If you’re a big fan of PR debacles, then you’ve probably already heard about the United Breaks Guitars music video on Youtube. If you haven’t, here’s a summary: Guy watches guitar get broken by baggage handlers. Guy gets nowhere with customer service. Guy makes suspiciously-high-production-value music video on Youtube complaining about his treatment. And the [...]
Author Archives: Rex
United breaks a sweat over breaking guitars
Posted in Ethics, Public Relations, Social Media Leave a comment
Shills down my spine: 3 ways to kick off the fight against online marketing evil-doers
There seems to be an accepted reality in online marketing: Writing fake, positive reviews for products is something everyone does. It’s the only way to be competitive. Does this smell like bullshit to anyone else? I’ve looked around the net for statistics on just how many online, on-site (i.e. sites like Amazon or Newegg) reviews [...]
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The impending backlash against personal branding
If you’re trying to get a room full of people all to roll their eyes simultaneously, try encouraging them to work on their personal branding. Why? Because personal branding is getting obnoxious. We’ve seen the Johnny Cashes dressing in all black. We’ve scratched our heads at the Gene Simmonses of the personal branding world. Now [...]
Posted in Branding 5 Comments
Hire a writer.
To me, the advice “hire a writer” is self-explanatory in its greater wisdom and purpose. It’s like “plant a tree.” I don’t follow it, of course, because I already am a writer. I imagine I’m not the only one who feels this way. We recently submitted our new website Presskit’n, where you can build social [...]
Presence: the best place to start with your public relations
Here at IvyLees, we’re big on Do-It-Yourself public relations. We’re building apps that help everyone get into the game, on even footing. Every now and then, someone tells us, “But you’re not helping with this!” (Or that. Sometime’s it’s that.) Well, I assure you: We’re planning on it. Right down to the iHandshake, an app [...]
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What we can learn from Twitter Tracker: You can be mediocre. It’s okay now.
One of the fastest ways to elicit an eye-rolling from a public relations practicioner is to bring up the dreaded “new hire” press release. Nobody wants to read them. Even less want to write them. And certainly nobody ever ever would write about them (Unless you’re an Apple or a Microsoft). Yet clients still ask [...]
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Interview with John, the mysterious creator of ‘E-mails from an Asshole’
I had a chance yesterday to conduct an e-mail interview with the comic genius behind E-mails from an Asshole. The e-mails he sent were from a familiar name: Mike Anderson, the same Mike who accused a stranger of running over his dog. Here it is. Fedorable: First off, who are you? John: We can go [...]
Posted in Social Media, Technology 3 Comments
Do you “get it”? Why you might be killing Twitter
Perhaps the only thing more annoying than the legions of “Social Media experts” on Twitter are the folks who claim they “get it.” Those quotation marks are theirs, not mine. I’ve seen this time and time again. “It’s all about the conversation,” they’ll say, emphasizing a different syllable of the word conversation to cover up [...]
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It’s never a good time to rebrand
I’ll often mention to my freelance clients that it’s a good time for them to rebrand. Every time, without exception, they’ll reply with an array of excuses on why they can’t. And they’re right. They’re always right. It’s never a good time to rebrand. We just created a new brand, Presskit’n, from a few of [...]
Posted in Branding 9 Comments
Driving the Online Newsroom
Our online newsroom builder here at IvyLees is driven by a lot of things. I’ll let Greg cover the tech stuff– here’s what went into it otherwise. A mission We want to make it easier for journalists, bloggers and PR people to connect. We felt one of the biggest places they did that was in [...]
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