What you’re about to read will shock you. I only hope you aren’t going to tell me “I wish I had known this before.”
This happened to a well-known non-governmental organization doing incredible work. Late one day in 2006, I received a call from the head of the organization who asked me to visit their office to cover an important news. “There’re trouble makers here who are leveling false allegations against us and our staff,” the head told me. It was clear that they asked me to be present more as a challenge to the protestors. If a media representative hobnobs with the management team, it would scare the protestors into submission…or so they thought. But it had the opposite effect: the protestors wanted to present their version and I had no choice but to note down their version as well.
As an independent and neutral party, I can’t simply write a positive story about the organization, especially in the context of a snowballing controversy. Secondly, journalistic ethics dictates that I should report the version of the so-called trouble makers, which means it would put the organization in the bad light.
So, when I filed the report for my newspaper that evening, I received another urgent call from the head of the organization asking me to kill the report. I told the person that I’ve filed the report and it’s gone out of my hand. Though the organization’s head managed to kill my story, the situation went totally out of control the next day with a major protest outside the institution, which, inevitably, all the newspapers covered.
If this organization had the expertise in handling the media, they would’ve prepared themselves for the showdown with disgruntled staff and produced effective counters, including documents, records and actual testimonials from beneficiaries on the ground. Even better, they would have spoken to the protesting staff and students and appeared before the press for photo opps with a beaming smile, after solving the issue. On the contrary, they appeared indecisive, awkward and were totally unprepared to handle the crises. Everything else they did after the story exploded was firefighting and a desperate effort to salvage whatever little sympathies they had. This, mind you, happens to an organization that has done decades of excellent work on the ground and has truly transformed people’s lives.
You might say media management is only for the corporate professionals who would charge in hundreds of millions to build brands or manage reputations. But proliferating social media (which today works as an extension to traditional media) has forced all entities to understand what they’re dealing with an be prepared for the onslaught.
This’s more of a necessity for charity organizations that engage more volunteers, raise funds to support their projects and address the most important human problems like poverty, hunger, public health or education. They may not have the big bucks like corporate houses, but they’re passionate about helping people and are vulnerable to public opinion.
You may be a social worker, an employee of a charity organization, or, quite simply, a volunteer deriving immense satisfaction out of helping people in need. All the more reason for you to be better prepared to take the bull by its horns.
Spending just two hours a day for three days, you’ll walk out of this programme with the basic skillset to work on a strategy that’ll cover:
*How to present the positive and actual change that happened on the ground as a result of your charity work.
*How to create more credibility around your projects among your donors/funders
*How to build a compassionate and transformative brand around your charity without exaggerations
Plus
*How to counter controversies and image crises with effective showcasing of facts and build a counter-narrative on reality.
The webinar from March 15 to 18, scheduled for two hours a day, will empower you to build a compassionate charity brand and have the strategy to protect it from any sabotage from inside and outside.
So, let me know if you have any specific aspects of media engagement you might like to learn and I’ll do my best to cover it.
Let’s build a community and society that believes in positive storytelling.
Subramani
P.S.: If you think this will help someone who you know, please send them the link to register for the webinar.
https://subramani-lakshmi.ck.page/1472e41d82