A swing and a miss for Ochocinco

Giant’s PR Chief Lashes Out At Disgruntled Fans on Twitter
There are generally three schools of thoughts on how to respond to Twitter critics: ignore them, passive aggressively retweet the comments while throwing in a bon mot to sound intellectually superior or pull an Ochocinco and resort to name calling. New York Giants vice president of communications Pat Hanlon subscribes to the last one. In a flurry of Tweets on Thursday morning, the Giants PR chief issued a number of sarcastic responses to fans complaining about the team's lack of activity during the NFL's whirlwind free agency period.
Click here to continue reading

Cash is flowing in silicon valley

Web Start-Ups Give Lift To Public-Relations Firms
The Bay Area's technology boom is rippling beyond tech companies to a broader set of concerns, including public-relations experts. While the job market in much of the U.S. remains weak, Web start-ups keen to establish their brands and to grab media exposure are driving a surge in business at Bay Area public-relations companies. Many firms say they are hiring. Faced with a huge appetite for their services, some public-relations consultants have even gone back to a tactic of the late 1990s dot-com boom: taking stock in a start-up
Click here to continue reading

No one likes a bully

Latest Intimidation Tactic Is A Public Relations Disaster for Unions
There's an old joke about the intimidation tactics of the Teamsters union. "How many Teamsters does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Answer: "Four — you gotta a problem with that?" As much as we would like to think that labor unions have abandoned their threatening and often illegal behavior to get what they want, in the public sector things are only getting worse. It is only a matter of time until a jilted (and honest) public sector employee says "I coulda been a contender."
Click here to continue reading

Airbnb making things right

Airbnb Acts On Mounting Safety Concerns With $50K Guarantee
Airbnb, one of the newest members of the club of start-ups valued at more than $1billion, said it would offer a $50,000 guarantee to its users against vandalism amid growing concerns over the safety and security of its service.
Click here to continue reading

A&F fashion police out in full force

Was A&F Asking ‘The Situation’ Not To Wear Their Clothes A Clever PR Stunt Or Was It Inspired By Legitimate Concerns?
Abercrombie & Fitch's stock price dropped nearly nine percent yesterday, one day after a very public diss on "The Situation" from the popular TV show "Jersey Shore."
The retailer offered Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and other members of the hit MTV reality show "substantial payment" if they stopped wearing Abercrombie-branded clothes.
Click here to continue reading

"For crisis management, please press 1"

Phone Hacking: How Scandal Unfolded
Damaging allegations over phone hacking are continuing to mount against Rupert Murdoch's media empire. British journalists working for Murdoch's News of the World (Now) stand accused of hiring private detectives to hack illegally into the voice mails of thousands of people, ranging from top politicians and celebrities to murder victims and the families of troops killed in action. There are also allegations that journalists bribed police to get private details about people, including members of the royal family.
Click here to continue reading

ECB, what about the other bonds?

ECB Crisis Management Is Half-Hearted
The ECB is back in crisis mode, but it may not have done enough at Thursday’s governing council meeting to stop the debt crisis spreading further still. Traders confirmed that the ECB bought government bonds in the open market for the first time since March as President Jean-Claude Trichet held his monthly press conference. But the ECB appears to have undermined its own actions by being too half-hearted. Instead of buying Spanish and Italian bonds, those which are now at the focus of the crisis, it only bought Portuguese and Irish ones.
Click here to continue reading

Smart Quote

"Be careful what you say, there is always someone listening."

-- unknown