The “R” Word

In my Public Affairs class last night we talked quite a bit about relationships – the “R” word – and their importance in the whole PR/PA arena. It is also something that’s come up in the other reading and research I’ve done.

When I interviewed my former manager, Karen, she pointed out that she’s had to do a tremendous amount of relationship-building with fellow professionals and with politicians in order to really feel like she is accomplishing something through her office’s advocacy efforts. When I interviewed Mass. State Senator Brewer, he talked about the way social media has changed the types of relationships he has with his constituents.

Relationships surround us every waking moment. We have them with friends, family, colleagues, teachers. We even have them with our pets. Because they surround us so completely, it might be easy to take them for granted but we can’t do that. These relationships help us navigate through the world, through life.

Embrace the “R” word.

Make sure you’re paying attention to all of your relationships, whether they are personal or professional. Keep your current ones active… and maybe it is time to revive a few. Who out there haven’t you talked to in a while? Drop them an email. Give them a call. Tweet them. Poke them on Facebook.

Do something.

A relationship can’t survive without attention.

Too Much Sharing; Not Enough Thinking

Yesterday, I had a phone conversation with Senator Stephen Brewer of the Mass. State Legislature. I asked him several questions about his perspective on the state of public affairs today as well as about some legislation he is sponsoring.

He characterized the state of public affairs today as acrimonious… a state we’ve reached because of political malfeasance and distrust that goes all the way back to Nixon lying about Watergate and Johnson lying about Viet Nam. The senator noted that “a healthy mistrust of power is important” but once that distrust reaches the point of abject cynicism, then we’ve got a problem because there also needs to be a certain amount of trust in the decisions that government makes.

I also asked him about the influence of social media on public affairs and discourse. Senator Brewer hit on two topics that I’ve mentioned before in other blog posts: the speed by which information is distributed via social media, and the ease of spreading misinformation. He mentioned an old adage: “A rumor can get around the world before the truth even gets out of bed in the morning.”

This completely ties back to our desire to hear the truth, yet our apathy towards actually working to discover what the truth is.

He also noted that “you can vilify an individual very rapidly without a lot of accountability.”  Telling lies and spreading misinformation is nothing new. It has been done throughout history. The practice is not new but the technology we have today – that is the variable. Rumor and innuendo have always been spread but the speed with which those rumors spread today? That’s the game-changing element and all the more reason why we ought to make even more of an effort to understand the truth (or lack thereof) of the messages we are spreading.

I’m guilty of it myself – I’ve forwarded emails, Tweets, and other communications and realized later that I didn’t have the whole story. I’m not proud of it, but I like to think that now I try to be a little more discerning with what I share and what I say.

It would be nice to think that others think before they speak or share as well, but I think I’m in the cynic camp on that one.

Five Questions For Public Service Announcements

I had a really great phone conversation yesterday with Michael Goldsmith. My Public Affairs professor at Emerson suggested I call him because I’m considering doing a public service announcement (PSA) for one of my projects, and Dr. Payne said that Michael would be a great resource.

He gave me a lot of great information, but one thing that stood out were the five questions he recommended you ask yourself about your PSA.

What are they? Well, I’m glad you asked:

Who says so? Will your targeted public know who the spokesperson is? Or will you have to ID them? Credibility is a big factor, and the public can and will assign a level of credibility to your spokesperson. For instance, if your PSA is about a medical topic, you could have a spokesperson from the American Medical Association (AMA) or from a pharmaceutical company. The AMA person will probably be considered more credible by the public.

How do they know? This question ties directly to the “Who says so” question and the idea of credibility. Is the individual an expert in the field? Do they have first-hand knowledge of a situation or event? Or are they someone who was hired for other reasons?

What’s missing? The topics of PSAs are usually complex, but when you’re creating one for television, you only have 30 seconds to tell your story. It will be impossible to put all of your information into the spot. Be aware of what is in your PSA but also what is missing from your PSA. Are you certain that you are presenting your strongest argument?

Did someone change the subject? Keep your goal clear. Often, because the topics covered by a PSA are so complex, you start out trying to make one point, but somewhere in the middle of the spot, you divert onto another point. Make sure you don’t change the subject!

Does it make sense? Look at your PSA as a whole and ask yourself if it makes sense. Is it believable?

Now, believability opens up a whole other can of worms (as they say) because we all have our inherent biases. The PSA may make COMPLETE sense to me but if it runs counterintuitive to your beliefs, then there’s really nothing I can say that will make you believe it. When you come in with an intrinsic bias, nothing will change your mind instantaneously. Beliefs are changed over the course of time – look at the time it took to change public opinion about smoking.

