Social Justice: Does the Kenneth Cole Tweet Really Matter?
It has become commonplace for marketers to examine cases of Social Media PR crises that are created by a company through its social media activity. Kenneth Cole is no stranger to being the subject of countless “What NOT to do” posts and stories. This Thursday he was back at it when he sent out the […]
Social Justice: The Positive Power of Social Media
Each week this post covers situations where social media has had a powerful impact on, or, created a hullabaloo about, a brand or societal issue. If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that last week I hit a wall of negativity and railed, or I confess ranted, against the inanity that appears to dominate the […]
Social Justice: Have the Social Networks Failed Us, Or Have We Failed Them?
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about The Children’s Place PR bump in the road when the company was lambasted for its Best Subject T-shirts, reinforcing the stereotype that girls were not interested in math. In that post I highlighted the backlash by TCP’s supporters against the company buckling to their vocal social media detractors, […]
Publishers OR Platforms? Cyberbullying and Increased Accountability by Social Networks
At a time when finally, the common man has been given a platform to speak his mind, to let his voice be heard and to give way to enormous change at the behest of millions of like-voices, we’ve also reached a pinnacle where suddenly the voice of the individual has created an environment of mass opinion […]
Social Justice: Sandberg, Lean In, and the Continuing Push Back
The LeanIn movement, founded by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, has garnered a tremendous amount of social media buzz since the early, pre-publication interviews; emotions and opinions ran strong from the onset. Countless blogs were written both for and against Sandberg’s philosophy as soon as the book hit the market. With the help of all of […]
Social Justice: A Backlash to a Social Media Backlash
We have been writing this Social Justice series long enough to witness a wide variety in the types of social media outrage stories that flare up weekly. Very often, the brand that is the target of the social mob’s anger just needs to wait out the storm, be careful not to fan the flames, and […]
Social Justice: When an Organization Can’t Recover
In early 2012, when The Susan G. Komen Foundation withdrew funding for breast cancer screening from Planned Parenthood, it caused a tidal wave of anger and sadness on Social Media. If you’re even a moderate user of social networks, you’ll be familiar with the story: The Susan G Komen Foundation announced that they’d be withdrawing […]
Social Justice: Chipotle’s Pathetic Misuse of Social Media
There are some weeks when there are so many topics to choose from for our Social Justice post that I don’t know where to start. This week we had: The story of Carl Ashmore, his book The Time Hunters, and the question of Harper Collin’s possible copying his book, title and ideas. The emerging story […]
Social Justice: Is Abercrombie & Fitch Paying the Price?
Back in May we ran a post covering 10 companies that had experienced a Social Media PR firestorm. We outlined the impact that Social Media had on both sales and business practices. Very often, with hindsight, many of the ‘social media disasters’ ended up being nothing more than a tempest in a teapot, wreaking havoc […]
Social Justice: Walmart Mishandles the Wrath of Pet Lovers
Early this week Golden Corral was facing a Social Media PR controversy that was somewhat unique from the numerous fast food restaurant stories that have blown up social media in the past few years. Instead of an employee causing a disaster by staging an unsanitary picture, Brandon Huber posted a You Tube video exposing a […]