Confidence in organizations must start with good governance. The public relations team can contribute by supporting the following:
• Be authentic in your characterizations of problems and your ability to address them.
• Encourage investment in performance, to be sure you can do what you want to do and say you will do.
• Match or exceed promises with performance—under-promise, over-deliver.
• Use realistic and common sense language rather than just flowery and visionary language in describing what you will accomplish.
• Don’t spin. That’s not the job of public relations, despite the way it is often characterized.
Reputation influences all the goals you set—gaining access for your programs, capturing both the attention and loyalty of donors, attracting and retaining the best employees, and finding strong program partners. Reputation also is a critical factor in how well you can weather a crisis.
While this may seem obvious to some, the best way to maintain a good reputation is to be authentic in your programs, public statements, fundraising, and financial practice. Tell the truth. Don't present your organization as more than it is, and don't try to be more than you can support with quality.
#5 Feature Compelling Leaders
Most causes will not catch on if they are not connected to and sponsored by engaging people. That’s why charities use celebrities or statesmen, or push their chief executive to the forefront. It’s true in fundraising—people give to people. And it’s also true in public relations. You might think that you good and important work can be sold without a compelling spokesperson. That’s possible, but not likely; sorry.
A good, well-trained spokesperson will serve your organization well. Media want to talk to an individual who will speak with authority, and will be quotable. If it’s broadcast media, it helps if he or she is interesting, attractive, winsome, and literate.
We’ve worked with several organizations that want publicity, but their chief executive is too camera shy, too busy, or too tongue-tied to do interviews. A substitute is often acceptable, if the substitute can speak well, and can speak for the organization.
One exception to this is crisis communications. In most crises, the CEO should be front and center. It’s reassuring to people, and it shows the public that the company is taking the crisis seriously.
If you don’t have a good public spokesperson you need to hire one or develop one.
#6 Tell Stories
People will best remember your message if you illustrate it with a story. Whenever possible, tell a story. When I worked with Chuck Colson, I was continually reminded of this principle. When a reporter asked if there were inmates too tough and too bad to be reached with the Gospel, Chuck told the story of a hardened prisoner who had had his nose bitten off in fight and had later come to faith in Christ; he had become a strong leader in the prison church and a tremendous Christian witness. I’ve never forgotten that story and the image of a tough, noseless inmate ministering inside prison walls.
Jesus, of course, told stories—which we call parables—to vividly illustrate the principles of the Kingdom of God. It has that highest recommendation. And it is time tested recommendation.
Look for opportunities to tell your story--your message--in stories. The only thing people will remember longer is a good joke (but don’t try that; most of us should never rely on humor to make our points).
#7 Go Deep
What I’m about to say will seem obvious to many people. But evidently it isn’t obvious to enough people who want to make their mark in the public arena.
Before you attempt to make an impression in the marketplace of idea and impact, become a deeper person or organization or group than you probably are now. Do your thinking and planning, serious study and scholarship, and have a body of research before you make a splash. Establish your expertise, not by saying you are the experts, but by have the background and the writing, case studies, experiences—to demonstrate your expertise.
We’ve had more than one organization—although I’m thinking of one in particular right now—that have announced that it was the best in the field and that it was going to change “the space” and dominate it. The group seemed to have at least initial funding and the ability to throw up a reasonably attractive website and some flashy graphics.
They just don’t have any expertise in the topics—the space-- they intended to dominate. There wasn’t any significant content on their site (or to be found), and what they were beginning to say publicly was at times clever and helpful, and at other times it exposed how thin they were in the gray matter.
Clearly, we have tried to gently provide the counsel to “go deep” and to help them figure out how to do that.
Potential clients often say they want their visibility (and by that they usually mean the ability to raise funds) to go to “the next level.” I can’t tell you how many times over the decade I have heard those exact words.
You do succeed at “the next level” if you begin establishing your credentials without credentials. Public relations work is meant to help the public appreciate the good work you are already doing, and your credentials to do more.
• Become an expert in the one area you want to promote and work
• Do the work. Begin small if you have to, but have something to show.
• Don’t stay at twitter or facebook level. Clever updates don’t establish your expertise, but they can point to it.
• Don’t stay at news release level. A news release can get you an inquiry. Your substance is demonstrated by how you answer the inquiry.
• Put valuable information on your website. The platform should showcase good content.
• Establish a blog and write frequently.
• Don’t just quote others—which is what a lot of blogs do. That makes you a good network, but not an expert.
• Write articles; give speeches.
• Write a book
Young people are blogging less; heck, they’re writing less, thinking less, stopping less, etc. But don’t target those who live by the tweet and the text.
Decisions are still going to be made by those who stop and think and read. Go deep.
