“Houston, we have a problem.”

This is what businesses may be thinking, given the recent PR and communication upsets happening in the online and offline world. However, with the right crisis management tools and an effective communication plan, these disasters can be avoided.

StraightForward, which is our monthly marketing newsletter, was released earlier today. In the featured Spotlight article, we talk at length about the various ways in which businesses can better their online messaging strategies. Although businesses hope never to come across a PR nightmare to the likes of Toyota or BP, there is a lot that can be learned from their approaches and how they are dealing with these crises.

Gregg Stewart also has a bone to pick – specifically, dealing with the broken links between corporate communications programs and the local sales outlets that serve customers. When it comes to syncing national brand and local-outlet advertising, some businesses have a thing or two to learn. An advertiser’s various channels should be supporting – not competing against – one other. To get to the bottom of this, Gregg will be hosting a webinar in July titled “OMG – You’re Competing Against Your Own Brand.”

In Forward Thinking, we take a deeper dive into user ratings and reviews. We’ve seen their effects, but do brands take them as seriously as they should? Find out the answer to this and more in the latest StraightForward…

• Agency POV – Yelp.com: Sorting Through the Madness
• Limitations of In-House Paid Search – Mike Flanagan’s (TMPDM CEO) latest Adotas article
• Moving at the Speed of Your Sales Channel – Gregg Stewart’s (15miles President) latest ClickZ article
• New Survey a Warning Sign for Foursquare?
• Marketing: Leading the Way for B2B
• My Business Got a Bad Review. Now What?
• Register for the next TMPDM/15miles Webinar
• Find us at SES San Francisco in August
• Take our Poll: Do you own a smartphone?

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