“Even-Though Risk Communication”: Mandatory COVID Vaccination
If your organization is grappling with conflicting thoughts about whether or not to mandate that all of your employees get vaccinated as a condition of employment, we urge you to carefully read the article below. Risk communications concerns itself with making risk comprehensible and relatable to other risks, how to pay appropriate respect to […]
Consider the ‘Message Effect’ of Inviting a Consultant to Help Your Witness
From Ken Broda-Bahm, Ph.D., writing for The Persuasive Litigator… Arriving for the preparation meeting, the witness notices that there’s someone new in the room: a communications consultant. A non-lawyer visiting from out-of-town, the consultant is introduced by the lawyer as a specialist in legal communication and as someone who “is here to help us prepare […]
It’s Not Misinformation. It’s Amplified Propaganda.
From Renee DiResta, writing in The Atlantic… One Sunday morning in July of last year, a message from an anonymous account appeared on “Bernie or Vest,” a Discord chat server for fans of Senator Bernie Sanders. It contained an image of Shahid Buttar, the San Francisco activist challenging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in the 2020 congressional runoff, and […]
Mergers, Acquisitions and Management Transitions: Using Crisis Communications Principles to Achieve Better Outcomes
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications Our firm is best known for helping clients respond to crisis threats, emergencies and similar events where reputation is on the line. The communication response we create in these situations is designed to help an organization tell its side of the story to those who matter most. Those important audiences […]
How the 10-Second Rule Can Dramatically Change Your Conversations and Make You a Better Leader
By Jason Aten, writing for Inc… Communicating is easily the single most important job of leaders. If leadership is mostly about influence–and it is–then the ability to communicate a vision and motivate people to move toward that vision is the single most important characteristic a leader can have. The problem is, communication is hard. Sometimes […]
6 Crisis Management Lessons From the Florida Condo Collapse
From Devin Partida, writing for Worth… The tragic condominium collapse that occurred recently in Surfside, Fla., has shed light on the importance of crisis management. Identifying threats before they arise can be a challenge. Emergencies can be difficult, if not impossible, to anticipate, but how to respond to them can be thought out beforehand. Proper planning […]
How ‘Engagement’ Makes You Vulnerable to Manipulation and Misinformation on Social Media
Filippo Menczer, Luddy Distinguished Professor of Informatics and Computer Science at Indiana University, writes… Facebook has been quietly experimenting with reducing the amount of political content it puts in users’ news feeds. The move is a tacit acknowledgment that the way the company’s algorithms work can be a problem. The heart of the matter is the distinction between […]
Fighting Misinformation: How to Inoculate Your Audience Against Troll Trash Talk
By Howard Fencl/Hennes Communications Fact: The COVID-19 vaccine will make you glow in the dark. Fact: Migrants crossing the southern border are causing the latest U.S. outbreak. Fact: Dr. Anthony Fauci is covering up U.S. support of research that unleashed COVID. Fact is, none of these allegations are fact. They’re nonsense. And none of […]
Events and Emergency Comms Takeaways From Tropical Depression Henri
By Sophie Maerowitz, writing for PR News… As the climate changes and severe weather events become more frequent, all PR pros have a relatively new discipline to master: emergency weather communications. While public notices around dangerous weather conditions were once solely the realm of local governments and first responders, just about every type of organization […]
Social Media Jeopardizes our Lives
By Evan Nierman, writing for PR News… The swift downfall of “Jeopardy!” host Mike Richards is the latest example of the jeopardy that surrounds us in today’s lightning-fast unforgiving age of social media. Whether you make a wrong move, say something offensive, or have ugly skeletons in your closet, the career-ending rush to judgement can be fast […]