Why Public Relations Isn’t Working

BP, Tiger Woods, Goldman Sachs: Why haven’t public relations machines been able to keep their companies’ images better intact? Have social media overwhelmed these propaganda machines? “The lesson now for companies that screw up is that you really have no chance: The currents are against you from the get-go,” says Matthew DeBord at The Big Money. “The courts of Twitter and online video sharing and the forming of Facebook groups to deplore the transgressions of an enterprise will overwhelm even the most crafted crisis battle plan. The profession, quite simply, is at a crossroads. And it isn’t in a position to ride out the bumps, because it’s up against the kind of high-altitude turbulence that can shred the airframe.”