Public relations and managing reputation

Whilst I don’t pretend to have any great insights on this matter, I was recently interviewed by British uni student Hayley McDonald (@HAYCMAC) on how social media is impacting on the practice of PR and how it is changing the way PR pros work, with the critical upshot being that making the right strategic decision, on a variety of levels, is more important (and, yes, more challenging) than ever.

The most common thought that is contained within crisis management literature is that somehow a crisis is just an external event that can be managed with the right level of resources and preparation. Paul Ritchie, author of Stay On Message, says this is incomplete and it misses the most dangerous variable in any crisis and that is the way a spin doctor actually responds to the issue.

The strategy driving what content goes on corporate websites needs to fit into the overarching organisational communication strategy, yet so wide-ranging and large can corporate websites be, that they sometimes seem to occupy their own ‘micro-climate’ where a unique approach, arguably, needs to be applied.

In this post, with the insight and assistance of a range of communication professionals – digital, SEO (search engine optimisation), marketing, public relations – I am going to outline a number of strategic and tactical elements to consider when utilising websites as an organisational communication mechanism.

There is no guide, or overarching process, for how one should go about producing the content that goes on corporate websites…from strategic business planning, public relations or marketing perspectives. This is an almost unbelievable ‘informational gap’ due to the power that has been placed at corporate websites’ discretion due to the mind-bending capabilities of search engine optimisation.

In the rush to become social media experts, and to grab the largest slice of its revenue, responsibility and thought leadership pie, public relations pros are at risk of missing the main digital game: that of providing meaningful, resonant and useful content for corporate websites that is search engine optimised and customised to the needs of organisational stakeholders.

As people have a proven preference for visual learning, we are increasingly suffering from information overload and humans process visuals 66,000* times faster than text, you would think getting professional communicators and senior management to adopt visuals as a communication tool would be easy and straightforward…but, there are several reasons why companies or organisations may decide against using visual communication or visual thinking.

With its ability to share ideas and communicate more effectively, visual thinking can play a major role in storytelling, aiding public relations and marketing professionals help organisations achieve their communication and business objectives.

“Can annual reports actually be used to create a positive communication outcome, rather than just report and be ignored?” was a question that generated a lot of interesting comment from PR professionals around the world, some of which I feature in this post.

The most crucial decision for PR professionals in the annual reporting process is to determine how you’re going to view the task and what its endgame will be for that year.

People’s preference for visual learning, the increasing levels of information overload and the fact that images help us process information quicker, provides a unique opportunity to PR professionals to take visual communication more seriously.