By Michelle Wang and James Fitzpatrick Social media provides a platform for businesses to engage with their customers in conversation. It is also increasingly used as a platform for customer support, with businesses providing responses to customer complaints and enquiries. When done right, ongoing online engagement can be utilised to turn complaints into opportunities that illustrate your brand and all it promises. Here's our 5 tips followed by some examples: 1. Timely respon

By Georgia Comensoli and James Fitzpatrick Soccer left on the bench in Australian World Cup broadcast failure It’s considered the biggest sporting event in the world but for those lucky enough to live down under, this year’s World Cup coverage has been disappointing. Due to funding cuts, the Soccer World Cup’s usual broadcasters, SBS, were unable to cover all games. Optus jumped in, securing exclusive rights to air many of the games via their mobile app ‘Optus Sport’. What ha

What is Facebook Live Streaming? Facebook Live – like Twitter’s Periscope - gives users the ability to start video streams from their phone and broadcast them live to the world. Simply open the Facebook app on your smartphone, click on Status, and then click the live video icon. Whatever you film now will be live broadcast to the world. What does this mean for organisations and crisis management? It means social media is now first on scene. As soon as an incident occurs at yo

By James Fitzpatrick Social media can be your best friend or your worst enemy. In this day and age, almost everyone has at least one social media account – a Sensis 2015 Report found that around 70% of Australians use some form of social media, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. In just a few clicks, a person can publish a review, experience or photo of a company to a global audience. This means the way in which a company responds to customer or client feedback, rev

Social Media is now first on scene. Worried about how a quick a crisis can go viral on Facebook and Twitter? They'll seem archaic compared to this new tool. Meet Periscope - the app that lets the world watch your crisis unfold, not in a matter of minutes like Facebook or Twitter... but literally LIVE from the scene. Two months ago, Twitter bought the up-and-coming social media tool for a casual $100 million. Why the big fuss? Periscope allows users to live stream events fro

Experienced public relations professionals know that the most successful crisis management technique is to avoid a crisis altogether. For this reason, as well as many others, organisations should invest serious thought and time in developing and implementing a social media policy. Social media’s pervasive growth doesn’t look like slowing any time soon. The statistics on this growth are mind-boggling and should silence any nay-sayers who’d like to write off social networking

Earlier this month the online world was privy to a viral social media phenomenon in the form of Kony 2012(www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc). Public relations and communications people everywhere are still shaking their heads at the incredible escalation of the video online. The attention garnered by Invisible Children’sStop Kony campaign is a very clear demonstration of the powerful weapon we wield with the use of social media. What lies behind the propaganda, public re

In the last 12 months there’s been plenty of speculation and comment about the use of social media as a crisis communication tool in emergency response. As we discussed in an earlier blog, “A world of crisis – what is the role of PR?”, crisis management is an area of public relations that is moving up the agenda as a matter of necessity. With the influx of serious humanitarian and corporate crises across the globe, emergency response and associated issues are more tangible,