You’ve Just Been Cast as a PR Leader – Now What?

This weekend’s Oscar Academy Awards show has me pondering the roles of newly made public relations leaders who are far from being typecast. This economy has companies shaking up the responsibilities of executives, directors and managers. So what is one to do when they’ve been surprisingly granted a part as the chief communications advisor to the executive team, or director of public relations? Here’s where I would begin.

Request the following from the public relations department:

-organizational chart and job descriptions
-vision statement
-strategic plan
-status reports
-standard operating procedures
-communication pieces – newsletters, brochures, e-blasts, fliers, etc.
-approval process
-crisis communication plan

Initially, the last two bullets are the most critical. You’re now responsible for whatever materials come out of that department – both internally and externally. Find out what communication pieces are reviewed at the manager, director and executive levels. Those which target an external audience are the most critical and require the most scrutiny.  

If your request for the crisis communication plan is met with a blank stare, you just found your first project.  All organizations, large and small – for profit and non-profit, have an equal opportunity to find themselves thrust into the spotlight.  You’ll want to ensure talking points for the organization are accurate, determine how media calls are handled, who speaks to the media, who has had media training and who has not. That’s enough to get you started, but trust me – there’s more.

Your new role is exciting, but if your background doesn’t include anything related to communications or public relations be prepared for some potentially dramatic storyline changes. Are you ready to take a call from an investigative reporter, handle the fallout from a typo in a brochure misrepresenting your company’s annual revenue, or bring together community partners who are vital to your organization’s success but want nothing to do with you or your business? Don’t go it alone. Even Brando had an acting coach.

Ever been in this situation? Share your advice or experiences below.

Handling Negative Press In Your Industry

A client of mine called concerned that his competitor was featured on the evening news for all the wrong reasons. The investigative story focused on the competition’s alleged poor customer service and bad business practices. My client had two immediate questions– does one bad apple spoil the whole cart and what does this mean for our pending coverage scheduled for the next day? My answer to both questions – this is an opportunity.


We tackled the latter first. We reviewed the coverage and determined the story focused primarily on the competition and not the industry. The reporter who did the story was a member of the investigative station’s team. The reporter who was scheduled to cover my client was a feature reporter. He’s not known for gotcha stories. I contacted him to see if the angle I pitched him was still the one that interested him. He confirmed it was.

Now back to the cart and apples. We used the story as an opportunity to share advice about how to spot scams, and offered to answer questions about the industry to anyone – free of charge. We shared the information on our social media channels and via email. We developed talking points for staff and fielded a few questions from clients and the public.

Utilizing some key public relations tactics we leveraged the situation to work in our favor. An event like this can happen in any industry. Be prepared and think things through before you react. Had we buried our head in the sand on this one, we would have missed out on some great press and goodwill.