Off The Grid PR

As an occasional reality check, most CEOs like to know how their attitudes and actions on a business subject compare against those of their peers.  How are other CEOs establishing and extending their influence with their industry?  What investments are they making to stimulate word of mouth about their company? Such regular comparisons are useful in identifying areas where one's thinking might need midcourse correction.

Recently, PRWeek and Burson-Marsteller published their annual survey of 144 CEOs, asking them about their attitudes and actions on a number of public relations fronts. (Note 70% of those surveyed ran a company with an annual revenue of $10 million or more.)

Below we present six key findings that  you can compare against your own company's PR initiatives.  Many of their views  and PR investments should not be surprising.  However,  if you,  as a CEO yourself, find  many surprising -- well, that's possibly a warning signal  for a midcourse correction.

Key Findings from The 2007 PrWeek CEO Annual Survey Findings

Being an Industry Influencer

No surprise -some 85% of CEOs believe it is "extremely important" to be perceived as an influencer in their industry. (We've provided an iconic example in our photo. Mr. Jobs and his iPod epitomize the advantage of calling out new rules for competitors. After all, defining new rules is the height of "influence".

Speaking of Speaking...

  79%  of CEOs include the following two tactics to increase influence: Speaking at community events and personally communicating with top customers.

72% of CEOs speak at conferences, participate in corporate sponsorships and use opportunities to  network with other CEOs.

68% state they provide online tools for their existing customers to tell  others about the product or service experiences with the company.

          

55% collect information on which customers operate within larger social networks that might be leveraged.

 

Nearly  51% state they have designed a marketing program to generate word-of-mouth.

How Does Your PR IQ Compare?

While we do not suggest that the answers to any one question from this multi-industry group of CEOs  represent a standard, we do believe the entire group of answers provides a useful benchmark.   Minimally, if your own company's actions diverge markedly from not one, but  several of the majority opinions and actions here, that may well indicate unexploited PR opportunities (best case) or competitive exposures (worst case).

Certainly,  not making time for speaking opportunities, not outreaching to peer CEOs to match perspectives and not investing in word-of-mouth marketing programs --- all these co-occuring in one company -should cause a CEO to reconsider and revise his/her PR strategy.  With increasing consensus that we are heading into a recessionary business period, better communications with key customers is a corporate "nutritional supplement"  that few can afford not to take.