What to do when your PR agency is force-feeding you the corporate Kool-Aid
by Emma King (@EmmainSA) I have little patience for PR agencies and consultants who bamboozle their clients into paying for complex services and offerings by confusing the hell out of them. They overwhelm clients with textbook PR-speak and outdated jargon, while not saying very much, leaving clients confused as to what they are signing up for, and fearful they haven’t got all bases covered.
“Eeeeek!!” the poor client thinks, while being overwhelmed with stats about influencers and A-list bloggers and ROI numbers and cost-per-head figures.
“Help!” they silently scream, while being threatened that their brands will collapse without multiple social platforms and convoluted content calendars.
No better than charlatans
Well, I call BS, because, let’s face it, none of what we do is rocket science (rather, common sense) — and, if we sell it as such, we are no better than charlatans.
Your PR agency, as much as any of your other agencies (and even more so, I would argue — more of this later) should be a partner. And what is a partnership, if not a meeting of mutual respect and understanding?
So, after much crowd-sourcing (or in this case, whinging with colleagues over a glass of chilled chardonnay), here are my tips on finding the right PR consultant for your brand:
- Make sure you know what PR means (and what its value is)
This sounds patronising, but if I had a rand for everyone who thought that PR stands for “press release”, I’d be able to retire to my own wine farm by now. Sadly, I don’t, so all I have left is to implore you to interrogate and understand what the words “public relations” stand for. They mean creating relationships with your public — whether that be your customers, your staff, your investors, or the general public at large.
And, yes, this does often mean via the traditional media outlets, but not always (and increasingly less so) — and a PR practitioner whose only talent is farming out press releases is a waste of your money.
A good PR practitioner will understand that your brand’s reputation and standing among your publics are made and strengthened through so much more than that which you spout out in a media release — and will look for multiple ways to engage them and grow their trust.
Pro-tip: if your agency measures its time and success only by a list of media that it farms information out to and then “follow up by phone” to see if they have received it, it is doing it wrong.
- Get actively involved
I often see clients who want to hand over a bunch of stuff, close their eyes and walk away, hoping that everything will just magically happen without them having to think about it.
Similarly mistaken, I think, are brands that hand over their entire social-media accounts to an agency. This is because an external person can never live, breath and understand a brand or a business as well as someone who lives every day within it.
By all means, use an agency or a consultant to add a level of strategy, planning or slick content to an account. But the real magic comes from the day-to-day peeks into a business or customer service responses that only someone in-house can bring.
- Share knowledge
The best PR comes from over-sharing. Many times a client is so close to the brand that all they can see are stories or information that the BRAND finds interesting.
But providing lots and lots of information — even that which at first glance is not of use — to a good PR consultant will allow her or him to delve in and dig out little nuggets that would normally be overlooked, and which often have that magic element which differentiates a good from average PR campaign.
So, contribute ideas, share information and spot things that you think are interesting. Your PR partner will be able to turn these into gold.
- Find someone whom you can trust
Great PR stems from great relationships where trust is at the core. Some of the best results I have seen are where a client and agency have worked together for years, and where the PR consultant is treated as exactly that — a consultant, rather than a supplier.
When you are leaning on a PR agency to build your brand’s reputation — in good times and bad — it cannot do it without a complete and thorough understanding of your brand. And that means warts and all.
In times of crisis, if your PR consultant does not know what skeletons are hiding in your closet, she or he cannot build a strong defence for you. So let her or him know everything — the truth always comes out and, I promise, it is better to have them on your side and helping you, than sitting in ignorance.
So, finally
Find someone who tells you the truth (when you’ve been sucking on your own corporate Kool-Aid and can’t see the wood for the trees), and who helps you create a plan that you understand and are proud of, rather than some who bewilders you.
Simple.
Emma King (@EmmainSA) is the owner and MD of The Friday Street Club (@TheFridayStClub). Previously, she was head of PR at The Jupiter Drawing Room (Cape Town). She contributes the monthly “The Dissident Spin Doctor” column on PR and communication issues to MarkLives.com.
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