Why Internal Audiences Should Be Your Priority

[By Howard Fencl, APR]

When we talk to clients about reputation management and ask who their most important audience is, “media” is all too often their answer. They are wrong.

It is your internal audiences – your board, staff, vendors, volunteers, donors – who ultimately support your reputation or sink it. Your internal stakeholders are ambassadors of your brand. They talk about their workplace to colleagues, family, friends and neighbors. They may also talk about it on Twitter and Facebook. And if there’s a disconnect between the story C-Suite execs tell and the day-to-day reality of your organization’s culture, it doesn’t matter if your CEO, CIO and executive team are media trained, media savvy or media stars, you’ve got a reputation issue your internal stakeholders will amplify.

We’ve seen that happen on a grand scale here in Cleveland, Ohio for decades. The city was routinely crucified by stand-up comedians and held up as a textbook example of Rust Belt decay. Despite the fact that Cleveland had its true first renaissance in the 1990s when the Cleveland Indians finally returned to the World Series, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame opened its doors and adaptive re-use turned the city’s industrial flats into an entertainment mecca, residents kept bad mouthing their own hometown. Manufacturing jobs were offshored by the thousands. Unemployment and crime were up; confidence was down. Cleveland jokes continued virtually unabated. I worked for a civic marketing organization, The New Cleveland Campaign, that developed a speaker’s bureau to work Cleveland’s rubber chicken lunch circuit in a futile attempt to evangelize all that was great about the town’s revival. But locals just didn’t buy it.

So how did Cleveland finally find its way to residents’ hearts? Through their stomachs. Clevelanders love their local eateries and microbrews and rhapsodize over area institutions such as Sokolowski’s University Inn, Great Lakes Brewery and Slyman’s Deli. And when the city’s new culinary scene exploded with rock star chefs such as Michael Symon and Jonathon Sawyer leading the charge, Clevelanders suddenly speaking more positively about their city to outsiders. Fast forward to today – and with a lot of hard work and a lot of word-of-mouth, Cleveland is on “must see” destination lists in Fodor’s, the New York Times and Travel + Leisure magazine.

The point here: you can’t just sell platitudes to people in your organization and expect they’ll all buy in to your vision and evangelize it. What’s really important to them about your business? Why does it motivate them? Proactively seek their opinions and ideas. Listen to their concerns regularly. If your internal audiences have a good personal relationship with your organization, chances are they will be spread the good word and help grow your reputation in the Court of Public Opinion.

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