When I was working as a Public Relations consultant or executive (whether in agency, freelance, or corporate), I met so many misconceptions about this profession that led the campaign to failure. This is actually devastating, because my clients or stakeholders put the wrong expectation on me, became disappointed with the result, the good will isn’t well echoed, and … of course, I got the bad impression as the result for it.

Here’s my experience I can share where you might learn a lesson (or two) to keep your brand and reputation intact. The mistakes people made in Public Relations:

1. Being dishonest to your PR 

I have to tell you (this is the reason why I put this topic as Number 1) that this is super important, when it comes to building or even fixing a reputation, you got to be an open-book to your PR or Brand team. Your PR person has to be the first person that knows everything before everyone knows a thing about you—and it might not be good.

Let’s put it this way: if you make one sin, consider to directly have a confession to your PR buddies.

If you think no one will ever know about one single mistake by keeping every detail to yourself, you might be wrong. But, notifying one potential danger to your PR team might save you from a long ballad of crisis handling. It is important to have your PR team decides if a prevention or a standby-reaction is needed, in case of breach made way for itself.

Sometimes, it’s not something bad or ugly. It is not always like that. It could be something private that doesn’t give any impact to public yet it could still make news.

2. Being ignorant, undermining situation

It is the utmost importance to have media monitoring available everyday ideally. Twice a day, even better! The routine can warn you to any potential crisis in the early beginning, but it takes quick analysis and sharp instinct. In every situation, trust your gut!

Not in the intention to make your freak out every time something’s wrong, but taking precaution would be good.

Whenever a protest or any unfavorable sentiment comes up to the system, never look at it with one eye closed. I’ll speak from my own experience. If there’s something upsetting about your brand, never underestimate the animosity it could get by judging it as ‘no big deal’.

When your brand is accused of something negative, it’s not for you to say that it’s not big of a deal. If it’s true, you got to make mends, and if it’s not, then you got to make things straight again. When you handle it properly from the beginning, not only the smoke will be gone fast, the fire won’t be burning higher. 

In my case, I was already giddy up to prepare for the war, yet I was stopped. I was told it’s going to be okay and wouldn’t mean anything. Of course, my instinct and calculation was right, the negative sentiment caused us ‘code red’ for the next 7 days.

 

3. Forgot to think again ‘where’s the news value?’ 

Before you’re proud of sharing any press release or keynote speech, I really hope to think and rethink, “what’s in it for us, the media and the public?”

Nope, I don’t want to hear your defense, ‘but this is our new feature!’, ‘but we just released this new cool ad campaign’, ‘but we just changed our management and leadership’. I’ll stop and ask you, “what could all that give impact to our lives or interests?”

Tell me if your ‘whatever’:

• solves any of our issues, or 
• that it is the first of all time, 
• caters 10,000 people at the same time, 
• beats any records—world record even
• presents any weirdness, uniqueness, bravest thing our eyes could ever witness, 
• new insight that answers of our life-long question, 
• would impact our livelihood
• would support or shake the economy, large group of people or community, stock performance, government stability, or any movement
• interests many people to join or flock your place, event, or activities
• now you might have another idea

In conclusion to this point, please consider if you can give any data (or stories) that would impact us. Please take a look out of your sphere, try to test their POV and interest, and ask yourself if your ‘whatever (data, story angle, new feature, new program)’ would mean anything to any of us that you need to deliver it to the media through a press release.

4. ‘Who’s Your CEO?’

Almost similar to #3. Is it your CEO … how could I put it… that important?

Ok, let me help a little bit to connect the dots. Does he/she have any story angle that would interest us (once again)?

I had an experience where the company focused on selling out their CEO or Managing Director. In this context, the company builds new app that people have so many questions about and the quality of the work they deliver. People have so many doubts about them.

Instead of addressing these doubts, they sell more about the background of the CEO to buy assurance. My suggestion to them is to focus on the quality they have that might give their users certainty and trust, such as showing how they actually work, how they actually recruit an expert to train their service front-liners who can make sure what they deliver would beyond, or at least, meet users’ expectations.

