"#MostUsedWords App" Launches #PR Offensive After Criticism [Abbott PR Blog]

Not that giving all one's personal data to a third party has ever been safe, and not that Facebook "quizzes" have ever been safe, either, but the firestorm around the new Facebook app "Most Used Words" really struck a chord with the 17 million Facebook users gave it permission to use its data.

And after the Comparitech blog did a breathless take-down of the Korean-based Vonvon, creator of the App, on its site Sunday, Nov. 22 in which it called it a "privacy nightmare." Comparitech specifically attacked the App's "oxymoronic privacy policy And called the company and the App a "shady data dealer" but not the only one to "masquerade behind a viral quiz mill."

The "nightmare" angle spread like a virus, shared across Facebook, becoming a trending topic there and also on twitter, where many accused the App of "stealing" personal data.

By Tuesday, the company had already sprung into action.

It posted updated language on its website that it was, as of Tuesday, Nov. 24, acting to "proactively" address the concerns by "significantly" reducing "the magnitude of access privilege" required by the App. It also clarified that the App does not collect users' email addresses, "so there is no way we can spam you." It also note

It's CEO Jonghwa Kim also took to the battle to Comparitech itself, sending a rather predictable legalistic and threatening message to the firm (noting that he was "deeply concerned about your false accusation") but also mentioning the positive steps it had taken, and explaining that the information collected, "is never stored in our databases." Comparitech published his letter as an update to the original post.

As for emails, Kim notes bluntly that, "As we do not store any personal information, we have nothing to sell. Period." He swears that the App never deals with Third Parties.

The company has been in existence for less than a year, but says it has more than 100 million unique users from US, UK, France, Brazil, China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, etc. and operates in 15 languages.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

It remains to be seen whether this coverage will damage this Korean startup. It also remains to be seen whether this App is any more damaging or dangerous than any other Facebook App.

But the PR response by Kim and his company seems on point, and an effective demonstration of how crisis management is done: directly address both the alleged technical and ethical problems, then let people know.


By Stephen Abbott, Principal of Abbott Public Relations, a division of Abbott Media Group, which creates written messages which inspire, inform, educate and engage, in mass media, publishing and public relations. On twitter and Facebook.

Sorority Sisters Turn Selfie "Sin" Into PR "Win" [Abbott PR Blog]

Video of some sorority sisters who attended an Arizona Diamondbacks game but spent the entire game taking "selfies" of themselves and their food went viral this past week, but the episode turned into an excellent PR lesson.

The girls' actions went viral on social media when FOX Sports announcers caught them taking selfies of themselves and their food during the game, repeatedly pointing the camera on the sorority sisters as they continued to NOT watch the Diamondbacks play the Denver Broncos, instead making "duck faces" and laughing at their own camera phones throughout  the game.

When the video went viral on TV news shows and on social media, the Diamondbacks offered to give them all tickets for a "re-do" - and attend yet another game.

But the sisters, on their facebook page, said "thanks, but no thanks." And then turned their gaffe around by posting:

"Alpha Chi Omega at Arizona State University would like to thank the Arizona Diamondbacks and Fox Sports for reaching out to the chapter after last night’s game and subsequent media frenzy. We appreciate their generous offer of tickets to tonight’s game. However, instead of chapter members attending the game, we have asked the Diamondbacks and Fox Sports to provide tickets to a future game for families at A New Leaf, a local non-profit that helps support victims of domestic violence."

Whether the ingenious and socially responsible response was their own idea or that of the organization's PR team is unknown - and not really relevant. The fact that someone was smart enough to capitalize on the sorority's instant fame from their sports "sin" of not paying attention to the game to do some good for an organization is a PR "win."

[See also: the original story on Mashable]

#SydneyCafe Hostage Drama Showed Power of #SocialMedia

During the ‪#‎SydneyCafe‬ hostage crisis on December 15, once again the power and importance of ‪social media and the Internet as major sources how we get ‪news in the 21st Century was on full display.

It seems with every major event - be it a natural disaster, a political event, an entertainment death, or a terrorist event such as this one - the Age of the Internet shows just how interconnected the world has become, and how events even on the other side of the world can reach out and change us and our attitudes.

