Public Affairs

Weekly Web Round-Up

Our NMS strategists have been spotted all over the web this week. Check out our latest hits covering Facebook’s private messaging system, the President’s Pinterest account and social savvy travel marketing.

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Saving Lives Through Social Media

Severe weather and devastating storms in the southern United States in late April remind all of us of the power of social media and its benefits during times of crisis and natural disasters. Not surprisingly, social networking sites have recently been credited for 'saving lives' through updates via Facebook and Twitter about impending storms. Since the recent spike in extreme weather and natural calamities, beginning with the earthquakes in Chile, Haiti and New Zealand, social media has established itself as a go-to medium during times of natural disaster for news and photographs depicting destruction as well as information on relief aid.

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Can Government Transparency Encourage Problem Solving Through Social Media?

A common theme in many of the political and advocacy-oriented panels at SXSW was the idea that social media’s vocabulary is honesty and transparency. As trade organizations, political candidates and government officials have adopted social media, they have needed to adopt the vocabulary of transparency to connect with the community. So if social media has encouraged transparency, can the opposite be true as well? Can policies of transparency encourage the use of social tools to solve public problems?

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REACTION: Kenneth Cole’s Twitter Fiasco Is More Than A Social Media PR Lesson

Today, the internet was set abuzz over tweet from clothing designer Kenneth Cole that sent the web into an uproar. In a failed attempt to use current events to push his clothing line, Cole tweeted, “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC." Not only is the tweet extremely insensitive to the currently crisis in Egypt, but to use the #Cairo hashtag that protesters in Egypt are using to spread awareness about the events there? That has been panned as a crass way to get some buzz behind your message.

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Twitter Sentiment Analysis: 2011 State of the Union Address

NMS Senior Online Analyst Mark LeMunyon analyzes Twitter discussion during last week's State of the Union Address to gauge sentiment and reactions to the speech. Read on for his findings. 

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NMS Buzzmark Correctly Predicts Outcomes of 89% of Senate Races, Beating Other Analysis

I’m proud to announce that our tool for tracking social media buzz, the industry-leading NMS Buzzmark, correctly predicted the outcomes of 89% of United States Senate races in the 2010 midterm elections including Majority Leader Harry Reid’s victory over Sharron Angle in Nevada

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The Problem With Facebook Community Pages

Among the changes announced at F8 last week, the one most users are likely aware of already is the introduction of Community Pagesand the linking of user profiles to them. In my view, Facebook now faces a number of issues to resolve that could have been avoided if the rollout had been planned more carefully: at present, Community Pages are hurt by a lack of transparency, a plethora of redundancy and too little explanation of their quirks.

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CPG’s Love/Hate Relationship With Social Media

In terms of progress in social media, 2009 was a rough one for Consumer Packaged Goods Brands - otherwise known as CPGs. From Motrin Moms to the Skittles Interweb, it's no wonder some CPG marketers are apt to describe their relationship with their product's social media strategy as "complicated."

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How to Avoid the Elephant Stampede (And Other Crisis Communications Tips)

You can’t wait until you see a herd of elephants charging at you before you decide how to react. By keeping your ear to the ground and listening carefully to the movements in your environment, you’ll be in control when the stampede hits and you won’t get run over.

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