Category: Reputation risk
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When is it OK to ban hostile journalists from using your press office?
There may be times – especially if your organisation is controversial – that you find that a publication routinely writes negative stories about you. This can be depressing, and how you deal with it requires caution. It is easier to do something about factually inaccurate stories than about merely hostile ones. In the UK, television stations […]
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Bosley wood mill explosion: how companies fail to communicate during a crisis
On Sunday, something odd caught my eye on the television. Sky News was reporting on a massive fire of a large mill which had started on Friday, in which four people were missing. The local MP, David Rutley, was being interviewed and seemed to think that the firm’s employees were in the dark about what they needed […]
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The cluster crisis
The cluster crisis is when a series of two or more errors collectively make matters worse. When Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig operated by BP, exploded in 2010, matters were bad enough. The spill inflicted 4.9 million barrels of oil on the Gulf of Mexico coast, making it the biggest accidental oil spill in history. […]
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In a crisis, don’t feed the trolls
When a crisis hits, communicating with genuine stakeholders is vital. But the communications response can be hindered by focusing on nuisance calls, malicious emails and anonymous criticism on social media. A company I once advised after a crisis hit sold very niche services only relevant to a corporate buyers and which would not be of […]
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Stephen Waddington and Steve Earl’s ‘Brand Vandals’ is a must-read
And that’s not just because I am mentioned in it. On page 98 of Brand Vandals, Stephen writes: Next an email from Alex Singleton, an ex-broadsheet hack in the UK turned heavyweight corporate communicator, popped into my inbox. He’d spotted my tweets and… voluntarily joined my cause. You’ll have to read the book for the […]