The General

The general is the safeguard of the state.

If the safeguard is complete, the state is surely strong.

If the safeguard is flawed, the state is surely weak.

We are returning again to the idea of the communicator as general. When we represent an organization we are safeguarding one of their most valuable assets: their reputation. This is a powerful responsibility. After all, it is easy to see the damage a fumbled PR campaign can cause. And there are so many fumbled PR campaigns.

In the case of the Invisible Children fiasco, the failures have been hashed over already. In short:

• Invisible Children was insufficiently aware of the thoughts and needs of the population they purported to support.
• Invisible Children retained too much of the funds they raised for internal efforts rather than supporting their population.
• Invisible Children was viewed as acting in a neo-colonial manner through the placement of Jason Russell as the protagonist of the Kony 2012 narrative.

It doesn’t matter that Russell was a high-ranking member of the Invisible Children organization. He was effectively acting as a communicator and, in this capacity, he failed completely. We can, however, learn from his failure. One of the key lessons: a communicator should show humility. When we frame the narrative around ourselves rather than the publics we want to reach out to, we are failing to communicate well.

Of course, not every campaign is a failure.

By being creative, and engaging our publics we can enhance the reputation of our organizations. Canadian Tire’s tree powered by Christmas wishes might have been a little bit on the gimmicky side, but by combining genuineness, creativity and an engaged model they managed to enhance the reputation of the venerable Canadian brand at a time 0f year absolutely crucial to consumer retail.

Enter the C-Suite

The general being capable and the ruler not interfering is victory.

If the professional communicator is a general then the executives and directors the communicator reports to are the “feudal lords,” the kings and emperors generals reported to.

It’s crucially important that a communicator gain the trust of the executives within his organization. After all, it doesn’t matter how skilled a PR professional is if the c-suite nixes all his ideas.

As much as we might feel the urge we can’t work around cautious executives, nor can we ignore them. The reasons for this should be obvious:

• It will get you fired.
• It’s unethical.
• It’s counter-productive.

In other words, it’s just not an option. Instead it’s necessary to  build a relationship with these executives which makes us somebody they will listen to.

There are a few things we can do to achieve this:

1. Learn the corporate culture. Understand what is expected of the c-suite’s trusted advisers. Be flexible and accommodate the organization’s way of doing things.
2. Get to know your bosses. If they know you they are more likely to trust you.
3. Be proactive. If you are getting things done before they blow up the executives will come to appreciate you.
4. Succeed consistently. Any organization worth working for will reward success with additional trust and responsibility. If you want to be able to convince the c-suite to go along with your big ideas show them you are worthy of trust with the details.

A break from the Sunzi PR project for a moment to reflect on what I’ve learned about social media and corporate communications over the last year. I’d say that there are three lessons that, more than anything else, have impacted my perspective on social media communications in specific, and corporate communications in general.

1: Be Genuine!

Honestly, of all the things I learned in this program this is the thing that came of the greatest surprise to me. After all, everybody’s heard of the disingenuous PR flack, right? But one thing we’ve been told time and again in the CCPR program is that, to be effective as a public relations professional it’s not enough that we be honest, although our codes of conduct require honesty, beyond that we have to be genuine.

This means choosing our clients with enough care that we don’t have to bite our tongues and swallow our bile when we go to represent them. This means being truly interested and truly passionate about our clients and about the things they say and do.

2: Be creative!

This was less of a surprise than my discovery about genuineness but it was no less important. A boring PR campaign won’t go anywhere. If we want  to engage our audiences, and not just push messages out to them we have to be creative.

Sometimes this can be difficult. There are certainly regulatory restrictions, for instance, on being overly creative with your annual reports. Notwithstanding such ethical and legal constraints though, a successful communicator is one who uses some creativity.

This is especially true in digital spaces. Social media is ephemeral, and a boring tweet is fast forgotten. If we want to engage our audiences we need to grab their attention. This means we must use all the pencils in the box.

3: Be conversational

This is, in some ways, the hardest of all. When writing a book the conversation is entirely one way. The author says things and the audience, for their part, take in what the author says. This is also true in visual art. The photographer or painter creates a message and the audience receives the message. Coming from a background in visual arts and writing, it is sometimes too easy for me to try and push a message.

But this doesn’t fly in social media. It doesn’t fly in any corporate communication really. It doesn’t matter how genuinely you communicate your message. It doesn’t matter how creatively you frame it. If you are pushing the message without engaging in conversation you won’t get far.

A successful communicator must be genuine, creative and conversational. Although I learned a lot about planning, about strategic communication and about the minutiae of writing SMRs, press releases, copy and proposals, I would say that these three concepts are ultimately the truly important lessons.

A group of students in the Centennial College Corporate Communications and Public Relations class of 2012 is hosting an inaugural fundraising event for the local charity, the Children’s Book Bank. The MC for the evening will be Ontario Library Association’s book award nominated children’s and young adults’ author Robert Paul Weston. The highlight of the evening will be a “Cheater’s Trivia” game where contestants have the option to pay for answers to the questions. These questions will be on topics related to children’s literature. All funds raised this way will go directly to the Children’s Book Bank.

The event will be held at The Blake House restaurant and pub located at 449 Jarvis St. just south of Wellesley St. East on Monday, Nov. 21 at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 and we are offering a $2 discount to anyone who brings an eligible children’s book donation. Trivia night teams can be between one and four people, so bring some friends. You can buy tickets at the Children’s Book Bank starting on November 7, 2011 or can contact the student team at cheatforacause@gmail.com or through facebook and twitter to arrange registration directly.

The Children’s Book Bank is a Toronto charity that provides free books and literacy support to families in the Regent Park and Cabbagetown South St. James Town neighbourhoods.

The Corporate Communications and Public Relations department is a division of Centennial College’s School of Communications, Media, and Design.