Photo Credit: Sun-Sentinel
Small Business PR Lessons From The Miami Dolphins
It pains me to write this post since I am a big fan of the Miami Dolphins. But there are some very significant lessons entrepreneurs can learn in terms of small business PR when looking at how the Miami Dolphins have conducted themselves in recent history.
Here is the background, for those of you who are not big football fans. The Miami Dolphins have long been a proud and very successful franchise in the National Football League. For nearly fifteen years they were one of the best-run organizations in all of professional sports. It also helped that they had Dan Marino, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game.
Since 2000, the organization?s luck has changed and they have sunk deeper into a sad state of mediocrity. Their pathetic performance on the field has, of course, translated into sinking sales and embarrassing (at times) public relations.
So what?s the small business PR lesson entrepreneurs and companies can learn from the Miami Dolphins? While the team?s front-office decisions have played a large role in why the team?s performance has been sub-par, it is the way the front office communicates with its fan base as to why the public relations problem has grown like an out-of-control fire as of late. Simply put, when times are tough and it seems like every decision you make just is not working out, it is important to continue to communicate with your customers so they know what your game plan is, even if they do not agree with the game plan.
The man responsible for the front-office game plan within the Miami Dolphins is Jeff Ireland, the team?s general manager in charge of building the team and bringing in the necessary talent. Although he is not the owner, he makes the decisions that affect the team?s performance. Within the structure of a smaller company, there usually is not a general manager. The critical decisions are left to the owner of the company.
Here are a few quick guidelines to make sure your small business PR doesn?t share the same outcome as that of the Miami Dolphins:
1: Even if you make a bad decision, own it. Bad decisions happen. If this means you need to make an apology and say you made a mistake, then take that course of action. It will make you look human. It will make people feel compassion and empathy for you and avoid a public relations crisis.
2: Communicate. Regularly. The last thing you want to do when people are questioning your business decision is work inside a vacuum. Be open with people and communicate updates that pertain to your company so it doesn?t blow into a PR crisis. Sometimes just keeping people in the loop will solve a lot of your problems. Why? Because when you keep things too close to you it creates speculation. I think we all know what speculation does in the world of social media.
3: Win people over by being a nice person. Jeff Ireland once asked a very popular and talented player if his mom was a prostitute. He did not win many fans over by saying this, and he now has a reputation among players that makes it harder for him to attract talent to the team. As a small business owner, you should be focused on making friends in your community, not enemies.
What do you think? Are we being too hard on the Miami Dolphins? Are there any other comparisons to small business PR? Please leave a comment below.
John Sternal is President of Sternal Communications, a PR and marketing consultancy helping businesses get noticed through publicity in the media. He is the author of the PR Toolkit for Small Business and currently authoring a book about small business PR for entrepreneurs. For questions email John Sternal or connect with him @SternalPR.
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