Let's talk social media

You can hardly go to a conference as a PR or marketing professional that isn’t dominated by discussions about social media. You generally have two camps in attendance – the skeptics and the believers.

The believers are often the speakers and the first few rows of people in attendance. The rest are the skeptics sitting in the back rolling their eyes and asking, “How is this going to produce real ROI? My executives will not give me the resources to maintain 175 Facebook pages and 175 Twitter accounts without proof that it's going to produce a significant return.”

Which camp am I in? I’m standing outside the meeting room, wondering when people will realize that the answer to social isn’t yay or nay. The real answer is – it depends.

It depends on what you want to achieve. Just like every other tool we use in marketing and PR, social media isn’t the magic bullet. There are no magic bullets.

Social media is a tool that can help you achieve certain objectives and the best way to start using it is to have an objective you can achieve partially through social media. Starting any other way will only lead to frustration and failure.

For example, if your objective is to sell more product, lease more apartments or sign more contracts without giving any discounts, social media might not necessarily help you meet your objective. At least not in a direct, immediate fashion.

But if your objective is to raise awareness of your product or brand, create word-of-mouth brand buzz or engage your customers in a more personal way, then it can and will help you do so with the right strategy. (Of course, if you have these objectives, you believe the result will be more revenue and profit. It’s just a different philosophy on ways to achieve results from the direct approach.)

With the right strategy, you can easily strengthen your brand through social media. All you need to do is give your customers an incentive (or compelling reason) to follow you. And you’ll need more reasons or one that lasts, so they don’t get tired of hearing from you and click on that daunting hide posts button.

This is easier said than done, so you should contact a professional for some assistance. Jakel Communications can help. Contact our Colorado PublicRelations Firm today.

Part II: The best PR is on offense, not defense

Since I didn’t have the virtually appropriate space to finish what I was saying in Part I, here’s Part II with more ways to stay on offense in PR.

1. Build meaningful relationships. It works just like a business network works. If your relationships with the media traditional and new are shallow or non existent, you’re in for a world of hurt when a crisis hits. And you’ll struggle to be on offense because they’ll have no idea who you are or what your objective is. The more authentic and transparent you can be with the media, the better your relationship will be. Sounds a lot like marriage and friendship, doesn’t it?
   
2. Never decline to comment without a good reason. Sometimes the media just calls you to talk about something random but touchy to you. It’s easy to just say no comment or let me get back to you … wink, wink … But it’s also very damaging to your reputation and your ability to be on offense. If you have to give no comment (and I know that sometimes you really do for legal or confidentiality reasons), make sure you explain why. Just leaving it at no comment is a damaging move.
   
3. Leave the salesperson hat at home. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when building a friendship or going on a date is to constantly sell yourself. Everything is about you and how great you are. The same concept applies to the media. Hint: They really aren’t interested in how great your company is. They’re trying to write or cover a story about the subject they called you about. They rarely want to talk about your product or service. Of course, you can work those in with a solid strategic messaging platform, but you have to know when it’s time to be you rather than the CEO, COO or CMO of your company.   

I’m sure there are a lot of other best practices to share on this subject. If you’re a PR pro or just a good networker in general, feel free to leave some of your thoughts in the comments below.

But if you need help in playing offense in PR, you should contact Jakel Communications, a Denver PR agency. 

The best PR is on offense, not defense

About a year ago, I was asked to come up with a tagline for myself for a bio on the company intranet. It took me a few days because I wanted to make sure that what I chose really embodied what I believe about PR and communications.

Eventually, I chose “I’d rather be on offense than defense.” Nothing could be more true in public relations and communications in general. Being on defense means you’ve already lost in some respect – some damage has already been inflicted on your reputation.

It’s common sense. You’d rather be on offense talking about the new product launch, rather than on defense talking about the people who were injured by your product. Being on offense in today’s social media world is easier said than done. The moment something goes wrong with your product or service, the news hits Twitter or Facebook within an hour.

While you can’t always be on offense, there are ways to ensure you’re playing offense more often than defense. Here are a few tips:

1. Live your values every day. If you read my blog a lot, you knew this was coming. As long as your values are meaningful to society, living them will be interesting and newsworthy because they’re expressed in charitable activities.
   
2. Talk to the media about everything. I know. Your time is valuable, especially if you’re in the c-suite at a public company. You rarely have time to sleep at night, let alone spend time with a reporter. Unfortunately, this is one of the best things you can do for your company. You’re the face of the organization. That means your words and reputation are powerful allies. Use them on offense, and defense becomes a whole lot easier. Think of it this way: it’s easier to protect a 40-point lead than a three-point lead. The next time the media calls for comment on the state of the industry or your market, you might want to take advantage of the opportunity to build upon your solid reputation and attach it to your company. Even when the story is about how difficult the market is, as long as you choose your words wisely, you can put yourself and your company in a positive light.
   
