The stage is set, the energy of the crowd is palpable and the air is pregnant with expectation. Soon, a flurry of high-end vehicles with bodyguards and aides in tow arrive on the scene with the trademark billows of dust.
The bodyguards disembark and make such a spectacle, what with their agility of moving effortlessly from one vehicle to another to the menacing manner in which they fend off the crowds. In the field across the venue, choppers are also landing; the Very Important Guests have signalled their arrival.
The earliest forms of public relations during political seasons consisted mainly of slander, spinning and propaganda strategies aimed at painting the opposing sides in negative light, which unfortunately are still being practised to this day. Recently however, political movements around the world have woken up to the fact that effective PR can actually work in their favour, negativities aside.
Not many stop to think about the importance of the narratives that are usually fed to the electorate during these engagements and how they are arrived at. It must be noted that important aspects of political PR involve, more often than not, crisis communications, fundraising and effective management of issues.
If one is keen you will notice that most political parties tend to have a spokesperson and a PR/communications team tasked with building and sustaining the political image of these movements beyond these two facets of image and crisis mitigation.
The power of the Internet and social media has added an interesting level to PR within political campaigns. To remain top-of-mind with voters, social media strategies have to be comprehensive and innovative. This has seen political movements consider influencers and well-known media practitioners as part and parcel of their publicity machinery.
Despite these strides, social media contains an extremely unfettered side that has seen many of its users affected, especially mentally and emotionally, by information and sentiments expressed by political heavyweights.
Closer home in Kenya, facing our own national election in a matter of days, our social media platforms have been awash with daily hashtags, campaigns, news, opinion polls and sponsored content that are all out to influence the masses to vote for a certain candidate.
Unfortunately some of this content has also served to rile up negative emotions that should otherwise be focused towards building peace and sustaining hope regardless of the outcome of the election.
PR practitioners within the political space have the ability to bring about the much-needed positive shifts in the political arena through the following ways:
One, it is important to ensure that your communications strategy has a fail-safe plan for any situation that may arise. This means that you must ensure that your crisis response plan is extremely effective.
Two, listening is a vital aspect of successful political PR. A politician or political movement’s ability to listen to their internal communications team would enable this team to best communicate how they intend to address the issues raised by their diverse audiences.
Three, apologise and acknowledge first then launch a tangible plan of action to address any issues that may arise. We must always be alive to the fact that we are dealing with a highly enlightened electorate and therefore responses need to be rational and focused on rebuilding the image of the politician or the political movement in the most positive and sincere manner.
Four, monitoring is extremely fundamental in political campaigns. The rise of the digital age has brought with it a wide variety of monitoring methods that serve to mitigate as well as forecast strategies that would enable the creation of targeted positive messages at any given time.
Political PR is a delicate facet of our national fabric as its effectiveness can be a worthwhile vehicle for solid nation-building and hope. It is therefore upon all of us, not only in the field of PR or politics, but also across all professions and all walks of life to massively support positive messaging that is crucial for the sustained peace and prosperity of our land.
Corporate communications, PR and brand expert
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