It appears being honest and bull$h!t-free really is a good policy for PR after all.
Burson-Marsteller (that’s B-M for short) reports that the mainstream media “loses” the intended message of PR pros roughly 48 percent of the time.
PR Week magazine published a story on B-M’s “Message Gap Analysis” study yesterday, which found that roughly half the time, the story that reaches the public is radically different than the one the client and its messengers had hoped to see.
European media get the story right six times out of ten to lead the world. In Asia, the intended messages escape the media prism intact a mere 42 percent of the time. In the U.S., there’s a 45-percent chance your story will get “lost in translation.”
As you might guess, bloggers skew and/or skewer the intended message 74 percent of the time in the United States.
The Oracle of the Obvious speaks:
Your spin don’t work the way it used to.
Here’s a tip: if you’re going to issue a news release, don’t put lipstick on the pig, don’t try to steer the news and don’t try to be cute. Tell it like it is. Be human. Be honest. Be humble.
That way, regardless of how you get treated by the “objective third parties” who deliver your messages to your target publics, you at least won’t have to remember what you said.
Meanwhile Back at the Ranch is written by Bill Patterson, president of Kansas City, Mo.-based Nation Ranch, a strategic consulting firm specializing in brand management, public relations and crisis communications.
