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New Golden Rule: See something? SAY SOMETHING.

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bathroom bolshevik breedingRecent events have led me to believe that the world is populated by blind people. Or at least people who are easily sold on crazy.

One of those recent developments is the unfolding drama at Penn State, where icons of college sports – both the college and the coach – have been revealed to have been, if not active perpetrators, at least willing-to-look-the-other-way co-conspirators in child sexual abuse.

I use the image on the right because (a) it’s one of my favorite ad posters ever and (b) what happened at Penn State happened in a washroom.

If you see something, SAY SOMETHING. Even if you don’t/can’t/won’t DO something, at least speak up. And don’t take “it’s just [insert utterly unacceptable excuse here], don’t worry, I’ll take care of it” as an adequate response.

SAY something to someone who can/will DO something. Not the bishop that the pedophile priest works for. Not the coach who’s the supervisor of the guy who’s raping a child in the shower.

SAY SOMETHING to the cops.

“If you see something, say something” is the tag-line for a current Dept. of Homeland Security awareness campaign, aimed at stopping terrorist activity before it becomes an actual attack.

If rape isn’t terrorism, I don’t know what is. All crimes against persons – assault, rape, mugging, et al – is terrorism on a small scale, leaving marks as deep as surviving a bus bombing. In some ways, these very personal attacks leave deeper marks, because an entire community doesn’t share the victim’s experience. The person is left to deal with the aftermath alone. Just as the Penn State victim – he’s been dealing with the aftermath since 2002, essentially alone. And now the whole world is watching.

If you see something – someone hitting a child, slapping their spouse, raping a child in a freakin’ locker room – SAY SOMETHING. If you see it in your house. If you see it on your street. If you see it in the office. If you see it at your school.

See bullying? Say something. See domestic violence? Say something. See a theft, or an assault? Say something.

Find someone with a badge and a gun – and not just a university/school cop, either – and report what you saw. Keep talking until they listen.

If you see someone with a badge or a gun perpetrating a crime, call the FBI. Use your cellphone camera, and take it to the media.

See something? SAY SOMETHING.

All that it takes for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing. That’s always true, and never more true than in the situation where both the Catholic church and Penn State find themselves. An institution that’s trusted with the care and education of children has no excuse: if you see something, say something. Otherwise you’re approving the act.

It’s that simple.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

Raising Cain … then lowering him. 3 tips to avoid that mistake.

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Herman Cain image
photo credit: Toby Harnden|Daily Telegraph

The quadrennial silly season known as the US Presidential race has been in full cry on the Republican side for about six months now, with some highly entertaining spectacle already on display. Unfortunately, a popular favorite, Herman Cain, who had built up quite a head of steam as a leading contender, has been somewhat sidelined by accusations that have put his campaign in PR-crisis-management mode.

First, let me make it clear that I have no dog in this fight. I’m still waiting for the Logic Party to form, and meanwhile am a member of the No Labels movement – in other words, I’m apolitical outside the voting booth. Inside the voting booth, I hold my nose and do the best I can under the circumstances.

My purpose here is to point out the three simple, yet critical, steps Cain and his campaign communications team should have taken to, if not 100% avoid this epic mud-fest, at least keep it at small-mud-puddle level.

  1. Vet the candidate fully. Pretend you’re on the oppo research team of another candidate and vet the bejabbers out of your guy. Or gal. Go after anything that could possibly lurk as a Nannygate, or sexual harassment, or financial/business ethics challenge. The Cain team is steeping in a big bucket of #epicfail right now, because according to London Daily Telegraph US editor Toby Harnden, oppo research leakage was what led to the Politico piece that started this mud-fest.
  2. When you know the worst, plan the response. When you’ve got all the skeletons out of the closet and into the living room, start figuring out how to make them look less threatening. In this instance, simply putting the story out themselves would have taken much of the power of it off the table. “Allegations were made, this was the result, the candidate denies that there is any truth to them, but the decision was made at the time to settle the suit/issue/whatever” and move on. Never, ever let a big story about you get out there, unless you’re the one putting it out there. If one does, particularly at this stage of the game, you’re in crisis-response mode at the cost of core-message mode. Cain will now have to talk about this every day, or look like he’s dodging talking about this … every day. Not a path that’s likely to wind up at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
  3. When caught out, make a full statement and then move on. Cain is caught in a cycle of no-comment/denial/bimbo-eruption/feeding-frenzy. This is a really bad place to be, because at this point pretty much anything he says will be discounted as reluctant disclosure. If his campaign had rigorously acted on Tip #1, Tip #2 would have been pretty easy, and Tip #3 might have been completely unnecessary. He’s now going to be chewed on daily until the bimbo eruptions subside. He can keep up the no-comment/denial protocol, but that will keep him in the feeding-frenzy box for the foreseeable future.

