An organization could have all of the products, ideas, and services in the world, but if their reputation is tarnished by a couple of bad decisions, or even one questionable action, it will all mean nothing to the general public. So it should go without saying that a good reputation is among the most valuable assets to have.

Let's put ourselves into a real company's completely-fictional situation. Let's say that we're Pepsi and that news leaks out to the general public that we've let go of hundreds of thousands of workers over financial reasons, yet have simultaneously given our corporate leaders raises.

This of course, will upset the public and turn people away from Pepsi and Pepsi products. Of course, this doesn't benefit us in any way, so it is crucial for us to take action accordingly. Some ideas are listed below.

Confess up front:

We're only human. This is our way of being honest with everyone. We could give a statement through our social networks, and hold a press conference. At that, we can answer any and all relevant questions and respond to the best of our abilities (within reason).

Pitch the story of our reaction out to leading publications:

People like something that they could relate to. Establish a human connection with the general public through the recounting of an actual story.

Create an advertisement that highlights our philanthropic efforts:

Once the smoke clears, give people something new to think of when they think Pepsi. Warm some hearts and create smiles with the good coming from our organization.

If there is one thing that I've learned in my studies of the field, it is that if a Public Relations Specialist cannot navigate their organization through a crisis, said Public Relations Specialist will not keep their job for long.

One particular instance of a notable PR crisis that has happened recently would be Microsoft's response to the backlash regarding one of their most important yet-to-release products: The Xbox One.

When the Xbox One was first announced, there were a couple of particular features that did not sit well with potential consumers. For instance, there were original intentions of making the user access Xbox Live (Microsoft’s online gaming service) once every 24 hours in order to maintain their subscription. After this, another key issue that had been brought to attention were the restrictions on how gamers could access their games.

Anybody who was following this situation was pretty upset, but it didn’t seem like there were any other options since Sony mirrored similar statements about their upcoming Playstation 4 going into the Electronic Entertainment Expo of 2013.

But at E3, Sony dropped the bomb by stating that they will not be doing such things with their PS4, instead, the gaming system will be as traditional as possible with allowing the user to do as they please, free of most restrictions, at a price point of $399, which is 100 dollars less than what Microsoft is selling the Xbox One for.

Needless to say, this made consumers very upset, and there were enough facts and figures to back that up. Within a month, Microsoft began redacting their statements, minus the price point.

Was this the best method for turning the tide and winning their fan-base back? No, but it helped. A lot can happen within a month, and that’s just what happened. Too many shared their thoughts on the situation, and because of that, it looks like Microsoft will end up on the short end of the stick come November 22nd.

The following interview was with Nate Sirotta of Impulse PR and was conducted nearly two years ago by myself for my Social Media For Public Relations and Journalism class that was taught by Professor Barbara Nixon. Although there is one question missing from what was asked from me for this Corporate PR Class, I was fortunate in that I coincidentally asked the other four out of five questions.

Since this interview, Nate Sirotta has moved from committing to Impulse on a full time basis, to working at Total Assault, a Los Angeles-based digital marketing agency whose clients include Live Nation, EMI, and Polaroid.

So how did you get to where you are now?

Well I definitely have quite a bit of ways to go before I could be totally content with what I’m doing, but as far as getting into music PR, I was a touring musician myself for about 5-6 years and an early part of college as well. I toured in a band called Down for the Count, and while I was doing that, I was the one handling all of the band’s business needs, as well as media outreach and press coordination and all of that kind of stuff. So, that’s pretty much where I got my start and built foundation for my network.

What is your typical work-day like?

Usually Monday through Friday, seeing as those are functioning business hours for most people, well at the least, the press. Typically, I get up around 8 in the morning or so, and since I work from home, I just make some coffee and something to eat, I just jump right into emails right around 8:30-9:00 in the morning. I put out any fires from the night before, especially on Mondays where I catch up on things from the weekends. Usually I start making phone calls like usually (in the) late morning, between 10 and noon, like between breakfast and lunch. Those are two fairly constant parts of my day. Those are staples that happen pretty much every day.

As for the rest of my afternoon, sometimes I’ll have a meeting to go to. And living in LA, things will take forever to get to because of traffic and because the city’s huge. So you know, meetings take up an entire afternoon and at least once or twice a week I’m at a show or having a drinks with a client or potential client. It’s sort of a non-traditional work environment, but I really enjoy constantly changing, it makes for a good learning experience. I feel like I’m learning new things every day from the people I’m interacting with and obviously handling things differently maybe than I did last week. There’s a lot of trial and error as well.


What’s your favorite thing about music publicity?

I’m always in the corner of the underdog, you know? Clients that nobody else would take on, or bands that are sort of forgotten, have lost their way, or need a sense of direction? It’s really exciting for me when we that first piece published. It’s really exciting to see how the client is about having their music exposed to the masses. Because if you’re talking about a mainstream band, or somebody that everybody already knows, like The Used or Blink-182. If The Used’s or Blink-182’s publicist, then good for you, you’re probably doing pretty f***-ing well for yourself. But at the same time, everybody already knows about those bands, and you can think of new and exciting ways to tell the same story I guess, but with bands that are like amazingly talented and hardworking who have not been noticed, it’s really rewarding for me to be able to do the dirty work, get my hands dirty, sink my teeth in, and really expose stuff that’s unknown, different, and nobody’s heard before. That’s how kind of how I’m trying to build my company, by being a trusted provider of solid-clientele that’s going to be creative and innovative on a project.

What’s your least favorite thing about your job?

Well you know, being a smaller company, as far as our “flow” goes, our cash flow and income goes for the company, it’s fairly small as like I said before, we’re trying to be an affordable option for a lot of start-ups and stuff like that, but sometimes the bills have to get paid and you have to take on projects that you don’t necessarily want. It’s basically like you’re advocating or trying to sell something that you really don’t believe in at all. It’s kind of an internal struggle, you know? It is, it’s lying, and it’s lying professionally. You’re basically a professional bulls**t-er. A lot of times when that comes along, it’s sort of demoralizing, you know? That’s the “dark-side” of PR, because everyone knows what it’s like to be super-excited about a project or client that you’re working with, and you’re both passionate about the music and you’re just flowing with ideas. You sort of have to take what you can get, and I don’t do that very often, but sometimes you gotta take a project that is going to pay.

The thing that people need to realize about the current condition of corporate public relations in the United States is that while there are several changes that have occurred over time, the core ideologies, intentions, and values have all remained to be the same. Public Relations has still been centered around the audience and the business, whether it was to further marketing efforts, a connection to gain recognition, or even to clear up whatever perceptions that the public may have of the business.

On the flip side, technology and big business has enabled PR to flourish. The day-to-day practices that had previously taken hours and days to do through the means of phone calls, letters, and faxes has been revolutionized by the digital age. Today, that’s all been expedited through e-mail, collaborative applications, and 3D printing. With the spread of big businesses and the ever-increasing reach and influence of new and old media, there has never been as big of a need for public relations specialists to bridge connections.