Big Fish, Big Pond

Public relations always sounded pretty simple to me in my Freshmen year of college. “It’s just talking to people about your company or organization”, I said. It’s basically just a lot of press release writing and maybe giving a couple of interviews or two a week. No big deal, I thought. By my senior year, I was interning with a county Economic Development office and had no idea what I was about to find myself in. About halfway through my internship, scandal hit. Our Director was facing accusations that she had mishandled and gotten rid of very important documents regarding a local land deal that would prove to have very large implications for the county and its Economic Development. I’m not going to go into details for privacy reasons, but let’s just say she no longer works for the county or anywhere in Economic Development. It was a huge ordeal not only for us as an organization but also for me personally as I had never experienced a crisis like this before. Suddenly I went from writing pretty frivolous press releases and blog posts to typing out transcripts of taped local talk radio interviews with people who were saying pretty negative things about us in the press. These transcripts I later found out were used in the subsequent court case as well as in response interviews given by our Public Relations Director. That experience taught me just how quickly you can go from “OK” to “Oh No” in an organization. And it all started with a negative article in the paper.

I hope you enjoyed that little anecdote because it helps me segue way into our topic this week: Public Relations. I personally majored in Communications/PR in my undergraduate and so I know a few things about how PR works. I also work in a very outreach heavy, Public Relations-esque capacity for my job now.   I recruit and deal directly with Enrollment for a higher education institution. Dealing with students, their families, and their various issues as well as dealing with the general public and their inquiries has made me a much more patient and attentive person. 

One of my campus’s big selling points that makes my job pretty easy: nature trails!

I have also been in charge of certain aspects of social media for my organization before. That job was one of the more stressful if you can believe it. Being responsible for representing my organization was a big task and one that I did not take lightly. I was always aware, and still am, of what is going on with my organization not just internally but outside as well. What did people do before Google Alerts?! I am hyper aware of how my organization is being represented out there in the "big pond" and I think most people with Public Relations backgrounds are. It’s a big piece of the puzzle to making sure that your organization runs smoothly, and is able to maintain itself if crisis hits.

While my organization has been lucky in that we have had no major scandals directly impact us in recent memory, others are not so lucky and need the help of established pros when the time comes. Public Relations is a steadily growing industry. From 2008 to 2009 it increased in revenue by a combined 7% (Why journalists don’t make the best PR pros.)  Public relations practitioners are crucial members of any organization. These are the people who help you not only when your “down and out” but when you’re on top too, to make sure the “down and out” doesn’t stick around forever.  In today’s tech heavy world, that means more and more PR practitioners find themselves on social media almost constantly. All it takes is one blog post, video, or tweet to make a nightmare for your organization. Take SeaWorld for instance. Once the critical documentary Blackfish hit, you were hard pressed to find anything positive about SeaWorld for years to come. They are still feeling the effects well over four years later and have instituted heavy change to maintain what little credibility they have left (Anatomy of “The Blackfish Effect.”) The Blackfish Effect is a lesson to any and all organizations. It might as well be a “how-to” on effectively taking down an organization with a viral campaign. There is truly no protection from social media, no matter how big or small you are. But there are ways to handle your organization’s position and presence on social media so you are ready when and if the time comes.

As strategic communicators we need to be aware of how to handle our position and presence on social media. The big things that I think any strategic communicator should be aware of when handling their organization’s social media platforms are branding, engagement, and learning (Managing Yourself: What’s Your Personal Social Media Strategy?)   Building the personal brand of your organization is crucial. It helps you tell the story about who you are, why you do what you do, and how you do it. It’s the thing that makes you different from all the other fish in the sea and what keeps your audience loyal year and year. Engaging on social media is another huge factor. The whole point of social media is engagement. We want to talk to people rapidly and simultaneously and when we post to an organization we expect a response fairly immediately. PR practitioners have to be aware that whoever is responsible for engagement of their organization’s social media platforms has to be on call 24/7/365. Social media never takes a day off. Learning is another key tenant to managing your organization’s social presence. You can’t just talk to people and expect them not to talk back. Being open to learning about your audience or customers, really hearing what they have to say, and taking those lessons back to the powers that be is a great way to utilize social media to further your organization. It will also serve you well should crisis ever hit. Understanding how your customer thinks and expects to be talked to online is a great indicator of how they expect to be treated and talked to in the real world. It allows you insight PR practitioners have never had access to prior to the invention of the Internet and an opportunity we should never take for granted. Being able to talk to your audience or customers and take responsibility to fix the situation is key to handling a crisis, big or small, and we now have the capability to do all that in seconds through social media. Understanding that your brand, how you engage and learn with them, will all serve you and your organization well should your own personal Blackfish ever occur.

Hoe you guys liked this week’s post! See you next Sunday!

Sources:

Managing Yourself: What's Your Personal Social Media Strategy? 
Nach: Dutta, Soumitra, Harvard Business Review, 00178012, Nov2010, Bd./Jhrg. 88, Ausgabe 11