Crisis veteran Gerard Braud shares his inside response secrets.

Search “BP” online right now—and what do you find? It’s a nightmare, of course. Chances BP will suffer from today’s horrible online buzz for years and years to come, thanks to the “long tail” effect of the Internet.

So what do you do when your company, client, CEO or brand faces a crisis—online or off? How do you win the war on the Web when bad news, flat-out lies or rumors strike in social media? How do you stem the tide before the damage goes viral?

As you know, the key to crisis survival is preparation—the ability to develop messages and implement response plans immediately, before the 24/7 media bang down your door, before you’re “tweeted” to death.

Here’s some solid help: To make sure your organization’s crisis plan is current and robust, I urge you to listen in on PR University’s upcoming audio conference: “Social Media When “It” Hits the Fan: What PR Must Know about Online Crisis Communications to Win the War on the Web.”

In just 90 information packed minutes, crisis guru Gerard Braud will reveal proven crisis response strategies that are guaranteed to increase your competence and confidence when combating reputation or brand disasters in today’s multi-dimensional communications environment.

Gerard Braud is the founder of Braud Communications and author of “Don’t Talk to the Media”. He’s an international coach, trainer, author and speaker, who has worked with organizations on four continents. Known as the guy to call when “it” hits the fan, he is an expert on online crisis communications and new media issues.

For one low price—just $299—you and all your colleagues will learn all the fundamentals: How social media can foil you during a crisis, plus case studies, crisis communication plans and crisis management checklists . . . by simply gathering your team around your speaker phone for 90 minutes.

NOTE: If you don’t hear everything you need or want to know from the speakers’ comments, just email your questions directly to Gerard Braud or join in the discussion yourself when we open the phone lines for live Q&A.

Your audio conference entitles you to:

• A site license to attend the 90-minute web conference (and invite as many people as you can fit around your speakerphone, at no extra charge)
• PR University’s conference manual, which includes the instructors’ presentations and tip sheets
• A full transcript, emailed to you soon after the conference
• The opportunity to connect with the presenters during the interactive, audience Q&A
• With all the first-hand crisis experience and response strategies this crisis guru will be discussing and sharing, you’re sure to walk away from the conference with a notebook full of new ideas on how to fortify your current crisis plan.

Here’s exactly what you’ll cover on Thursday:

• The Generation Gap: Why young communicators want to Tweet and Facebook their way out of a crisis—and when an email blast to employees and a website post might be your best bet
• The Leadership Gap: Dangers within your leadership that will hurt your ability to respond to crisis in today’s 24/7 media landscape
• How employees using social media can actually sabotage a crisis and make it worse—and how to avoid such Web 2.0 no-no’s before they happen
• Shiny Object Syndrome: Why social media can fail you during a crisis—plus strategies outlining the correct ways to use social media during a crisis
• Case Studies: Real-world lessons from high profile crises like the BP blowout and Toyota recalls
• Social Media Game Changers: Twitpics, the “Miracle on the Hudson” and the impact the public has on communicating a crisis faster than the media or the corporation
• Monitoring, the need for speed and transparency—social media rules of engagement every communicator must know before jumping into the online conversation
• Planning and prep work: How to conduct a vulnerability assessment to determine the various types of crises you could face
• Superior crisis communications plans: How to create or update yours to incorporate social media where appropriate
• Crisis management checklists: Step-by-step guidelines to shepherd management through dramatically bad situations when bad news strikes
• How to use search engine optimization and savvy keyword usage when crisis situations unfold
• How (and when) to use blogs, YouTube, Twitter and other social media channels to get the word out about crisis related updates, notices or alerts
• Common crisis perils and bad news pitfalls to avoid at all costs—both online and off
• Remember: This webinar goes way beyond just teaching you the dos and don’ts—Gerard Braud will share actual mistakes and crisis triumphs that have made his clients stronger and emerge with a solid reputation and even increased public esteem.

Fortunately, registering for this event is simple (and very fast). Just use the online registration form or call 1-800-959-1059 and get personal registration service from one of PR University’s Client Satisfaction Representatives.