 

5. Not play with a (well-thought) strategy

For this point, I think it’s pretty obvious. The reason why I’m writing this is because I have one distinguished experience. A rather weird one actually.

The new company with a CEO no one knows wanted to target international coverage and their business is B2B, which rarely attracts mainstream news outlet. 

He thought he could use the same strategy of the famous local ride-hailing app, where they also target international news coverage on their founder to ease their ASEAN expansion. Well, that startup companies have thousands of local coverage, has become a household name, and has its founder a rising star. One more thing: It runs B2B and also B2C. So the strategy could not be the same.

How would an international news outlet be interested in a company that hasn’t bring any impact that huge to their base country, only have a few percent of active users compared to their downloads in their pocket, and is managed by an unknown CEO with only a brief experience in startup? Think again before you rush.

That’s all five, but I have more! Tell me if you relate to any of these experiences or if you have other experience and tips on the comments.

Last, but not least, please also do tell me if you’d like more of my PR tips and experiences.

Suatu masa di masa sekolah, gue punya semacam 'genk' lah, like most people would do. Ok, gue punya genk sekolahan sekitar 2-3 kali di level studi yang berbeda. Tapi akan cerita tentang dua aja dari total mantan persahabatan gue semasa sekolah.

Geng pertama yang akan gue ceritakan di blogpost kali ini adalah gue dan tiga orang teman perempuan. Awalnya gue dekat dengan si A karena kita satu kelas after-school bareng. But she's a kind of goody-goody girl whose aim is to get popular like a princess dengan mengandalkan katrol dari teman lain yang popular walau sifatnya notorious. Lalu, adalah lagi datang dua orang perempuan yang sudah lebih lama sahabatan, gabung sama kita.

Mostly, sebut saja si B dan si C, karakternya sama dengan si A. Sementara gue bingung sih sekarang kalau ditilik kembali, coz I'm not like them. I was just that ambitious nerd girl yang selalu mau menang lomba, jadi club president, dan menang lomba. Tapi gue cuma butuh teman kerja kelompok tugas sekolah yang beneran mau kerja dan nggak cuma nebeng nama atau sekedar bikin kata pengantar. I was, I am still, very ambitious to perform the best.

Intinya si A itu nggak cukup untuk bisa dibilang teman yang baik. Ada satu cowok yang nggak suka gue di kelas (since gue nggak pernah mau kasih contekan), dan temen baiknya itu ada yang naksir si A. Kemudian, ketika mereka pacaran, ya udah, gue semacam nggak ada. Si cowok ini bahkan bikin omongan kalau gue itu dilupakan. Ya nggak apa juga sih. But still, I always wonder kenapa orang itu demen banget messed with me, sementara gue acknowledge their existence and importance aja nggak pernah. Kayaknya mereka merasa lebih keren dari gue, tapi mereka nggak sadar kalau gue nggak pernah menganggap mereka keren atau hebat. From the age of 16, I already know mereka nggak akan jadi apa-apa.

Lalu si A ini mulai jengah dengan hubungan pacaran sama si temen grup voli si cowok itu dan mulai semacam 'seek refuge' dengan deketin gue lagi. Selalu pakai gue sebagai alesan untuk menghindari pacarnya. Sampelah si cowok yang nggak suka sama gue itu pernah teriakin si A di kelas, "Eh A, pacar lo tuh di sini, bukan di situ." Di situ itu maksudnya tempat duduk gue. Haha!

Well, ini tuh SMA ya. No wonder ya agak bocah gini permasalahannya. Please note, kalau kalian SMA nggak kayak gini, percayalah dulu angkatan gue childish-nya tingkat dewa. Makanya gue nggak pernah cocok sama satupun dari mereka, since gue dewasanya kecepatan for one and another reason. Or maybe I'm simply a b*tch.