While cable news kept to their scheduled, pre-taped shows, millions, like me, streamed Australian TV stations live throughout the world, and we followed frequent twitter and facebook updates, and made many of our own observations, passing along data as it became known.

The dangers and pitfalls of the immediacy of Social Media as a source of news were also on full display.

Misinformation was rife - one online newspaper flashed a screenshot of a supposed twitter feed of an Islamic terror group taking credit for the Lindt cafe attack, only to be discovered later that it was a "parody" account, much to the paper's embarrassment (though the correction was swift - another benefit of instant media.)

Speculation was also rampant, with fears that this was a carefully coordinate attack with others immanent, rather than (as it turned out) a lone gunman who was facing charges in other cases and who was well-known to police and local Muslims as a fake, wanna-be Imam.

But the same could be said of TV reports, streaming from Australia (and eventually from the US) which were desperately trying to fill the air with speculative statements that turned out to be just that.

Coming back to the TV networks in the US, what was shocking was their failure to break in and report the news on what in the US was a lazy Sunday afternoon. FOX News, which seems obsessed with reporting on Islamic extremist terrorism, eventually, hours after the attack began, broke in on a re-run of "Huckabee" to show a rather nervous young woman - whom they had apparently just thrown in front of the camera -  stumbling through the basic facts, before letting an Australian news network stream for a few moments, then back to regular programming. CNN also broke into regular programming, but only for a half hour.

Blame cutbacks or the fact that it was Sunday, but the coverage was inexcusably poor, especially since this could have ended up much worse than it did.

The real winner of the day, in terms of coverage, was Bloomberg TV. With offices in Sydney just above the chocolate shop, the network dominated coverage and broke away with business news and other commentary in just the right balance, proving that there was no reason the older networks couldn't have done the same.

Meanwhile, twitter again, as in the Arab Spring and in other major events, demonstrated the sheer power of crowd-sourced news to demonstrate how well it can inform us.

The world has changed. When will the ‪Mass Media‬ catch up? Only time will tell whether they'll wake up to the changes, or whether they'll go the way of the "Big Three" American networks' news departments: a shadow of what they once were, and irrelevant.

Stephen Abbott
Principal, The Abbott Media Group‬

Also visit: World Politics News, dedicated to expanding our knowledge of politics around the world

Taco Bell "Shell Licking" PR Crisis Goes Away Only After Better Training

Taco Bell is facing yet another PR nightmare Monday after an employee was pictured brazenly licking a stack of taco shells and then uploaded the photo to Reddit and facebook, where it was duplicated and shared endlessly online. The story hit "old media" throughout the world (here and here and here) almost immediately and spread like a Western wildfire.

The company is just coming off a scandal about its meat's composition, and fast food giant Burger King had a similar incident last year with the employee standing in two pans of lettuce, which was exposed on 4chan.

The dangers of social media are on full display here, and it's another lesson teaching us that mishandling it can get you burned.

Usually a great tool used by customers to show off how they enjoy a company's products, dozens of the "licking" photo were being "tagged" by facebook users with Taco Bell's name, making the photo instantly and repeatedly show up under "Photos of Taco Bell" on the company's official facebook page.

The social media meltdown was being handled gingerly and cautiously by Taco Bell PR people who maintain the company's facebook page.

Typical responses on Monday were: "Hi Jen - We have spoken with the restaurant and confirmed that the shells were never served to customers. This is completely unacceptable and we are taking the appropriate action against everyone involved." and "Hi Kyle - We have 100% confirmed that the taco shells were never served to customers. Plain and simple, this is unacceptable and we are taking the appropriate action against everyone involved."

(Despite skepticism of these statements, they certainly CAN confirm this because these restaurants are completely covered in closed circuit cameras to discourage theft, and in some cases, build a case for firing. Obviously the case for firing makes itself in this situation.)

Both of these are good statements, the only kind a company can really make in such a crisis.

Clearly, there are "haters" online urging this crisis on - as they do with every crisis - posting the image repeatedly and saying they will NEVER eat at ANY Taco Bell again. That seems like overkill and piling on, but it's clear that this has an emotional kick to it that will put many people off Taco Bell and change their image of their product.

The fact is, franchises desperate to cut labor costs helped bring this on themselves. Companies seem far less likely to even bother to train lower-wage employees in basic ethics, due in part to high turnover. The same seems true of food-handling procedures, which is even more frightening. THIS is the result of that lack of training.

