In a time of crisis, PR is your greatest asset

It’s an inconvenient truth for any business: at some point in your existence, whether it be tomorrow or 20 years from now, you will be faced with a crisis. Some call it Murphy’s Law, others sheer bad luck. Whatever you call it, a time of crisis is one of the most defining moments in an organizations history, good or bad.

Crisis in the news

The BP oil spill has brought a lot of attention to organizational crisis recently. The mismanagement of this situation by one of the planet’s largest oil companies is sure to be a case study for PR and business students across the globe for decades to come. The future bright minds of the PR industry will learn best practices from this devastating tragedy, and will be that much better prepared for the inevitable crisis in their professional future.

The role of PR

Crisis is scary, but it gets even scarier when you haven’t planned for it properly. Running an organization of any size involves an extraordinary amount of work, and sometimes things can get missed or put aside. The best way to run an effective company is to have divisions who specialize in the various aspects of operation.

Who specializes in crisis management? You guessed it.

An effective PR professional or team has the know-how and expertise to pull you through a crisis. This is accomplished with

a) A crisis management plan: Regardless of your industry, it never hurts to be proactive. We PR folk are an odd breed, using our imagination to think up likely worst-case scenarios that you never dreamed of. By planning ahead, we can be ready quickly at the time of crisis

b) Crisis communication: When the crisis happens, we know what needs to be said, when, and to whom. Careful but honest communication is the name of the game, and a PR professional can teach the face of the company how to deal with media and public scrutiny.

c) Image rebuilding: a crisis will likely hurt your image, but images can be rebuilt.

Realistic expectations

No PR person can guarantee you that they can “make a crisis go away” or “make everyone forget about it”. That isn’t realistic, and has undertones of dishonesty that no respectable PR professional would condone. What we can promise is that with effective crisis communication you can make the best of a bad situation, and can save face among your important publics.

With years of public relations experience, Kathryn Kates Public Relations knows a thing or two about crisis communication. We invite you to check out our website, or join the Kathryn Kates Public Relations Facebook Fan Page. We would love to hear from you.

How Integrated Should Your Online Presence Be?

The Internet, as we discussed last week, is the great connector of people across the world. Almost every human being on earth has some sort of online presence. This could be just a Facebook account, but could also include Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and more. Our online presence has become synonymous with our identity as human beings, as everything we put online speaks to our personality, thoughts and dreams.

With our lives on display for the world, issues of privacy are at the forefront in most countries. It seems that the moment Facebook exploded on the world scene so too did questions about their privacy settings. On many social media platforms, once something is on the internet, it is there forever. It is up to the individual users to think before they Tweet, and many never do.

Many professionals and companies consider their online presence to be an integral part of their “personal brand.” They are very careful with how they post, making sure that anything on the web is something they can be proud of showing. This is sound practice for anyone using social media to follow. One looming question remains with this practice: what platforms should you integrate with your personal brand?

Opinions on this question vary, and we could never give a single, authoritative answer. What we can give is our opinion:

1) Facebook: a great tool to connect with others and gain brand notoriety, especially through their fan pages.

2) LinkedIn: created as a professional networking site. LinkedIn is a nice addition to your online profile as it allows for sharing of business related information amongst your peers.

3) Twitter: allows you to share content that your professional peers may very well find intriguing, and can be used effectively to advertise your professional image.

4) Foursquare: companies, often with the help of a public relations expert, have found intriguing ways of using Foursquare. The site is devoted to letting people know where you are and what you are up to in the moment.

All of this is subjective and variable. To decide for yourself, just think: what would I be proud of advertising to the world, and what should stay among my friends. Make up your mind on this, and stick to it. After all, it’s your digital life.

Kathryn Kates Public Relations invites you to check out our website, or join the Kathryn Kates Public Relations Facebook Fan Page. We would love to hear from you.

Globalized World, Globalized PR

Since the advent of the internet two decades ago, everything changed. That may sound clichéd, but almost everything we as humans do has been changed drastically by the world wide web. Even basic human drives of food, shelter and love have been altered by what started out as a simple connection between computers.

