If you have cause to do public relations, you’re somebody who does stuff intended for public consumption. That means some of those who consume your stuff aren’t going to like you. It’s the nature, an unavoidable byproduct, of stuff-doing. One of the purposes of PR is to change their minds.
There are many ways to do this, but none more effective than the double barrels of surprising them, and doing it with a dash of humor.
That’s the strategy I used a few years back, in my previous life as head of communications for Focus on the Family, a wonderful family-help organization that rubs some people the wrong way for its Christian perspective on marriage and parenting and public policy. As you can find described here, in Focus President Jim Daly’s book REFOCUS, a colleague and I used surprise, and a healthy dollop of self-deprecating humor, to not only win friends and change minds — but also to build a bridge that allowed us to team up with a longtime nemesis on projects that benefited the Colorado Springs, Colo., community we both called home.
You’re heard the phrase “retail politics”? The idea being getting out there and meeting the voters in social commerce is far more effective than mass advertising. “Retail PR” that shows you don’t take yourself too seriously and are willing to go the extra mile to make allies is always more effective, if more time-intensive, than blasting out a press release.
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