In today’s outrage economy, communicators are often drowning in noise.
The amount of chaos they face can be overwhelming, not to mention distracting. It can be a struggle to focus and make strategic decisions.
How can communicators, especially those in government and nonprofit settings, determine what deserves attention – and what is simply noise?
As part of my PRSA ICON Content Collective journey, I’m pleased to feature my guest, Jenn Elting, Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships & Media Relations at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District.
Jenn and I discuss a practical triage model communicators can apply immediately to protect their time while safeguarding their organization’s credibility. The model is based on author Diana Kander’s “Zombie Hunting” theory as a decision-making framework.
This is based on Jenn’s presentation, “Stop Feeding the Zombies: Strategic Triage for Communicators Drowning in Noise,” at the conference coming up Oct. 18-21.
Show summary:
In this episode of PR Explored, host Michelle Garrett, a PR consultant, author, and writer, welcomes Jen Elting, senior manager of strategic partnerships and media relations at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, to discuss her upcoming PRSA ICON session, “Stop Feeding the Zombies: A Strategic Triage for Communicators Drowning in Noise.”
Elting describes how communicators shifted from periodic outreach to constant engagement across expanding channels, where complaints can escalate on platforms like Nextdoor and outrage-driven algorithms reward engagement.
She argues volume is not significance, especially for government agencies serving large publics, and recommends communicating less but more strategically.
Using Diana Kander’s “zombie hunting” framework, she explains evaluating work by time required versus value delivered, killing outdated tasks, setting boundaries, and protecting credibility through responsive but sustainable practices.
Elting shares examples of high-effort community engagement for stormwater projects and streamlining education outreach through partner organizations.
The episode previews ICON details and networking opportunities.
00:00 Welcome to PR Explored
01:29 Meet Jen Elting
03:12 PRSA ICON Preview
04:32 Noise and Channel Overload
07:53 Outrage Economy Explained
12:14 Government and Nonprofit Impact
15:23 Zombie Hunting Theory
21:27 Protect Time and Credibility
25:44 Real World Triage Examples
31:08 Public-Facing Comms Priorities
37:42 ICON Invitation and Wrap Up
Show notes:
Follow Jenn Elting on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennelting/
Jenn Elting’s PRSA ICON session: https://www.prsa.org/conferences-and-awards/icon-2026#speakers
Register for PRSA ICON – use code MICHELLE10 to save 10%: https://www.prsa.org/conferences-and-awards/icon-2026#registration
Full transcript:
Navigating the Noise: Strategic Decision-Making for Communicators
Michelle Garrett: [00:00:00] Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of PR Explored, a video podcast where we delve into trends and topics related to public relations. I’m your host, Michelle Garrett, a PR consultant and writer. Today, my guest is Jen Elting. Jen is the senior manager of strategic partnerships and media relations for the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, and I want to welcome Jen to PR Explored.
Welcome.
Jenn Elting: Thank you so much for having me, Michelle. By the time you get my job title and my organization name out there- … it’s, half the show, I swear.
Michelle Garrett: No, I… I was, the, the reason I, found you is because you are speaking at PRSA, ICON, the conference- I am … coming up in Florida.
And so when I saw, the organization you were with, I’m familiar with them because I’m in Columbus, Ohio, [00:01:00] you’re in Cleveland, near Cleveland. And so yeah, I know all about, your organization because I’ve, been following them on social media for a while, ’cause they’re very, always, making little quips and things, but
Jenn Elting: Yes.
Michelle Garrett: yeah.
Jenn Elting: The credit goes to my office next door neighbor, John Gonzalez, so the credit all goes to him, and Nicole Carvell, our photographer.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. it’s fun. If people are not following, I would suggest that would… That would be a fun account to follow. but anyway, I would love for you to tell us, about yourself and what you do, and then we’ll talk a little bit about, your topic coming up at the conference, and that’s what we’re gonna focus on today as far as our conversation.
So- Sure … why don’t you just, tell us a little bit about yourself, and I’ll put a couple links while you’re
Jenn Elting: Oh, sure. Absolutely. So as Michelle mentioned, I’m the senior manager of strategic partnerships and media relations at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District here in Cleveland. I’ve been here at the sewer district for just about 18 years now, [00:02:00] quite, a little bit seasoned when it comes to- to doing this work, but I’m always learning something new here at the district. I absolutely love, love the work that we do, whether we’re talking about, treating wastewater, managing stormwater, conveyance flows, water quality, the environment, biodiversity. There’s always something new to learn, here at the district.
