By GEOFF WILLIAMS, AOL SMALL BUSINESS

If our luck holds, you’re reading this, and it’s a perfectly normal day. The weather isn’t especially unusual, and if you turn on CNN or Fox, you’ll see them doing a standard report….

Once you actually reach people in a disaster, make sure you actually are “open and available,” advises Matt Eventoff, a communications trainer. “Nothing is worse than a CEO who stays behind closed doors and remains silent.” Eventoff stresses you should talk to your top talent, repeatedly, so they aren’t nervous and sending negative vibes to the rest of the employees.

Original Article

When a young woman named Carissa knocked at my door on a recent Saturday evening and introduced herself as a process server, I knew things were about to get interesting…

Matt Eventoff, an expert on crisis management and communications, recommends documenting everything, including any conversations with a travel company. If you think a lawsuit might be imminent, he suggests taking your grievance to the top. “Staff at corporate headquarters tends to be very aware of the public-relations implications of the messages sent in certain situations,” he said.

Executives might have second thoughts about suing a customer who keeps meticulous records and isn’t afraid to talk publicly about a grievance. “Everything that a company does sends a message, and any lawsuit filed against a customer would certainly send a message — and not a good one,” he added.

Elliott is National Geographic Traveler magazine’s reader advocate. E-mail him at celliott@ngs.org.

Full Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020401828_pf.html

But not everyone in public relations sees Dixon’s transgression as a permanent black eye for Baltimore. In fact, because so many politicians are being caught philandering or stealing or bribing, she becomes only the latest entry on a growing list.

“Unfortunately, the mayor is not the first, or second, or 10th mayor, nationally, to be found guilty of committing a crime, and won’t be the last,” says communications strategist Matt Eventoff, with PPS Associates in Princeton, N.J.

Read the full article at BaltimoreSun.com.

Layoffs. Disappointing earnings. Plant closings. Embezzlement. The way you communicate news of this ilk could make or break your career. Done badly, and your 15 minutes of fame may be those you never outlive. Done well, and your praises could be sung by pundits, reporters, employees and your boss.

So why do many executives fail to prepare for the day they are the bearer of bad, even tragic news? As the saying goes, stuff happens, and it will happen to your organization.

Delivering bad news well is both a science and an art. These suggestions should give you some guidance on how to prepare yourself to do it well.

Before the Bad –

“It is much easier to communicate bad news to someone who is used to hearing from you regularly…—not only at monthly meetings—[and] especially during tough economic times,” said Communication Strategist Matt Eventoff. Following are a few ideas compiled from Eventoff, other experts, and our own experience on how to prepare yourself and your organization for tough times.

o Strengthen and maintain the good relationships you have with your board members and investors. Never take the lack of criticism as a sign all is well—they may just be disconnected.
o Communicate often and in-person. Misunderstood emails and voice mails can quickly become both “nuclear” and “viral.”
o Be accessible to your internal audiences. Yes, you’ve heard this before. Have you taken it seriously? Sometimes the boss who brags about their open door is the least accessible.
o Take special care of your top talent. You’ll need their expertise—especially in tough times.
o Never forget that news media, business and community leaders, and government leaders should always be looped in.
o Are you willing to be told the brutal truth? Make sure you have several confidants that you will never punish for being blunt.
Creating an environment and processes that facilitate healthy communication and feedback will make a huge difference in how well your organization reacts to both the catalyzing incident, and the way it was communicated.

The Deed

Once you’ve created the ideal environment for the big discussion, there’s still a lot of work to do to get it right.

Be the One: If you have bad news, be the one to break it to others. According to Eventoff, “Trying to hide bad news is a) no longer possible, and b) will absolutely destroy all credibility.” Look at the situation as an opportunity to tell your story on your terms. If you wait too long and the information gets out through other sources first, which is increasingly likely given the 24/7 news cycle and social media outlets, you will spend ridiculous amounts of time doing damage control. And despite the good work you might do in this mode, it’s extremely difficult to fully recover the reputation and relationships you’ve already lost.

Be Brave, Be Clear: One of the two natural human responses to danger is flight. And fleeing the scene, getting into a bunker, or at least trying to hide behind niceties, is one of the most common impulses that ignites as we sit across the table from someone to whom we must tell bad news. “Delivering disappointing information…is often sugar-coated…given in non-direct ways or wrapped up in other neutral news. Many people aren’t experienced enough and to be frank, resilient enough to cope with the pressure. What frequently results is avoidance or a mumbled, poorly delivered message,” advises author and consultant Simon Stapleton.

