Read this article as it originally appeared on Patch

A Westfield based public relations firm has expanded it’s statewide footprint.

Jaffe Communications, based on North Avenue, announced that accqusition of Campbell Media in Montclair to form the Jaffe-Campbell Health Group. Campbell Media, headed by Carol Ann Campbell, has been focused on health care media.

In days past, stores had to worry about unhappy customers badmouthing their business to their friends and neighbors.

Now, with the Internet and social media sites such as Facebook, an upset customer’s outrage can go viral, creating a potential public relations nightmare for the business.

“The proliferation of social media channels have made it possible for everyone to have a voice, whether that it is good or bad,” said Jeanne Achille, owner of the Devon Group, a public relations firm in Middletown. “We now operate in the Internet age. At the press of a button, anybody can say anything about everyone.”

For instance, people upset over Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s policies that have angered public employee unions have turned to Facebook to boycott companies and contributors that support him. Big brands, such as Burger King, Bank of America and BP, have had seen upset customers post calls for boycotts on Facebook.

Take what happened recently with Diane & Co., a Freehold Township dress shop and subject of the reality TV series “Jersey Couture.”

Jackson teenager Jacqueline Genovese tried to return her prom dress after her boyfriend, 17-year-old James Volpe, died in a car accident May 13. She was refused by the store, citing its policy.

She had planned to go to the prom with Volpe wearing the dress, which cost $1,200. But she wanted to return it and donate money to her deceased boyfriend’s family.

News reports covered the thunderstorm. The store refunded the price to the teen’s father, who had purchased the dress, and issued a store credit for another dress. Still, a friend of the girl’s family created a page on Facebook called “Boycott Diane & Co. Freehold NJ.” As of Thursday, 14,271 Facebook users “liked” the page.

There is an “immense and unrealized impact of social media,” said Jonathan Jaffe, managing principal of Jaffe Communications Inc., a public relations firm with offices in Westfield and Newark.

Continue reading this article in the Asbury Park Press

Westfield entrepreneurs Jonathan Jaffe and Steve Needle found more ways to keep busy outside of work this past year.

While Jaffe has been heading up his public relations and publishing company, Jaffe Communications, Needle has been building green homes with his company, Needle Point Homes. At the same time, both spent the last year participating as Leadership New Jersey Fellows.

Jaffe and Needle applied to the year long seminar program, which engages New Jersey’s business leaders in their communities as civic leaders. According to the program’s website, the goal of the program, which is in its 24th year, is to inform the fellows about key issues shaping the future of the state and challenge them to take on wider responsibilities to make New Jersey a better place in which to live and work.

Once a month, Jaffe and Needle went on two day seminars all across the state learning about issues affecting New Jersey, including the correctional system, charter schools and the welfare system.

“I wanted to learn as much as possible about the state and about the people who live here,” Jaffe said about why he decided to participate in the program.

For Jonathan Jaffe, J/MS 1993, journalism has always been about the public and covering a finished product. Since graduating, Jaffe has worked for The Star-Ledger and in 2003 started his own public relations company, Jaffe Communications, in Westfield. Recently, the company opened an office in Newark, where it has several big clients. The company

focuses on public affairs, political consulting, publishing, and web strategies. Everything he does at Jaffe Communications goes back to his days as a reporter, but the approach is different.

“Journalism always seemed to cover the end product, such as announcing a done deal or groundbreaking of a project that had been in the works for a few years,” Jaffe said. In public relations, he went on, “I am with the project from the very beginning, helping the client bring it along to fruition. The ground-breaking is the icing on the cake of a project that took me years to complete.”

Jaffe started as a reporter at The Star-Ledger in 1993 and wrote for the Middlesex and Union editions of the newspaper. In 2000, Jaffe left the paper to work for Interpublic, an international PR conglomerate.