Five Laws of Trust for Communicators

As a communications or public relations professional, you’ll work with a plethora of other professionals: stakeholders, subject matter experts, journalists, bloggers, employees at every level of an organization and other communications colleagues.

Key to ensuring your work is solid is to form a good working relationship, one that establishes trust and credibility. This is, I realize, easier said than done. Still, by committing to these five basic essentials throughout your career, you’ll  find that others will begin to build confidence in you.

1. Say what you’ll do, and do what you say. This is particularly important in working with others who do not know you or your work. If you say you’ll deliver a story or a PR plan, or return a phone call, do it – and do it when you say you’ll do it. Understanding that in today’s world, communications doesn’t stop just because you got slammed with five other tasks will make you empathetic to others’ needs. Be credible!

2.  Tactfulness still goes a long way. When working on any particular project, remember that you’ll likely encounter multiple viewpoints. How you communicate details, particularly when referring to issues or delicate matters, can be a very important component. So, be sure you say these things as tactfully as possible. (Note: There is a time for laying it out there, but this wouldn’t be considered normal practice!)

3.  Know when to ditch your desk. I know, I know. Your life blood is tied to your laptop, which sits neatly on your desk. Remember, it’s a laptop, which means it – and you – can travel. Learn to discern when that’s necessary. Do you need five minutes of face time vs. a phone call or email? Or, do you need to catch a flight to that satellite office and spend a day with stakeholders in another city? I’ve tromped through airplane maintenance hangars and along railroad tracks to ensure I “get it” and that stakeholders I’m working with know that I am interested in and value their efforts. Rolling up your sleeves and seeing what others deal with on a daily basis will always give you insight. In the end, this results in clearer communications, which helps engender confidence in you and your work.

4.  Share your expertise. Being current on your company means you must be current on your company’s industry. Scanning the environment and recognizing industry trends not only helps you do your job better but also puts you in a position to provide story ideas to colleagues or meaty content to journos and bloggers. Being helpful to others, especially when that help is not requested, will carve a special place for you in the landscape. And add to your trust quotient. 

5. Be a careful listener. People love to share their stories. If you’re in communications, you probably thrive on hearing those stories and putting them to good use. Getting someone’s story or request wrong, though, is a sure-fire way to erode credibility. Be sure you listen well to others and respond appropriately.

These are among my top five must-dos but by no means all the things a communicator can do to build confidence. What habits have you formed to ensure your own trustworthiness?  What’s the most important thing you can do, or have done, to build trust?

Know thy objective

I recently judged communication campaigns and tactics, and was struck by the lack of planning involved in nearly every entry.  Particularly absent was the lack of specific communications objectives. If you’re in public relations, marketing or corporate communications, you need to know how to craft a solid strategic communication objective because that is the single most important focal point of any communications campaign. If you don’t know what you're aiming for, you’ll never know if you reached it.

Below are components of a communication objective, but ultimately, you’ll want to ensure this is part of a strategic communication plan that aligns with your organizational or departmental business objectives.

• Expect your outcome. Are you trying to raise awareness of a new widget or new process? Or do you need to move the needle by changing employee or customer attitudes? Perhaps you need a target audience to adopt a specific behavior. Before you can craft an objective, know what you expect the outcome to look like.
• Use verbs! Once you know the expected outcome of your objective, select an appropriate verb. Do you want customers to buy, ban or endorse? Are you looking for employees to adopt, support or change?
• Be specific. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at communications plans that aren’t tied to specific objectives. If you can’t articulate the objective specifically, then you are already missing the goal.
• Who is the audience?
• What is the timeframe?
• What is the attainment level?
• Measure the objective.  Know how to accurately measure your objective, and know your baseline. This is your starting point. What is the current status quo? You need to know this before you initiate your strategy; otherwise, you won’t know whether you moved the needle or not.

Below is an example of a specific communication objective that anticipates an increase in audience awareness:

Within the next 60 days, 70 percent of our organization’s customers will see or hear about our new widget.

Starting with these basics, you’ll add a solid, measurable component to your strategic planning. What other components help you achieve your goals?

Teaching PR: What do employers really want?

Since teaching public relations at The University of North Texas, I’m often asked by prospective employers about the skill level of senior PR students. It’s an interesting question on many levels but particularly when you stop to consider the foundation of that question. Certainly the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) that I believe a PR student needs to have on entering the profession can differ radically from what a prospective employer envisions.

