Why every organization is vulnerable to #MeToo allegations When humans are oppressed and repressed long enough and finally find a channel for venting their feelings, for finding justice, we sometimes overreact. Riots occur, with innocent individual and businesses damaged (or worse). Sometimes entire governments are brought down by such action …
Mounting an offense In part one of this series we talked a bit about being on the defendant’s side, but what about when you’re the one on the offensive in a battle of litigation and PR? There are two scenarios where we see a need to take things into the …
Playing defense While it’s been happening for many years, the internet – and more specifically social media and review sites – have made the process of trying a case in the court of public opinion long before it hits a court of law more common than ever. We work on both sides …
Turning potentially negative communications into positive PR opportunities Welcome to When Legal Meets PR! Today every legal move has potential for PR ramifications and vice versa. That’s why it’s critical that your legal and PR work in tandem to produce the best possible product for the situation. In the first …
Empathy is key to reaching your target audience Have you ever tried to resolve an argument with a loved one without acknowledging their feelings first? Have you ever started apologizing, only to be told, “That’s not even what upset me in the first place!”? Doesn’t work too well, right? Despite all …
[Editor’s note: This guest post on the situation H&M faced after releasing a controversial ad comes to us from friend and colleague Andrea Obston, of Andrea Obston Marketing Communications.] On Monday, I learned that H&M actually stands for Hugely insensitive and Massively out of touch. They ignited a social media …
California nonprofit The Aerospace Corporation has published estimations of China’s Tiangong-1 space lab’s return to Earth, and according to data we’re not looking at a controlled, calculated return. Satellite trackers have been showing clues the lab has actually been in an uncontrolled orbit since 2016, and China’s Manned Space Engineering …
Humility, honesty, and a dose of good manners. It’s not often that we get to talk about positive media coverage of a star athlete, but with all of the “wrong way” examples out there it’s always refreshing to see someone who lives in the spotlight doing it right. Watch @Titans …
Mistakes happen. You’ll be judged on what you do next. YouTubers are a controversial topic. If you’re a teen or young adult it’s likely you have your own favorites that you’ve spent hours watching, and you may even feel deeply connected to a streamer you’ve followed through their daily lives. …
Failures in day-to-day communications can create serious threats to reputation Customer service is a critical part of crisis management. The way each individual in your company treats stakeholders is a direct reflection of how your company feels about said stakeholders, whether it’s intended to be or not. Provide poor customer …
Robotic corporate messaging isn’t warming anyone up to nasty news Our Three C’s of Credibility are 1) Confidence, 2) Competence, and 3) Compassion. If you read through any collection of corporate messaging you’ll quickly realize that the vast majority hit the first two just fine, but reliably fail to introduce …
Getting in front of potential issues is often beneficial Doing crisis management right sometimes means sweating the small stuff. While informing stakeholders that they’ll need to update their passwords for your site may seem unnecessary, proactively communicating about the issue is more important than you think. We share a lot …
In today’s climate why does crisis management strategy call for rapid removal of the accused? As recently as a few months ago it wasn’t a surprise to anyone when a company leader or powerful star was protected against allegations of abuse, or at least given the benefit of a doubt. …
Defining what constitutes a crisis for your organization The word crisis means many things to many people. On the homepage of our website we share some of the most common categories of crises, but it’s nowhere near a complete list (mostly because we wouldn’t have room for anything else on …
The below post was written by Jonathan Bernstein on April 2, 2015. Since then, we have seen countless severe crises where the damage could have been prevented, or at least reduced significantly. Some of them are still in the headlines today. It’s not just about saving reputation and your bottom line, …
