Archive for the ‘Team Play’ Category

Words of PR and other wisdom in more than 140 characters from Biz Stone

Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

Biz Stone

Posted by Tom Gable

SAN FRANCISCO — Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, meandered around the huge stage, somewhat like a magician or comedian working the space for effect as he engaged the crowd attending the PRSA 2012 International Conference here Sunday.

Giant screens flanked the stage so the some thousand PR professionals in the audience, even at the back a football field away, could catch his words and see his Cheshire grin as he told a quick person history before delving into his talk within the conference theme of “The Future Starts Now.”

The man who helped create Blogger, Xanga and Odeo said he saw the opportunity for the democratization of social media. The start was slow for Twitter until an epiphany at the South by Southwest (SXSW) technology and entertainment extravaganza in Austin, Texas, five years ago. A favorite restaurant was packed so they tweeted about meeting at another spot. When they arrived, long lines snaked out the door and around the corner.

He showed a cartoon slide of a flock of birds. The metaphor: envision the individuals moving independently then coming together and moving to a single place, drawn by a single call, common interests and instincts.

Stone said we are only at the beginning of this phenomenon called social media. The world will soon drop the term social media as we search for new tools to paint deeper pictures of ourselves.

We will be creating more information networks. The challenge, he said, is that information isn’t knowledge. Listening and then responding are key to developing understanding of the world around us. Something has to be done with the information to advance to the next level, whether it’s in public relations, marketing, philanthropy or just connecting socially.

Stone said PR has an incredibly bright future based on its ability to listen, understand and tell stories. With social media and other tools, PR professionals can create content and go straight to the source rather than through traditional media. Tell the story of the people and companies you represent directly, he said. It’s all about the narrative of the story. Stories with validity have value and the power to engage your audience.

For a new idea, Stone said there is a compound impact to altruism.

“Philanthropy is the future of marketing,” he said. He hired a corporate social responsibility (CSR) manager when they had just 16 employees – before he hired a sales manager.

The core tenet of the business is how people can work together to create tools to make the world a better place.

He made three key points that resonated with people as evidenced by the blast of tweets from the session, post-session conversations and in remarks by other presenters who referenced the Stone talk:

  • To succeed spectacularly you need to be ready to fail spectacularly.
  • Opportunity can be manufactured. What circumstance can I prearrange and take advantage of?
  • Creativity is a renewable resource. 

The PRSA flock

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Clutter Busting, Hype Free PR, Social Media, Team Play | Comments Off

The Dos and Don’ts for a PR Internship or Entry Level Interview

Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012

Nailing ItPosted by Paige Nordeen

Butterflies swarm through your stomach and a bead of sweat slips down your forehead. This is an interview, not a death sentence. This is something I told myself from the moment I got into my car – driving in agony for 15 minutes – to the second I sat down in the inquisition chair, tucked at the back of the conference room with escape routes blocked. Will I say the right things? Am I dressed appropriately? Will they like me? Taking a deep breath, I went right for it and was ready to tackle the interview. From the first question after the casual introductions, I made sure to think through my responses before I spoke, rather than spit out some “uh-uh, um” twisted, mumbled jargon and stall for time. And as the questions continued, the more relaxed I felt.

So what is the best way to prepare for a PR interview?

  1. Research, Research, Research! Know what position you are applying for and exactly why you want it. A simple question such as, “Why do you want to work in PR?” can quickly become daunting if you are unprepared. Investigate the company website to familiarize yourself with mission statements, employee bios, agency style, notable case studies and company history. Be sure to search Google news as well for any recent coverage.
  2. Stay Informed: Know what is going on in the news and brush up on hot topics related to the company’s clientele. It would not only be embarrassing to be baffled by newsworthy questions, but a checkmark on the “reasons not to hire” list as well. Dedicate at least 15 minutes a day to reviewing headlines and news briefs (Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Drudge Report, etc.) or download a mobile news app to stay informed while you’re on-the-go.
  3. Come Prepared: Bring printed samples of your writing. Clips should be organized and laminated (Thanks to Anna Crowe, senior AE at Gable PR, for the suggestion!) or in sheet protectors. This way you look professional, polished and detail oriented. Have your own list of questions to ask about the company, its people and its working environment. Your questions can help break the ice and make you feel more comfortable, too.
  4. Dress to Impress: Do yourself the favor of taking a few extra moments to ensure you look presentable. This will not only boost your confidence, but reflect to others that you take the interview seriously. Ergo, they will take you seriously.
  5. Think Before you Speak: Being asked tough questions can be intimidating for anyone and, unfortunately, we’re not all masters of improvisation or captains of the debate team. Listen carefully to each question, take a moment to go through the most important points you want to make and respond with a well-thought-out, honest answer. A moment of silence can actually indicate your analytical abilities and is far better than racing with whatever first comes to mind.

