Bristol’s First Crisis Communication Challenge

communikaytrix — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:02:08 +0000

I want to preface this post by saying it has nothing to do with my political leanings, which is something I typically keep personal. Like many others I was surprised at the news this week that 19 year-old Bristol Palin, Sarah Palin’s daughter, has started a PR firm. To little surprise the announcement caused an uproar, notably among PR people who questioned what experience Bristol boasts to be able to offer strategic public relations counsel to companies and organizations. As PR people we know there are a lot of facets to our jobs outside of publicity, including crisis communication, investor relations, special events, tradeshows, messaging architecture, consumer relations and on and on. Some practitioners voiced in both blog comments and through social media that the move actually discredits our profession and the amount of demonstrated experience that goes into being a skilled PR person. Some people simply blew off the move as a savvy tax strategy. Other’s still, a publicity stunt.

Enter Bristol’s first crisis communications challenge – the negative reactions to her own company. Although the story appears to have broken two days ago, it appears we haven’t heard a word from BSMP LLC., other than a fairly cryptic response from her lawyer confirming the company exists. It’s still unclear whether she has created an agency in the “traditional” sense of the word, where she will take on clients and execute plans. The Twitterverse has been abuzz and The Huffington Post’s story has received more than 2,000 comments. I’m sure Bristol’s camp is monitoring “her brand,” but so far they’ve chosen not to respond, which is an atypical strategy from a PR firm.

In my opinion, it’s time to calm the waters with a clear explanation of the intent of the company and the motivation behind a career in public relations. As with any uproar, the more transparent and informative you can be, the less inclined people will be to come to their own conclusions. What do you think? What do you recommend Bristol do in response to all the buzz?

Photo credit: O6scura

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Bristol’s First Crisis Communication Challenge