Social Media & SEO

With a quick and meaty response to a lawsuit that questioned the contents of its beef, Taco Bell appears to have deflected a lot of negativity around its brand—at least among Twitter users.

In January, after being hit with a lawsuit challenging its beef content (black spike), Taco Bell responded with a “Thanks for Suing Us” announcement, that turned the Twitter conversation largely neutral (light gray spike), according… Continued

â–¶ Small Businesses, Big Plans: The Ad-ology survey of small-business owners reveals a general optimism and increased online marketing activities for the next year. The study shows that 46% of small business owners plan to… Continued

â–¶ Trainers’ Social Media Reservations: Informal learning—learning that takes place independently from structured instructor-led classes or course-specific work—via social media is on the rise, but corporate training leaders cite concerns about security, productivity and quality… Continued

We track the Facebook "likes" of the top 15 corporations in CSR as seen by the public—technology and food & beverage organizations appear to be leading the charge.

As the media moves to social platforms to hunt for and receive story ideas, PR pros must exploit this change and adjust their outreach strategies accordingly.

While revolutionizing the identification and measurement of influencers, social media—and its coolness factor—can also cloud the picture. PR Measurement Conference speakers Gary Lee of mBLAST and Katie Paine, among others, weigh in on the relevancy factor.

Communicators are getting really good at monitoring what their customers are saying—it’s taking action on behalf of customers that’s lagging. But organizations large and small are starting to pick up the customer service pace.

Despite all the talk of Facebook and Twitter taking over the digital communications space, corporate execs say that e-mail and Web sites command the best ROI online. Still, PR practitioners are working to realize better returns from social media.

PR News looks at the Twitter following of companies included in Fortune‘s 2010 best workplaces list.