This was not until various publications picked up the story. In our version, we were careful to note that the only source of the “news” appeared to be a strangely vague press release on PRWeb that was not even acknowledged in Google’s own press center.

Finally, PRWeb released its own statement:

PRWeb transmitted a press release for ICOA that we have since learned was fraudulent. The release was not issued or authorized by ICOA. Vocus reviews all press releases and follows an internal process designed to maintain the integrity of the releases we send out every day. Even with reasonable safeguards identity theft occurs, on occasion, across all of the major wire services. We have removed the fraudulent release and turned the matter over to the proper authorities for further investigation.

It’s still unclear who issued the release to begin with.

One thing is for certain. The whole thing has given the restaurant chain a whole lot of press, and over the past month, the company’s social brand has been on the rise.

Was stating its views on the matter of same-sex marriage a smart decision on Chick-fil-A’s part? Tell us what you think.

Social media ad platform Optimal has released a list of the top performing brands on its Optimal Index for July. As a spokesperson for the firm explains, “The Optimal Index is an independent valuation tool to help determine the relative value of a brand’s current audience on Facebook by combining fan counts, engagement statistics and global fan valuation.”

“Interestingly, amid recent controversial comments made by members of its executive team, Chick-fil-A added 524,238 new fans in July, and more than 550,000 people discussed, liked or commented on the brand in the past week,” the spokesperson said.

Here’s the list. As you can see, Chick-fil-A cracked the top ten:

Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page currently has over 6 million fans. That’s about a tenth of what rapper Marshall Mathers (the most popular guy on Facebook) has.

These graphs from PageData tell the story pretty well.

The comments from Chick-fil-A took place in the mid-July, and you can see how the Page’s popularity has steadily risen since then, as the discussion continues around the web. Imagine what the monthly numbers would look like if the controversy began at the beginning of the month.

Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy was quoted as saying that he and the company as a whole are “very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.”

The company later issued the following statement via its Facebook Page:

The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.

Wednesday became known as Chick-fil-A appreciation day, which turned out to be a pretty big hit for the company, with the company claiming a record-setting day. Millions of people turned out to support the restaurant chain, and their beliefs.

Of course, the controversy also led to National Same-Sex Kiss Day At Chick-fil-A on Friday, which in addition to the turn out for beliefs on the opposite side of the equation, has still served to draw more attention to the brand.

There’s no question that Chick-fil-A has alienated a large amount of customers, but even still, the company appears to have put together a pretty loyal audience, and thousands of people (and climbing) they can push their messages (and offers) to on a daily basis, through Facebook alone, not to mention the additional brand awareness the company has managed to spread.

Some analysts have advised against businesses publicizing any political views, as to avoid alienating customers. It’s hard to say what kind of long-term effects this whole thing will have on Chick-fil-A’s brand, and how much it will ultimately affect the company’s bottom line. In the short-term, however, no matter how many people it has turned against it, the whole thing has clearly gotten people more interested in Chick-fil-A, and they’re selling a whole lot of Chicken. From my understanding, that’s their main goal.

Do you think businesses should publicize controversial views and risk alienating customers? Was Chick-fil-A smart to do so? Has the whole thing affected whether or not you will eat at the restaurant? Let us know in the comments.

As you probably remember, Chick-fil-A has been under fire recently for comments made by company president Dan Cathy, in which he said he was “guilty as charged” when it comes to opposing marriage equality. Although Chick-fil-A has been open with the fact that they are a Christian-based company (closed on Sundays, anyone?), and have also given money to anti-gay groups in the past, the latest certainty seems to have pushed some people over the edge.

And couple of days ago, the Muppets said goodbye to Chick-fil-A as the Jim Henson Company posted this on their Facebook page:

The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors.

But Chick-fil-A has proposed a different narrative for why the two companies have parted ways. This was spotted in a Chick-fil-A store, and subsequently went viral:

Chick-fil-A has stood by this, telling The Atlantic “..it is true that Chick-fil-A voluntarily withdrew the Jim Henson kids meal toys nationwide because of a potential safety concern. This is unrelated to the Jim Henson announcement.”

So, that brings us to this Facebook exchange:

A redditor snagged this screenshot of the Facebook conversation, in which someone is busted for creating a fake account with two telling pieces of evidence: First, the account was only a few hours old when it began taking up Chick-fil-A’s cause. And second, someone happened to locate the origin of the young girl’s profile picture.

