7 PR Lessons Komen for the Cure Didn’t Know It Was Giving You
Update at 11:40 am ET: Since this post was published, Komen has restored funding to Planned Parenthood, which you can read via this statement they released today. Special thanks to Jen Zingsheim for noting in the comments that she learned this via Jezebel, which is how I found out.
I’ve been fascinated by the way the Komen drama – over its new grant policies resulting in withdrawing funds for most of the Planned Parenthood programs that were formerly recipients – has been unfolding.
Kind of like watching a train wreck, isn’t it? That’s what it feels like to me, at least.
Before we go any further: I do care about women’s health (I have my own issues that I deal with every day), and have donated to Komen by supporting friends who’ve participated in their walks, but not directly. I have friends who’ve survived breast cancer (among other cancers). I briefly met Nancy Brinker some years ago, when I was a “scrub” on a client event, and the American Institute for Cancer Research is a former client.
Filed under Communication, Public Relations, Shonali Burke, Social Media | Tags: crisis communications, komen, newsjacking, nonprofit, planned parenthood, real-time communication | Comments (98)That Time Our Website Was Hacked
The afternoon of March 28 was not a super-happy-fun time for my department.
Instead of seeing the University homepage, visitors were greeted with a black screen that had the messages: “Hacked by SecurityBus,” and “Sorry Admin you’ve just been hacked.”
My first reaction was to check if the institution’s blog—the piece I manage—was still up.
It was.
The blog is set up on a server separate from the institution’s homepage, a precautionary measure that was implemented so that if the blog was ever hacked, the University website would be protected.
(Ironic, I know. Anyway…)
So, as far as Web presence went, we still had the blog and the official Facebook and Twitter accounts. Those last two are managed by Student Recruitment.
Throughout the incident no one had posted any comments or questions on the University’s Facebook account, and only one comment about the hacking appeared on the blog (which I’ll get to later).
Filed under Blogging, Communication, Guest Posts, Public Relations, Shanan Sorochynski, Social Media, Twitter | Tags: crisis communications, emergency, Social Media, TweetDeck, Twitter, university | Comments (8)On Social Media’s Use (And Misuse) After The Christchurch Earthquake
Two weeks ago,
the city of Christchurch, in New Zealand, was recently hit by a disastrous earthquake.
The city had just begun to recover from an earthquake on Sept 4, 2010, and over 5,000 aftershocks, when this quake – much shallower and more destructive – hit.
Photo: Fairfax via theage.com.au.
The death toll currently stands at 166, with over 50 missing people still to be accounted for.
Some parts of the region are still without power, running water, and phone services.
Filed under Communication, Guest Posts, Social Media, Steff Metal | Tags: #eqnz, christchurch earthquake, crisis communications, disaster porn, news, Social Media, steff metal | Comments (2)
