From Adele Cehrs, writing in Ragan’s PRDaily: Several large companies have taken out expensive ads apologizing for bad behavior. Over the last year, Samsung, Under Armour and Deutsche Bank have all issued full-page mea culpas in prestigious publications. Reasons include missteps by a spokesperson, an attempt to control the narrative and choosing to avoid a […]
From Alecia Swasy, writing for Poynter: Twitter reflects the good, the bad and just plain ugly reality of social media these days. For academics, journalists and voters, there’s never been a more crucial time to talk about the impact these social media platforms have on factual journalism and being watchdogs of the powerful. It’s in […]
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] When we talk to clients about the challenges of communicating about an issue they are facing, we often discuss the phenomenon of “confirmation bias” – the tendency individuals have to believe facts that support their personal points of view while rejecting similarly legitimate facts that run counter to their personal […]
By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications If you watched mainstream news early this week, or had your news feed set to the right coordinates, you no doubt saw that United Airlines became the latest victim of a Tweet storm on Sunday, after attendants on a flight from Denver to Minneapolis refused to allow two girls to […]
If you’ve ever attended one of our seminars on crisis management, we often talk about the power of apology. Real apologies; apologies that are authentic and true; apologies without qualification or the use of “weasel words” (e.g. “mistakes were made”). Perhaps no industry does apology better AND worse than the health care industry (hospitals, nursing homes, […]
From our colleague Richard Levick, writing in Forbes: Reverberations from President Donald Trump’s recasting of political behavior are being felt in every corporate counsel’s office – not only in the U.S., but abroad, too. Civility, subtlety, even facts, are out. Confrontation, predawn tweeting, and “alternative facts” are in. When coupled with the disquieting new realities […]
[By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications] The blogosphere lit up with smiles this past Friday after a toddler photobombed Robert Kelly’s Skype interview with the BBC from his home in S. Korea. Kelly, a political-science professor, was discussing the South Korea impeachment scandal from his home office with a door closed behind him. As the questioning […]
From the Columbia Journalism Review: JOURNALISM’S BUSINESS CRISIS is well known, but in the wake of the US presidential election it is increasingly obvious that the true existential crisis for journalism is its lack of influence. Fake news, a decline in trust, and plunging revenues are all proxies for a loss of influence and impact […]
[By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications] Wow. One minute, you’re a global company with a brand so esteemed it almost glows. The next, you’re the centerpiece of a social-media pile-on, raked over the coals by wits and late-night TV wannabes. All because a partner with 20 years of service takes his eye off the ball and […]
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 […]