The Yo-Yo and Public Relations

Recently the Wall Street Journal had a story about the return of the yo-yo. When I was a kid, I loved yo-yos. The Duncan brand had such an assortment. Status among peers was determined by how many Duncans you owned. However, for me, my yo-yo fame was determined by off-brand yo-yos in the shape of a football or basketball. Anyway....

The Wall Street Journal pointed out the dark side of new yo-yos that can go faster and do more daring tricks resulting in: chipped teeth, calloused hands and bandaged brows. My worst accident was the string getting too tight around my finger and making it turn purple.

What gave me a PR giggle was the point that faster is not better and can cause damage, even when you are having fun. That's the way I see much of social media today. Yes, it's a tool to connect faster with targeted audiences. Yet, it can be damaging when it gets out of control. If you curious about social media disasters check out this posting.

I am proud to say that the team at our agency, TC Public Relations, has had some wonderful successes with making social media a friend for our clients. However, one time we sent out a very misdirected email that started to quickly work it's way through a few on-line pipelines. Fortunately, we were able to trace the origional negative messages and get the situation turned around quickly. Like a yo-yo, when it seemed like the situation hit bottom, with a little on-line pull in the right direction, it came back up again.