Archive for the ‘Public Relations’ Category

Social networking can take a costly and dangerous twist

This post reflects a news story from the 11 p.m. news cast of NBC’s WAVE 3 in Louisville, Ky.

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – Social networking sites have us more connected than ever before, but the sites are also connecting some to scandal. Experts estimate every 20 minutes there are more than a 1.5 million posts on social media sites. More than 2.5 million pictures are posted.

Smartphones make it easy to share every second, but this quick communication can take a costly turn even though the sites are supposed to pull family and friends together.

“You only have 140 characters to work with, and its point is to say what you are doing,” explained Danielle Rudy Davis with Louisville public relations firm, Peritus.

Despite Twitter’s character constraint, it doesn’t take too many clicks to find users posting too much.

“So you can put that out there and you may go back to delete that a minute later, but someone has already seen it. Someone will take a screen shot of that and that part is stuck,” Rudy Davis said.

It’s what got New York Representative Anthony Weiner stuck in the middle of a summer scandal that cost him his career. Weiner accidentally posted a sexually explicit picture of himself on Twitter. He later admitted he sent inappropriate photos to several women.

With a half million new accounts every day, Twitter makes it easier than ever to cheat with a tweet.

“I think the Internet is making it much more feasible for somebody to go out and be unfaithful to somebody else or find a relationship with somebody else without having to go through the hoops you used to have to jump through,” said Eric Cassius, a relationship counselor.

As we discovered the dark side of the social network, we found thousands letting their dirtiest desires be known using a simple symbol – the hashtag (#).

“Hashtags are basically the pound sign, and then you can put a word after it,” Rudy Davis said. “NASCAR is an example.”

Another example is “twitter after dark.” The phrase with a hashtag puts all dirty tweets after dark together.

“If it keeps going the way that it is, it seems like the long term relationships are going to be a thing of the past. It’s going to be quick little, short little things that you have with people if we adapt to that type of situation,” Cassius said.

This is a whole new domain. In fact, Twitter has only been around for five years. With the constant flow of communication and information, the panel of experts we talked with says it’s important to remember social networking can become addictive.

When personal problems start popping up because of it, that’s when it might be time to seek help from a counselor.

Watch the news segment here.

Peter Whalen
Peritus
Senior Director

At Peritus, we’re all about helping clients succeed.  We’re thrilled to have that opportunity with the Sanford Guide as it takes a huge step forward in its long and distinguished company history.

After 40 years of publishing medical reference books, the Sanford Guide is going digital.  Not only that, it’s going mobile as well.  Not many companies have the guts to completely change the way they do business, or the tenacity to see it through.  But operating the same way you did yesterday is a sure path to obsolescence.  Even a successful medical book publisher has to be willing to push beyond its comfort zone to find the next level of success.

That’s exactly what the Sanford Guide is doing today.

You can ask any doctor – the Sanford Guide is the “gold standard” reference guide for treatment of infectious diseases.  We’ve heard it said that the two most common items found in a doctor’s white lab coat are a stethoscope and a Sanford Guide.  I tested this on a recent visit to a clinic (family member with bad case of Poison Ivy, you don’t want to hear that story), and sure enough, the doctor on duty had a dog-eared copy of the famous booklet right there in his pocket.

Sanford Guide has been the authority on infectious disease treatment since Dr. Jay Sanford compiled his lecture notes on antibiotics into a book for other physicians in the 1960s.  More than 22 million copies of the Sanford Guide have been distributed in many languages throughout the world, making it among the most widely read books in medicine.  You’re just as likely to find it in a relief tent in Haiti as you are in your neighborhood clinic.  Through all this success, the Sanford Guide has remained a family owned and operated company, currently run by Jeb Sanford and his wife Dianne.

The Sanford Guide folks realized several years ago, however, that they are not really in the business of publishing books.  They are in the business of delivering critical information about infectious disease treatment to the “point of care” – that is, where the doctor is actually treating the patient.  That’s their mission, even if the method of delivering that information might change.

