Step 1: Clearly identify your stakeholder groups.

This blog post isn’t about what to do should your organization be faced with an issue or a crisis. It is about what you can do today, proactively, even if there isn’t the slightest evidence that there might be a challenge in your future. (A word of warning: A small mistake by someone in your organization could get a lot of interest online and turn into a huge crisis. Don’t think a crisis would never happen to you. It can. And at some point, it likely will.)

Back to today’s post…

We are often asked to develop issues and crisis communications plans for clients. One of the components that we include focuses on what the organization is doing now, at this moment, when there isn’t a challenge looming on the horizon. We find that there are a lot of organizations that aren’t proactively building relationships with their stakeholder groups. Not only is that dangerous, but it’s bad business. (Marketing and sales information doesn’t count as relationship building material, just for the record. And from what I have seen on some Twitter and Facebook pages, there are organizations out there that don’t realize that.)

Using Groupon or promoting a product or service through advertising, direct marketing or other channels is fine, but if that is the only connection you have with your stakeholder group, then you aren’t building relationships—you are setting up transactions. Transactions don’t necessarily create loyalty, encourage your customers or clients to tell others about your organization, and they won’t come to your defence if you are facing an issue or crisis.

We have clients in diverse industry sectors. At first glance, some seem to have more sizzle than others; their stories are easy to identify. For others, it takes a bit of digging to see what would be of interest. However, in all the years that I have been a story chaser, both as a journalist for Maclean’s and as a communicator, I have not yet found one industry or organization that didn’t have a compelling story to tell to their stakeholder group. And that’s the thing to remember—the whole world doesn’t have to be engaged, just your stakeholder group.

The first step to proactively building relationships with your stakeholders is to clearly identify each of your stakeholder groups. Who are they? What is the relationship to your organization and to each other? What do they want to know about your organization? (Not what you want to tell them, but what do they want to know?) How do they want to learn about you? (Facebook, Twitter, your website, a blog, etc.) What traditional media do they read, watch or listen to? Spend some time really getting to know who your stakeholders are. You might be surprised at what you learn.

For our clients, we spend time understanding their stakeholders. Depending on the project, we often create stakeholder character profiles complete with visuals, personalities, likes and dislikes. It’s a creative exercise that gets us thinking about how we need to share information.

Stay tuned for my next blog post on how to identify your organization’s interesting and compelling story.

It seems pretty straightforward to me what to pitch to us. Which makes us shake our heads in wonder when we get pitches from random PR agencies and independent PR practitioners that have nothing to do with what we write about here. It looks to me like some people just grab any email they can find and send out a news release or pitch, whether it is relevant or not. We suspect they might then go to their clients and say, “We developed a database of 10,000 journalists and bloggers and have reached out to them.” What the client isn’t hearing is that if they are sending useless (and sometimes annoying) information to journalists and bloggers. It’s not good for the organization’s reputation or the agency’s.

We remember who these people are, who the organization is and while I may not have much power or influence in these type of things, I can tell you when we get together with colleagues and friends who are in this field, who are journalists, who are bloggers – the discussion turns to this and we talk about them. And not in a good way.

When someone comes on board as AHA Crew, we ask them how they build their media and blogger lists. What their criteria is, how they define who are the right journalists/bloggers to approach, and how they would approach each media outlet, journalist or blogger. It’s about being strategic, targeted and taking the time to do it right.

So, if you are one of the people pitching us on story ideas that are so off topic that it makes us laugh out loud – please stop. (I doubt this will work because I am sure none of these people take the time to read this blog.)

If you are one of the communicators that care, check out the media outlet, the beat or column, the pieces that the journalist you are pitching focuses on. Read the blogs and subscribe to them. Media/blogger relations is an important component of what we do; take it seriously. Give the journalists and bloggers the respect they deserve. You will get better results.

It seems that a local politician used the images of two children in campaign brochures without getting permission from their parents. As a communicator, when I see issues like this, I wonder how it happened. In this day and age, taking photos of children without the written consent of their parent(s) or legal guardian(s) isn’t a smart move. Using those photos without written consent is a big deal.

It is important to get written consent when you take images – photos or video. And to clearly spell out in the consent form where the images will be used. Depending on what they will be used for, we also often outline how long the images will be used. If you are using real people (as opposed to paid models), they have the right to know how the image will be used – is it for your organization’s website, promotional print materials, will it be shared with media? Clearly define what the images will be used for, get the person’s signature on the consent/release form and live up to this agreement. Don’t use the images for anything other than what the person has agreed to.

