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Generative AI is everywhere now. You see it in content, campaigns, customer experiences, and even internal workflows. It promises speed, scale, and efficiency, but there’s a harder question sitting underneath all that progress; Do your audiences actually trust it?

Trust in the Age of AI: What Consumers Really Think About AI Generated Content

Today, PR teams aren’t just tracking media coverage and share of voice. They’re also measuring how their brand shows up in AI-generated answers, search summaries, and large language models (LLMs). This new LLM visibility layer is quickly becoming a critical part of PR performance.

15 Must-Have PR KPIs and How to Track Them

See how one platform can power every decision across PR, communications, and marketing.

The Meltwater Blog

Blog Topics: Generative Engine Optimization, Media Intelligence, Media Relations, Social Listening, Consumer Intelligence, Influencer Marketing

Find out how you can leverage Facebook to boost your brand's online presence and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

Facebook Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage Instagram to boost your brand's visual appeal and gain a competitive edge. Explore our category page today!

Instagram Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage LinkedIN to grow your professional network and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

LinkedIn Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage TikTok to elevate your brand with creative content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

TikTok Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage X / Twitter to engage your audience effectively and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

X / Twitter Blog | Meltwater

Find out how you can leverage YouTube to create engaging video content and gain a competitive edge. Explore the Meltwater category page today!

YouTube Blog | Meltwater

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is transforming how brands show up in AI-powered search. Explore insights, strategies, and best practices to help your content rank and resonate across conversational engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.

Explore insights and strategies for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to help your brand stay visible and discoverable in AI-powered search.

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) Blog Collection | Meltwater

Every day billions of conversations take place on social media: tweets, posts, comments, blogs, reviews, podcasts, and much more.
Learn how to use social listening to make sense of all of that data.

On our social listening category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around social listening and social media monitoring. Read more.

Social Listening Blogs | Category

Business Reputation Management: What does it take to add reputation management to your marketing strategy? More importantly, how do you keep your reputation sparkly and shiny? Here’s your all-access guide to online reputation management for the long term.

On our reputation management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around business reputation management. Read more.

Reputation Management Blogs | Category

From your brand's logo to your website, your social media presence to your customer support—these elements combined are what constitutes a brand in the minds of customers. But, there are thousands of other businesses that have a logo, website, social media presence, and website. So, how can you position your business on the market and make it stand out from the competition?
The key to success is branding & brand management!

On our brand management category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around brand management. Build your strategy and reach your goals!

Brand Management Blogs | Category

Competitive intelligence and the act of collecting competitive data can be seen as growth drivers for a company. Our guide will help you understand the concept of competitive intelligence (CI) by answering questions such as: What is the definition of competitive intelligence? How is competitive intelligence useful to organizations? What is the goal of competitive intelligence? And more.

On our competitive intelligence category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around competitive intelligence. Learn how to stay ahead.

Competitive Intelligence Blogs | Category

Let’s dive into the customer journey framework and how to optimize the process by creating a customer journey map and using metrics that matter when analyzing the customer journey.

On our customer journey category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Customer Journey Blogs | Category

What Is Data Analytics? [Beginner’s Guide 2023]
How can I grow my business? 
How do customers interact with my newly launched product?
How do I increase the productivity of my employees?
How do I know if my marketing efforts are working?
We have just two words for you...Data analytics!

On our data analytics category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around AI and data analytics. Technical and still easy to understand.

AI & Data Analytics Blogs | Category

Public relations and media relations can add impact to any marketing strategy. It’s an opportunity for brands to grow their reach beyond traditional sales messages. PR helps to shape the image you want people to have of your brand.
So, what is PR and how do you use it? This guide shows you everything you need to know to build a strong public relations foundation.

On our public relations (PR) category page, you find all our blogs covering public relations and communications topics. Step up your PR game.

Public Relations (PR) Blogs | Category

We all know exactly what the roles of sales or accounting are in a company, right? We might even have a slight idea of what the IT guys are doing.
But there is another business discipline, that plays a crucial role in organizations, even more so during the pandemic – internal communications!
But what exactly do we mean by that, what purpose does it serve and what steps can you take to ensure you and your employees will communicate effectively?