NEXT STEPS
PR can never be used to cover up or "make the story go away" without something positive coming out of it. Customers are wise to a whitewash, and are incredibly savvy.

Any PR response MUST include corrective action not just with this franchise, but with the entire company. And it should be a wake-up call for other fast food outlets, too, that a crash course in ethical behavior must be taught to each and every employee, and that enjoying oneself on the job is one thing, but crossing the line with unsafe food handling can never be tolerated.

If I was the CEO of Taco Bell's parent company, I'd demand that all employees be huddled into a meeting THIS WEEK in each restaurant that would start a comprehensive review of ethics and food handling, and begin to stress the seriousness of the situation to each employee. Bad publicity hurts where it counts: In profits. A dip in sales from weeks of bad press will mean a cut in hours at every single restaurant around the country. Actions have immediate consequences.

With a renewed commitment to decent food handling practices, the company may actually do a great service to the industry. A "teaching moment," if you will. It's either that, or this becomes a story that tears down years of good image-building efforts with weeks of bad press. Your call, Taco Bell.

An Introduction to Abbott Public Relations

Abbott Public Relations uses a variety of written communications tools, including social media and the use of news releases, media statements and backgrounders, to convey messages about their clients to the right group of people, called “publics.”

Spreading the good news about you, your cause or your company to people who don’t need to hear it or won’t understand it makes no sense, and is wasteful. But the kind of targeted campaigns used by PR professionals are designed to reach the publics who care, and that is far more effective.

APR works with clients to determine the publics that are necessary to target, and crafts messages and themes most appropriate and effective for each.

APR principal and owner Stephen Abbott is committed to providing PR and reputation management services at reasonable and affordable rates. With APR, even individuals and one-person micro-businesses can afford to effectively and efficiently get the word out about their services and products.

That’s why we offer monthly retainers that are far less than what some major firms charge for ONE news release, and there are attractive discounts for paying quarterly in advance.

APR offers a personal, one-on-one service ethic that is unrivaled in the business and cannot be obtained in larger firms, where clients are often seen as little more than cash cows to be billed by the hour.

Though New England-based, PR services are offered throughout the United States and internationally.

Stephen Abbott brings over a decade of PR and media experience to clients, who range from non-profits to politicians to individuals seeking to increase their visibility and reputation.

He would welcome your call and is eager to help you fulfill your dreams.

APR can be found online at http://www.abbottpr.com, or call 603.341.0372.

Taking Online Libel Cases Public Poses More Danger to Reputation

A libel suit filed by a Knoxville marketing firm illustrates the dangers of reputation on the Internet - and how delicate the balance is between solving a problem and perhaps making it worse.

Knoxvillenews.com reports that a Knoxville marketing firm filed a $2 million libel lawsuit against a former client, claiming comments posted on Facebook and Twitter have hurt its reputation:

According to the suit, [the restaurant owner] defamed the marketing firm in two Aug. 17 Facebook entries that said, "Do not EVER use [-----] mktg. firm!" and "CROOKS! - Stolen email list, and have tried to pressure me by threat of lawsuit to sign a 'license agreement' to use their mktg materials."

The next day saw more potentially damaging posts, of the same nature, naming the marketing firm, and claiming they had “hacked” into the restaurant’s facebook page and taken it offline. (It’s back online, with almost as many friends as before.)

This dispute is probably like many others throughout the country and indeed, may never have been noticed even by local media.

But the kicker is this line from the story:

The posts were published to more than 300 Facebook friends of [the restaurant] and 247 followers on Twitter, according to the suit.

The fact that less than 300 people on facebook and 247 on twitter heard about this fiasco beforehand. Now, not only do tens of thousands of Knoxville residents know about the accusations, millions throughout the world do, since this was posted online.

Before, they had badmouthed the firm to a few hundred people online (and a few more in the restaurant.) Now, not only has all of Knoxville become aware of this dispute, the entire online world knows.

One has to use responsible words even on social media sites, and “crooks!” is pretty strong and defamatory language, and that’s unacceptable.

And making things worse by spreading the defamatory comments has always been a danger with lawsuits.

