Timely TV News Interview Advice (from Another Time)
[by Howard Fencl] On Halloween, I will travel to Columbus to attend a TV newsroom reunion for WBNS-TV reporters, producers, videographers, engineers and news managers. It promises to be a horrifying, creaky affair – no costumes, just the unwelcome mask of old age necessitating name tags with our headshots from the 1980s in the event we […]
6 Tips to Making Your Presentation More Memorable
If we ourselves are faced with the task of presenting to an audience, we definitely don’t want to be forgotten. We want our message to make an impact. How can executives make their presentations interesting and engaging, short of doing what Bill and Ted did and showing up in a time machine? Here are a few […]
5 Patterns of Popular TED Talks
Ever wondered why some TED talk recordings on YouTube gather a respectable few hundred thousand views while other go viral and attract many millions? Is there a difference in content, facts and figures or information shared that is more compelling and pertinent to a wider audience? Does one speaker have more name recognition than another? Or […]
Writing for Right Now: “Iterative Journalism”
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] It’s called “iterative journalism.” For journalists, it’s a profound change. With profound implications for anyone caught up in a news story. Put most simply, it means this: Stories are published online as they’re reported, in pieces. Once basic facts are known, the story goes online . Calls are still made […]
BP, Enron – and Now Volkswagen
From our colleagues at CyberAlert: Should VW follow the standard PR/Legal Crisis Management Playbook? Wouldn’t you like to be a fly on the wall listening to discussions in the Volkswagen corporate headquarters about how to contain the fallout from the emissions testing scandal? You might imagine that VW executives are trying to develop strategies and […]
Social Media in a Crisis
We’re living in an age when an organization’s reputation can be made or broken very quickly online – even more so during a crisis. So it’s imperative that social media becomes a central focus for your communications team during such an event. Here are 10 tips to make sure social media works for, rather than against […]
‘I’m Sorry’: How You Say It Says a Lot About Your Organization
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] In 2010, The New York Times Magazine wrote about the explosion of public apologies – or, as the Times put it, the mea culpas, sometimes with very little mea. Back then, it was Gen. Stanley McChrystal, saying I’m sorry for talking ill of President Barack Obama in Rolling Stone and […]
CEO Says “5,000% Price Hike On Daraprim Drug Not Excessive”
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] Rarely do we see such a bracing, breathtaking display of contradictory messages and corporate spin as in the case of Turing Pharmaceutical’s 5,000 percent price hike of the toxoplasmosis drug, Daraprim. Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease that can kill people with compromised immune systems. Daraprim, once $13.50 per pill, was […]
Jeni’s Ice Cream Issues an Apology
[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications] Earlier this year, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream suffered through two bouts of listeria in their manufacturing plants, causing them to close their chain of retail stores until the problem was eliminated and they felt they could return product to the shelves with confidence. A few weeks ago, Jeni Britton Bauer […]
How to Proceed When Your Spokesperson is a Dud
[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications] For decades, clients have come to Hennes Communications to learn how to communicate better with reporters, stakeholders and the public. The gold standard is when a speaker says the right thing and delivers it to their intended audience in an interesting, conversational manner. To do that, we often spend as much […]