Proactive social media monitoring by H&R Block stops a potential crisis in its tracks We’ve seen several examples of employees sabotaging their employers via social media, the most infamous of which may have been the YouTube video showing a pair of Dominos employees doing various disgusting things to customer’s food. Perhaps as a result of …

The Divine Art of Comedy: Timing in Public Relations Timing is everything, like any old Catskill comic, successful business person, and even Ecclesiastes — a book in the Bible — will tell you. Cliched? Absolutely. And mostly true. As the good book says, “To everything there is a season” — including (if you extrapolate enough) …

In considering the creation of a corporate solicitation program (a CSP), the first questions I’d ask of a nonprofit is whether they realize that only five-percent of all “charitable” giving to nonprofits comes from corporations, and (considering “return-on-investment”) how much of their time, energy and assets do they want to dedicate to this effort? Whether …

Let’s Start With “What is ethics?” Simply put, ethics involves learning what is right or wrong, and then doing the right thing — but “the right thing” is not nearly as straightforward as conveyed in a great deal of business ethics literature. Most ethical dilemmas in the workplace are not simply a matter of “Should …

Office gossip is a term recognized by many. Just hearing this term will most likely result in recollections of conversations you have had or overheard at work. It may even bring a picture of the "known office gossip" into your mind's eye.

Call centers are now a mainstream tool for providing customer service to a very large audience. As a co-host of the Customer Service blog, I’m going to share some useful ideas about how to maximize the performance of your call centers. So what can I tell you about it? I hope to be able to …

The recession may not be feel like it’s over yet but most managers appreciate that Christmas needn’t be cancelled again this year. Boozy parties are probably not the best way to mark the end of a tough year but that doesn’t mean there’s not value in gathering everyone together. As we enter an era when …

Part One of the Basic Principles of Organizational Design In my last half-dozen posts I have been focusing on system theories of organization. I have done this because practitioners of organization development depend upon theories about what makes organizations tick. Nothing so practical as a good theory said Kurt Lewin, the mind behind action research. …

Controversial topics can easily lead publications to the need for crisis management. A Marie Claire writer has sparked a social media crisis for the magazine after a seemingly negative article about the “Big Six,” a group of leading women’s health and fitness bloggers, drew thousands of fans to their defense. Ragan’s PR Junkie blog has …

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