According to the news report, the father of the children used in the brochure is unhappy not just because the photos were used, but because the politician appeared dismissive when she called to apologize. Now, I wasn’t on that call, so I have no idea what happened. However, the best piece of advice that I can give here is that if something happens and you use an image without written permission, take the concerns of the person seriously. Acknowledge the issue and their feelings about it. Explain how you will make it right and what you will do to ensure that it never happens again. This is respect in action, and it is at the foundation of reputation management.

Do you have an image release form that you use for photo and video shoots? Have you ever had to deal with an issue like this? I’d love to hear from you.

At AHA, we are consistently focused on finding the best ways to work with our clients. What makes a client stand out is that they focus on finding the best way to work with us. Working in partnership means that we build a mutually beneficial, respectful relationship. We have a commitment to client service and to delivering excellence and results for our clients. We also expect our clients to have a commitment to us as an agency as well.

Here are some points on how to get the best from your agency:

• Approach this relationship as a partnership. They don’t work for you; they work with you.

• Communicate, communicate, communicate. Make sure your agency is kept up-to-date, up-to-speed and understands what you expect. If you don’t have time for them, they can’t do their job to the best of their ability.

• Listen to their input. You hired them for their expertise and skill set. If you just want someone to take orders from you, you are wasting money paying agency fees. This doesn’t mean you will do everything they recommend, but take the time and make the effort to hear their ideas, thoughts and feedback. It is what you pay them for.

• Discussion and disagreement are positive activities, being disagreeable is not. If you are having a tough day and take it out on the people in your agency, they won’t be your agency for long.

• If you feel the agency has made a mistake or is off strategy, put it on the table in a respectful, professional manner and work towards a solution together.

• Make yourself available to provide information, input and feedback when they need you. They aren’t out to waste your time. If they request a meeting or need more information it is because they are focused on doing a good job and getting results.

• Respect the fact that you are not their only client. If something urgent comes up, a good agency will be there and will work late and work on weekends to get the job done. If you continue to give them last minute assignments on tight deadlines for no real reason, they will be looking for other clients.

• If you can’t meet a deadline on your side that impacts their work, let them know as soon as possible so they can adjust their workflow.

• Pay them on time.

• Tell them when they have done a good job. We know that working in communications can be a thankless job. Make sure you show your appreciation when appropriate. It goes a long, long way.

That was an interesting comment and one I felt we had to address. As communicators, we often see the value and rationale for telling an organization’s story through a range of approaches such as media relations, videos, articles, etc. Not everyone’s brain works that way and it’s important to engage in discussion around this.

The goal with brand journalism is to authentically tell a story with the objective of informing and engaging the organization’s stakeholder group and transitioning them from awareness to trial to advocacy. You want to move a stakeholder’s perception of your organization to a spot when they talk about your brand positively and within the context of it being a valuable part of their life. Once the stakeholder takes your product, service or brand into their own story – exposure and reputation increase greatly.

The online world and social media have given everyone – organizations, stakeholders and consumers – the opportunity to tell a brands’ story (good and bad) through a range of tools (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, email, online communities, and more). This makes it more important for an organization to be telling their own story, making sure the information out there is accurate, credible and reflects the brand positioning in the right way. And to get great stories, it becomes important to gather them from a range of sources because a) the communications team can’t be everywhere at once and b) different people within your organization will bring a range of stories.

In this discussion, it was clearly acknowledged that advertising is an important component of the marketing mix for this organization. It was also put forward that public relations and brand journalism are also important – yet different – parts of the marketing mix and provide opportunities for conversations with stakeholders to share human interest stories and to create an emotional connection between stakeholders and the organization.

One of the action items that came out of this meeting was that the organization is going to undertake a marketing communications audit. VP Skeptical wants to know what others in the organization think about how they currently tell their story. She wants the audit to address specific questions about advertising, communications such as PR, what is seen in the media, how their social media outreach is perceived, etc.

Once again, I saw that skepticism can be a good thing. It pushes all of us to ask the question: What is the value in this? It is always important to showcase the value, and showcasing it to skeptics makes it an interesting process that also allows us to learn.

How and when an organization responds and reaches out using traditional communications vehicles and through social media is crucial. One of the challenges is that social media has turned the world into a 24/7 news cycle. Many organizations aren’t prepared for that. How do you strategically and authentically respond if you aren’t prepared?

There are many steps an organization can take to put processes in place in case they are faced with an issue or crisis. It makes it a great deal more straightforward to deal with the issue at hand, rather than trying to decide what the approval process is for a tweet or blog.

We often work with clients to prepare issues and crisis communication plans. There are times, when the development of the plan includes a session with senior executives and/or staff. This workshop takes them through case studies of issues that played out online and puts some potentially real life scenarios in front of them. It’s a great opportunity for an organization to come together and work through what needs to happen and to understand how and when to respond.

