The makings of a PR disaster
In our increasingly crowded space, companies jostle for mindshare using many different kinds of marketing-related tactics. Most every company in our space has some PR programs in place, either through an agency or run in-house. At our firm, we get questions every week about hosting, running, or taking over events. This "taking over" idea is otherwise called "the PR stunt," and while plenty of these are successes, at least as many are failures.
Remember, this is digital media. So your mistakes will be celebrated virally and via social media, and you might be a Facebook star for a week. If you screw up, your hair -- and your brand -- might be on fire in the tweet-o-sphere for much longer. Our industry is still very small -- an echo chamber, really. So, while the ripples from friends well made can help you build your business for years, the wrong kind of stunt can tear down all that goodwill in a day.
Many PR disasters can be attributed to two basic shortcomings:
- A lack of proper planning
- Taking unnecessary risks in an effort to stand out
I know this might sound like an overly simple recipe for disaster, but I can assure you from experience that if you do your best to avoid these two risk factors, you are well on your way to increasing your odds of avoiding a PR disaster. Each of these has numerous incarnations, of course. There are dozens of idioms that could fall under "proper planning" alone.
We all know the commonly used expression "the devil is in the details." And anyone with significant experience knows that Beelzebub and his gremlins lurk in the shadows, ready to screw around with your campaign and events. Here are five tips to help keep the disaster-causing demons in the shadows.
