Want to know the biggest mistake that can create PR headaches for brands, businesses and companies?
It’s forgetting that journalists are people. What do I mean by that?
Well for a start you can have the most carefully constructed PR messaging, planned releases and schedule, which can all fall apart because your executives were talking about redundancies or business concerns in a public place.
Journalists don’t clock off just because they’ve left the newspaper office. And like the rest of the population at some point they will leave their desk. Maybe to grab some lunch, or to catch the train to and from work. If they overhear a juicy conversation while doing these ‘everyday things’ – you’ve potentially given them a scoop.
Like in 2017, when a New York Times reporter overheard a lawyer for President Donald Trump discuss differences among the legal team in the special counsel’s Russia investigation during a lunchtime conversation at a restaurant.
More recently, I’ve just seen a tech journalist who I follow on Twitter tweet about a conversation he’s overhearing on a train. Apparently two execs are pitching for some business for a major brand where the company has a problem that they can potentially fix.
But it can even be something as simple as updating your LinkedIn with details of a new job that the PR team were planning to release to the media.
Loose lips sink ships as the saying goes. So next time you have any confidential business information, keep the chat confined to the office. Your PR, or your prospective client’s PR, will thank you for it.