By Anton Davidenko

Corporate reputation is a very fragile thing. You can spend years on building it in the way you want to and then find out one day that it’s broken. Greg Smith, ex-Goldman Sachs executive, showed it on his former company example. His article in New York Times uncovered the dark side of Goldman’s culture and his confession is now one of the most discussed topics on the Wall Street and beyond. Each new piece and comment in different media on Smith’s story is hitting Goldman Sachs’ reputation performing the worst possible scenario for the brand and its relations with public.

Companies like Goldman Sachs spend a lot of time and efforts to build their profile sometimes forgetting to prepare themselves to respond on communication challenges. Protection of the corporate reputation should be one of the key elements for any company and never ignored. The good news is there are three things that could help you to mitigate reputational risks and to be prepared for any crisis.

Pessimistic thinking

It could sound weird, but believe me your pessimism can do a good job for you in saving your reputation intact. Forming the worst crisis situation in your head will help to avoid an effect of surprise, which is always a pain in the neck of any firm even a very big one like Goldman Sachs. Underestimation of bad things that could happen with your firm can become a huge liability and bring big problems. Pessimistic thinking is a quality you need in crisis communications. So think big, think pessimistic.

Realistic planning

Detailed plan of the crisis communication actions will be very helpful in a period when you don’t have time to decide and make necessary confirmations. Everything should be ready and approved in advance. A proper planning will reduce a chance to make mistakes when everybody in the company is under pressure. Clear understanding who and what should say in the time of crisis will make it easier to overcome the problem and get back on track.

Optimistic acting

If you were successful with the first two steps, then it wouldn’t be hard for you to stay optimistic when you step up into a crisis. But even if the things go unpredictable and you believe that it’ll only be worse, the best thing is to keep your head cool avoiding desperate moves. When the time for actions has come, it’s too precious to spend it on putting yourself into the corner. Only positive attitude will show you the way out and encourage the others to follow you.

For Goldman Sachs, the reputational crisis is far from over yet as there are rumours about Greg Smith’s autobiography to be published, unveiling new and probably not the best parts of the company’s behind the doors. But it’s never too late to start preparing for new inquiries and challenges and be ready to respond as, from the reputational perspective, there are no companies too big to fail.

Contact Anton Davidenko via Twitter: @antdav.

Along came the new iPad… The launch anticipated by the world of technology since 2011. It would be interesting to know how many people saw it yesterday and compare with the Super Bowl audience. I bet the gap is not too wide and will be narrowing event after event. I wouldn’t wonder if one day Apple started selling commercial spots during their presentations.

Anyway, let’s have a look at the new iPad launch from the PR perspective. The sales of this glossy product start on 16^th March and this is very important. If you work within the technology PR and promote any devices, it’s the right time to cancel or postpone any press conferences or announcements on that day. Make no mistake, there is going to be only one news headliner in the middle of March and it will be extremely hard to grab media attention for somebody else. Look at today’s Telegraph technology page, iPad is everywhere.

Another thing tech PR pros should be prepared for is particular questions. There were several major announcements in the new iPad: the screen resolution is 4 times better than in iPad2, processor is obviously faster in addition to the 5 megapixels camera. No doubt that from this moment the most popular journo inquiry will be how good these features of your product are, and there will be no way you can avoid a comparison with the Apple’s tablet benchmark in articles.

Finally, one thing we can be sure about is that iPad3 is still to come in the future and it will definitely be a super cracker. The new model has some brilliant enhancements but it hasn’t earned the right to become a new generation of iPads. So it is better keep an eye on Apple’s website and try not to miss the time when the world’s attention will be at the Silicon Valley’s giant again.

Consumer Electronics Show 2012 has grabbed all attention of technology journalists from around the world since the beginning of this week. It’s like an informational paradise for them – so many devices, tools and gadgets in one place – and what a place? Las Vegas. Articles and reports hit newswires and websites one by one every second and the easiest way to check it is Twitter. Just use #CES hashtag and you’ll see what’s going on.

Everything is good and positive, except one thing – CES is a real PR madness. Just imagine all techi giants announce their ultra modern Ultrabooks, new models of devices and special features. Here is Sony with new Xperia, Toshiba with tablets and laptops, Huawei with a super slim smartphone, everybody is trying to take the headline, stand out from the #CES crowd, impress the audience, and get the most positive coverage. But who is the winner? With all due respect to the CES participants, my personal opinion there are only two companies deserved it. I believe they achieved the best results with less effort than others.

