By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC
Skogrand PR Solutions recently launched a new website at http://skograndpr.com/, and future blog posts will be located on that site at http://skograndpr.com/blog/.
You'll still be able to read past blog posts on this site.
Thanks for reading!
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Wednesday, October 22, 2014
Sunday, September 21, 2014
Minnesota PRSA's fortuitous sports public relations event
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC
In a week when NFL players' alleged misdeeds dominated the headlines, the breakfast event hosted by the Minnesota chapter of the Public Relations Society of America on sports public relations and communications was fortuitous indeed.
The event, held at Target Center (home of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx), featured members of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx communications team. Brian Kimmes, facilities project manager, kicked things off with an overview of the transformation of a nearby building from Block E to Mayo Clinic Square. The building will be unique in that it will have a sports medicine center in the same building as the team's practice area, something that no other NBA team can claim.
Next up was Brad Ruiter, vice president of communications for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. After a brief overview of his background and current position, a lively question-and-answer session ensued.
The first topic? This year's trade of all-star player Kevin Love. "We got extremely lucky that LeBron James wanted to go back to Cleveland," said Ruiter. "The dominoes started to fall into place."
It didn't take long for the indictment of Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson to come up.
"Don't blame the Minnesota Vikings PR team for what is happening with the Adrian Peterson situation. In professional sports, the buck stops with the owner," said Ruiter, referring to the team's loss of sponsors and a press conference in which Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman looked extremely uncomfortable. "The Minnesota Vikings have gotten themselves into a hole and need to get themselves out day by day."
Ruiter knows the public relations personnel at the Vikings and the other Minnesota professional sports teams. In fact, the Timberwolves collaborated with the Vikings to get the recent stadium bonding bill passed. The Vikings approached the state legislature while the Timberwolves handled the Minneapolis city government lobbying efforts.
Ruiter compared and contrasted Timberwolves and Lynx fans, saying that Timberwolves fans are very cautious about the team and are taking a "wait-and-see approach." On the other hand, Lynx fans are a small yet very passionate group. "Lynx fans would run through a wall for the team," said Ruiter.
While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been pummeled in the media for his handling of off-the-field drama, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been praised for the way he handled this summer's Donald Sterling/Los Angeles Clippers situation. The difference, according to Ruiter, is that Silver stepped in right away.
In addition to getting an inside look at the public relations operations of an NBA team, attendees also learned something important about sports public relations -- a lot of it involves reactionary situations.
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx VP of Communications Brad Ruiter addresses PR professionals. |
The event, held at Target Center (home of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx), featured members of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx communications team. Brian Kimmes, facilities project manager, kicked things off with an overview of the transformation of a nearby building from Block E to Mayo Clinic Square. The building will be unique in that it will have a sports medicine center in the same building as the team's practice area, something that no other NBA team can claim.
Next up was Brad Ruiter, vice president of communications for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx. After a brief overview of his background and current position, a lively question-and-answer session ensued.
The first topic? This year's trade of all-star player Kevin Love. "We got extremely lucky that LeBron James wanted to go back to Cleveland," said Ruiter. "The dominoes started to fall into place."
It didn't take long for the indictment of Minnesota Viking Adrian Peterson to come up.
"Don't blame the Minnesota Vikings PR team for what is happening with the Adrian Peterson situation. In professional sports, the buck stops with the owner," said Ruiter, referring to the team's loss of sponsors and a press conference in which Vikings General Manager Rick Spielman looked extremely uncomfortable. "The Minnesota Vikings have gotten themselves into a hole and need to get themselves out day by day."
Ruiter knows the public relations personnel at the Vikings and the other Minnesota professional sports teams. In fact, the Timberwolves collaborated with the Vikings to get the recent stadium bonding bill passed. The Vikings approached the state legislature while the Timberwolves handled the Minneapolis city government lobbying efforts.
Ruiter compared and contrasted Timberwolves and Lynx fans, saying that Timberwolves fans are very cautious about the team and are taking a "wait-and-see approach." On the other hand, Lynx fans are a small yet very passionate group. "Lynx fans would run through a wall for the team," said Ruiter.
While NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has been pummeled in the media for his handling of off-the-field drama, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been praised for the way he handled this summer's Donald Sterling/Los Angeles Clippers situation. The difference, according to Ruiter, is that Silver stepped in right away.
