The backlash was unimaginable. Consumers took to every social media site to relay their displeasure – you probably saw this on your own Facebook or Twitter feed. Furthermore, 26 Democratic senators voiced their opinion to the CEO, Nancy Brinker, urging her to reconsider the cuts.

“It would be tragic if any woman — let alone thousands of women — lost access to these potentially lifesaving screenings because of a politically motivated attack,” the senators wrote.

According to a Mashable article, Leigh Van Bryan and friend Emily Bunting were questioned for five hours and kept in a holding cell overnight after stopped by officials at the Los Angeles airport. Van Bryan’s earlier tweets had referenced ”destroying” the U.S. and digging up Marilyn Monroe’s grave. Later, Van Bryan claimed that he was treated like a terrorist despite explaining to authorities that they had the wrong idea.

While it appears that this was a big misunderstanding, and Van Bryan and Bunting likely had no intention of harm, I can’t say I feel sorry for them. Time and time again news stories surface about individuals being fired from their jobs as a result of statements they’ve posted on Facebook and Twitter, or young adults being disregarded for jobs due to pictures on their Facebook page.

Gone are the days that conversations taking place on the internet are private between the two parties involved. Therefore, Van Bryan’s excuse of “I didn’t mean it” holds little ground, when such an unsettling conversation such as his shouldn’t have taken place over Twitter in the first place.

One option to help you determine when to get the best level of Twitter engagement based on your specific follower base is Timely, which was recently recommended by Sarah Evans. In the image below, the site showed that a good portion of my tweets could have garnered greater attention if distributed around 1-2 p.m., for example. What’s interesting to note is that as your twit-base grows, Timely will adjust its analysis and recommendation of when to schedule and post content. Have you given the tool a try?

Image via Timely

For more resources on the best time to tweet, check out these posts from Tweet Smarter, Adverblog and Mashable. Also don’t forget to visit our Social Media Tool Academy for information about how Twitter and other trends, tips and technologies can be applied to PR campaigns.

Barb Darrow’s article in GigaOm, A CTO’s take on cloud, is another cloud article that recently caught my eye, but not just for its element of cloud predictions but the fact that it was an interview with Capgemini’s CTO for North America, Joe Coyle. Systems integrators continue to play an increasing role in the cloud, but I’ve seen few articles really written from their perspective. Given their relationship with so many cloud vendors and enterprise customers, they must have a unique pulse on the market akin to – if not closer than –industry analysts.

Darrow’s article recaps five main takeaways from her conversation with Coyle, which you can read in full at the link above, but here are some that stood out to me:

• IBM’s cloud will primarily be used at current IBM shops
• While Azure has been a bit of a disappointment, it’s a solid technology that “forces developers to follow the rules” (which can be a great positive for customers and their end users)
• Amazon is and will continue to be the dominate player in the public cloud
• “OpenStack will change the world of cloud computing” but no, it will not affect Amazon, “Amazon is Amazon.”

Coca-Cola has come up with a creative way to try to dominate social media conversations revolving around the super bowl with these two bears. The two bears will each represent a team in the game, with fan gear resembling their team of choice, with red resembling the Giants and blue resembling the Pats.

These two bears are being controlled by two employees at the Coke ad agency Wieden and Kennedy. These bears will be “watching” the game and the commercials, while simultaneously reacting to everything that is streaming. If the Pats score a touchdown, the NE bear will celebrate accordingly, while the Giants bear will sulk. Amazing, right? These bears will be seen on  CokePolarBowl.com so you can visit the site whenever the mood strikes.These bears will even react to mishaps, like the Janet Jackson incident years ago.

It’s a pretty creative campaign that will probably get a lot of attention, but as far as a lot of traffic to the site, I’m a little skeptical. People will probably be too wrapped up in the game or commercial themselves to visit this website. Although, this is a good way to reach a broader and different audience, that they may not reach from just television advertising.

**Photo Courtesy of AdRANTS

According to Mashable, there are about 20 “teasers” being run by brands such as Volkswagen and Doritos on YouTube. The reason for doing so is fairly obvious: get enough people talking about the spots on social media so that by kick-off, word of the ads has leaked into the consciousness of traditional audiences.  Like viral campaigns normally attributed to movie marketing, such as those for Super 8 and The Dark Knight, it’s all about the noise you can make first, and social media is right now the loudest place on Earth.

There are wide arrays of strategies employed by brands testing out these new waters. As they did last year, Doritos is crowd sourcing entries submitted by fans, with the most well-received running during the game.  Volkswagen and Lexus have created previews for their Super Bowl ads, Lexus in a traditional movie fashion, and Volkswagen in a…well, you decide. Chevrolet and Priceline have already begun to run their actual Super Bowl ads on YouTube, and both are, in my opinion, excellent.There are also brands, such as Coca-Cola, who are keeping the lid on their Super Bowl spots and not engaging fans via social media prior to the game.

Personally, my thought is that there is little harm done in posting a commercial on YouTube before it airs on national television.  If a brand has confidence in its creative, then the ad will be strong enough to facilitate a viral presence on other networks such as Facebook and Twitter.  Additionally, if well-done, audiences won’t object to watching it a second time on their television in between quarters.   Taking the corollary, say your ad turns out to be horrible or ineffective.  By leaking it on YouTube first, you will be able to pull the plug on it prior millions of people around the globe viewing it.  I believe that if Groupon tested out its spot on YouTube last year in the weeks leading up to the big game, then it would have seriously reconsidering running it.

