Archive for July, 2011

We’re pleased to announce that Ashley Schaffner has been promoted to Account Manager. She started with GMPR as an intern in 2006, and has been a full-time employee for four years. She has certainly earned it!

Contact:   Bonnie Hackbarth, (502) 552-3770

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

     GUTHRIE/MAYES PROMOTES ASHLEY SCHAFFNER

TO ACCOUNT MANAGER

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (July 25, 2011) – Ashley Schaffner has been promoted to Account Manager at Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations. 

Schaffner became a full-time member of the Guthrie/Mayes professional staff in August 2007.  She began as an intern for Guthrie/Mayes in May 2006, and rejoined the firm as an assistant account manager.  She specializes in event planning, community relations, major media announcements and general media relations.

A Louisville native, Schaffner is a member of the Louisville Forum, the city’s preeminent nonpartisan public issues group.  She also volunteers for the Center for Women and Families as a hospital advocate.  Additionally, she was a member of the 2010-2011 Louisville Advertising Federation’s “Dream Team.”

Schaffner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication with a focus on journalism from Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Ky.   

Founded in 1977, Guthrie/Mayes is one of Kentucky’s largest independent public relations firms.  Guthrie/Mayes also is a founding partner in THE WORLDCOM Public Relations Group, the largest network of independently owned public relations firms.

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More than 400 business leaders and young movers and shakers helped welcome Drake’s to Franklin, Tennessee at the VIP Grand Opening event on July 12.

Mark Thornburg, Bruce Drake, Brian McCarty, and Eric Finch

Elise Menold and Eric Finch

Jennifer McGuire, Guthrie/Mayes Senior Counselor and SEO Consultant Scott Clark offer new age tips for successful online reputation management in Business First.

Prepare now for when search results and crisis collide

When a crisis hit in the good old days, with a little luck and some quick thinking, an organization might have escaped with just some bad press.

But that’s old school. With the rise of social networking and sharing sites such as Facebook and Twitter, today’s crises can take on the half-life of radioactive plutonium. Search engines never forget.

Whether it’s online news about a crisis or complaints from a few unhappy customers, search engines will pick up chatter from social networking sites and serve it on a silver platter to anyone who Googles your business. And there’s no expiration date.

Think of it as a virtual picket line that customers must cross to arrive at your door. If your Web site becomes lost in a sea of negative comments, how many potential customers will be turned off and turn away?

But there are online reputation management (ORM) steps that organizations can take now to reduce the risk of search results being hijacked by negative online chatter.

1. Monitor and listen.

If there’s negative chatter out there about your business, you need to be the first to know. Set up free notifications through Google alerts, which sends an e-mail alert when your organization is mentioned in blogs, discussions or online news. If you notice negative chatter, that brings us to the next step …

2. Know the rules of engagement.

It is important to know in advance whether and when your business will engage in an online conversation with critics. Having an agreed-upon strategy or ORM checklist helps you avoid knee-jerk reactions that could drop you in the middle of a hornet’s nest.

The U.S. Air Force’s “Rules of Engagement for Blogging” is an excellent guide for deciding whether, when and how to respond. Don’t wait.

3. It’s all about optimization.

One of the best ways to prevent negative chatter from taking over search results is to have a properly optimized Web site in the first place.

When someone searches for your organization by name online, your site must be at the top of the search results. Otherwise, you’re leaving the door open for negative reviews and comments to slip in and take your place.

This is what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about. Either hire a professional skilled in SEO, research it online or pick up a book. Plenty of resources are available.

4. Create multiple properties.

Instead of having one Web site that ranks high, have several. Your goal is to flood search results with positive Web sites, reviews and comments about your business so that anything negative is pushed out of view.

Google will list your Web site only two or three times on the first page of search results, so consider creating a staff blog or support pages under a different Web address.

LinkedIn and Facebook fan pages for your business are no-brainers and can be done at no cost. Plus, they rank very high with search engines.

Make sure to claim your page on these social media sites and populate them with information, pictures, videos — whatever you have to tell a positive story about your business.

5. Link with high-authority sites.

To optimize a site, one of the most important factors is having high-authority sites link to you. This can be anything from a powerful industry blog where you’ve written a guest post to a well-respected online industry journal.

But these links often don’t happen automatically, so you might have to ask for them.

6. Encourage positive reviews.

Every business has its share of happy customers who rave about their experience, whether it’s a tasty filet mignon, great customer service or an impressive return on investment.

But not every business thinks to ask those satisfied customers to write a review on social media sites such as Urban Spoon, Yelp or Trip­Advisor — or even Facebook.

But that’s exactly what should be done. Positive reviews have the power to dilute negative ones.

7. Prepare a crisis page.

Larger companies should consider preparing a crisis page or blog in advance to be held off-line until needed.

Then, in the event of a crisis, a page is already designed and ready to go with fact sheets, images, key messages, video, personal testimonies or whatever best tells your story.

Just add a statement and take the page live so you — rather than your critics — can become the primary, authentic source for journalists.

Finally, understand that you can’t change search results overnight after a crisis hits.

Unfortunately, that’s just not how it works. But if you take steps now to bolster your search engine optimization and attract positive attention, you won’t be as vulnerable in the event of a crisis.

Stylemaker: Ashley Schaffner