On our internal communications category page, you find all our blogs about internal comms topics. Learn about the intranet, internal newsletters, and more.

Internal Communications Blogs | Category

As the internet has taken root in more areas of our lives — everything from entertainment to shopping to paying bills and more — traditional marketing is becoming less impactful. As any marketer knows, you need to focus on where your audience is if you want to reach them. Since the average person spends about seven hours a day online, it’s no surprise that content has maintained its hold on marketers.

Here's a closer look at what content marketing is and why it matters more than ever in our digital-first economy.

On our content marketing category page, you find blogs about content marketing topics. Learn about strategies, KPIs, tips, and more. Make your content king!

Content Marketing Blogs | Category

The rise of the influencer marketing space – today a $10 billion industry, growing 50% per year – is one of the clearest examples of how social media is transforming traditional marketing. These days having a business website, presence on social, PR coverage, and your own content isn’t enough to compete.
We'll dive into the intricacies of influencer marketing to help ensure that you're equipped with the insights needed to be successful in this space.

On our influencer marketing category page, you find blogs about influencer marketing topics. Build your strategy, find influencers, and measure results.

Influencer Marketing Blogs | Category

Have you just launched a new product or service that you want to get the word out about? Maybe you want to share with consumers why it is awesome and how it is so much better than the one your competitors offer.

Well, then, there is one thing you can't do without...Marketing!

On our marketing category page, you find blogs about marketing topics. Learn about all the different angles and types of marketing and improve your results.

Marketing Blogs | Category

In this guide, we want to give you a peek into the definition of social media management, the daily schedule of a social media manager, social media platforms to promote your business, and the do’s & don’ts of social media management.
Are you ready to begin the journey of becoming a social media superstar?

On our social media management category page, you find blogs about social media management topics. Build and manage your online community.

Social Media Management Blogs | Category

Building a following and using social media platforms to reach a wider audience requires a well-planned social media marketing strategy. In this guide, we’ll be looking at why social media marketing is so essential and how you can make it work for your business.

On our social media marketing category page, you find blogs about social media marketing topics. Learn how to get the highest paid social ROI!

Social Media Marketing Blogs | Category

In the fast-evolving realm of digital marketing and public relations, utilizing the right tools is crucial for success. Our interdisciplinary category showcases all the pertinent tools for digital marketing & PR. These tools help in enhancing your online presence and effectively reaching target groups, whether through reputation management, influencer marketing, or social media management.

On our digital marketing and PR tools category page, you find all our blogs covering topics around mapping and understanding the customer journey.

Digital Marketing & PR Tools Blogs | Category

Thought leadership and subject matter expertise are essential to an effective marketing strategy. Positioning company leaders as industry experts helps the brand express a point of view, vision, knowledge, and experience. Great thought leadership will help your audience gain a greater understanding about relevant issue and trends that affects them—and they’re learning about them from you and your company.

Jennifer Kutz, Communications and Public Affairs for Google, shares her insights on why and how publication bylines should be part of your marketing strategy.

Why Go After Executive Bylines in Publications?

An executive can always post their expertise and thought leadership on sites like LinkedIn or a company blog. But, contributed content in key media outlets provides deeper benefits. These include faster and deeper trust, as well as credibility, based on the idea that you know something of value that others don’t. Since the audience views those publications as reliable resources for information, attaching your name to that publication extends that credibility to you.

Public relations tactics have shifted from only increasing an executive’s visibility or getting them quoted to getting full executive bylined articles. The publications provide high-quality, relevant content for their readers. Meanwhile, executives and companies enjoy exposure in a reputable publication. Because of the mutual benefit, bylined articles and guest blog opportunities have gained in popularity. But, marketing isn’t the only thing that benefits from bylines.

“Often, company executives can raise the company’s profile, which goes a long way toward establishing a reason for potential investors to invest in that company,” Kutz says. “Having a bylined presence can be a deciding factor that sways those investors toward putting their money (and trust) in that company.”

