Context Public Relations

Establishing trust has always been important, but now more than ever politicians need to regain the public’s trust. Throughout the current political campaigns leading up to the election, the evidence of public mistrust has been evident.  You don’t even have to mention expenses to the public without engaging in a heated debate.

Building trust is more important than ever in increasing a good reputation, so why haven’t the political parties realised this fundamental element to success. There has been a significant public relations effort under Cameron that has sought to modernise the Conservatives image, but by not discussing the party’s policies and being transparent will hardly win over the masses. David Cameron himself proclaimed the Conservatives will bring back ‘openness and trust’, but by trying to discredit Gordon Brown will he achieve this?

Meanwhile the PM is having to answer questions about bullying and the Iraq war, having a negative impact on his public relations campaign.

The importance of trust in PR is crucial to success, from building trust and managing relationships you then in turn gain credibility with your audience.

The two fundamental steps to building trust:

• Be open and honest in business practices

• Communicate more clearly and honestly

These steps are the basics of any good public relations. It’s about time the political parties started putting them into action and there wouldn’t be a need for crisis communications, as a result of huge amounts of negative publicity.

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It’s that time of year again when businesses need to start thinking about preparing for upcoming trade shows and exhibitions.
 
As well as allowing exhibitors to promote their products and services, reaching new customers and generating new sales, these specialist market places also provide business people with the opportunity to network and make useful contacts with other people working in their industry.

Therefore attending or exhibiting at a trade show can prove extremely worthwhile. But to reap the full benefits of a show it’s important to make sure you are fully prepared.

However, as well as keeping potential customers up-to-date on what you have to offer, trade shows and exhibitions also give the visiting press the opportunity to find out about the latest products and industry innovations. So in addition to checking whether the equipment is working before you go ‘live’, or making sure you have plenty of promotional leaflets for visitors, you need to ensure you get noticed by the press.

But how do you do this? Get your PR agency involved from the outset.

Firstly they will be able to work with the event organisers to identify the press attending. Once they have a list they can get started on pitching to journalists, offering them an interview with a company spokesperson, or demonstration of the product – all proactive methods of helping to ensure your business grabs the headlines instead of your competitors.

Secondly, to get a good write up, it’s important to have relevant information about who you are and what you are doing available at your stand or in the press office. Your PR agency will be able to develop a good press pack with press releases of any new products and services you are launching or want mentioning. Keeping press releases informative yet concise will help keep a journalist’s attention.

So if you don’t yet have an exhibition strategy in place why not get in touch to find out more about how PR can help you stand out from the crowd to make the most of your presence?

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“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” ….. Winston Churchill.

Next time you get a new prospect ask them if they searched for you on Google. Googling is now one of the most common ways people will check out your business. It provides instant access to both your own PR as well as comments from current and past clients and if the feedback is poor the prospect is unlikely to contact you.

Many tech PR clients are now asking our advice on managing their online reputations so here are a few tips to get you started:

• Get your house in order - if there is a problem get it sorted before you try and say there is no problem
• If a comment is totally untrue approach the webmaster or publisher nicely - if someone is calling your service a scam and it is not the webmaster should happily take the comment down
• Accept the criticism and don’t rant a response online - responses in CAPITALS are often seen as very negative. Think about what you are writing as it will be there permanently
• Actively engage with your critics - answer their concerns and once it is sorted ask them to post about the resolution. Turning a negative into a positive shows that you will resolve problems as they occur and gives a great deal of confidence to your customers

Finally make sure you continually feed good news to media sources. The more your own story appears the more likely any negative posts will never be seen.
If you’re looking for more advice on managing your online reputation give us a call.

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A survey carried out by PR Week has found that 52% of people believe John Terry’s affair with a team-mate’s ex-girlfriend is dragging down the reputation of football. Add to this the media storm chasing Ashley and Cheryl Cole and regular reports of bad-boy behaviour amongst players, and it would seem public perception of premiership football is getting lower and lower…… and lower still.

It just shows you how individual actions or comments can potentially damage the reputation of an entire organisation. And when is comes to business, your reputation is key to your success.

Reputation management means a lot of hard work. It can take years to build up, and as John Terry has shown, one “mishap” can bring it all tumbling down around you. In business, you need to invest time and money into maintaining your reputation through consistent and targeted PR campaigns, and if it all goes wrong and you find yourself faced with a crisis, you need experience to turn your negative PR around.

This is where the professionals will help. Your PR agency can help you manage a comprehensive crisis management plan to ensure that your company is seen to do all the right things. In a crisis you need to act fast, stay visible to the media and be well prepared. Follow these rules and you might just salvage the reputation you spent all those years working to build…. Fail, and you could see public opinion of you and your business start to dwindle  - and fast.

For more information on PR programmes and crisis management plans, why not give us a call?

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The media love a good acronym nickname and unfortunately for those countries facing economic turmoil – Portugal, Italy or Ireland, Greece and Spain, the less than complimentary farmyard animal has become theirs.

The Guardian discusses how these countries are considering support from PR professionals to help manage their financial reputations in an uncertain climate, but also raises the very important point that a country, just like any business, does not have to be in crisis to take advice.

If faced with a crisis then it is more than unwise to try and manage the media without any PR experience – say the wrong thing and what was a fairly sizeable problem will end up being a total nightmare. Any crisis needs a thorough and comprehensive management plan and unless you truly know what you’re doing, then it is always best to seek assistance from those who do. However, as the old adage has it; ‘prevention is better than cure’.