Lastly, be confident, smile and relax! They’re going to love you!

(Editor’s Note: and we did; Paige got the job!)

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Team Play | 1 Comment »

Nine Steps to Improved Mentoring and PR Team Results

Friday, May 4th, 2012

Get the PR Ball Rolling

Posted by Tom Gable

In the previous post, I introduced the concept of PR as a team sport.  How to organize to deliver consistent, quality results for clients? How can you achieve your goals with the minimum possible resources?  How to leverage time, so one hour of senior management can turn into ten hours or more of productive work by others on multiple fronts?

I covered the two big traps: do it yourself; and throw everything at the issue (full-court press, hair on fire, etc.). Now, what positive, pro-active thought processes and check lists can help in leveraging your talent?  As noted before, Michael Gerber, in the classic e-Myth Revisited, advises building the team from the bottom up. Create checks and balances and systems so average people can achieve extraordinary results.  Here are nine steps that have worked over time to leverage talent for improved mentoring and team results, not just in PR but in almost every type of business:

1. Spread the Wealth – Analyze what needs to be accomplished and plan to achieve it with the fewest resources possible. Start at the lowest level and work upward.

2. Communicate Clearly – Set your lever in motion with the power of clear, precise communication. Provide specific direction, timetables, expectations and creative guidance.  Then ask if the person understands the mission. Reach agreement on the details. This two-way communication is essential in keeping junior people, in particular, from struggling with ambiguous assignments.

3. Leverage – Once you’ve given good direction, think about how far others can advance the work before you need to get involved. The goal: have others accomplish 70 to 80 percent of the most time-consuming work.

4. Orchestrate – This starts with clear directions. Then, the good manager has check points along the way. Five to ten minutes of quality time at critical junctures adds more leverage. The manager keeps the parts moving forward together toward the desired goal, making adjustments as needed and communicating appropriately.

5. Respond – Managers need to respond to requests for more direction or clarity as soon as possible. Your job is to help other people do their job better than they would have otherwise. The reverse lever starts working when you don’t, building up negative pressure throughout the organization. Positive reinforcement and encouragement will improve the ultimate product. Harsh criticism or condescending approaches, like the old professor in journalism school, can be demoralizing and counter-productive.

6. Monitor, Course Correct, Critique, Delegate Again – Don’t get stuck in the do-it-yourself trap. Send poor or mediocre work back for another round. Provide specific feedback and point them to other resources if needed. The basic process: pre-brief and discuss, provide adequate background and resources, monitor progress, QC, critique, and evolve to demand increasingly higher levels of results. The process ensures that each person soon understands what is expected of them and what needs to be done to generate the right result. People want to learn and grow. Send it back until it’s 80 to 90 percent of the desired level, then step in and guide them the rest of the way.

7. Look for Inefficiencies in Your Approach – Analyze if you are following the above steps with precision. What do you need to do better?  What will it take?  Are you helping people do their job better or are you an obstacle?

8. Don’t Get Stuck in Minutiae – To ensure you have time to put your best energies and brainpower into things with the highest payoff, deal with all the nagging, short-term issues with alacrity. Don’t put it off. If it can be moved forward or a need satisfied in less than five minutes, do it!  The trap is to keep setting aside these little things until you have a big pile of garbage projects or tasks. Then, instead of having dealt with something once and been done with it, you touched it again and again, wasting more time and brainpower and perhaps causing frustration among your team.

9. Promote and Praise – With ongoing delegation and smart management, you will help your team members graduate to increasingly higher levels of competence. As people improve, give them new challenges. Take a few chances. Test people at one level, then advance them higher as they improve. Praise good behavior right away. Harvard calls this the “Pygmalion Effect.”  Praise and good guidance can help people achieve levels of competence they never before imagined. Unduly harsh criticism and negativity can have the opposite effect.

