I love Dilbert– he sometimes puts in a little thing about those in the PR industry! You gotta love it! 🙂 But he does bring up an interesting challenge for Public Relations professionals. We do have a job to do for our client or PR agency / corporation we are presenting, and what if they say that you need to go with this angle towards a particular story, but it isn’t the truth? What do you do? Do you confront your bosses and the client about it, go along with it, or voice your own opinion?
There are a lot of pressures out there for Public Relations professionals to spin their story. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The best thing to do in your job is to be honest and lay down the facts. The corporations that have survived the biggest crises have done just that– they have made timely, honest, transparent, but simple statements to their various audiences.
But then you see others that try to “spin” their version of what happened, and where are they now? In textbooks as examples of “What not to do in a Crisis Situation!” 🙂 Some current examples that would fall under this would be Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, and Justin Gatlin. All of these athletes have at one point or another tried to “spin” their story to the public, but it really didn’t work out.
Public Relations professionals are not only looking out for their own corporation as being their “conscience”, but they are also looking out for the various audiences that they are communicating with. PR is all about managing relationships, and it is key to be open and clear to everyone on a consistent basis.
These are just a few of my thoughts. I hope you all are having a great day! 🙂
Best Wishes,
Karen 🙂
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