Public relations is critically important to branding; perhaps even its most important element. This is because PR is the primary architect and facilitator of stakeholder engagement, its brief being to be concerned about both the organisation and its stakeholders – their knowledge, opinions and behaviour. And a brand is built, these social media-powered days especially, as a partnership between multiple entities.

The CEO is (or should be) the most prized communications asset at a company’s disposal. He or she drives corporate strategy and gives voice to performance and progress. The CEO establishes the building blocks of corporate culture and is often the public face of the company. They exemplify all that is good, bad, promising or disheartening about an organisation, so whether or not they are the spokesperson for an organisation in crisis is a question of fundamental importance for corporate communicators.

Some of the world’s leading PR thinkers will have their perspectives featured in an upcoming free report – Public relations 2011: issues, insights and ideas – available to email subscribers of Public relations and managing reputation. Notions discussed include the need for PR pros to adopt internal journalist and SEO expert roles, what to look for in an organisational crisis comms spokesperson, addressing the WIIFM (what’s in it for me) factor in social media plans, the importance of storytelling in teaching and how face-to-face communication trumps all comers.

Contrary to its positioning amongst the professional communication and broader business environments, issues management is not always inextricably integrated into crisis communication. In fact, its strongest characteristic is strengthening an organisation’s reputation so it is less likely to be negatively impacted on by a crisis.
Issues management is, therefore, both an inherent component of all effective [...]

As organisations take a new approach to deciding when to launch a product recall, public relations professionals need to reassess how they are communicated. And how to avoid meaningless phrases like ‘abundance of caution which hinder organisations from communicating clearly, and effectively positioning themselves, with their stakeholders. Two recent American recalls suggest companies are raising the bar (or perhaps that should be lowering the bar) when brand protection seems to outweigh the possibility of harm to the public.

Reputation Renegades is a free e-Book. It addresses many issues, but chief amongst them is the fallacy that corporations have control of their reputation. This reality has been emphasised in recent times by the influence of web-based communities. The e-Book espouses internal lobbying to change the recalcitrants’ perspectives, humanise this communication and tackle the issue of trust.

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.

Along with eye-rolling, can-you-believe-it dumb marketing and/or PR moments in 2009 (think loser marketers, the GFC and social media) there have, thankfully, been plenty of inspirational examples of best practice professional communication too. Most importantly, what have we learnt during the year and how will it make us better communicators?

Fires and flu: what a year. Worst of all for those suffering from the cataclysms. But a real challenge for public relations professionals working hard to inform and help the community. This post features insights shared by two of Australia’s preeminent public relations practitioners at Frocomm’s Crisis Communication & Social Media Summit 2009.

Whether through addressing a flu pandemic or the cataclysm that we know all too well in Australia, bushfires, the same principles of crisis management apply for public relations professionals. Some of them include building trust in an organisation, using your employees as ‘advocating communicators’ and putting human safety at the top of the priority pyramid. Remember, as well, “trust is harder to maintain in a social media environment.”