Etsy’s PR Nightmare: Greeting Cards Making Light Of Rape

January 25th, 2011 | Steff Metal | 15 Comments

[Update from Ed.: Thanks to Shelly Kramer for sharing Etsy's updated policy change following the publicity surrounding this issue. Since Steff's original post is still pertinent in the lessons learned, I hope you'll take a moment to read it.]

Walking the transparency talk

I WAS going to write about something to do with online integrity, but, like many well-meaning bloggers, I got side-tracked by my Twitter feed.

The article that held my attention involved my favorite online shopping site – Etsy.com, and a particular seller of offensive greeting cards.

Filed under Business, Guest Posts, Public Relations, Social Media, Steff Metal | Tags: etsy, goodwill, public relations nightmare, Social Media | Comments (15)

Demystifying Digital Communications

August 17th, 2009 | Shonali Burke | 7 Comments

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting a couple of workshops at Goodwill Industries International‘s 2009 Summer Learning Event in Grand Rapids, Mich. – an educational “retreat” of sorts for GII employees. I say “pleasure” because the event was organized beautifully, I got to visit Grand Rapids for the first time and, most of all, the workshops were a ton of fun.

The second class I taught (the first was on measurement) was on “social media 101.” What’s delightful to me about this kind of class is that you invariably learn as much, if not more, from your audience as they do (or you hope they do) from you. It was also one of the most engaged audiences I’ve spoken to, and I think the most fun part of the session was when attendees broke into a lively discussion on the pros and cons of social media adoption for nonprofits… all while we were exploring Twitter in real time. Remember this tweet from me that day?