Public relations and managing reputation

Strategically, social media offers immense utility for public relations professionals when it comes to crisis management but, conversely, it also opens up organisations to immense risk.

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.”

Public relations’ tactical, hands-on tips for using social media in a crisis.

A crisis communication plan that does not include social media is incomplete and seriously flawed. This was the overarching key message to come from Frocomm’s 2nd Annual Crisis Communication & Social Media Summit 2009. A free report summarising the summit content is available here [link].

Here are five excellent public relations and marketing blogs where professionals can learn plenty of interest and value. They tell me things I didn’t know, provide a fresh perspective on a topic or notion and/or explain an idea I am familiar with in a lively, engaging manner.

Social media allows for issues to be identified, monitored and managed extremely quickly, as well as real-time stakeholder interaction and relationship enhancement. But it also facilitates bad news spreading like wildfire. These fiery themes were all-pervasive at the recent Frocomm crisis communication and social media summit and are discussed here.

Reasons why public relations such a professionally and personally rewarding business discipline to work in: it demands leadership and change management skills; it is full of nice people; the wide range of people we interact with; its collaborative dimension and getting to work in teams; getting to use social media.

The culture of public relations is not only based on a gratifying and inspirational aesthetic, it contributes in a positive way to society and provides a working milieu that is inspiring to be part of. Here are five reasons why: it helps society; it is creative and fun; it is innovative and educational; there are plenty of tactical tools to play with; it pays well.

Looking at social media as both an awareness and fund raising tool among not-for-profits (NFPs). Key reasons for this are social media’s: Interactivity, mass communication/reach, ‘instantaneousnous’, anonymity and its transactional dimension.

Leading forms of social media like Facebook and Twitter are heading towards being one of contemporary society’s great lost opportunities as vacuous self-indulgent musings dominate information posted.