We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Samantha Jacobs, President/Founder of Hemsworth Communications.

Samantha is a corporate communications and public relations strategist who has represented clients in a variety of industries including travel and tourism, destination marketing, cruise, travel distribution/travel agency, technology, wellness and more. Samantha’s career spans nearly 20 years in public relations, marketing and communications, including working as a senior-level executive for top-ranked PR agencies and corporations.

Prior to launching Hemsworth Communications in 2014, Samantha served as associate partner for Finn Partners, VP for M. Silver Associates and before that, was the first-ever director of PR for World Travel Holdings. Prior to joining WTH, Samantha worked in management positions for several top-rated New York City- and Baltimore-based public relations agencies. She began her career in the New York City headquarters of ABC News/Good Morning America. Samantha graduated from Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, with a dual degree in Communications and Sociology.

A dynamic, full-service agency, Hemsworth Communications is one of the fastest-growing, top-ranked agencies in the United States according to O’Dwyer’s PR Report and one of PR News’ Top Places to Work, recognized for its unique, forward-thinking company culture. With three distinctive divisions – Travel/Tourism, Food/Wine/Spirits, and Franchising/Business Services – Hemsworth represents fresh, up-and-coming businesses as well as leading, renowned global brands. Services include brand communications strategy, media relations, promotions, guerrilla marketing, social media, thought leadership and event planning. Unlike traditional PR agencies, Hemsworth is dedicated to crafting customized communications programs that are infused with personal, passionate client service and positively contribute to each client’s bottom line.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management is working to control how the public thinks of an individual or brand, in many cases, helping craft corporate messaging and both proactive and reactive strategies to drive perception. Reputation management and PR go hand-in-hand. Our job as PR practitioners is to maintain goodwill for our clients amongst their target audiences and the greater public.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is thinking they can do their own PR, without tapping into an expert or agency.  You hire an accountant for your taxes and an attorney for legal matters.  Having a PR expert on hand, who knows the ins and outs of corporate communications and has the right relationships to support you, is key.  The COVID-19 pandemic has presented an unprecedented challenge across every industry. Understandably, many companies without PR representation are finding themselves at a loss on how to handle effectively engaging with their customers. With that, in the early stages of the pandemic, we unfortunately saw some companies continue with pushing sales and special promotions, which came across as out of touch and tone deaf. We also have seen companies sit back and simply do nothing, which will leave them unprepared with a limited sales funnel when things do bounce back…which they will.  During a crisis such as COVID-19, companies don’t need to disappear completely, but they should adapt communication strategies to be sensitive to the situation and put their customers’ well-being at the forefront of their efforts.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media is a critical piece of the reputation management puzzle. Social media provides brands with the opportunity to showcase their unique personality and if done properly, it can strengthen their credibility in the eye of their target consumer. When handling social media for our clients, we take an all-encompassing, in-depth approach to ensure we’re tracking every company mention, customer comment, review, keyword, trend and everything in between. We also ensure social media and PR messaging, and strategies, are complimenting one another. Now more than ever, it’s critical to have one comprehensive and consistent approach.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

The first thing a company should do is pause any pre-scheduled external communications. The last thing a company wants to happen is to have a social media post or e-blast going out and seeming like they’re ignoring, or oblivious, to the issue at hand. We encourage companies to freeze communications, take a step back and share the full details of what is happening with us, so that we can move swiftly – but carefully – through the crisis.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

It’s extremely important for employees to remain connected during a PR crisis and make themselves available to assist their company as needed. Internal communication is paramount during times of crisis. In many cases, reactive messaging is provided to employees to help them comfortably and appropriately address questions about the issue at hand. After a PR crisis, employees should help their company assess the outcome and determine what they can learn from it to better handle future crisis situations.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Advanced preparedness is the key to successful crisis management. Every company should have a PR crisis team and a full plan in place. That plan should include sample scenarios, reactive messaging, points of action, scripted posts and press statements and more.  If a company does not have this in place, they will be behind when a crisis occurs.  Once a crisis unfolds, your team needs to have the right resources available at their fingertips to swiftly lead to action. That’s why it’s essential for companies to have a dedicated PR team in place to handle responsibilities such as monitoring the media landscape to catch potential crisis early and respond quickly before things escalate. It’s also beneficial for trained PR professionals to have a seat at the table when making important decisions that will affect the public’s perception of the company.  The more information we know (and we’re NDA’d, always), the better.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

There’s a range of tools out there that can make reputation management efforts easier, such as media monitoring software and social listening tools that pull and analyze data. On the contrary though, reputation management is in some ways getting harder due to the seemingly never-ending stream of new social technologies, apps and platforms rolling out on a regular basis. For this reason, as an agency in the trenches on these things, we have dedicated team members who are responsible for keeping their finger on the pulse of trends in order to help our clients stay ahead of the curve.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly been the biggest crisis that I, like many others, have ever faced. Like all challenges, I try to put the focus on the positive rather than the negative. With that, myself and my team found opportunities where we could elevate our clients in the media, attaching them to stories of leadership during this challenging and unfamiliar landscape. As one example, we crafted key messaging on behalf of our private aviation client to educate consumers on the benefits of how flying privately mitigates some of the risks that would be associated with flying commercially during a global health crisis. As a result of our efforts, we were able to garner a steady stream of top-tier media coverage and create positive brand association for the company.

How to Connect:

Website:  HemsworthCommunications.com

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-jacobs-9b90337

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Noreen Heron, CEO and founder of Heron Agency.

In 2000, Noreen founded and has built the award-winning Heron Agency into one of the nation’s leading lifestyle communications agencies. As a pioneer of new communication and digital technologies, Noreen ensures that Heron Agency is always on the cutting-edge of the media industry and its trends. Her entrepreneurial mindset has garnered her over a dozen prestigious industry awards, and her reputation of consistently delivering fully integrated marketing campaigns that improve a client’s bottom line and profitability is well known. Throughout her career, she has represented 30 hotel brands, more than 1000 theater productions including national tours, 400 restaurants, and countless events including the Taste of Chicago, the Race to Mackinac, the Jeff Awards, the Grand Chefs Gala, the Randolph Street Market, the Highland Games, the Chicago Boat & RV Show, and the One of a Kind Show. She has managed corporate campaigns for Paper Source, Luna Carpet, Smirnoff, Massage Envy and others. Noreen has represented numerous celebrities in Chicago and around the country including Prince, Jerry Seinfeld, Janeane Garafalo, Gabriel Byrne, Dan Aykroyd, the Beach Boys, Celtic Thunder, and Jewel, among others. She has also represented several non-profit organizations including the National Hellenic Museum, Alliance Francaise Chicago, the American Writers Museum, and more. She has grown the scope of the agency over the years in terms of client base, because she believes that creative, solid PR/Social media services in any category are what is needed and what the agency is capable of delivering. Hence, the agency has represented retailers, entertainment venues, CVBs, medical practices, product launches, sports teams, franchises and more.

Never having worked at an agency prior to owning one, Noreen developed what her clients refer to as “the secret sauce.” Team members serve the way in-house publicists do, working in every conceivable fashion to drive business for clients. Wanting to provide service that she would herself hope to receive as a consumer, Noreen provides the bandwidth for clients, putting 4 to 5 experts on each team servicing a client.