And unless Abby Farle happens to be the actual model that took these stock images, I think I smell a rat:

Sure, it’s possible that it was just someone who really really loves Spicy Chicken sandwiches who went to the trouble of creating this Facebook deception. But this isn’t the first instance of a Chick-fil-A employee creating social accounts to promote their story.

UPDATE: Chick-fil-A has denied claims that they were the ones behind this. “Chick-Fil-A has not created a separate or a false Facebook account. We don’t know who created it,” said a spokesperson

UPDATE 2: This Facebook post -

Chick-fil-A7 minutes ago

Hey Fans, thanks for being supportive. There is a lot of misinformation out there. The latest is we have been accused of impersonating a teenager with a fake Facebook profile. We want you to know we would never do anything like that and this claim is 100% false. Please share with this with your friends. Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  690 comments

So, it’s no surprise that a post detailing how Imgur was being blocked by Facebook for supposed malicious links rose to the top of the front page Monday evening.

“The content you’re trying to share includes a link that’s been blacked for being spammy or unsafe,” said the warning message.

Here’s a screencap courtesy redditor AmericanDerp:

The post quickly generated hundreds of comments, including one from user fisherrider about three hours after the original post appeared. User fisherrider just happens to work for Facebook and took the time to explain exactly how the Imgur problem was his fault:

Hey folks – so this is actually my fault. Literally, I’m the guy who accidentally blocked imgur for a brief period of time today. I’m really sorry.

Some background: I’m an engineer who works on the system we use for catching malicious URLs. In the process of dealing with a bad URL that our automated defenses didn’t catch, I ran into a rare bug that caused us to incorrectly block some legitimate URLs for a brief time. Right after I figured that out and removed the bad data, I reworked the UI so no one will get bit by the same issue in the future.

As a form of apology that I’m sure is insufficient, here is a picture of my dog dressed up for the 4th of July: http://imgur.com/pR4mR .

[edit: don't put a period right after the . in the imgur link, as apparently the reddit mobile site linkifies the .]

It appears that the picture of the dog in the scarf + the sincere apology was enough to win over the miffed redditors. This, my friends, is a PR win.

This is the source of an ethical controversy that has sprung up recently in the arena of journalism. Each month, the Post runs a paid supplement called China Watch, along with a regularly-updated website of the same name. The “paid” part gets done by the Chinese government. In return, China gets to publish articles produced by China Daily, the house organ of the Chinese government, in the Post, and using its masthead. Articles in China Watch portray China and its government in the way you might expect–that is, positively, or else with a particular diplomatic glibness. Ad copy, some call it. Others call it propaganda.

It’s a hard boundary to find, that line between advertising and propaganda. People who don’t like being sold to are quick to label all advertising as propaganda of a kind, while free market advocates might suggest that if you pay for it, and if you make it clear that you paid for it, then even a government can simply advertise. The Washington Post says that it makes no attempt to conceal the paid nature of China Watch. Both print editions of the publication and its corresponding website bear a small disclaimer box in their top right corners. But critics of the Post’s partnership with China Daily argue that the disclaimer is not nearly as prominent on the page as the Post’s masthead at the top of the insert. While readers have technically been informed that China Watch has been paid for, critics argue that the prominence of the Post’s masthead makes a bigger statement, confusing readers who might think the Post at least officially endorses China Watch content. The web-edition of the pro-China publication is hosted under the Washington Post domain name. Moreover, the Post neglects to disclose who pays for the ads.

Of course, there’s no law generally requiring companies to disclose details about their advertising partners to the general public. However, things are a bit different when you’re dealing with a representative from a foreign government. The Post’s dealings with China Daily could run afoul of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires that foreign agents and their activities be properly identified to the American public. Such disclosure involves more than a box in the upper-right-hand corner.

Nor is this the only instance of dealings where The Post has been accused of serving as a mouthpiece for the Chinese government. In an editorial last month, Patrick Pexton, The Post’s own Ombudsman, lambasted the newsroom for at the very best, lazy journalism, and at the worst, kowtowing to the Chinese PR machine. Particularly at issue in the editiorial was the February 13 publication in The Post of an “interview” with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping. It was later revealed that the “interview” was hardly an interview at all — Post reporters submitted written questions to Jinping, and in return they received a response to questions that had been modified, deleted, and added. Pexton disagreed with the newsroom’s decision to print the reponse:

So, The Post submits written questions — already a far cry from a live face-to-face unscripted interview with journalists — and the Chinese say, thanks, but we don’t like your questions, so we’ll provide our own questions and answers. Take it or leave it.