Pernah gue sangat marah dengan si A, B dan C. Kemudian, apa yang dilakukan si A? Dia narik temen gue yang lain, sebut saja V. "Eh lo jangan deket-deket sama Bree, nanti lo nggak bisa lepas."

I was like... am I a 3M-made double tape or something? 

She didn't get the point that she was wrong. Let alone minta maaf.

Another drama with B. She was quite problematic, sering bolos, sering bohong juga. Jujur gue pun bertanya-tanya, apakah gue cukup tidak bisa dipercaya sampai dia harus berbohong sama gue, ataukah dia takut gue ngadu ke guru? Padahal ya, buat yang tau gue... gue sangat cuek dan nggak pernah mau mengadu kebisingan untuk hal-hal pribadi yang gue pun tidak ada di dalamnya.

Sampailah dia bisa marah-marah dan bitter banget sama gue, karena dulu kita dibanding-bandingin sama guru ekonomi yang jahil banget mulutnya. Well, gue sekolah di sekolah kuno, feodal, yang jauh dari progresif, once again, no wonder ya situasinya seperti ini. Gue si anak baik, pendiam, nggak banyak gaya, tapi juara kelas di kelas dewa, lomba sering menang. B si anak sering bolos tanpa alasan jelas selain sakit, ke dokter gigi or anything like it.

The 'best' part adalah kita pernah diajak jalan sama si B. Dia sebetulnya bilang, mantan pacarnya ngajak jalan dan dia minta ditemenin karena sebetulnya dia males banget sama mantan pacarnya itu. Sebagai teman yang baik---why did I always want to be a good person, a good friend, for others without any payback?---gue mengiyakan. Berangkatlah kita berempat, mendadak, tanpa persiapan mau pergi ke mall sepulang sekolah. Please note: mereka tahu kalau orang tua gue kurang fleksibel soal bepergian ke mall, meskipun saat itu kita sudah SMA.

First, the guy was super weird. He looked like coming out from a movie, playing a character of a pervert man, from the 80s. Thick jeans with belt on, checker flannel shirt, and middle parted haircut. Wah sorry banget, pas lihat pertama kali jujur rasanya nggak bisa nggak punya firasat buruk. Eh tapi tenang dulu, kita pulang ke rumah masing-masing dengan aman dan bahagia, walau menyisa rasa aneh.

Jadi intinya kita pergi dengan... kendaraan umum. Cowok itu yang bayarin. Dan tiap mau makan, dia akan berusaha untuk bayarin. Termasuk gue. Ngapain? I'm not your kid, not your sister, nor your date. 

"Kalau mau apa bilang aja ya... nanti aku bayarin," kata dia. 

"Nope, I'm good."

Jujur, saat itu, entah kenapa gue laper mata banget. Setelah jajan, kita lewatin toko action figure. Gue berenti karena mau cari yang gue tunggu-tunggu, sayangnya belom ada. Kemudian, dia deketin gue lagi, nanya, "Eh kamu mau cari apa? Aku bisa cariin."

Beneran, gue nggak suka approach macam gini.

Kemudian, temen gue ini gantian deketin gue untuk bisik-bisik. "Eh lo kalau mau apa, bilang aja, nanti dia yang bayarin. Kan udah ngajak kita jalan, masa dia nggak bayarin kita, enak aja."

Isn't it me accompanying you, girl?

Jujur lagi, sangat tidak nyaman berada di kondisi membingungkan seperti itu. Kemudian, sampailah kita makan di... KFC. Kemudian, temen gue dan si cowok ini lama banget di counter. Gue, si A dan si C itu berbisik kalau kita nggak enak banget kalau dibayarin sama si cowok ini yang kita nggak kenal, walau dia itu temennya si B, mantan pacar tepatnya.

Lalu setelah sekian lama, kita wondering, apa yang membuat mereka stuck. Kita mendekat ke depan.

Long story short, mereka lama mesan makanan di counter karena si cowok ini mencari paket makanan termurah. Gue pun bilang, karena gue habis jajan, gue nggak yakin gue lapar dan bisa makan. Temen gue si A ini pun bilang, "Udah biarin, biarin, biarin dia bayarin kita semua makan."