Noreen has served on numerous boards and planned dozens of charitable fundraisers, receiving many awards (listed below). Highly networked, she is a specialist at using her connections to the benefit of her clients and linking them to each other to build productive relationships. Her time on property at Hyatt Regency Chicago, working under Jerry Lewin, and serving on the Executive Committee for 5 years, gave her a keen understanding of return on investment, and the importance of practicing PR, Social Media, Marketing and Advertising that provides real results.

Prior to Hyatt, Noreen served as the Director of Public Relations for the iconic Candlelight Dinner Playhouse/Forum Theatre, the 1025-seat dinner theater venue where she started as an usher at 14 years old, moving up to House Manager, Season Subscription Manager and eventually managing the theater’s PR. This legendary venue developed her love of live theater and the restaurant business. Hyatt made her fall in love with the electric atmosphere of hotels.

Noreen lives in Lincoln Park, just three blocks from her office. She calls her Heron team “family” and she considers her greatest work achievements the wonderful group of talent that she has assembled; the mentoring that she has done; and the creation of a day-to-day warm culture at the firm. She has taught classes on Communications at Northwestern University, DePaul University, Roosevelt University and Kendall College.

What is reputation management?  How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management is the effort to influence what and how people think of a brand or person when viewed online. Put another way, character is who you are. Reputation is whom other people think you are, and today it’s based mainly on what artificial intelligence systems portray about you rather than the first-person experience. Every company wants to be perceived as “authentic” but actually more often than not, brands are manufactured to reach a certain demographic to make a profit. A truly authentic brand always resonates. Public relations practitioners are often the gate keepers/watchdogs as to what is being said online and it involves “social listening”, watching the news, following social media platforms etc. to make sure a brand’s good name is not maligned unfairly.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online?  How could these mistakes have been avoided?

Lately, we see a lot of companies being tone deaf on current events, moving along with their own sales, promotions, initiatives when our country is hurting, seemingly oblivious. The companies that are empathetic and think past “how do we improve our bottom line” are the ones that usually do improve their bottom line!

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Hugely now, because many people use their social media as their news source. According to a Pew Research study, sixty-two percent of US adults now get news from social media sources. Reddit has the largest number of users who say they get their news on the site at 70 percent, followed by Facebook users at 66 percent and Twitter at 59 percent. When people are reading comments and perceiving it as news, it is very important to harness that process as a public relations professional managing the reputation of a company, because what you read is not always true. A brand can become maligned very unfairly and very quickly doing severe damage.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Shut down the comments section because a lot of misinformation can be spread quickly. Work with the press quickly and efficiently to get the facts out and tell your truthful story.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Attention must be paid to not only who is running the social media account for a company (remember when KitchenAid tweeted a tasteless “joke” concerning U.S. President Obama’s deceased grandmother during the presidential debate?

“Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! She died 3 days b4 he became president #nbcpolitics”

Even though the tweet was deleted minutes after, the damage was done. Twitter users and the media caught on, and the company was forced to send out a number of apologies. In general, companies should have a set policies in place regarding what is fair game, and companies should encourage their employees to help support the social media platforms of a company. Mercedes Benz has 175,000 employees. Imagine if all of them were posting pictures of the new models and the power of that from a sales perspective.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Pay attention to what the news is of the day and make sure that your agency does as well! One of the worst social media disasters came from the NRA. On the day of the Aurora, Colo. shooting, the NRA tweeted:

“Good morning, shooters. Happy Friday! Weekend plans?” Naturally, the NRA received no points for sympathy, and a critical firestorm of tweets were launched across the social platform. The tweet was taken down hours later, and a spokesperson said that “A single individual, unaware of the events in Colorado, tweeted a comment that is being completely taken out of context.”

Is reputation management getting easier or harder?  Why?

Much more challenging because people can post anything, even if it isn’t true. I think that the absolute worse platform for this is Glassdoor, where there is no gauge for truthfulness and posts are anonymous. One angry employee could post ten fake reviews and single-handedly take down the company’s score without even giving their name. Trip Advisor is similar. I once read a review for a restaurant that said, “Food wasn’t salty enough for me” and gave the restaurant one star. Now even let’s say it isn’t, another consumer might have taken to the restaurant’s salt shaker on the table and fixed the problem themselves. That one-star review really brings down the company’s overall score, and in our world, people look at the star rating quickly and don’t read some of the inane criticism.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge?  How did you handle it?

I have handled too many big crisis situations to really pick just one, but I handled a crisis for a large retail client who had one of their employees shot and killed in one of their locations by her ex-husband, whom she had filed a restraining order against. We immediately started working with the police to get them all the information that we needed, we made sure that senior leadership was physically there to emotionally support the family, we prepared statements for the press and the employees of the company, and managed calls from the press. We also recommended starting a Go Fund Me account for the family which our client seeded with a large donation.

How to Connect:

Noreen Heron Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/noreen.heron

Noreen Heron Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/noreenheron/

Noreen Heron LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noreen-heron-3a25761/

Heron Agency Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HeronAgency/

Heron Agency Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heronagency/

Heron Agency LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noreen-heron-3a25761/

Heron Agency Twitter: https://twitter.com/heronagency

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Marc Ehrhardt, President of The Ehrhardt Group.

Through his public relations career spanning more than two decades, Marc Ehrhardt has developed and implemented award-winning public affairs, corporate image, national media relations, issues management and crisis management programs in the economic development, retail, entertainment, energy, financial and manufacturing industries.

As president of The Ehrhardt Group, Marc guides the firm’s strategic direction and new business development efforts, while also providing high-level counsel to clients throughout the Gulf South and nationwide. Specifically, Marc has placed stories on behalf of his clients on NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, CNN Headline News and in The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, Dow Jones News Service, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and The New Orleans Times-Picayune.

Marc is active in the Louisiana chapter of the Entrepreneurs Organization and is an alumnus of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Program and Louisiana Economic Development’s CEO Roundtable. He has served on the board of the Press Club of New Orleans, Ursuline Academy and the Young Leadership Council in New Orleans, where he led the inaugural “One Book, One New Orleans” citywide reading and literacy awareness initiative.

Marc earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Loyola University Chicago and joined the family business after a stint at Edelman Public Relations Worldwide in Chicago.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations? 

Reputation management at its heart is about trust. How does a company or organization build, grow and develop trust with the people that are most important to that institution?

Companies can ask a great deal of their stakeholders. They ask their team to lend the company its best thinking, time and best effort every day. They ask their customers to engage with the company and receive something in return. They ask their shareholders to invest and share the company’s vision for the future.

In exchange, these most important stakeholders trust companies and organizations to operate safely and ethically, make sound financial decisions and deliver products and services that have some positive impact on the lives of their customers, whether it’s the experience of an outdoor concert or a live-saving medical treatment.

How successful a company is in this exchange of trust results in a reputation to be managed.

Building trust partially relies on an understanding of how people make decisions and take action. The role of public relations is to create, maintain, enhance and protect a company’s reputation and point of view, as if it was our own. Our work touches the people and communities most important to our clients, colleagues and fellow citizens.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

Companies can move too quickly to engage with online communities, especially in times of crisis or uncertainty. Is it better to be first or correct? The media deals with this dilemma by the hour.

We must move quickly, but we must be deliberate what we say. Many times, being deliberate, authentic and genuine requires taking a breath and looking for the best path forward, not the most traveled.

Moving quickly online just to get something “out there” is trying to be first, when companies should be looking to be correct, genuine and authentic in their message.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy? 