The program of the 2^nd World Forum “Communication on Top” is already formed! The Forum is to be held on February 17-18^th in Davos, Switzerland. Over 25 speakers from 3 continents & no less than 20 countries will take part in discussions and present cases of the world’s largest companies.

Trend-makers and key figures from the financial, political, corporate and marketing communications industry have confirmed their consent to participate in the Forum. Among them are top-managers of world-known companies like PepsiCo, GALLUP, Swiss Air Lines International, ENEL, EDELMAN, Credit Suisse, SPN Ogilvy, DELL, Brainstore, leaders of large-scale political and social projects in various countries, and world-famous “stars” in the area of consultancy and communications.

The 2011 Forum participants will examine: current challenges to the communications profession within the new media era; successful on/off-line reputation management; the power of PR impact and its proper advocating before the society; reform strategies messaged with communicative integrity; the ‘web-2.0 effect’ on business and politics; social media as a marketing tool for successful branding, and much more…

’You can’t get everyone to be your friend – you will always have to disagree with someone’

Stephen Davies is the founder and managing director of an online communications consultancy3WPR.

According to Stephen:

●        In order to become a leader on the internet, you should place yourself into the position of being a real thought-provoker: express your opinions and visions, and surely comment on what people say. First and foremost, you need to have a blog with relevant content!

●        The phenomenon of the social media is that you meet people from all over the world. You may go to various conferences to increase your social sphere, try speaking at different events, put your presentations on slide share, or ask publications, if you can write articles, so that you could draw people towards your causes and projects.

With new links and functions PRFrame declared to become a helpful tool for PR pros and make their PR life easier.

London, November 2, 2010 – BeFrame company specialising in development of professional web browser extensions unveiled PRFrame 3.0 – new version of the first toolbar for Public Relations community. This product is designed as a free add-on for Firefox browser and contains all elements of previous version with 2 specially developed for v. 3.0 new tools in addition to more than 50 new professional links.

Among major PRFrame 3.0 innovations users will find Media List tool which is available only via registration and enables secure storage and convenient access of media databases with journalists contact details in browser panel. Through personal account any user can import his databases, place it in different categories for convenient search and usage or create it from the scratch with opportunity to add new contacts directly from the PRFrame panel in browser.

Informational support and other mutual benefits are part of the agreement

London – Davos, Oct 26, 2010 – Today PRFrame and Annual World Forum “Communication on TOP” announced their partnership. As agreed, PRFrame will promote the Forum and highlight the most interesting topics of the event which will take place on 17-18 of February, 2011 in Davos, bringing together Public Relations professionals from around the world.

Dear Friends!

We are planning to launch our PRFrame v. 3.0 very soon. Within update and improvement we have added new functions and tools inside PRFrame including Jobs search panel. So if you have a PR vacancy in your company or want to find a PR freelancer, please, forward to support (at) prframe (dot) com the specification with title, short introduction, close date and the link to full description. We will publish it for free and you’ll be able to reach PR professionals and promote your company. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

Best regards,

PRFrame Support Team

www.prframe.com

Twitter: @prframe

Facebook page: PRFrame

(Condensed version of  “How to Catch PR Wave and not to Go Down” eBook)

Ask anybody what does successful PR campaign mean and the answer will be like: to appear at the front pages of famous newspapers and magazines, to be interviewed by Larry King or invited to the Oprah’s studio and nowadays almost guaranteed you’ll hear about social networks and being a king of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The question is if this is always true or maybe being in a shadow of the wave sometimes also can be useful.  Ask Toyota and BP, I think from their experience the answer would be the most valuable. The problem is that within the open and calm water any wave is seen from far far away. PR waves can be very contradictious with its pros and cons and therefore let’s talk about how to gain the most positive features of it and try to avoid PR tsunami.

Public Relations is a very attractive area for any business and you can hardly imagine a company that achieved success in modern times without these magical two words. It’s like an ocean of different opportunities that helps to bring attention of the audience to the brand or product. But when this ocean is full of billions of data and information as well as rival-sharks which are hunting for the same treasure as you – customer’s attention, what should you do?