But in today’s interconnected world, the “audience” isn’t just Knoxville, it’s tens of millions of people in cities and towns across the world who now know what was said, and about whom, making managing that firm’s image all the more difficult.

The lesson here is (from purely a reputation management viewpoint) if the grievance is tolerable, or minor, consider letting it go, or binding arbitration, or a settlement with a clause not to discuss it further or online.

Be aware that your lawyer may see it differently, and other cases may be so egregious that they demand legal action.

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Joining the Social Media Revolution: Blogs, Twitter and facebook

Are you blogging? Are you Tweeting? Are you on facebook?

If you have no idea what more than one of those things are, or how to use them to benefit your business, you’re missing out on what is shaping up to be an online social media revolution.

Online social media is all about interaction with your customers and with potential customers via the Internet.

Blogs, Twitter and facebook are just three social media sites that can help you reach out to potential clients and build your online reputation at the same time.

Getting Started with Blogs
Blogging has become the craze of the 21st century, and there’s no sign of this particular craze going away. Literally hundreds of millions of people have blogs.

With easy-to-start blog sites like blogger.com (run by Google) you can be up and running with a blog without any technical hassles. This particular blog site makes it remarkably easy - setting your background colors and format has been made idiot-proof, and you’ll be blogging very quickly.

Why blog? Blogging allows you to show your expertise, to connect with customers, and cast your name into the large waters of the Internet and be heard, via search engines.

For example, my post on the Abbott PR blog (abbottpr.blogspot.com) about a rather ill-advised General Motors TV ad pushing for a bailout called “Why GM’s “Ripple Effect” PR Video Will Fail” was picked up by Google, and is now the number one search for *“Ripple Effect” video PR* That’s valuable to your business.

Uses of a blog can be to post your thoughts on a trend in your field, to post news releases, to discuss new policies, and to make other announcements.

Tweeting About Yourself
Twitter is a rapidly growing phenomenon and a relative newcomer to the Online world.

The company describes itself as: “privately funded startup with offices in the SoMA neighborhood of San Francisco, CA. Started as a side project in March of 2006, Twitter has grown into a real-time short messaging service that works over multiple networks and devices.”

Basically, you sign up, and begin typing messages - called “tweets” - all of which are limited to 140 characters. The limitation, says the company, inspires creative and thoughtful expression, and so it does.

You can use your computer to tweet, or you can send messages via your cell phone or from your desktop, using various other online services that have sprung up.

Some users never get past posting exactly what they’re doing RIGHT NOW, the original intention and most used purpose of the service.

But getting past the “my cat just rolled over” or “I’m eating” phase is important, and some major business gurus, like Guy Kawasaki (twitter.com/guykawasaki) have Twitter accounts, and use them to promote their books and ink to news stories online that deal with trends in their business or breaking news.

And - as with blogs, the service is a great way to express your expertise in your field, and thus build up your reputation.

Search your profession right now at http://search.twitter.com to find how people in your profession are using this service to do just that.

The social networking aspect of Twitter consists of gathering “followers” on Twitter by becoming “friends” with others, and is an excellent way to expand the reach and knowledge of your company, and yourself.

Gathering facebook Colleagues
Facebook is an excellent example of an online social media network because it is so vast. Over 600,000 NEW users join facebook EVERY SINGLE DAY!

Originally started with college students in mind, high school students and then their parents quickly got facebook pages, too. Finally, businesses have joined the fray, and facebook allows companies large and small to have pages that reach out to a wide variety of demographics. (Advertising opportunities on facebook are also worth looking into.)

Like other services, you can sign onto facebook and create a personal page relatively quickly. Once that’s done, starting a business-related page, posting “notes” (basically blogging) and using the "status update" feature to discuss your business life, as well as your personal life, can

And like Twitter, facebook "friends" can be gathered in your social network, though you should start with friends, colleagues and nearby residents in the real world, then THEIR friends online will join you as well. You can also start or join existing “groups” that promote your products or your profession.

From this very brief introduction, you can begin to see that the opportunities for self-promotion and reputation building are indeed huge online.

These new social networking sites are new and exciting ways of expanding your reach beyond the four walls of your business, and for spreading the word about your own expertise and services to the virtual Internet Community that’s becoming commonplace in the 21st Century.

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