#8 Answer the Questions: So What? and Who Cares?
I remember an alternately cruel and humorous shout that we used in high school (although I don’t recall exactly how we used it) to put down another group. We yelled in succession: So what? Who cares?
It’s direct and, if used unwisely—as many things are in the high school years—it can be hurtful. In public relations, these are two of your most important questions (and questions it would be good you’d ask yourself before someone like your PR counsel has to).
The first, So What?, goes to the questions of relevance, impact, scale, and consequence. Does what you are doing matter not only to you but also to observers, reporters, officials, or recipients? And will they say so? Perhaps you just don’t know, but you believe what you are doing or contending for is vitally important. That’s fine. Just be sure you ask yourself the question honestly, and if others are slow in coming to the same conclusion you do, know that public mention of your effort may also be slow, and your communications hill steeper.
The second question: Who Cares? isn’t an issue of crass heartlessness, but a measure of whether or not media gatekeepers will care about your story or you mission. Although newsworthiness is a subjective judgment, there are guidelines that most will follow.
To be newsworthy a story usually needs at least a few of these characteristics: proximity, impact, drama, uniqueness, significance, timing, human interest, scandal, or celebrity. Work hard to present your story in these terms—or lower your expectations if it’s an important piece of news, but sadly dull.
With that in perspective, conduct strong programs, make a difference in people’s lives, and change your corner of the world. Eventually, that will make news. And it’s the beginning of good public relations.
#9 Work Like You Know It's the 21st Century
As we begin the second decade of the 21st Century it is clear that communications is different than the last century. I’m not so sure it is changing for the positive, but regardless of what I think, a campaign that is “oh, so last century“ is not likely to succeed. 10% of the 21st Century is already history.
Like anyone else in public relations work, we have been trying to determine what about the new media will change the way we spend our time, about what part will simply waste our time in the guise of social networking.
Here’s what we’re learning
1. Website: You need to have a decent website with a moving part—something that changes regularly and provide current information. Ours is www.rooftop.biz.
2. Blog: You need a blog, either as part of the website or continuously connected. Positive new information can be presented through blogging, and an organization can respond to pretty much anything through blogging, especially negative rumors or negative public reaction to anything the organization does. Since blogs are supposed to be updated incredibly frequently (usually every day or at the very least once a week) an organization can respond to the public in real time. Also, since blogs allow comments, an organization can see the public response to the public relations campaigns themselves. Our blog is www.therooftopblog.blogspot.com.
3. Optimize: Websites and blogs don’t do you any good if no one visits. There are lots of tips for search engine optimization (SEO), which can help maximize your Internet based work. None of this can be static and successfully. Working the blogs and networks will have to be part of nearly every day to be successful.
4. Social networks: You need to find the combination of social networks that work for you. I use Twitter (RooftopJewell), Facebook, and LinkedIn; perhaps you’ll find something that works better for you. Social networks want you to be social; people that simply are selling their wares using a social apparatus are looked down on.
5. Write for the Internet: You have ten seconds for the first impression. Save your depth for those who chose to dig in. Give the simple facts in 150 words or less? Who? What? Where? When? Why? Journalism's five "W's." Or the short-sentence, three-paragraph email pitch letter? It's not easy to write tight. Mark Twain summed it up best when he said: "If I had more time I would have written less." Writing is about re-writing. Writing well takes time. Respect today's reality: take the time to write less and make it mean more. Want to win coverage? Start by throwing out the tattered old print press release. Write like you have 10 seconds to make a point. Because online, you do.
I’m learning along with everyone else--not just about how to use the tools, but how the tools can realistically maximize the message. There is something new to learn every day.
#10 Never Give Up
Many organizations treat contact with media and other public relations actions like to a trip to the dentist. An unpleasant necessity they turn to when something dramatic happens. Unfortunately, those rare forays to media aren’t an effective public relations program any more than a rare trip to the dentist is a complete oral hygiene program. Both require regular and ongoing care.
Often, groups think of contact with the media when they have a new program, are celebrating an anniversary, or have new personnel who see the need for new external initiatives. When media don’t respond to their overtures because it’s the first time they’ve ever heard of the group or have no other history with them, organizations throw their corporate hands up in disgust and write off public relations as a waste of time and money.
Others meet the media for the first time when crisis strikes.
You can’t go to the media with good news in January, avoid them for months or years as some bad news hits, then expect them to print your story when things turn around. There’s not relationship there.
Start communicating long before you have a major story to tell, and before you’re forced to tell your story. And don’t stop communicating when the band stops playing. The single worst thing your company can do is to stop communicating with your external publics, beginning with media.
You need to have a consistent, solid presence in the media. Although you can blow your reputation in a day, it takes a long time to build one.
--Jim Jewell