Like most public relations firms, we’ve been incorporating social media into campaigns for a while now. Blogging is a great way to differentiate corporate websites (as long as it fits your objectives and your culture).

We’ve also been experimenting with social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. One example of our work in this area is with Keystone Processors here in Manitoba. We’ve recently established a Facebook fan page for the company and will soon begin a test-run advertising campaign on the social network to gain a larger local Winnipeg and Manitoba audience. Meanwhile, we’ve also been helping with a Twitter feed (@MBBeef).

Slowly, but surely, our audiences are growing. The more work we do integrating blogs, social networks and our other PR and marketing activities, the more  success I predict we’ll have.

Throughout this, we remained focused on delivering timely, useful and interesting information for our audiences… which is the best way to find an audience in the first place.

There was good news for fans of quality, locally-produced food and supporters of the Manitoba cattle industry earlier this week: Keystone Processors Ltd. opened its doors and announced it was shipping Manitoba-raised beef to local stores.

Dooley Communications organized an official “tenderloin cutting” ceremony (in lieu of a ribbon) that generated a significant amount of publicity. Media covering the event included: Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg Sun (I love that print reporters make video now), CBC English TV, CBC French TV, CTV Winnipeg, CKX Brandon, CITY TV Winnipeg, Global Winnipeg and the Manitoba Cooperator. The story was picked up by a number of other print and radio outlets across the province.

So why is a new beef packing plant a big deal? Well, if you’re a fan of high quality, locally-produced food, then you’ll be pleased to learn that Keystone Processors is planning on launching a new premium-quality brand of aged, Manitoba-raised beef this spring. It’s difficult to find premium, aged beef as it is and nearly impossible to find Manitoba-raised products.

But more important is the potential impact the plant could have on the provincial cattle industry. The company plans to make this the first sizable, federally-inspected beef packing plant opened in this province in a generation. That federal licence is needed to sell to national retailers and to export our beef products to the world, including fast growing markets in Asia (where forecasters are predicting most food demand growth will be in the next 50 years).

It also marks the start of the creation of a Manitoba brand of beef. Keystone Processors has an opportunity to capitalize on consumers’ demand for high quality, premium products.

Having a local plant will also be a great benefit to local cattle producers who currently are forced to truck their animals across the continent (Alberta, Ontario or into the U.S.) to get them to market. Once Keystone Processors ramps up its operation, there’ll be another local option that will create more competition among buyers of cattle and one that will save local cattle producers significant transportation costs.

Dooley Communications is working with Keystone Processors on its branding and public relations efforts. Stay tuned. We cooking up some good things together.

Slasher flicks have always appealed to the basest parts of human beings. The recent spate of torture porn has managed to lower that standard so far that Mengele would blush and turn away. Sitting atop the heap of torture porn is the Saw franchise which is about to release its fifth installment (please, no more).

Well, it seems that not only can the filmmakers butcher their dialogue and plotlines as easily as their actors, they can also mangle their marketing efforts.

Check this story out: Saw is promoting itself with a web app that allows people to send creepy phone messages threatening murder and mutilation. The police have had to respond and have issued a warning about this stupid, reckless, hairbrained marketing gimick. I wonder if the producers will get invoiced for 9-1-1 nuisance calls.

I’m all for marketing and publicity efforts that get people talking, but not if it gets them talking to the cops.

This is why having a public relations agency is important. You don’t get stupid gaffes like this.