6 Important Marketing Lessons Learned From Representative Anthony Weiner

I thought long and hard before deciding to pull the trigger on this post. It's such a textbook case on what not to do when you find yourself in a public relations nightmare. I remember my PR professor in college playing the same chorus over and over: Never lie. Never-ever-ever. Never. It will always create more problems than it solves. People will always find out.



As professionals engaging on marketing, we are purposely taking our message to the public. That gives us a lot of leeway when it comes to choosing how we are going to deliver that message.



Regardless of your political affiliation, what happened to Representative Weiner recently was one of those train wrecks that you just couldn't tear your eyes away from. And at the end of the day, you had a communicator who made a series of poor decisions that made things worse and worse.



So here we go; these are my lessons that I take away from Anthony Weiner. (If you are one of the few people who hasn't heard of Weiner's problems, Google it):



1. Don't Lie- This is the basic lesson any professional should learn, especially when dealing with a PR issue. Lying almost always leads to a deeper whole to climb out of. And once you go down the road of lies, you'll find it hard to keep the lie going. Representative Weiner should have cut his losses and nixed any ideas about lying. Now, the truth is out and he has to deal with critics on both sides of the isle because he lied to everyone about what happened.



2. Don't Make False Claims- One particular lie many people are tempted to use in order to hide their problems is the false claim. This is when you put forth an untruthful explanation for a mistake you made. This is often the genesis of a PR death spiral and it's something you want to stay away from. Whether it's claiming that your Twitter account was hacked or that you wrote the words to Gone With The Wind before Margaret Mitchell, your sins will eventually find you out. And when they do, you'll have a worse consequence to contend with than the original PR issue you're trying to cover up.



3. Come Clean Early- Once you see that a PR issue is surfacing, it's almost always best to take in a deep breath and tell the truth early on. It might hurt for the moment, but like yanking a Band-Aid off your arm, you'll be able to deal with the issue and put it behind you before things escalates and you do irreparable damage to your brand.



4. Don't Blame Others- Sometimes, it's tempting to point the finger of blame at someone else to try and make the burden easier for you to handle. While there's usually nothing wrong with identifying the guilty parties when you come clean, you want to make sure that you're not looking for a scapegoat. If you place blame on someone who is innocent, you can damage your reputation more than you think possible.



5. Bring In Help- If a PR issue starts to get out of control for you, it may be time to bring in help. Sometimes it takes someone with an unemotional connection to the PR nightmare to give sound advice on how to handle it. A good PR professional can help you mitigate the problems while helping you create a constructive plan to move past it.



6. Keep Your Pants On- While this might sound like a cheap shot at Representative Weiner, it's not. My point is that the best way to avoid a bad PR nightmare is by not doing stupid things to begin with. While problems often come from an innocent action or a careless word, why would you invite headaches by doing things that you know you shouldn't do?



I think that the Anthony Weiner story is finally starting to go away. But by looking at the awful way he managed his PR nightmare, you can walk away with a vivid reminder of what might be in store for you if you follow his lead. Your brand is too valuable to sabotage by making bad PR decisions.











  



























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Tony Eldridge is the author of The Samson Effect , an action/adventure novel that Clive Cussler calls a "first rate thriller brimming with intrigue and adventure." He is also the author of the Twitter marketing book, Conducting Effective Twitter Contests . His new novel, The Lottery Ticket , was just recently released on Kindle.