BtoB‘s Ellis Booker and Genius.com’s Parker Trewin provide an inside look and detail 7 key findings from the recent B2B Marketing Skills Survey, which zeros in on the evolving role of today’s marketer.

The research-based webcast will explore the survey findings on a wide range of hot topics, including:

• Evolving skill sets
• Success metrics
• Alignment issues

Additionally, the webcast will provide implications and outline possible actions for today’s connected B2B marketer.

Click here to register for the webinar.

There have never been more potential outlets and opportunities for writers, but at the same time, there’s never been more competition.

In this course, you will learn how to make the current climate in both publishing and parenting work for you. We’ll explore the many different outlets available to freelance writers, from blogs to websites to magazines, as well as the kinds of story ideas and formats that today’s editors are looking for. We’ll cover the nuts and bolts of researching, writing, and revising a parenting story, how pitches differ and most importantly, how to develop strong relationships with your editors.

In this class, you will learn how to:

• Mine your life, experience, and connections for ideas
• Define yourself as a parenting writer
• Find the markets available to you as a parenting writer, including magazines, blogs, and websites
• Target your pitches
• Research topics and identify sources
• Create engaging stories that editors and readers won’t want to put down

Learn more and register now. Prefer to register by telephone? Call us at 212-547-7890.

Do you want to turn more prospects into profits? Attend the webinar “The Crawl, Walk, and Run of Lead Scoring” and discover how you can make smart business decisions about your leads by identifying your best prospects – boosting conversion rates, speeding sales cycles, increasing customer lifetime values and reducing marketing waste.

You will learn:

• How lead scoring and analytics can…
  • Improve call handling in a contact center
  • Optimize lead handling by a sales team
  • Refine and target follow-up marketing
  • Identify prospects with laser-like precision
• How the real-time application of analytics and scoring is helping companies change the way they do business—giving them a competitive edge
• Ways to quickly gain institutional buy-in with immediate results showing the full value of your analytics
• Best practices from our current lead scoring clients
• How to get more revenue out of your leads

Click here to register through Chief! Marketer.

Please take a moment to check out the topics and speakers for PR News’ Media Relations Forum and you’ll see that one day out of the office and getting into the minds of leading brand and reputation builders will be well worth your time.

The forum will address the most critical media relations issues and new opportunities facing communications professionals. Including:

• Media Training
• Social Media
• Blogger Relations
• New tools and Technologies
• Crisis Management
• Measurement
• SEO
• Budgeting and Resource Management

We’ve programmed in ample networking time so you can make important connections. Plus, we will have our PR News editorial team on hand taking copious notes so that we can provide you with an executive summary that will include the most important take-aways from each session. Leave the note-taking to us so you can listen, learn and make the most of this one day.

With social media, nontraditional online influencers and a true 24/7 communications landscape, media relations is more complicated yet more exciting than ever. Join us on June 17 and you’ll be sure to take away a smarter, more effective media relations playbook.  Click here for more information and to register.

Questions?
If you’d like to register by phone or have questions regarding the program, please contact conference coordinator Saun Sayamongkhun at ssayamongkhun@accessintel.com; 301-354-1610.

When:  Thursday, June 17
Where:  Teleconference
Cost:  $99 per registrant

No one needs to tell you that the economy is picking up speed again—with consumers opening up their wallets as they haven’t done in several years. The upshot is that this coming holiday season promises to be a boon … if you can get your product or service in front of product review and gift guide editors now. After all, the early bird gets the media hit when it comes to gift guides—and many outlets are doing their seasonal planning right now. It’s the same for summer wedding gift guides, Valentine’s Day gift guides, Mother’s and Father’s Day gift guides,graduation gift guides and so on.