In a handbook from the American Medical Association (AMA) titled ‘”Education for Physicians on End-of-Life Care,” the AMA instructs doctors on how to deliver life-and-death information to patients. Most of us will never have to communicate that kind of bad news, but the advice definitely applies. “Deliver information in a sensitive but straightforward manner. Say it and then stop… Use simple language… avoid technical jargon or euphemisms… well intentioned efforts to ‘soften the blow’ may lead to vagueness and confusion.”

Be Kind: As a business owner or manager, your first responsibility is to ensure the health of your organization. However, whenever you’re delivering bad news, the recipient will always be another person or group of people. Before you start, put yourself in their position. How will they receive the information? What do they need to know to accept and move past the news? How would you like to be treated if you were in their place? This doesn’t mean you should apologize or waffle. However, answering these questions yourself creates an environment of respect and compassion that will smooth the experience for everyone.

Be a Solution: When there’s bad news to communicate, a good manager can, or should be able to anticipate the questions and concerns that result. If you have to lay off employees, they’ll want to know about severance, benefits, and finding a new job. If you need to tell media about a plant closing, they’ll want to know how it will affect the local economy, and what it means for the future of the company. Be prepared with solutions to your audience’s concerns. An old rule of communication says that people can handle just about any bad news, as long as you give them tools to navigate the situation.

Bad news need not devastate you, your organization, or the people on the receiving end. Care, prepare thoroughly, execute well, and respect your audiences. Failing to do so can have far reaching effects that impact morale, media coverage, productivity, and your bottom line. It’s up to you.

Sources:

Matt Eventoff at matteventoff.com.

Education for Physicians on End-of-Life Care—Participant’s Handbook, American Medical Association

Fred Wilson, owner, Union Square Ventures at avc.com.

Charles Day at thelookingglass.com.

Josh Kopelmen at redeye.com.

You work with corporate execs, politicians and other leaders in public speaking … what to say and how to say it. How do social media such as Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc. figure into this?

ME: Social media are an integral part of communicating today, and will evolve. The single biggest question I hear, whether from a political or business leader, centers around “I want to use social media like Obama.”

My first question: “What’s your message and why would someone who doesn’t know you, live in your district, or use your product care?” Herein lies the fundamental secret to effectively using social media to communicate as a legal, business, nonprofit, academic or political leader … just as in public speaking and presenting, you MUST have a clear, compelling message, or social media won’t work for you .. it just won’t be an effective medium.

My second question: “Do you have $750 million to spend?” That’s what the Obama campaign spent, very effectively, to spread its message. It wasn’t a Twitter and FB page put up in a vacuum, there were thousands of hours and millions of dollars behind creating an unbelievably successful social media program.

So my advice to leaders is the same advice I try to follow myself … put out fresh, compelling material, message it well, start with friends, customers, supporters, associates, etc. and slowly build a following. Make it easy to connect to you via your web site. If you are running for office, put your social media info on your material … if a company owner, on your product packaging and advertising. Remember, social media complement what you do face to face, they do not replace it.

By extension, do you foresee much impact from social media in major news operations such as newspapers and TV news, or in the future of journalism generally?

ME: I do, although I disagree with a number of my colleagues in that I believe major news operations will always have a fairly prominent place in our society. Major media bring legitimacy to a story, and that won’t change. What will change is reaction. Everyone has an opportunity, a real opportunity, to voice an opinion and express it in a very public way. However, mainstream media still matter.

Why? Sheer reach. Mainstream media still reach more individuals than any other single medium. So when a major national daily (the New York Times, Wall Street Journal , USA Today) runs an eye grabbing headline, the public pays attention. Statistics indicate that the reality is that for every five people who read a headline, on average only one reads the actual story and content.

The reality is that a political campaign will use a positive headline in a major daily in paid broadcast advertising over an endorsement from my blog, or any one of the millions of bloggers out there. The difference now is that a candidate’s “blogging army” of 2 or 20 or 200 can relentlessly comment, post and generate their own content and get it listed on Google news, Yahoo, Bing, etc.

Of the various social media, do you see any one in particular as having the greatest potential on the media or generally in society? Any that will fade?

ME: I speak quite a bit in high schools and colleges, and when asked who tweets, uses Facebook, e-mails and texts, texting is always the hands-down winner both in popularity and number of students involved. Most use Facebook, and most use e-mail. Why does this matter? This is the generation that has literally grown up with the web, and I believe that their preferences will, to a large degree, determine what succeeds and what fades going forward.

I believe Facebook will have a long and prosperous life because it helps us connect to those we know and interact on a somewhat deeper level with acquaintances. Communication is not an announcement, it is a discussion. Facebook provides for that. Twitter does, too … however FB is much more personal and much more conversationally focused, and I believe those two traits really, really matter. The recent Twitter study saying that 10 percent of users account for over 90 percent of tweets is telling.

