There are many days where I am glad that I am a professional communicator working as an in-house resource, instead of through the agency model. When you’re juggling multiple clients, the mindset can be rather different depending upon the moment. With any luck, you develop a client base that is somewhat consistent across the board. After all, you are at your best when you can be yourself, even when representing the interest of your clients.
The alternative is to be so “out there” that you end up with radically different kinds of messages, and some that would appear to be diametrically opposite.
Take Ronn Torossian, for instance. His firm, 5WPR, has been rated the fast-growing in the industry for three years. The promotion of that tremendous growth can become self-fulfilling, with the addition of many new clients. In Ronn’s case, that means that in the course of one year, he is a spokesman for Bennie Hinn Ministries and Girls Gone Wild. Other than the penchant for marketing on television, is there anything that either of those clients would claim in common? “Government persecution” maybe.
It might be a little different if it was just his firm handling both accounts, but stepping forward as a spokesman in both instances? Would you buy a globe from a Flat Earther? Would you buy vodka from your AA sponsor?
In the online world, much of the communication is devoid of the visual clues and body language that is so vital to getting your message across. Radical swings in tone, temperament, and outlook can dilute your online identity, and make it harder for anyone to trust you.
[tags]Ike Pigott, Occam’s RazR, trust, communication, marketing[/tags]
With any business presentation or project, if you’re having an emotional moment, you best leave it behind, correct? Is that what you’re saying here? What if a person is passionate about a subject or if something or someone pushes one of the “so-called buttons”? Or, are you just saying, “Hey, don’t try to be things to all people because it’s your reputation that will be burned”?
In an age where we are all to some extent “Googlable,” your past can impact your present very quickly.
That said, I think this is partly a reaction to the trend of “PR Celebrities” who have become Rock Stars in their own minds. 10 years ago, outside of a Howard Rubenstein, no one cared who the mouthpiece was. Now I’d think twice about hiring a spokesman without first seeing who I would be associated with by proxy. Search has empowered the average news consumer with the ability to chase down connections and explore in ways that get way beyond our ability to control a message.
That’s not to say that we need to be bland, featureless, and blank. But we do need to avoid those instances where we end up in diametrically opposed camps. It ends up confirming the worst suspicions of PR people as paid flacks and touts.