So, when you make your PSA, ask yourself these questions. Do your best with it but understand that you can put the message out there, but you have no control over your audience. Some will believe it, some will not. But if you present a clear and compelling spot, you may help your topic take one more step forward.

More Than Just Skin Deep

“If I’m ever going to be taken seriously, I need to take a much deeper dive into policies and politics.”

This is what an old friend (and former colleague) said to me today when we were on the phone discussing her perspective on public affairs, and it really gave me pause. She went on to say that many times, things seem like good ideas but when you dig deeper, you discover how complex things really are… Sometimes people can’t do that digging, sometimes they won’t do it and it is easier to vilify something than understand its complexity.

But as a public affairs professional, you have a responsibility to be more informed about politics, about policy, and about where funding comes from.

She also brought up several other interesting things that she said which gave me some different perspectives on public affairs…

One of the biggest challenges is balancing stakeholder groups you need to work with and cooperate with.

Seems like that might be a no-brainer, but when Karen mentioned it I realized how difficult that could probably be. Every stakeholder group is not going to have the same needs or priorities, and it may not always be easy to build the cooperation you  need on an issue.

You need to balance public and vocal statements about issues with the times that you need to work quietly and behind the scenes.

It is easy to simply box public affairs with the word “public.” It is easy to interpret that as out in the open, and in many cases it is. But Karen brings up an important point when she mentions behind the scenes work as well. As a PA professional, you’ll need to develop a sense for which is the appropriate method.

It was great to have the chance to catch up with Karen, and also to get her insights on public affairs and what it entails. What I really took away from the conversation was that there is much more nuance involved in public affairs than one may assume when looking in from the outside. I think this information is invaluable for anyone who is considering this area of communications for their professional future.

Social Media and Public Affairs: Friend or Foe?

As we’ve gone through some of the lectures in my Public Affairs class this semester, one theme has been emerging and that is the fact that public affairs and public relations are about images and perceptions. But we’ve also talked about influencing stakeholders. In fact, a recent paper that I just wrote for the class centers on the idea that messages intended to influence can be undermined depending on your choice of media outlet.

There is so much talk these days about social media: Twitter, Facebook, blogging, Digg, YouTube and so on. I started to wonder how effective some of these particular media outlets may or may not be. Then it just so happened that I stumbled upon (thanks, Google!) a blog post by Doug Pinkham is president of the Public Affairs Council (http://www.pac.org/). In his January 27, 2011 post titled “Is Anyone Listening,” he talks about some of these very things.

Based on a report released at the Public Affairs Council’s National Grassroots Conference (“Communicating with Congress: Perceptions of Citizen Advocacy on Capitol Hill”), Pinkham notes several interesting things:

• Only 41% of Hill staffers think that email and the Internet have increased public understanding of what goes on in Washington.
• The Internet has made lawmakers more accountable, but electronic communication “has reduced the quality of constituents’ messages.”
• More than 60% of staffers think Facebook is an important medium for understanding constituent views and nearly three-quarters consider it important for communicating their members’ views.
• YouTube is valued almost as much for congressional communication, but not as highly for understanding constituent views.

So, like any tool, social media and electronic communication can be used well and with influence, or wielded wildly and become scattershot and unfocused.

Take care when you’re choosing the media outlet for your message; it can make all of the difference.

Buying for a Good Cause

So, I’m taking a Public Affairs class as part of my Master’s program at Emerson. The thing I have found most surprising so far is how vague the area seems to be. While “public affairs” is typically associated with promoting legislation or has some other government connection, it is far broader in many ways and I have to confess having some trouble wrapping my whole head around the idea.

One of my assignments for the class is to do a social media project, where I’m planning on combining observations and comments on the state of public affairs through this blog, Twitter, and FaceBook. We’ll see how it goes.

But one thing I did today was Google public affairs and I did come across an interesting article on the Public Affairs Council Web site (www.pac.org). It referenced some research done by Cone LLC. The survey, which was done in 2010, indicates that many more consumers in America are “buying products or services linked with a cause or issue than they did 17 years ago.”

So, from a public affairs perspective, what does this mean? It could open the possibility for some advocacy causes to get additional attention  with stakeholders, particularly Moms and Millennials who, according to the survey, are the most likely to buy something that is associated with a cause. The viability of this course of action would certainly depend on what the cause is and how relevant it is to these particular demographic groups, but it merits some thought.

Interested in the survey? Check it out…