In addition to getting an inside look at the public relations operations of an NBA team, attendees also learned something important about sports public relations -- a lot of it involves reactionary situations.
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Understanding the basics of search engine optimization
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC
Last week I was a guest on the Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson, the "SmallBizLady." I answered questions about the basics of search engine optimization.
Here's the transcript.
SmallBizLady: Many people have heard of search engine optimization (SEO). How would you define SEO?
Brant Skogrand: According to Search Engine College, where I became a Certified Search Engine Marketer, SEO is “the use of search engines to draw traffic to a website. It’s the technique of attaining a higher ranking in search engines and directories via alteration of website code and copy to make it more search engine compatible.”
SEO is divided into two categories: organic and paid. The Search Engine College definition mainly refers to organic SEO.
Paid (or pay-per-click) SEO also is important, because it can provide instantaneous visibility and be very useful for online marketing campaigns of a specific timeframe. Examples of pay-per-click SEO programs include Google AdWords and Bing Ads.
SmallBizLady: Why is SEO important?
Brant Skogrand: Think about your own web search habits. I know that even if I’m really searching for something, I don’t usually go past the fourth page of Google. I’m the exception, however. According to HubSpot, 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
Getting onto the first or second page of search results for keywords that are relevant to your organization can make a big difference in visits to your website – and very likely in your business results.
There are approximately 200 ranking factors that go into Google’s algorithm, ranging from keywords to social signals to tags and beyond. Having an understanding of those ranking factors can help your website rise in the search results. It does take time as well as a fine balance between optimizing your website and over-optimizing your website, which the search engines frown upon.
SmallBizLady: Why are keywords important to SEO?
Brant Skogrand: Keyword research is probably the most crucial element to SEO. The search engines are looking to connect users with the most relevant sites. Keywords are more than just single words; they are the terms that potential site visitors would use in search engines to find your product or service.
Hopefully you already know who your target customer is. If not, start thinking about your target customer to move forward with your keyword research. Where do they live? What is their age range? What is your target customer’s gender?
Start writing down a “seed list” of keywords to choose from. For instance, a Minneapolis-based florist might start out with phrases that include the words “flowers,” “florists,” or “gifts.”
Those are pretty general terms though. Continuing on with the example of the Minneapolis-based florist, qualifying the terms will help you get closer to the phrases that visitors might actually use, such as “send flowers Minneapolis,” “florists Minneapolis,” “wedding bouquets Minneapolis,” “Valentine’s Day gifts Minneapolis,” etc.
This final list of keywords is important, because you will want to use them throughout your website: in the text, in headers, in the title of your website, and more. Most webpages can only be optimized for a maximum of two to three keywords or phrases. So, if you have a 10-page website to optimize, you’ll need approximately 30 keywords of phrases to target. You probably would want to come up with more words than that, though. It’s always good to have more keywords to choose from.
Some of the best resources that I have found to determine the actual traffic for various keywords include the Keyword Planner tool on the Google AdWords website, SEMrush and Raven Tools.
SmallBizLady: What role do tags have in SEO?
Brant Skogrand: The title tag in particular is very important. Search Engine College defines the title tag as “a descriptive name of a page that is shown by browsers as the page name in the browser window.”
After the overall content of a webpage, the title tag is considered the single most important on-page SEO element.
Search engines prefer when your website has a unique title for each page, and may even ignore pages that have the same titles.
Search results limit the number of characters that they show for page titles. The best practice is to keep page titles to a length between 10 and 70 characters.
Use your keywords in your title tag. Put the most important keywords first, as search engines read from left to right.
The meta description tag also is important, as search engines often display this short, helpful summary of your page’s content. Searchers also use the meta description tag to decide which result to click on. A general best practice is to keep the meta description tag to a minimum of 50 characters and a maximum of 156 characters.
SmallBizLady: How can photos be optimized for SEO?
Brant Skogrand: Since search engines are visually impaired, flashy webpages aren’t as useful as ones that have an appropriate level of text to help the search engines with appropriate context to understand the content and its quality.
Best practices recommend at least 250 words of text on each webpage.
I like to take advantage of any optimization possibility, however, and each photo has the opportunity for associated text. Both ALT text and title text for a photo provide search engines with useful information about the subject matter of an image. The search engines in turn use this information to determine the best image to return for a searcher’s query.
SmallBizLady: SEO is constantly changing. How can people keep up?