In our professional lives, the most important change has been the emergence of the Global Village. Businesses and business professionals across countries and continents are able to do business as if they were neighbours. Global partnerships are the way of this brave new world.

Public Relations, like all other professions, has changed with this shift. While PR still works well in a close, personal setting, there are many advantages to working with clients and communicators from across the world:

· As we mentioned previously in our article about celebrities seeking out of town PR, you no longer need to settle for just the agencies in your area. If you want someone with a great track record, chances are they want you, no matter where they are!

· If you are looking to enter a foreign market, it is easy to team with an agency familiar with that area who can help you understand the intricacies of doing business there.

· Communication has never been easier with social media tools and web chat services like Skype. You can get the personal one on one feel hundred of miles apart!

In 2011 and beyond, don’t be afraid to think global for your communication needs. Distance is no longer an obstacle.

Familiar with the Ontario communication scene, Kathryn Kates Public Relations would love to help get you started in a new area. We invite you to check out our website, or join the Kathryn Kates Public Relations Facebook Fan Page. We would love to hear from you.

If people know it’s PR, will it work?

It’s a constant struggle for those in the PR industry: the public we seek to relate with have unflattering misconceptions about what we do. Words like “spin doctor” get thrown around, meant to portray the communicator as something other than what he or she is.

Of course, true public relations is a good thing. The communicators who do their jobs properly maintain standards of honesty and transparency in their work, seeking not to “spin” but to communicate openly with their organization’s stakeholders. Public relations does not seek to alter the message, but to convey it. The role of the PR department is to communicate with the public so the other departments can focus on their roles.

The question here is this: since public relations is founded on honesty and transparency, an organization must never hide the fact that what they are doing is PR. Given the misconceptions about PR by some, does knowing that a PR campaign is going on hurt the chances of that campaign’s success?

In other words: if people know it’s PR, will it work?

Our answer to this is a qualified yes. If it’s good PR, it will work.

If the message is conveyed clearly and with transparency it will appear that way with the intended audience. In a skeptical world people have become very keen at evaluating truth from lies, and no amount of marketing or advertising is as effective as open communication. Publics appreciate when companies they depend on are forthright with them, even with bad news. PR is not selling but relationship building, a much stronger bond.

If it is clear that a company is using public relations, as long as that tactic is aimed at furthering relationships with stakeholders it will work beautifully.

While we are being honest, everything we do is public relations. Kathryn Kates Public Relations is dedicated to conveying the image of our clients and helping them to foster relationships with their clients. If you would like to strengthen your client relationships, we would love to hear from you. Visit our website at kathrynkatespr.com, or join the Kathryn Kates Public Relations Facebook Fan Page.

For Celebrity PR, The Grass is Sometimes Greener

Last month we brought you our annual list of the most over publicized celebrities of the year. These celebrities fell prey to all manner of misfortune in 2010, and found their faces all over the Internet and tabloids. Celebrity misfortune is nothing new; if it was, our list wouldn’t be an annual event! The scope of embarrassment has been amplified by social media to the point where fans are the new paparazzi. These celebrities really must be more careful!

It is the duty of celebrity publicists to help their clients navigate the tricky world of fame in the 21st century. In a world where image is everything, public relations cannot be taken lightly.

When we read some of the stories that come out regarding everyone’s favourite celebrities, the knee jerk reaction is to put it off as spoiled rich-kid zaniness. In reality, what these celebs suffer from is bad advice from those they trust, including their PR person. Very few people are equipped to deal with fame, which is why the famous rely on their various aides. Celebrities are good at what made them famous, which is likely not media relations. This is where the PR person comes in.

Celebrities are human, and will make mistakes. It is easier to move on from mistakes in the public eye with good crisis communication and PR coaching. The fact that the celebrities on our list were hit with a constant barrage of negative publicity shows that either
a) They need to hire a publicist; or
b) They need to hire a better publicist

While we doubt many celebrities in turmoil will read this post, we are going to offer up advice anyway.

Sometimes, the best fix is a change in scenery.

