No news is not good news

Posted on March 22, 2011 by david

I find it hard to believe that the ‘no news is good news’ method of managing public relations – particularly when

The head in sand approach to pr only leaves a void for others to fill

pertaining to issue or crisis management – is still being employed these days.
This practice seems more than somewhat outdated in today’s fast moving communications sphere. We live in a world where an earthquake and ensuing tsunami in Japan leads every international news bulletins only minutes after it happens, or when bad-boy actor Charlie Sheen’s latest narcissistic rant can be instantly picked up by a couple of million followers on Twitter, and the removal of a North African dictator from his four decade reign is played out in the living rooms of viewers in Paris, London, Wellington and New York.
Therefore the old ‘little comment as possible’ technique seems highly passé and totally ineffective in the world we now live in. However, it seems some organisations still subscribe to the ‘less is more’ pr ethos.
Fonterra springs to mind as a major user of this mode of public communication. Despite been a highly successful farmer co-operative and international food company the diary giant seems to prefer to take a far more passive stance than front-footing potential controversial issues.
One only has to look at the current debate over milk prices http://tinyurl.com/5sqsehm ; controversy over the imports of palm kernel stock feed http://tinyurl.com/4r93df5 or even the long-running dirty dairying claims http://tinyurl.com/4grwknz to see Fonterra has taken a ‘quietly-quietly’ approach to these issues or anything that may cause it a bit of hullabaloo.
I think Fonterra is a great New Zealand company and it has a wonderful story to tell. However, you get the feeling by the way it keeps its head buried in the sand that Fonterra is either embarrassed by its success, afraid to confront issues head on or is hiding something.
Fonterra needs to lose its fear of engaging in controversy and to fill the vacuum this creates for its opponents and critics. I am confident it has well-reasoned arguments and points to make about milk prices, imports of palm kernel extract and so-called dirty dairying. It would be good to hear them.

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Communications planning

Posted on March 13, 2011 by david

You need a communications plan whenever you communicating with the public. It’s a good idea to have an overarching strategy for all communications, as well as “mini” communications plans for projects such as a newsletter, or a major event, such as a conference.

Background: Where are you now?
Start by thinking about how you are communicating now. Are you saying what you want to say, to the people you want to say it to? By taking some time to think about the current situation, you’ll be ready for the next step—setting some objectives.

Objectives: What do you want to accomplish?
Why do you want to communicate with people? Is it to raise the profile of your organisation among decision-makers? To get people interested in supporting your organisation? Or to encourage people to support a cause you are promoting?
Of course you can’t do everything, so try to keep your objectives realistic. The old KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle is a good adage –with the best communications plans having no more than four to six objectives.

Messages: What do you want to say?
The best messages are short and simple – remember KISS!

Target audiences: Who do you want to say it to?
Most organisations want to communicate with many different audiences, including; for example:
• policy-makers (local and national)
• like-minded organisations
• the media
• academics, researchers and educational institutions
• industry or sector groups
• Iwi
• community groups
• general public
In a bulleted list, such as the one above, list all of the audiences—local, national and international—you want to reach.

Strategic considerations: What else should you consider when communicating?
Make a list of the most important influences—local, national and international—on what you are trying to communicate. You may want to consider local, national forest initiatives, and international views to what you are trying to communicate.

Approach and activities: How to get your message out?
Don’t forget to keep your messages, audiences and strategic considerations in mind. Start by deciding on your approach, then make a list of activities that support it.
For example, if your objective is to raise profile among decision-makers, your approach could be to share the results of appropriate research with local, national and international decision-makers.
Activities that support this approach could include organising workshops to demonstrate this research to decision-makers, or putting together a newsletter about the research and distributing it to key decision-makers.

Putting the plan into action
Your communications plan should include an action plan that explains:
• what you’re going to do
• when you’re going to do it
• who is going to do it
• how much it will cost

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Communicating in a crisis

Posted on February 27, 2011 by david

 The devastating earthquake which hit Christchurch on February 22, and the resulting death and destruction in its aftermath has highlighted – in all too much reality – the need for having excellent crisis communication systems in place. So far, the communications efforts coming out from Christchurch have been very good.

In a perverse way, the city’s earlier earthquake on September 4 – in which a fair bit of damage was done to buildings and infrastructure, but where no deaths occurred – had given those now involved a dummy run in managing crisis communications during such a natural disaster. Christchurch is also lucky in that its main spokesman and current mayor is former TV front man Bob Parker. The former ‘This is Your Life” host is a consummate communicator, is not rattled by the media circus and is eloquent in getting out necessary key messages.