Brant Skogrand: Several websites are very useful that track search engine updates, including: Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, Moz and Search Engine Land.
Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, also has a blog with very useful information.
Many search engine updates, such as Google’s recent announcement that websites that automatically encrypt their services will be boosted in Google’s ranking formula, are covered in the mainstream media.
SmallBizLady: What were the effects of the most recent Google updates?
Brant Skogrand: Google changes its search algorithm around 500 to 600 times each year. Most of the changes are minor, but sometimes there’s a major algorithmic update – such as Google Panda or Google Penguin.
Recent updates include Pigeon (updates to local search algorithms), Panda 4.0 (part of an update to prevent sites with poor quality content to get into the top search results), changes to Google Authorship, and Payday Loan (an anti-spam update).
SmallBizLady: How can SEO be measured?
Brant Skogrand: Hopefully it ties to business results.
While you can look at where your website ranks in the search results, there are more measures to look at by having Google Analytics installed on your website, which can track site usage and visitor behavior.
With Google Analytics, you can set a goal conversion – meaning that if people visit a certain page, request an appointment, buy an item, etc., you are meeting specific goals for your website.
Other measurements in Google Analytics range from bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who enter the site and “bounce” (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site) to the geographic location of site visitors to the most popular content and more.
SmallBizLady: What role does social media and public relations have in relation to SEO?
Brant Skogrand: Earlier this year, Google’s Matt Cutts said, “But as far as doing special specific work to sort of say ‘you have this many followers on Twitter or this many likes on Facebook,’ to the best of my knowledge we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.”
There’s value in having an active presence on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks (like Google+), however, because it can be a way to drive traffic and visitors to your website.
Having a blog on your website also can be valuable as a way to demonstrate thought leadership.
Search engines also reward sites that frequently refresh content, which generally can be accomplished by having a blog.
There’s also value in obtaining media coverage through public relations outreach. The resulting articles could drive traffic to your website and increase the popularity of your organization. In addition, media websites often link to the websites of companies that they cover, which can be a boost to your organization’s SEO efforts.
SmallBizLady: How can entrepreneurs learn more about SEO?
Brant Skogrand: I found the Search Engine College program very helpful. Their curriculum covers topics ranging from organic SEO to pay-per-click to copywriting and beyond. It’s on online program, and tutors grade your assignments.
Google also offers free online courses through Google Analytics Academy to help people improve their Analytics skills. There also are Google Partners certifications, including the AdWords certification, to demonstrate proficiency.
SmallBizLady: Why did you decide to write the 19 Tips for Successful Public Relations book?
Brant Skogrand: Many organizations struggle with how to successfully integrate public relations into their marketing mix.
Because of the numerous demands on entrepreneurs’ time and money, many small business owners neither are able to learn public relations on their own nor hire an outside public relations firm.
My goal with the book is to help entrepreneurs learn small business public relations through straightforward tips and by analysis of real-life examples – and then be able to apply public relations strategies and tactics to help achieve their business goals.
SmallBizLady: Are there any other tips for SEO that you can give to startups and developing businesses?
Brant Skogrand: As you probably have noticed, there are a lot of factors that go into SEO and it can be tough to keep up with the changes.
Even though you can do it on your own, the results generally are better when you hire an outside professional.
Be wary of people who guarantee results. Since we don’t run Google or Bing, we can’t guarantee that your website will rank at the top of the search results for specific terms. By using our knowledge and experience, however, your site should see optimization improvements.
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Last week I was a guest on the Twitter talk show #SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson, the "SmallBizLady." I answered questions about the basics of search engine optimization.
Here's the transcript.
SmallBizLady: Many people have heard of search engine optimization (SEO). How would you define SEO?
Brant Skogrand: According to Search Engine College, where I became a Certified Search Engine Marketer, SEO is “the use of search engines to draw traffic to a website. It’s the technique of attaining a higher ranking in search engines and directories via alteration of website code and copy to make it more search engine compatible.”
SEO is divided into two categories: organic and paid. The Search Engine College definition mainly refers to organic SEO.
Paid (or pay-per-click) SEO also is important, because it can provide instantaneous visibility and be very useful for online marketing campaigns of a specific timeframe. Examples of pay-per-click SEO programs include Google AdWords and Bing Ads.
SmallBizLady: Why is SEO important?
