It’s not just because of Mr. Trump’s declaration. The “fake news” statement only hammered home the truth: According to Edelman’s annual Trust Barometer, trust in the news media worldwide is at an all-time low.
The credibility of business leaders is dangerously down as well. Edelman’s report states that CEO credibility has hit a new low of 37 percent.
Why has trust in leadership and the news media plummeted to this point?
People nowadays have many outlets for getting information. We have Facebook and Twitter, liberal and conservative websites, blogs and message boards. These have all contributed to confusion about what’s true and what’s not.
What can public relations professionals do to combat the belief that their clients or bosses aren’t trustworthy? It’s actually very simple:
Be honest.
Some will say it’s virtually impossible to be honest in today’s world, where news and information come at you at warp speed.
I say those people are dead wrong.
This does not mean you should open up the floodgates and divulge every single detail about your organization. It means that you should be providing opportunities for open and honest communications. During a crisis, don’t hide behind the curtain. Show your stakeholders, in words and actions, that you are putting their well-being above the bottom line.
PR needs to focus on relationships—both building them and fostering them.
Think for a moment about a large building. It starts with a foundation. From there, steel climbs upward. Finally, glass and drywall complete it. If you do not have a strong foundation, though, the building will fall.
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The same goes for relationships. With no foundation of trust, a leader cannot lead. PR can help a CEO’s personality come to life by stressing the importance of the human element. A blog can’t do that; a podcast or video interview can.
We can never think for a moment that hiding the truth is OK. If you are part of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), you adhere to the Code of Ethics. The moment you discard your ethics, you will begin to lose the trust you’ve built over time, both for yourself and for the people you represent. Once you are labeled as dishonest, it’s pretty hard for anyone—particularly a fellow PR pro or a reporter—to trust you again.
Trust should never be seen next to the word “failing” or “losing.” To maintain trust, PR pros should be honest at all times.
There is nothing fake about that news.
Jason Mollica is the president of JRMComm, a public relations and social media marketing consultancy. A version of this article originally appeared on Muck Rack, a service that enables you to find journalists to pitch, build media lists, get press alerts and create coverage reports with social media data.
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