Soooo, for anyone paying attention, we kinda fell off the content creation wagon a little less than four years ago. We’ve practicing our chosen profession, just not writing a whole lot about it. I’d like to say we’ll get back to it in the coming year but I don’t really know.

In the meantime, I’m repurposing a post Brandon put together a few years back (with a few additions,) sampling some of the more popular topics we’ve covered and highlighting some of the great contributors we’ve had over the past 10 years online.

That said, in the words of my writing partner and brother-from-another-mother, “read on and click links ’til it feels good”:

If you want to be like all the cool kids – Read Paul’s piece Four Characteristics of Effective Messages. It is by far (maddeningly, for Paul’s competing authors. OK, me.) the most-read piece we’ve ever posted, and for good reason.

[Paul writing here now … if you want to read our most read post since we stopped posting – check out Brandon’s piece 6 Reasons People Say Bad Things About You. It’s a timeless and astute dropping of wisdom and knowledge.]

If you’re a public information officer, crisis communicator or emergency manager and want an “Ohhh … wowwww …” moment – Read Terri Larson’s first Accidental PIO piece and Sheri Benninghoven’s Evacuated JIC Manager piece.

If you want to read about crisis communication written by someone with some – oh, I don’t know – literary panache? – Read Thomas McKenzie’s Communication Theories: The Elegant Mess of Human Speech. So money.

If you’ve ever wondered, “How the heck do I hold a productive public meeting during a crisis?!?!” – Read Mariana O’Leary’s How to Open Your House. She is a Viking Warrior who doesn’t just study these things, but does them. Correctly.

If you want a peek behind the curtain to see what’s really going on – Read Doc Miles’ piece 21 Tactics Spokespeople Use to Manage Tough Questions.

If you’ve ever wondered what my and Thomas McKenzie’s voices sound like, AND want some scoop on Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Maria response – Listen to our first podcast Public Information for Hurricanes Harvey and Maria. It’s like a blog post, but you listen to it instead of read it. Good for multi-tasking situations.

If you don’t have time to take a college course in crisis communication/want to understand some of our friends who tell us, “YOU’RE GIVING IT ALL AWAY FOR FREE!!!!” – Read Paul’s Crisis Comms 101 series. Your final paper should be 10-14 pages, 12 point font, double spaced, formatted in MLA Style and answer the question, “Why talk?”

If you want to know why (in an unbiased way. promise.) the #FlintWaterCrisis was is a crisis – Read my Crisis and Risk Communication and the Flint Water Crisis.