I had the extraordinary luck to be invited to James Hoggan’s presentation on Thursday (June 4th) hosted by the Vancouver Board of Trade. While the presentation was for his book, Do the Right Thing: PR Tips for a Skeptical Public], he also gave us insights into best practices for crisis communication and why PR people were so mistrusted today. In attendance were Winnie Yeo, Tanya Cooledge, Gus Fosarolli, Dory Lanenter and Roley Chiu. It was great to meet everyone at the VBOT event and network with some new people!
James Hoggan speaking at VBOT event
Hoggan talked about his experiences with PR, and how he came to write his book. The book started off with short, 100 word PR tips written by Jim Hoggan and Richard D. Littlemore. These tips were published from 2002 to 2007 in The Vancouver Sun. One thing James Hoggan always maintained in his tips was that retaining integrity in Public Relations wasn’t simply about talking about doing the right thing, but rather doing the right thing, and be seen doing the right thing.
Hoggan summed up his advice in three points:
- Do the right thing.
- Be seen doing the right thing.
- Don’t get 1 and 2 mixed up.
Fairly simple, right? Brings us back to the old adage of “actions speak louder than words”. However, a majorly challenging point in these best practices is that not everyone will notice your efforts. Hoggan also points out that due to the lack of trust from the public towards the PR industry, a lot of people will feel like firms are doing PR for the sake of PR.
An excellent example Hoggan gave dealt with last year’s Carbon Tax, introduced by the BC Liberals. The opposition, the BC New Democrats attacked the Carbon Tax, calling it a “Gas Tax” and saying it was nothing more than a cash grab for the Liberal government. This worked in the short run, with the NDP enjoying a rise in polls in early fall 2008. However, Hoggan pointed out that the NDP didn’t do anything to suggest an alternative until too late. The NDP did the right thing in, but weren’t seen doing anything about it until too late. By the time the 2009 provincial election campaigns rolled around, gas prices were significantly lower and people were more worried about the economy and the recession than anything else. This is a perfect example of doing the right thing… but not following through with it. Had the NDP done the right thing, the election could have turned out differently.
Politics aside, Hoggan also uses various other examples in his book. Since I haven’t actually finished reading the book yet, I’m not able to share these examples with you, but rest assured – I’ll definitely do that when I get to those parts!
You can pick up your copy of Do the Right Thing: PR Tips for a Skeptical Public at the CPRS 2009 National Conference, where yours truly is volunteering today, tomorrow and Tuesday! Copies are $20, and while you’re there, you can also pick up David Suzuki’s book(s) (he has two) and Brian Solis’ Putting the Public Back in Public Relations: How Social Media Is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR. Come check it out!
