CommCore Blog and News

Sometimes an article is living proof of the very point it is making. Take Janine Popick’s recent “Three Reasons Blog Comments are Dead” article on Inc. online. Her blog was written shortly after blogging behemoth Copyblogger announced last month it would no longer publish comments because 96% them were garbage. Read more

Data security breaches are becoming regular headlines:

• The highly-publicized Target breach that involved sensitive information on more than 40 million credit and debit cards resulted in the resignation of the company’s CIO after it was revealed the hack was a relatively low-tech invasion.

Take a look at what’s happened to the cruise industry over the last couple of years:

• Two “poop” cruises
• Costa Concordia capsizes in Italy
• Norovirus sickening passengers
• Two separate drowning incidents involving small children in a ship’s swimming pool

That’s just a partial list. Read more

Most professional communicators learned a lesson in the importance of preparation and foresight from former BP CEO Tony Hayward’s infamous “I’d like my life back” comment at the height of the Gulf oil spill.  Read more

(Maybe it’ll be different in 2014…)

We PR professionals are all guilty of it – pushing off critical aspects of the master crisis communications planning and preparation in order to put out the smaller, daily fires.  Read more

After a business meeting, which are you more likely to remember – a relevant story or anecdote, or a good PowerPoint slide?

The answer should be self-evident, as a recent Wall Street Journal article suggests: “Even with digital and social-media tools, employees often struggle to convey ideas to each other, to managers and to customers. Read more

CEOs still don’t like social media. Almost 7 out of 10 still don’t participate despite its importance for a myriad of reasons. Few postings we have seen on the subject are so to-the-point and informative as Joshua Steimle’s Forbes.com, Read more

News publisher Gannett’s new social media policy for employees (including reporters) underscores the double-edged sword that social media is to businesses. Gannett, like many of our clients, wants all the benefits of advancing the brand and engaging with eyeballs (customers) while at the same time trying to minimize the risks of off-message postings, and possible breaches of organizational confidentiality and other issues. Read more

Recent controversies involving billionaire media-mogul Oprah Winfrey, New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez, and theme park Six Flags Over Texas had different outcomes and different lessons for crisis communicators:

• Oprah was in a trendy purse shop in Geneva when a sales clerk (who clearly didn’t recognize her customer) refused to show her a $38,000 handbag.