Final Words

The best managers play an ongoing game inside their head of figuring out how to do more with less. They look at each goal, then strategies and tactics within, as potential opportunities to magnify their power through others. As Archimedes said, the lever works both ways. So the most successful managers do everything in their power to eliminate inefficiencies, redundancies, duplications, bad processes and systems or other obstacles to performance. Turning one into ten – it’s the alchemy of good management.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Client Service Results, Horizon Management, Hype Free PR, In the Beginning, Leverage, Team Play | Comments Off

PR is a Team Sport; Organizing to Win

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Leading the Surge

Posted by Tom Gable

The key to a manager’s success in a PR firm or otherwise is how well he or she can organize other people and direct them toward achieving specific goals in the most effective and efficient manner. The process needs to have an outward, multidirectional focus. What needs to be accomplished on multiple fronts? How can you achieve your goals with the minimum possible resources?  How to leverage time, so one hour of senior management can turn into ten hours or more of productive work by others on multiple fronts?  Go for a ten-fold leverage; if you achieve five-fold you will still be WAY ahead of the game.

Speaking of game, management works best as a team sport. In working on the Fifth Edition of my PR Client Service Manual, I came across guidance from an early mentor, a former dean of the College of Business at San Diego State University and a Vistage chair. He had a growth model showing how a company goes from a one-man shop (the long-distance runner, competitive swimmer, archer, gymnast, etc.), to the race car driver (one person supported by a team of mechanics), to basketball, to football and soccer (multiple players, different tasks, focused on results according to a game plan). Some liken it to a philharmonic orchestra. Whatever the model, the direction is clear: the better you can do in assembling, training, organizing, coaching and improving your talent as you move your game plan forward, the more impressive the results.

Michael Gerber, in the classic e-Myth Revisited, advises building the team from the bottom up.  Who does the tactical work?  How do you build checks and balances into your system so average people can achieve extraordinary results? Not unlike a university setting, how do you keep your talent learning and advancing, which both improves overall organizational results and gives management more time for strategic thinking or marketing? Discipline is key, particularly when it involves creative teams.

Two Big Traps

Do It Yourself – The argument: the initial work was so poor that I’ll just do it myself and save a bunch of time. The problem: you just reverse-delegated to yourself and did nothing to improve your talent for the future. Take the time to set expectations, educate, delegate and provide rapid feedback – candid and brutal if needed. The first effort may take more time than you would like, but it will pay off. If the latent talent is there, the next assignment will improve. Momentum will build. Your 15 minutes of future counsel will turn into two or three hours of useful work by someone else – the ten-fold payoff.

Throw Everything at the Issue – In this case, the manager sends a small army to do battle, wasting huge amounts of time and energy, instead of getting strategic with his team and achieving more with less. This is the dark side of leverage. Instead of going for a ten-fold increase in your ability to generate results, you have cut it by whatever your over-kill factor might be. Five people working in a room on one issue have gone from the Power of Five to the Power of One – an 80 percent reduction in efficiency!

Next: Nine Steps to Improved Mentoring and Team Results

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Media Tweetups: beyond digital – valuable face time with followers, media, new connections

Wednesday, June 1st, 2011
Hello my username is... tweetup

Going Live!

Posted by Trish DaCosta

Tweetups with the media are my new favorite thing as a PR professional. When I heard NBC San Diego was hosting a Tweetup to “meet their followers,” the PR light bulb over my head turned on immediately: this would be a great chance to kick off relationships with the news team! Having just started at Gable PR two weeks prior, I was eager to build the relationships that could benefit our clients and the Tweetup could be a good start.

Tweetups are a somewhat odd concept. The host can be anyone or anything – a company, a celebrity, bar or restaurant, news organization, or a random party organizer. Moreover, objectives can vary considerably. NBC San Diego did a stellar job indicating the purpose of the event which opened it up for just about anyone to attend. Others use the occasion to ‘celebrate’ a milestone, such as getting 500,000 followers, or promote an event, grand opening or other milestone. Whatever the reason, the Tweetup is prime networking time, and here’s why PR Pros must get on the guest list:

  1. Meet new people, or more specifically, media people who could one day be essential to your work.
  2. Build existing relationships with industry insiders or media.
  3. Make connections with potential new leads. Who doesn’t like new business?
  4. Generate buzz for yourself, your company, and your client. A fellow Tweeple in attendance might know that editor you’ve been trying to reach for months. She can formally introduce you. Or better yet, you can meet the editor face-to-face and tip her off on an exclusive right then and there with your client. Win-win!
  5. Practice your pitch. Hey, now is the time to fine-tune your presentation skills, which should come in handy when you reach out to editors over the phone.

