Mother Tongue of Global Crisis Management: Social Media
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Recently, Thom Fladung and I had the honor of meeting with a group of Russian public relations professionals from Volgograd to answer their questions about crisis management and media relations in the U.S. The group, sponsored by the Council of International Programs USA, spent a week in Cleveland meeting with […]
A Very Brief Primer on Repentance and Apologies, Genuine and Not
In the last issue of Crisis Management Today, we offered “The Basics of Saying ‘I’m Sorry’” with reference to Peter Sandman. You can find those basics below. But in this issue, we introduce another way of looking at apology, this time from Rabbi Richard Block, who writes: Genuine repentance has 3 basic components: recognizing and […]
Social Media Monitoring by Government Agencies – A Fine Line Between Privacy & Public Safety
[By Scott Juba] Social media monitoring and surveillance is a fact of life in today’s twenty-first century communication landscape. It is a near certainty that every person reading this has had their online communication monitored. In many cases, companies and brands track what customers and competitors are saying about them online and then use that […]
On the Ground in Cleveland During the Republican Convention
In a video produced by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, here’s what Cleveland looked like from ground level during the recent Republican National Convention. As the Washington Post said: They told us there’d be riots. Instead, we got a street party. You can see that video here. NOTE: The part about the convention starts at […]
How to Project Power
From The New York Times Magazine: ‘‘Keep your limbs away from your body,’’ says Deborah H Gruenfeld, a social psychologist who teaches at Stanford University. Some research shows that people posed in expansive postures feel more powerful, exhibit higher testosterone levels and have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol — all characteristics of high-ranking […]
As Profanity-Laced Video Leaks, Outlets Grapple with Trump’s Language
From Poynter: Open microphones have often left politicians and other powerful people red-faced and apologetic. But The Washington Post’s decision Friday to publish a video of Donald Trump explaining how he kissed and groped women pushed some newsrooms to dance around the graphic language while others took it public unedited. Because Trump’s attitude toward women […]
Body Language at the Second Presidential Debate
From The Washington Post: It’s not our faces that tend to offer the strongest clues about what we are feeling, but rather our bodies. In fact, the more intense the emotion, the more difficult the human face becomes to read and the more telling and accurate body language seems to become. That’s what a team of […]
Looking Your Best on Skype, TV, YouTube & FaceTime
A picture says a thousand words. A video quadruples that. Looking your best means taking care with the way you move and gesture, the way your hair is cut and the manner in which you’re dressed. Make-up, too, is important, for both men and women, especially because of the widespread use of high-definition video. As we […]
The Benefits of Executive Communications Coaching
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] As part of your organization’s leadership team, you’re a walking, talking standard bearer of your brand and your reputation. What you communicate can dramatically impact your organization’s reputation. But HOW you communicate is crucial. Ineffectual, weak presentations are one of the quickest ways to damage your brand’s reputation. If your […]
I Muted Donald Trump & Hillary Clinton During the Debate. I Still Knew the Score.
We’ve told people for years that HOW you say something is more important than the exact words you use. Last week, the New York Times watched the first presidential debate with the sound off. The idea was simple: to test the theory that what presidential candidates say during debates is less important than what they look like […]