The Public Relations Blog

Reputation management: The importance of monitoring what the Internet says about your company

Most of us can recall a time when someone was talking about us behind our back. It certainly didn’t feel good to know that these conversations were happening or rumors were surfacing, and most of us felt helpless to shift the tide. Often, it took confronting those who seemed in conflict with us to clear the air, and even then, remnants of the initial sabotage lived on, regardless of whether it was true or not.

Photographs are key in achieving viral success

A picture is worth a thousand words. Or perhaps today, pictures are worth hundreds of shares, thousands of retweets and a million likes.

In the last few weeks, several New York businesses have earned social media stardom simply because someone was smart enough to photograph their products and post them on Instagram. Black Tap Craft Burgers and Beer, The Bagel Store (Brooklyn) and Eggloo have all received major viral push across just about every social media platform due to their unique – and beautifully photogenic – consumables.

Many professionals today remain stumped by social media and the various platforms, each with their own unique rules and nuances. Often, businesses tend to use social media as a one-trick pony – and only as an additional sales tool. Public relations practitioners, however, understand that social media represents limitless possibilities to extend two-way communication. Social media is, at its core, an environment for engaging dialogue – with all its humor, frustration and inquisition included.  

Axia PR offers tips on media-friendly writing

Your business has made some incredible headway and is on the cusp of launching the next big thing. But how do you share this information with the world?

A basic tool of the public relations trade is the news (or press) release. A well-crafted news release contains all the pertinent details you wish to share, along with factual support, delectable sound bites from valuable resources and company positioning. But too often, companies believe that anyone can write a news release and the news media will go nuts over it.

Not long ago, the Axia team blogged about dark sites – what they are and why they exist. But some may question their value in this age of rapid-fire, immediate communication. Now we take an in-depth look at dark sites and why we need them.

Available since the dawn of the Internet, dark sites are optimized, informative web pages that temporarily reside in the deep web of the Internet. Given limitless coding options, the Internet has layers like an onion.

A few months ago, social media platform powerhouse Twitter announced plans to alter its design. While some changes were aesthetic, a polarizing decision to remove the “share count” button sent Twitter users, developers and social media pundits into frenzies.

Twitter’s share analytics allow businesses, bloggers and everyday Twitter users to track the value (by share count) of their content. Twitter owners know instantaneously what content is perceived as most valuable. Some may wonder why the removal of the share count button is such a big deal, while others are scratching their heads over Twitter’s baffling decision.

Understanding an important tool for crisis management

Experienced PR firms that are skilled in crisis communications work closely with their clients to build “dark sites” (aka blind sites, black sites or ghost sites). Dark sites are fully functional, pre-packaged web pages prepared for immediate publishing in the event of a crisis. Dark sites are so named because they reside in a different layer of the Internet than the layer most of us typically use, and their main purpose is to communicate accurate and timely information, given the immediacy of viral social media.

When used regularly and wisely, blogs are useful tools for driving two-way communication with audiences. Over the years, Axia Public Relations’ team members have fielded questions about the relevance of blogs and whether businesses should even bother, given concerns surrounding time investment and lack of topics. In short, it’s important to view your blog as an active extension of your business. To help with content creation, we’re sharing another short list of ideas to inspire blog neophytes.

You probably already understand the positive attributes of creating and maintaining an active and unique blog. The most successful and followed blogs often focus on a particular theme (cooking, parenting, etc.) or are oriented toward a specific area of expertise (public relations, scientific discovery, etc.). Followers value the useful nuggets they are able to glean from each post.

But how can you constantly keep things fresh, especially if you have limited resources and time to consistently create posts of interest to key demographics?

Consumers find comfort and reassurance in the opinions of others. In fact, 52% of consumers reported that positive customer reviews make them more likely to invest in a local business, compared to just 28% who make selections based on factors including location and price.

The word-of-mouth referral predominantly in use today takes the shape of the online review. Whether it’s on Yelp!, Google+, TripAdvisor, Angie’s List, the BBB, or another digital review outlet, the opinions of others carry a significant amount of weight when it comes to where consumers invest their time and money. In addition, leading search engine sites place greater SEO value on “earned input” such as reviews, creating several key reasons for businesses to make a concerted effort toward encouraging reviews.