Especially now, when the intensity around social justice and public health is only increasing, I believe the public’s expectations of companies are becoming more intense. Companies and professionals like me need to be more aware of how issues evolve in real time and what the public expects from us.

We see these passions, debates and protests play out right in front of us through social media.

Right now, a customer or stakeholder has a much more vocal expectation of a company’s agenda for change. What will this company that I have a connection to – customer, employee, investor – do to bring about long-lasting, constructive change? As important, how will we communicate that agenda for change, listen for feedback, adjust and improve and ultimately be accountable for the change we bring about? Social media is a primary venue for this discussion to unfold.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online? 

Assess first and move deliberately. I believe it is best to be correct than to be first. It’s better to me that a company says it is gathering answers at first, rather than speculating and increasing the chances of misinformation and confusion due to time pressure from the outside.

A company has to deal with what it says. I’d rather deal from a position of accuracy and advocacy than a position of defend and unraveling the confusion.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

The level of trust between a company and its most important stakeholders shows itself during a crisis. In strong relationships between companies and employees, the team becomes the first line of communicators on the company’s behalf. They are in the community. Their friends and family identify an employee with the company.

Sometimes the public turns on a company so quickly. In those cases, employees have to remind their friends and family about the standards that the employee holds themselves to and how that projects onto the entire corporate culture.

The best advice for an employee working for a company in crisis is do not speculate…ever. During the most intense parts of a crisis or after the crisis waters have calmed, do not speculate. It only creates confusion and greater chances for complications that extend the crisis, which no one wants.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

I was reading an article recently from the Farnam Street/Knowledge Project that talked about the folly of preparing for the last crisis. Too often, we are thinking more about what happened and how to prevent it again. Most of the time in most industries, we are dealing with events that occur outside of our control, such as a global pandemic. Senior executive and companies can control their responses to those events.

As we plan for the things we can control and how we respond to the things we can’t, we should also work daily to maintain, enhance and protect our reputation and points of view. The exchange of trust that a company has with its most important audiences is needed most when a crisis hits.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Harder. Definitely harder. Our attention span on average is less than 15 seconds now. We make snap decisions and judgments based on the information we compile in less than 15 seconds. There are more venues than ever to share our opinions whenever we want. The media is splintering to focus on their own niche audiences.

Reputation is enhanced and protected in smaller, quicker steps. Taking those steps needs to happen constantly. There is no end to the reputation journey, because the trust and good will that a company may gain over decades of work and accountability can be lost so quickly in today’s information consumption environment.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

For better or worse, I have been involved in more than 200 various crisis situations during my career from natural disasters and environmental crises to high-profile legal challenges and the literal rebuilding of an American city.

We offer clients our time and ideas, two things that are intensely personal. As I have grown in experience and hopefully as a person and professional, I go into crisis situations with an eye on what’s right in that situation, more so than what is expedient.

How to Connect:

Website:  www.tegpr.com

LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/marcehrhardt

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Tina Kozak, President and Shareholder of Franco, an integrated communications agency based in Detroit.

As one of the region’s leading crisis communications strategists, Tina Kozak has earned the trust and respect of many Michigan business leaders by working alongside them to help prevent and manage a wide variety of reputation-impacting issues.

Over her nearly two decades in the public relations industry, Tina has coached, counseled and prepared organizations in the areas of reputation management, crisis communications and brand repair. In addition to crisis work, Tina provides counsel to a range of clients in the areas of communications strategy, brand development, corporate positioning and community relations.

Prior to joining Franco in 2007, Tina was corporate communications manager for auto supplier Metaldyne Corp., where she managed global programming that included public relations and events, marketing, government relations, employee communications and community relations.

Tina holds a Bachelor of Arts with a dual major in public relations and Spanish from Wayne State University. She is also a graduate of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Leadership Detroit XXXIII. Tina currently chairs the Michigan Chamber of Commerce’s Foundation board.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management starts with knowing what people think and how they feel about your brand. It’s important not to confuse your own marketing (what you want people to think) with your reputation (what they actually think). Once you understand your reputation, there are ways to track and manage it with a strategic and integrated approach to communications.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

One mistake companies make is when they operate in an echo chamber and only employ one-way marketing strategies with their audience. It’s important to listen and reflect on what stakeholders think and feel about your brand and engage them in authentic conversations.

Another mistake is using corporate jargon and not addressing the most important question to your audience – what does this mean to me?

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media is key to listening and engaging with your audiences. A solid social media strategy, including a crisis response plan, is essential. Social media channels give companies the opportunity to build and nurture a brand over time, but it only takes a few minutes for your brand to be destroyed on social. Moral of the story – have a plan!

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Engage your crisis communications plan. If your organization doesn’t already have a crisis plan, now is the time to create one. If you do have a plan, it’s the perfect time for reflection as we move through different stages of this global pandemic. Your plan should consider things like:

• Do you have a crisis communications team in place? Have you appointed primary and back-up team members, including a chief strategist, spokesperson and media liaison?
• Do you have a rapid response protocol? Have you identified a command center?
• Do your front-line communicators know how to handle unexpected media calls/visits?
• Do you maintain a contact list to ensure key stakeholders hear news from you before they see it online?

We’ve developed a great resource for building a crisis communications plan. You can find it here.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

At Franco, we describe our own work as “driven by data and powered by people.” In a crisis, your people can be your greatest assets or your most challenging adversaries. I believe wholeheartedly that an informed workforce is an empowered workforce. Before drafting and sending media statements, your crisis protocol should consider your employees. How will they be engaged at the start? How do you avoid them reading about a company crisis in the news before you’ve addressed it directly?

Employees should understand their role in a crisis, and that includes whether they should speak on behalf of the organization (typically, they shouldn’t!). But armed with the right information, they can be great ambassadors for a brand in crisis or recovery mode.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Leadership can champion a crisis communications plan before it’s needed. Build a relationship with a trusted crisis advisor and be prepared to bring that person “in” when a crisis hits (or before!). No one wants to surrender strategy to a stranger. Build these relationships in advance so when a crisis hits, you already trust an expert to guide you through it.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Reputation management is more challenging today, with anyone and everyone able to hurl opposition online. Brands are under a microscope, and one bad decision can incite an attack on your business, or even on you personally. But in many ways, this scrutiny has resulted in more authentic brands because brands can’t hide behind one-way corporate marketing and traditional PR (presented without comments) to build and maintain their reputations. It’s much more complex and requires strategy and constant attention. But when done well, this integrated communications approach results in a more authentic relationship between brands and customers.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

Goodness! There have been some tough ones, that’s for sure, and each crisis teaches you something new. I’ve experienced everything from labor strikes and manufacturing accidents to environmental issues that cause a stink (literally). But a few stand out in terms of lessons learned.

I had a CEO client who was being blackmailed by a former employee who threatened to release a distasteful video involving one of the CEO’s children. That’s a lot to process. The decision was whether to address it with his employees before the video was posted online. We weighed the pros and cons and prepared for the onslaught of questions from media, customers and other stakeholders upon the news starting to circulate. This wasn’t an easy decision, but ultimately the CEO agreed that his employees’ trust was important and being open and forthcoming was part of his values and the culture of the organization.

