As PR professionals in DC, it’s our job to monitor the federal marketplace for trends that inform our clients’ communications and marketing strategies. One theme we’ve heard a lot about lately is that in this era of flat or declining government budgets, it’s become almost clichĂ© to talk of agencies “doing more with less.” How…
The news that the U.S. government is giving up control of the Internet – that is, the Department of Commerce announcing it will end its oversight of ICANN, the non-profit that administers Internet domains – brought me back to a time in my public affairs career when I learned first-hand about managing controversies, especially those…
I read a Washington Post blog recently calling 2013 the year of cybersecurity. While the year saw a profusion of data breaches and leaks, it’s more accurate to call 2013 the year of cyber violations – not cybersecurity. I think it’s more likely that 2014 will be the year of cyber solutions – maybe the…
How do you get good PR for winning a spot on a major government contract when you don’t know whether you’ll win as a prime or a subcontractor, whether you’ll win at all (of course), when the awards will be announced, and whether the subs will be amenable to publicity? You can play it by…
These are heady times in the public relations industry with news of layoffs at some of the larger firms and the continued transformation of traditional media practices by social and digital. At RH Strategic, we have always been proud of our position in the PR landscape; our ability to garner great results; and our success…
The problems with Healthcare.gov will no doubt eventually be repaired by IT pros, but the damage to reputations will sting for years to come. The challenge for the contractors involved is that the standard crisis communications playbook simply doesn’t apply in these situations. This playbook says that in a typical crisis where a corporate reputation is…
The revelation that the same background-checking firm vetted National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden and Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis has made me think about the importance of support and trust in a process. Â Trusting a team, and each individual member, to do the right thing without much supervision is something that most employees…
It’s hard to imagine that the leaks of PRISM and other national security programs could have a silver lining for the Obama Administration, but there just might be one in terms of public relations. The exposure of PRISM and the Administration’s reactions to the leaks have at least taken some attention away from the IRS…
Having spent 16 years in DC, providing consulting services to a bevy of clients looking to differentiate themselves from the din, I can reliably say that the challenge of succeeding in DC has never been so difficult (though the reward so great!). The high spending days of the 2000’s led to a glut of companies…
Trends abound in technology. On a daily basis, I watch the transformation of multiple industries (healthcare, education and government, to name a few). What strikes me is the recent transcendence of a few key trends beyond each of these markets. A few weeks ago, I attended a conference for the legal technology industry – an…
Companies can’t be making front page news all the time, but when the iron isn’t hot to strike, it doesn’t mean you can’t advance your PR program between larger news announcements. Sometimes the most interesting aspect of your company may be sitting right under your nose, and a well-written whitepaper can help you showcase…
Government IT managers today have to do more with less. For even as cloud computing and “government 2.0” initiatives are supposed to save taxpayer dollars, continuing security threats and ballooning government programs are straining agency IT budgets just the same. Pressures like these mean many agencies are paring private-sector contractors to a strategic few. In…
