By Nora Jacobs, Hennes Communications For organizations responding to sudden, catastrophic crisis events, one of the most challenging decisions to make involves determining what to say and when to say it. Wait until all the facts have been gathered and you risk not being part of the critical first news cycle, which often sets […]
By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications If you’re a regular reader of this newsletter, you know we’re constantly encouraging you to have a crisis management/crisis communications plan in-place before something happens. We are also constantly reminding you understand that you only have minutes to respond to a crisis situation; to train and test your team; to […]
It’s a simple fact: Controversies today are tried in the Court of Public Opinion more often than the Court of Law. News now breaks first on social media, with traditional media sweeping Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for leads. Whether your organization is immersed in crisis or dealing with a hot-button issue, your news can quickly […]
By Bridget Johnson for Homeland Security Today ISIS roared onto the social media landscape not with a gruesome beheading, but with a fluffy kitten. The beheadings would be infamously broadcast by the terror group, leading to scattershot social media bans followed by new accounts created by terrorists and their loyalists to replace and augment the […]
By Thomas Fladung, Hennes Communications The public school policy manual included this under the “Social Media Use” heading: “An employee’s personal or private use of social media may have unintended consequences.” You think? Consider a few “unintended consequences” of recent vintage involving public school representatives. A Texas high school English teacher was fired in 2019 […]
Crisis communications is a sub-specialty of the public relations profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation. Crisis communications is aimed at raising awareness of a specific type of threat, the magnitude, outcomes, and specific behaviors to adopt to reduce the threat. […]
By Stephanie York, JD, Hennes Communications Quick – What’s the single highest priority for a superintendent, head of school or board president? It’s not education. It’s safety. And just one part of that safety net is making sure you have a pre-written crisis communications plan at your fingertips – or at least the phone number […]
Once again, Sterling Miller hits it out of the park with an article ostensibly written for in-house attorneys, but 100% applicable to anyone in a new position in any field. When it comes to “executive presence,” I now have the benefit of being older with more than a few gray hairs. As a result, a […]
There are scores of reasons why your district can be thrust into the news. Lawsuit…sports controversy…social media threats…active shooter… board-superintendent clash…criminal accusation…discrimination complaints…diversity issues…FERPA or HIPAA violation…fiscal mismanagement…protest… sexual misconduct…student newspaper story…challenging conversations… testing controversy…union grievance/strike… Suddenly, there’s a TV crew in the parking lot, your local newspaper is on Line One and the situation […]
From Mitch Mitchell, writing for Security Magazine… History has taught security teams that crisis situations can happen at any time and more frequently than anyone can anticipate. However, when a crisis does occur, organizations find themselves in a situation where survival is the main focus — the unprecedented disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic being […]