From The Wall Street Journal Risk & Compliance Journal and Deloitte: At what point does business-as-usual turn into a corporate crisis? It’s not always clear, and executives might treat the first signs of a crisis—not realizing the magnitude—with complacency. Confounded by stress responses and human behavioral factors, an organization can lose precious time if executives […]
By Fiona Parker & Alec Peck: Data breaches are now so common that it’s hard to keep up. In any given week there are reports of attacks across all sectors and geographies. At the time of writing the Yahoo! data breach could potentially involve up to a mind boggling 1 billion users. By the time […]
Brian Feldman writes: Among myriad concerns surrounding a Donald Trump presidency, somewhere right in the center of the list — maybe just slightly closer to the bottom than the top in terms of importance — is his relation to the press. Or more accurately: the way in which he uses it. Depending on whom you […]
[by Howard Fencl] There’s no question every tweet President Trump sends in his ongoing Twitter micro-eruptions are micro-analyzed by media and the public alike. Trump shoots from the hip, followers knee-jerk. Supporters cheer, resisters anguish. Wall Street frets. World leaders worry – some cancel scheduled Washington meetings. As a business mogul, Trump mastered social media […]
[By Stephanie York, J.D., Hennes Communications] Companies and other organizations limit liability by insuring most, if not all, of their assets: buildings, furniture, vehicles, the health of employees, the health of visitors and more. And while some insurance policies now offer “crisis communications coverage,” allowing the insured to engage the services of a specialized firm like […]
[By Thom Fladung, Hennes Communications] How fast is social media at reporting on events – including events that your organization might consider a crisis? Faster than you. Consider a situation involving a school in Westfield, N.Y., that we stumbled upon. Here’s the first paragraph of a story from the Westfield Republican: “Parents need to realize that […]
The biggest bully-pulpit in the land is located inside the Oval Office. In the past, the occupants of that office have carefully chosen words and phrases, knowing they can move markets, armies and trends with minimal effort. Today, we are on the brink of uncharted waters as the next president of the United States appears to […]
Molly Strong writes: While fake content has circulated in tabloids and on the internet for years, the 2016 election has given us a reason to take it seriously. Stories about the Clintons selling weapons to ISIS and Trump winning the popular vote (he didn’t) spread like wildfire, and in some cases outperformed real news. The […]
Zach Schonbrun writes: H&R Block’s new advertising campaign is one of the more ambitious in the company’s 62-year history. It hired the actor Jon Hamm for his first on-camera spokesman role, a significant coup. And the company ditched its “Refund Season” slogan in favor of a more aggressive pitch: “Get your taxes won.” The ads […]
Michiko Kakutani reviews ‘How Propaganda Works’: n “Mein Kampf,” Hitler argued that effective propaganda appeals “to the feelings of the public rather than to their reasoning ability”; relies on “stereotyped formulas,” repeated over and over again, to drum ideas into the minds of the masses; and uses simple “love or hate, right or wrong” formulations […]