"You're Fired": The top 5 risks of using Twitter
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Used properly, Twitter can be a powerful tool for connecting with clients, prospects, friends fans and just about every possible stakeholder group. But there's no shortage of cautionary tales about celebrities, politicians, companies and ordinary tweeps who've been publicly embarrassed (or worse) over a stupid tweet...
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50 great inventions Canada gave to the world
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It's Canada Day! The greatest country in the world is turning 145. And while Canadians are generally considered to be polite, under-the-radar type folks, Canada has given the world some of its greatest inventions. In honour of Canada Day, here are 50 of Canada's greatest...
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5 irritating habits of reporters when calling PR pros
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There was a huge response this week to our post about the Top 5 Mistakes PR Pros Make When Pitching Journalists. Among the responses we received was this great one from a PR industry veteran, who highlighted some of the more irritating habits of some journalists...
Media outlets botch coverage of health care ruling
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When news breaks, media organizations race to inform their readers, viewers and listeners. But sometimes, the frantic scramble to report the news can take a toll on the quality and accuracy of the reporting. A cringe-worthy example is unfolding today...
Read More5 mistakes PR pros make when pitching journalists
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Guest post by Carly Weeks, health reporter with The Globe and Mail.
If you were applying for a job and spelled the contact person's name incorrectly, inserted the wrong organization name in the cover letter or didn't have any of the qualifications specified in the job posting, you probably wouldn't be surprised if you didn't get called for an interview...
Read MoreGreat example of a local business that 'gets' how to use Twitter
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Many companies, large and small, are doing social media wrong. And by far, the biggest mistake most businesses make is using Twitter like a giant fire hose, endlessly blasting out information about themselves and patting themselves on the back. "Click here! Read this!
Read MoreHow David Stern should have answered Jim Rome’s loaded/repeat question
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Whether you’re a school teacher or the Commissioner of the National Basketball Association, your approach to media interviews should include a sound strategy for handling loaded and repeat questions. Last week, NBA Commissioner David Stern gave us a not-so-friendly reminder...
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RIM's new CEO: A man without a message
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Research in Motion missed out on an important opportunity this week to define the next chapter in their corporate history. As RIM's co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped aside and COO Thorsten Heins took...
Read MoreRob Ford: Media relations bully and soon-to-be one-term mayor
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Rob Ford is on his way to becoming a one-term mayor. And one of the biggest reasons he'll lose any future election bid is his staggeringly awful handing of the media. Mayor Ford has shown on numerous occasions that he has little time or respect for the media (outside...
Read MoreHow media interviews are like American Idol
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Love it or hate it, American Idol has introduced the music-buying public to some very talented performers that, but for the show, might have remained in obscurity forever. At the same time, however, the popular show has served as a venue for some of the most hideous, offensive musical disasters ever to be seen on television...
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The most important media relations tool money can buy...
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What's your 'must-have' tool when preparing yourself or a client for an important media interview? A laptop? iPad? BlackBerry? Skype? Video camera? As much as I love gadgets (and I do love my gadgets), I would gladly forsake all of these for the lowly index card...
Read MoreWhy you should never go to lunch with a reporter
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You've finally lined up a media interview with that influential reporter you've been after for months. Rather than doing the interview over the phone, however, one of you suggests meeting for lunch (I've seen both clients and journalists initiate this idea). Great idea, right?
Read MoreHow to finish your next media interview in 5 minutes or less
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Many spokespeople treat a media interview like a job interview. They sit there passively like a job applicant while the reporter asks question after question after question. The person being interviewed is like a human piñata, getting whacked with questions for 10, 15, even 20 minutes at a time. The result?
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Christine O'Donnell breaks 3 media relations rules in 60 seconds
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Last November, Christine O'Donnell gave late-night talk show hosts a gift in her 'response to accusations of witchcraft' TV spot. Yesterday, she reinforced her inability to handle the media by walking out of an on-camera interview with CNN's Piers Morgan...
Read MoreOrillia mayor tries to put the local media in his inbox
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It seems the Mayor of Orillia, a city here in Ontario, has had enough of those bothersome phone calls from the media. Mayor Angelo Orsi announced yesterday that he is no longer accepting phone calls from the media. A memo from the mayor's office to the media stated that "all media questions are required to be in writing and e-mailed to Orsi". His rationale for the move? "This approach helps me keep track...
Read MoreSome mind-bending social media stats for your next presentation
/I'm just back at my desk this morning after a couple days deliving social media training sessions out of town. Clients have so many questions about this area right now. How to use the tools. What NOT to do (to avoid embarrassing their employers or getting fired). How to protect their privacy. How to integrate social media into their existing communications and marketing efforts.
Anyway, for the latest road trip, I spent some time updating all my social media stats and wanted to share them while they're still (somewhat) current. That's the funny thing - these numbers change on a monthly basis. So while they're fresh, here are some cool social media facts that you might want to use for your next presentation:
LinkedIn:
- Has more than 100 million members in more than 200 countries and territories
- More than 3 million members in Canada
- About 1 million new members join each week
- More than 2 million companies currently have a LinkedIn company page
Flickr:
- Hosts more than 5 billion images
- Members upload more than 3,000 images per minute
- 55.1% of people online worldwide are uploading photos to Flickr
YouTube:
- There are more than 2 billion video views on YouTube every 24 hours
- More than 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute
- If YouTube was Hollywood, there would be enough material to release 60,000 films each week
- If your daughter loves Justin Bieber, blame YouTube, which launched him from his couch in Stratford, Ontario to international superstar in just over 12 months
Twitter:
- It took 3 years, 2 months and 1 day to get to 1 billion tweets. Now, there are a billion tweets every week.
- There were 4,000 tweets per second the night Osama bin Laden was killed.
- There are about 460,000 new accounts created every day.
- Mobile users increased 182% in the past year.
- In January 2008, Twitter had 8 employees. Today, they have more than 400.
Facebook:
- More than 500 million users
- More than 250 million mobile users
- People spend more than 700 billion minutes on Facebook every month
- There are more than 30 billion pieces of content shared each month
- People on Facebook install 20 million applications per day
AHS CEO loses his high-paying job because of a cookie
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That was one expensive cookie... In November, Alberta Health Services President and CEO Stephen Duckett was leaving an urgent meeting about a crisis in provincial emergency room care when he was approached by a reporter from CTV. While the camera was rolling, the...