Media & Communications Strategies Senior Account Manager and Social Media Strategist Kate Connors was featured on Ragan.com today. The original article can be found here.
Lessons PR pros can learn from childhood novels
1. “If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.” — Sirius Black, “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire”
This quote reminds me that a CEO or company is only as strong as the people behind him or it. We have clients who have an internal communications program. The leadership team needs to better communicate with everyone in their organization. We PR pros develop classic Ambassador’s models for management communication, advocacy, and staff empowerment. This is how we give all staff levels either actual input or a perception of meaningful input into their organization’s operations.
Business Insider wrote an article a little over a year ago about the 25 CEOs most loved by their employees. Of course the CEOs varied in personality and industry. Many were cited as people who listened to their employees and wanted to see them grow. Internal respect and communication are very important for any company, and it’s our job to work with clients to ensure they have good internal communications.
2. “You must never feel badly about making mistakes … as long as you take the trouble to learn from them. For you often learn more by being wrong for the right reasons than you do by being right for the wrong reasons.” — Reason, “The Phantom Tollbooth.”
It makes sense that the character named Reason from “The Phantom Tollbooth” gives some of the best advice, advice that PR professionals should take to heart. Every day, persons make mistakes. The people who get past them are those who recognize them, apologize, and take steps to correct them.
The Boston Globe’s CEO apologized to U.S. House Speaker John Boehner for a Boston.com story that mocked the death threats against the Congressman. Regardless of whether or not the writer of story agrees with Boehner’s politics, mocking a death threat is never good. The newspaper soon realized it was at fault. One hopes The Globe has learned this lesson, a reminder for journalists and PR pros to think before you write.
3. “I can’t go back to yesterday because I was a different person then.” — Alice, Alice in Wonderland
Alice refers to the psychical changes she experienced traveling through Wonderland.
There is a lesson hidden here for PR professionals. We live in a world where we must constantly look forward. We must be ahead of the curve and ensure our clients are too.
One example of a brand not keeping up with the times: When Bic™ decided to sell underwear. Bic was not only behind the times, it failed to understand brand limits. Sure, some people enjoy wearing undergarments with the same label as their pen, but the majority of us don’t. Bic also lagged behind the times with its big brand-name labels on underwear. Stylist did an article about the history of underwear. They noted that Calvin Klein set the trend for big block brand names on underwear in the 1990s. Young adults enjoyed visible labels boldly staring out over their jeans. (As a child of the 90s, I remember this unfortunate phase.) So if Bic had started making underwear in 1992 it may have had a roaring success. And then again—perhaps not.
So next time you walk down memory lane with your favorite childhood novel, don’t forget the lessons to be learned from these books. And remember that if you sell ball point pens, you should think very hard before you slap your trusted brand name onto an undergarment line.
Kate Connors is the senior account manager and social media strategist at Media & Communications Strategies.