REPUTATIONAL CAPITAL

In an earlier blog "The magic key, your personal brand" we made the point that the difference in earning power of individuals, companies and even countries depends on how they communicate what value they posses.

So you earn more than the next guy because you have built up value through years of study and experience and you have built a reputation that communicates this value to prospective employers or clients.

But there are those just as competent as yourself or even less so earning more money than you. When you drill down to why this is so you will invariably find they have been better able to communicate their value to their employers. This can be through better negotiation, building an industry wide reputation that is valued by the competition and all this above performing assigned tasks.

This is increasingly going to be the case in much more connected world.

The Ted Talk video of author Rachel Botsman illustrates/explains  the point perfectly and gives us a peek of what is coming.

Note however that she did this talk in 2012.

HOW TO MANAGE A CRISIS.... YOU DON'T!

It always makes me laugh.

This or that company has got bad press. Suddenly the phone is ringing off the hook, "What do we do?","How do we make this go away?" "Who can we talk to?"

I can imagine too, that more often than not, when tempers are still hot an official from the company has called the media house and given them a tongue-lashing, including threatening to take them to court, hang their mothers from the rafters and everything in between.

The above questions often come after things have cooled down a bit and the company is wondering what to do ... they are now in crisis management mode. By this time of course, the horse has truly bolted from the barn.

Here below are my fast and ready rules for managing a PR crisis

1. Calm down

Often times, because we are so engrossed in our own little bubble we think that the sky is going to fall around our ears. In the greater scheme of things many times, it is not as bad as it looks because one, the news is not as widespread as you think and two, if you have done your home work the people you care about you will see through the lies or brush them off as an isolated incident or never get to know about it anyway.

Take a moment. Breath. Clear your mind. Get a grip.

And most importantly don't rush into any action that may make things worse or antagonise potential allies who would help diffuse the mess.

Sadly spokesmen do the complete opposite, lash out at the media, make unnecessary calls to unrelated parties and generally make a mess of a not-so-bad situation.

      2. Who do you know?

Hopefully you have calmed down and the next thing is to make an inventory of your resources.  What is your side of the story? What are the channels you want/can use to get your story out? Who do you know in the media?

This where the rubber hits the road. If as a PR manager you have not been cultivating and nurturing your contacts in the media, chances are it will be an uphill struggle to get your side of the story out. Also because you have not been in touch you don't know how the media work and therefore how to effectively get your message out.

      3.Counter, deflect or bury your head in the sand

Believe it or not being defensive is not the only solution.

Sometimes the media has got it wrong and a robust response may be the key to shutting the whole mess down. But what happens if they have it right? Going after them hammer and tongs, hoping to intimidate them into silence or retracting their story, may backfire on you spectacularly and may very well make things worse. The smart thing would be to admit the error of your ways without admitting the error of your ways. This is often characterised by the response "We are not aware of this but we shall investigate the matter and if found to be true ...blah, blah"

And sometime silence is the best answer. With this you may judge by responding you will only raise the issues profile or that if you keep silent it may just blow over with little to no damage to the organisation.

This is the default position of many organisations but there is a real danger in this strategy. One, is that the consensus is that silence signals acceptance or guilt and secondly, nature abhors a vacuum and in this it will be filled and often than not to your detriment.

Crisis will come. That's a mathematical certainty. How you handle it will depend on how the PR department has been building the brand, maintaining relations with the media and within your company.

The truth though is that if your PR has not been deliberate,systematic and consistent up to that point the crisis may very well bury you. Good luck.

Do not leave your reputation to chance or gossip; 

it is your life’s artwork, and you must craft it, hone it, and display it with the care of an artist.

----Robert Greene

HAPPY LABOUR DAY

GOOGLE YOURSELF

Do just that.

What do you see?

Googling yourself will help determine how visible you are -- you can have no brand if no one knows about it, and if at all, what the world knows you for.

It can go one of three ways.

One, that Google doesn't know you. You have no online presence. You have no email address, no Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram account. How can that be? Maybe you are retired and in the village -- you retired in the 1990s.

Two, you have an online presence alright but its not really in your control. Its often other people writing about you, the press? Which is rarely good. You know what they say "Nothing makes for good news like bad news" If someone is writing your story, filling your online vacuum it is rarely good or accurate.

