Category: communication

Crisis management: weathering the Twitterstorm

Some solid social media crisis communications advice from Advertising Age: How to weather a Twitterstorm (via @LenKendall on Twitter).

Timely, too, in light of the Twitter outcry that resulted after thousands of gay and lesbian titles disappeared from Amazon.com’s sales rankings over the weekend, introducing the term #amazonfail into the social-media lexicon.

Ad Age’s six tips are really nothing new. The list consists of basis crisis communications advice, but in the context of the always-on, immediate world of crowdsourced social media, where things can quickly spin out of control. Nowadays, it’s more important than ever to get out in front of a story. As Amazon has learned (we hope).

In-house gets it done cheaper, faster

These days, just about everyone working in the PR, marketing or creative services field is looking for information to help show the value of their work — especially when talk turns to outsourcing and budget reductions. If you happen to be part of an in-house PR, marketing or creative services team, then you might want to make note of this little nugget I picked up from an American Marketing Association webinar from a few years ago:

In-house PR, marketing and creative services staff are more efficient than outside agencies, according to information presented during this webinar by Aquent.

As the chart below illustrates, in-house services can get the work done at 40 percent of the cost of a typical agency, and in one-third the time. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

Click image for full size
Click image for full size

Of course, this is only one data point, from one source. But it’s a third party resource that may come in handy when talk turns to outsourcing work as a cost-cutting measure.

I’m not writing this to slam consultants. Consultants provide valuable services to our colleges and universities. But these days, we need to consider the value and expertise our in-house people bring to our marketing operations.