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The Most Spectacularly Awesome #PRFails of 2015

1/17/2016

 
Toronto Public Relations
It’s that time of year again! Let’s look at the most cringe-worthy moments of 2015 as we point and laugh, because opportunities to mock spectacular failures are simply too good to pass up! Without further ado, here are my picks for the most spectacular PR failures of 2015.

Disabilities Aren’t Camera Fodder
When your older sisters are internationally famous for their vapidity and their um, assets, it’s hard to imagine setting the bar for tastelessness any lower. 

And yet, somehow, Kylie Jenner managed to do just that in an incredibly offensive, exploitative and poorly-conceived cover photo for Interview magazine. Though Gemma Flanagan's response to the cover was nothing short of amazing, it's simply staggering that this got all the way to print without somebody noticing that it was a terrible, terrible idea.


The Polluting People’s Car
Volkswagen has built a reputation for being trustworthy and dependable. A reputation that took a pretty serious hit when it was discovered that they were finding not-so-scrupulous ways to skirt emissions standards tests in North America, and then the rest of the world caught wind of the scandal, and it was bad news all over again.

You know it’s bad when your scandal gets a name, and Dieselgate was no exception. Winning back consumer and shareholder trust is going to be a bumpy ride. To be fair, the company’s response was swift and thorough, but even a great apology is no substitute for, you know, not breaking the rules in the first place.

Animal Rights Activists are a Prickly Bunch
The internet is a pretty unforgiving place, and animal rights activists are known for having a pretty long memory. When your organization’s treatment of a particular mammal is the subject of a widely-viewed documentary that is described as "a gripping example of documentary film-making at its finest,” you should probably not open yourself up to attack on social media any time soon.

You should most definitely not set yourself up for disaster by starting the conversation with a hashtag that invites people to ask questions (#ASkSeaWorld), and then leave those questions unanswered for all the world to see. Anyone with even a hint of PR savvy should have seen that coming from a mile away, but apparently nobody who fits that description works with Sea World.

Watch Those Acronyms!
When your company name is two words, and they both start with the letter K, you should be pretty sensitive to the notion that you’re 2/3 of the way to an infamous and awful acronym. You should certainly NEVER come up with short-form for a promotion that takes you the rest of the way there. Krispy Kreme did just that with their Krispy Kreme Klub promotion. Oh yes they did!
 
The next time you’re faced with a customer complaint on one of your social media channels, choose your words carefully. But rest easy, no matter how bad it gets, it’s probably not going to be as bad as any of these.
 
Having a hard time putting your brand’s best foot forward? Terrified that one of these will happen to you someday? Let me help! This contact form
is the place to get started!

3 Things Every Content Writer Needs for Success

1/2/2016

 
Toronto Content Marketing: 3 Things Every Content Writer Needs for Success
So you have decided to make the great leap into the glamorous world of content writing, have you? Great idea! Whether it’s for your own business or writing on another company’s behalf, well-written content is the most important part of any online presence.

Even professional writers need a little help to check their work and sharpen their skills from time to time. With that in mind, here are three things every content writer needs for success.

Remember the Thesaurus?
Have you found yourself writing the same words over and over and over again? If you have noticed this quirk yourself, your readers probably picked it out a long time ago. You, my friend, need to start making good use of a thesaurus.

Bonus: It’s even better for enhancing your vocabulary than a “Word of the Day” calendar.

Another thing to consider is the choice of language used, in particular for the more academically inclined among us. I’m guilty of this one too – using unnecessarily complicated language to illustrate a point. What can I say? I read a lot. Be sure to check the readability scores of your piece in Word or online, and use simpler language whenever possible.

Good Writing Conditions
When I first started working at home, I used a tiny 11” laptop at the coffee table in the living room. That’s fine for a hobby blogger and Facebook enthusiast, but when you’re producing content for professional purposes, you need a real workspace with a proper desk chair and good lighting conditions. And, if you’re working with kids in the home as I do, a good pair of headphones is a must to minimize, um, environmental distractions.

You don’t need to go out and buy a complete home office set-up at once, but if writing content for your business becomes a miserable, uncomfortable experience, you’ll put it off way too often. That’s not a terribly productive idea, now is it?

Learn to Love Grammarly
Ideally, every single piece would be professionally edited by a second pair of well-trained eyes. That’s great advice, in theory, but it’s not possible for budgets of all sizes. When you can’t have another pair of eyes review your work, Grammarly is a Word plug-in that can serve the next best thing.

No, it’s not flawless. You can’t just accept every single change because sometimes the suggestions won’t be contextually appropriate. However, it does an excellent job on punctuation and recommended vocabulary changes. Even if you don’t sign up for a subscription, following Grammarly on social media can give you great tips to improve your writing skills every day.


Have you decided that writing content for your small business just isn’t for you? Would you rather spend your time on sales than coming up with something clever to say on Facebook every day? Have trouble mastering the art of Twitter? I can help! Fill out this contact form to get started!

    Author

    Julia Warrender is a member of the Canadian Association of Marketing Professionals (CAMP) and a Hubspot Inbound Marketing certified professional.

    ​She is also the owner of PROD Communications. 

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