I feel for the guy. I covered every Presidential race from 1980 to 2004. As I put it in my bio: I covered wars, Presidential campaigns, and Presidential campaigns that turned into wars. Politics is a rough, nasty, no-holds-barred business – the higher the office, the sharper the knives and the bigger the guns you’ll be up against.

Failing to recognize that, and failing to get in front of any negative information in your past by revealing it yourself first, guarantees painful war wounds.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

Being in business means you’ll ALWAYS have to say you’re sorry.

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sorry in the sandI don’t care what being in love means regarding saying you’re sorry. Personally, I think Erich Segal’s book sucks, but I digress.

If you’re in business – running one, managing one, working for one – you’re in the apology business. In fact, being human puts you in the apology business 24/7/365. And business always needs a good dose of human, particularly in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and the Facebook Fan Page wall post.

Not being human, and being willing to admit you made a mistake? #fail.

In a great post on INC.com, Tim Donnelly gives very solid tips on how to approach the brand apology when your business screws the pooch. His #1 tip: just say it. “I’m sorry.” Simple … so why is it so hard for a brand to do that?

I think the root cause of brand cluelessness is that businesses forget that they are, after all, human. They may own skyscrapers in cities around the world, but guess what? Those buildings are full of … people. Doing business with … people.

When your spouse, or your buddy, or your kid do something to hurt you or your feelings, they apologize. You do the same thing when you screw up. (If you don’t, let me know. I know some terrific divorce attorneys.) Same rules apply if you’re J.C. Penney, the example that Donnelly uses in his piece.

Be human, don’t be a brand-droid.

You don’t have to literally fall on your sword, or drape yourself in sackcloth and ashes (I still have random PTSD episodes from 12 years of Catholic education) to apologize. You don’t have to take responsibility for every goof since the beginning of your brand’s recorded history, either. Just say you’re sorry, and then you can move on.

If your factory releases a cloud of toxic gas that kills a few thousand people, you’ll have to do a little more than say “sorry” – just ask Union Carbide. Oh, right, you can’t ask them, because they never actually said they were sorry about poisoning Bhopal. Which explains why they WENT OUT OF BUSINESS.

See how powerful an apology could be? And how not issuing one might literally kill your business?

Use words that convey regret without taking responsibility for every hurt the offended party has ever suffered. Just saying “I’m sorry” can completely defuse a brand revolt. Couple that apology with a clear outline of how you plan to remedy the hurt: priceless. Really. Try it.

We all make mistakes. We’re human, that’s part of the journey. A business that recognizes its own humanity, and that of its customers, by making a sincere apology when they screw up will ultimately drive more loyalty for their brand than a business that’s 24/7 shiny-happy-people. ‘Cause shiny-happy will eventually fog up, or blow up. Trust me on that one.

Be human.

That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

Event PR: Plan or #fail

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One of the best arrows in an organization’s business-building quiver is a well-executed event. Doesn’t matter if it’s a seminar featuring your company’s expertise, or a massive trade show effort in Vegas – planning is critical to achieving that “well-executed” tag.

And, other than the actual value-delivered-in-the-room, nothing matters more than your PR strategy and execution in support of that event.

In other words, failure to meaningfully plan your event’s PR will likely mean event #fail.

