By Rogério Artoni
The days when people looked to authority figures for guidance and information are long gone or, at the very least, on a strong decline, as shown in the 2017 Edelman Trust Barometer. You might even say that the strongest influence on the public opinion, is the public itself. Maybe, we no longer trust the guys in suits and ties. That is, unless we are one ourselves. For in whom we really trust, according to the study, are our peers. The ones who look like us, dress like us, talk like us. They have the same problems and fears as we do. They know what we are talking about, and therefore, they are believable.
The Trust Barometer also reveals that the most important component to building trust as a business, is treating employees well. Moreover, employees are the most credible spokespersons on every aspect of a company’s business. It’s all about “being with the people.”
So, what does all this have to do with businesses and their relationship to the media? The answer is – everything. A new social- and media landscape, with the Internet, blogs and social media, has completely changed the playing field when it comes to opinion making, the access to and the spreading of information (or in many cases, misinformation), as well as to who has control over the flow of information. As Richard Edelman himself puts it, “New media is horizontal, peer to peer.” One could say that the public’s trust – in whom they trust and in whom they don’t – is a reflection of this “peer oriented development”. Whenever a corporate crisis happens, for example, it is quickly and easily spread through social medias and the repercussions on public opinion are immediate. Just think about what happened with United Airlines a few months ago.
For us, communicators, PR professionals and spokespersons of companies and organizations, there is a very important lesson to learn here. Putting the CEO, the CCO or any other guy dressed in a suit and tie, speaking in technical terms with a stiff corporate voice to an angered public with authority trust issues, maybe is not the best option. Sometimes, yes, it is necessary. But many times it might be wiser letting a representative of the organisation of lesser hierarchical importance be the frontman in order to better connect with the audience. With a spokesperson who is closer to the public in terms of social and economic status, who speaks like them, dresses like them, drives the same car (figuratively or literally speaking), it is more likely that the message which the company wants to get across is actually received, and believed, by the public.
However, this of course requires that we train these employees to be spokespersons for the company, just as we would a CEO. Without proper training and guidance on how to speak to the media, what to say and how to say it, it could be a disaster putting them in front of a journalist or, even, in front of a social media account. In other words, it will become of increasing importance for businesses to invest in media- and social media training for a larger portion of their organization’s members. Will this be costly? Yes. But nothing in comparison to what it will cost losing your company’s credibility with the public.
*Rogério Artoni, Executive Director of Race Communications
