Reputation

The PR world lost an icon when David Finn passed, aged 100. Finn made it more difficult to discern if PR is more art than science.

Like many social media platforms, Facebook is no stranger to reputation crises. How Facebook and other companies have managed them offers lessons in how to (and not to) address stakeholder concerns and shore up reputation when the proverbial excrement has collided with the rotating blades.

While fans, management and owners of the second-highest-rated syndicated game show knew Trebek’s time was short, his off-the-charts ability to live and work for months with pancreatic cancer might have provided a false sense of security. That’s one way to explain a series of fumbles and flip-flops, including one last week, to name Trebek’s permanent successor.

While a few crises never seem to end, often with good reason, companies and organizations eventually need to return to relatively normal footing. That’s when a priority for communicators is helping regain external and internal trust.

Shaffra Gray-Read, senior reputation manager for KFC (UK & Ireland), talked with PRNEWS about her interest in diversity & inclusion as well as her penchant for using data.

At PRSA, September is Ethics Month, a time when we specifically focus on and celebrate our Code of Ethics, which is at the heart of what we believe in as communicators as well as how we practice our craft every day.

To some outsiders, PR means little else but dealing with crisis. While PR pros know this is not so, sometimes it can seem that way. And a surge of crisis work is coming from a… Continued

We’re living in a time of company callouts. Companies are speaking more frequently on social and political issues because some customers want to purchase from, and partner with, businesses that take stands. Yet one wrong move and social media will blast a company for statements perceived as clueless or hypocritical.

Veteran sports PR pro Arthur Solomon believes Olympics sponsors are vulnerable. In response, they should prepare PR plans that position them as tolerant of peaceful protests.

It seems inevitable that prices for raw materials, labor and other fees will rise as the pandemic recedes. Consumers usually bear the pain of such price increases. Companies can either hide the fact that consumer/customer prices will rise or discuss it openly. There are a few ways communicators can try to ease the pain in these unpleasant situations.