When we work with clients that have this challenge, we focus on what the senior team needs to hear. While every team has its own idiosyncrasies, there are some key points that work for most.

Show the business case for social media use.

Depending on the industry, this can mean anything from explaining what it could mean for sales and customer service to providing the rationale on how participating in the social media world is a component of reputation management. A well-thought-out, concise business case can put the use of social media into perspective.

Use case studies of similar organizations that are active in social media.

I can’t imagine there is any industry that doesn’t have some kind of social media opportunity. If there are a limited number of case studies within your field, look at organizations that do similar work in other industries and clearly show why they are being used as a case study. (While the product or service might not be the same, show the similarities in size, target market, etc.)

Don’t gloss over the potential challenges.

They didn’t get to the C-suite by being stupid. Don’t try to slide by the risks – you will lose credibility. You can show them how the risks can be mitigated and managed. And it is always of value to show the risks associated with not participating.

Show the stats.

Social Media Today ran a great piece earlier this summer that pulled together a wide range of facts and stats on social media usage.

Start small.

For some organizations, moving into social media is actually a shift in culture. Realize and respect that. The move from (perceived) control of the message out into what they may believe is the “wild, wild west” – with no control – is a big leap for some. Introduce pilot projects and when you do, create case studies of the successes, challenges and lessons learned.

There are many opportunities to show your senior executive team why integrating social media into your communications plan is a strategic move. Once you get their buy in, sometimes the challenge is making sure they realize social media isn’t a magic cure to all your marketing or PR challenges.

I mentioned in Monday’s blog post that I would focus on some of the tools we, at AHA, provide to clients and why they are of value. I think before I do that, I should take a step back and define what good public relations is – to us. (I don’t want this blog post to be too long, so next Wednesday I will focus on the specific tactics. Although, I have to warn you, I got a bit carried away – today’s post is a little long!)

Good public relations is working in partnership with clients. Even when it is challenging, we tell them what they need to hear – rather than just take orders and deliver what they want us to. We identify what they need (which isn’t always the same) and we approach what we do with optimistic realism. Timelines, deadlines, client resources and budgets also have to be taken into consideration.

Good PR is about building positive long-term relationships. We can build excitement about the launch of a new product, service or initiative; but we always advise our clients that – whether it’s us or in-house moving forward – the launch is just the beginning. You need to consistently provide relevant, informative, engaging and authentic communication to media, bloggers and all stakeholder groups.

Good PR embraces the critics. The online world provides an incredibly valuable focus group that organizations can tap into on a regular basis. The fact is, some organizations will always be criticized, no matter what they do. The key is to recognize the value of what you can gain from listening and, when appropriate, responding to the criticism.

Good PR blends both reactive and active. Proactively reaching out to stakeholders and responding quickly to opportunities and potential issues are both important in public relations.

Good PR is measurable. Understanding the objectives of a campaign, project or initiative is important. Defining what you want to achieve (in an optimistically realistic way) is crucial to measurement. There are many tools and technologies that can assist in measurement. We believe that measuring should be an ongoing approach throughout a campaign – not just at the end – so adjustments can be made as necessary.

Good PR is credible and balanced. This is a point that is often the most difficult for some senior executives to understand. We are experiencing a shift in how consumers expect organizations to communicate. They don’t want challenges or issues to be fluffed over or – worse – hidden or denied. Truth, transparency and authenticity are crucial to building long-term relationships. This is an area that is sensitive and needs to be strategically managed. Having an open and honest discussion with your public relations team about this approach can provide huge value to your organization.

Good PR builds your brand; it is at the heart of reputation management. An organization’s reputation is built day by day, action by action; and public relations helps to share the success, achievements and community interactions of your organization. Sharing what your organization does well and how you participate in your communities is of huge importance. Should an issue or a crisis happen, you have already built credibility and trust with your stakeholders.

Good PR is only as good as your service, product or initiative, and how clients or customers are dealt with comes into this. Good PR can create interest, engage people and raise the profile of your organization, but then it’s up to the people to deliver on the brand promise. Good PR can’t fix a bad company – and it shouldn’t.

And, of course, good PR tells the story of your organization. There are so many incredible stories that are begging to be told; it’s one of the things that inspires us at AHA. Telling stories in different formats for different audiences is at the core of good public relations. People love a good story. They want to cheer for an underdog and see someone break down barriers and succeed. They want to know how something came about and why it matters. They want to know about the “human” side of an organization – about the people, the passion and the community. A good story that is well told and delivered to the right people, using the right medium, provides huge return-on-investment.

What do you think? What do you consider good PR?