Once you have a byline, you can get more traction by going back to LinkedIn, your company blog, and all other channels with a clip or link to that published article. If you stay with a direct-to-social media or direct-to-company blog approach, then you only have one pass at getting it in front of your audience.

A Strategy for Getting a Publication Byline as a Subject Matter Expert

Here are some strategic steps to start getting these executive bylines.

Identify the right publications and journalists that cover your expert subject areas.

Their audience is your target audience. For example, let’s say your company makes software that drives energy efficiency. Seek publications that target topics related to energy efficiency. There are many industry publications that cover that space.

Yet, Kutz says it’s important to go deeper with your targeted publication list. “You want to look for broader startup or tech publications that touch on sustainability and topics related to energy efficiency. If you are looking to attract the attention of investors, there are publications like VentureBeat that cater to venture capitalists.”

If you have never had experience identifying the most appropriate publications and journalists, then the best strategy is to hire a PR firm. These have this experience and have already developed media relationships.

Create a spreadsheet of publications and contacts, subject areas and guest post guidelines.

Work with your comms team to create and review a spreadsheet that will help understand these publications and effectively pitch for greater publication success. You cannot take shortcuts for this process. The only way to shorten the time to a certain degree is to again work with a PR expert.

As Kutz explains, “You can’t send a blanket email to an email address like news@mashable.com or to whatever publication you are trying to get your article in. You need to put in the time to explore the media website to see if you can find a contributor section. For example, is there a thought leadership section? Is there a perspective section? If you see that they accept executive bylined articles, then you can kind of look for a contact address, reach out, and gauge their interest.”

Also, go beyond the publication website to get this information. Many publications rely on social media, including Twitter and LinkedIn, to encourage interaction. On these channels, you can learn more about contributor content, bylines, relevant topics and key contacts. You can also use Google search engines to learn more about how to place executive bylines.

Use spreadsheets to track topics, subjects, and related areas that align with each publication’s focus and purpose. Match your unique perspective with these topics and publication angles. Doing so helps you achieve relevance and value for your intended audience.

Share your previous thought leadership results to prove your value to their audiences.

You can use blog posts, conference speaker materials, podcasts, videos, and other quality content. You can also include statistics about followers, likes, and shares. Get involved in industry groups to further your subject expertise and following. If you haven’t done much in this area, then expand these content areas first.

While it helps to have published content, you can also start from scratch. Kutz adds, “You don’t need extensive writing experience. What’s more important is what you are talking about, your story, and what you want to say. Where startup founders or business executives go wrong is thinking that a byline is a place to sell their product. Instead, it’s about defining and sharing your unique perspective.”

Interact with publications and journalists to start building relationships with them.

This is also a way to highlight your values and differentiating qualities, knowledge, and experience. Be persistent with sharing content samples and expertise.

It can be difficult because roles change and reporters move around. Yet, if you connect with journalists on social media, you can maintain these relationships across publications. Throughout moves and changes, the most important lesson is to always engage like a human being rather than just asking for a byline.

“Think about what you can do to help this person. Make sure you are familiar with their work before you approach them before pitching them any ideas,” adds Kutz. “You can find this out by looking at their Twitter feeds and seeing what type of content they are sharing.”

Kutz also suggests doing something a little different. Pitch article ideas to reporters that may have nothing to do with what you do. This shows the reporter you want to help them even when there’s no direct benefit for you. Then, you may be more likely to come to mind when they have a topic that does have something to do with your industry.

Getting an executive byline published doesn’t happen overnight. Think of it as a slow-building process. As part of your “long game,” creating successful thought leadership pieces involves nurturing content, relationships and connections in a targeted, thoughtful way. In time, you can see a big return that enhances your marketing and branding efforts.

Social sharing goes hand in hand with creating content. For a complete executive guide on building social influence, read our ebook, filled with recent examples of business leaders who are engaging their audience through original, meaningful content.