Brant Skogrand: Think about your own web search habits. I know that even if I’m really searching for something, I don’t usually go past the fourth page of Google. I’m the exception, however. According to HubSpot, 75 percent of users never scroll past the first page of search results.
Getting onto the first or second page of search results for keywords that are relevant to your organization can make a big difference in visits to your website – and very likely in your business results.
There are approximately 200 ranking factors that go into Google’s algorithm, ranging from keywords to social signals to tags and beyond. Having an understanding of those ranking factors can help your website rise in the search results. It does take time as well as a fine balance between optimizing your website and over-optimizing your website, which the search engines frown upon.
SmallBizLady: Why are keywords important to SEO?
 |
| “Key With Keywords Text” courtesy of Stuart Miles / www.freedigitalphotos.net |
Brant Skogrand: Keyword research is probably the most crucial element to SEO. The search engines are looking to connect users with the most relevant sites. Keywords are more than just single words; they are the terms that potential site visitors would use in search engines to find your product or service.
Hopefully you already know who your target customer is. If not, start thinking about your target customer to move forward with your keyword research. Where do they live? What is their age range? What is your target customer’s gender?
Start writing down a “seed list” of keywords to choose from. For instance, a Minneapolis-based florist might start out with phrases that include the words “flowers,” “florists,” or “gifts.”
Those are pretty general terms though. Continuing on with the example of the Minneapolis-based florist, qualifying the terms will help you get closer to the phrases that visitors might actually use, such as “send flowers Minneapolis,” “florists Minneapolis,” “wedding bouquets Minneapolis,” “Valentine’s Day gifts Minneapolis,” etc.
This final list of keywords is important, because you will want to use them throughout your website: in the text, in headers, in the title of your website, and more. Most webpages can only be optimized for a maximum of two to three keywords or phrases. So, if you have a 10-page website to optimize, you’ll need approximately 30 keywords of phrases to target. You probably would want to come up with more words than that, though. It’s always good to have more keywords to choose from.
Some of the best resources that I have found to determine the actual traffic for various keywords include the Keyword Planner tool on the Google AdWords website, SEMrush and Raven Tools.
SmallBizLady: What role do tags have in SEO?
Brant Skogrand: The title tag in particular is very important. Search Engine College defines the title tag as “a descriptive name of a page that is shown by browsers as the page name in the browser window.”
After the overall content of a webpage, the title tag is considered the single most important on-page SEO element.
Search engines prefer when your website has a unique title for each page, and may even ignore pages that have the same titles.
Search results limit the number of characters that they show for page titles. The best practice is to keep page titles to a length between 10 and 70 characters.
Use your keywords in your title tag. Put the most important keywords first, as search engines read from left to right.
The meta description tag also is important, as search engines often display this short, helpful summary of your page’s content. Searchers also use the meta description tag to decide which result to click on. A general best practice is to keep the meta description tag to a minimum of 50 characters and a maximum of 156 characters.
SmallBizLady: How can photos be optimized for SEO?
Brant Skogrand: Since search engines are visually impaired, flashy webpages aren’t as useful as ones that have an appropriate level of text to help the search engines with appropriate context to understand the content and its quality.
Best practices recommend at least 250 words of text on each webpage.
I like to take advantage of any optimization possibility, however, and each photo has the opportunity for associated text. Both ALT text and title text for a photo provide search engines with useful information about the subject matter of an image. The search engines in turn use this information to determine the best image to return for a searcher’s query.
SmallBizLady: SEO is constantly changing. How can people keep up?
Brant Skogrand: Several websites are very useful that track search engine updates, including: Search Engine Journal, Search Engine Watch, Moz and Search Engine Land.
Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s Webspam team, also has a blog with very useful information.
Many search engine updates, such as Google’s recent announcement that websites that automatically encrypt their services will be boosted in Google’s ranking formula, are covered in the mainstream media.
SmallBizLady: What were the effects of the most recent Google updates?
Brant Skogrand: Google changes its search algorithm around 500 to 600 times each year. Most of the changes are minor, but sometimes there’s a major algorithmic update – such as Google Panda or Google Penguin.
Recent updates include Pigeon (updates to local search algorithms), Panda 4.0 (part of an update to prevent sites with poor quality content to get into the top search results), changes to Google Authorship, and Payday Loan (an anti-spam update).
SmallBizLady: How can SEO be measured?
Brant Skogrand: Hopefully it ties to business results.