Obviously it is impossible for these superstars to leave Hollywood behind. When your work has a central hub, you don’t run to the edges. So how to change your scenery, then?

Through the help you hire. In a globalized world, no one needs to rely on a PR firm just because of location. It is not uncommon for an agency to have clients all across their country, or even the world.

So, if you’re a celebrity stuck getting bad advice from the local communicators, it might be time to look out of town. There are talented PR professionals all over with good advice and skills to ride out a crisis.

We may not be Hollywood, but Kathryn Kates PR strives to make all our clients superstars. We invite you to check out our website, or join the Kathryn Kates Public Relations Facebook Fan Page. We would love to hear from you.

Has Social Media Killed Sports PR?

As we begin 2011, little more can be said about the power of social media. Explaining how Twitter and Facebook connect people like never before is like explaining to someone that the sky is blue. But perhaps the most continually fascinating thing about this new social media reality is how it connects celebrities and their fans.

The implications of this connectivity touches a special nerve with professional athletes, their teams and the communicators those teams employ. In the past athletes were larger than life personalities, often removed from their fans and guarded by their handlers. The stereotypical image of a “PR Guy” for sports teams during this period was a stiff in a suit who would cover up the wild partying and indiscretions of athletes before the media latched on.

The athletes of today are drastically different. On Twitter, athletes like Shaquille O’Neill and Chad Ochocinco command large audiences of followers of their random thoughts and opinions. No longer silent, the athletes of today speak their minds. Sometimes, they say too much. Fans revel in this new closeness with their idols, now able to see these superstars as real people. Sports leagues, on the other hand, are wary.

So will Twitter be the end of Sports PR?

Hardly. True public relations is founded on honesty and transparency. Communicators should stop attempting to censor the opinions and ideas of athletes over social media. Rather, they should strive to educate them on the importance of their team and league image, and teach core social media etiquette.

The key messages public relations professionals should communicate to their athletes:

· The jersey you wear defines you, you define the jersey you wear: from the moment they are signed the reputation of team and player are linked.

· Basic media relations: a brief workshop regarding what is newsworthy and controversial will go a long way.

· History: the history of social media is brief, but there are many cautionary examples of athletes getting in trouble on Twitter.

· Personal branding: a common workshop in many professions, the importance of building a beneficial online self.

Communication, both internal and external, works best when it is integrated amongst departments. This includes all employees, especially the athletes. Including them in the communication process will aid their understanding of team image and lessen their chances of embarrassing missteps.

Controlling the online presence of athletes is not realistic. Like it or not, athletes have the power to voice their thoughts in public, and the media has access to every word of it. Rather than focusing on what cannot be controlled, an effective PR practitioner will change the way he approaches his craft. Social media will not kill public relations; rather, public relations will adapt. The role of communicators in sports is changing, but has never been more valuable.

Coming Full Circle...and enjoying the journey!

Many of you have known me as a journalist, but my life in communications began in public relations...back in the days with a press release was posted to a red box at the corner of the street, and not to an electronic wall.

Times have changed, so deciding to come back into this world of promotion a few years ago, meant not just dusting off the old tools, but learning how to use all the wonderful new tools of the trade.

Well, I am doing it! I am learning and loving it. When new opportunities arise to work with clients from the arts world, business and/or industry...I just can't wait to join them on a journey to explore all the creative possibilities of spreading their word together. It is never too late to get excited about what you are doing. That makes for a good PR person, journalist, or whatever you do... not only in work, but of course, in life's play.

From the bottom of my heart, I want to thank those on the Kathryn Kates Public Relations' team who bring so much talent and smarts to the table. I also want to thank the people who believe in our spirit and work ethic and have supported us by becoming our clients.

And thanks to the media, who have been our partners in getting our clients' messages out--when they deem it is an important story to be told. Be forewarned--your receptiveness has only encouraged me to continue to pitch away! lol.

I invite you to check out our website at: kathrynkatespr.com, or join the Kathryn Kates Public Relations Facebook Fan Page. We would love to hear from you.