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PR Tips: Is it ever appropriate for an executive to give their opinion about politics?

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Earlier this week we asked a question to our social media followers. To help out our PR community and in order to share valuable tips among one another, this week’s media relations question was, “Is it ever appropriate for an executive to give their opinion about politics?”

Our social media followers weighed in on this topic and we are now sharing some of their answers in this video! Please join in on the conversation and let us know if you agree with their comments. Do you think that when executives comment publicly about politics that they are guaranteed to lose some of their customer base? Do you think it is too risky? How does it affect their brand, reputation, and revenue? As public relations professionals, and corporate communications professionals, how do you talk to your executives about this matter? Do you review guidelines in regards to their media interview or social media behavior?

We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

PR Question: Is it ever appropriate for an executive to give their opinion about politics?

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Do executives run the risk of losing some of their customer base by publicly commenting about politics? Is there a time and place that executives should comment about politics? If they choose to do so, how does it affect their brand, reputation, and revenue? As public relations professionals, and corporate communications professionals, how do you talk to your executives about this matter? Do you review guidelines in regards to their social media behavior?

To help out our PR community and in order to share valuable tips among one another, this week’s public relations question is, “Is it ever appropriate for an executive to give their opinion about politics?”

We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

Public Relations Question: What’s the Best Piece of PR Advice You Were Ever Given?

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PR advice can come from industry professionals, online articles such as PRnews or PR Newswire, or it may come from your former or current educators. PR tips can be spread across social media from consultants and crisis management professionals. So, how do you sort through all of the daily influx of information? What is that one tip that was the most memorable and most impactful on your career?

To help out our corporate communications professionals, and our public relations community, this week’s PR discussion question is, “What’s the best piece of public relations advice you were ever given?”

We would love to hear your thoughts this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

Crisis Communication Question: What’s the worst phrase you’ve heard in a crisis communications statement?

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We have all heard some CEOs and corporate spokespeople deliver ineffective crisis communications statements. Whether the public statement was written for them or they decided to “wing it,” the cliches, the lack of emotion, and the scripted delivery will forever negatively affect their organization’s reputation and revenue. You may have even seen some written apologies, or multiple public written apologies such as in the crisis scenario of United Airlines just last week. You can find crisis communications lessons from that PR nightmare here.

To help out our corporate communications professionals, and our public relations community avoid worsening their crisis through ineffective media interviews and public statements, this week’s PR discussion question is, “What’s the worst phrase you’ve heard in a crisis communications statement?”

We would love to hear your thoughts this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

Stop Unselling: Crisis Communications Tip for United Airlines

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united3By Gerard Braud

Are you constantly amazed by how companies unsell you as a customer? Think about the millions of dollars spent and hours invested trying to get you to buy. Then in a heartbeat, they unsell you. When will companies learn to Stop Unselling?

United Airlines had done just that with the video of the doctor being dragged off of an overbooked flight. The impact is compounded by the recent news story about passengers who were denied boarding because they were wearing leggings. That’s two strikes United.

Just for fun, do a Google search for United Airlines and witness how the negative news stories have pushed the airline’s own SEO optimized site out of first place.

united

Then peek at Twitter, to see the field day of negative comments from people who are actively being unsold by United.

united2

The one piece of expert crisis communications advice every company should know is that if your rules favor the company more than they favor the customer, you will eventually unsell your customers.

The incident happened Sunday and began making the news Monday. By the Tuesday news cycle less than 48 hours after the incident, Marketwire reports a 6% fall in the company’s stock, wiping out $1.4 billion dollars in market cap. Even more frightening than the financial loss is that we have to even wonder if that matters to a company with a $22 billion dollar cap? Will they even care?

Will you fly United again? How many people since seeing this video have made a conscious effort to not fly United and are buying their tickets on any other airline?

United has been on my do not fly list for more than ten years after one of their red-coated gate managers removed me, my wife, and two daughters from a flight to Belize, ruining our summer vacation and never compensating us. United repeatedly gave us flawed information about our travel documents before and during the trip. Finally seconds before the door closed we were told to remove our bags and exit the flight. I solved my problem with a single phone call to customs agents in Belize who gave us the green light to fly. It was something United could have done, but didn’t.

United unsold me. On an annual basis, I spend about $50,000 for airline tickets and most of it is spent with Southwest Airlines. Not only has United unsold me, but so has Delta and American because of various acts in which they treated me like a second-class citizen by putting their interests and rules above my rights as a customer.

I’m not sure if we will be able to measure how many passengers right now are selecting flights on other airlines because they saw the video of the doctor being dragged down the aisle.

My fear is that there are actuaries in companies like United who will say that the stock drop and the loss of ticket sales are within the acceptable spectrum of doing business.