Another tough one was when I represented a school where a young student had been sexually assaulted. The circumstances were gut-wrenching, and the news weighed heavy on the school’s reputation, naturally. The challenge was presenting the facts while protecting the minor’s identity. The truth was the suspect had in fact worked at the school at one time but was also a relative of the child (a detail we couldn’t release to protect the child’s identity). All contact had been off school grounds. We worked closely with law enforcement to nuance some details to take the focus away from the school as a dangerous environment and help ease the fears of parents getting ready to send their children back to school. This was one was hard on so many levels, and I’ll always remember it.

How to Connect:

Instagram

Facebook

Twitter

LinkedIn

Website

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Melinda Goodman, founder of FullTilt Marketing, a boutique marketing agency she founded eight years ago. A self-proclaimed foodie, ag advocate and a storyteller, all which come by naturally and are deeply rooted in her history and her own personal story. Melinda grew up on a family ranch outside a “no stoplight” kind of small town where her mom owned the local grocery store and everybody knew you by first name. Fast food meant eating on the run in the tractor and good food started at home with Mom’s scratch cooking, three square meals and an abundance of fresh chocolate chip cookies straight out the oven, along with a few scoops of cookie dough for good measure. It was a place where doing the right thing mattered most and serving your community was always a priority.

Melinda didn’t realize at the time how small towns, gardens, plucked chickens, a rouge pig and the show steers of her history would become her direct connection to food and her future, but today it’s all part of her work at FullTilt Marketing.

Throughout her career, Melinda has worked in diverse roles including sales, marketing and new business development at commodity boards, private companies and marketing agencies. Melinda has also leveraged her creativity to conceptualize and expand brand concepts and retail promotions, overseeing the development and implementation of more than 350 new packages, dozens of trade promotions and brand awareness campaigns for a variety of clients, including national brands like Disney, Paula Deen Enterprises, The Biggest Loser and the Sneaky Chef.

Her love of people, food and agriculture is what allows her to get her hands dirty in any business, meet new people and become instant friends and busy herself with learning what makes the business of anything tick. It’s the deep appreciation for people, food and places that helps Melinda find the story for every brand.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management in its simplest form is the managed public persona of a person, brand or company. This relates to public relations as it is the managed or controlled construction of everything from press releases, media interviews, social media and all public-facing interaction with the brand, company or person.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

I think the biggest mistakes many companies make is the lack of authenticity. They work so hard to control every detail of their public image that they fail to say anything or build a relationship with their audience. Then when an issue does occur and they need to make a public statement that audience doesn’t have any reason to connect, feel compassion, believe the information or even care to be a peer support system because they have no connection to the brand at an emotional level.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Today so much of the public facing image of a company is through social media either directly or indirectly. Seventy nine percent of U.S. consumers have at least one social media profile. Consumers use social media to get news, make reviews, ask questions and research new products. In many cases social media may be the first place a consumer finds out about a brand – either good or bad. Companies should be cultivating an authentic social strategy that creates brand engagement and tells stories that have an emotional connection to the people and the products.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Of course the first thing is always to assess the damage. It’s easy to get into response mode before thinking, especially because social media happens in real-time and is immediate. But assessing the damage and level of crisis is about having information. Basic questions should be asked, for example, is it true, how widespread is the reach, what platform is it on, who posted it, what is the likelihood of viral pickup, what is the cause and effect of this content crisis and how can we manage it? Each question and its corresponding answer provide a roadmap for next steps. Not every piece of social content needs to be responded to instantaneously. Taking even a short breather to ask yourself a few questions can help you draft an appropriate response and necessary steps for proceeding, especially if the crisis is likely to grow over the course of several days or weeks before it is controlled.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

If you want your employees to help during and after a PR crisis (and do so effectively) you should already have a culture of transparency where your employees feel they are valued and trusted members of your team. If they are truly on Team Company they can be important consumer advocates in dispelling negative information, but most importantly misinformation that spreads rapidly on social media. However, employees should never be asked to speak about anything they are uncomfortable with and they should always understand how and when they should provide company information. Even best intentions can go awry if team members are not properly informed in a situation.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Senior executives should build companies based on transparent cultural values and consistently share authentic stories about their people and their brand. They should worry less about saying the “perfect” thing and spend more time saying meaningful things that people care about. If they are a company that has invested in doing the right thing from day one they will generally be better equipped to manage a PR crisis because the language will be closer at hand and from the heart rather than trying to fabricate the reputation management story that best suits the necessary narrative of the day.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Reputation management is clearly getting harder because of social media. Today more than ever before, misinformation can spread on social media like wildfire. Trolls love creating internet controversy and there is little concern to fact check information before sharing. Photoshop can make a quote, news story or tweet that never happened looked real and today’s Google will give you an answer for just about anything that verifies your own echo chamber. Lack of trust in everyone from doctors, news media and politicians makes it difficult for consumers to discern what information they should trust and often times they turn to the latest internet influencer to give them the information they are hungry for…even if that person is pedaling the same snake oil in a different package.  

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

Out of respect for our clients we opt not to share specific issues and outcomes but we’ve covered issues that include food safety, workforce safety issues, corporate social responsibility, and even organizational trust issues related to mismanagement of funds. The level of success we were able to achieve for each organization was completely dependent on the level of transparency that their management was willing to provide. There is a time to fight and there is a time to say I’m sorry and I made a mistake, but there is never a time to put your head in the sand.

How to Connect

Website: https://www.fulltiltmarketing.net/

LinkedIn:  linkedin.com/in/melinda-goodman-74042b4

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Ilissa Miller, founder and CEO, iMiller Public Relations (iMPR).

Ilissa Miller brings nearly two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and product development to her clients in an effort to help them differentiate their messages and achieve notoriety within an ever-expanding and evolving industry. With a wealth of experience and knowledge in the emerging global telecommunications and technology industries, her extensive expertise and practical skill set have allowed her to implement and spearhead and launch many companies as well as global product and marketing campaigns including that of international private line and networks, IP transit, peering, IPVPN, hosted PBX, cloud computing, Ethernet, managed services, colocation and data center products and solutions. She is a recognized leader in the global telecom and technology space where her knowledge and insights provide strategic guidance that enhance performance resulting in a remarkable reputation for effectiveness and client satisfaction.

In addition to her aforementioned role, since 2013, Mrs. Miller has also served as the President of NEDAS where she functions as the driving force for the association’s annual programs including conferences, training sessions and networking socials. A key ingredient to the Association’s success is the Advisory Council, which was formed in 2013 consisting of industry executives and thought leaders who actively interact with the highly dynamic landscape of the in-building wireless industry.

In 2012, Mrs. Miller was elected to public office as Trustee in the Village of Mamaroneck where she successfully ran for re-election in 2014. As Trustee, she sits on the Village’s Board with legislative and policy decision-makers, governing over 19,000 local residents and serving her community with steadfast dedication.

Prior to founding iMPR, Mrs. Miller was the Managing Partner at a Public Relations firm serving the telecom industry where she spearheaded the company’s growth from 2008-2011. While her current experience works ‘on’ the sector, Miller has extensive hands-on experience working ‘in’ the sector. From 2007-2008, Ilissa was the Director of Marketing Communications and Public Relations for the interconnection company, Telx; a product marketing manager for Australian incumbent carrier, Telstra, where she was responsible for the company’s International Private Line (IPL) and IPVPN/MPLS products; and also served as a channel marketing manager for Telstra where she successfully positioned it’s Asia-Pacific network solutions as a leading partner to various leading US-domestic network operators. From 2000 to 2004, Ilissa worked with Band-X, Inc. the US subsidiary of Band-X the Exchange where she held roles including Director of IP Services and Director of Business Development and Marketing. In this position, Mrs. Miller supported the global marketing efforts of all Band-X’s products including the procurement and exchange of global IPLs, colocation, and voice minutes.

