PRBreakfastClub

In this third, and final part, of the series, Justin Goldsborough examines whether companies needs crisis plans or  social media crisis plans? Part 1 of the series can be found here, and Part 2 is here. Read the rest of this entry »

In this part 2 of a series, Justin Goldsborough examines whether a company needs a crisis plan or a social media crisis plan? Part 1 of the series can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »

Without question, my favorite part about Twitter is crowdsourcing. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a passionate POV or a question I couldn’t answer, shared it on Twitter, and been amazed at others’ perspectives and how much I learned from my industry peers.

A couple of weeks ago one of these situations came to life. In the past year, I have seen more and more agencies and companies advocating for a social media crisis plan. And to be completely honest, I don’t get it. Social media is a channel. A crisis often affects your brand far beyond Facebook, Twitter or the blogosphere. In the end, your reputation lies in the hands of your customers and influencers. And those people don’t just live in a social media bubble.

Sure, a brand can employ social media to communicate in near real-time when a crisis strikes. And for most, that tactic will make sense. But isn’t it just one or a few pieces of the overall crisis plan puzzle? If you ask me, our PR peers too often sell social media crisis planning as a scare tactic because they know the social response is the part brands worry they can’t control. But on the other hand, social media does play a significant role in crisis communications these days, so maybe it’s just semantics and I’m getting all worked up over nothing? Read the rest of this entry »

Saying Monday that #snowloko was “inconvenient,” while urging New Yorkers to see a Broadway show (seemingly oblivious to the fact that millions of outer-borough residents were literally trapped in their homes — and would be for several days — because of his administration’s mismanagement and bungling of the cleanup effort) Bloomberg perfectly exemplified a new reality that is starting to emerge in crisis management in the digital age: words, much like images, can make or break you. Read the rest of this entry »

On Aug. 6, HP announced that its Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd was resigning from the company. The announcement followed an investigation conducted by HP’s internal and external legal counsel into a sexual harassment claim lodged against Hurd and HP by a former HP contractor.

While the investigation determined that Hurd did not violate HP’s sexual harassment policy, it nevertheless uncovered a related offense, which ultimately prompted his dismissal. Hurd, according to HP, breached the company’s Standards of Business Conduct by making inappropriate payments to the contractor and charging personal expenses to his corporate expense account. Read the rest of this entry »

I had a conversation last week with some really bright folks who run a social media agency in New York that works with several Fortune 500 brands. We got to discussing crisis communications within a real-time setting, and how they could effectively use social media to almost instantly respond to a crisis and mitigate its effects.

Throughout the conversation, we kept coming back to the point that in order to properly handle any type of crisis in real time, no matter what the brand or situation, you need a proper plan in place well before the crisis even hits. Because no matter what type of media you are using to monitor and respond, you always need a plan in place that details exactly how, who and why you will respond and the type of response you will give to different audiences to ensure their concerns are addressed appropriately. Read the rest of this entry »

The concept of public figures getting caught up in racist scandals isn’t exactly brand new – many a good reputation has been permanently tarnished thanks to misspoken words and overheard conversations.  Even though their careers are getting back on track, people won’t be forgetting the ignorant words of Don Imus or Mel Gibson anytime soon and their brands now have entirely different connotations.  However, the entertainment world was still rocked a few weeks ago when John Mayer’s offensive and way-too-honest interview with Playboy Magazine was released. Read the rest of this entry »

People say the dumbest things.  At Spaeth Communications we call them (the comments, not the people) BIMBOs — although more often than not the two go hand in hand.

One of the first lessons we teach our clients at Spaeth is to not repeat and deny a negative word or phrase because the listener filters out the denial and hears the exact opposite of what the speaker’s intent.

The category (created by firm founder Merrie Spaeth) was named for a woman, who after getting caught in a tryst with a high-profile married man, announced to the world, “I am not a Bimbo,” causing the public to believe that she actually was. Read the rest of this entry »