I don't understand whether she was trying to revenge on their past relationship atau gimana, but I don't like to be in the middle of this.

Akhirnya kita makanlah dengan paket termurah walaupun katanya si cowok itu diam-diam misuh-misuh karena paket segitu buat dia mahal. Buat dia, harga segitu wow sekali. Bukan maksud mau merendahkan, gosh, I can pay for a better package on my own, and not a rice and a piece of chicken wing. My point is... kalau buat lo segini berat, why don't you let me not eat or let me pay myself?

Alhasil, tebakan gue bener. Selain gue sudah makan, gue juga kehilangan appetite dengan kondisi seperti ini. Si cowok ini pun bilang dengan manis, "kamu makan mulu sih tadi, coba abisin dong." Man, tanpa maksud forgeting the fact kalau ada yang kelaparan di dunia ini, I am full and I can't and shouldn't push it more!

Marilah kita loncat dari drama konyol yang membuat gue merasa bak anak kecil sementara mentally gue jauh lebih tua dari teman-teman sekelas gue ini, bahkan termasuk mantan pacarnya temen gue ini.

Kita pun ingin dipulangin baik-baik oleh si cowok itu, dengan kendaraan umum, yang juga ditawar olehnya. Ya Allah, ingin sekali ku stop taksi di lobi dan pulang dengan damai. Tapi temen gue pun megangin tangan gue untuk tetep nunggu sampai proses tawar menawar selesai dan kita pulangnya bareng-bareng.

Pas akhirnya kita pulang, si B ini misuh-misuh ke gue kalau si cowok itu pelit banget dan lain-lain. Girl, you have lost your mind. Pergi sama cowok for the sake of minta dibayarin. Dia agak nggak paham kalau dia berhasil membuat gue macam escort.

Banyak hal-hal yang terjadi di mana mereka betul-betul nggak nganggap gue setara dengan mereka. Yang mana kalau diceritakan, kok konyol sekali ya. Tapi nggak bohong, gue pun sakit hati. How come they could do that, sementara gue nggak bisa melakukan hal yang sama ke orang lain, apalagi ke mereka. 

Mereka itungannya se-genk sama gue, selalu berempat. Tapi diam-diam, mereka selalu ikut ngomongin gue ke anak-anak yang nggak suka sama gue, instead of menjelaskan the truth about me. Ketika gue dibully karena nggak ngasih contekan ke seorang class clown, mereka bela gue? Of course, not. They enjoyed it. 

What's worse? I kept being friends with them until we graduated. Again, mereka pamrih dan jahat sama gue. Gue pun bertahan demi punya teman kerja kelompok, karena dapet tugas kelompok itu macam Thanos---"there's no other way" kalau kata Dr Strange di Infinity War. After graduation, if they're dead, I don't mind.

One thing I can tell you, it was all ugly three years of high school.

Gue banyak banget mengalami pertemanan yang mana dan entah bagaimana gue merasa I feel like being conned. I do my best, but they don't come with a pure reason. Mostly, I'm taken for granted and I give so many second chances. Salah gue adalah diam, bertahan, dan sabar. Memaafkan dan membiarkannya pergi, mengindahkan kalau ada luka yang terbentuk.

Selama sekolah, bulliying bukan hal yang asing. Pembiaran juga bagian sehari-hari, menyaksikan kekonyolan manusia merendahkan dirinya sendiri karena dengan sengaja menggagalkan diri dalam memanusiakan orang lain. I learned it slow, with a few wrong friendships ahead. I learn it the hard way.

Sedikit demi sedikit, inilah kenapa (mungkin) menjadi alasan gue cepat memandang rendah orang lain yang pemikirannya tidak selevel. Now, years gone by, I'm proudly say I'm happy not being in touch with any of them. They're out of my league. 

Menulis ini adalah cara gue mengenali luka yang ada. Sekecil apapun.

Karena tidak ada penyembuhan tanpa memahami luka.