The Post took it. I think it should have left it.

Of course, Pexton pointed out, this is a complicated issue. While both the printing of the interview propaganda and the lack of transparency regarding China Watch suggest the Post is soft, even misleading, in its coverage of China, The Post also does its fair share of reporting that embarrasses the Chinese government and others. It’s a difficult world to navigate, especially when dealing with China, which often withholds press visas, or grows mum around reporters asking too many uncomfortable questions.

It’s not just The Post that faces this difficultly. China is sitting on a billion citizens, nuclear weapons, the world’s fastest-growing economy, and $1.2 trillion of U.S. debt. So it has a lot of weight to throw around with governments and major corporations, let alone media outlets. But is it right for The Post to lend its masthead and domain name to China Watch? Pexton observes:

That’s the thing about China, whether you are The Washington Post, the U.S. government or Apple computers. There is interdependence in the relationship, and constant negotiation and compromise. The Chinese know it, and they take advantage of it.

Right might not always come into play these days.

Hat Tip: The Washington Free Beacon

This is only in the US – globally Facebook still trumps all other sites by a large margin

If you are practicing PR in the US, and you’re including social media to extend the reach of your news content, you should reach to the 15 million loyal SU users in the US, enggement them and nurture those relationships.

Here’s how:

1. If you have not yet done so, create an account and set up a profile
2. Link to your SU profile in your About page or in your press contact listing
3. Add the StumbleUpon button to all your news pages (instructions here )
4. Start to build your network on SU, just as you do in any other social site
5. Get to know the members of the community
6. See who Stumbles the kind of content you have in your news releases, articles and videos
7. Stumble their content – it is not considered good form to Stumble your own content
8. Use the SU ads feature to promote your release headlines – it costs just 5c per impression and more than 60 000 brands have already used this paid discovery option
9. SU recently added a search feature to their site so it is more important than ever to have your news content indexed there

What makes this search function different is users are searching by interest, introducing thousands of new interests and millions of new websites.

As with any other social site StumbleUpon is not a quick fix. There is no one-shot way to tap into this traffic. You have to do the work and become a genuine member of the community. But at leastyou are investing time in the #1 social referrer.

If you have not used Stumble Upon before it will obviously not show up as a referrer to your website. Give it try – wouldn’t you rather spend time on a site that has the potential to send you 50% of your social traffic?

Caveat: do not drop out any currently successful actions. Keep doing what you are doing and add Stumble Upon to the mix.

Check out The Proactive Report for more articles by Sally Falkow

In what he calls a “marketing and PR experiment,” Robert Shoesmith is camping outside a London Apple Store until the iPhone 5 is released. Of course, as you know from our extensive coverage, the iPhone 5 has not even been announced yet. Rumors place the release date sometime in either September or October, however.

Shoesmith has set up a blog for what he calls the “iPhone 5 Experiment.” On that blog, he describes what he plans to do for the next month or two (maybe longer).

I will be camping out on the streets of London for the launch of the iPhone 5 in a marketing and pr experiment. There is one rule! I can’t spend any money on anything I take with me. I’m asking for companies to donate products and services to test out whilst I’m there. Can you help?

That’s right, he has left his wallet behind and will be living based solely on what people give him.

And so far he isn’t doing too bad – He has already received packages of lithium batteries from Energizer, a webcam kit from the folks at Skype, and candy from an online distributor. Some of the companies who have already agreed to sponsor the “experiment” – Cadbury, Mountain Dew, Domino’s Pizza, Kenneth Cole, Weight Watchers and Gillette.

He has a Flickr gallery dedicated to all the stuff he’s already received.

The blog also contains Shoesmith’s wishlist for his camping excursion. This includes items like table cloths, picnic sets, travel sized deodorants, hats, scarves, handheld video game devices and iTunes vouchers. If you help Shoesmith out you get your company listed as a sponsor, blog posting about your contributions and the “strong possibility of a book release after the experiment has been concluded.”

