Cats Sleeping With Dogs: How Lawyers and Crisis Communicators Can Work Together
[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 […]
Body Language At The Trump And Obama Meeting
[From Carol Kinsey Goman, writing for CommPro:] It was a meeting that was obviously highly stressful for both men. We’ll never know what was discussed when President Barack Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump were alone, but at their joint press conference their words were cordial and respectful. (Photo source: Twitter) So was their body language – […]
Volkswagen: It Just Keeps Getting Worse
We’ve said it time and time again: Volkswagen doesn’t have a communications problem. They have a performance problem. The latest news from Germany compounds that. http://www.nytimes.com/…/inquiry-in-emissions-scandal-widen…
Twitter: How a Little Blue Bird Became a Communications Juggernaut
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] Among the many distinctions for which the election of 2016 will go down in history, the sustained use of Twitter to mobilize voters will no doubt be among the most notable. Indeed, perhaps not since the pamphleting campaign of the American Revolution, of which Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” is the […]
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 […]
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 […]