A crisis is an event that occurs suddenly, often unexpectedly and demands a quick response – ie an earthquake. A crisis will interfere with normal routines and business, create uncertainty and stress. Well-managed crisis communications can not only preserve reputations and credibility, but can also enhance them.

The key to effective crisis communication is to be prepared before a crisis occurs. Once an emergency happens, there is little time to think much less to plan. Without a crisis plan, you can be overwhelmed by events.

In a crisis, the best course of action is to be forthcoming and honest and do what it takes to facilitate stories. Remember, the media are going to write and air stories with or without your help. So it’s in your best interest to participate in a story – even a negative one – in order to have your position correctly represented.

During a crisis, bring all the key media players into a room and get the facts straight. But never tell more than you actually know and constantly update reporters. Journalists have to get information out – and often they are competing to ‘break’ stories first. If you don’t give them anything – they may be forced to report on rumours.

Five key tips for crisis communications:

• Have a crisis plan in place.

• In a time of crisis, go public as soon as you can – but only with what you actually know.

• Get top management or officials to front the crisis.

• Keep your internal audiences informed.

• Update both media and internal audiences frequently and regularly.

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Trying to tame the online tiger

Posted on February 18, 2011 by david

 In the last few years we have literally seen an explosion in social media – Facebook, blogs, twitter et el – are now all the rage.

The arrival of all this new media has seen the metaphorical birth of ‘monkeys with typewriters’. While this brings with it both many good (more competition) and bad (lack of standards) aspects to journalism that unregulated competition brings, it also brings further complications of how this impacts on communications by organisations and people.

Nowadays, it is not just mainstream media that these have to contend with, but also users of new media. The reality today is that anybody can set themselves up with a blogger account or a twitter site and – depending on their following – wax lyrically or (in most cases) not so lyrically about you, your company/organisation.

It was while reading some of the latest figures on people’s rating of mainstream media and the internet for information sources New Zealand: Social Media – Trends – DIGITAL MEDIA ACROSS ASIA which reminded of something Winston Churchill once said: “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth gets its pants on!” 

Going by these figures, it seems, the old British Bulldog was right on the money! According to this reseach, the internet is rated highly as a source of information – above all the other sources in this survey. With 65% rating the internet as important placing it as a more important source of information for people than television (55%), newspapers (53%), and radio (44%). The internet was even rated even higher than interpersonal sources like family and friends (53%) or community services such as libraries (45%).

What this tells us – like it or not – the majority of people believe what they read on the online. (Unfortunately, it seems technology is making people gullible rather than more informed!) So it means that companies; organisations; politicians or anyone who wants to communicate with the public, needs to be aware of and to manage their online presence. It is worth businesses and organisations taking the time and/or putting the resources into looking after their online reputation.

People looking to manage their reputation need to understand that internet and social media management is a tiger that needs to be tamed before it turns wild and unmanagable.

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Writing for the web

Posted on February 12, 2011 by david

Short and sharp is best

Writing for an online audience – or the web – is a much different beast to writing for print.
If successful online writing could be summed up in one succinct message, it would be: the shorter, the better!
Why is it not the same as writing for print? Because people behave differently on online.
Basically it comes down to two key factors – the physical limitations of computer screens and how people conduct themselves online.
The physical barriers posed today are much less than in the past – when computer monitors were hopelessly fuzzy compared to the crisp images of a glossy magazine. Meanwhile, a previous lack of computer portability meant the ability to take a newspaper to bed, on the bus – or even to the loo – gave printed material an advantage over online rivals.
However, the development of both the laptop and IPad has lessened this disadvantage. But there is still that tactile feel of books and magazines which people like – compared to the sterile feel of say an IPad.
Other physical impediment to online written material will also lessen over time. Today’s monitors are vastly superior to the ones used a decade ago—while continual improvements are being made with software all to make the online experience even better.
However, the more significant barrier online writers must overcome is not the physical and technological advances – but behavioural.
Anyone who’s observed, tested, or studied online reading agrees that people conduct themselves differently when online. The advent of the computer has only added to the human race’s constant feeling of being time poor. So when people are reading or looking for information online, they don’t so much read—but scan. The word that best describes this behaviour is: impatient.
The challenge for the web writer is to overcome online readers’ impatience and to keep things as brief as possible – short and sharp is good!
It’s a big challenge, but one those writing for an online must be mindful of.

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How to develop effective key messages

Posted on February 5, 2011 by david

Key messages are the core points or facts which you want a target audience to either read, hear or see and remember.

These create meaning and attention on an issue – ie new product, policy launch, or idea – that you want to gain publicity on.

Ensuring that you have well-developed, key messages will allow you to better control communication around your topic, and also enhance the relationship with the audiences you are wanting to talk to. Key messages are intended to illustrate exactly just what you really need to get across on the topic you are communicating.

