100: My Love Letter To Communicators

Right now, you are listening to the 100th episode of the Confident Communications podcast. And if you've been a listener from the beginning, or if you've just recently arrived, you know me, you know what I think, what I ruminate about, what I believe, what I like, what I don't like, what I know and what I know, you need to know. And most important, what I want for you, the communicator, to know and to learn, is how to become a confident communicator, someone who can survive and thrive in this volatile age of social media. Because behind every PR campaign, social media, win or fail, crisis or issue, there is a lesson to be learned. And in all these news stories we see and hear nowadays, working behind the scenes somewhere is a communicator. Hi, everyone. We want to get right to that news. That state of emergency in California. With wildfires burning across the state, the death toll is now rising. Anti Semitism, what's been called the longest hatred still festers in America. Portland police use flashbangs to break up a fight between members of Patriot Rare and opposing protesters. What can you tell us about the message voters are sending as they head into the polls? We know that Republicans love President Trump. They are picking candidates in primaries who are essentially competing over who is Trumpier than thou. For the second time in less than two years, President Trump will be nominating a new Supreme Court justice. Here we are. So much has changed since the launch of this podcast 100 episodes ago. Or has it? The clips you just heard, they all aired in November 2018, the month I launched this podcast. The wildfires, racism, protests, politics, and a potential new nominee to the Supreme Court feel familiar. So the issues, they haven't changed much. The fundamentals of communications and public relations haven't changed much either. A press release is still a press release. But I'll tell you what has changed. Well, for one, a global pandemic. But also the response. The need for an organization, or the head of it, to have the right messaging at the right time, using the right communication channels. It is critical to communication skills success. If you don't know what you're doing out there or you do nothing, it's death by a thousand tweets. Now, there was a time when saying nothing or faxing a statement was enough. I worked on that time, many of you did, but no more. The power is now in the hands of the public rather than the press alone. That's a big change. Real time public opinion. Now. I get it. I get it. Like you, I know that you want to be a savvy communicator, you want to be able to run free in your posting and writing and your videos without fear of retribution or cancellation by someone or some group that wants to bring you down. But in order to do that, you need confidence. The problem, however, is that there's no definitive playbook on how to communicate in this volatile environment without a guide, without someone or something telling you what to do, how to protect yourself. Well, it makes you shut down and not say anything or post anything on your behalf or your company's behalf. I think it's wrong for anyone, especially communicators, to carry that kind of stress. Now, I love, love to help people learn how to effectively communicate the good news as well as the bad. And I don't think anyone should be rendered silent by a scared boss or an enraged public. You deserve to have more power. From my work at FEMA and with my work now with clients, I understand the dilemma of dealing with issues or a crisis and having to respond to the press and to the public and to do it in such an open manner. But bad news impacts the bottom line. It's going to cost you. It doesn't just cost your reputation, it costs money. Which is why my work is shaped. It's formed around creating a response framework in a safe environment that allows you to emerge with your reputation intact. And here's how I do it. I do it through my virtual workshops, through my public speaking. Well now my virtual public spe, and through my work with clients. Now, I'll admit the good news for me is I always have work nowadays because there's always more bad news. It seems like there's plenty of bad news to go around. But thanks to this real time social media, you know, the wheels of public opinion, they're set in motion as soon as an incident starts to seep online. People start to panic. And I have never, ever witnessed what communicators are facing today. And I hear it all the time. I am not putting this out there on social media or why would I ever put that video out there? Everything changes too quickly. I can't keep up with it. You know what? It's just easier if we don't say anything at all or people throw their hands up in the air and said, I just can't keep up with it. I'm not even going to bother. Or the big one, those people, and it's always those people, they're out to get us. We're not going to go to a place where people want to bring us Down. All right, I hear you. I do hear you. I hear the fear speaking. And I also hear this. How is it possible to communicate proactively or plan for a crisis when no one can predict what's going to happen, who's going to say something, and what's going to happen in the news landscape, I know it's not easy now. This past week, I gave a keynote address at an annual meeting for communicators. Love speaking with communicators. I asked a real time interactive poll question about their preference for communicating on behalf of their organization, like the CEO or the president. And I asked them, would you prefer to work with someone who is A, a leader who communicates too much or B a leader who does not communicate enough? In essence, would you rather manage someone who might say something that leaves a mess for you, the communicator to clean up, or manage a leader or CEO who is reluctant to respond to anything? Head in the sand. Approach. Nearly 70% of the respondents in the poll said they would rather have a boss communicate quietly. In other words, stay silent, which shocked me. I was watching the numbers go up and down and up and down. When it was landing around 70, I thought, wait, did I reword this incorrectly? Did I get this wrong? No. 70% of those communicators would rather manage someone who didn't speak up. 70%. