Everyday PR

Contrary to popular belief, Memorial Day is not about cook-outs, retail sales or a day off work. Unfortunately, many Americans have forgotten the original intent of the annual observation, which is to honor those men and women who have fallen in the line of duty on behalf of this country.  Fortunately, there are those who continue the tradition of remembrance like the 1,200 soldiers of the 3rd U.S. Infantry who place small American flags at each of the more than 260,000 gravestones at Arlington National Cemetery. They then patrol 24 hours a day during the weekend to ensure that each flag remains standing.  In St. Louis, the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts place flags on the 150,000 graves at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery. More recently, the Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts began a tradition of putting a candle at each of approximately 15,300 grave sites of soldiers buried at Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park.  To those who continue to honor Memorial Day, three virtual Cups of Joe for carrying on a meaningful observation.  May we all learn from you.

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter.com/susanhartpr.

While mainstream media continue to see declines in ad revenues, online advertising keeps growing.  Read the latest.

When I was growing up, we would eat dinner promptly at 6 p.m. watching Walter Cronkite tell us that’s the way it was.  Not uttering a word, my Dad would often shake his head left to right which was code for “the world’s going to hell in a handbasket.” 

Now I know what that head-shaking, eyes-on-the-plate, pass-the-gravy glare to my Mom feels like.  Today’s headlines are horrible.  Lies, wars and corruption in the first news block followed by special reports on all things bad about real estate, the economy and the stock market.  What little time that’s left for any positive news at the end of the broadcast is summarily overshadowed by the previous 25 minutes of death and destruction.  As I’ve previously explained, that’s because if it bleeds, it leads.  Maybe it’s because I just read Anderson Cooper’s Dispatches from the Edge book (well written, but troubling accounts of Rwanda, Katrina and Iraq) or it could be that I’m listening to Game Change about the 2008 presidential election (this is just self-induced depression about political campaigns). The point is that I’ve practically metamorphosized into my Dad around the dinner/evening news hour. 

So what to do? 

1)  Start a new type of newscast/daily publication/Internet stories called The Good Time Channel.  Maybe if the media covered more positive news that actually enhances our quality of life, some of the shrill makers wanting coverage for the sake of coverage would diminish.  Sort of a “starve the idiot, feed the reporter” approach.

2)  Base the next season of Survivor (disclosure: I’ve never seen the show) on media reps from the networks, dailies, tabloids, wire services, etc.  Let them fight it out via worm-eating contests and bug-ridden islands.  Last person living gets to be the single source of news until the next season.

3)  Change the channel.  Thank goodness for TV Land, HGTV and The History Channel.  Instead of punishing yourself by watching the news at the end of a typically hard day at work, reward yourself with an episode of Andy Griffith, House Hunters or American Pickers. 

Am I the only one who’s being negatively impacted by today’s headlines?

Nobody plans to have a crisis – it’s like planning to have a heart attack the day after your retirement.  So with recent headlines from financial malfeasance to natural disasters, public relations professionals like me just have to ask:  What kind of crisis communications plan does your organization have?  This isn’t a “yes” or “no” question – it’s a question of preparedness and responsibility to your employees, customers and shareholders.

No doubt this crisis negatively impacted revenue for this retailer.

Following 9/11, I thought businesses would be clamoring to make sure they were covered in the event of a crisis – manmade or natural.  I was in shock and awe at how many organizations didn’t have so much as a current employee list, customer database and/or functional website.  Most executives thought a crisis only happened in big faraway places (tell that to the thousands of businesses put out of commission because of tornadoes, floods, fires, etc.); some believed planning for a crisis was a waste of money (ask Domino’s about that); and one even chose to “ride the wave” of a national tragedy as his strategy (see news clips of executive stuttering to explain how donations were really used).

Let’s be clear about one thing: NO ONE IS IMMUNE TO A CRISIS.  Who thought a 500-year flood would really happen, putting some businesses out of business?  Who thought a pilot would have to make an emergency landing in the Hudson River?   Who knew that students would actually form a plan to kill their classmates?  The rescue services, airlines and school officials likely never dreamed of such circumstances on their watch, but that doesn’t mean that a nightmare can’t happen.

So for those organizations interested in making a responsible step toward crisis planning, see the checklist below. If you can check “yes” to all of the statements, then you’re ahead of the curve. If you can’t check “yes” to all the statements, then do something about that.

*   We have an ongoing communications effort in place to maintain a foundation of goodwill in our community.

*  We have identified potential crisis situations within our organization, and we have developed a communications strategy for responding to each.

*   In the event of a crisis, we are prepared to quickly communicate with all our target audiences, including but not limited to, staff, volunteers, consumers, shareholders, elected officials, media and the general public.

*   We have established a crisis team and a formal notification plan.

*   Our management team and key board members/stakeholders have reviewed and approved the crisis communications plan.

*   At any hour of the day, our crisis team knows how to contact each other.

*   Each member of our crisis team has a copy of the crisis communications plan at home and at the office.

*   If an incident occurs, we are confident the employee or volunteer on duty will know what to do to alert the crisis team.

*   Our organization has established a formal communications policy on providing the media with full and accurate information in a timely manner.