Mrs. Miller holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Writing and Literature from SUNY Potsdam where she also studied voice performance at Crane School of Music.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Reputation management is the practice of ensuring your brand, messages and the sentiment associated with your brand aligns with the position the company articulates to the market.  This can be monitored and observed through digital tools such as media monitoring, job boards, company reviews, social media and more.  Ensuring your brand is perceived as you want it to be is the core purpose of reputation management, and it requires diligence, proactive communication and monitoring on a regular basis.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided? 

The biggest PR mistakes many companies make online are in their use of words and context.  In an ever-changing world, moving more rapidly by the moment, companies must stay in tune with global and local markets and stay close to what matters most.  When companies are not paying attention, you bet the market will let them know.  This could cause disruptions to day-to-day business goals. By tuning in to current events and key social considerations, companies can avoid common mistakes and be relevant when joining conversations, rather than distracting from them.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social Media is a large factor in monitoring and ensuring a positive reputation for brands.  Reiterating words and context and how important they are, social media channels allow PR firms, like iMiller Public Relations, to monitor conversations, keywords, topics and more to align corporate brands and ensure their messaging stays on point with value-added insights.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

When a company has an online crisis, the first thing they should do is identify the source.  When you identify the source and validate it (or not), you can then track the reach and implications associated to ward off further challenges.  The source could simply be misinformed, and by contacting them to correct, it could also release a domino effect of a more positive result.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Employees play a large part in a company’s PR crisis management.  Employees can support and amplify the company’s position, they can stay quiet and out of the fray or add unwanted attention by joining the conversation without prompt or a known cause.  When companies encounter a crisis situation, they should ensure their entire company is alerted with actionable, helpful information on how they can add value to the brand.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Senior executives and companies can better prepare for a PR crisis by paying close attention to those who have successfully weathered their own crisis, as well as those who have not done as well managing their own crisis. As a PR professional, I’ve learned that nearly every day a new brand crisis erupts online. These are opportunities to think hard about how we would/could/should handle the situation if we were providing sound advice to clients.  These daily observable challenges and internal exercises strengthen your ability to respond effectively.  Every day is an opportunity to learn.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Personally, I believe that reputation management is getting harder. There are so many factors that go into a negative or global crisis situation that companies must be equipped to properly manage.  With the pandemic and Black Lives Matter movements in simultaneous full swing, many emotions and personal positions drive individuals to respond and take action. Any perceived slight could cause major disruptions for a brand. This further reinforces my position that words and context matter – be thoughtful and purposeful with your brand’s message and positioning accordingly.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

Every day could be the day that our firm tackles the biggest PR or crisis communications challenge.  We have been witness to and part of a number of challenges from immediate management disruptions through unforeseen exits, to a client’s mention as an employer to an accused murderer, lack of sensitivity to current affairs and not understanding the real issues or concerns to immediate loss of life, loss of clients and more. Each situation must be considered and managed in its singular event, and pinpointing an end goal is the starting point.  As you encounter a crisis, the first question to ask is ‘what is the result we want?’ then you can make your plan on how you will get there.

How to Connect:

Website:  https://www.imillerpr.com/
LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/ilissamiller/

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Your brand is what you say about yourself. Your reputation is what other people/stakeholders think about you. Your brand should match your reputation. Reputation management is critical to a business’s success, internally and externally. A company must always be mindful to manage its reputation since it is based on others’ perceptions. Public relations are intertwined with reputation management as public relations is the discipline that tells your story and demonstrates your values to key audiences. Companies must continually control their message, tell their story, talk to all key audiences (internal and external), listen to those audiences to ensure they are being perceived as they want to be, and make adjustments as needed to effectively manage their reputation.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

Companies make many mistakes online. While they believe online is the best and most direct way to talk to their consumers, without the filter of the media, most use online as a one-way channel instead of understanding it is very much a two-way communication channel. They think online is easy – their kids can do it – so they post content without a strategy or plan to understand how to engage their online audiences. They post what they want people to hear/know, but they often don’t practice what they preach online. They almost never listen to what is being said online. All of these are huge mistakes. A company’s followers can also use that platform to control the narrative and/or hurt a reputation in a blink of an eye. And remember, things live online forever, so it’s imperative that a company and its employees are always ‘on message, on strategy’ to ensure they are protecting and reinforcing a company’s reputation.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

It’s a very important piece of the puzzle. It enables a company to be seen by and communicate with wide audiences in real time and cost effectively. But, it must be done strategically, effectively and thoughtfully. More importantly, social media should not be the only piece of the puzzle that a company implements; it should be one piece of a more comprehensive communications plan. It is most effective when integrated with other disciplines.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Move it offline immediately! The longer it stays online, the greater the damage it can inflict. Engage that person(s) and have them DM the issue and then make sure you respond to them/address it right away. People want to be heard – and if it’s not by the company, they will be happy being heard by others who are following them (or you). So the sooner you can move it offline, the more you will be protecting your reputation.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Employees are a company’s best brand ambassadors and messengers. They can help communicate what you do, why you are doing it, your company’s success in weathering the crisis, etc., with one caveat – they must understand it and be invested in it and in the company’s reputation and success. That means companies must put employees central in their communications plans (both regular ongoing communications and crisis communications plans). Share the information with them, explain to them first (not last) what you are planning/doing and why, tell them how they can help, listen to their concerns, and act upon them. Leaving employees out of the loop will disenfranchise this key audience and will ultimately harm a company’s reputation.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! It’s too late to start thinking of how to handle a crisis when the crisis has hit or is imminent. You must plan far in advance. We work with clients to identify every scenario that could trigger a crisis (interruption of ‘business as usual’) and then create a plan on how to handle it and communicate the facts about the crisis, how the company is addressing the situation now and to ensure it won’t happen again, and pre-writing all the communications for it. But, planning is not enough. We make them PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE it – how they will get the information verified, communicate it, what platforms they will use, who will speak and how, answering the tough questions, etc.  The most effective crisis communications communicates that the company is in control and has steady, smart, thoughtful leadership, and a solid plan.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Today everyone has a platform to be heard; everyone wants to be heard immediately and everyone is interconnected (we all know our six degrees of separation on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Everyone has an opinion and it’s easier than ever for people to use that opinion for their own good/validation/attention-seeking above all else. We are also a very cynical society today, so we judge every statement made and look to find mistakes / inconsistencies / problems, so we can highlight them to harm the messenger and elevate our own status. Reputation management is much more challenging than ever before, but it is certainly doable and doable successfully.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

So many.  As a general rule, the hardest challenge is always to get clients to understand they need to tell the truth and the whole truth immediately, not parcel out tidbits of information slowly which allows others to fill in the blanks and/or perceive the company is not telling the whole truth. Transparency, honesty, humility, compassion, and timeliness are key elements of successful crisis communications.