While we already have an idea as to what some of the biggest brands will be doing this year for their Super Bowl commercial, it does not affect the anticipation of seeing all of them in succession.  Like great teams preparing for an epic showdown, you know their commercials’ strengths, you know their weaknesses, but it all comes down to how they perform on game night.

My personal goal was to start practicing yoga in 2012. As my colleague Liz states in a previous blog post, yoga is clinically proven to enhance well-being and increase productivity at work as you learn how to stay calm, focused and balanced.

Sounds like something you need, right?

To help me achieve this goal, we started March Yoga Nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays at Health Yoga Life, a new yoga studio in Beacon Hill. Founded by the Bielkus sisters, HYL is a peaceful studio, accommodating to yoga beginners or advanced practitioners.

As a PR professional, I love all of the publicity HYL is getting in the Boston market. The sisters were recently featured on the cover of The Improper Bostonian and on NECN. You can also ‘Like’ HYL on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

We all know how stressful a day in the life of a PR executive can be, why not add some balance to your life?

To all of my colleagues, please join me on the mat for some yoga.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am no sports guru. I can maybe name four players on the Patriots (embarrassing, I know) and I’m one of those people that likes the Superbowl for the funny commercials everyone talks about the next day.

However, when I read a Mashable article about football and Twitter, I was intrigued. Despite having banned tweeting during games in July of 2009, the NFL has decided to break their own rule and allow players to tweet during the Pro Bowl. The caveat is that players are not allowed to tweet from their own devices. Instead, they must tweet from “designated computer stations” on the sideline. To me, and Mashable contributor Christina Warren, this begs the question: what’s the point?

Much of the appeal of Twitter is communicating with friends in real-time, sharing experiences and thoughts in 140-characters or less, as they happen. If players have to set aside time to tweet, Pro Bowl tweets run the risk of appearing scripted disingenuous.

In a June post, I addressed the tweeting policy put in place for the upcoming London Olympics. While the Olympic Games have their own set of tweeting regulations, they are much less restrictive and allow fans to have a more engaging Twitter experience with the athletes. With the Olympics only a few months away, it will be interesting to see if this policy proves beneficial for both the athletes and fans. If so, I hope to see other professional sports organizations follow suit and update their own dated social media policies.

What do you think of the NFL’s Pro Bowl tweeting policy? Will you bother following your favorite player?

*Photo courtesy of Dark Wing Illustration

Campaign: US Launch 

Overview

• Enterprise Software PR Campaign
• With a strong European presence, CloudSigma was ready to expand its public cloud offering to the U.S. market through increased awareness and exposure
• CloudSigma needed to be seen as a viable competitor to its big-time competitors such as Amazon and Rackspace, with a superior approach as the only pure-cloud IaaS provider with a flexible and user-centric strategy

Approach

• Pitch select, top-tier targets 1-2 weeks prior to the official launch to drum up interest and secure pre-briefings to maximize coverage on the day of the launch
• Craft a compelling pitch that highlights why CloudSigma is unique in the industry and differs specifically from competitors such as Amazon and Rackspace
• Leverage customers for quotes in the release and third party testimonials for media interviews and analyst briefings
• Use social media channels like Twitter to expand the reach of the announcement

Results

• Secured 11 media interviews and 6 analyst briefings with top tier journalists and analysts from 451 Group, IDG, Nemertes and ZDNet
• Secured 17 pieces of unique coverage in top tier outlets like GigaOM, Computerworld and NetworkWorld

Coverage

[Show as slideshow]

If you are majoring in Communications or a similar field, it can seem pretty straightforward to pursue an internship or entry level position in PR. But if you’re looking at PR (or a similar field) and your major was more a product of passion than practicality, the task might seem more daunting. The good news is, good old Liberal Arts degrees (like mine) can be valuable assets in the PR world.

The importance of keeping an open mind as you set off on your career journey cannot be overstated. Nothing is truer for the recent graduate than to drop preconceptions and look at all the potential opportunities out there. English Major? Doesn’t mean you have to teach. History Major? Doesn’t mean you have to… teach. Political Science? The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria may not be in your future. Fortunately, PR can be a good place for Liberal Arts majors.

Apply what you know. You’ve become a talented writer, which is one of the most essential tools in PR. And your comprehension is refined as well, and your ability to break down difficult concepts and communicate the main ideas. Again, major assets in PR. If you’re a product of today’s digital environs, then you’re already social media savvy and you digest news and other info from Google and Twitter like Pac Man consumes white dots. The next step is to be proactive with this information and learn how it applies to the profession. You need to realize that, when properly executed and applied strategically, these skills are perfect for this industry.

But you (usually) can’t just waltz into the profession. That’s why seeking out relevant opportunities is so important. Meredith aptly pointed out the value of externships, with case studies to boot. Internships are of course great too, even if they are unpaid. The more experience you can cite, the better (to a point; 10 internships on a resume probably isn’t very encouraging to a prospective employer). Armed with experience, your educational background becomes more relevant.

When interviewing for an internship or entry level position in PR, try to articulate how the skills and experiences you have will be valuable in this position. Liberal Arts degrees have been sometimes accused as being worth little more than wall decorations, but it’s undeniable that earning one requires diligence, perceptiveness, analytical thinking and refined communication skills. So if you’re thinking about PR, and if the idea of communicating enthuses you, then carry that Liberal Arts degree with pride and find yourself a spot on the front lines.