*   The spokesperson for our organization has received professional media training and is an integral part of our operations and/or management team.

How many can you positively answer?

Middle Tennessee continues to reel in the aftermath of last week’s floods now being described as the worst non-hurricane natural disaster in U.S. history.  That’s bad.  As soon as they could, volunteers showed up in droves to help neighbors and complete strangers affected by the floods.  That’s good. And being Music City USA, there’s not a celebrity in town who hasn’t contributed in some way to flood relief efforts. That’s also good.  But for comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who booked a gig in Nashville months ago, to give all proceeds from his show this weekend show to the recovery effort - well that’s just indescribably good!  Three virtual Cups of Joe to Jerry Seinfeld for doing something really good for thousands of  people going through something really bad.

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter.com/susanhartpr.

Today’s guest blogger is Trey Campbell, Director of Communications for the Southwestern Company and 2010 President of the Nashville Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.

In a week of highs and lows, the water being the high and our hearts sinking with every local news report being the low, Nashville and all of Middle Tennessee can be proud.  Out of tragedy comes triumph. 

A volunteer, one of thousands, helps in the recovery.

As for the Middle Tennessee public relations community, maybe the time will come when we’ll take a deep breath, reflecting on what could have been (or should have been) reported to a national audience.  Until the stench of river water is out of our town, though, it won’t get too much thought.  We’ve got work to do.

As PR professionals, many of whom have a journalism background, we know all too well what reporters and networks find newsworthy.   With that in mind, one of several local, baffling questions taxing many Middle Tennesseans is, “Why have the national media, to a certain extent, snubbed Nashville?”  

Is it that we are not perceived as a “major” market?  Is Nashville stereotyped by country music and pick-up trucks?  After all, what more do the media want?  I guess a $1.5 billion-plus flood of a capital city (estimates in Metro Davidson County alone) isn’t sexy enough to beat out two other lead stories for the week – the Times Square bombing attempt or the BP oil spill?  Where’s the conflict with a flood?  Not here.  No looting, no rioting, not much government or local red tape, no barriers to people getting help fast.  Mobilization took place, plans were put into action and thousands of people responded – as they should.  While the fright was real, the panic was subdued, washed away with the receding waters. 

My own parents, former Nashvillians who now live on Pensacola Beach and are no strangers to natural disasters, did not believe the extent of the flooding until they saw Jim Cantore from The Weather Channel had come for a swim… er, visit.  Is this the new standard of broadcast journalism for natural disasters?  “Oh, Jim’s here… must be official now… it’s NOW a situation.” 

Any PR professional will tell you the media have changed. This time, social media got the scoop – and kept it for days.  The YouTube videos, Facebook photos and text messages told the story before the national media fully caught on.  God bless CNN’s Anderson Cooper and a few other journalists who admitted to missing the boat (no pun intended… ok, yes, it was) after jumping aboard.  I’ve heard numerous accounts of friends and relatives of Nashvillians who had no idea how bad the flooding was until they saw photos on Facebook.  Why is that?

You know what?  It doesn’t matter anyway.  Speaking for the PR community, the time is not for wordsmithing or asking questions about the media’s whereabouts during a tragic, historic story in the history of a storied city.  The PR community, just like many other local businesses and organizations, is not concerned at this time with attention, but solutions.  The way a community the size of Nashville and over 50 other Tennessee counties has handled the situation speaks louder than any coverage ever will.  The benefits of coverage, however, are that it often leads more quickly to aid, dollars and other resources for recovery.  It’s not about the spotlight, it is about helping people, and the coverage sure could have helped.

“Hi, national media?  Meet Nashville.”  We are a big town with a small town feel; sophisticated, but down-to-earth; we are a cultural and higher education hub known as the “Athens of the South;” big business and corporate, global headquarters call this area home – as do two major league sports teams.  We areMusic City U.S.A.  What makes our community newsworthy? Maybe not a catastrophic flood, but how we dealt with it.  Again, it still doesn’t matter – the story is the people.  It usually is.  The devastation of our homes and iconic, historic buildings like the Grand Ole Opry House may have been second fiddle on any given news day last week.  But this ain’t no country song.  The people of Music City outplayed the devil for a “fiddle of gold” when reacting to a crisis and taking care of our own.  Report that.

A message to the national media from local PR practitioners who pitch you on a daily basis – “WE ARE NASHVILLE!  Pardon our mess, pleased to meetcha!”

“The thing that’s different with Nashville’s disaster compared to others is that I’ve never seen so many people respond so quickly to help their neighbors. In New Orleans following Katrina, you didn’t see this kind of involvement of churches and neighbor helping neighbor until much later. It’s incredible to see so many people helping.  It’s a great reflection on Nashville,” said CNN’s Anderson Cooper, who spent yesterday capturing images and interviews with victims of last weekend’s flood.  You got that right, Anderson.  There’s a reason Tennessee is called the Volunteer State.  Three virtual Cups of Joe for telling the world what we, as Nashvillians, have always known.

The virtual Cup of Joe Award from EveryDayPR spotlights our pick of the week for a public relations performance –  good, bad or ugly.  If you’d like to make a nomination, contact shart@hartpr.com or www.Twitter.com/susanhartpr.

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