Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Just when he was getting the hang of Twitter, Facebook and generating Justin Bieber-type numbers of followers, the world was shocked to learn of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation Monday.

This is a look inside the first social media Pope, his surprise resignation and the challenges posed by social media....

Let’s start with a test: type Coca Cola into the magic Google form. The results are just a calibrated mix of brand websites and PR initiatives such as micro-sites, social media accounts, news, images and videos.

One new feature you might notice however, is the latest introductions to Google+ – the authorship mark-up. Among its functions as a social media platform, is that the authorship system makes it possible to connect online journalists’ Google+ profiles into their published articles.

In turn it provides journalists with abnormal ranking power for articles they are signing off on, using their Google+ profile These can quickly build up ranking levels proportionally to the importance of their publishers and to the number of people in their Google+ circles. Journalists with a high number of Google+ followers are gaining huge visibility online and their articles can jump straight....