3. Develop a strategic cadence. Like a quarterback calling out signals at the line of scrimmage, the cadence matters. Go overboard and the offensive line jumps offside. Underutilize it and the defense is in the backfield before your center can lift his head. Do it just right and the defense jumps offside. By creating a strategy that delivers the right cadence to the media, you can build a solid reputation that the media respect enough to not hit the quarterback after the offside whistle is blown. Make sure you are participating in newsworthy acitivities regularly so your communications team can build an effective strategy. Remember, anything you send to the media has to be real, it has to be authentic. It has to come from a place of your values. If it doesn’t, it will fall flat and the spin detectors will go off like the final gun in a football game.

This blog is getting a little long, so I’ll share more about being on offense tomorrow. If you need some help getting your communications back on offense, Jakel Communications, a Denver publicrelations agency, can help. Contact us today!

Honesty means spin is out

If you're a PR pro, you've probably been there. An executive or client walks into your office with a project for you and says, "Hey, we're working on this new thing, and I need your help to put the right spin on it." Or something like that.

Nothing made me cringe more than that one word -- spin -- because I tried my best to tell the people I worked with that I didn't spin. I wasn't their spinster. I would only communicate the truth in as authentic of a way as possible. That doesn't mean I didn't make mistakes. Anybody who works in the public sphere knows they make mistakes -- someone always tells them about it.

But spinning is something entirely different -- it's a conscious attempt to deceive the reader, viewer or listener. Spin sucks. Here are three reasons why spin not only sucks, but also hinders your ability to do your job well as a PR pro ...

1. Social media. Not much more to say here. Social media enables everybody in the world to call you out for spin. If it's not honest, you're going to regret it in the social media sphere.
   
2. Reputation matters long term. You're a PR pro. You know that reputations must be guarded with your life. They are the foundation of everything you do. Spin slowly erodes your reputation because more and more people recognize it and call you out on it. Soon, you'll be known as a dishonest spinster.
   
3. Spin detectors are everywhere. Journalists aren't the only ones with functioning spin detectors any more. People today are inundated with marketing messages, and they've grown accustomed to organizations stretching the truth or rephrasing to make a negative sound better. They know when you're spinning. Sometimes it makes them laugh at you (not with you) and sometimes they just get downright mad. Neither of those are good for you.

There are a lot more reasons to not spin, but these three should be enough. For the sake of our profession and reputations, please say no to spin and yes to the truth.

If you're not a PR pro and you'd like to work with an agency that isn't all about the spin, reach out to Jakel Communications, a Denver PR firm, today.

How in the world can values help in times of crises?

The crisis hits you right between the eyes. You’re a major oil company and one of your rigs just exploded. A huge gash in a deep underwater pipeline is releasing oil into the environment. You know this story, so I don’t really need to mention the name of the company.

How do you respond? You’re probably thinking: the exact opposite of how they responded. You’re mostly right, but more importantly, you respond with your values as the foundation.

Let me give you an example: If honesty is one of your values, and hopefully it is even if it’s not on your official values list, you tell the media exactly how much oil is gushing out of the pipeline, rather than giving them a low number in hopes that they won’t discover the real number.

You might be wondering how that helps in a crisis because it seems just as damaging. Well, your values foundation helps in a lot of ways and it begins well before the crisis hits. Here are a few ways in which your values will help you in times of crises.

1. They ground you. You’re a CEO, a CMO or some other executive, but you’re human. Your job is at stake and the crisis threatens your reputation and livelihood. If you are honest with yourself, you know that the first thing you’re thinking about is how do you make this just go away, how do you bury this and keep it out of the press. This type of thinking can lead to compromises and a complete disregard for one’s values, because survival instincts have kicked in. But if you have defined personal values and defined corporate values, that initial thought fades quickly, and you begin to face the problem from the basis of your values. By doing so, you don’t make matters worse by lying to the media.
   
2. They guide you. Crises are complicated. Especially those as large as the oil spill example. Information races toward you fast – some of it true, some of it false and some of it incomplete. You have to make decisions just as quickly, but you have to be careful not to make a decision too quickly, as it could lead to sending misinformation to the media or government authorities. The stronger your values, the more decisive and accurate you will be. Let’s say one of your values is authenticity and transparency. With this value in mind, as soon as you get information, you’re going to share it quickly and authentically by tempering its accuracy. You might say something to the effect of: “Our engineers have assessed the situation and we believe there are 10 gallons of oil gushing out of the pipeline per second. We had to put these numbers together quickly so it’s possible that we have miscalculated. There could be more or there could be less. Our engineers will continue to assess the situation, and we’ll share more as soon as we we know more. The government authorities are in the process of putting together their own assessment and will share with you soon. At that point, with their information, we will reassess our estimates and hopefully come to the most accurate conclusion possible.”
   
