In 2009, I wrote a piece for PRSA’s Public Relations Strategist on the dawn of social media and privacy issues. At the time, it made the rounds in PR ethics circles, but given the recent Facebook crisis, I thought I’d revisit it, nine years later. It still holds up, perhaps more now than ever:
PR Strategist – Ethics and Social Media – Spring 2009
“Social networking media are essentially a virtual gold mine for marketers and professional communicators.… Read the rest
As PR people go, I may be more privacy-minded than most. Yes, I’m on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I have this website and this blog and a podcast.
For the past few decades, I’ve spent most of my waking moments trying to get my clients, my organizations and sometimes myself visibility in the media and other places.… Read the rest
I had an interesting interchange with a colleague, Karen Swim, President of Words for Hire in Detroit, on social media recently. The thing that prompted our discussion was her posting of this article from Forbes about a new analytics program called Protagonist which is claimed to help “better manage communications strategies.”
That sounds good, and if it does what it says it does it could be very meaningful, but I have my concerns for one simple reason.… Read the rest
I’m not sure when school let out right before Christmas break, but I do remember a few times on the last school day before Christmas I was able to rush home and then with my mom take the trolley to Downtown before my dad finished work.
For me and just about every other kid, Downtown was the place to be around the holidays.… Read the rest
When it comes to the media and protestors alike, protests can be big business.
Media coverage of protests tends to generate consistently high ratings, page clicks and readership, which attracts more ad revenue. And when it comes to the protests themselves, in an increasing number of cases there is more than meets the eye. In some instances there is the stated reason for the protest, such as a common environmental or a safety concern, and then the unstated reasons that may better explain why someone was willing to make an investment of thousands if not millions of dollars to prop up the protestors.… Read the rest
The following post originally ran on November 20, 2012 on PR, Pure & Simple:
It was just a few years ago that I learned the Thanksgiving holiday as we know it today, at least the parts where the Dallas Cowboys and Detroit Lions aren’t playing football, is actually rooted in a decision by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863.… Read the rest
The World Economic Forum (WEF), one year ago, identified the nine most pressing ethical issues we face as artificial intelligence (AI) transitions from science fiction to our everyday reality.
This matters in public relations, because inevitably we will find ourselves at the intersection of AI and its effects on people. We can expect much of the conversation to center on the ethical issues at play.… Read the rest
Crisis communications and issues management are often conflated because there is a certain degree of crossover. Take the NFL’s problem with National Anthem protests. It’s become an acute crisis because the president’s outspokenness on the issue led to a near revolt by players in three days, which led to an actual revolt by fans instantly.… Read the rest
There’s an old saying you may have heard as a child:
“Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.”
Moms and dads would say this to remind their children not to get too rattled when other kids are mean to them. But as we see every day in the media and in social media, names and words and language can be used quite effectively to hurt individuals and organizations.… Read the rest
There are three reasons people sue, typically. One is that they truly were damaged in some way, either financially, physically or some other way, and they decide to seek compensation for damages. Second, whether you did anything wrong or not, someone has decided they have enough of a case to squeeze money out of you in court, but more than likely through an out-of-court settlement.… Read the rest