers

#6 is annoying but I have one better. I had a publicist who worked for some festivals I covered send me her own private training newsletters as well, and I had to unsubscribe not once but TWICE. Very, very unprofessional.

Another thing I will add. When somebody asks me to write something on twitter, I often respond very quickly and ask for more information. Sometimes they take this as a yes and then don’t send me anything and ask why I never wrote a piece. Please, organization will help you a long way. Help me, help YOU.

Use Google Alerts to do more than just stroke your ego

HAH, a hilarious but very effective and convincing reason to get google alerts to do your security homework for you. Not sure how easy this would be if you had a common name, but for somebody like me, there’s only one other person according to the internet with my name and this is a great way to track my mention. How do you use alerts?

14 Tips for PR Babies

The main reason I’m posting this is because at the beginning of the semester, I feel that barely anybody was really embracing #3, 5, 10 and 11 in our program. But now? Everybody is leaps and bounds beyond a few mere months ago. Now for the internships!

LA Fitness has a social media faux-pas, so what?

It comes as no surprise to many that gyms have little to no scruples when it comes to holding customers to their egregious contracts, offering little to no flexibility. And in this example, a pregnant woman wanted to be released from her contract after her husband lost his job. Rather than take it as a quiet loss, especially in such a sad sack situation, LA Fitness dug in their heels. The PR Daily article mentions how this won’t likely affect their bottom line but I wonder…

In Toronto smaller gyms and places with classes and semi-personal training are infiltrating every neighbourhood at an attractive rate, allowing customers to buy classes instead of being tied into a contract, offering patrons with more security and a product that can’t be used or abused, AND they are usually transferable. I’m hugely skeptical of gyms and contracts and refuse to give them my personal information and prefer the class-by-class basis and I’m sure I’m not alone.

January 30th marks President Obama's First Google+ Hangout

We all know Barack Obama is no slouch when it comes to social media and technology. This is the man who petitioned to keep his BlackBerry in office! While he utilized social media successfully for his first campaign on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn, he’s now taking to the newest social network to communicate.

I don’t know about you but I will definitely be stopping by to ‘hang out’ with Barack.

Handle This: Google+ Finally Allows Pseudonyms

In my opinion, with this news google+ is FINALLY truly joining the social network game by allowing pseudonyms and nicknames for users. Who knows the number of people the “common names only” rule turned away from the fledgling network. Personally, it pushed me to use google+ only as an online portfolio, but anything that will add to the conversation on g+ is a boon. I really enjoy the format and the layout but it seriously needs more active users who aren’t afraid to voice their opinions. It’s never going to be facebook, but this does mark a good change for google’s biggest baby.

The Google+ Common Name policy will never be the same. Google promised it would take a close look at the requirement that only real names and identities reside on its seven-month-old social network, and now the search giant has reversed course, allowing both nicknames and full-fledged pseudonyms …

29% of U.S. Adults Own a Tablet or Ereader [STUDY]

See, I keep hearing these statistics about how many adults own e-readers or tablets but I am really interested in the analysis of the ages and demographics of these users. I find that in my class, a heavily technological group, maybe 1 or 2 people own them. And in my group of friends, I’d say 25-35, still very very few own them. My parents friends? TONS of them have them. So really, the market share please!

 
Nineteen percent of adults in the United States own a tablet, and 29% own either a tablet or an ereader, according to the latest study from Pew Internet. What’s amazing about these findings is that the share of U.S. adults who own tablets nearly doubled from 10% to 19% between mid-December 20…