Do social media represent a dumbing down of America , a liberation of new possibilities, or both, or neither?

ME: I believe they allow us to enter into conversations with people we might never have met, and find people who share common interests with us.

As with anything, I think there is a tendency to overgeneralize the effect of social media. Pick a position, yea or nay, pick a social media topic, and there are countless statistics either confirming or questioning the validity of that position. As an aside, I see this regularly with a statistic that is commonly referenced when discussing communication … the “7 percent, 38 percent, 55 percent rule.”

Prof. Mehrabian released a study nearly 40 years ago, and among the conclusions was that when determining the meaning of a message, 55 percent was based on body (or facial) language, 38 percent based on tone of voice, and only 7 percent based on words. Very powerful, and this is cited ad nauseam as “proof” that the words you use are not that critical. All well and good except for the fact that the statistics are taken out of context. Prof. Mehrabian was studying a very specific communication experience. Unfortunately, many people have assumed that words don’t matter.

What does this have to do with your question? As with anything, I don’t think there is a definitive answer … it depends on the individual and how he or she chooses to use social media.

Tennessee women’s basketball coach Pat Summit complained that players on the team bus were texting each other rather than speaking face to face. Your reaction?

ME: Reality. I think this is one of the drawbacks of social media … when they are used to replace face to face communication rather than complement it when face to face communication is not possible. Being able to relate and communicate with another individual face to face will, more often than not, determine your ability to succeed.

What do I mean? You will rarely be awarded a raise via e-mail, win a congressional seat on Facebook alone, become CEO via a text message or acquire a company or major funding over a tweet. VC’s and bankers will always want to meet with you, as will a corporate board, voters, etc. Social media can certainly be extremely beneficial to all of these … however, face to face communication will always be crucial.

Read the original article at OurBlook.com.

From taping techniques to virality tips, pros share best practices in

By Lin Grensing-Pophal – November 23, 2009

In days gone by, PR professionals were primarily wordsmiths — if you could write well…
Matt Eventoff, a principal with Princeton Public Speaking who has worked on publicity videos for elected officials, corporate executives and entertainment figures, agrees. “Randomly shooting a grainy video — or any video — without having a message and some preparation is a recipe for disaster and usually results in such.”

Know How You Want to Say It
In PR video, specifically, the standard practice of using a spokesperson can add to the challenge of creating end-products that capture attention. Eventoff explains, “The issue that PR practitioners face first and foremost when putting clients on tape is one of authenticity. An over-coached, over-prepped executive or celebrity speaking into the camera in a sterile setting at best looks like an infomercial and at worst looks so phony that the client is set up for ridicule.”

The original article can be found here.

Many industry experts have speculated the cause. Was Microsoft attempting to update the servers that handle its subsidiary Danger’s Sidekick data storage, without properly backing them up? Did a server overheat, leading to a domino effect that toppled not just the main servers, but also their backups?

Microsoft has not yet provided an official cause. A spokesperson said Monday the company is still investigating.

The software superpower, however, has said the technology on which Danger’s cloud services are based is “totally separate” from that which powers Microsoft’s other cloud-computing platforms, such as Windows Azure and Office Web Apps. “Danger, as a Microsoft subsidiary, created and continues to operate the Sidekick service,” a Microsoft spokesperson told seattlepi.com.

The Sidekick server outage, the magnitude of which many experts said is unprecedented, has cast much doubt on Microsoft’s ability to offer reliable cloud services.

“If you can’t trust Microsoft, who else can you trust?” said Azita Arvani, founder of the Arvani Group and a mobile-industry analyst.

Last week’s outage, and the events that followed, have put “a huge black eye on the cloud-computing services, in general,” Arvani said. At a time when companies – not just Microsoft, but also Google, Amazon, SalesForce, IBM and others – are pushing cloud computingas a less expensive solution for enterprise data storage, the Sidekick controversy is a big setback.

So what does Microsoft need to do in the next few days to mitigate the problem and extinguish this reignited skepticism of cloud services?

“Microsoft needs to, within 24 hours, be able to message why this cloud computing operation is different than the one they are marketing to other businesses,” Matt Eventoff, a Princeton, N.J., communications consultant, said in an e-mail, “because in three weeks everyone will forget that this was a purchased product (Microsoft bought Danger).

“This window to explain this properly is closing fast.”

In the Sidekick case, Microsoft failed to provide what Lew Smith, of the IT consultancy firm Interphase Systems, called the three main elements of successful cloud services: stability, reliability and disaster recovery….

