Every year I look forward to reading Fineman PR’s list of the biggest PR blunders of the year. This year’s list was no disappointment. The list proved to be informative, thought provoking and a good reminder of some PR basics. Below are some of my key takeaways.

• Media training is critical. It’s so important that your company spokespeople know how to confidently speak to media, deliver key messages directly, develop effective sound bites and respond to media questions. And no, falling silent and walking away, like Craigslist founder Craig Newmark did during his interview with CNN, is not an effective strategy.
• Social media can be your best friend or your worst enemy. Customers now have instant access to outlets that allow them to document experiences—good or bad. Social media sites can greatly affect the public’s perception of your company. Additionally, analyzing and monitoring social media sites and quickly and genuinely responding to complaints or concerns can salvage customer relationships. Alaska Airlines learned this the hard way. One of its former customers created a now defunct blog titled “Alaska Airlines Hates Families” after a horrendous travel experience.
• Don’t pass the buck. Finding yourself in a crisis is unfortunate. However, the way you react to that crisis can make or break your company’s reputation. Just ask BP. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was tragic. The way BP reacted to the oil spill was even worse. CEO Tony Hayward continually downplayed the image and even issued sound bites including, “It wasn’t our accident” and “I just want my life back” (sounds like he could benefit from quality media training). Later, replacement CEO Bob Dudley accused media and competing oil companies of rushing to a judgment regarding BP’s “crisis response.” Basically, BP did everything it could to blame other parties for its disaster. In my opinion, because of the way BP reacted to the oil spill, its reputation is permanently tarnished.

Ultimately, these PR blunders show us that:

• Media training is essential
• Nothing is truly transparent
• You can’t spin your way out of a crisis or a disagreement with a customer
• Crisis communications is critical
• Having a solid PR partner by your side is important

Looking for a solid PR partner? Give Canyon a call; we’ll make sure you never make this list.

Search engine optimization (SEO), the practice of placing key words and phrases to better improve a web page’s visibility to search engines, is all the rage today (ironically, a Google search for  the phrase yields a staggering 54 million+ hits). Businesses are constantly looking for ways to appear higher in search engine rankings to help their customers, both potential and otherwise, find them.

But, finding the perfect balance of SEO strategies, keywords, key phrases and best practices can be a challenging exercise. SEO is a moving target, with the proprietary alogrithms each search engine uses changing constantly (even daily), and a mis-step resulting in the dreaded “blackhat” that could potentially move you to the bottom of the search rankings. Canyon Communications recognized this challenge and responded to it by adding a digital strategy manager to its team, and we were thrilled to have Dara Schulenberg fill this position this past November.

Some of you might have read Dara’s take on SEO in the December issue of In Business Magazine. The article titled, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Don’t be SOL (Sadly Outta Luck)” discusses SEO keyword and key phrase selection, myths and misconceptions regarding SEO as well as the ranking creditability. It also cautions readers against trying to outsmart search engines with tactics like word stuffing to appear higher in the ranks (again, the dreaded “blackhat”).

One of Dara’s key insights is that when it comes to SEO there really isn’t one, single best practice. Search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, which means it’s more important than ever to have a partner dedicated to helping you stay on top of the ever-changing world of SEO.

Are you looking for a partner to help you analyze and modify your SEO strategy to help you get the most bang for your buck? Give Dara a call at Canyon – she’s the perfect person to help point you in the right direction, and help your customers find you sooner.

It’s been nearly one year since I blogged about Tiger Woods and his car crash, which was followed by his immediate silence and refusal to talk with media (and local police, among others). Those events eventually ended up costing Tiger the thing he values most—his reputation.

Now, one year later, Tiger can’t get enough of the media spotlight. He has embarked on a PR campaign in an attempt to save his reputation, and over the past few weeks he’s done numerous radio and print interviews and even sent out a couple of Tweets to his 255,000 followers—including one thanking his fans for the love.

So what gives? Has Tiger really changed? Is he truly trying to reconnect with his fans or is this PR stunt designed to clean up his tarnished image?

There’s a bigger question here—is Tiger’s reputation even salvageable? Is there anything Tiger can do to fix his tarnished reputation, or will he forever be looked at differently?

My advice to Tiger is quit trying to force a PR campaign; people can see through the phony (come on, that’s PR 101). Be genuine and get back to winning golf tournaments. I’m certainly not a fan of Tiger but, in my opinion, if Michael Vick can make a comeback, so can Tiger.

I came across an article titled, “9 Ways Companies Completely Blow Press Opportunities” in Business Insider. The PR person in me couldn’t wait to click through the list and discover the nine ways, according to this author, that companies blow it when creating and distributing news and working with reporters and editors.

As predicted, one of my biggest pet peeves made the list. Check out number two, begin your release with “the leading provider of,” “next generation” or “best of breed.” Yuck! I cringe when I see these words on a release—and you can throw award-winning on there also.

These buzzwords have no place in press releases. In fact, they have become so overused that they’ve lost their meaning. It’s impossible for every company to be the leading provider of its product or service, so find something new that truly sets your company apart from the rest. And if you don’t believe me, check out this study to see just how often these words are used when distributing news.

Check out the rest of the “9 Ways Companies Completely Blow Press Opportunities” list here.

Lesson learned? Distribute news only when you have something truly newsworthy to share. And, when those rare and precious press opportunities surface, don’t blow it by making a simple mistake. If you’re looking for someone to partner with on your public relations efforts, give me a call. At Canyon, you’ll never see our actions on this list.

photo courtesy: www.flickr.com/photos/danielmall