A public relations strategy is vital to promote your brand, protect your reputation and ensure all stakeholders – external and internal – trust you. But trust is not built through words alone. Telling your ‘publics’ how great you are – or trying to correct negative publicity through the right messaging – is useless if you are not implementing the right actions to back up your words.
Think of your cynicism when the picture of the fast food burger is nothing like the actual product, or your disappointment when a company’s slick advertising isn’t backed up by the product or service.
Likewise, PR can’t help you if you are not telling the truth or trying to cover up mistakes or mismanagement, particularly in times of crisis. Plenty of dodgy operators think they can ‘spin’ their way out of a crisis when they refuse to address the actual problem, or worse, they are acting unethically, immorally, or even illegally.