Who Stepped In It

Reputation Management (in reverse):  The quickest way to hurt your company’s reputation is to hire a high-level person who doesn’t respect laws and ethics.  That’s what Indiana University did when they hired basketball coach Kelvin Sampson, who resigned Friday amid allegations of NCAA infractions.  He was hired to develop young people, win basketball games and protect the Hoosier’s well-earned reputation as one of the premier basketball programs in the country.  This was a difficult objective considering Sampson already had ethical and legal problems in his previous job.  Past performance equals future behavior.

IU is now looking for a squeaky-clean coach focused on graduating basketball players and winning games.  With as much available talent as this country has, IU could have done that from the outset if they were taking their reputation management seriously.  Where was Mike Sample, the school’s Vice President of Public Affairs, during the hiring process?  He has direct access to the school’s president.  Did he ever raise a red flag on this choice?

When Sampson made the final cut for potential IU head coaches, the Public Affairs VP should have written a best and worst case scenario on him.  Being that Sampson was already known for breaking the rules, the worst case scenario would have revealed to IU leadership the embarrassing and costly results of what major recruiting violations and lying would do to the team and school’s image today, tomorrow, and five and 10 years down the road.  It would have shown IU being in the middle of a media frenzy on talk radio, sports programs, 24-hour news cycles, blogs, web sites, and on and on.  IU leadership would have been forced to consider how quickly the reputation of one of colleges’ most admired programs can be tarnished.  And, they would have recognized how many years and dollars it takes an organization to rebound after such a blow to its reputation.

Public relations leaders must look over the horizon to see the train wreck coming.  They must paint a vivid picture for the boss and provide the best avoidance options.  If you’re telling the boss after the situation has unfolded, or analyzing what went wrong yesterday, you’re not helping your team — you’re crisis managing.  Most people can do that.  Helping your leaders navigate the future, avoid unintended consequences, and build the brand and reputation is where your value is.

Reputation management is about taking the high road, doing the right thing the first time around, and playing by the rules.  It is far better to execute a solid reputation management plan on a daily basis, then to engage in the alternative — crisis management.  Let your competition take the low road — and many of them will.  While they’re spending time, effort and money trying to rebuild their brand and reputation, you’ll be miles ahead and consistently gaining market share — THEIRS!

How would you persuade the boss that the person he or she is about to hire will most likely self destruct and unravel years of brand building?

February 28, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | 3 Comments 

Who Stepped Up

Useful Emails Get Opened:  One marketing challenge business owners and public relations professionals face is how to use the affordable and timely tool of email as part of their communications loop with targeted audiences — without wearing out their welcome. The answer is: be bright, be brief and be gone.  That’s what Tom Davidson of Davidson Leadership does with his email marketing campaign titled Leaderslips & Tips: The Good, The Bad & The Bungled.  Davidson owns a firm that helps companies accelerate the growth of new leaders from within the company, elevate the performance of experienced managers, and enhance the results of leadership teams.  He reaches out to his publics in an informative and entertaining way by examining the actions and impacts of leaders in the today’s headlines.  The key is, he isn’t selling anything.  He’s providing useful knowledge that enables CEOs, HR professionals and rising stars to do their jobs better.  He’s also positioning himself as the leadership expert, strengthening his brand, and creating fresh, relevant content for his web site, which search engines love.  What kind of email marketing campaign can you develop that would keep your target audience opening your emails with anticipation?

February 21, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | 3 Comments 

Who Stepped In It

No Comment Strikes Again:  Whether you ignore the reporter’s call or say “no comment,” you’ve just damaged your business.  CEOs and business owners need to embrace the fact that “no comment” is not a smart public relations tactic.  The public, shareholders, potential clients and employees see it as hiding, dodging, or stalling — all hurtful to the company’s image because you now look guilty as charged.  Business leaders need to rise above their personal opinions of reporters and make a media call work in their favor.  At the end of each day, you’ve either helped or hurt the company’s bottom line.  There’s too much competition today to take such a huge step backwards.

Today’s Virginian-Pilot reported that a Virginia Beach nursing home is one of the worst-performing facilities in the country, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  A call to the CEO “was not returned,” the article said.  The nursing home probably knew this story was coming.  Its communications strategy should have included a media relations plan that mapped out how to handle a media call pertaining to a negative story.  It should have laid out potential ways to get something positive in the story to leverage the negative facts being reported.

The CEO could have talked about improvements since the inspection, upcoming policy changes, immediate changes, etc.  But, because of no apparent media plan, the public now sees that nursing home as cheap, arrogant and abusing the elderly.  And the news gets worse for this company thanks to the Internet.  If potential customers Google the nursing home’s name in the future under various terms, no doubt this story will surface.  And they will not read one positive statement by the CEO, who blew the opportunity.

February 13, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | 2 Comments 

Who Stepped Up

Seize All Publicity Opportunities: That’s what smart businesses do. You frequently see them in The Virginian-Pilot’s Local Scene, Inside Business’ Data page, and Port Folio Weekly’s Eye section. Smart businesses do not solely rely on huge, one-time publicity events because the impact is fleeting. The key to success is building a pattern of positive publicity that has a powerful impact when accumulated over time. These smaller opportunities keep your product, service, issue or cause in front of clients and potential clients while you work on larger publicity pieces. Businesses will only get so many bites at the apple in a small media market like Hampton Roads. Going after the minor publicity opportunities is an excellent way to offset that circumstance and maintain a consistent drumbeat of your brand.

February 8, 2008 | Filed Under Public Relations | Leave a Comment