One situation that comes to mind was when I handled the communications during the Writers Guild strike. Thousands of TV and film writers were striking against the media companies that own the broadcast and print media we wanted to tell the writers’ story in. We developed a two-pronged approach – one was to use humor and the Writers Guild East was among the first to use YouTube and blogs/social channels to tell the story.  But, the second was to address head-on the perception that all writers were rich and successful and therefore greedy to be striking for more money.  I had to convince the Guild to be transparent and not be afraid to publicly say that at any given time half of all Guild writers were unemployed looking for their next gig and that the average writer made only a five-figure income.  Being about to share that truth and letting the media talk to any writer on a picket line (not just the cherry-picked high-profile ones) demonstrated the Guild was being honest and transparent, and their strike requests that writers get a reasonable percentage of revenue from the works they wrote was valid. Media responded favorably and did stories with balanced messaging, even media owned by the companies being struck.  We were able to turn public sentiment to the writers, even though the strike had taken their favorite TV shows and movies off their screens. It was the basis for the 100-day strike’s media strategy, for which I proudly won a Silver Anvil Award for Crisis Communications.

 How to Connect:

Website: www.goldmanpr.net
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sherrygoldman

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Risa Hoag, founder of GMG Public Relations.

Risa has more than 30 years of experience in public relations and marketing. Prior to founding GMG Public Relations in 1991, she was a Director of Public Relations with Ernst & Young with responsibility for media placement, writing feature articles and press releases, developing and coordinating special events, market research, and the design and placement of advertising.

Risa has been active with numerous not-for-profit organizations. She is a co-founder and the current Vice President of the Greater Nanuet Chamber of Commerce. She serves as President for the Rockland Business Women’s Network (RBWN) and is a board member for Meals on Wheels in Rockland and created and co-chairs their annual gala titled Cornucopia. Risa was selected to be a mentor to female students through The Gerald P. Buccino Center for Leadership Development at Seton Hall University’s Stillman School of Business. She has held numerous board positions with the Westchester Association of Women Business Owners (WAWBO) over a fifteen-year period including President and twice received the organization’s President’s Award. She has also served as Vice President for the WAWBO Education Fund and for the Partnership For A Better Westchester, an organization she helped launch in 1997. She is a past Public Relations Chairperson for the Advertising Club of Westchester as well as a past Vice President of the Tappan Zee International Trade Association. She has served on the board of the Orange & Rockland Community Investment Committee and the Hudson Valley Visiting Pet Program where she did animal-assisted therapy work with her dog Annie, visiting nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and schools where she worked with children helping them learn to read.

Risa is a member of the Public Relations Society of America and a recognized seminar leader, presenting numerous public relations, marketing, and social media workshops. An accomplished business writer and source, Risa has appeared on several radio and television programs and has been quoted and featured in numerous national and local publications. She is the creator and co-host of a show titled The Bigger Picture which highlights Rockland’s hardworking entrepreneurs who find time to give back to the community. She is a member of the 2018 Class of Leadership Rockland and was the recipient of the RBWN Service Woman of the Year Award in 2017. She has also been honored with the 2019 Lillian Vernon Award for Community Service from the Women’s Enterprise Development Center and she received a 2019 Distinguished Service Award from the County of Rockland for her dedication and support of businesses and nonprofit organizations.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Jeff Bezos purportedly said, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.” I would suggest that you think of your brand and your reputation as one and the same.

Some people think of “branding” or your brand, as your logo, the colors of your website, your iconography, etc. But it is, and should be, way more than that. Your brand is also your reputation. And your reputation is based on everything you do as a company. It is something to be established, built, protected, maintained, and enhanced. And that process happens through public relations as well as everything you project to the public as a company, planned and unplanned.

Your reputation consists of the information you disseminate, the customer service you provide both in person, online, via phone, email, etc. and your company’s ability to react quickly and positively to requests for support. And it is judged on quality, swiftness, and professionalism, both verbally and visually.

Reputations aren’t built in a day, but they can be destroyed overnight. Therefore, a company’s reputation should be carefully maintained, protected, and strengthened. Most companies will go through a crisis of some sort at one time or another and the quality and the strength of your reputation could determine the swiftness with which the company recovers.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

First, everyone must be on the same page. And I really mean everyone. From the person or people who answer the phone (and perhaps those people more than anyone) as well as everyone in between and all the way up the line to management, must adhere to the same messaging and principles that the company stands for. Any deviation or crack is a threat to the reputation of the company.

Some of the biggest online mistakes include being tone-deaf to what else is going on in the world or in an industry. If your responses are automated and your emails are pushed out without someone monitoring the process, you risk offending people. This was very true during the pandemic when companies (big and small) found themselves pushing out traditional sales messages at a time when people were suffering from illness and out of work. Someone needs to carefully oversee the automation process and take over if appropriate to say, “this is inappropriate right now, let’s pivot.”

Having someone in charge of your brand voice and therefore your reputation who didn’t get the memo which told them what words to use and what not to use, and having employees who aren’t informed about what not to say, are all a direct threat to the company’s reputation.

There must be a document or a guideline that explains to every employee and even to vendors, what your company stands for and how individuals should respond to anything they may see online. As we know, individual employee responses can now become global news in an instant, therefore be sure to:

• Carefully craft companywide guidelines and/or statements that are distributed to everyone
• Ensure that those guidelines are crafted by people directly involved with the public and directly involved with any issue at hand, not just attorneys or PR people
• Remember that straight-forward transparent communication is key to success

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media is now a critical component of every company’s reputation management and should be built into the strategy.

Again, it should be communicated throughout the company what can and should be said online and what shouldn’t. What can be posted and what cannot. Social media gives us an extremely effective tool that we can use to build up our business or tear it down in an instant. It is a double edge sword to be carefully implemented. When preparing the previously mentioned company guidelines, be sure to include how each social media platform can and should (and shouldn’t be used).

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

A company crisis policy should be developed ahead of any actual crisis. That means convening a crisis task force before you need one. Who should be at that table? Attorneys, PR professionals, management team, front line employees, HR, IT, consumers, customers, vendors, industry experts/consultants…. There should be a deep and thorough thought process that has gone on ahead of a crisis. While we can’t plan for every challenge, we can have a plan in place that at least acts as a blueprint should one arise and can be enacted when needed. Waiting until after there’s a crisis could make for hastier decisions not always in the best interest of the company.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Wait for guidelines to be issued from management and for a company’s statement to be released, then share that statement if appropriate. While it might seem obvious, employees should be instructed not to comment to the media. Depending upon the severity of the crisis and the nature of it, the media could station themselves outside of a work location in the hopes of speaking with someone as they leave or enter a building. Be sure that everyone knows that it is inappropriate to comment. That includes texting, speaking with media over the phone, and especially commenting online. The task force or appropriate individual should release guidelines within 24 hours so that everyone is on the same page.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

As mentioned, convening a crisis task force and meeting ahead of time, perhaps monthly or quarterly, and discussing potential issues, is one way to address in advance any issues that might arise and have your team better prepared should an issue arise that you didn’t anticipate. Have a preliminary plan in place that addresses steps to take in the event of a crisis and make sure everyone has read it and discussed it and that you have answered any outstanding questions. Fill it in as you go with any new or updated information, and at the very least, update it every six months. Don’t forget to acclimate new employees to the company messaging and guidelines.

