Dealing With Media

The Digital Media Law Project

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on May 15, 2012

[Editor's note:  We're pleased to bring you this description of the Digital Media Law Project, written by Jeff Hermes, its director.  We're sure you'll see the relevance to the field of crisis management.] Providing Legal Resources to Online Journalism Although some sectors of the journalism industry have recently shown signs of recovery, the future of [...]

Listening for a Crisis

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 30, 2012

[Editors' Note: We're pleased to bring you this guest blog post by Bernstein Crisis Management contractor Chris Syme, excerpted from her new book.] Keep your ear to the ground, and catch crises early One of the best ways to avert a crisis is to see one coming and be proactive. Savvy crisis managers monitor online [...]

You Know What You’re Talking About…Right?

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on April 8, 2012

Convince the audience that you’re right Wimpy words modify or water down your conviction and in the end your position. When you pepper a conversation with “hopefully,” “perhaps,” “I feel,” “kind of” and “sort of,” the message you convey is a lack of confidence. Use power words such as “I’m confident that,” “my track record [...]

Ryan Braun: Victim or Villain?

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on February 27, 2012

The following is a guest post from frequent contributor Rick Kelley, director of crisis communications for Triad Strategies. Ryan Braun: Victim or Villain? To many who have listened to the sports pundits hammering major league baseball player Ryan Braun for winning an appeal of his 50-game suspension “on a technicality” after failing a drug test [...]

Social Media and You

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on February 21, 2012

More than ever, your reputation relies on social media At a time when 89 percent of consumers say they find online channels trustworthy sources for product and service reviews, new Cone research reveals four-out-of-five consumers have changed their minds about a recommended purchase based solely on negative information they found online. This is up from [...]

Can Apologies Be Funny?

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on January 11, 2012

Going against convention boosts J&J’s brand reputation Apologies are supposed to be serious. If you’re joking, then you don’t really mean it, right? Johnson & Johnson, whose handling of the infamous 1982 Tylenol tampering murders and ensuing crisis management still stands as a “how-to” case study today, begs to differ, and did so in style [...]

Don’t Let Reputation Damage Become Disaster

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on January 4, 2012

You can’t cover up, so just come clean Crisis management can be like presidential politics: If you don’t set the record straight immediately and honestly, you can be out of the running in a flash. Perception quickly becomes reality and the negative consequences snowball. Case in point: Herman Cain. By failing to address allegations of [...]

GM’s Crisis Management

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on December 5, 2011

High marks for the automaker’s crisis management Late last month, General Motors sparked comparisons to Toyota’s recent troubles when it announced that small electrical fires had occurred in some Chevy Volts during the course of testing. Unlike Toyota, however, GM quickly got out in front of the story, as described in this quote from an [...]

Reputation Combat

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on November 7, 2011

Protect your good name Whether you know it or not, people are talking about your company. Thanks to the Web, customers, potential customers, stakeholders, and even reporters are communicating their thoughts and opinions about you. This is great while things are going well, but make a misstep and you’ll find the conversation quickly takes a [...]

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Real Crisis Management

By Jonathan & Erik Bernstein on October 26, 2011

Fictional story stirs discussion “Margin Call” is a new film that aims to recreate the rapid fire nature of today’s crisis management. While it misses the mark in terms of reality, especially in the ethics department, it does open up avenues for discussion of real world crisis management. Forbes business writer Coeli Carr took this [...]

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