The Tweetup is far more than a social mixer; it’s a watering hole of eager, hungry professionals all looking to make some kind of connection. Attending one, or several, gets your name out there to potential new businesses, editors, and mentors. Don’t rule out Tweetups that may seem irrelevant to your company either. You may work strictly in fashion PR, for instance, but that lifestyle editor you’ve been trying to reach may very well be attending a Tweetup party focused on technology. You never know who’ll be in attendance. So make the time to go, grab your smart phone and your business cards and get going. Oh, and don’t forget to tweet about it, too.

Check out pictures of Gable PR at the NBC San Diego TweetUp on our Facebook page and on NBC San Diego’s website

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Posted in Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, News and Media, Social Media, Team Play, The Light Side | Comments Off

Managing a PR Crisis in the Age of Social Media

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

Instant News Channels

Posted by Tom Gable

The above title of the CommNexus event in San Diego was intriguing and the syllabus promised to deliver tips and actionable insights to help PR people and others prepare for the unexpected. Is it possible, given the instant news cycle we live in today? Yes, according to members of a panel that represented the news media, a major client and an international PR firm.  And the results are worth sharing.

Liya Sharif, moderator and director of marketing at Qualcomm, outlined the challenges of today’s instant communications and direct attacks on brands, such as Toyota during its recent issues with recalls. It developed a social media strategy after the fact. What should companies thing about and do?

Alex Pham, who’s been with the Los Angeles Times for 11 years and seen it all, outlined her six key tips for being successful in managing crisis in the era of social media.

  1. Have a plan
  2. Be honest
  3. Walk the talk
  4. Respond quickly and aggressively if needed
  5. Hire a pro for an outside point of view
  6. “No comment” doesn’t work

Monte Lutz, senior vice president with Edelman Digital, Los Angeles, said his firm advises clients to first have a plan in place. The pace and cadence of the news cycle has changed to the “24-second news cycle,” so the players need to be ready to move. If an organization doesn’t respond to a crisis almost instantly and accurately, negative information can pop up onto the first page of results generated by any search engine.

“There is a vacuum for content and people are ready to fill it,” Lutz said.

Speed and Persona

He said speed was No. 1, followed by persona. Respondents can’t be “snarky” and should try to adapt a friendly demeanor. Building trust is essential because trust is a major differentiator. He noted that the Edelman Trust Barometer continues to fall as companies and organizations do a poor job connecting authentically with their many target audiences.

As an additional tactic, he suggested buying ads on the search engines with links back to credible background information on the company website.

Rachel Laing, former journalist and now deputy press secretary for Major Jerry Sanders, said to work on trust and relationships early – get people engaged before you need the connections. Be active in Twitter. Follow people in the space, engage new contacts, gain trust and credibility with intelligent Tweets and re-Tweet relevant information for further credibility.

Harnessing Twitter

Laing said government is always in a crisis mode so be prepared. Control the fan page. Never delete comments but you don’t have to respond to “nasty-grams” and perpetuate the madness. If someone is Tweeting badly, follow them back and then direct message (DM) to them with your phone and email to follow up with the facts.

Pham agreed on the use of Twitter and said the tone can differ based on the audience. But “corporate speak” doesn’t work and the responses have to be authentic and friendly in the social media space, to include restating facts since the social media doesn’t operate under the same rules as traditional media.

Traditional media will call, email and conduct extra research to get the facts behind the story. Cooler heads are at work, versus those personally involved and passionate about an issue, or someone who wants to be first with the news, whether totally correct or not. A lot of bloggers aren’t interested in accuracy, she said, so sometimes companies have to go into “hand-to-hand combat.” If you have been engaged and developed loyal followers, they will become your advocates and defend you in times of crisis.

Responding to Traditional Media

The traditional media is also working on the 24-second news cycle. As a result, Pham said companies need to get back to the media faster than ever before, even if it’s to clarify the information that is needed and promise to get back with details as soon as possible. A key: asking “what’s your deadline.”

Have a clear contact on the website so that point person can be found in 10 seconds or less.