Another great strategy is to read and research other companies in your industry; what issues did they face; what did they get right? What did they get wrong? Learn from their mistakes and from their wins.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

In some ways it is easier. Companies of all sizes have the ability to quickly respond to basic questions and complicated issues in a broader way and have others share that messaging both inside and outside the company. They also have the ability to reinforce that messaging on a daily basis and to many different audiences. The trick is ensuring that your messaging is consistent across platforms and that everyone is on the same page regardless of the interaction they have with the public. Don’t underestimate the significance of speaking with your entire staff, even if it is only one other person, to make sure that everyone understands the company’s priorities and messaging. Of course, reputation management can be very difficult if you have people bent on bringing you down as they also have access to a wider audience to share their negative information, true or not. Therefore, ensuring that your foundation is strong can help you weather a storm whether it was created by the company or by outside influences.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

The biggest PR crisis we have dealt with was when one of our clients was put in a difficult position that ended up offending parents of children with a specific illness. As with most situations, there were two sides to the story, but as you know, it is all about perception. And in this case, the perception was that they did the wrong thing and it was nearly disastrous for them. The parents quickly rallied, hired an attorney, and turned to social media to share their bad experience. Overnight the company, which took great pride in not only providing a wonderful experience for kids and families, but also supporting numerous nonprofit organizations over the years, found itself at the center of difficulty controversy. We worked with one of our partners to gather the parties together, talk it out, find common ground, and come to a good conclusion where everyone benefited, but without question, it would have closed a business with lesser resources. Their reputation went from being the most fun place for kids in the area to a place that was labeled as ‘anti special needs’ – disastrous. All parties learned a great deal from the situation, not the least of which was that regardless of what you stand for, what you have built, and what your company ‘norms’ are, your reputation can be negatively impacted, temporarily or permanently, by one incident. So, planning ahead, communicating to all, and quickly responding to negative circumstances, can save that precious reputation that has taken years to build. Guard it carefully.

How to Connect:

Website:  www.gmgpr.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/risahoag/

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Bob Hope, president and co-founder of Hope-Beckham in Atlanta, is a 40-year veteran of the public relations and event marketing industry and one of the most experienced public relations counselors in the country.

His extensive background includes public relations director for the Atlanta Braves when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record; vice president of both the Braves and the Atlanta Hawks teams, while also handling Ted Turner’s personal publicity; executive vice president with the global public relations firm, Burson-Marsteller, working with high profile products, companies and individuals, including: Wayne Huizenga, Fred Smith, Roberto Goizueta and Charlie Loudermilk, The Coca-Cola Company, Turner Broadcasting, Federal Express and General Electric.
Active in the Atlanta community, Bob is a director of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, Covenant House of Georgia, the Georgia Global Health Alliance, Wesley Woods Foundation and is co-chair of the advisory board of the Celebration Bowl. He is a member of the Investigative Committee of the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. Bob is a member and program chair of the Rotary Club of Atlanta and was selected District Rotarian of the Year for 2012. He is a founder of HAVE Foundation, which builds and maintains schools in rural Honduras. His is the chief executive officer of Atlanta Peace Inc., working to bring the Nobel Peace Summit and the Nobel Peace laureates to Atlanta. He is on the board of councilors for the Carter Center and has represented the Carter Center twice as an international election observer in Nepal. He was recently honored as Father of the Year by the American Diabetes Association.

Bob received the George Goodwin Award from the Public Relations Society of America, the President’s Award from the Women’s Sports Foundation, twice named Director of the Year for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and has been the recipient of the International Service Award, the Hospitality Award, the Ivan Allen Club Service Award and the Community Leadership Award by Rotary Club of Atlanta – the only Rotarian to receive all four awards. He also received Rotary International’s highest honor, the Service Above Self Award. Bob received the 2018 Archie Crenshaw Impact Award for Christian Service by HOI. He was a 2015 inductee into the Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame and the only communications professional selected. He is also a 2015 recipient of the Richard Stormont Award for promoting the city of Atlanta internationally.

The Atlanta Business Chronicle named him one of the 100 Most Influential Business Leaders in Atlanta in 2015, as Atlanta’s Most Admired CEO in 2017, and he was recently inducted into the Atlanta Hospitality Hall of Fame. Atlanta Magazine lists him as Legend on its list of the 500 Most Powerful Atlantans.

Bob received a B.A. in journalism from Georgia State University. He has written two books: “We Could Have Finished Last Without You” about his early years with the Braves and “Greater Late Than Never” about people who achieve success after age 50.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations?

Companies are like people: they are known for what they do and how they do it. Companies have a personality, a certain approach and style, and identifiable characteristics. Reputation management is defining what they do and their way doing it, while staying within their code of ethics. Public relations links who they are to what they do through storytelling. Public relations explains and exemplifies a company’s approach in line with its reputation. You cannot have one, without the other.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided?

There was a time not so long ago when there were only three major TV networks and mainstream daily newspapers in big cities. Those were the pipelines of news flow.  If those pipelines were managed well, keeping stories accurate, fair and consistent could be easily managed. Now, everyone has a pipeline; anyone with a computer or cell phone can distribute news, or in some cases, phony news. It is impossible to control the flow of what is posted on social media, whether it be real or inaccurate. The greatest problem is when inaccurate information is shared. Companies need to ensure the content that is shared online is consistent and accurate.  Standards must be set, an approval mechanism must be in place, and news flow must be orchestrated. The only way to prevent misinformation is to have a system in place that monitors and fact checks all content before it goes out.

Companies, and individuals for that matter, need to keep in mind that once something is posted online, it is out there for the world to see. You can no longer delete a story or a tweet without it being noticed. Companies must evaluate what they are sharing and posting to make sure it is sensitive and appropriate. The last thing companies want to do is put something out there that is divisive and controversial. This will only lead to more problems. Companies need to have standards and review online content, keeping in mind all angles individuals may view the information, and ask themselves if the content is in line with the company mission and reputation.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Social media visually reflects a company. This can be a tool to help shape the company’s reputation by sharing its personality, mission and core values. Today, social media is as much of a news pipeline as newspapers or television. Content must be consistent through all channels of communication. The same content your company would share on other outlets, must be appropriately modified for your social media channels. Social media is a public relations tool where a company can exemplify its style and unique characteristics for the world to see.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Until a company has figured out a plan of action to correct the crisis, the first thing a company should do is remove the post that caused the crisis. Once the post is removed, the company must quickly come together to address the crisis. Whether the plan of action includes addressing the crisis in a statement of apology, responding to those reacting to the crisis, or making a statement of correction, the company must be ready to quickly and efficiently address why the post was removed.

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis? 

Employees are assets in many ways. There was a steel mill that once used the theme, “Steel is our product, but people are our strength.” That is true in many ways.  Employees are important voices internally as well as externally in communities where they work and live. Employees are the trusted voices who represent the company wherever they are. As part of the company, employees deserve to know the entire picture of what is going on. It is important that employees be aware of the crisis, of what the company is doing to respond and how they as employees should respond to any mention or question of the crisis. They have the ability to speak out on behalf of the company, so they must be provided a clear, consistent and truthful message regarding the crisis. There is no point in telling the media one story, and not sharing the full truth with the employees—that will only lead to a larger crisis. The key is to have one unified and truthful message across the board.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

When preparing for a crisis, senior executives need to have a general crisis plan in place. There are two things executives can do: ensure general crisis messaging has great clarity and is simple for everyone to understand, and to ensure there is a response mechanism in place so they may quickly respond to the crisis. Senior executives can brainstorm general crises and general responses, so they may be tailored quickly for use when needed.