And finally you not only have an online  presence but its you dictating the narrative generally. That's where we should all aim to be.

This is important for several reasons but not least of all that the first impressions of you online are created by yourself, everything else can only be built off your own narrative of yourself.

That is one of the reasons famous people publish memoirs. Everybody is free to write about them but they will have to start with your story.

Maybe legacy is less of a concern for you right now. 

Think of your online presence as enabling tool for recruiters looking for prospective employees or businesses looking for consultants or to pattern with someone. Think of it as making their work easier, and who doesn't want to do less work?

Today anyone who is anyone goes on line to get a sense of people they meet, people they may want to work with  or people they want to work for.

Personal branding can not be left to chance. Your online profile has to be a case of putting your best foot forward.

Seeing as most of us are not of interest to the mass media we advise clients to get blogs. Facebook doesn't quite work. 

In a blog you can have articles, audio or video of yourself speaking on the subject of your expertise and totally under your control without going through the filter of the newsroom.

And once you have you bog, essentially the raw material, you need to drive traffic towards it and push its ranking up your google page, where every one will see it first time.

A story for another day.

CELEBS ENDORSING MY PRODUCT? WHY NOT?

When golfer Tiger Woods sunk his last putt to win The Masters at the Augusta National Golf Club earlier this month it was his first major in a decade.

A series of unfortunate events -- numerous back surgeries and the spectacular collapse of his marriage, threw his game off and it was feared he would not live up to his potential of overhauling legend Jack Nickalus' record 18 major tournament victories. The Masters win brought Woods' tally to 15.

While the golfing world sighed with relief -- Woods is a joy to watch and brings a certain electricity to the events he participates in, an underlying subplot was playing out, about how sports equipment company Nike stayed with Woods on their roster product endorsements when most of his major sponsors  took the hills when he was in trouble.

Experts were unanimous that Nike, which has a reputation for signing on racy characters didn't suffer too much for being associated with Woods' travails but more clean cut brands like you would find in the financial or children's sectors may have suffered if they stayed with the star.

Celebrity endorsements of products are intended to gain the product greater awareness and serve as positive association for what brand the celebrity endorses. If the brands vision and values are aligned to that those of the star it can work to the mutual benefit of both parties --- helping the brand to sell more and making the endorser fabulously rich.

In Uganda this has not caught on much. Probably a function of marketing departments being a bit green about milking the potential benefits of such tool in their marketing strategy toolbox.

Endorsements contracts if crafted well benefit from the fact that people enjoy stories about other people, because it allows them to relate or even aspire to their heroes. This emotional connection can ensure untold mileage for the product owner, give them much more bang for their buck.

COMMUNICATING THE CRANE WILL BE KEY

Uganda Airlines first two planes landed at Entebbe Airport on Tuesday to much pomp and ceremony.

The resumption of activity after an 18 year hiatus has come amidst much criticism. Detractors believe the huge outlay needed to get the airline to commercial viability is money that wold be better spent revamping our social services, building our road network or beefing up security. Especially since, they argue, we do not lack for airlines flying into and out of Uganda -- 19 at last count.

The promoters did not exactly cover themselves in glory, failing spectacularly to counter their detractors, only managing that an airline is as tragic piece of infrastructure.

And that is going to be Uganda Airlines' main challenge going forward, the development  and execution of a robust communication strategy. Hiding their head in the sand is no longer an option.

A communication  strategy that help build the brand, carrying the momentum from all the good will witnessed when the Bombadier CRJ 900 jets touched down well into the future, past the hard years ahead. They need to do more with cultivating the media.

As pointed out in an earlier blog a branding strategy begins with creating awareness, which should not be a problem for the new Uganda Airlines, whose beginning have bee covered in controversy and culminated in a champagne popping receiving of the planes at Entebbe Airport.

They will need to work on building favourable associations around the plane. In the aviation industry reliability, convenience and safety are key.

Related to the above they have to work their socks of to give the clients a better than good experience, because clients who will be flying them know what good service is and will give them little benefit of doubt on this score.

And if they can ace all these loyalty, and hence long term viability, will be a given .

This communication strategy should anchor an equally formidable marketing strategy to help sell the tickets that will keep those birds aflight.

Like in any brand building exercise this branding strategy will have to be deliberate, systematic and consistent.