Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “public relations”
Don’t forget your front lines When you’re in the midst of the flurry of activity that is crisis management, it’s easy to focus on communication with those outside your organization. Often forgotten, though, are the people still handling day-to-day operations. In a Forbes interview, Thomas Watjen, the CEO that drove …
Safeguard this valuable asset Regardless of what your business is, trust plays a major factor. The problem with this is that by their very nature, crises undermine trust. They prove that you have vulnerabilities, and often demonstrate that you don’t have them protected very well. How then, do you maintain …
Word of mouth has very long reach At some point, an individual will have a problem with your organization. In the past they would tell a friend, who would then would tell two friends, and so on. Bad news, yes, but the information rarely got far. Now, instead of merely …
Data Grabs the New B&E? The latest victim of a high profile hack attack is Valve Software’s Steam platform. Steam is used to digitally distribute over 1,000 of the most popular games online, which obviously means its databases hold a large amount of sensitive information such as names, addresses, passwords …
When life hands you lemons… Every business makes mistakes, and at some point or another the media’s going to pounce on one of yours. When this happens, it will be your reaction that determines whether your reputation bounces back or takes a pounding. In every case you should apologize and …
Safeguard this valuable asset Reputation matters. People are Googling companies before they buy product, invest, or attend events. Heck, it’s not unusual for us to use our smartphones to assess a manufacturer while literally standing in a store looking at one of its products. The question this should raise for …
Get prepared before trouble finds you As social media becomes more and more prevalent in our lives, so too do social media based crises. Just looking at the pages of this blog you’ll find story after story of runaway Twitter posts and customer-alienating Facebook gaffes. How, then, does the novice …
Fictional story prompts real talk A new movie, “Margin Call,” seeks to give audiences a glimpse into the world of fast paced, high level crisis management. While it misses the mark in terms of reality, Forbes business writer Coeli Carr saw the film as a perfect opportunity to talk with …
Hot tempered exec crosses the line We’ve seen crises caused by errant emails, we’ve seen crises caused by potty-mouthed execs, but throw both of those at a blogger that has well over 100,000 followers and you’ve got a truly spectacular mess on your hands. Check out this quote about the …
BCM gets involved in conversational video As Crisis Manager readers already know, we’ve been playing with a new toy for the past few days. VYou, a social media startup that accurately describes its service as “conversational video,” allows users to submit questions to an expert, which the expert then answers …
Be prepared to help your community When natural disasters get bad, they often take out wired communication sources, namely cable and telephone lines. In these times, people look to anyone they can for information about the outside world. If you are a service provider, be it electricity or firefighting, you …
Poor preparation results in reputation damage Bank of America caused a major uproar early this month when it announced that the majority of its customers will be charged $5 per month for debit card use. The reasoning behind this, at least according to BofA, is that new regulations have raised …
Make media and the public your allies against crisis It is vital to keep the media and public on your side. Ideally, this process will have started before any crisis occurs, through fostering relationships with journalists, bloggers and, of course, your customers. Once the crisis has occurred, you keep them …
Do the right thing and the public will forgive Whether in daily life or business, negative situations bring a negative reaction. It’s how we behave after the fact that shapes the way we are perceived. Attempt to cover up the facts, and people smell a rat. Take the high road …
Take the conversation to your customers The Toyota recall of 2010 was perhaps one of the most devastating crises in terms of sheer logistics and media pressure that we’ve seen in recent history. The media pressure was made especially powerful because social media users latched onto the story, with bad …
