I worked in public relations during the early phase of my career.
A wise mentor offered valuable advice. “When you write a letter, it goes to one person — the recipient. But when you send a news release, the content could be read by thousands — or millions, if you are successful. ”
His message was: Be a careful proofreader. Don’t make mistakes with names, dates, financials, statistics, etc. Get the right internal approvals before expediting.
I created a checklist and distributed it to new hires.
Now we have spellcheck and you can click on a calendar icon to generate a date. Less risk of sending an event announcement with the right date but wrong day of the week. We have less need for an internal checklist — or do we?
Relaxation breeds complacency — and therein lies an unknown scenario.
Technology + Social Networking = AMPLIFICATION
- An email can easily be forwarded.
- You might click Reply to All, when you really want to Reply
- You could Tweet an opinion that offends an employer or client follower
- You get the picture….
In contemporary life, we’re all writing our own news releases and conducting our own talk shows.
I was on a conference call one day and a participant made the comment, ”I don’t see that diversity is a contemporary issue.” Really!
I mentioned it to someone later. (Word of mouth!)
Even if you thought something like that, why would you say it — and do so in such an open forum? Then I realized the reverse is true.
If you say it, you think it. And your audience will respond accordingly.
July 7, 2009