So it’s been a really great time. before that, I worked in corporate communications for s- a few years. I’ve worked in, media, but I’m not a journalist. I was more on the marketing and promotion side of media as well. yeah. So I’ve been doing p- public relations in some form or capacity for about 30 years now.
Michelle Garrett: Wow. I know. Same.
Jenn Elting: Yeah, we were talking earlier, we have both kids in college, so
Michelle Garrett: yeah. Yeah. Yeah, and I
Jenn Elting: mean- it’s an amazing field. I love
Michelle Garrett: it
is, and it’s al- there’s, no matter how long you have been doing it, there’s always something new, and that’s, one of the things [00:03:00] that, is fun for me is that it keeps it fresh and there’s a variety every, not every two days are the same.
And, I find that’s really, that’s, I like that. So-
but yeah, I, I’m interested because I know, you’re gonna be speaking at the conference, and I’m gonna be at the conference as part of the Creator Collective. And I, am gonna put up a couple of, links again while we’re talking about the conference, and, if people want to know, it’s coming up October, I think, 18th through the- Yes
20th?
Jenn Elting: Through the 20th. Through that Tuesday, yes.
Michelle Garrett: In Orlando, Florida. and there are gonna be, I don’t know how many, speakers there are, but I’m really impressed by the breadth of the, topics and experience and, really looking forward to being there and meeting a lot of, the speakers in person.
and [00:04:00] yeah. we’re gonna be talking about ge- Icon presentation, which is called Stop Feeding the Zombies, A Strategic Triage for Communicators in, Drowning in Noise. So we’re gonna dig into what that’s all about. And, yeah, if you have questions about this topic for Jen about the conference or anything, please put those in the comments, and we’ll do our best to answer those.
we’d love to take questions. so first of all, y- when I was reading about your topic, just even the overview, you were talking about how, chaotic things have gotten- for communicators today, and I think, we would probably all agree that it’s different than it used to be. so- It is W- talk a little bit about that.
When did you really notice this shift and yeah.
Jenn Elting: I think, I think it really [00:05:00] shifted from just an organizational perspective. So I work in government communication, a little bit different than the rest of your audience. But I think the shift really happened when organizations, like when communication stopped being something that organizations did, send a press release or hold a briefing or whatever it was, and it’s something that we now have to do constantly.
and it’s not only, that there are, that we’re in the middle of a 24-hour news cycle, all the time. We’re trying to do more with less. But the number of, communications channels has increased, dramatically. So here at the sewer district, we have a communications philosophy that our c- communications will always be timely, thoughtful, truthful, and two-way, and that two-way, I think, is one thing that we do that’s very different than a lot of other governmental organizations, and we want to jump into that conversation.
We want to meet our customers where they are, whether that’s, in [00:06:00] a traditional, outdoor event-type setting or if it’s something that we can have those conversations and we can bring those conversations online. So we always have, we have that with where we try to have that dynamic conversation.
but then you also have this piece where you might have, one customer may- maybe would’ve had a complaint, and historically they would’ve called customer service and tried to get something resolved. But now one customer has a complaint, and they might be going on Nextdoor and starting a whole entire community conversation.
And the next thing you know, instead of people talking about, I think, their sewer bill or their storm water fee, like somehow, electric outages, and we’re, like, pulled into that as well. So there’s so many different places that people can have these conversations, and those kind of ta- conversations just build on top of each other.
Michelle Garrett: That is crazy. I didn’t even think about Nextdoor when I would think about social media, but it is, it- that’s an interesting one.
Jenn Elting: Absolutely.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah, I, [00:07:00] I, I’m subscribed to that and sometimes I get those emails, like a digest, and I’m like, “Wow, people, will literally post about anything.”
Jenn Elting: Yeah.
Yeah, and so a lot of times it’s not even about, us needing to communicate more. It’s sometimes the answer is to communicate less but communicate more strategically, and really work to find those customers and meet them where it is that they are, and figure out what it is that, that needs a response.
