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.

Making a list and checking it twice isn’t just a tool for Santa, it also works well in B2B marketing communications. Lists are great communication tools because they break down ideas or processes into more digestible nuggets of information. Plus, lists are a part of our everyday lives (i.e. Twitter feed, honey to-do lists), so they resonate well with target audiences.

Whether you’re at the top of a Forbes list or the bottom of the worst jobs (good news, B2B marketing jobs didn’t make the list) there’s a 2010 list for you. Here are a few of my faves, in no particular order:

1. BtoB Magazine’s Best for 2010
2. Billboard.com’s top 100 Artists of 2010
3. Fast Company’s Master’s of Design 2010
4. New York Times Best Sellers
5. Men’s Health Fattest U.S. Cities
6. BtoB Magazine’s 10 Great B-to-b sites
7. Mashable’s 19 of the Best Info Graphics from 2010
8. Time’s Top 10 of Everything 2010
9. Top 10 Social Media Blogs of 2010
10. Huffington Post’s Social Media Fails: 5 Social Projects That Tanked in 2010

What’s on your marketing wish list for 2011? Need ideas?

Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge LinkedIn advocate.

I always introduce B2B marketing clients to LinkedIn as an entry point for social media. As an on-line professional network, LinkedIn immediately makes sense and adds business value – even to those who purportedly “hate social media”.

Canyon is an early adopter of the LinkedIn Companies Profile. Fellow Canyonite Cheryl Johannes proposes ‘Resolving to be more Social in 2011’ as a new year’s resolution.

Canyon is actively enhancing profile content and testing engagement effectiveness on LinkedIn. We are paying close attention to profile analytics, thankfully headed up and to the right. But recently I began to think about the implications of LinkedIn gathering detailed information from Companies’ profiles. Perhaps last week’s landmark FCC ruling on “net neutrality” has me re-thinking the issue with a more suspicious mindset. 

My suspicion was underscored by the way information on the new Companies functionality is being stored and shared within LinkedIn. I literally had to hunt to find how-to tips by searching the LinkedIn blog and Learning Center. The clues were beginning to add up. I figured Companies’ profiles couldn’t just be about improved usability for “us,” the end-user. The objective of these features HAD to be revenue-based.  Ding-ding…I discovered this information was being used for advertising platform content!

LinkedIn Companies appear to be under the “Marketing Solutions” area of LinkedIn that generates revenue through advertising. Display advertisements, Discussion Groups, Answers sponsorship, Polls and White Paper content marketing are complementary products in the Marketing Solutions section. So, assuming LinkedIn is building a platform for selling advertisements with the content we populate our Companies profiles with, what is a B2B marketer to do? Risk building the collateral of a content distribution platform we do not own?  Or conversely, limit contributions to the platform and potentially decrease the online visibility of our company?

My instinct is that market dynamics will prevent misuse of the (now) public platform and collective community ethics will ensure that LinkedIn Companies Profiles are “used for good.” I don’t expect LinkedIn to sell ads on my profile to a competitor or hold my Companies profile hostage for a fee. 

However, I am also conscious that B2B marketers need to be wise and balance their marketing ‘investments’ across numerous digital platforms.  Do not put all your marketing ‘eggs’ in any singular digital ‘basket.’

That means for now, you should continue to maintain your website, your blog (hosted on a domain you own) and create/maintain a LinkedIn Companies Profile. The upcoming year of adoption trends will continue to bring change for LinkedIn Companies and we will keep watching.  Watching and waiting.  Now it sounds like we are the ones playing the role of Big Brother this time.

It’s time to start thinking about your new year’s resolution (cliché, I know), that promise to yourself that you’re going to change something in your life for the better. If you’re having a hard time deciding on what your resolution is going to be, I’m here to help. I have two great articles to share with you on why you should consider resolving to be more social in 2011, not only personally but professionally.

1. One of my favorite business-leaders, Harvey Mackay, recently wrote about the Perils of Being Anti-Social, presenting some amazing statistics and analysis of Erik Qualman’s book Socialnomics. Hearing that Facebook holds the third largest population behind China and India alone should make you want to become more social, especially for your business.
2. If that wasn’t reason enough, consider these 11 B2B Marketing Predictions for 2011, 8 of which are “social” communications, including mobile tactics. Advocate marketing especially peaks my interest because in B2B, advocates are so much more than brand-builders, they’re profit-drivers. And how do you find advocates? You listen to your customers and socialize with them.

Mackay writes that if you want to have the world at your fingertips, brush up on your “social” skills. In other words, if you want more market share at your fingertips, brush up on your social skills to strengthen your B2B strategy.

And maybe you’re already a B2B social butterfly. Maybe I’m preaching to the choir. If not, make 2011 the year you become social. Or the world will continue to shift, and you won’t reap the ‘real-time’ benefits!