Training Near Terror
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] On March 22, Bruce Hennes and I were leading a day-long crisis management/media training program in the Netherlands when explosions ripped through Brussels Airport and the Maelbeek metro station. Though the terror struck more than 100 miles south of our training room, everyone’s smart phones immediately began dinging and beeping […]
The Definitive Guide to Selecting The Right Spokesperson
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] One of the most common decisions we encounter when clients face a crisis situation is helping them choose the individual who will serve as their spokesperson. Rarely does anyone volunteer for this assignment and most draftees accept it with grudging resignation. In truth, being a spokesperson is a high-risk job […]
The First 20 Minutes: 6 Tips for Communicating When a Crisis Hits
From DCInno: Picture this: A user of your new on-demand service just posted a story to her blog about a terrible experience, and major media outlets are now reporting on the story. Someone discovered your app is inadvertently making users’ private information public, and now they’re outraged. Your company’s founder posted an offensive rant to […]
Can Chipotle’s Reputation Management Strategy Save the Brand?
From ContentStandard: A string of food contaminations in its restaurants has put Chipotle in a desperate situation. Its sales in the final quarter of 2015 dropped by nearly 15 percent, and its stock is currently below $460 after an all-time high of $758 just a few months earlier. To try and correct its course, the […]
How to Deal with Negative Facebook Comments
From SocialTimes: An unfortunate reality for page administrators on Facebook is the need to deal with negative comments, but deleting those comments or disabling them altogether is a mistake. Social analytics and reporting firm Locowise shared a guide to dealing with negative comments, saying that the positives of leaving comments enabled on Facebook pages still […]
Online Comment Boards: Learn to Swim Before Jumping in the Water
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] The first of two parts on how best to deal with online comments. Today: How to be prepared. Next: How to get involved. John Kroll has some advice about news story online comments for folks in charge of their organizations’ reputations: Know the water before you jump […]
Crisis Management – How to Appear Confident & Self-Assured, Even When You’re Not
Stereotypes are tough to challenge or break. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, executive director, school superintendent, hospital administrator, businessperson, consultant or one of a thousand other job titles, the usual, and unfortunate, model of gravitas and accomplishment is the 60-year-old, gray-haired male. Especially when it “hits the fan,” clients look for both the familiar, the trustworthy – […]
10 Body Language Tricks to Power Up Your Career in 2016
From body language expert Carol Kinsey Goman: Body language can be your greatest career asset. Here are ten simple and powerful tips to help you have a super successful 2016. 1) To make a great first impression, begin before you enter the room. In business interactions, first impressions are crucial. Once someone mentally labels you […]
The Difference Between Tylenol and Volkswagen: The Imagination of Disaster
When someone added cyanide to Tylenol capsules in the Chicago area in 1982, killing seven people, Johnson & Johnson, owner of Tylenol was faced with an unprecedented crisis. How they handled that situation is still the gold standard for corporate crisis management. Today, the “gold standard” for how to not handle a crisis continues to be Volkswagen. […]
Brazil Mine Disaster Shows Value (and Harm) of Public Relations Responses
From InsuranceJournal.com: Within hours of a deadly mining spill in November that would become Brazil’s worst environmental disaster, BHP Chief Executive Andrew Mackenzie was in front of a camera offering his sympathies to those affected. Meanwhile, his counterpart at joint venture partner Vale SA, Murilo Ferreira, took nearly a week after the mine wastewater […]