PR Insiders

Bringing together people who share common concerns and interests while putting a brand’s immediate needs in the background—or, even better, on the moon—is easier said than done. But maybe that’s what we really mean when we talk about authenticity in communications and community-building—a willingness on the part of a brand to be quiet about itself and encourage others to do the talking.

As communicators know, crisis communication begins well before a crisis occurs. Southwest’s communicators demonstrated they were prepared for April 17’s fatal incident aboard flight 1380 from NY to Dallas. Beyond their technical competence, Southwest used several tactics to inject a human touch in its crisis communications.

A career in PR can be many things. Usually one thing it is not is the glamorous, party-hopping profession portrayed in movies, television and novels. Sometimes PR pros are asked to represent brands whose positions on social and political issues they abhor. In other cases they’re asked to lie to protect the brand they represent. Veteran PR pro Arthur Solomon offers three questions aspiring PR pros should ponder before making their career choice.

PR professionals say it all the time. They repeat the phrase so often sometimes its meaning gets lost. I’ll admit, my eyes roll when this concept is the first takeaway of a submitted essay I’m editing… Continued

The key to Mark Zuckerberg’s fine April 10 performance before a Senate committee on Capitol Hill, which resulted in his becoming billions richer when Wall Street approved of what it heard, is something so basic it often is glossed over in PR training courses. While Zuckerberg’s vast resources no doubt helped his preparation, any PR pro can avail herself/himself of many of the same tips and tactics his handlers used.

As we went to press Tuesday a slew of top-flight communications and marketing positions changed hands. The biggest was the move of Salesforce’s CCO Corey duBrowa to Google.

Is it better for a company to own a bad situation and communicate about the underlying issue or remain silent and hope it all goes away? That was the predicament for Morgan Stanley recently when a front-page story in the NY Times exposed the company knew a star employee was battling repeated accusations from multiple parties of physical abuse and stalking. Claudia Keith, chief communications officer of the City of Palo Alto, CA, argues Morgan Stanley’s response will hurt its reputation and bottom line.

A few years back, the conventional wisdom was brands were better off staying as far away from social and political issues as possible. In many cases, it’s still the advice communicators and marketers advocate. For example, … Continued

Several early media reports about yesterday’s awful shooting at YouTube headquarters in San Bruno, CA, linked the alleged shooter’s actions to YouTube policies on monetization of videos and prohibiting gun-related content. In reality the shooter likely was mentally disturbed as there can be no justification for shooting at innocent people. What can brand communicators learn from this incident?

The U.S. public is feeling empowered to use social media to document or talk about a company’s wrong doing. The latest target seems to be Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingraham, whose taunting of a Parkland student on Twitter sent one dozen brands fleeing from her show. A question for brand communicators: How do you protect your company’s reputation in this fast-moving name and shame environment? APCO’s Katie Sprehe has several suggestions.