How to Get Executive Bylines in Publications

While we often hear content marketers talk about the difficulty of consistently producing fresh, engaging, brand content, they’re not the only ones who face this struggle. PR professionals also have to keep a fresh stream of content coming to fuel their campaigns, keep their media and influencer relationships active, and build executive thought leadership profiles. But when PR is dialed into the content marketing organization’s workflow, it opens up a whole new treasure trove of potential coverage, while turning PR into a corporate MVP by amplifying brand content.

Here are four everyday activities that PR pros can use to amplify brand content.

Include Brand Content in Influencer Outreach

As you cultivate influencer relationships over time, a big part of making them mutually beneficial is keeping an eye out for ways to promote their expertise through your channels. And involving them with your content marketing efforts is an easy and effective way to do so.

Before publication: Use content-in-progress as a reason to reach out to influencers with whom you are cultivating relationships, and ask them if they’d like to be included with a quote or a link to a resource.

After publication: Send completed content to influencers who frequently write on the topic as an FYI, either as simply a thoughtful gift of content or with an invitation to pitch a related follow-up collaboration.

Deepen and Promote Your Referenceable Customer Relationships

While it would be great if every media request for a quote was for our executives, frequently they’re looking for a customer to talk to instead. When this happens, the last thing you want to do is to scramble to try to find a referencable customer who is willing to talk to the media, and who may or may not be an interview pro. That’s why it’s important to nurture customer relationships over time, so when an opportunity for that dream story pops up, you know exactly who to ask. Here are two ways to do so:

When you are participating in brand editorial meetings, suggest customers who might have a relevant story or quote that could enrich the content.

After that content is published, pitch an interview with that customer to the media, using recently published content as your proof of engagement with the topic.

Integrate Content in Your Ongoing Media Relations Outreach

It’s always difficult to make your PR pitches stand out from the competition. But when the pitch is supported by relevant content, it’s got a better chance of piquing a journalist’s interest. Here are five easy ways to integrate brand content into media relations outreach:

Use content as proof of source subject matter expertise. Pitch the internal content author as a source in response to relevant media inquiries.

Repurpose written, audio, and video content. Turn the content into a visual and use it in your next PR campaign as a resource.

Increase the reach of proprietary data. Pitch proprietary data or research-based content to the media, either as a one-time story, or monitoring the trends over time and how they affects your audience.

Create a rich media soundbite. Have the content author record a video elevator pitch for the piece of content and/or the topic in general and include it in a media pitch.

Build inbound links. Include a request to link back to relevant owned content with every interview you place.

In the early days of the Internet, some brands could get away with publishing content through their owned channels and waiting for the audience to materialize. But those days are over. Now, to reach brand fans with your content, there needs to be paid distribution as part of the plan. For those of you who are wondering why I’m including paid media is part of the PR professional’s toolbox, that’s because I’m a proponent of Gini Dietrich’s PESO model. Media and influencer relations are just a small part of her framework.

With that perspective in place, here are a few ways PR professionals can use paid media to support brand content:

Content syndication. Syndicate the content through a third-party distribution tool such as Outbrain or Taboola.

Sponsored content. Publish the content as part of a sponsored content agreement.

Guest blog. Place it as part of a guest blogger agreement with an industry publication, such as a multi-blog series with Entrepreneur, or part of an executive’s Forbes blog.

Boost with a paid social post. Take your best organic social media post that’s sharing the content and put a small budget behind it to increase its reach beyond your brand followers.

By regularly incorporating your brand’s measurable content marketing metrics into your PR strategy, you will become better able to show the ROI on your PR efforts. And with the content team as your new BFFs, you’ll never be stuck wondering what story angle to pitch next for your quarterly campaigns.

To learn more about how to integrate your PR and content marketing efforts, download our ebook, Unlocking PR’s Potential with Content Marketing.

4 Smart Ways PR Can Amplify Brand Content

Creating a good public relations campaign requires a strict adherence to timelines, meeting milestones and gathering of necessary collateral. It is also even better to stay alert and be wary of potential red flags that could lead to a PR Crisis – especially when they are often unexpected. 

In the case of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, everything seemed to be going according to plan. The Galaxy Fold would be the tech giant’s — and the world’s — first foldable phone in the market, promising mobile entertainment on a bigger screen with flexibility. 