…Meanwhile, a big portion of T-Mobile’s business has been halted. The Bellevue-based company temporarily stopped selling Sidekick smartphones, spokeswoman Cara Walker said, both online and in retail stores.

T-Mobile planned to give an update of the situation Monday, but hadn’t yet at the time of this post.

“T-Mobile and Microsoft have not done a great job of communicating through this crisis, and therein really lay the issue,” Eventoff wrote. “Cloud computing is a relatively new concept to the masses (me included) and when something is new, people a) are intrigued b) can be intimidated and c) tend to choose the safer alternative until the new concept has been vetted.”

“This issue is that this isn’t about someone’s $300 Sidekick anymore,” he added. “Now it may (be) about a multimillion-dollar cloud-computing contract.”

http://blog.seattlepi.com/print.asp?entryID=181814

5WPR is a member of the Inc. 500, is one of the largest public relations firms in the US, and has offices in New York and Los Angeles. The firm represents a diverse client base ranging from Whole Foods to the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial to BET Networks, a wide range of international interests, and major figures from the entertainment, sports and music worlds.

Ronn Torossian, the CEO of 5WPR, is as dynamic a figure as you will ever meet and is a master at his craft. I have had the opportunity to work with Ronn on a whole host of client issues over the past few years, and in every situation (literally every situation) Ronn was not only succcesful, he took on the client’s cause as his own. The official announcement:

Princeton Public Speaking & 5WPR Form Strategic Partnership

NEW YORK, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ — 5W Public Relations, one of the 25 largest PR firms in the U.S., and Princeton Public Speaking (PPS) announced today an exclusive strategic partnership for communications training, media and presentation training, and trial/witness preparation. Princeton Public Speaking will utilize 5WPR for clients’ PR needs, and 5WPR clients will utilize PPS for communications and media training.

“We have worked together closely for a number of years, referring clients to one another, been involved in a number of crisis matters with confidential client trainings and have always had terrific results. We have decided that formalizing this partnership will mean better results for our clients and companies,” said Matt Eventoff, President of Princeton Public Speaking.

“Training allows confidential, authentic communications practices which accentuates a client’s strengths, mitigates weaknesses, and allows the client to deliver his or her message effectively, articulately and memorably,” said Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5WPR. “From addressing body language to understanding the difference between speaking to broadcast, print or radio outlets, the most compelling message can get lost among verbal and non verbal ‘tics’ that remove the focus from the message.”

Programs will specialize in private one-on-one sessions with individuals in leadership positions. Additional services will include customized designed, partial day, full day, and multi-day workshops for key personnel, teams, or small groups.

About Matt Eventoff:

Matt Eventoff helps leaders become great communicators. He has been intimately involved in all aspects of public speaking — from crisis management and presentation skills training to message development and delivery for over 15 years. Matt is also well-versed in the world of new media and how to integrate social networking, viral video, and other online communications with traditional public speaking and messaging methods. Matt works as a communications strategist for senior executives at Fortune 100 institutions, litigators, entertainers, and political leaders throughout the U.S. and abroad.

About 5WPR

5W Public Relations (www.5wpr.com) is a full-service public relations firm known for implementing cutting-edge, customized media programs designed to impact client specific business goals and objectives. 5WPR’s energetic, fast-paced, and focused culture earned the firm a spot on the INC. 500 list and the title of “fastest-growing agency” three years in a row. One of the 25 largest PR firms in the US, the agency maintains practice areas in consumer, technology, health and wellness, entertainment, lifestyle, fashion, and corporate communications. The growth and recognition of 5WPR stems from a focused, smart, and creative staff that expertly communicates client messages to impact ROI. The team is led by CEO, Ronn Torossian, and has the understanding and ability to harness the newest tools in a rapidly changing media landscape. This 24/7 approach to the media led the industry’s foremost trade magazine to describe 5WPR as “aggressive in a way that clearly resonates with clients looking for a firm staffed with type A-plus personalities, a BS-free approach, and results from Day One.”

SOURCE 5W Public Relations

by Gary Gentile

The epic battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons has added two new combatants—Paramount Pictures, the studio releasing Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and the film’s director, Michael Bay…

Expressing misgivings privately is one thing. But going public, especially in the digital age where e-mails and MySpace posts last forever, can cause permanent rifts that could damage future projects, said Matt Eventoff of Princeton Public Speaking.

“Very simple, in our hyper-connected word, everything has a much longer shelf life then it once did – what you say can haunt you tomorrow and lot more easily than it could have ten years ago,” Eventoff said. “Think before you speak or hit send.”

http://boxoffice.com/featured_stories/2009/06/fix-my-movies-ad-campaign.php