While you can look at where your website ranks in the search results, there are more measures to look at by having Google Analytics installed on your website, which can track site usage and visitor behavior.
With Google Analytics, you can set a goal conversion – meaning that if people visit a certain page, request an appointment, buy an item, etc., you are meeting specific goals for your website.
Other measurements in Google Analytics range from bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who enter the site and “bounce” (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site) to the geographic location of site visitors to the most popular content and more.
SmallBizLady: What role does social media and public relations have in relation to SEO?
Brant Skogrand: Earlier this year, Google’s Matt Cutts said, “But as far as doing special specific work to sort of say ‘you have this many followers on Twitter or this many likes on Facebook,’ to the best of my knowledge we don’t currently have any signals like that in our web search ranking algorithms.”
There’s value in having an active presence on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks (like Google+), however, because it can be a way to drive traffic and visitors to your website.
Having a blog on your website also can be valuable as a way to demonstrate thought leadership.
Search engines also reward sites that frequently refresh content, which generally can be accomplished by having a blog.
There’s also value in obtaining media coverage through public relations outreach. The resulting articles could drive traffic to your website and increase the popularity of your organization. In addition, media websites often link to the websites of companies that they cover, which can be a boost to your organization’s SEO efforts.
SmallBizLady: How can entrepreneurs learn more about SEO?
Brant Skogrand: I found the Search Engine College program very helpful. Their curriculum covers topics ranging from organic SEO to pay-per-click to copywriting and beyond. It’s on online program, and tutors grade your assignments.
Google also offers free online courses through Google Analytics Academy to help people improve their Analytics skills. There also are Google Partners certifications, including the AdWords certification, to demonstrate proficiency.
SmallBizLady: Why did you decide to write the 19 Tips for Successful Public Relations book?
Brant Skogrand: Many organizations struggle with how to successfully integrate public relations into their marketing mix.
Because of the numerous demands on entrepreneurs’ time and money, many small business owners neither are able to learn public relations on their own nor hire an outside public relations firm.
My goal with the book is to help entrepreneurs learn small business public relations through straightforward tips and by analysis of real-life examples – and then be able to apply public relations strategies and tactics to help achieve their business goals.
SmallBizLady: Are there any other tips for SEO that you can give to startups and developing businesses?
Brant Skogrand: As you probably have noticed, there are a lot of factors that go into SEO and it can be tough to keep up with the changes.
Even though you can do it on your own, the results generally are better when you hire an outside professional.
Be wary of people who guarantee results. Since we don’t run Google or Bing, we can’t guarantee that your website will rank at the top of the search results for specific terms. By using our knowledge and experience, however, your site should see optimization improvements.
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Saturday, August 16, 2014
What makes a video go viral
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC
While there doesn't seem to be a formula to guarantee that a video will go viral, researchers have found some commonalities among hits across the Internet.
In a recent article by Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times, she highlighted the following findings from researchers:
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
 |
| Screen grab from YouTube |
In a recent article by Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times, she highlighted the following findings from researchers:
- Emotion is key. The video can cause either a happy or sad response, but is more likely to be passed along the more intense the emotion it causes.
- Uplifting content is shared more frequently. On the list of stories that are e-mailed most among New York Times readers, depressing content is not shared as often.
- Ego comes into play. Just like a library with unread books just to look well-read, many people share links and videos just to get more likes, clicks or to evoke laughter or other reactions.
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Hello, Springfield!
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC
Approximately 20 PRSA members either already involved or interested in PRSA leadership participated in the conference’s QuickStart session. They learned how to focus their leadership qualities for chapter success from Regina Waters, Ph.D., of Drury University, discussed best practices from around the Midwest District, and heard from Cohen on the role of PRSA National.
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Approximately
200 public relations practitioners recently converged in Springfield, Mo., for
this year’s PRSA Midwest District Conference.
While storms
in the Chicago area delayed those flying through O’Hare Airport, travelers
persisted and were rewarded with excellent learning and networking
opportunities.
The
conference, with a tagline of “Firm Foundations/New Horizons,” featured three
keynotes:
- Minnesota’s James Lukaszewski, ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA, spoke on “Gaining Influence: How to Have a More Important, Powerful, Influential and Fulfilling Career.”
- Joe Cohen, APR, the national chair of PRSA, discussed PRSA’s strategic plan, the evolving
role of public relations professionals, and the “seven deadly sins of PR.”