Just like every other campaign, Samsung offered news agencies and tech magazines a first look at the phone. Journalists were given review models a week before the official product launch. In return, Samsung hoped to get a good word out on the Galaxy Fold.

However, Samsung’s first foldable phone couldn’t fold. Journalists complained about malfunctioning phone screens and did their job telling the world about it. 

Videos of cracked screens flickering away went viral on social media within minutes. That alone was damning enough to convince the world that the Galaxy Fold was too good to be true. 

Could this all have been nipped in the bud before it exploded out of proportion? Is there no moving forward after this? While Samsung takes its time fixing what needs to be done, there’s much to take away from the situation.

Good media prides itself on being extremely up-to-date, cutting through the chatter and sieving out the latest trends to write about. Similarly, a good PR agency has to be equally on-the-ball, if not more so, in order to manage the public’s perception of a campaign or product. 

During the week before the Galaxy Fold’s official launch, Samsung was ill-timed in their response:

Problems with the phone surfaced after just two days of use. It took Samsung a few more days to recall all of its review units, cutting short a full 10-day loan period for journalists. At this point, news of such problems was being published. 

They weren’t clear about what went wrong

Journalists blamed vague instructions on using the phone. Some removed a plastic film off the screen which was essential in keeping the Galaxy Fold foldable, mistaking it as a run-of-the-mill screen protector. Others had undetermined issues. Nobody knew what was going on, and Samsung gave little clarification. 

They weren’t aware of growing negative sentiment and uncertainty

The Galaxy Fold came with a pretty hefty price tag and it wasn’t helping with product perception, with the phone malfunctioning before hitting the stores. After the incident with the media, the official launch date was delayed indefinitely. In the meantime, stores were cancelling pre-orders for the Galaxy Fold. Several media outlets labelled the Galaxy Fold as frivolous and an idea that was ‘doomed’ from the start. Samsung launched new products during this interim period but hasn’t really gotten back to addressing issues about the Fold. 

Samsung’s wager on the Galaxy Fold was a make or break opportunity. It would put Samsung up as a formidable trendsetter in the world of consumer technology. The publicised failures of the foldable phone meant little to the company’s overall revenue but were damaging possibilities of improving brand sentiment. Coupled with the Galaxy Note 7 battery explosions of 2016, Samsung had a point to prove on its reliability and was risking consumer confidence.  

What could have been done better, and is there recourse to the current situation? 

Ideally, a PR team is expected to tackle such situations ASAP. The team should be in full activation in the field to spot developments and keep a check on social sentiment. The key is to identify problems before further escalation.

But crises always occur when least expected. Rather than react to incoming storms of bad press, it is much easier to formulate a response when one’s already plugged into what people are saying. Having eyes on specific media outlets or influential voices provide comprehensive understanding of the crisis at hand and help in detecting potential storms before they brew too long. 

While traditional media monitoring is absolutely necessary, it is also time-consuming. In crucial moments such as Samsung’s Galaxy Fold screen issue, every minute is significant to PR professionals for coming up with actionable plans. A PR team cannot control products or reviews. They can listen, learn, and act accordingly – and it’s wise to arm themselves with responsive tools for such purposes.

Things to consider before selecting a media monitoring tool:

Is it armed with access to multiple news sources such as newspapers, magazines, blogs, local forums and social media?

Besides Instagram and Facebook, is the tool able to track social media platforms such as WeChat?

How often are they innovating their service? E.g., adding new channels or upgrading features?

Is it easily accessible on the go? Is it mobile-friendly?

Can alerts be created for specific trigger keywords?
 

On top of being able to do all of the above, Meltwater provides access to over 300,000 news sources and updates users with news on a regional and global scale. PR professionals can simply look out for specific keywords or media, allowing more time to craft PR strategies.

In the case of the Samsung Galaxy Fold, journalists took to social media first to demonstrate flaws before writing up their reviews on their media platforms. The virality of such content contributed to the extent of the crisis as well. Meltwater’s Social Echo feature is one way to spot the virality of an article on social platforms. With this feature, you can easily track the engagement related to the article on Facebook, as well as the number of times the article has been tweeted or retweeted on Twitter.

