Linking announcements to current trends or events in the news can be an effective way to attract the attention of the media and generate positive publicity.A case in point: There is growing interest among the public, local governments, and the business community in abandoning or prohibiting plastic straws that are harmful to the environment and encouraging the use of eco-friendly paper alternatives.Hoffmaster Group, Inc. capitalized on these concerns in a news release about their…

Below is an opinion piece by Edward Segal that was published in The Washington Post on November 25, 2018 about the natural gas leak problem in Washington DC. The article is also online at this link.Washington Gas Tight-Lipped about Leaks By Edward SegalWhy doesn’t Washington Gas want us to know about potential dangers to our safety that may be buried under our streets?Although there have been dozens of natural gas leaks in my Georgetown neighborhood since 2016, the utility…

It’s no longer a matter of if companies will face a crisis, but when they will, where it will happen, and how they will respond. But millions of organizations do not have the knowledge, skills, or resources to face or recover from a crisis; millions more do not have a crisis plan in place or, even if they do, have not tested it to see how it would hold up in the real world.Increased Public ScrutinyBusinesses are under public scrutiny as never before. Author Andrew Winston, writing…

Here’s another look at the good, bad, and ugly ways companies have managed a crisis and the lessons to be learned from how they reacted to, handled, and communicated about the incidents. By keeping these lessons in mind, you can help ensure that there will be no reason for others to learn from your mistakes when your company is in the harsh glare of the public spotlight. Twitter     The Atlantic reported that “Twitter permanently banned Alex Jones, after the…

If you’re like most people, you’d rather learn from the failures of others than have people learn from your mistakes. That’s especially true when it comes to crisis management. There are plenty of examples of how organizations have stumbled or simply fell flat on their face when they found themselves in the public spotlight for all the wrong reasons. But there are some good examples to emulate. Here’s a look at both the good and bad examples, along with my observations about the…