Above All, Be Authentic

A story that resonates, and ultimately sells, has to be authentic at its core. I know this sounds like the most elementary statement, but my hands-on professional experience as both a public relations practitioner and a journalist has shown me that far too many in the communications industry are: 1) Willing to distort or disregard facts, 2) Not genuine or transparent.

The pressure to oversell and sensationalize is as high as it has ever been in today's highly competitive communications playground. And that means there is great value in being authentic. You don't need to have worked in public relations or journalism to know that anything not built on truth will eventually be exposed and fall apart. Sometimes it may take years, but whether it's a business that's caught red-handed posting fake reviews online, a news organization using unvetted sources, or sadly a marriage destroyed by the recent Ashley Madison hacking scandal, the bill always comes due. When I worked as a reporter there were certain PR people I immediately red-flagged and fast-tracked to the "ignore folder" because they were trying to sell me a narrative that was full of spin and flew in the face of actual facts. Sadly, some of these folks were in positions funded by taxpayers. Nowadays there is the occasional prospect who can't become a client because of their desire to take certain liberties with facts. Those experiences serve as reminders that image building cannot supplant authenticity. In "Where's My Fifteen Minutes" Howard Bragman writes that "most people think public relations is about puffery and exaggeration, but in fact, authenticity is the most important fundamental in public relations-and it is also the starting point."

Those who would claim that "sometimes you have to bend the truth a little" simply either aren't trying hard enough or don't have the creative know-how to persuade while remaining authentic. The truth is that every person or organization has a unique story, everyone has something they can do that no one else can. The key is being able to identify those traits and market them through eloquent storytelling that moves your target audience from intrigue to action. There doesn't just have to be one version of the story since facts can often support multiple vantage points and experiences. But all of those stories have to be grounded in authentic truth. The narrow road is not always easy, but it pays off over time.