The rules:

  • Give yourself enough lead time: an effective event PR strategy requires enough time to make the connections that will ensure success. Media, industry influencers, key company executives – you have to have time to build awareness and buzz.
  • Build an engaging and informative media kit: this is particularly important for big events like major trade shows. Why is your organization creating or participating in this event? Tell that story from the ground up: the keynote speaker(s), the industry folks you’re targeting, the team putting together the event, the city where the event is happening. Make it accessible, with downloadable PDFs. Add video if at all possible.
  • Reach out early and often (within reason!): develop a robust list of contacts who can make a difference to the event – press, top industry bloggers, communications directors at top companies in the industries you want to have attend the event. Share your information in engaging ways – see Bullet #2 for tips.
  • Craft a comprehensive message calendar: media outlets use editorial calendars – PR pros do, too. For every event, build an editorial calendar for your messaging outreach. Assign tasks, track progress: lather, rinse, repeat.
Not rocket science. Not even complicated. Follow these guidelines, and I predict your event will be both standing-room-only AND a popular media topic.
That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it …

Media Relations – It’s All About Relationships

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Your company is about to launch a new product or service that will raise the achievement bar in your industry. You want to make sure that every customer for your innovative offering hears the buzz, and acts on it by buying it – in droves.

You write a press release announcing your exciting news, and fire it off to Business Wire, PR Web, several industry magazines, your local paper’s business editor, and the newsrooms of local broadcasters.

You post it, with a big headline, on your company’s website. You sit back, and wait for the world to beat a path to your door.

Some time later, you notice that your door is still on its hinges. Your hoped-for media response was underwhelming. In fact, it was non-existent. You saw the headline on the Business Wire page. You know it was near the top for several hours on PR Web.

But no industry writers called, and your press release wasn’t even run in your local paper’s business pages. Why not? Where did you go wrong?

In your business, you’ve no doubt discovered that relationships are what make customers out of prospects. The same principle is in play with media relations – it’s not what you know (or how well you write your press release), it’s who you know. And how they feel about you and your company.

When you were developing your business plan, you put an advertising budget in under marketing, didn’t you? Here’s another question: What’s the best advertising in the world?

Answer: free publicity.

I can hear you – you’re saying…”OK, Casey, but how do I get free publicity?”

You develop relationships with reporters who cover your industry, that’s how.

Look at your local daily newspaper, and local TV news. Pick up the last copy of your industry’s trade magazine.

What stories have they run in the last year about people, companies or events in your business sector? Who reported the story?

Print media needs to fill the news holes in their pages – the news hole is the part of the page that isn’t paid advertising – and television news needs to have something to report between commercials. Reporters will welcome a heads-up about news on their beats that they don’t have to go out and dig up on their own.

The approach here should NOT be to call or email the reporter and tell them all about your company. You want to be a source, not a source of annoyance. The best way to open a dialog with a reporter is to offer yourself as an expert on your business sector – for example, if the reporter’s beat is real estate and development, and you’re a Realtor with a lot of experience in commercial development, you’d be a great
source for that reporter.

Make contact with the reporter after you’ve read or watched some of her or his recent pieces. Start a conversation – email is ideal here – with some of your observations about the piece, and about where your industry is headed. Keep it short, not a dissertation.

If there’s an industry event coming up in town, ask the reporter if they’re planning on attending. If they are, make a point of seeking that reporter out and introducing yourself. Start a relationship, just as you would with a prospective customer. A caveat – be aware that journalists have ethical standards dictated by their industry and their employers. Gifts, even a free lunch, have to be reported, and in most cases refused. What you need to offer is information, good information, not bribery.

Once you’ve established a relationship with a reporter, value it. Offer them stories, not self-serving fluff – the relationship will only pay off if it’s win/win, just like every other business relationship. Is what you have newsworthy?  Is a new branch office for your company news: is it offering employment in an
economically disadvantaged area, or is it just another suite of offices in an upscale office park?

There has to be a news “hook”, something that makes your story more than just your story.

Harking back to the scenario I drew at the top of this post, if you have an fresh solution or product that you believe will have the world beating a path to your door, the way to tell the world certainly involves writing a great press release. You’ll get a lot more mileage out of that release if you send it to reporters who know you, who regard you as an expert, and who will tell your story to their readers – your market – who will then beat a path to your door.