But first you need to know and ask yourself:

What are the critical messages that I want to communicate?

These are what you must say and get across in any communication situation (press conference, media interview, speech) — irrespective of what questions an audience may ask.

When developing your key messages – be it for a business document, media releases or a speech – you need to keep the audience in mind you are wanting to talk to and focus on your messages with it in mind.

You should also work out in advance, exactly what you want say and what you wish to get across on the topic concerned. It is best not to have any more than six or seven messages on any one topic – as any more will only dilute your point.

Key messages are commonly known as water cooler or BBQ statements — what we want our target audiences to say when they are discussing the topic around a BBQ with their friends.

Criteria for Key Messages

  • Be believable — support you points with evidence
  • Be understood — ensure to reflect the  target audience’s understanding in your messaging
  • Be distinctive
  • Be agreed — have everyone speaking about the topic singing off the same song sheet
  • Be credible — know your stuff
  • Drive your agenda
  • Avoid being negative and always accentuate the positive
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Managing your reputation

Posted on January 19, 2011 by david

BP's good name and profits go up in flames

Reputation management is the essence of any public relations, which is – funnily enough – all about managing relations with the public!

Managing you or your organisation’s reputation may not seem much of a priority when things are going well. However, when things are not going so well or your business experiences some kind of issue or crisis – then reputation management will take on a lot more importance and significance.

One only has to think back to the hammering BP took over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill to see how fast and how bad your reputation can suffer.

While, rightly or wrongly, BP has borne – and continues to bear – the brunt of the fallout and negativity for this environmental disaster.

Two other companies – Haliburton and  Transocean – who were arguably just as responsible, but did not suffer the same public or reputational damage. So how come BP suffered so badly and the other companies escaped relatively unscathed?

That is the million – or in this case billion – dollar question. I suggest it was more a case of good luck than good management – and the fact the media focus was entirely on BP – that Haliburton and Transocean did not take the reputation battering the oil giant did.

Now I am sure that BP would have had in place a vast public relations team with communications and crisis management plans coming out if its ears, but it still got whacked. Why? I am sure BP has asked itself this and has done PR audit after audit to find the answer.

However, I reckon it all comes down to the simple answer of perception. Early on in the crisis – rightly or wrongly – BP was percieved by the public and media not to be doing enough. And in the battle of public relations – perception is reality. 

Once people started believing that BP was not doing enough to stop the flow of oil or minimise the envionmental impact, that was when the BP’s reputation and name started to suffer. 

The company was also not helped by the actions – or inactions – of its then chief executive Tony Christie. He quickly became the personification of BP and his much quoted: “I want my life back” quip, as well as pictures of him sailing his boat on the pristine waters of the Isle of White while oil continued to pour into the Gulf only caused more damage.

Christie was portrayed in the media as a modern day Nero. But instead of playing the fiddle while Rome burnt, he was off sailing with his buddies while sludge and oil was runing livelihoods in Louisiana. Any slither of hope for restoring BP’s reputation with the US public was gone.

The simple lesson for managing reputation out the BP crisis – or any other – is that you or your organisation’s reputation is won or lost in the hearts and minds of the public. If you lose this early on – then you are always gong to struggle.

However, if you are shown or perceived to be taking action, doing all you can to remedy the situtation and front fotting things, then you are less likely to see your reputation suffer as much.

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Welcome to our site and New Zealand public relations blog

Posted on January 11, 2011 by david

It is all about listening

Hi and welcome to WRITE HERE, RIGHT NOW LTD – a new communications advice and public relations business.

I have even established a website and a public relations blog, which – of course – you are now reading.

I’ve set up WRITE HERE, RIGHT NOW LTD – as the name suggests – to assist and provide clients with the best communications advice available,  delivered in a timely and cost effective manner.

How do I work? My ethos is to listen to my clients. Find out what they want and then deliver it. Nothing too clever in that.

However, it is funny how often the so-called experts will tell people what they want, rather than do what they asked. I believe the key to successful communications all starts with listening.

If you want to create a business case to help persuade a client to take on a new project,  need an article or a blog post written to try and influence people to accept a new idea, need convincing advertising copy for a new product or require contact and relations with media outlets. Whatever writing, editing media relations or communication work you require, WRITE HERE, RIGHT NOW LTD, has the necessary skills and experience to deliver.

We are a bit like the IRD – we are here to help!

So that is a bit of an introduction. I intend to use this blog in future to articulate my thoughts on the best and worst communications and public relations advice and information that I come across and to share it with you. I hope you find it useful and interesting. Please be sure to comment below and give your thoughts and opinions.

In the meantime, if you want to get in touch contact me at: david@writehererightnow.co.nz

Until next time

David

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