3. They temper the flack. This one is tricky because it has to start before the crisis hits. You have to have a reputation for living up to the values you have posted on your website. It’s not enough just to have your values posted. And you have to communicate your values through your actions and your words to the media, the public, the investment community, your employees and everyone who will listen. That creates 360-degree  accountability. By communicating your values, you’re making a commitment and a promise to everyone that you will live by them, and if you fail, you will take drastic action to fix it because your reputation is at stake. If you’ve done this in advance of the crisis, the media, public, investment community and employees will know how you’re going to respond. They’ll know that you will do the right thing. Otherwise, it’s a crap shoot on what they will print, say and do that will harm your organization in more ways that you can even imagine.

Crises are hard to navigate even if you have your values straight so it’s generally a good idea to hire an expert or a firm. Jakel Communications, a Denver PR agency, can help in most situations. If we can’t, we’ll direct you to a larger firm that can. 

The Values Foundation: Your People

It's common. The executives get in a room or go on a retreat to an expensive resort in a sunny city on the coast. They hammer out three to five core values and check the box on the task list.

They get back and ask HR or their corporate communications team to send an email telling everybody that they now have corporate values that should drive their everyday activities. Three years later, an associate calls corporate communications and asks, "Have we created corporate values yet? I heard that it's really important for a company to have values."

They hadn't heard a peep about values since that email that was sent three years ago.

What is the value of your corporate values if you rarely, if ever, communicate them? Zero. What started out as an inspired journey into creating a meaningful pillar of corporate culture turned into a lush vacation for the executives and a discontent workforce.

You can't get any value (monetary or otherwise) out of your corporate values unless you live them, talk about them and enforce them. As I said in my previous post, I don't believe the value of corporate values is in the bottom line.

So where is the value? It's in your people. By living, talking about and enforcing your corporate values, your people begin to embody your brand and convey those values to your customers. Your customers, in turn, see that your company is about more than just money. And they all love you for it.

But this can't be faked. It has to be real. You really have to believe that your corporate values matter more to you than your bottom line. You're not going to compromise your values to make an extra buck or two or even a million.

When you truly believe them, you will live them, talk about them (constantly) with your associates and enforce them when someone acts in a way detrimental to them. The result is an army of associates who love where they work, act as brand ambassadors every day and care deeply about the core of your organization.

Often, this leads to better financial results.

Jakel Communications, a Denver public relations firm, can help you communicate your values in an authentic, comprehensive manner. Contact us today for more information.

Values matter – even in public relations

Nope. This isn’t another get-rich-quick article on how having corporate values will make your organization successful or how they’re somehow going to manipulate your employees to do better work for you.

Because those are not good reasons to have corporate values. Values aren’t about your bottom line. They’re about much more than that. Can they lead to more money and inspired employees? Sometimes, yes. Sometimes, no.

The true value of your corporate values, however, isn’t about money or inspired employees. They’re about you, about your system of beliefs, about how you’re going to conduct business regardless of the short-term impact on your company’s financial situation. In other words, you will be “honest & ethical” even if it means you are going to lose that multimillion dollar deal or your stock price is going to lose 25 percent of its value in a day. 

If that’s true of your corporate values, then you’ve done a stand-up job formulating them. In addition, it means that your corporate values are the foundation of your reputation. You truly believe in them and believe they matter not only to your organization, but also to you as a person. You believe that if you compromise on those values, you would have a hard time sleeping at night and feel morally convicted.

It also means, you’re ready to start an authentic and real values-driven public relations function at your organization – or rebuild the function you have in place. Public relations only works long-term if it’s a values driven function at your organization.

Without values playing an important role in your public relations function, they are manipulated by public opinion and cease to be values. The core of who you are becomes something entirely different because a certain group of people dislike your statements or actions that come from your values. And the only reason you compromised or changed your value was because you mistakenly believed that you would lose money in the long-term from the upset group or group of people.

Unless your value is inherently flawed or bad (i.e. we will lie, cheat and steal to make a sale), it shouldn’t change because you’re going to lose a few sales or even millions of dollars. If it changes because of that, it wasn’t a value in the first place. It was a tool to increase sales or to manipulate your employees.

On the flip side, you can use your values in a positive manner for public relations purposes. Everything you say and do should derive from and speak your values into the public sphere. The messages you send to the public through words and actions should be the embodiment of the values that are at the core of your business.

At Jakel Communications, a Denver publicrelations agency, we can help you build a public relations function and platform that is values-driven. Give us a call or send an email.