While there’s no need to stay fixated on screens for constant media updates, anxious PR professionals can remain calm with Meltwater’s notification system. Alerts on various topics and keywords can be created and sent to the user throughout the day, in real time, via dashboards that are intuitive, to know what’s going on. 

Though the Galaxy Fold’s screen problem is unexpected, fast responding media monitoring could still help set off protocols in addressing issues that were sounded out as well as to stave off pending negative reviews and news.

Solution 2: Streamline your data and consider your strategy

Now that there’s an understanding of general media sentiment across the Internet, important questions must be addressed. What are the specific issues that are hotly discussed now? And how are competitors reacting to the situation?

Before laying down any strategies, consider categorising data for a better overview of the situation at hand. Dashboards allow users to customise data that has come through the platform and analyse it with the help of various metrics. 

For Samsung’s case, a combination of metrics indicating the range of sentiment, top social posts, topic momentum and story sources can help paint a brief, yet practical outlook on the crisis. This information is further customisable in various forms such as pie charts, word clouds or tables for better understanding. Comparisons can also be drawn between social media and news sentiment, for instance, allowing Samsung to pinpoint its target audience and issues to address when it relaunches the Galaxy Fold. 

A dashboard on Meltwater’s Media Monitoring tool

Is there still a public relations future for the Galaxy Fold?

Granted, this isn’t the first time Samsung has had to explain itself for faulty electronics. Exploding Galaxy Note batteries had the brand on edge, though they have since further pushed for better quality management – along with a slew of smartly-designed campaigns and videos to boost confidence in their product.

Despite the delayed reaction to what most would perceive as a blowout disaster, Samsung has once again proved that it is listening to its audiences. Noting responses that people would mistakenly pull out the protective film on phone screens, Samsung promised that it would look to create better messaging in its packaging. 

It’s a small step, considering that troubleshooting works for the Galaxy Fold is still in the works. On a public relations front, Samsung has to address the more significant issue: how is Samsung going to rebuild confidence in a product that had already failed before it even entered the market?

It may seem like a dead end, but with a sharp ear on the ground, this is one that still has a chance to develop into something successful. Samsung has still yet to determine another official launch – competitors are no doubt keeping a close eye on this. As it prepares for its next chance at pushing the Galaxy Fold, there’s still time to listen and prepare for a relevant and swift response. 

Samsung Galaxy Fold PR Disaster: An Embarrassment Or Opportunity?

When a very public mistake or mishap occurs within your organisation, a public apology – and a commitment to right the wrong – is in order. 

A swift mea culpa, coupled with some affirmative action to make good and ensure that the likelihood of such an event occurring again is minimised, is the correct approach and will generally help an organisation win back the favour of its customers. Moreover, if the response can be injected with a little humour (where appropriate of course!), so much the better. 

Here we have highlighted examples of winners and losers when it comes to public apologies in the aftermath of a PR crisis. 

Last year, KFC went through a highly publicised crisis when “operational issues” with new delivery provider DHL caused a mass shortage of chicken at its fast food outlets across the UK. One of the most bizarre consequences of this was police forces in London and Manchester having to issue statements urging the public to stop contacting the emergency services about the shortage, as it was “not a police matter”! 

KFC responded by taking out full-page ads in the national press, featuring one of its famous buckets with the company name rearranged to read ‘FCK’ instead of ‘KFC’, to reflect the mood of its chicken-deprived customers. It also acknowledged that “a chicken restaurant without any chicken is not ideal.” This humorous response to what was a serious situation for the company was very well received, and no lasting damage was done to the brand. 

One of the highest profile cock-ups to take place anywhere in the world in recent years was the Oscars blunder in 2017, when an envelope mix up resulted in Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly announcing ‘La La Land’ as Best Picture winner, when the actual winner was ‘Moonlight.’

Beatty had a duplicate card with the winner of Best Actress, which had been awarded to Emma Stone for La La Land immediately prior to the Best Picture announcement. Beatty paused as he read the card out but continued anyway, wrongly announcing La La Land as the winner. The La La Land production team and cast were already on stage collecting the prize and delivering their speeches before a representative from accountancy firm PwC came onto the stage to inform them of the error. 

