A watershed moment for PR
Posted by David Eaheart, APR on Jun. 13, 2012 / Subscribe 0
This year I’ve watched with amazement two major developments that directly affected me as a communicator in the food industry. Those are the mistrust in food production and how social media has drastically changed the world in which we communicate.
This spring the leanly fine textured beef issue quickly swelled to something monumental from a communications perspective. Although I’m involved in a different meat industry segment, from what I can determine this is a safe, nutritious product with a long-term safe track record. Unlike many other food crisis though, it didn’t include a recall or a new health report. Instead, a perfect storm came that started with a blog and national news media coverage that made this issue that had been simmering for a while go viral quickly.
This issue had all the perfect elements, such as the slang term “pink slime,” misunderstood technology and processes, and a favorite food of kids, to make a sensational news story. Quickly the airwaves and front pages of newspapers combined with tweets, blogs and Facebook pages were everywhere you listened or looked once the news story broke. Even though much of this information was inaccurate and misguided, it didn’t make any difference because by the time the other side of the story was told it was too late.
No matter your personal opinion about this particular product and its issue, as communicators we can learn from what’s happened this spring to provide better counsel to our organizations. Some of it is the same basic communications principles we dealt with before, but with a new twist.
Build trust
We must build trust with our audiences before issues come along. Doing the right thing and communicating about it at the time of the crisis is no longer enough. Our companies and organizations must be more transparent in our actions beforehand, and willing to respond to the tough questions and even show our warts. I realize that’s not an easy thing to do.
Transparency also must disclose values and beliefs. Our audiences don’t necessarily connect with or believe science-based facts. The avenues now available for free-flowing, real-time information should communicate values and beliefs in addition to the facts. Our audiences in many cases will respond more positively to an issue or a crisis if they know our organization’s values.
Tell your story now!
Back when I started my communications career 20 plus years ago, we often had days and even weeks to respond and analyze a situation. Unless it was a disaster, issues just didn’t take hold immediately. That’s all changed with social media. You have to be prepared to tell your side of the story now. If you don’t, someone else will and if you wait to respond it will be perceived that you were hiding something when you do finally respond.
Put a face too it
When it comes down to it, organizations don’t communicate, but people do. Your side of the story is much more likely to be understood and believed if you use a spokesperson that’s shares and conveys similar values as your audiences. There are times that face will be the leader of your organization, while other times it probably shouldn’t be.
Don’t forget about your employees as the face of your organization and instill in them your organizations practices, beliefs and values. Your most believable allies in both the good and bad times are your employees, and they can be your most valuable goodwill ambassadors. This will go a long way in building trust because their social network of friends and family.
As communicators, I encourage you to look at the leanly fine texture beef issue even if you aren’t in the food business, because I truly believe this was a watershed moment for the profession of public relations. We owe it to ourselves to examine what happened with this issue and determine from it how we can make ourselves better, trustworthy communicators for our organizations.
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David Eaheart, APR, serves as the 2012 president of GKC PRSA and is director of marketing at Seaboard Foods, Merriam, Kan. He can be reached at [email protected].
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