Lutz advised companies to anticipate disaster and have dark website pages and dark tabs on Facebook with facts ready to go on a moment’s notice. Planning with the PR firm should include working on the tone and conducting rehearsals. The company can be prepared to be hits own publisher and broadcaster, too, using the different channels (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, PR, media relations, website, etc.) to get out the word. Embed news releases with pictures, graphs and video if they will help tell the story.

If the opposition has posted a video to YouTube, post your response using the same title and tags as the hit piece. This ensures your quality response shows up immediately.

Organizing the PR Crisis Team

Dan Novak, vice president of global marketing, PR and communications for Qualcomm, said internal plans need to include having a core communications team at the ready and a committee waiting in the wings to be convened that includes legal, government, public relations, investor relations, human resources, IT, and other key units. The plan needs to be based on high values and accountability. The process for launching the plan into action needs to eliminate speed bumps, which can hinder many organizations.

During Q&A, one of the audience asked about how to get clients to commit to a social media program.

The panel’s response: it’s happening whether you participate or not, as evidenced by what happened to BP, Toyota and United Airlines (the guitar incident) when they didn’t respond.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, Hype Free PR, News and Media, Social Media, Team Play | Comments Off

Quoting the Greats on PR, Journalism and Creativity

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011

Creative Seeding

Posted by Tom Gable

I was working on a copy for a workshop for the PRSA Counselors Academy’s annual conference and subsequent articles on improving writing skills for the PR profession and had slid into a creative morass. Having been a journalist, I turned to the proven ploy of using research to find brilliant people I could quote, then benefit from the halo effect. The quest turned up a few gems I may or may not use, but thought I would share them for the good of the order:

I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.

– Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman

It’s not easy getting up there and saying nothing. It takes a lot of preparation.

– White House spokesman Barry Tiov

Trying to be a first-rate reporter on the average American newspaper is like trying to play Bach’s ‘St. Matthew’s Passion’ on a ukulele.

– Bagdikian’s Observation

Every journalist has a novel in him, which is an excellent place for it.

– Russell Lynes

I wish people who have trouble communicating would just shut up.

– Tom Lehrer

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.

– Daniel J. Boorstin

There are three rules for writing the novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.

– W. Somerset Maugham

Where facts are few, experts are many.

– Donald R. Gannon

What’s another word for Thesaurus?

– Steven Wright

I love being a writer. What I can’t stand is the paperwork.

– Peter De Vries

Don’t use a big word where a diminutive one will suffice.

– Anon

If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times: Resist hyperbole.

– Anon

Eschew Obfuscation.

– Anon

Avoid awkward or affected alliteration.

– Anon

Last, but not least, avoid clichés like the plague.

– Anon

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Strategic PR Plan in 30 Minutes or Less?

Saturday, October 16th, 2010

Influential Channels

Posted by Tom Gable

Well not quite. But to at least get everyone pointed in the same direction, we often use a little mind-mapping exercise with clients who are unfamiliar with the strategic requirements of a good program. It involves walking through a dozen questions with the client (or internal team) and posting the initial answers on a white board. Once the big ideas are covered, the teams can follow up with creative and strategic sessions to add depth to the program, then fine-tune the tactical details.

In the crude white board example shown here, the CEO of an enterprise software company wanted to use social media to reach its key targets: CFOs of large companies. There are probably a million or two CFOs on Twitter and Facebook, right?

To help this CEO (with an engineering Ph.D.) understand the essential elements of strategic PR planning, we went thorough a quick mind-mapping exercise. If you look at the map, social media is among the missing.

The same approach has worked for a consumer client with a product aimed at 18 to 24 year olds who thought the front page of The Wall Street Journal was his perfect target and for other clients who were a little off on their targeting (Oprah for a biotech compound; USA Today for a foreign engineering firm; etc.). We use this approach internally as well to get the creative juices flowing. You can try this at home.

  • Who are the ideal targets? Make a list.
  • What do you want them to do?
  • What are their motivations?
  • Where does each get his or her information — the most trusted sources?
  • How to influence the flow of information into those channels?
  • Get creative. Key messages – how to differentiate from the competition?
  • Unusual approaches?
  • Identify the tools and tactics to get it done (new product launches, trade show programs, media relations, seminars, direct mail, email, literature, speeches, a Guru Program, YouTube, guerrilla marketing, whatever).
  • How to integrate and leverage the tactics for maximum impact (e.g. how Apple and others leak hints about new products in the weeks leading up to the official introduction, provide reviewers with prototypes, etc.)?
  • Can you measure and monitor the results from each component of the program?
  • How often to review and adjust as needed?
  • What will success look like?