PwC was in charge of supervising the counting of the ballots for each award, as well as the presentations on the night. Following the error, which could scarcely be more public, given that around 30 million people were watching it live in the US and many millions more worldwide, PwC issued a statement saying “We sincerely apologise to Moonlight, La La Land, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, and Oscar viewers for the error that was made during the award announcement for Best Picture.” 

PwC added that it deeply regretted that the incident occurred and said it appreciated the grace with which the nominees, the Academy, and the host Jimmy Kimmel handled the situation.

Adding to the embarrassment felt by PwC in the wake of the blunder was the fact that in the week leading up to that year’s Oscars ceremony, PwC’s Martha Ruiz and Brian Cullinan, who were responsible for overseeing the counting of the votes and are the only two people who know all the winners before they are announced, gave an interview to the BBC in which they outlined its “watertight system” for ensuring that the awards presentations pass without a hitch.   

Following the ceremony, PwC assumed full responsibility for the blunder and promised to fully investigate what went wrong with the system to prevent such an error occurring in the future. Given that the profile of the event could barely be higher, that PwC have emerged from it with their reputation fairly intact is a credit to them and the steps they took in its aftermath.     

Facebook has a long history of introducing features that ride roughshod over its users’ privacy then apologising only in the aftermath of public outcry. Indeed, the very genesis of Facebook, called Facemash, which was launched in 2003, a year before it evolved into Facebook, was a site that lifted pictures of Harvard students from the university’s intranet without their consent and invited other students to rate them on their “hotness.”

In the intervening years, Facebook has repeatedly failed to protect user data and privacy, despite offering assurances that it would do so. 

One of the most egregious instances of this was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when it emerged early in 2018 that the political data firm had harvested the personal data of up to 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge or consent and used it for political purposes in the 2016 US presidential campaign. 

When the scandal first broke, Facebook vigorously and indignantly defended itself, arguing that people had consented by virtue of their privacy settings. But the backlash only intensified when it was reported that Facebook’s privacy settings were buried across 20 pages of the site, and that Cambridge Analytica were one of many organisations guilty of exploiting that by harvesting Facebook users’ data without their knowledge. 

Eventually, Facebook’s chief privacy officer said Facebook would move all the privacy settings into one place (without offering an explanation as to why they weren’t in the first place), something Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to do “within weeks” of another privacy breach eight years previously but failed to follow through on. 

Zuckerberg then went on an apology tour, giving interviews to a variety of global media outlets in which he eventually apologised for the privacy breach but still qualified it by claiming that Facebook cares about its users, and used his soapbox to disparage other tech companies. 

Zuckerberg frequently refers to Facebook’s users as the “Facebook community”, but a community typically has rights and makes decisions for the good of the group as a whole, so by that rationale, Facebook’s users are not a community, they are a user group, because as majority shareholder, Zuckerberg calls the shots and the users essentially have to like it or lump it, and that shows no sign of changing anytime soon.   

In 2017, Pepsi drew a barrage of negative publicity for an ad featuring Kendall Jenner, in which she quelled a riot by offering a police officer a can of Pepsi, a gesture which elicited cheers from the onlooking protestors. 

Given that the US was at the time (and still is) mired in controversy over the killing by police of African American youths, and the Black Lives Matter movement was gaining momentum with protests over perceived unlawful killings happening all over the country, the idea that a protest could be quelled by a can of soda was tone deaf to say the least, and highly offensive to many. 

Following the ad’s release, Pepsi was eviscerated on social media, as they were seen to be capitalising on the Black Lives Matter movement to sell soft drink. The daughter of civil rights activist Martin Luther King, Bernice King, even weighed in, posting on Twitter “If only daddy would have known about the power of Pepsi.” 

Pepsi eventually pulled the ad, but a few months later, Pepsi’s CEO, Indra Nooyi continued to defend the ad, demonstrating that the company still didn’t get what all the fuss was about. 