PRSA National Chair Joe Cohen, APR, addresses QuickStart attendees.
- Missy Maher of Edelman shared her insights on marketing to the modern family.
More than 25
breakout sessions provided plenty of choices for attendees. Topics ranged from
content marketing to social media measurement to chocolate addiction and
beyond.
Approximately 20 PRSA members either already involved or interested in PRSA leadership participated in the conference’s QuickStart session. They learned how to focus their leadership qualities for chapter success from Regina Waters, Ph.D., of Drury University, discussed best practices from around the Midwest District, and heard from Cohen on the role of PRSA National.
While a
printed program provided an overview of the conference, attendees also were
able to download the Guidebook app to create a personalized
schedule and be updated about schedule changes on the fly.
The app
proved its use when two sessions were scratched due to the cancellation of the
speaker’s flight from Chicago.
In addition
to networking opportunities throughout the day, attendees hit downtown
Springfield for dinner at a restaurant of their choice and ended the evening with
a gathering at Springfield Brewing Company.
The annual
Midwest District Platinum Award, the district’s highest individual honor, was
given to Debbie Harvey, APR. She was president of the Chicago chapter in 2012
and championed and led development of the 2012 Midwest District Conference in
Chicago. Harvey works for the American Medical Association as the vice
president of change strategies.
Thanks to
the Southwest Missouri PRSA chapter for providing an excellent professional
development opportunity!
To see tweets from the conference, search
Twitter using the hashtag #prsamdc. For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Sunday, June 8, 2014
The art of the apology
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC
Authentically saying "I'm sorry" can be a very challenging action to take.
Last week, however, Jonah Hill delivered an excellent apology on "The Tonight Show." While Hill was on the show to plug his new "22 Jump Street" movie, he insisted on clearing the air first regarding the circumstances in which he was caught on video using a gay slur directed at a paparazzo.
Hugh Grant also delivered a skillful apology on "The Tonight Show" in 1995 for his dalliance with a prostitute. Grant effectively summed it up by saying, "I did a bad thing, and there you have it."
Finally, David Letterman was deft in his apologies related to having sexual liaisons with female staff members.
How come these three apologies worked? They were sincere. They were timely. Above all, they essentially said, "I screwed up and I'm sorry."
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Authentically saying "I'm sorry" can be a very challenging action to take.
Last week, however, Jonah Hill delivered an excellent apology on "The Tonight Show." While Hill was on the show to plug his new "22 Jump Street" movie, he insisted on clearing the air first regarding the circumstances in which he was caught on video using a gay slur directed at a paparazzo.
Hugh Grant also delivered a skillful apology on "The Tonight Show" in 1995 for his dalliance with a prostitute. Grant effectively summed it up by saying, "I did a bad thing, and there you have it."
Finally, David Letterman was deft in his apologies related to having sexual liaisons with female staff members.
How come these three apologies worked? They were sincere. They were timely. Above all, they essentially said, "I screwed up and I'm sorry."
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Removing links from Google
By Brant Skogrand, APR, MBC
What goes on the Internet stays on the Internet, right? Yes -- except for in the European Union now.* Thanks to a recent ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, Google and other search engines now also are in the business of being caretakers of people's reputations.
Here's how it works with Google:
*In a USA Today article, Eric Schiffer of Reputation Management Consultants in Irvine, Calif., said, "There's nothing that you do on the Internet that can truly be erased. Even this Google ruling—it's the equivalent of destroying a library index card, but the book still exists."
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
Here's how it works with Google:
- Europeans can visit this page to complete a form requesting that search results be de-indexed from Google's listings.
- The results must be “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed.”
- Google will "assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information. When evaluating the request, Google will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials."
- A copy of a valid form of photo identification is needed to complete the form, in order to "prevent fraudulent removal requests from people impersonating others, trying to harm competitors, or improperly seeking to suppress legal information."
- Lawyers or other authorized agents may submit a request for someone they represent.
*In a USA Today article, Eric Schiffer of Reputation Management Consultants in Irvine, Calif., said, "There's nothing that you do on the Internet that can truly be erased. Even this Google ruling—it's the equivalent of destroying a library index card, but the book still exists."
For a collection of more public relations tips, insights and reflections, buy the book "19 Tips for Successful Public Relations: Insights on Media Relations and Reputation Management" from amazon.com!
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