So, now, things are getting very exciting for the Sanford Guide.  After creating its first Web Edition last year (now deployed by the U.S. State Department in every U.S. embassy worldwide, by the way), the company has just completed the first Sanford Guide App for smart phones and tablets.  Doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care providers can have the same comprehensive, authoritative information, but instead of the dog-eared book, they pull out their iPhone or iPad.  With a digital Sanford Guide, they can easily navigate or search, and the content is constantly updated.

This is a milestone development for the Sanford Guide, and it’s a great benefit for those health care professionals who treat infectious diseases.  Think of the world we live in today, with “superbugs” like MRSA popping up in the U.S., and new strains of E. coli in Germany – the world of infections is changing fast, and health care providers on the front lines need the most current treatment information.

We’re proud to be representing the Sanford Guide at this momentous time, making sure health care providers across the globe know the Sanford Guide App is available, and helping the Sanford Guide begin a new chapter.

Amy Melton
Peritus
Vice President of Finance

I just enjoyed reading an O’Dwyer’s article about A PR Cocktail in an Epic Bar Tab. As a fellow finance professional, I can only imagine what the Boston Bruins finance department thought when they saw a $150,000 bar tab! But that is not the article’s main focus; it’s actually about Amstel Light taking someone else’s PR disaster and using it to get some free advertising. I think it was a pretty good idea, what do you think?

Bruins tab from O'Dwyer's article

Lauren Reed
Peritus
Senior Director

When the small town of Winslow, Arizona needed a way to boost their economy and make up for lost tourism dollars following changes to the interstate system that drove traffic away from U.S. Route 66, they didn’t have to look far to revive the struggling downtown area.  In the mid-nineties, the city established a small park that serves as a tribute to “Take it Easy”, the 1972 hit by the Eagles that put Winslow on the map. Complete with a life-size bronze statue of a floppy-haired man with a guitar and a mural of “a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin’ down to take a look at me,” the park draws hundreds of visitors per day.

My main question – why did it take more than 20 years for the town to turn this name recognition and popularity into revenue? The town suffered immediately after the development of I-40 in the seventies.  Did not one person think, “Hmm…we could do something with this?” Or did they think that and just not take action?  That is more than 20 years of lost tourism dollars.

Perhaps there is a need for more talented PR folks in Winslow. You know, the kind that have great ideas and actually execute them as well.

Read the NYT article on Winslow’s tourism transformation here.  And for you Eagles fans like myself, remember to “Take it Easy.”

Danielle Rudy-Davis
Peritus
Account Supervisor

First off, let me say that it is a great day at work when I get to reference TMZ to write a blog post on the original Mean Girl, Lindsay Lohan. Back in the day, LiLo was on the verge of being the biggest thing (and by biggest, I mean the skinniest) since sliced bread. But these days our girl Lindsay has some problems and I’m not talking about the legal (and drinking) ones.

Lindsay has some serious PR problems. She’s never going to be able to make the paparazzi stop following her or get Star magazine to stop publishing fake stories about her, but she can give her side of the story. And that was the plan when a personal favorite of mine, Mr. Matt Lauer, set out for LA to sit down with La Lohan. According to TMZ, the interview was about to get underway when she decided to pull the plug. Wait what? The Today Show is not Life & Style magazine (to whom Lohan had already given an interview to), it’s not really a good idea to cancel on the most popular morning show a mere 15 minutes before the interview.

I understand that Lindsay (and/or her people) may not have wanted to do a lengthy interview on the heels of these legal problems. I also understand that Lauer was unaware of the upcoming probation hearing. But none of those would have prohibited Lindsay from sitting down and having a heart-to-heart with Matt. The Today Show isn’t 60 Minutes. This was Lindsay’s chance to come off looking like an adult. It was her opportunity to be serious and frank. It was her chance to tell her side of the story without having to trade jokes with Leno or Letterman. If this interview aired the same day the probation story broke, it would have helped off-set her negative publicity. Instead, America learned that LiLo blew off one of America’s favorite reporters and was facing a stint back in jail on the same day.

Next time Lindsay, talk to Matt. And if you want to be taken seriously, would it kill you to stop throwing parties for two months? Laying low can’t be that hard.