So what are the new consumer triggers that drive Americans to buy now? What are the new editorial hot buttons that gatekeepers at the nation’s top gift guides require when it comes to products and goods they’ll cover? And how can you get your product or service out in front of them before the competition does? To learn the answers and win a spot for your gift when and where it counts most, join Bulldog Reporter’s PR University for a behind the scenes look at thesecrets of scoring valuable coverage in the nation’s top gift guides—from the very editorial gatekeepers who decide what runs and what doesn’t. They’ll outline what they’re looking for now, this year’s hottest items, the latest consumer buying behaviors and trends—and how public relations can position items for optimal product placement in front of millions of shoppers this promising turnaround year.

What You Will Learn

• The New Consumer Mindset: What cautious consumers and the value-seeking public want now in holiday gifts and products—and from the products coverage they trust
• 2010 & 2011 Editorial Hot Buttons: The gadgets, goods, gear andtop shopping trends editors will be covering this holiday season as the economy gathers steam—and how to emphasize these pegs in your media outreach
• How top holiday gift guides differ in scope and mission—and how to use these insights to get products reviewed in today’s changing media environment
• Early-Bird Techniques: Best ways to pitch embargoed products, negotiate exclusive first looks and manage beta runs months in advance
• Pitching product blogs and websites: How online gift guides differ from their print counterparts—and how to provide multimedia toboost your digital footprint
• Cost-Cutting Tips: Easy ways to get product in the right editor’s hands without wasting time and money on blanket campaigns
• Packaging, pitches and press kits that grabs editors’ attentionevery time
• New Product Protocols: What journalists can (and can’t) receive and how they prefer to receive mailed items and seasonal gifts
• How JPEGs, graphics and four-color artwork can help you edge out the competition for valuable editorial real estate
• Why freelancers could be your back door to coverage … and how to use them as allies when pitching seasonal products to top editors
• How smaller concerns can earn more holiday coverage than corporate giants with deeper pockets (and resources)
• Social Media Update: How these media outlets use social media to source and seek product to cover—plus how you can use tools like Twitter to build relationships with them and even pitch items for them cover
• Advanced Media Relations: How the best PR pros have gained the ear—and trust—of these editorial gatekeepers—and how you can do the same

This seminar is offered as part of Bulldog Reporter’s PR University.  Register Now to make sure you have a spot!

When:  Tuesday, June 22
Where:  Online
Cost:  $329 per site

As you know, engagement isn’t just a strategy–it is a new way of maintaining and even creating brands. In this one-of-a-kind Webinar, min gathers winners of its own 2010 Most Engaged Media Brands Awards–among them Cyndi Stivers of Entertainment Weekly–to share their insights on the meaning of “engagement” and on the many ways they have successfully achieved it with their print, online and on-air audiences.

Please join us on Tuesday, June 22, at 1:30 P.M. EST, as we learn how the leading magazine brands are defining, pursuing and achieving this elusive concept of engagement during the min Webinar:
“Rules of Engagement: Secrets of the Most Engaged Media Brands.”

Take just 90 minutes out of your day to learn:

• How magazines are following their audiences into the live events and venues they care most about
• How the new channels of email, Twitter, Facebook and blogs can be used to maintain an intimate connection with audiences
• How magazines are leveraging the Internet to create focus groups and test new ideas for their editorial teams and even for their advertisers
• How media companies are defining engagement for themselves and their ad clients, and measuring success
• How bringing the audience into a publication deepens relationships with readers
• How sales teams are leveraging their brand’s user engagement with advertisers to create new experiences for the consumer
• How your Web site can be used to retain the audience you have and recruit new brand loyalists
• How emerging platforms, including mobile, out-of home, in-store presence and retail partnerships, can make your brand a constant companion for your audience

For more information and to register, go to www.minonline.com/training/webinar-Engagement.html. Don’t forget, if you register by this Friday, June 18, you will receive a $15 Starbucks Gift Card!

I hope you’ll be able to attend. If you have any questions or need further information, contact Steve Goldstein, min’s Group Editorial Director directly.

When:  Thursday, June 24, 2010
Time:   2 – 3 pm EDT
Where:  Online
Cost:   $195

Webinar by David Grossman ABC, APR, Fellow PRSA and author of the new book, You Can’t Not Communicate.

