by William Comcowich | Nov 11, 2019 | Crisis Communications
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) may lift its ban on Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft early next year. But getting Boeing’s reputation off the ground is another issue. Boeing’s reputation went into a nosedive after one if its 737 Max aircraft crashed in...
by William Comcowich | Nov 11, 2019 | Influencer Marketing
New guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) provide clarity to influencer marketing disclosure practices. The FTC’s Disclosures 101 for Social Media Influencers detail when and how influencers should reveal any “material connection” to brands when endorsing...
by William Comcowich | Nov 8, 2019 | SEO
Marking the end of an era, Google’s search engine will ignore Flash content on web pages and stop indexing standalone SWF files, an extension of Shockwave Flash, by the end of the year. Flash is a once popular software program used to develop animations for websites...
by William Comcowich | Nov 7, 2019 | PR Measurement
The overwhelming majority of public relations professionals (79%) say top management and boards demand more accountability and measurement than ever, according to the Communications Bellwether Survey from PR Week and Boston University. The growing importance of PR...
by William Comcowich | Nov 6, 2019 | Facebook
Facebook received a public relations black eye when it announced that it will not fact check political ads. Twitter hit a PR home run by banning political advertising. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he doesn’t want his company to be an arbitrator of truth or...
by William Comcowich | Nov 5, 2019 | Marketing
More than any other cutting-edge technology, augmented reality (AR) causes consumers to view a brand as innovative, according to a survey commissioned by Diffusion. By superimposing computer-generated images onto smartphone cameras or other screens, AR blends physical...
by William Comcowich | Nov 4, 2019 | Measurement
Major corporations have embraced the net promoter score (NPS) as a go-to metric measuring customer satisfaction and, by extension, overall corporate performance. But more business experts now give the NPS a poor score for measuring company performance. To compute its...
by Arthur Solomon | Nov 4, 2019 | Public Relations
PR practitioners can learn quite a lot by paying attention to the current political scene. Doing so provides a tuition-free course in public relations that’s not in PR communication school syllabuses. Many of the lessons apply to non-political agency PR. Below are...
by William Comcowich | Nov 1, 2019 | Measurement
Marketers may be too eager to measure their return on investment (ROI). Surveys show that measuring ROI) is the top challenge facing marketers. Although many marketers claim they measure ROI, they remain unconfident. Most believe the data they gather underestimates...
by William Comcowich | Oct 31, 2019 | SEO
The new BERT update to Google’s search algorithm is being called the most important update in years. Pandu Nayak, Google’s vice president, search, calls the update the “biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the...
by William Comcowich | Oct 30, 2019 | Online Reputation Management
Research shows that 86% of consumers read reviews for local businesses, and 57% will only patronize businesses with four or more stars. Stars often mislead shoppers. The problem is that fake online reviews are pervasive. Estimates of fake reviews vary, depending on...
by William Comcowich | Oct 29, 2019 | Digital Marketing
Real-time personalization may be the ultimate goal for savvy digital marketers. Most experts agree that personalizing marketing content is an essential practice in digital media. Taking that concept a step further, real-time personalization customizes content to...
by William Comcowich | Oct 28, 2019 | Fake News
Research has found that people spread falsehoods and fake news more rapidly and widely than factual news. According to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, untruthful news is 70 percent more likely to be retweeted on Twitter than true news. Misinformation...
by William Comcowich | Oct 28, 2019 | Influencer Marketing
It may be tempting to bundle celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift in the same category as lesser-known social media influencers. But the two groups are different, even if both have plenty of followers Celebrity endorsements and...
by William Comcowich | Oct 25, 2019 | Social Media Marketing
PR and marketing agencies and other businesses that buy or sell fake followers would be well-advised to re-evaluate that strategy following a landmark Federal Trade Commission settlement. The FTC reached a $2.5 million settlement with a company selling fake social...
by William Comcowich | Oct 24, 2019 | Social Media Measurement
Many consider TikTok the up and coming social media network. The app features 15-second, looping videos, often teens dancing or performing short skits to music. It has been the most downloaded app on the Apple App Store and now boasts more than 500 million users. Some...
by William Comcowich | Oct 23, 2019 | Public Relations
Countering the spread of misinformation has grown into a major challenge for newsrooms, new research reveals. Although less than half of journalists surveyed say misinformation affects their daily work, 75% of news managers are concerned about the impact of...
by Arthur Solomon | Oct 22, 2019 | Public Relations
As a novice freelance journalist, when not on a deadline, I strived to lead with what I coined my “D” rule: Don’t Follow the Pack; look for the story behind the story. That meant when other reporters were interviewing celebrities, I would approach individuals who...
by William Comcowich | Oct 22, 2019 | Public Relations
Airbnb has become a household name mainly through its PR and marketing practices. Its core service, online reservations for short-term rentals, isn’t unique. Others, such as VBO.com, HomeAway and even Craigslist, post short-term rentals. Instead, Airbnb become top of...
by William Comcowich | Oct 21, 2019 | Social Media Monitoring
Holiday retail sales during November and December will increase between 3.8 percent and 4.2 percent over 2018, the National Retail Federation predicts. Online and other non-store sales, included in the total, will increase between 11 percent and 14 percent. Social...