PR Apologies: Winners and Losers

Landing PR coverage can be tricky, even for some of the biggest brands. It’s easy to see how “cool” brands, like Apple, Nike or ASOS can find stories that would appeal to the general public, but what if your brand or industry is considered “boring”?

All PR professionals have the option to increase their PR coverage, they just need to know to find and tell a story that resonates.

In this blog we’ll be rounding up some of tips from Andy Barr (co-founder & co-managing director or 10 Yetis Digital) and us!

TIP 1: Make sure your product and company aren’t awful!

If your product is fundamentally crap, there’s no point in trying to pitch PR stories.  Media attention will simply lead to an increase in negative PR coverage around your brand. So, make sure your product & company is built on a solid base. If there are lots of skeletons in the closet, they’ll be revealed as soon as your brand is in the public eye. Working on areas of your brand that can be criticized before moving on to think about how to make your company exciting is fundamental.

Before trying to get sexier media coverage, you’ll need the support of someone internally. Target a member of the c-suite who’s more open to ‘new ideas’. Influential internal stakeholders are key to generating wider buy-in from the rest of the organization, and the senior management team.

A good way of creating buy-in is to collaborate on the project, that way both parties feel they’ve been involved and a sense of ownership and pride. Don’t underestimate the power of enthusiasm, it’s contagious!

If you’re not used to doing ‘out there’ campaigns make sure you take baby steps. Ramp it up gradually, otherwise, stakeholders might freak out. Not only this, but your audience may be a little confused that you’ve gone from one extreme to another.

Test the waters and use a social listening tool like Meltwater or Meltwater Social to understand whether the tweaks to your campaign are resonating. It’s better to keep your finger on the pulse of your audience and media to spot spikes in negative conversations earlier on, prior to rolling out a complete campaign.

Consider how ‘interesting’ PR coverage will help your brand. What are your goals and how are you measuring them? Also, think about how PR will help you to achieve wider organizational objectives. For example, if the company is hoping to enter a new market, you may want to focus on getting ‘authority links’ from big news sites in that market to help improve SEO amongst that demographic. 

TIP 5: Test & come up with your ideas using ‘The bar factor’

Would your story be talked about by your mates at a bar? If yes, this could suggest you’ll get social shares, engagement and generate general public interest.

“We typically apply the pub (bar) factor to every idea we have, be that B2B or consumer…when we have our team brainstorming sessions, we involve our whole team, not just the PR team. All the ideas get written on a board, then we score each idea out of ten” says Andy.

In an ideal world we’d all be coming up with only original ideas, but in reality, chances are it’s already been done to some extent before. 

There’s nothing wrong with taking inspiration from other campaigns, just as long as you’re not pinching the ideas. Use a social media monitoring tool to understand which parts of campaigns are resonating by breaking the conversational data down into positive trending themes. --> These are the best social media monitoring tools on the market.

Don’t be afraid to look outside of your industry for ideas too. Take a look at how celebs like Kim Kardashian use social media. A list celebs employ the top publicists, as such, they’re full of creative ways to engage audiences.

Also get inspired by sites such as PR examples, The Drum, AdWeek.

Top 7: Come up with more than one angle for a story

If you come up with a fun idea, give yourself multiple story angles. Don’t limit yourself! Take John Lewis as an example. They sent a press release about the Christmas TV ad itself, then how the ad led to an increase in the toy sales, then how many people have viewed the ad since the initial reach. 

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PR & Communications

How to Get Executive Bylines in Publications

4 Smart Ways PR Can Amplify Brand Content

Samsung Galaxy Fold PR Disaster: An Embarrassment Or Opportunity?

PR Apologies: Winners and Losers

Eight Tips for Increasing PR Coverage

12 PR Blogs Your Competitors Are Reading

Niche Communities Where PR Pros Gather

In PR, There’s Power in Third-Party Validation

Why Strong Writing Skills Matter More Than Ever for Today’s PR Pro

How to Engage with Journalists on Social Media

How to Make Your Top Executives Your Biggest PR Assets

How to show the connection between PR and website traffic

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