Since you are always communicating – you might as well be great at it. This webinar is a unique opportunity to learn winning strategies you can use every day to differentiate yourself, elevate your leadership impact, and accelerate business results.

David Grossman will share practical insights, best practices, and proven tools to help communicators and top leaders differentiate themselves as LeaderCommunicators.

Learning topics:

• The three fundamental truisms every leader must understand
• Three myths leaders believe, and that every communicator must address head-on The most common traps leaders face The Great Eight communication basics; what great leaders do The five truths of two-way communication
• The top seven strategies for being a better listener

Register Now

When:  Thursday, June 24, 2010
Time:  3-4:15 pm EDT
Where:  Online
Cost:  $209

It’s a new decade in a new century … surely strategic communication must have evolved over the past several years? Yes—and no. While the explosion of social media—and the critical role it plays in reaching our audiences—has added new powers to our communication programs and campaigns, many of us still put far too much emphasis on tactics. Strategy is still you thinking in the biggest way possible about your business, and you don’t need a social media networking poll to tell you that.

Join Shonali Burke, Principal of Shonali Burke Consulting, as she gives an overview of why strategy is still important and how to demystify it. You’ll learn how to frame your communication strategy with the end-results in mind, and tie that strategy to your organization’s business objectives which is, after all, the reason our profession exists.

You will learn:

• The difference between strategy and tactics
• How social media should fit into your overall communication strategy
• How to connect your efforts to your organization’s KPIs
• How the 5W’s and H of public relations can help you frame your strategy
• Why good measurement is critical to the success of your communication program
• And more!

Register Now

When:  Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Time:  3 – 4:15 pm EDT
Where: Online
Cost:   $99

Who makes the key decisions in a household? Women. They determine when their kids, aging parents or husband should see the doctor.

So how do you gain their attention? Social media. Studies show women are the dominant force in social networks like Facebook and Twitter. These networks present a prime opportunity to showcase your hospital’s services, events and patient care.

During this 60-minute webinar, you will learn how to:

• Formulate a social media strategy to reach women, including new moms
• Develop messages that speak to your target audience
• Publicize your hospital’s women-oriented events via social media
• Start a hospital Twitter feed geared to women
• Converse with mommy bloggers to understand their needs
• Integrate offline strategies to expand your social network for women
• Share data and studies with executive staff about this key demographic
• Find online communities for women, or start one at your hospital
• Generate ideas for engaging new and expectant mothers
• And more!

Your presenter, Corey Walker, will teach you how to tailor your social media message to this influential audience.

Register Now!

When: June 30, 2010
Time:  1:00 pm EDT  (30 minutes)
Where:  Online
Cost:   Free

It can drive you crazy. You spend and spend and spend on PPC, without harvesting the results you demand for the investment you make. Let the wizard of PPC Soren Ryherd from Working Planet Marketing Group de-mystify the PPC ROI tracking process with some live examples from PPC campaigns and clients, including ideaLaunch.com.

Learn how to track the ROI from your PPC investment with new methodology, tools and tricks of the trade. Learn how content marketing becomes your best asset with PPC strategy in turning more browsers into believers, and believers into buyers.

Soren joins host Byron White, founder of ideaLaunch and LifeTips.com on this months Content Marketing Webinar series focused on tracking PPC return on investment.

This 30-Minute FREE Webinar will help you do the following:

• Win the War of PPC Words on the Web
• Think beyond conversion and into the sales funnel
• Profitably Drive PPC Strategy & Tactics

Free 101 Content Marketing Tips Book

Attend this webinar and we’ll send you a PDF version of Byron’s newly published book, 101 Content Marketing Tips. It’s a $9.99 value and is full of priceless information.

Register Now!

