While there was no stated theme at the recent Communications Network Fall Conference, virtually every plenary and break out session focused in some way or another on the need to tell our stories better for more effective communications. I suppose this theme isn't surprising among professional communicators but it was fascinating how much of a struggle it seems to be for a group of people, who more than most, really understand storytelling.
The “strategic” part of strategic communications frequently involves enhancing and utilizing everyday communications to manage change and grow leadership in your sector. And integral to this is branding—and developing a brand that has meaning and value—as we wrote in the following contribution to the Huffington Post
Here’s an example of a poorly executed corporate communications plan and bad message development from the good people at Network Solutions. I received an email from the company thanking me for an order for a dot-biz web address that I didn’t want and didn’t place.
Organizations without clear messaging and without a strategic communications plan are like the Costa Concordia—they run aground. Rarely is there a tragic loss of life, as there was with the Mediterranean cruise liner. But there most certainly can be severe consequences: reputational damage at worst and apathy among customers and donors at best.
NBC’s Today show devoted a segment this week to Alzheimer’s disease, with a “PR executive” who sincerely advocated for her cause (she noted that her mother had suffered from Alzheimer’s), but struck an odd note when she said that the disease’s “negative stigma” is due to a perception that it’s a disease that “old people get.”
The Tweet read, “If a girl is drunk, is it ok to have sex with her? Reply yes or no to @drphil #teensaccused.' It was deleted almost as quickly as it was posted, but the “ill-advised” question posed by Dr. Phil McGraw (or his team) drew understandable outrage. And the impact of this mind-blowing social media misstep lingered long enough to make it into this week’s edition of Time magazine.
Anyone who is serious about message development has to factor in the negative bias of the human mind, as I wrote this week in a blog post for The Washington Business Journal: Have you ever wondered why no one seems to hear the positive messages about your company or cause? It may have something to do with the basic wiring of the human mind.
Outside public relations support can be an invaluable tool – whether you’re working on a single project or in a long-term engagement to provide perspective, expertise, and communications support. But if you’re spending wads of money and feel as though your relationship with your PR firm is spiraling toward the drain, it’s time to reexamine the basics.
In the movie Avalon, the father character Sam Krichinsky, remarks wistfully, "If I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember better." I'm sort of feeling as Sam did today when I learned about the sale of The Washington Post to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. We mourn for what was while moving forward to the future.
Poet Robert Burns tells us that “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Well, the same holds true for spokespeople and their messages. One of the goals of spokesperson training is to help people with message discipline. Even after careful thought and planning, spokespeople and presenters often stray from their message, tripped up a by a hostile question or something else unexpected.
