The Stupidity Defense
From our esteemed colleague, Dr. Peter Sandman: It comes up in my consulting at least once a month. Something bad has happened on my client’s watch, and now the client has to own up to it. The key question (or at least one key question) is why it happened. And the principal contenders for best […]
Negative Online Client Reviews: ABA Gives Some Tips for Responding
Preface by Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications Last week, writing in Law for Lawyers, a publication of the Thompson Hine law firm, our friend Karen Rubin wrote about how attorneys should deal with negative online reviews. We’ve taken the liberty of adding this preface to her excellent article: When considering a response to a negative lawyer […]
After the Capitol Riot, What Is Your State of Preparedness?
From David Pounder, writing for Homeland Security Today, about the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 with lessons learned for business owners and other non-governmental organizations: What happened on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol had a surreal feel to it. While there were a lot of concerns and indicators that a large […]
Personal Security Considerations
In recent months, the U.S. has experienced civil unrest across various jurisdictions. Due to continued sociopolitical issues, there remains a potential for further unrest. Domestic terrorists and other violent extremist actors may continue to leverage peaceful protests to attempt to incite hate, destroy critical infrastructure, and inflict bodily harm. Extremist actors have also used rhetoric […]
Building Trust in a Time of Turbulence
Our country is still working to make sense of the events in Washington DC on January 6th and many organizations are wondering how to maintain business-as-usual in a world already buffeted by almost a year of Covid-related disruption and tragedy. This piece by Weber Shandwick, a global communications firm we know and respect, not only […]
Come What May, All Bad Fortune Is to be Conquered by Endurance.
By Guest Columnist Annie Searle Annie Searle is an internationally known expert in operational risk management, with extensive experience in the financial, IT and business sectors. Once a month, she publishes her own newsletter. Given events of the past year, we thought the piece she wrote for her own newsletter did a nice job of […]
Crisis Management Lessons Learned From the 2020 Political Scene That Can Apply To Any Organization
Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller. In the past, we’ve found him to be an astute observer of the scene. Here, he offers advice aimed at public relations firms, but also applicable to any professional service firm, nonprofit, government agency or company. Of course, Art’s opinions, written for CommPro, […]
Why You Need a Social Media Kill Switch During a Crisis
From Mark Renfree, writing in PR News: Social media is as likely a place as any for a PR crisis to start. In fact, the speed at which things can blow up on social channels make them especially fertile ground for crises. A solid crisis preparation plan will account for more than social media, of […]
Absorb Chaos, Transform It Into Calm and Give Back Hope
From Amy Boone, writing for Ethos3: At times, we are called to give presentations about new products or policies. Other times, we might be asked to inspire or challenge our audience members. But other times, we are called to speak into times of crisis. Maybe a business is losing revenue and the forecasted future is […]
Lawyers, Demigods, Outrage Management & Crisis Communications
By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications At Hennes Communications, we often tell clients that they have an attorney for the Court of Law. But they have us for the Court of Public Opinion. And those two courts often require different – and at times conflicting – strategies. Attorneys have persuasive arguments for tailoring a strategy completely around […]