It’s a fundamental rule of crisis management: Think with a little less head and a little more heart. That’s a concept BP’s CEO Tony Hayward should have embraced. Instead, since the oil spill began in the Gulf of Mexico, Hayward has been criticized for a growing list of public gaffes in handling one of the [...]

Com­panies these days must under­stand that every­body has a voice. So the best way to avoid a pub­lic rela­tions night­mare is to give great cus­tomer ser­vice right out of the gate. “It’s a bad day when a customer’s upset,” says Dave Car­roll, cre­ator of the musi­cal tril­ogy United Breaks Gui­tars. United repeatedly refused to listen [...]

Social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Flickr have become invaluable mobilization tools for activists. No longer is social networking just for gossiping, hobnobbing or telling your friends what you had for breakfast. Increasingly, it has become an effective communications tool to mobilize masses to effect change. Lately we have seen:

Prompted by the BP rig explosion and the ensuing spill, BP has come under heavy social media attack: Attacked on Facebook by a boycott movement called “Boycott BP,” urging a worldwide boycott of all BP brands and services An anonymously managed Twitter account – BP Public Relations (@BPGlobalPR) – that makes glib comments, purportedly on [...]