Becoming an expert is what you did on the path to starting your business. Being recognized as an expert by the media will give you visibility worth thousands, even millions, of advertising dollars that you don’t have to spend.

Does this give you a new view of reading the morning paper, watching local news, reading a trade journal?

Are you itching to make a list of reporters who cover your industry?

Great – go do it!

The 9 Rules of Media Relations Crisis Management

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As the tragedy at the Sago mine in West Virginia unfolded on our televisions and front pages in January of 2006, I’m certain we all wondered how the story could have become such a terrific example of corporate media-relations bungling.

Perhaps I was in the minority thinking the bungling was terrific, but I’m in the media relations business – this mess was going to be a terrific teaching tool to illustrate how not to behave in a crisis.

How did such utterly wrong “facts” get released? And why did International Coal Group, the company that owns the Sago mine, let the wrong story spread for three hours before admitting to the real facts – twelve miners were dead. There was only one survivor. Not twelve, as had been joyfully reported by broadcasters and newspapers around the world.

There is one primary rule in media relations – never let the story get away from you. International Coal Group violated that rule, and wound up the poster child for corporate blundering. ICG will have “Sago mine disaster” inserted in every story about their company for years to come. The coal industry isn’t known for its safety record – now ICG has the dubious distinction of joining the “worst mining disasters” list.

Most business owners, large or small, will never face a media disaster of these epic proportions. They can, however, learn some valuable lessons by being aware of what can happen if you violate that one primary media relations rule – never let the story get away from you. Every company should have a media relations crisis plan – even if you will only end up talking to a community newspaper.

Plans for any company should follow these guidelines:

1. Be prepared

2. Tell the truth

3. Establish one point of contact

4. Tell the truth

5. Maintain your message – know what to say, and say only that

6. Tell the truth

7. Know what is, and isn’t, newsworthy

8. Tell the truth

9. Be aware of deadlines

You’ve likely noticed that one rule is so important, it’s in there four times – no matter what you have to say, if it isn’t true, you’ll be found out. It might be within three hours, like it was for ICG. It might be three weeks, three months – but you will be found out, and you’ll have an accelerating disaster on your hands that your business may not survive.

Here are two more real-world examples that show how important the truth is when your company faces a crisis:

In Sept. 1982, a series of deaths in the Midwest were found to be caused by cyanide-tainted Tylenol. In the nation-wide panic that followed, Johnson & Johnson, Tylenol’s manufacturer, responded by recalling all Tylenol products and investigating their manufacturing plants – and keeping the public updated on what they were doing, and what they discovered.

They stated that they recognized this as a public health crisis first, and a company crisis second. Working with the FBI, the FDA and the Chicago Police Department, the company was praised for its honesty with the public during the Tylenol crisis. In 2006 – 24 years later – Tylenol has 35% of the painkiller market in the US.

On Dec. 3, 1984, a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India accidentally released a cloud of pesticide – methyl isocyanate – that covered the city.

Over 1,500 people died within 24 hours.

Even though the company deployed a medical team immediately, the company’s statements – via the medical teams on the ground and corporate press appearances – downplayed the effects of the accident. Months later, Union Carbide was still denying that mortality rates were as high as they were being reported in the press.

The company never fully recovered, and was bought out by Dow Chemical ten years later.

Like I said before – tell the truth. It won’t just set you free, it’ll keep you in business.

You should have a media plan in place before you speak to a community calendar newsletter, your local paper’s business editor, a local radio or television reporter, or launch a product or service at a trade show.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re talking to a suburban community paper or the New York Times, having a plan in place gives you the confidence to speak your message, stay on track, and stay in control of your company’s news, and its future.

In the fast-moving, 24-hour spin cycle that is today’s news business, you don’t want to wind up circling the drain, getting caught off guard if your company suddenly becomes newsworthy.

If you’re lucky enough to come up with that fresh take on the mousetrap that has the world, and the media, beating a path to your door, you don’t want to answer the door in your underwear.

By being prepared with a media plan, developed using the guidelines I’ve given you, you’ll answer your door looking (and sounding) sharp, successful and newsworthy.

And you’ll enjoy your ride on the media train, instead of finding yourself ground under its wheels.