This is a full scale marketing extravaganza, as Shoesmith is also advertising mobile apps that he is playing while patiently waiting for the iPhone 5. He is also schduling entertainment –

During my stay in Covent Garden I’ll have a personal trainer helping to keep me in shape, many products to publicly test, and I’ve even managed to secure a number of live bands to perform. There will be much to see and do, so please make the trip if you can, and don’t forget to bring some friends too!

Do you have a talent? Can you juggle, act, or dance? Can you breathe fire?! Whatever your talent, I’m eager to help you get noticed. As I’m going to be in London for quite some time, it’s important for me to keep the experiment fresh, so I’m actively searching for talented individuals to visit me in Covent Garden and perform.

Call the “iPhone 5 Experiment” what you want, but it is inarguably inventive. A true marketing for marketing’s sake deal where the goal is win-win publicity for all. Plus, for Shoesmith, it’s a chance to score a bunch of cool shit for free. And you can’t fault a guy for that.

[Hat tip to Tech Crunch]

Do you think Parsons was right or wrong to kill the elephant? Comment here.

Clearly there are people standing up for both sides of the argument. PETA has been the most vocal opponent, and much of the piece is for all intents and purposes attacking that organization. It’s not just animal rights activists that were outraged by the elephant killing, however. Many people claimed they were pulling their sites from GoDaddy domains, and some of GoDaddy’s competitors took advantage of this by offering special deals (with donations to elephant-related causes) for switching to their respective services.

Parsons has staunchly defended his actions from the beginning, in the press, on Twitter, and even in unrelated GoDaddy press releases (which were about donations to Hope for Haiti), though interestingly enough, GoDaddy never put out much in the way of damage control following the outcry over the video – no press releases directly about the incident, though the video was later heavily edited to give it a completely different tone. More on Parsons’ defense here, and in the NRA article.

The video has even drawn parody on YouTube:

Regardless of where you stand on Parsons’ elephant-killing ways, it seems clear that the whole thing has done little to help GoDaddy in terms of PR, which is why I find it fascinating that Parsons keeps bringing it back up, rather than letting the story disappear into the past. It seemed like they were finally focusing their PR on charitable donations, but Parsons recently tweeted the following, bringing the elephant back into spotlight:

WARNING: GRAPHIC ELEPHANT BUTCHER IMAGES BELOW

It gets more interesting, when you look at the actual article and find a different video with more footage from the elephant outing. There’s no AC/DC soundtrack in this one like there was in the other one before it was edited, though I have to wonder if this one has been edited as well. Before editing, the other one also showed many villagers wearing GoDaddy hats. This seems to be lacking in this video as well. It’s not embeddable (if you have a link to embeddable version, let us know, but you can see the video in its entirety in the article here), but here are a few screenshots. Please note that all captions are from the actual video. We did not add these.

Since tweeting the link to the story, Parsons also tweeted a link to a new GoDaddy video where he talks about how to make good decisions.

Is Parsons helping or hurting GoDaddy’s image by continuing to bring up the elephant? Tell us what you think.

During this same time I’ve seen several blog posts and articles suggesting that websites are a thing of the past and that Facebook and Twitter will dominate business communication online. There is some truth to that, but it is not the whole picture. Websites with no social features and no connection to the brand’s social presence are becoming irrelevant. Facebook,Twitter and YouTube are essential tools in your online strategy, but they need to be connected to a very robust and informational website.

Take a look at this research from Jeremiah Owyang, industry analyst at the Altimeter Group.   He calls 2011 The Year of Integration.

Good question, right?

A number of blogs and Web sites came to mind immediately, but then I thought more about the term TJ used–”resources.” We’re talking about more than blogs here. What would really help someone looking to break into PR learn more about our profession, who we are and where we’re going in the next 10-15 years.

After giving that some additional thought over the weekend, I came up with the following list. I really think the blogs, sites, podcasts, lists and other resources below would give someone thinking of making the switch to PR a pretty good glimpse of our industry:

* Journalistics. Follow the heart of PR by subscribing to Journalistics, where Jeremy Porter and crew talk about all things at the intersection of PR and journalism. What I like most about Journalistics is that it doesn’t tend to cover the trendy, social-media-based topics of the day all that much. Sure, there are posts that include discussions of Twitter, Facebook and social tools du jour, but for the most part the blog sticks to topics PR and journalists would care about–tips for creating a great elevator speech, how to think like a reporter (for PR wins), and how to keep your news release from getting deleted.

