Arthur Solomon, a former journalist, was a senior VP/senior counselor at Burson-Marsteller. In the past, we’ve found him to be an astute observer of the scene. Here, he offers advice aimed at public relations firms, but also applicable to any professional service firm, nonprofit, government agency or company. Of course, Art’s opinions, written for CommPro, […]
From Mark Renfree, writing in PR News: Social media is as likely a place as any for a PR crisis to start. In fact, the speed at which things can blow up on social channels make them especially fertile ground for crises. A solid crisis preparation plan will account for more than social media, of […]
by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications COVID-19 catapulted client after client into chaos this year. They were all unprepared to talk about it. After all, who plans to talk about a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic? Maybe you went through the frightening drill yourself last spring: A colleague is the first in your company to test positive for COVID-19. […]
Jay Maddock, Professor of Public Health, at Texas A&M University writes: A rumor started circulating back in 2008 that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. At the time, I was serving as chair of the Hawaii Board of Health. The director and deputy director of health, both appointed by a Republican governor, inspected […]
From our good friend, attorney Karen Rubin at Thompson Hine in Cleveland, writing in her blog, “The Law for Lawyers Today”: An Oklahoma lawyer was suspended last month for two years based on misconduct involving an unlawful response to a bad on-line review of the lawyer’s services. The disciplinary case is a lesson in being […]
From Amy Boone, writing for Ethos3: At times, we are called to give presentations about new products or policies. Other times, we might be asked to inspire or challenge our audience members. But other times, we are called to speak into times of crisis. Maybe a business is losing revenue and the forecasted future is […]
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 […]
By Thom Fladung/Hennes Communications Fake news has existed virtually since humans began to communicate. In the case of the United States, it’s existed since before we were the United States. You may have heard of one of its most skilled practitioners: Benjamin Franklin. In 1782, working on a homemade printing press in a Paris suburb, […]
by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications. Lies cut deeper and travel faster across social media than the truth, and it seems there is little truthsayers can do about it, according to M.I.T. data scientists in a new study published this week in Science. “The effects were more pronounced for false political news … We found that […]
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications Late on Tuesday, December 1, The U.S. Small Business Administration released detailed information about the borrowers who received loans from the federal government’s $659 billion Paycheck Protection and Economic Injury Disaster Loans Program. The information released includes the names, precise amounts, addresses, industry codes, and lender information for the COVID-19 relief […]