I spend most of my time counseling clients on content marketing strategies to achieve measurable business objectives. The rise of social media and other factors like the decline of the technology trade press has totally changed the focus of my firm over the past 4-5 years. That said, some of my agency’s engagements still involve more traditional PR tactics on behalf of clients.
When you practice PR, sooner of later you will have a client ask “how can we get someone to tell the real story about competitor A, or industry issue B?” And by “real story,” they mean a story that reflects their view, not the conventional wisdom. In cases like this, what’s a practitioner of “ethical persuasion” — a favorite term from my master’s degree at American University — to do?
Last year there was an ugly case study of how NOT to handle such a situation. In probably the biggest PR scandal of the year, Burson Marsteller was caught trying to anonymously smear Google on behalf of Facebook. The whole thing went public when security blogger Chris Soghoian refused to participate. He was angered when Burson’s John Mercurio would not reveal the client paying for the “whisper campaign,” and publicized his email exchanges with Mercurio.
In many of these cases the client isn’t being objective, and the reporting being done on a competitor or key issue is reasonably accurate. Then an entirely different and potentially uncomfortable conversation is needed.
But for the purposes of this post let’s assume the client is correct in their view. The media is missing a big story of some kind, and if the story was reported differently it would benefit your client.
Here are some suggested rules of the road:
- Publish it yourself — counsel the client to tell the story from their own publishing platform, their blog or social community. Often this isn’t seen as feasible, but every once in a while a client will wade openly into the marketplace of ideas even when the topic is controversial
- Do your homework and have the facts on your side — don’t make it a subjective call
- Full disclosure of your relationship to the issue — who you are, what your bias is, who your client is
- Go to media you respect, and with whom you have a good relationship. This is where the decline of the trades really hurts, because there are far fewer experienced reporters who want to or have the time and resources to really dig into a story
- Remember that you are offering a point of view and third party information – they’ll write the story if interested
Sounds pretty simple, right? Often of course it’s not, in the heat of the moment and with a client demanding results. But these principles represent the best chance of success for the client, and for remaining true to yourself and the boundaries of ethical persuasion.
Good rules of the road and I especially like the first. If you’ve got a blog or other vehicle where you can publish, that’s the first thing to consider doing.
You’re in a tough place when you have a client who could possibly decide to pick up their marbles and play with somebody else and they really DON’T have a story to tell.
I find the same thing happening internally as a client and leading the communications practice. It’s tough on the internal communicators as well because THEY are the ones that have to reach back to their agencies and ask them to “tell the real story.”
The question we always have to ask is “What’s the right thing to do?” which Steve Arneson points out here: https://hcexchange.conference-board.org/blog/post.cfm?post=264 and is the only leadership question that really matters.
As a client, I try to never put an agency in a place where they have to choose between being able to feed their family and pay employees or look themselves in the mirror.