Ten Years After: How Katrina Made Me a Better Crisis Responder

I’d love to change the world But, I don’t know what to do So, I’ll leave it up to you Note: This piece is the second of four we’ve put together for the 10-year anniversary of Katrina. Paul and I reported to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Public Information Assist Team the summer of 2005. Our team was in the disaster […]

6 Reasons New Orleans Loves the Coast Guard, 10 Years Later

August 25, 2015 · by Paul Rhynard | in From the Field, Historical Cases | tagged Government Comms, Hurricane Katrina, incident communication, Katrina 10th, Lesson Learned, Natural Disaster, Perception is Reality, Success Story | Leave a comment

Note: This was adapted from a piece published in March 2014, called “Silver Linings, Federal Response to Katrina,” and is the first of four pieces we’ve put together for the 10-year anniversary of Katrina. Brandon and I reported to the U.S. Coast Guard’s Public Information Assist Team the summer of 2005. Our team was in the disaster zone from […]

The Better Way to Give Affected Masses Crisis Info

August 6, 2015 · by brandon brewer | in From the Field, Historical Cases | tagged community relations, effective communication, Lesson Learned, PR, Public Information, public meetings, Public Relations, reputation management, Risk Communication | 2 Comments

Here’s today’s public service announcement from me to you: if you have bad news or risk information to communicate to people affected by crisis, don’t ever (ever, ever, EVER) choose to hold a town hall meeting to do so. Some people look at me like I’m crazy when I say this – even veteran communicators – so […]

Disaster Response; the Public Info Officer’s Perspective (Part 3)

March 30, 2015 · by brandon brewer | in From the Field | tagged crisis communication, crisis management, crude by rail, emergency communication, Environmental, Government Comms, incident communication, Joint Information Center, Lesson Learned, Operations, PIO, Public Information, reputation management, SMEM | 2 Comments

This is the third entry in a three-part series on what it’s like being deployed as a crisis incident public information officer. The first entry covered the preparatory phase of incident response operations, and the second covered what it’s like once on-scene at an incident. This entry focuses on lessons learned from the incident. What […]

21 Lessons Learned from SM SNAFUs

February 24, 2015 · by brandon brewer | in In the News, Pro Tips | tagged Corporate Comms, Government Comms, Here We Go Again, Lesson Learned, Planning, Scandalous, Social Media | Leave a comment

Last year I wrote about 10 things to consider when using SM (ok, it was mostly about Twitter) as a staple in your communication toolkit. I would consider this a companion post. Actually it was part of the “10 things post” but my buddy and post-partner, Paul, likes to break the goodness into smaller chunks from […]