By Katarina Arambasic-Pivic
Image: Created in Canva
This is undoubtedly the most crucial PR advice for anyone without a communications background. So, keep this advice in mind if you are unsure or worried about the outcomes of specific actions. Be aware that many crises occur because of a lack of communication or consultations with PR experts.
For this reason:
Make public relations a strategic position in your organization. On behalf of the employer, a person or team in charge of communications fights essential battles. This is particularly obvious during times of crisis when a negative story has the potential to become viral and significantly harm your brand and reputation. So, please respect your PR colleagues.
Communications specialists are not the media’s agents but rather your ally. For this reason, if you receive unpleasant questions from the media, please do not say to your PR colleague(s): “What do your journalists want this time?”. The PR manager cooperates with journalists, and the better the cooperation, the better the results of his/her work. However, he/she is not a representative of the media company but of your organization, a bridge between you and the media, acting in your interest. Remember that.
Additionally, resist the need to express negativism due to the reporter’s brief response window. The media’s mission is to report daily and to work either now for today or today for tomorrow. Journalists are not concerned because the deadline does not work for you, just like they don’t care that you don’t like his questions. After all, that’s their job. To ask whether someone likes it or not. With this in mind, answer the questions precisely and within the given time. The media frequently agrees to PR requests for an extended deadline if it is extremely tight, but it must be done professionally and with an explanation.
PR has the most significant role in times of crisis, upcoming, or one that has already occurred. No problem, regardless of which part of the business it refers to, can be adequately handled without the active participation and coordination of the PR team. Every organization should have a crisis communication strategy with elaborated behavior models in the most typical crises that can happen to it. Of course, you can’t anticipate all types of situations, but you can predict the most typical ones for your industry. This is a common problem, so when you prepare a strategy, make sure it doesn’t remain only on paper or on one person’s computer. Instead, involve the entire management and go over the most crucial sections together, such as who does what, who informs whom, what internal communications look like, who makes media statements, what proactive and reactive informing the public mean, etc. Create a crisis simulation and use real-world examples to demonstrate what can happen if just one link breaks. Practice with examples because examples (not theory) are remembered.
PR is like football; everyone has an opinion about him and knows better than the coach. When things go well, everyone is praised more than PR, and PR is typically to blame when things don’t go well. But it’s the cross that everyone in this business must carry. However, at least occasionally give us credit and make it easy for us.
We have already mentioned here that you can read about PR, its origin and development, and the role of this profession in the world today in the book “Effective Public Relations” (Cutlip, Center, and Broom). This edition is considered the Bible of the profession and one of the few publications whose quality is not affected by time flow. For anyone new to this business, it is essential to set foundations with a quality introduction to this profession, which this book indeed represents. After all, it will be simpler to get “sober” 🤓 because public relations work is not nearly as glamorous as people on the outside believe. Instead, it depends significantly on your industry, the internal importance given to this function within the organization, and the knowledge and dedication of colleagues who are qualified to represent this profession.
