How 2020 Has Highlighted the Importance of Being Open and Honest

2020 has changed everything. And it’s only halfway over, even though it feels like it’s going on for like ages. Every year we face typically few defining moments, but the past six months have contained so many world-changing, paradigm-shifting developments that it’s getting hard to believe we’re not in a simulation that’s running every possible scenario at once.

So what do the rapid changes of 2020 mean for your organization? For many, it should mean refocusing on the importance of being open and transparent.

When COVID-19 first began impacting businesses, company leaders had to make a variety of decisions behind the scenes. How would they plan for the pandemic? What was their business able to withstand? Would they be applying for government assistance programs?

For every business and every leader, the answers to those questions are different. But for our team at PublicityMantra, transparency has been the best policy.

Here are some of the ways transparency plays a major role, whether you’re a PR or marketing industry, a major conglomerate or a community business:

Transparency within your team

From the first week of the lockdowns, we wanted to be sure that our employees knew that the situation was fluid, that we would be assessing things as we went and that their jobs were safe.

Not every organization has this kind of flexibility, but we felt it was important to share details about the business decisions being made so that my team had the important information that affected them. And in a time of great uncertainty, it was an important factor in bringing our group together.

In these times of uncertainty, it’s been valuable for our team to know where we stand and how our organization has been dealing with these major issues.

Transparency in your public presence

In 2020, the general public wants to know where organizations stand on these important matters just like employees do. And for many, transparency isn’t just about sharing your company’s views on social issues.

For PublicityMantra, this wasn’t much of a change. Between working for clients, our company’s own blog and our social media channels, our messaging have always been public and our company’s values aren’t a secret.

But for many organizations, speaking out on issues and showing transparency in values is relatively new. Even communications-based organizations like social media giants Facebook and Twitter are grappling with issues around transparency.

Community is more important than ever, which makes it crucial for every organization to understand their community. For PublicityMantra, that meant sharing our statements and doing what we can. For other companies, it may mean large-scale changes, public statements on issues of social justice or requiring face coverings.

The key in all of those things, however, is to be transparent. Explaining to the public why your business is doing the things it’s doing can be the difference between a well-received message and the reputation that you’re hiding in an important moment.

Transparency in marketing and public relations

One of the most important lessons that we’ve learned from the pandemic, is the importance of being open and transparent with your clients in the marketing and PR world.

When COVID-19 hit, it was tempting to maintain a “business as usual” approach. Sure, the world may be changing before our eyes, but we should strive to act as if nothing has changed for our clients. Right?

Instead, what we found is that our clients — and everyone else we’ve interacted with — value that transparency just as much as your team and the general public. If you have a major project about to launch in a media environment that doesn’t fit your goals or signal that you’ll be well-received, then talk to your clients about the pros and cons of rescheduling.

At PublicityMantra, we took this a step further. Each week, we produced an update titled “Navigating the Changing Media Climate” to keep our clients and partners in the loop. Taking advantage of our team’s expertise in, social media and more, we were able to give clients a great look at not only the media environment itself but also how we arrived at our conclusions and the ways we were proactively tackling the week’s issues.

Steps like this may not be available in every environment, and might not even be necessary when COVID-19 subsides. But the bigger lesson is that the organizations you align yourself with, will value your transparency and sharing the behind-the-scenes details can help improve trust and showcase the hard work your team is doing.

Need Help in PR & Digital Marketing? Get in touch! Or Consult with India’s one of the Leading Social Media Strategist Anoop Mishra, Founder of a Top rated Brand Comm  & PR agency Publicity Mantra.