Relative Ad Value

In public relations, experts love to measure the relative ad value of positive news. It is based on the idea that your time in a news story is worth three times the value of you having bought an ad in that same media. I can’t wait for an expert to run the data and tell us the negative, unselling effect of this news story.

And what about social media and the comment sections on web-based news sites? What is the negative ad value of that?

Stop Unselling

The bottom line is that corporations make stupid decisions every day. United Airlines is the poster child today.

Dear United Airlines,

Stop Unselling.

Sincerely,

Your former passenger Gerard Braud

 

 

Crisis communications expert Gerard Braud, CSP, IEC has been the go-to expert for organizations on five continents for nearly 25 years. He shares his passion for effective communications through his keynote speeches at conferences and conventions, as well as by helping organizations write an effective crisis communications plan. Additionally, he media trains spokespeople around the world. Braud began his career in journalism in 1979. During his 15 year career on television, you may have seen him on CNN, NBC, CBS, The BBC or The Weather Channel. In 1994 he left television to venture out into the world of public relations. This video will help you get to know him better.

Recent Articles:

What’s the Best Way to Get to Know Your Local Reporters?

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It is crucial for your business, company, or organization to have effective media relations with local reporters. When you are facing a crisis, local reporters will be responsible for telling your story, especially when you don’t issue a public statement within the first hour. They will also be the first to knock on your door when they need to investigate an issue you might be trying to keep under wraps. So, what is the best way to form a relationship with them so that they work with you and not against you in a crisis?

There is plenty to be discussed on this topic and many corporate spokespeople, CEOs, and subject matter experts could benefit from your expert tips. So, to help out our public relations community, this week’s PR discussion question is, “What is the best way to get to know your local reporters?”

We would love to hear your thoughts this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

Crisis Communications Question: Is it ever appropriate to say “no comment” in a media interview?

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We have all heard it before, lawyers, spokespeople, celebrities, and CEOs walking out of a courtroom or out of their office as the media shoves microphones in their face asking negative questions. “No comment!” they say as they quickly jump into their car and drive off. Is that an appropriate response? Does it depend on the crisis they are in or should spokespeople and CEOs always have a professional answer ready for the media? Will the media only speculate more if they are not provided with the information they need?

This week’s crisis communications and media relations question is, “Is it ever appropriate to say “no comment” in a media interview?”

We would love to hear your thoughts this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

Public Relations Tips: How Long Should an Online Video Be?

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Earlier this week we polled social media to ask, “How long should an online video be?”

As corporate communications and marketing professionals, we all want our content to be shared and liked by the masses. We may even use online videos, such as YouTube or Vimeo to reach our audiences. But, what is the ideal length for an online video? Does it depend on the content of the video, the person delivering the content, or should the video adhere to certain public relations and marketing standards? Does it depend on which social media platform the video will be shared on?

Our experts have weighed in and now we want to hear if you agree with their tips. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

How long should an online video be?

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To help out our public relations community, this week’s PR and media relations discussion question is, “How long should an online video be?” As corporate communicators, marketing professionals, and PR pros, we all want our content to be shared and liked by the masses. We may even use online videos, such as YouTube or Vimeo to reach our audiences. But, what is the perfect length for an online video? Does it depend on the content of the video, the person delivering the content, or should the video adhere to certain public relations and marketing standards? Does it depend on which social media platform the video will be shared on?

We would love to hear your thoughts this week. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.

Why do they say men should wear makeup in a media interview? PR Tips

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Have you seen any men whose makeup looked bad in a TV interview? Or men that should have worn makeup but they didn’t? Should men feel uncomfortable about wearing makeup on camera? Could it help them to look more attractive? Could it help them increase their credibility? Or is it just a “Hollywood” custom that isn’t really necessary for men doing a media interview?

To help out our public relations community, this week we asked PR and media relations experts, “Why do they say men should wear makeup in a media interview?” Our followers have weighed in and now we are sharing their tips in this week’s video.

We want to hear if you agree with their tips and what you have to add to the discussion. Comment here and on our social media pages to join the discussion. Your answers may be featured in our follow-up video!

This question is one of a series of debates in the media relations, crisis communications, public relations, and social media industries where you and your colleagues can share observations with each other. Yes, YOU are invited to share your bite size bits of best practices. Here is how:

Step 1: Subscribe to The BraudCast on YouTube

Step 2: You will see a short video that poses a new question every Monday. You then post your best practices and observations on The BraudCast YouTube channel.

Step 3: Once your opinion is shared, you can follow the discussion online so you can compare your best practices to those of your professional colleagues.

Step 4: Watch the follow-up Friday Video where you will see a short YouTube video outlining some of the most interesting observations. Yes…your comments may actually show up on our BraudCast video, bringing you world-wide fame, fortune, a big raise, glory, street parades, and more.

Thanks in advance for sharing your knowledge. Please take 2 seconds now to subscribe to The BraudCast.