It was supposed to be just another innocently fun episode in the life and times of the cute little GEICO pig, the happy hog who reps the lighter side of the “save you money” insurance. Ronn Torossian 5WPR has written before about how the pig was a solid PR move by GEICO to present another aspect of its product. However, not everyone is happy about what the little ham has been up to lately.

In a recent ad, Maxwell the Pig sits in a car at lookout point, presumably with a date (he’s been on several). The car is broken down and he’s searching for a tow truck using the (hey!) GEICO road assistance app. Pretty nifty, right?

In the wake of this summer’s National Security Agency (NSA) public relations debacle surrounding Edward Snowden revealing operational details of mass surveillance, the American public is quite wary of how, and with whom, their private information is shared.

Following last week’s LinkedIn Intro announcement, security and technology researchers have responded with skepticism and criticism regarding the technology which allows for e-mail account synchronization with LinkedIn profiles in order to tell the recipient more (or less) about the sender. In short, the application allows for a sort of LinkedIn verification, showing mutual connections and other information about the sender with the goal of becoming a more personal, less spam-like exchange.

Though it is sad to say that this nation has been visited by more than its fair share of tragedy in the last year, both natural and man made, it is an amazing to see how, even in the toughest of times, a nation can come together to help heal from those wounds. We are not strangers to this. In the aftermath of 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, Americans mobilized to volunteer their time, their money, and the sweat of their brow to help out however they could.

But with the growth of social media as a tool for volunteers to reach out and organize, those who wish to help now have an even more powerful ally as they try to fix whatever has broken among us. Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5W Public Relations firm, highlights five ways that social media is being used by disaster relief volunteers.

Everyone from Facebook to Reddit, to the Washington Post and NY Daily News is talking about a Scottsdale, Arizona, restaurant, Amy’s Baking Company says Ronn Torossian 5WPR CEO.  However, this is a perfect case of how “bad PR” really can be BAD. There is a cliché in public relations agencies and that all publicity is good publicity. That’s not true.

After a particularly horrendous appearance on the television show, Kitchen Nightmares, the owners of Amy’s Baking Company were enticed into a social media war. The fight quickly got heated and spread across the social media spectrum. So epic was the subsequent PR train wreck that the story was picked up by media outlets from New York to Los Angeles.

Times are changing and social media is everywhere you look these days. It is extremely crucial for a PR firm to know the newest social media PR tactics to be able to keep up with the growing population of social media users. While the basics of Public Relations have not changed much, the method and approach to how to use social media and PR work has. Particularly in large, tech-savvy cities like San Francisco and New York, PR Firms must keep up with the latest tactical approach to your social media strategy to ensure success of their campaign.

One of the things that has changed in Public Relations is the tools and the opportunities available for engaging the audience. It is very important to build a social media following in order to be able to engage the rapid and continuous growing numbers of social media platform users. Any good Ad agency or public relations firm has to know and exploit this new form of advertising. Think of how easy it is for a phrase or line to catch on and spread like wildfire via sites such as Twitter, Facebook or one of the many others out there. Case in point is the accelerated number of views a video that spreads through social networks can easily garnish. A vast number of videos on YouTube have acquired 2 to 9 million views in a matter of weeks or months. These numbers can be tied back and attributed to people “Liking” and sharing them on their favorite social media sites.