Nothing is Off The Record

We are getting ready to do more than a dozen "media training" sessions in the next six weeks and it strikes me just how out-dated that phrase has become.

At the start of the 21st century, an organization’s executives and spokespeople worried about communicating with discipline mostly during media interviews, public or formal speeches, and large internal meetings. Those in the upper echelon of publicly traded companies, of course, were always on guard.

Today, however, virtually everyone you interact with, internally or externally, at home, in the office, at the coffee shop or on soccer field, can and should be considered a member of the “media.”

In the past few years, we have witnessed an explosion of applications that allow anyone with wired or wireless internet access to share, endorse, comment, question, and/or criticize news, information and opinions, often anonymously. Any individual anywhere can be a reporter, a columnist, a commentator, an opinion influencer – thanks to easy access to blogs and website commenting interfaces; the widespread availability of popular digital and social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; the commonplace nature of text messaging capabilities from phones and PDAs; the growing use of camera phones; etc.

We all know that this phenomenon forever changed the communications landscape. In particular, the lines between formal and informal, authorized and unauthorized communications have blurred entirely. A comment you make at a dinner party, a local ribbon-cutting, a fundraiser, a bar or an employee meeting can become public almost instantaneously at a previously unimaginable scale, generating news and a cascade of positive or negative reactions in the professional, traditional media as well as grassroots, online “new” media.

Ironically, some of the companies to have learned this lesson most recently are expert at online communications, including Twitter, Yahoo, and The Washington Post

In this new reality, “media training” has evolved into “communications training.”

It’s easy to go lopsided with worry about the risks. But, since it is impossible and inadvisable for executives and spokespeople to sequester themselves while still attaining their business goals, the appropriate strategy is to respect the 24/7 communications environment and to prepare intelligently for it. Our view is that you should be mindful of the possible consequences and assess them seriously. Don’t get paralyzed. The glass-half-full approach is that you now have an “always on” opportunity to make sure your organization has a share of voice and that its point of view is being communicated consistently and effectively.

The old "media training" adage that "nothing is off the record" remains constant in the new dynamic.

~ By Ed Cafasso, Managing Director