Trust and Reputation
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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