Stories by Matt Bianco

In this continuing series about lessons in career and life, a senior communicator at a relatively unknown but major aluminum company explains why he left a very good position at a much larger firm. It was the best career move he’s made, he says.

Crisis communications principles are well known, and most companies and organizations have robust crisis plans. Still, we see daily examples of iconic brands floundering with crisis. Why? Former Burson-Marsteller chairman and new novelist Jim Lindheim addressed this issue during his keynote at PRNEWS’ Crisis and Measurement Summit in Miami. In addition, attendees received a bevy of crisis takeaways during the Feb. 25, 2020, sessions.

There’s plenty to learn about PR in college programs. On the other hand, there are few better teachers than actually practicing PR on the job. Four years out of college, our author argues that managing expectations is a key area that PR classes failed to cover. Here’s what she’s learned attending the college of hard knocks.

Whether you’re crafting social media posts, blogs or website content, it’s not easy to feed the dreaded content beast. This most inhospitable of creatures is sure to bite your hand when it’s hungry. And that’s 24/7. To calm this animal, spend time to make your written and visual efforts shine—even if that means producing less content at the outset. In addition, use that great content in various ways and on different platforms to fulfill the beast’s voracious appetite.

It can be a dirty business defending criminals. Whatever you might think of those who represent Harvey Weinstein in court, you have to admit his lead attorney, Donna Rotunno, is, for the most part, using earned media tactics well. Her PR goal seems to be building name recognition in anticipation of future #MeToo clients.

Moving from being a brand communicator at Pfizer to an agency executive prompted Dean Mastrojohn to think about team building. He offers three lessons he learned from his years on the client side. The veteran communicator is using these lessons as he builds an integrated media team as part of his agency position.

In this regular series with the Institute of Public Relations, veteran communicators relate lessons learned early in their careers that continue to help them. This installment features Shirley Powell, SVP, Cox Automotive, who received a great education from her first boss. One of his toughest lessons remains with Powell to this day.

A decade ago there were fewer than one billion social network users. Last month, that number was 5.2 billion. And their expectations and the number of platforms they use are rising. One expectation is that they can shop instantly from any piece of content. Hence, the rise of shoppable posts, blending e-commerce and content. PR has a large role to play in this trend.

On first glance you might not think diversity and inclusion has anything to do with crisis communications. In fact, it has everything to do with it, argues Esther-Mireya Tejeda, SVP, head, corporate communications & PR at Entercom.

In this final article of a two-part series, Ayaz Malik and Bob Pearson discuss three areas that you can use to bolster your published content everyday.