Investopedia

You know some of the offenders on this list — BP, Goldman Sachs, Toyota — but a few of the others may surprise you. And what do all seven have in common? “Despite spending millions of dollars on PR, some companies still manage to muddy their reputations with tone-deaf responses to trouble,” reports Investopedia.com. 
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Wallet Pop

Ernest P. Worrell made the list! About time he got some credit. You know the character; played by actor Jim Varney, Ernest appeared in campaigns for Coca-Cola and Mellow Yellow, which led to the Ernest movies (Ernest Goes to Jail, Earnest Goes to School, et cetera), before Varney died of lung cancer in 2000 — which brings us to No. 2 on the list, The Marlboro Man. The coolest serial killer of all time.
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The Daily Show

Cable news pundits nearly soiled themselves yesterday as they parsed President Obama’s decision to appear on “The View.” The general sentiment among talking heads: It was beneath the office of the president to talk with a couch full of women. Oh, really? “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart has a different opinion. Related Ragan.com The format of “The View” provided Obama “the opportunity to present his policy goals and administration’s achievements in a plainspoken and tangible way,” writes one PR pro. What’s so wrong about that?
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Metro.co.uk

If you believe everything you read, Twitter can pretty much do anything (strangely, it still fails at getting me that date with Eva Mendes). A bunch of nerds in lab coats are now saying Twitter can map the nation's mood. A team at Northeastern University in Boston is using “a form of ‘sentiment analysis,’ identifying keywords that indicate pleasure or displeasure, to work out how happy or sad” the nation is. Morning is apparently the happiest time of day. — Jackson Wightman
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Radian6

PR pros and marketers are supposed to be in the know — the tip of the spear, the oracle, the Keith Olbermann of your company (wait, that last one’s a know-it-all, never mind). Amber Naslund, of Radian6, examined the things people are discussing online to gauge today’s hottest topics in social media. Of course, location-based services rank among the most popular.
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iMediaConnection

Are you keeping your audience engaged with your corporate blog? In today’s world, making sure that you take out the “corporate speak” and make it more conversational is important to the success of your blog. Some takeaways from this article include having a brand voice, pooling your resources, link back to previous posts, and incorporate visuals and multimedia. — Matthew Royse
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ReadWriteWeb

Next time some snarky 22-year-old says, “Hey grandpa, maybe that program worked on your Macintosh 128K, but it won’t fly in this century,” tell him he’s a gullible nerd. “Pffft, whatever, right?” he’ll respond. And then you’ll throw the results of this Northwestern University study in his face. The study “discovered that college students have a decided lack of Web savvy, especially when it comes to search engines and the ability to determine the credibility of search results,” reports ReadWriteWeb. “Apparently, the students favor search engine rankings above all other factors. The only thing that matters is that something is the top search result, not that it's legit.” If he still doesn’t get you, tell him to Google it.
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Management Excellence

The pressure to be creative and compete is a way of life for most of us in PR, marketing, branding, and social media. But the day-to-day operations of business often overshadow opportunities to be innovative. That’s what Art Petty, a corporate business consultant, writes on his Management Excellence website: “Innovation is solving vexing problems in unique and reproducible ways.” Once teams embrace this definition, Petty says it helps create awareness that everyone’s responsible for recognizing upstream or downstream problems and pulling together to find solutions. Petty shared eight tips to jump-start innovation. — Susan Young
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Flickr

Let’s hear a big round of applause for David Armano, a senior VP at Edelman Digital. He’s compiled 101 graphics and pictures that he’s sharing with all of us through his visual thinking archive on Flickr.com. “You are welcome to use the visuals for presentations, slideshows, and blogs posts,” he wrote. What’s the catch? There isn’t one, according to Armano. Just provide proper attribution and a link, he said. Nice guy, that David Armano. — Susan Young (Image via David Armano)
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Open Forum

Right now, online video is hotter than this summer’s stifling temps. According to ComScore, more than 183 million U.S. Internet users watched online video in May, with YouTube streamed an all-time high of 14.6 billion videos. Those numbers speak volumes about the importance of implementing a successful video strategy for your brand or client. Here are six online tools to help you make that happen. — Matthew Royse
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The Hill

Here’s how The Hill, a 16-year-old publication aimed at the nation’s lawmakers, bills itself: “The Hill is known among those who influence policy as a ‘must read’ in print and online. It signals the important issues of the moment.” So, obviously, it would devote staff time and energy to this important issue: The 50 most beautiful people on Capitol Hill. The story includes lines like, “Hillary Caron finds social life after work on the Hill to be a lot like her days as a Tri-Delt at Duke University.” Wow.
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Chicago Sun-Times

If you hadn’t noticed, iconic film critic Roger Ebert has become the, well, Roger Ebert of Twitter, that is, he’s deeply engaged, passionate, intelligent, critical when necessary, and almost always interesting — even when you disagree with him. This week, a study was released indicating zero percent of Americans surveyed would pay to use Twitter. Ebert’s taking his survey on the matter. It takes literally one second to complete.
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Ragan Communications

London’s Guardian newspaper said, “Sites like Posterous and Tumblr have refined blogging by streamlining the posting process, stripping out many of the bulky features and offering slicker, more real-time features and designs.” Piqued your interest? Ragan Communications, publisher of PR Daily, is offering a how-to webinar that will introduce you to these sites. Read more about it.
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Jobs!!!

In this role, s/he will be a champion of the consumer's experience by leading the definition, design, development, and implementation of social media applications that allow users to experience TripAdvisor content on a variety of social networking sites, improve customer satisfaction, and enhance the value of the TripAdvisor brand. Read more about this job.
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BONUS Watch This

Ever seen the movie, A Hard Day’s Night? It’s great. The Beatles wear these awesome suits and play their hit songs. John Lennon has this wonderful dry humor; Paul McCartney looks all aw-shucks cute. And they’re always dashing through the streets of Liverpool and London, avoiding their screaming, adoring fans. Good fun. (Here’s the movie’s opening scene.) Apparently, the 21st-century version of A Hard Day’s Night will not include running — at least not for the star. Just watch.
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