Comms

For over a decade, I was the PR and Communications officer for the Isle of Man Constabulary. We are only a little place, so I did it alongside my ‘day jobs’, originally as a sergeant and then as an inspector. I really did learn on the job, reading guidance, liaising with qualified colleagues at the Cabinet Office Comms Team, and feeling my way through the modus operandi of journalists at a local and international level. In among all this, my daughter became internationally famous, which gave me a totally different perspective on the popular press, documentaries and the whole issue of reputational management - which at the end of the day is what PR is ultimately about. It was only towards the end of my police service that I took formal qualifications in the field, and better understood the whole science behind it all.

The prevailing crisis has been really interesting to watch from the sidelines. Without wanting to sound narcissistic I was always blessed with a bit of a superpower to be able to assess information and turn it into easily digestable, engaging content. We used to do pretty well overall. We tried to concentrate on ‘news you xan use’ - stuff that the public needed to know like road closures, missing person appeals, how investigations were progressing and how to stay safe. When we developed our social media pages we all but removed the traditional press release, allowing both the public and news gathering agencies to lift the information directly from there.

What we didn’t do was continually churn stuff out for the sake of it. When you do that, people tend to switch off - either physically by not tuning in at all, or by simply having the wireless* on as background noise. That is where I found myself today with the Coronavirus press conference here on the Isle of Man.

First of all, for the last few days the trend here has been really promising. There have been no new cases. That is news in itself, but it is literally a set of statistics. Then there were a few other things that really undermined the whole shooting match; The speakers were a bit ‘B Team’, having neither the gravitas of office, nor the communications style that is needed to engage the public at a time of crisis. Messages over specific pieces of the law and guidance around social activity contradicted that given by other sources, which undermined the overall message. And finally, the platform was used to announce the release of, wait for it….., a new set of stamps!

Furthermore, there were just three news gathering agencies present rather than the usual seven.

This is where comms teams should be really examining the strategy, and its effectiveness. Whilst there is still a crisis in play, it is questionable whether there is still an emergency, at least here in the context of the Isle of Man. Where interest is waning in the Government output to the stage where less than 50% of the media can be bothered to dial in from their home office to ask questions, the alarm bells should be ringing very loudly that you are losing your publics. Even moreso, where you are endorsing the filling of airtime with a story about the launch of some stamps, there should be enough internal indication that you are overdoing it.

Comms is not an exact science. at times like these we see businesses cut their marketing budgets and output dramatically, in what some would argue is a foolish strategy. with a lot of business in hibernation, perhaps doing just enough to keep a socially responsible public profile on a low heat is all you need? However, If you are running the safety and security of a nation, it is a little different of course. There is a need to stay firmly on the radar, but it is essential that every bit of your comms is accurate, timely, credible and above all, engaging. I really think that the Isle of Man Government could be on the cusp of losing its publics without a review of the current output. Coronavirus is only the start of the beginning, of a journey that will take us through decades of rebuilding. They need the public squarely on-side for that.

So how are things on your own PR front? Is it something you’ve given much thought to? Are you doing enough, presently, and what will your communications look like in the new normal? It might be an idea to speak to a specialist sooner, rather than later?

Derek Flint Cert.Ed., MCIPR

* wireless, newspaper, online, what have you.