Using online reputation management proactively

[Diane Charton] Online reputation management (ORM) is the discipline of monitoring and analysing the reputation of a person, organisation or industry. Far from only using it as a crisis management tool, it can also deliver benefits to businesses that use it in a more proactive manner by analysing content across all types of online media. 15 May 2012 05:04

[2012 trends] What's up in media for 2012?

[Marion Scher] Ever since I read Faith Popcorn's Clicking in 1998 (and I can't believe you haven't read it - really?) I've been hooked on trends and how important it is not only to pay attention to what's affecting people right now but what could happen around the corner. Because you need to be around that corner, armed with what you need to reach your market. 17 Jan 2012 13:43

How influential are you?

[Lindsay Grubb] Hi, I'm Lindsay and I'm just a "Socializer," just a K36. Apparently, I'm the hub of social scenes and people count on me to find out what's happening. I'm quick to connect people and readily share my social savvy. My followers appreciate my network and generosity. 4 Aug 2011 13:44

[2011 trends] Rapid adoption of new tech, media: opportunities for PR

[Sally Falkow] 2010 was the year of social media adoption - according to the annual Social Media Adoption survey more than 60% of the global Fortune 500 now use some form of social media in their marketing and PR strategy and, for the first time, the spread was across all 500 on the list, not concentrated in the top 100 companies. 19 Jan 2011 14:13

BP fiasco lessons: surviving an online reputation crisis

[Tim Shier & Alex Rees] In mid-April 2010, a massive oil spill covered not only the entire Gulf of Mexico, but also BP's online reputation, in an inky black cloud. A decade ago, a crisis such as this would doubtless have caused a few waves, but the opinion of the average citizen would not have caused too much concern for the brand - the spread of information was slower and consumers had little choice but to look to corporate voices for news. Today, the rise of citizen journalism and social media conversation has revolutionised the media landscape. 7 Jul 2010 13:03

Customer support via social media: dos and don'ts

[Roger Hislop] [PR & social media] As a follow-up from my iBurst social media/CRM case study published earlier this week, here are some do's and don'ts for social media response teams, as compiled by Jonathan Allan-Barrett of digiVOX and me. [slideshow] 20 May 2010 12:54

How to prevent social media becoming a CRM whack-a-mole

[Roger Hislop] [PR & social media] Broadband provider iBurst has been looking at the bigger business picture this year when integrating social media into its customer relationship management. Let's take a look at how it has been going about this. 17 May 2010 12:01

Waggener Edstrom Worldwide expands into Africa

JOHANNESBURG: Waggener Edstrom Worldwide (WE) today, Monday, 1 March 2010, announced its expansion into Africa with a new office based in Johannesburg, South Africa, with Marcus Sorour as GM. The agency was recently appointed to drive pan-African corporate and technology PR for Microsoft Corp's West, East, Central Africa and Indian Ocean Islands account, following a three-way pitch. 1 Mar 2010 11:00

[2010 trends] Online keeps maturing

[Diane Charton] As we move into 2010, we can look forward to robust growth for the online advertising industry as bandwidth prices keep falling, more consumers join the broadband world, and more companies embrace the benefits of digital. 21 Jan 2010 11:03

[2010 trends] Looking into the ORM crystal ball

[Tim Shier] Having a publically accessible reputation is something just about everybody has come to terms with. In today's highly connected online environment, our friends, family, colleagues and potential clients are just a mouse click away from finding out a great deal about us - both good and bad. This has forever altered the playing field and brands are increasingly being defined by their consumers - no longer by the brand manager. 19 Jan 2010 11:42

[2010 trends] Doing more with less - PR's mantra this year

[Ronelle Bester] The continued rise of online media and the corresponding decline of print means that PR is evolving. This, coupled with static PR budgets and high client expectations, means that we will need to be more creative this coming year. Here is my view on some of the trends for 2010. 18 Jan 2010 10:44

LexisNexis Analytics launches in SA

LexisNexis Analytics allows corporations to monitor blogs, websites, forums, internal content and press coverage automatically through a single interface. Launched originally in Europe in 2007 and the US in 2008, LexisNexis launched this media monitoring and analysis service in South Africa yesterday, Tuesday, 15 September 2009. 16 Sep 2009 13:21

What your boss needs to know about eMarketing

[Tim Shier] Online marketing is one of those activities which, let's be honest, not everybody understands. The idea of people spending extended periods of their life using the Internet can be a little foreign to many bosses and its applicability is often misunderstood. Here are three critical strategic objectives which lend themselves to eMarketing and the ways they can be implemented to create holistic and successful online and offline marketing campaigns. 8 Jun 2009 14:12