Any country or business has a reputation to manage and it takes a lot of hard work to build a good profile and even more hard work to keep a good profile, but profile maintenance is still far preferable to profile repair.

Reputation is one of the most important factors in achieving prosperity and so surely it is worth investing a bit of time and money in? If you’d like to know more about reputation management then why not give Context a call.

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For the first time in 23 years Pepsi has chosen not to feature in the US Super Bowl ad break – which usually costs the company millions of dollars for a 30 second slot.

Instead they are launching an online social-networking campaign, which will involve social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing customers to interact with the soft-drink giant.

For those who don’t buy into social media, this may seem a bizarre business decision. But with Facebook campaigns such as the Wispa comeback and Rage Against the Machine campaigns demonstrating the full power of social media - then spending millions on a 30-second ad slot doesn’t seem as valuable as it once was.

Social media encourages consumer participation and can open new doors, and having thousands of followers on Twitter is a great way to target consumers with your latest products and deals, creating a favourable opinion of your brand and ultimately leading to a sale.

So why not speak to your PR and marketing agency to find out more about how to integrate social media into your marketing mix?

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There was a lot of confusion in the media last week, which brought with it a fair amount of worry for Toyota owners…… is it the brakes causing the problems or are the accelerators faulty? And is it affecting all hybrids or just the Prius?

Toyota’s handling of the crisis left both consumers and journalists surrounded in uncertainty.

So what can we learn from this? How can you contain a disaster before it spirals out of control, shreading your reputation into tatters on the way?

Act Fast – a slow response can make you look apathetic and have a severe and disastrous effect on your reputation. It also makes you look guilty as charged, so get in there quick before it’s too late.

Stay Visible – staying in the public eye is even more crucial in times of crisis. The public will expect a response and will want to see that you are taking control of the situation personally. Hiding away will only act to confirm negative rumours and take away any confidence the public may have in you.

Be Prepared – it’s well worth investing in media training to prepare yourself for such an event. If you appear nervous and unconfident, you may as well not bother appearing at all. Body language says it all and people will ignore your positive messages if you sit nervously scratching your neck wishing the ground could swallow you up!

Good crisis management relies on consistent, well-prepared open communication. Cover all the facts and tell the public exactly what you are going to do to rectify the situation.

Often there is little that can be done to avoid a crisis, but when the worst happens, don’t add fuel to the fire – have a crisis management plan in place and be proactive about speaking to the relevant media. If you have no experience in crisis management, then seek advice from those who do.

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Effective PR doesn’t just mean putting your own news and opinions out there in press releases, articles and interviews.  There are newsworthy incidents happening all the time that are related to your business, that you can use to your advantage — if you’re willing to offer a pithy, relevant comment.  All it takes is a little planning, an eye on breaking news that’s relevant to your organisation, and the ability to deliver a rapid response.

One of the staples of journalism is including comments from expert industry observers into a breaking news story.  The comments help to explain the story, and to balance it by giving the point of view of a third party.  It’s natural to think that these comments come from the journalist’s established contacts, built up over years of lunches.

That may have been the case a few years ago - but not any more.  Journalists are under real pressure to deliver a quota of news stories per day, so time is a key factor.  They’ve got maybe 90 minutes to get the story finished before moving onto the next one, and if you can offer a quick comment that fits the story and the journalist’s needs without too much editing, you’re in.

What are those newsworthy events?  Well, it depends on what industry you’re in.  For example, if you’re in the IT security sector, either as a vendor or a service provider, incidents such as data leaks or virus outbreaks (such as the recent infection on Greater Manchester Police’s networks) are ones to watch out for. 

What’s more, these breaking stories tend to be syndicated to other news outlets, spreading the story quickly across the web, giving you a big footprint on Google, and positioning you as an industry expert to boot.  Why not contact us to find out how you can get your points of view across?

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No, we haven’t won the PR account for LinkedIn, but its motto is very apt in the world of PR. Yesterday a journalist from one of the national newspapers rang me to verify a report she’d been sent from a travel company – her particular question was “is this just a publicity stunt?”

As it happens, it was not a publicity stunt and as the topic falls well within the realms of a client we work with, it allowed me to confirm the validity of the content and provide her with further information to back it up - a great opportunity for national coverage.

There’s a little bit of it’s not what you know, but who you know in this, but whichever way you look at it, it’s the relationship that is important. Clearly if you’ve got the story of the century, then you could be as rude as Simon Cowell at the tone deaf society and still no credible journalist would turn you down. Having said that, when it comes to building a rapport for the long term, it comes down to being a friendly and reliable source, who provides interesting material and can deliver promptly for the ever-approaching deadline.

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There has been some confusion in the press over the past week about whether certain premier league football clubs had banned their players from using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter. However one of the football clubs clarified that they don’t forbid the use of social networking but have a Code of Conduct for players regarding what and how information is disclosed, and outlined that in fact they are very active in social media.

With social media fast becoming the communication tool of choice, having a social media campaign as part of your overall PR and marketing strategy is a must.

The main purpose of social media for business is to raise the profile of your company and encourage traffic to your website.  But with its informal nature it can often be difficult to know what you should and shouldn’t be talking about. And with numerous social networking tools out there it’s even difficult to know which one to use.

But whether you are blogging, tweeting or updating your Facebook status, it’s important that only information relevant to your business or customers is posted up for others to see.

If you are unsure about social networking ask your PR and marketing agency to advise you on how it can best benefit your business. By using their knowledge and expertise you will be able to implement a campaign that’s right for you without fear of saying the wrong thing.

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