This past edition of Crisis Manager featured a guest article by a source who is extremely familiar with crises. A 30-year veteran of the Oregon State Police, including his current nine-year stint as Public Information Officer, Gregg Hastings handled the media during the intense search for the missing James Kim …
The Bimbo Awards take a tongue in cheek look at prominent figures placing their feet firmly in their own mouths. Created by Merrie Spaeth of Spaeth Communications, the criterion for nomination is that the quote causes the listener to believe exactly the opposite of what is being said. “The winning …
Hopefully my readers will forgive me a bit of horn-tooting here as I celebrate another successful year for Crisis Manager! This newsletter has been a major part of my life – publishing two issues a month, every month, with very few exceptions during its entire nine-year run. I’d like to …
“Perhaps not surprisingly I have recently had discussions with a number of CEOs concerning what politely we call Contingency Planning, or more brutally, Crisis Management. These discussions have ranged from a charity wanting advice in order to be prepared for difficult questions concerning donations, to companies investigating business-threatening product and …
“I think I screwed up,” Obama said in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “And, I take responsibility for it and we’re going to make sure we fix it so it doesn’t happen again.” In an astounding demonstration of JUST how different a communicator he’s going to be as President, …
The Courage Campaign, an online organizing network that pushes for progressive change in California, has launched a very unique campaign in an attempt to make Californians take notice of the current budget crisis. In an excellent example of a grassroots issues management campaign, they put a comedic spin on the …
Fellow PR professionals are an important source of insight and knowledge. Today’s tidbit comes to us from the blog of Kat Waters, a freelance PR pro and writer based in Dublin, Ireland. In her latest post she uses the way the Irish Government has dealt with their current recession to …
My friend and professional associate, Gerald Baron, authors his own blog, the Crisisblogger, covering stories ranging from the recent salmonella outbreak to his opinions of the White House website. An engaging and enlightening read on the subject of crisis management in this new era of communication, I highly recommend that …
I try not to pull material too often from any one site but this story was too good (or rather, too bad) to pass up. Coming to us again from The Consumerist, today’s story is another example of spectacularly poor customer service, this time from Comcast cable. Apparently they charged …
Another gem from The Consumerist today. According to the Washington Post, Heartland Payment Systems, a payment processor that handles credit card payments for over 250,000 businesses, has had more than 100 million transactions compromised through malicious software that had been unknowingly installed on its network. As if the situation were …
Today I’d like to point out an example of good crisis management that anyone involved with a food-related business should take a look at. Many of you have probably seen news reports of the most recent Salmonella scare, which has now grown to over 480 cases spanning 43 states. Although …
As subscribers to my Crisis Manager newsletter may know, I am none too fond of Best Buy due to their consistently poor customer service. Unfortunately, a recent post on The Consumerist gives another example of Best Buy’s incredibly bad customer service that only serves to cement my opinion. Properly training …
A new blog penned by John Withington – author of The Disastrous History of London, A Disastrous History of Britain and (his latest) A Disastrous History of the World – dissects current disasters and examines them in a historical light. While somewhat macabre, Withington’s posts make clear what I have …
In this article reported in my online newsletter, Crisis Manager: The Internet Newsletter About Crisis Management, Jim Lukaszewski has given us a clear view of what we all know: sometimes what is said is not what is meant. Unfortunately, the meaning is usually very clear to the listener. When responding …
After working with SEO guru Chesa Keane of TAO Consultants for some time, we have established a working relationship that is both interesting to the both of us as well as extremely valuable to our online crisis clients. In my latest Media Bullseye column, REPUTATION MANAGEMENT ONtheLINE, I explore some …
