Kara S Alaimo, Columnist

How Companies Can Gird for a Trump Twitter Attack

Warding off the president’s wrath, in five easy steps.

January 23, 2017 at 6:55 PM UTC

Kara Alaimo is an associate professor of communication at Fairleigh Dickinson University. She is the author of “Over the Influence: Why Social Media Is Toxic for Women and Girls — and How We Can Take It Back.”

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Last week, I received a request I’d never gotten before in my career as a public-relations consultant: to counsel corporate executives on how to prepare in case the president of the United States comes after them on Twitter. As Donald Trump begins his first business day in the Oval Office, many companies are hiring crisis communication firms and making plans for what to do if they become targets of his Twitter attacks.

As president-elect, Trump criticized numerous companies and brands, including General Motors, Lockheed Martin, Vanity Fair and Boeing. And he instigated, and arguably won, a public fight to keep the Carrier Corporation from moving some jobs overseas. “We’ve all been put on notice,” said Peter Duda, head of the global crisis and issues practice at the global communications firm Weber Shandwick. “If you’re planning to do anything that doesn’t align with the administration’s policies and positions, be prepared for it to be high-profile, and be prepared to defend it.”