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Not on my watch. No. I do not prescribe to a communication strategy that involves silence. You've heard me say it before. Silence is often the loudest, most visible response. So leaders, let your communicators help you rise. Your communicators need to be in the 30 percentile of my poll. The best response for this moment in this digital world that we're in is to timely integrate messaging into social media and traditional media channels to create the right response, the perfect response for that time using that channel. The right channel. You've heard me mention my framework for response. Step one, accountability. Acknowledging, accepting or apologizing for your role or your responsibility with an issue or a crisis. This allows for step two, you to clarify what happened, why you're in it. Frame the incident in your words at the end. Tack on step three, your plans and promises for the future. How are you going to fix it? Use all three in that order, and you'll win it. You'll win with your reputation intact. Now, it may be battered and a little bruised, but you will get through it. The key is to go through it, not around it. It can get Messy, but it will be worth it. Stepping back, saying nothing, telling people that you would rather not do anything and let it just pass, it doesn't work. You see, you need to have your stakeholders online. You need to already share that goodwill to those stakeholders online so they'll be able to share it in return when something happens. If you don't have anything online, you have nothing. Then you're stuck communicating in like an analog time. You are drafting press releases. You might as well fax it at this point. You need to reach your stakeholders through a newsletter or hope they come to your owned media like your website. Are your customers always going to your website? Are your consumers just sitting there waiting for you to post something new to a website or to send out another email? Likely no. Technology should not move you away from communicating. It should drive you towards it. The strongest voice is the authentic voice amplified by technology. Oh, I get excited just saying it. It's important to understand what has changed in communications, what has changed in the landscape. But it's also so critical to embrace what has changed. It's fun to embrace what has changed. We all work and live in a time where our online lives often don't square with our offline lives. I'll admit it, when I'm on social media, I'm going to look halfway decent. I'm not going to look how I look right now. Recording this podcast. So we are all an amalgam of our real and social media profiles. It's the in between when people are always wondering, like, what's happening, what's going on the other end. But the more you put yourself out there, the more authentic you people are going to know who you are. It's going to build trust and authenticity for when you need it. So technology, social media, video, viral media, writing, blogging, putting out an email, whatever it is, it gives you an opportunity to build your brand. And the opportunities, it's just endless. The things that you can do to bulk bolster your reputation keep growing every day. And it's such an exciting time to do it. Technology, social media, digital media, it's the type of communications that create strong personal connections that will help you build your reputation, bolster your reputation, and restore it if you have to. So my commitment to you with this podcast is to help you communicate better, smarter and more confidently in a time when it's confusing and stressful. Listen, for the life of me, I still cannot figure out Snapchat. Okay, I'm with you. You don't need to know everything. I don't have all the answers. But I am committed to finding the right answer for you to use at the right time to help you communicate on the right platform. My objective is to increase your awareness of the trends and developments in social media, hard and breaking news, pr, consumer interest, opinions, entertainment, historical perspectives and pop culture. Always pop culture. I'm going to do this with my and through my familiarity and knowledge as an accredited public relations advisor and of course your friendly neighborhood communicator. So from this point on, each episode is going to provide you with answers to your biggest communication problems and questions. I promise to share the best communication tactics for success. Future trends will continue to change communications, but the future belongs to people who are forward thinking communicators. It's a perfect through line. From the start of the podcast up until now, the technology has changed, my format has changed, my music has changed, the guests have changed. But what hasn't changed is my commitment to sharing all the secrets to surviving and thriving in this scary age of technology, social media, public relations and crisis communications. This episode, the century mark, is to share my noble cause, my mission, and that is to help. Okay. And event. But it's my thanks to you for listening, for allowing me to share with you my purpose, the reason why I get up in the morning, why I work as hard as I do, and what keeps me excited about my work and this podcast soon to come, the book how to strengthen a Reputation that can Weather a Social Media Storm that is going to be coming out soon. Also, the Response Kit. It is an online resource for communicators. It's something I wish I had when I started my communications career. The responsekit.com is going to include workshops, training, videos, downloads, programs for problem solvers who need to create messaging for their organizations, their companies, their leaders for themselves. But first up, this week I roll out the first virtual media response training for a company doing it in a couple days. It's a hybrid of traditional media training and PR response with a virtual twist. No one has a training like this, at least no one that I know of. And I cannot wait to share it with you and also share the person who is joining me in this workshop. So there's so much to share in the future. So please, please keep listening. I love having you here. So what should you, the listener, do as this podcast moves into the triple digits? Okay, first, join the wait list for responsekit.com I'm going to email you as soon as we're ready to launch and that is soon. All right. Second, head on over to Molly McPherson subscribe for. My weekly newsletter always comes with those tips and secrets that I'm telling you about to help you become a savvy communicator. Really for that week and the last thing, as always, follow me on Twitter. Molly McPherson I love the Twitter. I love this podcast and I love that you have been there for 100 episodes. Thank you for allowing me to share this episode about my passion to help people become confident communicators, to help them create and deliver the right responses at the right time on the right platforms. It's my love letter to you, the listener. Thanks so much for listening. Bye for now.