When:     Thursday, July 1, 2010 at 1pm EDT (90 minutes)
Where:   Online
Cost:        $ 299

Are clients asking you to integrate social media with their existing PR programs—but you’re unsure how to tie it all together? You’re not alone. By now, most in PR have tackled in social media tools—and implemented social media campaigns and on-offs for clients on channels ranging from blogs and Wikipedia to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and beyond. Some have even launched proprietary networks for clients while others are still focused on online forums. Regardless your level of proficiency with various social media tools and tactics … chances are that your success has often been limited because these ad-hoc efforts typically lack a coherent strategy. What’s more: Clients and companies don’t pay for tactics—they pay for strategic counsel that moves the needle.

The good news: You can maximize your digital footprint across multiple social media platforms—and quadruple your results—by following this proven and practical program guaranteed to help you create an advanced social media strategy for all of your new media efforts. Designed to help your team create and execute successful social media campaigns and initiatives in seven easy steps, this strategic regimen will help you boost your Internet ROI, grow your online visibility or reputation and increase your search ranking for your company or clients. Join one of PR’s leading Web 2.0 gurus and best social media instructors for this intensive, interactive webinar to learn how it’s done. In just 90 information-packed minutes, she will give youstep-by-step practical guidelines for using all these social media tools in such a way that they complement each other and support your traditional PR program to drive organizational goals. If you are looking for apowerful social media strategy to help you build buzz, brand and the bottom line online, then this is one PR training event you and your team can’t afford to miss.

Key Takeaways:

• Why you should not go one more day without drafting a social media strategy
• How to sell a comprehensive social media strategy to skeptical management
• Understanding the role social media optimization (SMO) plays inonline reputation management (ORM) and search engine reputation management (SERM)—plus how PR can tap these tools to build a bigger digital footprint
• How to position PR and communications as a vital player in the internal conversation about leveraging your social media strategy and supporting new technologies
• A Seven Step Guide designed to help you create and execute measurable social media campaigns and programs for your client, company or brand, including:
  • How best to create a social media team to drive your strategy
  • New ideas to help you draft a social media policy that matches your organizational culture
  • New tools and techniques to help you build a listening program
  • How to establish goals and metrics for your social media program
  • Best ways to assign social media roles and responsibilities
  • Checklists to help you decide which social media tools and networks are best suited for your goals and audiences
  • How to monitor and adjust your social media program for greater results
• How to optimize your client or company’s web presence via social news buttons, blogging, Web video, online photo sharing, online social networks from Facebook to YouTube to Twitter…and beyond
• How online newsrooms and Social Media Releases can play an important role
• SEO Fundamentals: First steps for bringing your SEO tools and SERM techniques up to speed as part of your social media plan
• Social media strategy do’s and don’ts—plus warnings from brands that blew it
• Best Practices : Examples you can take to your execs to show how a social media strategy can help build brand and the bottom line
• How to track and measure the value of your social media program and prove it to management
• How to talk to the C-suite about your new social media strategy

YOUR PRESENTER:
Jennifer Cisney is the chief blogger and social media manager at Eastman Kodak. She has been with Eastman Kodak for twelve years, resulting in a broad knowledge of the various businesses and in depth experience with the corporate website, kodak.com. Her contributions to Kodak’s online experience have been inspirational photography, design expertise and creative content. She helped create and now manages the corporate blogs. After launching Kodak’s social media initiatives, she oversees Kodak’s presence on social media sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr. Jennifer has been a speaker at such social media conferences as BlogWorld, BlogHer, Marketing to Women, 140 Characters Conference and The Inbound Marketing Summit. Jennifer was also recognized as one of Advertising Age’s 2009 Women to Watch.

YOUR MODERATOR:
Brian Pittman is content director of Bulldog Reporter’s PR University and the weekly email newsletter Journalists Speak Out. Previously, Brian served as editorial director at Infocom Group, where he edited, reported for and launched titles such as Media Relations Insider, PR Agency Insider, Ad Agency Insider and Managing Partner. Prior to that, he served as editor of Utah Business magazine, among other titles. He is a seasoned reporter with extensive experience interviewing such personalities as Steve Forbes, Bob Edwards and Margaret Thatcher. Complete Bio