In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings on Monday, many took to social media to help locate loved ones and confirm safety, while brands spoke out, offering consoling thoughts along with offers of free services and aid to victims and locals affected by the attack — and then retreated to the sidelines, cancelling promoted tweets and Facebook status updates unless they could be of service.

In that vein, Google quickly developed a Boston version of its Person Finder tool, while JetBlue, Airbnb and other brands and businesses (big and small) that could help the distressed and stranded sprang into action. For some, like Adidas, sponsorship of the event led to an unfortunate juxtaposition with terror, as the brand's logo and "All In" tagline was featured at the finish line, and thus the front page of the Boston Globe.

Ford's head of social media, Scott Monty, tweeted some advice to brands for those unsure of how to respond—but sadly, with horrific events becoming more frequent these days, marketers are getting more adept at what to do (and more importantly, what not to do).Continue reading...

Forget about His Master's Voice — what about His Master's Tweets? A day after we pondered what new owner Hilco might do with HMV as it sets about salvaging the British retail chain, one piece of Hilco's strategy is clear: lay off 60 staffers at corporate HQ.

The holder of the brand's official @hmvtweets Twitter account brought his or her phone to HR and live-tweeted the firing, prompting the hashtag #hmvXFactorfiring to take off among the brand's almost 65,000 Twitter followers.

Earlier tweets such as "Just overheard our marketing director (he's staying, folks) ask how he can shut down Twitter" have been taken down, but can be viewed at Gigwise. Thoughts on how to handle restructuring from a corporate, HR and employee perspective on social media? Share them below.

Update: All the tweets have been removed and a fresh series of post-meltdown tweets (including the #savehmv and #hmvxfactorfiring hashtags) asking followers to "please stick with us":Continue reading...

AP is reporting that Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's leading breast-cancer organization, has accepted the resignation of Karen Handel, its SVP for public policy since April who was at the center of a firestorm after the Dallas-based non-profit pulled funding for breast-cancer screening to Planned Parenthood centers.

Handel, who's reportedly declining a severance package, was behind the pink-ribboned organization's recent policy to not give grants to any group under government investigation, a move that singled out Planned Parenthood — which is undergoing a Congressional inquiry into whether federal funds intended for reproductive education were being used for abortions. Komen last week reversed its decision and retinstated funding to Planned Parenthood, but still faced a backlash from breast cancer activists and others outraged at the politicizing of its brand.

Below, read Handel's resignation letter to Nancy Brinker, the founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which is named after her sister, in which she accepts responsibility for the defunding — but adds that it was in the works long before she joined Komen. Handel writes that "the decision to update our granting model was made before I joined Komen, and the controversy related to Planned Parenthood has long been a concern to the organization."Continue reading...

What makes one brand survive a reputation crisis better than others?

While it would take a PR and branding genius to help, for instance, BP restore its tarnished image, how about less extreme examples? Consider the recent New York Times expose on General Electric that revealed how the corporate behemoth paid no taxes in 2010.

GE made $14 billion in profits in 2010, $5 billion of that in the US — but its US tax bill is negative $3.5 billion. And yet, GE's reputation has not suffered as much as BP, Toyota or Goldman Sachs, at least so far, according to YouGov BrandIndex, the consumer perception brand research service.Continue reading...