2) Arriving late at the social media party (The New York Times) — Entrepreneur Bruce Buschel describes the long and twisting road he took to arrive at the conclusion that social media is key to promoting his new business.

3) Which companies are worth admiring (Harvard Business Review) – Fortune is out with its “Most Admired Companies” issue, and best-selling author Bill Taylor’s reaction to this year’s list is the same as it is every year: What is the point of this exercise? Taylor lays out what really makes a company admirable?

4) Health group: Plan now for crisis communications (CMIO) – Security breaches, stolen laptops, destroyed servers: the news in health ITsecurity is rarely good. But don’t worry—your turn is coming, said Mark Pasquale, BS, MBA, vice president and CIO of Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, and Steve Bennett, BA, MA, vice president ofKirby Partners, a heath IT recruiting firm in Heathrow, Fla., speaking at a session on crisis communications at HIMSS11 last month.

A Japanese emergency responder checks a child for radiation (Image credit: Reuters)

Days after an earthquake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, the world is rightly rushing to the aid of the Japanese people.

As the Japanese grapple with the economic and humanitarian toll of this tragedy, we keep them in our hearts and minds.

Yet, the government of Japan must also avert nuclear crisis after the natural disaster destabilized two nuclear reactors and prompted the evacuation of 200,000 citizens.  The fallout is being compared to the Chernobyl disaster.

In the U.S., the press is already asking: “Could a similar nuclear crisis happen here?“

Thus, advocates for U.S. nuclear power face the daunting task of stabilizing nuclear’s reputation in America, even as we all download videos of buildings exploding at Japan’s nuclear facilities.

This crisis response task falls foremost on the shoulders of the Nuclear Energy Institute.  Over the weekend, the public policy voice of U.S. nuclear power posted a Q and A on their website to help answer questions in the disaster’s immediate aftermath.  NEI experts could also be found reassuring the public on TV and in print.  Expect NEI to launch a far more comprehensive communications plan in the coming weeks as Congress and the Obama Administration ask tough questions about the safety of nuclear power.

Warren Buffett once said, “It takes twenty years to build a reputation, and five minutes to ruin it.” Nuclear’s reputation is hardly “ruined” after Japan, but it is in severe jeopardy.  New polls will emerge in the coming days and it’s a very safe bet they’ll show a dramatic drop in support for nuclear power in the United States.  While such polls are temporary snapshots, NEI must now develop a communications strategy to rebuild trust in nuclear.  The success of such an endeavor can only be measured in months, if not years.

“A lot of people can learn to write computer code and understand the inner workings of the technological revolution we’re going through, but if you’re going to be in content, I would rather you understand what makes a good narrative. To find people who can make you laugh or cry or smile or get upset or learn something about yourself. Those people are rare. They are rarer, frankly, than the others. We always talk about the lack of engineers in America. I would say we lead in what is most important to create all this, which is the education system for liberal-arts students. To me, that’s key.”

Does your company have a narrative?  Do you offer any emotional appeal to your customers or the broader public?

2) Eleven words for 2011 (Huffington Post) — Famed political consultant and wordsmith Frank Luntz lists the 11 words and phrases he believes could spark change, social movement and political reform in the year ahead.

3) How Apple broke the PR rules…and got away with it (Harvard Business Review) — Author Jason Gans explores how Apple survived a major PR crisis last summer that likely would’ve damaged other big corporate players.

4) The secret life of Customer Advisory Boards (Fast Company) – If you are considering building a Customer Advisory Board program for your organization, author Lisa Nirell urges you to tread carefully. Begin first with understanding its true purpose.