Topics

It’s no secret that a crisis can pop up at any time and put an organization in a precarious position. The crisis can present itself seemingly out of nowhere—like the diving and water polo pools at the Rio Olympics turning mysteriously green, or Delta Airlines’ power failure—and dangerously skew the perception of a brand. While it’s essential to focus on a transparent and progressive external response, communicating clearly and efficiently with employees can create powerful brand ambassadors in troubled times.

The pay wage gap in the public relations industry has recently received a lot of attention. There is no denying that the PR industry is predominantly comprised of women in the workforce—70% of the workforce, to be exact. Yet women hold 30% of C-level positions in the industry, according to the Holmes Report. How can a change occur? Many women, especially in the public relations industry, are establishing their own businesses and capitalizing on entrepreneurship to find success.

At the Big 4 Social Media Summit in San Francisco on Aug. 10, Paul Englert presented these six somewhat-rhetorical questions to those who are considering using Facebook Live. Although probably every brand wants to answer “yes” to each one, it’s worth doing some soul-searching to determine whether that would be true, and if not, how to get there in order to make live streaming truly worthwhile.

The infographics building process is complex and can be time consuming, but pays off in the long term with increased brand loyalty and powerful stories that audiences are far more likely to retain than written content. Data visualization experts know that clearly defined goals, reputable data, concise messaging and a good story are crucial to constructing effective infographics. Communicators from Google, Synack and Affect shared their tactics for a strong data infographics campaign.

YouTube is the Vegas casino of social content platforms. Brand communicators are constantly told that video reigns supreme—no one reads anymore and still images are so 20th century. So they pour resources into videos, and post them to their YouTube channels and wait for the returns. And wait.

It’s been a tough day for Delta Airlines. But it’s been even more excruciating for the company’s customers. The company seems to be doing its best to keep passengers informed and is offering refunds and waivers for ticket exchanges, which are both good things. But as technology becomes more heavily integrated into the airline industry, these types of outages and glitches are becoming major problems for airline brands. Only a few weeks ago, on July 20, Southwest Airlines experienced a similar technology related problem that caused days of delays and cancellations.

Any discussion of “thought leadership” should start with an acknowledgement that virtually everyone outside the communications field hates the term. Editors and producers see it as a symbol of all that’s wrong with public relations. Yet in spite of the cliché, positioning your executives as, well, leading thinkers remains a critical component of any successful corporate communications effort—especially when your company has passed the “media darling” stage when it’s making all the news.

Snapchat is a great way to reach audiences in a consumable fashion. But if you’re just going to regurgitate the same content you use on television and other media platforms you’re going to struggle.

The key to keeping an audience in its seats can be divided into three areas: what you say, what you show and how you present.

After a 2-year-old boy was killed June 14 by an alligator at Walt Disney World, a brand representing magic seemed to be without pixie dust. In today’s news cycle, it is impossible for companies, especially those as large and iconic as Disney, to hide from online critics who thrive on call-outs of organizations undergoing a crisis.