Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 45th President of the United States is over and a new era has begun. Businesses and entrepreneurs might have their views on Trump, but they can take away several important PR lessons from his inauguration.
These are the three main PR lessons you should apply to your own PR efforts.
Not All Press Is Good Press
Trump is a master of generating positive and negative attention to himself. But what businesses should learn from his actions is that not all press is good press. Some press can lead to you tainting your reputation.
Take the aftermath of the inauguration when Trump started a war over whether his crowd was bigger than Obama’s. This created negative attention for no good reason. He stood nothing to gain from it.
And you stand nothing to gain by creating negative headlines on principle or because you believe you were wronged. For example, if you got a negative review don’t attack that reviewer. Thank them and move on. Don’t create a negative story where there doesn’t need to be one.
Social Media Is Powerful
Twitter has become the main communication platform for Trump before, during, and after the inauguration. Trump makes huge statements that reveal his attitude, politics, and how he still relates to pop culture. He’s taken advantage of social media more than any other president in history.
The ripples Twitter created for Trump should reveal a lot about how powerful social media can be for your business. His comments about his controversial speech in front of the CIA memorial wall led to positive and negative comments flying back at him.
In other words, as a business, you need to take extreme care over what you say. Think about whether your words can be easily misinterpreted.
Everybody Is Listening
Trump’s comments towards women, his feud with Saturday Night Live, and his fight with Mayfair are just some of the examples of press being generated in 140 characters or less. Everybody is listening to you. Even small businesses can have their Tweets seen by thousands of people.
Before you say anything publicly, or even privately, think about whether your business would want that content to be seen in public. This sort of thinking can protect your business against any embarrassing mistakes.
More than once, employees have Tweeted things in the heat of the moment only to have the company humiliated by the public. And people have lost their jobs over that.
One example of that came over the weekend when a writer for Saturday Night Live made a comment towards Trump’s ten-year-old son. The writer likely didn’t put too much thought into the Tweet, but Saturday Night Live suspended him over it.
Conclusion – Beware Of The Power Of Social Media
Always beware of the power of social media. It can work with you or against you just from the slightest touch. Consider what you’re saying and try to think about how people are going to react beforehand.
It could just save your company’s reputation.
