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07.01.2013

Let Us Talk about Evolution

What is more difficult for a PR-expert? To work well together with a boss who hates publicity or a boss who overestimates his/her knowledge and skills of reputation management?

I have already told you that not all the top managers of companies are equally PR savvy – I used then the professional newspeak word recently acquired by PR and media people – “media virgins”.

Let me remind you that it refers to owners or top managers who do not like coming into the mass media’s spotlight and do not think that this is necessary for their business to boom.

1. Reasons and forms of this phenomenon can vary. On the whole, I mean such typical situations as:

2. Specific character of a business. If the company is “schematic”, the management usually objects to transparency and publicity. A corporate PR expert or an agency working for the company is not always told about it explicitly, so the PR-pro has to turn into a homebred “sherlock holmes” in order to establish the truth.

3. A fundamental worldview. There can be companies where the CEO is sure that “one shouldn’t judge a book by its cover” and sincerely thinks that PR is improper bragging. In these companies PR experts do not do the work they qualified for (but place advertisements, make coffee, post information on the website) and there are no PR agencies as such.

4. Personal limitations. Not all yoghurts are equally nutritious, not all people equally like publicity. Someone is simply shy and to someone the Lord gave a talent for managing but did not give personal charisma or endowed with specific looks. In this case, corporate PR experts/agencies perform bright ritual dances with varying degrees of success in order to involve the company’s management into PR work for the benefit of the business.

5. Lack of business education. Even the most successful businessmen and top managers can honestly believe PR works are a tribute to fashion useless for their business. As a rule, these are self-made people who have jumped through hoops but who do not believe in complex managerial technologies if they cannot see their effectiveness with the naked eye. Ritual dances must be performed with redoubled zeal in this case.

In particular cases several characteristics can interweave which makes “seduction” more difficult, but on the whole it does not change the general conceptual approach much.

As a rule, the evolution of “media virgins” unfolds under one of the two none the less typical scenarios that can be described in an exaggerated way as follows:

·       Organic. Someone who is respected by our hero convinces him/her that PR is a good thing and it contributes to success. However, the scenario might be dangerous if the conviction is shallow and the interest is momentary and unstable. But in the end, the seeds will germinate and the head of the company will get involved into the work step by step and will make a fair share of his/her contribution into the reputation of his/her business.

·       Critical. The thunder is roaring (an incident at the manufacturing site, a complaint, a conflict with the local authorities or social activists, a hostile takeover attempt), the owner/manager crosses himself/herself or takes any other sacral actions and calls for a PR expert to help him/her so that the expert might join in sorting out the situation. After ocular demonstration of PR instruments efficiency the boss shows repentance for his/her misbelief and becomes a faithful initiate of reputation management.

Still one has to understand that evolution is inevitable – in the modern transparent world of everybody being equipped with communication gadgets the thunder will definitely be roaring in every company. And “media virgins” start living a regular and emotional PR life.

That is why they are much more promising as agents and ambassadors of their corporate brand than representatives of the other category that is also commonly encountered and is the second extreme of PR work involvement range.

I mean media-zombies – a special kind of corporate zombies. Their characteristic attributive parameter is a habit of communicating with the help of commonplace ready-made phrases in any situation and an itch to be spotted by the media while understanding nothing about real laws of information space life. “Media-zombies” are dangerous because they kill any trust to their company with their formal approach – it is difficult to love and respect a robot because you never know what moment it occurs to him to break the rules of robotics.

As usual, heads of companies mutate and become “media-zombies” under the influence of extremely intensive brainwashing during MBA programmes and personal growth trainings. People with extremely inflated or deflated self-esteem are very susceptible to this transformation – the former admire themselves and the latter try to prove something to people around them. And strange though it may seem, “media virgins” cannot give up this specific drug once they have tried the taste of publicity.

What should a PR expert do if he works in/with the company headed by a “media virgin” or a “media-zombie”? In both cases, to develop a strategy of personal PR taking his boss’s traits into consideration and to start putting it into life step by step. As long and carefully as his/her motivation lasts. Because nothing can please you more than changing of the reality achieved due to you efforts. There is a creator behind every spin doctor.

http://forbes.net.ua/woman/1360552-pogovorim-ob-evolyucii

 


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