David Holmes

Archive for the ‘Reputation Management’ Category

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How an innocent tweet can blow up in your face

In Reputation Management on August 19, 2013 at 11:16 pm

Over the weekend, the Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott – who is now running for Governor – got himself in a bit of a mess on social media that should serve as a lesson beyond politics to all business owners. Of course, politics often brings out greater passions in people from the beginning, but it is not difficult to recall times businesses have gotten themselves into similar trouble. And this was such avoidable trouble.

It started when a lawyer named Jeff Rutledge who tweets under the handle “@jefflegal” mentioned Attorney General Abbott in a tweet opining that Abbott will beat Senator Wendy Davis if she runs for Governor because she is an “idiot” and “retard Barbie.”

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Actions speak louder than memos

In Reputation Management on August 16, 2013 at 11:14 pm

CEO of AOL, Tim Armstrong’s handling of the firing of an employee during a conference call with hundreds of other employees reveals as antiquated a philosophy of corporate communication as the floppy disks with which AOL used to try to entice us all.

AOL owns a local news network called Patch. On a call with employees of Patch discussing the flailing subsidiary’s shaky future, an employee in Armstrong’s presence, Abel Lenz, tried to take a photo of Armstrong. The CEO’s reaction was to fire Lenz immediately during the call; the audio of which someone recorded.

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Anatomy of Golden Corral’s poor response to viral video

In Crisis Management, Reputation Management on July 9, 2013 at 11:04 pm

The buffet chain Golden Corral brings us the latest business communication crisis wherein an employee shot a video of food being “stored” near dumpsters then asking the company for cash to keep the misleading video hidden – they did not, so for people who did not follow the story all the way through, there may now be a belief that the buffet destination could make them sick.

There are several elements of the situation that occur in many business crisis situations and are worth examining.

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Taco Bell took a lickin’

In Reputation Management on June 7, 2013 at 10:58 pm

Memo to all PR and social media consultants: Taco Bell will survive this week’s licking and keep on ticking. If you were to search Twitter over the last couple days on the term “Taco Bell,” what you would find is mostly three types of results:

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Reputation management in the era of distrust

In Reputation Management on February 25, 2013 at 10:09 pm

We live in a day when you might not be able to trust the leaders at your religious institution or your university who have access to your kids, you can’t trust those in charge of our financial system on Wall Street or in banks, your governmental leaders are probably lying to you, and if you’ve made a trip to Europe recently, there is a good chance you have eaten horsemeat called “beef.”

Perhaps there are no greater problems today than there have been in past times, but with our communication culture, we find out about more of the bad things going on and how they occurred. Whatever the cause or truth, as you consider your own company’s advancement in your marketplace, you must take care of your reputation while considering the current climate.

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