Knowing the Basics Can Prevent Public Relations Mishaps

Baffled is the word I’ll use to describe how I felt after having a conversation recently with a public relations rep. I was baffled because this putative public relations professional had no clue what he was talking about. And I was baffled because I could not figure out how or why a company would hire such a person. Think you know everything about your company? (Read more…)

Online PR Page Tour Better Second Time Around

Last week, I stumbled upon the website of Kaydon Corp., a maker of ball bearings and industrial shock absorbers. The company is not very well-known, but it has a market capitalization of about $1.5 billion and it churns out more than $400 million in sales annually. Kaydon’s website, on the other hand, looks like it took all of ten minutes and $5 to create. (Read more…)

A Dated Controversy

The error was stunning. The results were more stunning.

On Monday morning shares of UAL Corp., the parent company of United Airlines, plummeted more than 75% at one point. The company’s market capitalization, or the combined value of all its outstanding shares, fell by almost $1.2 billion in a period of just 15 minutes. (Read more…)