Ways to Engage Employees Amid a Corporate Crisis
From The Wall Street Journal & Deloitte: Engaging employees can have a significant impact on an organization’s ability to anticipate, prepare for and respond to an incident. Nonetheless, nearly one-third (29.8%) of respondents in a recent poll of more than 3,900 professionals believe that employees may be the most overlooked stakeholder when their organization is […]
Is Trump’s Twitter Changing the Presidency?
Brian Feldman writes: Among myriad concerns surrounding a Donald Trump presidency, somewhere right in the center of the list — maybe just slightly closer to the bottom than the top in terms of importance — is his relation to the press. Or more accurately: the way in which he uses it. Depending on whom you […]
@realDonaldTrump and Crisis Management
[by Howard Fencl] There’s no question every tweet President Trump sends in his ongoing Twitter micro-eruptions are micro-analyzed by media and the public alike. Trump shoots from the hip, followers knee-jerk. Supporters cheer, resisters anguish. Wall Street frets. World leaders worry – some cancel scheduled Washington meetings. As a business mogul, Trump mastered social media […]
Trump’s Body Language During His Inaugural Address
From our colleague, Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D: On January 20, 2017, Donald J. Trump took the oath of office as the 45th President of the United States. While audiences listened intently to his inaugural address, some of us were more focused on what his body was saying. I exchanged initial observations with Patrick A. Stewart, […]
Attorneys & Communications Experts – Who Trumps Whom?
[By Stephanie York, J.D., Hennes Communications] Companies and other organizations limit liability by insuring most, if not all, of their assets: buildings, furniture, vehicles, the health of employees, the health of visitors and more. And while some insurance policies now offer “crisis communications coverage,” allowing the insured to engage the services of a specialized firm like […]
Taking Out the Trash and 3 Other Ways to Handle February TV “Sweeps”
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Close on the heels of the New Year is the February Nielsen TV “sweeps” period – one of the ratings periods guaranteed to bring out the most salacious, over-the-top TV news special reports and sweeps series. The February sweeps period runs Feb 2 – March 1. Mark your calendars. It’s […]
Twitterer-in-Chief Donald Trump
The biggest bully-pulpit in the land is located inside the Oval Office. In the past, the occupants of that office have carefully chosen words and phrases, knowing they can move markets, armies and trends with minimal effort. Today, we are on the brink of uncharted waters as the next president of the United States appears to […]
Why You Should be Worried About Fake News – And How You Can Fight It
Molly Strong writes: While fake content has circulated in tabloids and on the internet for years, the 2016 election has given us a reason to take it seriously. Stories about the Clintons selling weapons to ISIS and Trump winning the popular vote (he didn’t) spread like wildfire, and in some cases outperformed real news. The […]
Brands Start Planning for Unexpected Criticism by Trump
Zach Schonbrun writes: H&R Block’s new advertising campaign is one of the more ambitious in the company’s 62-year history. It hired the actor Jon Hamm for his first on-camera spokesman role, a significant coup. And the company ditched its “Refund Season” slogan in favor of a more aggressive pitch: “Get your taxes won.” The ads […]
‘How Propaganda Works’ Is a Timely Reminder for a Post-Truth Age
Michiko Kakutani reviews ‘How Propaganda Works’: n “Mein Kampf,” Hitler argued that effective propaganda appeals “to the feelings of the public rather than to their reasoning ability”; relies on “stereotyped formulas,” repeated over and over again, to drum ideas into the minds of the masses; and uses simple “love or hate, right or wrong” formulations […]