Senior executives have the easy part in responding to crisis, but they seldom do it well.  First, they need to accept there is a crisis and be contrite in accepting whatever responsibility they might have for creating it. That sounds obvious, but a lot of denial can be present when bad things happen. Second, they need to assess the degree and scope of the crisis. Third, they need to determine one point of contact that assures all information is accurate and consistent.  Fourth, they need to be forthcoming, accessible and tell the truth. Honesty is always the best policy. Fifth, keep communication simple and to the point. Do not create more questions by saying too much. Finally, they need to use their moral compass. Doing the right thing is the only good option.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Reputation management is becoming more difficult. Every disgruntled employee or customer has access to voicing complaints on social media or by contacting reporters.  It is hard for a news reporter to keep from being influenced by angry employees sending out a volley of accusations when a company makes an announcement. Social media is a marvelous tool, but the underbelly of social media is that unsubstantiated claims of misconduct can be so steadily communicated. When media is so easily accessible to everyone, everyone has a say, and it can be even more difficult to manage and navigate all of the voices.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it?

I have been around a long, long time and have been involved in almost every kind of crisis you could describe. To say I have been in the middle of the most famous crises is like Maxwell Smart saying he is the world’s most famous secret agent. If I was so good, why were the crises so famous? However, I will mention a couple of famous crises I have experienced over the years.

In October of 2001, it was revealed Enron, one of America’s largest companies, was committing accounting fraud and was involved in corporate corruption. Senior executives would face jailtime for their actions. I was one of eight PR practitioners from around the country on the initial Enron call.  For some background, I am historically prone to downplay any crisis, saying there is much less of a chance that people outside a company will be as upset as the people inside who feel they are under siege. In this case, it was different. After all of the practitioners listened to the call intently, everyone was asked how they felt about the problem. I was next to last. Each before me said the scandal would not be a big problem, and I was about to burst at the seams. When it was my time, I blurted out, “Somebody’s going to jail.”

I noted I knew a crisis when I saw one, and this was a CRISIS. I was told I was being alarmist, but luckily, the last practitioner to respond after me was Joe Lockhart, the former White House press secretary. He said, “I know what a crisis looks like. Bob is right.” To this day, I have never met Joe Lockhart, but am thankful for him.

In one conversation, they wanted to tell the media “shredding documents” was common practice. Our advice was two words not to volunteer to the media are “shredding documents.” It would pour fuel on the fire. The Enron scandal turned out to be a lesson in senior management denial.

Another example was the reveal of the new Coca-Cola recipe. I was summoned to the “bunker” on a Saturday morning to be made privy to the upcoming announcement of the “biggest marketing story in history.” When I was told Coca-Cola was changing its formula my response was, “You’re going to get your socks blown off.” However, I was shown extensive research proving me wrong, and I bought into it like everyone else involved.  And, of course, they did get their socks blown off.

The official announcement was made in New York and not Atlanta. When local Atlanta shareholders complained, I was then assigned to create a giant event in downtown Atlanta. In just three days I would need to create an event that looked like it had been planned for six months. So naturally, I rerouted two circuses to Atlanta, and we created the “Step Right Up for the Greatest New Taste on Earth” outdoor circus to toast new Coke to Atlanta’s civic elite. We set up a green room for executives, and I was calling role when the CEO of The Coca-Cola Company asked me when he would go on stage to toast new Coke. I sent a trusted assistant to check with the emcee, and he came back and reported, “You are on right after the elephants and the human cannon,” which he was.

Later, I was called to a meeting to discuss an important matter on the same project. When new Coke was released, it was hoped the CEO would not be subjected to the backlash of new Coke and unrest would die down. However, it had been learned that the CEO listened to a particular country music radio station, WPLO, in the morning on the way to work and in the afternoons on the way home. Our assignment was to ensure only good news was reported about new Coke on WPLO, regardless of what it took to get that done.

As things continued to get worse, a secret meeting was held in New York. The assignment was to find a solution, to come up with the idea that would turn the tide and make new Coke a success. We were there a week and whenever we would say there was nothing that would work, we were told that was not an option. What we did not know was that there was another secret meeting across town determining how best to bring back the original formulation of Coca-Cola, labeled Coca-Cola Classic.

The new Coke crisis did not put lives at risk, but it did not do much good for a few careers. It was an interesting journey, and one I will never forget.

How to Connect:

Website:  https://www.hopebeckham.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-hope-4216454/

We are very excited to continue our public relations and crisis communications expert interview series with Scott Baradell, founder and CEO of Idea Grove, one of the top 25 technology PR firms in the United States. For more than 15 years, Scott has been a thought leader on the future of public relations. He created one of the original PR blogs, Media Orchard, which at one time had a larger audience than PRWeek. His focus in recent years has been on growing his agency by helping his technology clients grow.

In 2020, Scott began writing Trust Signals: The New PR, outlining a new framework for the practice of public relations, to be published by LionCrest in 2021. Put simply, “trust signals” are evidence points, from media coverage and online reviews to website “trust badges,” that make people believe in your brand. This site shares a new framework for PR centered on building and promoting trust. Scott has an Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the PRSA and speaks on PR and marketing topics at industry events nationwide.

What is reputation management? How does it relate to public relations? Reputation management is PR playing defense. When PR is on offense, it is working to get you attention and build your reputation. But as you build it, you also have to manage and protect it – such as when a crisis hits or customers are leaving bad reviews on review sites.

What are the biggest PR mistakes you see companies make online? How could these mistakes have been avoided? Companies don’t do enough to earn trust online; they take their credibility for granted. If you met someone in person for the first time, you would make an effort to build rapport. Too many companies don’t do this; they come off as stiff and salesy rather than helpful and authentic.

How does social media factor into your reputation management strategy?

Review sites are social media that send very important trust signals. People want to know what your customers and employees think about you and they find that information in Google, Glassdoor, and other reviews. Putting in place a proactive program to encourage positive reviews and reduce negative reviews is a key component of a reputation management strategy.

What is the first thing a company should do when there is a crisis online?

Find out what’s going on so you can gather yourself and tell the truth. Don’t feel pressured to leap to conclusions. Until you know the facts, it’s better to say, “I don’t know” or “We are looking into this and will get you answers as soon as possible.”

What can employees do to help their company during and after a PR crisis?

Don’t freak out. Wait for the facts and then stand by your company. Your company needs you most during times of crisis.

What can senior executives and companies do to better prepare for a PR crisis?

Be prepared to be spontaneous and roll with the punches. I’ve been doing crisis communications for a long time; I’ve managed responses to workplace shootings, salacious lawsuits, and everything in between. What I see too often in executives is a lot of huddling and conferring. That may make the lawyers happy, but it makes it less likely the public will believe you.

Is reputation management getting easier or harder? Why?

Definitely harder. It’s a 24-hour news cycle, and it’s much more difficult to fight against misinformation. Rumors and conspiracy theories take on a life of their own. Look at the ridiculous Wayfair conspiracy theory trying to connect the company to child trafficking, for example. In an earlier era, it wouldn’t have seen the light of day. Now it’s all over social media and Wayfair has to put out statements to try to tamp down these baseless accusations.

What has been your biggest PR or crisis communications challenge? How did you handle it? I

was the face of the wireless messaging industry for two days when almost everyone in the country lost service because of a satellite outage – millions of peoples’ lives were disrupted, including healthcare workers, law enforcement, and first responders. I handled it with vulnerability and honesty; frankly, I don’t know if I even looked at our official crisis plan. Preparing is good, but caring is better.