Good job! High-fives around the room. Now, get on with the real work of bringing this to life.

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Nine Easy Ways to Fail in Building Brands, Reputations

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Non-Digital Branding

Posted by Tom Gable

You and your internal teams and outside consultants have worked for months to develop a plan to incorporate image as a part of corporate strategy for the long-term benefit of reputation and organizational success (something BP is probably working on as we speak so they are ready to launch the “new BP” once the old BP solves the oil crisis).

As covered before, you start with basic questions as the creative foundation for building your PR and reputation management plan:

  • How do you want to be known in two to three years?
  • What do you stand for – the core values?
  • Does the organization have a culture, a personality?
  • Can you establish a solid foundation from your values and then demonstrate proof of principle over time (walk the talk)?
  • Can you be disciplined enough to carry out a strategic program of reputation management for reaching multiple constituencies?
  • Is your strategic plan, financing, mindset, commitment and other resources up to the task?
  • Can you clearly differentiate against the competition for the company, the people, the technology, the culture and the vision for the future?

Once you’ve brainstormed, strategized, debated, drafted and then fine-tuned the plan, you are ready to start the evolution of the image to rise above the competition, to the benefit of faster growth, better margins, improved morale, overall community reputation and goodwill on the downside should something negative occur (we also kid during seminars and talks that this also leads to whiter teeth, better posture and improved digestion).

The digestive processes, however, can suffer if the organization doesn’t deal well with nine gnawing issues that can derail the best plan. These elements of failure are compiled from case histories we’ve experienced at Gable PR, research into bad branding experiences by others and references from the classic literature in the field: Reputation and Fame and Fortune by Charles Fombrun; Competitive Advantage and other books by Michael Porter; CEO Capital, by Leslie Gaines-Ross; Good to Great, by Jim Collins; and Leading Change, by John Kotter; among others. The list can undoubtedly be expanded, but these transgressions can serve as a good starting point:

  1. Lack of total CEO commitment, vision
  2. Lack of an organization-wide commitment; turf wars; individual agendas
  3. Ambiguous or unclear core values and theories
  4. Weak positioning, lack of differentiation
  5. Insufficient or contradictory proof of principle over time; unsubstantiated hype
  6. Talking to yourself instead of the market (jargon, argot; your features inside of benefits to the outside audiences)
  7. Making reactionary changes to short-term market or other conditions and sending confusing signals
  8. Being research averse; failure to measure progress or lack of same against your goals, make course corrections, adjust tactics and strategies
  9. In total, not delivering on the promise of the brand, positioning

Each of the branding questions up front and the nine ways to fail are big ideas and what we call thought-starters – leaping off points for spirited debate, more research, creativity, strategic adjustments and challenges to ever idea, assumption and result. Can you overcome hurdles, change the flow of the game and move toward brand-building victory?

The ongoing process can not only be intellectually stimulating to all involved but cause for future and continuing celebration in a team sport where everyone wins.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Horizon Management, Hype Free PR, In the Beginning, Team Play | Comments Off

The PR Hurt Locker: Ten Land Mines to Negotiate in a Crisis (six through ten)

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Bye Bye Reputation

Posted by Tom Gable

The previous post covered the first five of ten land mines to avoid in a crisis: guilt, no plan, lack of culture and core values, big hat (no cattle) and CEO ego. The following delve more into hazards to negotiate during implementation.

6. Attorneyitis – This land mine occurs when otherwise good messages and communications that the CEO and crisis team have approved get handed off for legal review and come back bruised, bloated and infected with the deadly disclaimer virus. Short, compelling copy turns fuzzy around the edges. Statements of fact become weighted down with convoluted clauses and abundancies of redundancies (In one set of Frequently Asked Questions that Gable PR crafted to explain a law suit our client filed against a magazine for libel and slander, a sharp 19-word sentence nailing the editor for deceit was turned into 100 words of circumlocution without a verb). The test: read a sentence out loud and if everyone’s eyes glaze over like you were reading from C-Span transcripts or they laugh so hard they herniated, start over. (more…)

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