When Twitter purchased Atebits, maker of the Tweetie app, it slapped the face of loads of third-party developers who had helped rocket Twitter to a raging success. More than 70,000 applications have been created to allow users to tweet on the go, geotag, shorten URLs, post pictures and more, and …
Three Questions to Keep You on Track During a Crisis
How are my stakeholders being negatively affected by what’s happening? What can I do to rectify that situation? How can I best communicate my actions to my stakeholders? These three questions, posed by Grant Smith in a post on his Media Insights and Crisis Expertise blog, can keep your organization …
College Crisis Management
According to a recent poll, many college and universities have never actually tested their crisis management plans. The poll, whose results were published by Campus Technology.com, contains some figures that are bound to cause concern for students, teachers and their families: According to the results, 54 percent of institutions have …
Trouble at the Vatican
By now the Vatican should be no stranger to crisis management. After all, the organization has faced issues with misconduct and molestation among their members for years, yet every time a new situation comes up they somehow manage to bungle the response. In a recent post on his ManagementHelp.org PR …
Perfect Description
Since the advent of social media platforms, boundaries between CEOs and the general public have become almost nonexistent. Customers now have direct access to the people managing companies, and they expect them to be openly accountable. This provides companies with the unique opportunity to address a crisis situation by telling …
AOL Apologizes
When AOL CEO Tim Armstrong publicly bashed work done by some of his employees, the media grabbed ahold of the quote and ran with it. Armstrong quickly realized that having your employer’s disparaging comments aired in public is bad for morale and invited the 250 employees whose work he had …
Jump Start
Every terrorist attack or natural disaster serves as a reminder of just how fragile the things we take for granted really are. In a blog post motivated by last week’s subway bombings in Moscow, Eileen O’Connor, of law firm McDermott, Will & Emery, described some ways you can get a …
Four Ways to Lie
Bernstein Crisis Management President Jonathan Bernstein’s article, “Four Ways to Lie,” is now available at his newest blog, featured at the Free Management Library. The post contains several different ways that dishonesty among individuals and organizations can create crisis management issues, as well as lending some advice to the Vatican …
Toyota’s Troubles Continue
Toyota has had a difficult time with crisis management for their recall. Even when they’ve been trying to do the right thing there have been critical mistakes made, like this one, described in a post on the blog run by British crisis management pro Jonathan Hemus, Insignia Talks: It was …
Unvarnished
A new social media service, Unvarnished, which entered its beta phase just yesterday, is already drawing ire and raising trepidation among many professionals. With the wild popularity of social media, why is the launch of Unvarnished causing such a stir? This quote from a TechCrunch article explains: Today, Unvarnished makes …
Criminal Negligence
Wood product manufacturer Weyerhauser is among the first companies to be face criminal prosecution under 2004’s “Westray amendment,” which makes it legal to charge companies with criminal neglect. In an investigation following the death of an employee, supervisors and management were found to have been well aware of safety issues …
Legal Conversation
Working with the media in litigation-related situations can reap serious rewards for lawyers and their clients. While the first option for dealing with the public is usually a crisis management professional, when dealing with legal matters lawyers hold the advantage of attorney-client privilege, which is a major aid in protecting …
Crisis Management In the Twitter Age
“In the Twitter age” is a term I heard this past week from a slightly frustrated public relations professional talking about how he’s been forced to modify his crisis management plan. And change he must. The best-laid crisis management plan will quickly unravel when information – true, untrue or even …
New Crisis Manager Out Now
A new issue of Crisis Manager has just been uploaded to the Bernstein Crisis Management website! This week’s edition features an article by blogger and professional consultant Mike Johannson, PR Crisis Management in the ‘Twitter Age’, that lays down some ground rules for handling damage control in the social media …
New Salmonella Case
A recall was issued for over 150 items containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein after salmonella Tennessee was discovered in products made by Las Vegas based Basic Food Flavors. The FDA, conscious of criticism received for slow action in the past, launched an aggressive crisis response effort with a list of potentially …