* #pr20chat. A fantastic weekly Twitter chat hosted by Heather Whaling and Justin Goldsborough that focuses on the PR “2.0″ world. Topics range from social analytics to educating the next generation of PR pros to writing and consulting basics. I can’t think of a better way for someone looking to break into PR to get up to speed on what’s happening in PR right now.

* For Immediate Release podcast. One of the longest (if not *the* longest) PR podcasts on record (since April 2008). Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson typically record two podcasts a week taking on various topics in the PR and corporate communications industries. They usually use one podcast as the “report” for the week–think of it as a 45-minute CNN-type newscast for PR types. And, the other podcast each week is dedicated to an interview or panel discussion of sorts (just recently they featured a great discussion around social media analytics). I don’t listen to Shel and Neville as much as I used to (all due to time constraints), but when I did, I loved the fact that they included their audience in their shows. They had regular correspondents. They respond to voice mails. Real interaction with the audience. And, it makes the show. But the real reason I suggest this to those considering a career in PR–it’s a podcast; you can listen to it on the way to work, over your lunch hour, or while mowing the lawn (hey, I think I just convinced myself to start listening again!).

* Follow HARO for a week. Like it or not, media relations is a big part of PR. And, contrary to popular belief, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. What better way to learn more about what reporters are looking for and how they frame up stories than to follow HARO for a week? I mean, really follow it. Read the inquiries. Try to understand what they’re looking for and what kind of story they’re developing. Reading HARO for a week will definitely help you get a sense for the kinds of stories and angles reporters take–and what they want, need and expect from PR pros as a result.

* HAPPO. (Disclosure: I’m a co-founder of HAPPO). If you’re looking to make the move to PR, this may be where you find your first job. That’s the hope at least. And, it a part of the reason HAPPO exists. However, HAPPO isn’t all about jobs. It’s about helping other PR pros. That can mean, providing news and information. Connecting others with potential mentors. And, meeting new pros from across the world–all via Twitter. All of which I would think would be hugely beneficial to someone just looking to start a career in PR.

* Bad Pitch Blog. Sometimes as much as it makes sense to learn how to do a job well, it also pays to learn from others mistakes. Exactly why I would encourage newbies to read the Bad Pitch Blog regularly. What I’ve enjoyed most about Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer’s takes over the years–they’re not afraid to take on tough issues and “A-listers.” Case in point, this post which was fairly critical of Peter Shankman and his Klout-based holiday party last year. Of course, they also talk about everyday issues and lessons that impact us all–like the recent post on typos and proofreading. For either reason, I’d suggest BPB as a must-read for those considering a career in PR.

* PR Breakfast Club (diclosure: I’m a contributor to PR Breakfast Club). Founded by Nathan Burgess, Keith Trivitt, Marie Baker and CT Michaels, the Breakfast Club is a great place to get all things PR–on a daily basis (sign up for the daily email–always one of the first things I read in the morning). Here’s why I would recommend the Breakfast Club to PR newbies–you can get a sampling of a number of PR voices in one daily email. Just since April 1, the Breakfast Club has featured a whopping 20 different authors and bloggers from across the Web (and country). So, you don’t just get one person’s perspective on PR–you get a number of different views. And, many of them are younger professionals (30 or younger), so you get a glimpse into what it’s like to start out in PR. One of the better group PR blogs on the Web.

* Start following some great PR blogs. I mentioned a few already, but start a list of 10-15 PR blogs and follow them religiously for two months. I guarantee in those two months, you’ll learn a ton about the industry. Start by pulling blogs from lists that already exist–Journalistics, Paul Roberts and Jeff Domansky’s lists are good places to start. If that doesn’t do the trick, check out Alltop for a more comprehensive list of potential PR blogs.

* PR books. While the online resources I’ve listed here are great, I’d still recommend picking up a good, old-fashioned hard-cover book every once in a while (or download one to your Kindle, if you prefer). Obviously, there are hundreds of books to read around the topic of PR–where to start? I compiled a list a couple years ago based on PR pros recommendations–still a good starting point. I particular like Kellye Crane’s suggestion of Elements of Style and Lauren Vargas’ recommendation of Never Eat Alone (not a PR book technically, but a wonderfully useful read). If that’s not enough, you can see what I’m reading this year–a number of great PR reads in here.

What about you? What online resources would you suggest to someone considering jumping into the PR industry?

Originally published on Communications Conversations