Overall, I think it’s important for PR students to learn strategic communications. I would rather students be able to critically think through their communications goals and objectives, and be prepared to practice public relations ethically. I believe that skill set will be invaluable to them, as they enter the field.

That said, a recent report undertaken by Korn Ferry and the Public Relations Society of America, 2009 Digital Readiness Report,“Essential Online Public Relations and Marketing Skills,” indicates that employers are looking for almost a 50/50 blend of traditional and social media skill sets for new hires.

I do teach social media technologies and the power behind viral PR, along with traditional media tactics, such as press releases, media kits and backgrounders; yet, it’s often a balancing act to ensure students are properly prepared to enter the field.

What KSAs do you see as being vitally important for PR newbies?

Putting Ethics into PR Practice

After listening to Doug Newsom, grande dame of public relations, speak about the ethical situations in which a public relations professional can become mired, I was surprised to hear her tell of how she resigned a position because she was asked to do something unethical. And in her words, she had four children to support at the time. The show-and-tell of that kind of moxie is really needed so that those of us in the public relations profession understand that, where the stakes are high, resigning just might be the appropriate action.

Newsom delivered several powerful lessons from her 40 years' experience at the Nov. 13 Greater Fort Worth/Dallas PRSA meeting. Chief among them:

1. Stand your ground. When dealing with senior execs, more than likely you're dealing with strong opinions and strong personalities. You have expertise in your field - expertise that the CEO counts on hearing.

2. Understand the culture of the corporation. As Newsom pointed out, when it comes to communication, companies range from closed to open. Know where the company/client falls on that continuum, and decide if your personal values fit that culture. If not, you'll likely encounter some conflicts when sensitive issues arise.

3. Adhere to an ethics model. She specifically discussed a utilitarian model, which supports decision-making of doing the greatest good for the greatest number, or a communitarian ethics model, which stresses morality in the community and being a good "corporate citizen." She mentioned Mitch Land's book, Contemporary Media Ethics, which I highly recommend. Land and co-editor Hornaday present multiple case studies of PR ethics problems, considering them from both perspectives, so the reader can see the difference in the two models.

Newsom also discussed two likely ethics dilemmas with the audience and then stuck around to answer questions.

Her message, so needed in today's transparent world, was timeless and a good reminder to anyone in the communications business.

Punching Away at PR

Seems like local journalists at both the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Mitch Schnurman, 7.16.08 column) and the Dallas Morning News (Steve Blow, 7.13.08 column) don't mind beating up on the profession of PR. What'd they use as an excuse? Chesapeake Energy's bold entry into online video to disperse information concerning the Barnett Shale (shale.tv).

Rather than attack corporate PR efforts, maybe these journalists should consider the interesting changes happening with media. It's no secret that many journalists are monitoring blogs and other social media sites to find out what's important to folks these days. The interest in social media clearly explains why Chesapeake Energy and other corporations are deciding to offer their information online through a "pull" technology.

Largely due to social media, public relations in the last several years has been moving to a much more transparent model, one that invites two-way communication. The issue of transparency hasn't been lost on PR professionals. Witness the case study of Edelman's Wal-Marting Across America to understand how badly PR can be practiced. It seems to me that the field of PR - including Richard Edelman who issued an apology on behalf of his agency - took that case (and a couple of others) to heart. Edelman's redoubled their emphasis on ethical practice and issued a call to the entire industry to do the same, resulting in a terribly positive industry response.

PR practitioners are called to perform their jobs ethically and to abide by a Code of Ethics, as laid out by the Public Relations Society of America.

I work with many public relations practitioners and corporate communicators who act ethically and professionally in every sense of the word. I know that in my corner of the world, I work diligently to uphold that standard, going so far as to include an ethics statement on every client contract I sign. In other words, I agree to act ethically, but I also ask my clients to do the same. If they don't or won't agree, we don't do business.

I also believe our local schools, i.e.; Texas Christian University, University of Texas at Arlington and University of North Texas, do an excellent job in raising awareness of basic ethics issues likely to arise, either by requiring students to take a PR ethics course or by consistent discussion of ethical issues within the context of other public relations courses.

I'm proud to be part of a profession that has an ethics code and works to follow it, even to the point of educating new practitioners about ethical issues.

If Schnurman and Blow disagree with Chesapeake's direction, they should offer a meatier argument than not liking the venue (shale.tv) and printing inflammatory statements about PR. For all their posturing, by choosing to attack PR efforts - without a counterbalanced perspective - they're actually communicating more about the current state of journalism than the current state of PR.