And so that’s a little bit about what I’ll talk about at ICON.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah, because, yeah, if you were responding to every single comment or post, that would just be, it would be a nightmare, and it would be-
Jenn Elting: There’s not enough staff and there’s not enough hours of the day, and, at some point, you, have to decide if you’re gonna jump into that conversation or not.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. people wanna feel heard, but, it’s like, yeah, whoa, it’s a lot. all right. So let’s talk about, you mention in the overview, you talk about the [00:08:00] outrage economy, and I wanna talk about… First of all, I think maybe we could define it. I found a Wikipedia page about- … outrage industrial complex, so I don’t know if that’s, that’s the same thing, but-
Jenn Elting: This is, a great question, though, to spin off of, just the, the Reddit conversation, because I think platforms like that or, X or, Blue Sky or Facebook even with-
somebody will post something and then just to get a response from somebody else, and then just get a- another response, and they build on top of each other, and all it is feeding the algorithm.
This almost like it’s, outrage and, it- Just gets those conversations starting.
But that’s all part of the algorithm, and that’s all part of, the, financial business model for a lot of these platforms is you get, more engagement, more likes, more comments, and therefore it drives ads, it drives everything else.
And then [00:09:00] you’re constantly fed more content that’s there just to trigger that response. So like clickbait used to be one thing, but this is, almost a whole nother n- nother level of that where it’s just, they’re spec- specifically, created to, elicit a response from folks.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. it’s, I don’t know when… I guess the Wikipedia page, some of the articles I saw dated back to, 2017-ish, and, I don’t know that we always had a word for this even though- Yeah … I think with social media, of course, it’s become, you know- obviously just, it’s out there. and people, it’s way too easy for people to just go on there and- say anything and hide behind their computer.
Jenn Elting: Exactly. So- And I think that’s why it’s, it’s a, it’s s- a dangerous, line for communicators to walk, because the loudest voices out there aren’t necessarily, the most popular voices or don’t represent the vast majority of your, [00:10:00] customers or your stakeholders.
like- volume’s not the same thing as significance, and you have to really look at where you can spend your time and where you can spend your efforts, to to make it worthwhile and to make it, beneficial for both parties, for both your organization as well as the people you’re speaking to.
and the Internet, it’s so good at telling you what you should be angry about, but it doesn’t necessarily, give you back feedback as far as, this is what your organization should do when, people are angry,” or you’re pulled into some of these conversations.
Michelle Garrett: I love the point you made about volume versus significance- because I think, that’s something, even if you don’t work in a job that’s public facing or, I think we all have to figure out, what really deserves our attention. Because just be- sometimes, yeah, the loudest voices are not necessarily the ones that we really need to focus on.
But I think when we, when I went to, when I learned [00:11:00] about PR in journalism school, which is where I studied it, they… It was more about, you have to really address every audience and every… And it, and now I think, I don’t know if we always can do that,
Jenn Elting: It’s so segmented. It’s almost, if I’m buying like a TV ad.
we, my team does both, earned media and then paid media, and so sometimes we have paid media. And it used to just be, okay, this TV station targets women, this TV station targets seniors, and you could pick and choose, but there’s so many outlets that you can really segment it to.
I wanna reach, like- female dog owners under the, between the ages of 78 and 80, and there is going to be some, vehicle where you can specifically target that teeny-tiny, niche audience, no matter what it is. So- yeah, so it’s, definitely changed the way that you, the way that we all communicate.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. Yeah. knowing those audiences, where they [00:12:00] spend time, that’s always been important, but now it’s just so fractured, so it’s, yeah, I, agree. it’s, it can be a challenge. okay, so- All right. we’ve talked a little bit about this, but why do you think the outrage economy has a greater impact on communicators working in government and non-profit?
Jenn Elting: I think specifically because all of our organizations, especially government organizations, we belong to the public. we belong to our rate payers. We, of course we answer to a board of trustees and, all of that, but we’re a public agency, we’re all public servants, and we’re here to serve the public.
and so it’s very easy to get caught up in listening to, just the loudest voices, because those are the ones that are out there.
But for example, for my agency, we serve a million people in Northeast Ohio, over 63 different communities, 353 square miles [00:13:00] in the greater Cleveland area.
And so we have a lot of customers who we need to, reach, and a very teeny-tiny fraction of customers that are, like, very loud and are part of that outrage economy.
Michelle Garrett: So then, so yeah, so those, yeah. Do you find, this is a, an aside, but do you find that they, have a lot of influence?
the, the people that are loud, do you think, or do people, do, does, do most people understand that’s not necessarily-
Jenn Elting: I think it depends on, what somebody’s really upset about. let’s say for example, someone’s upset because they get a sewer bill in the mail, and their normal bill is, let’s say, $80, and this month they get an $800 bill.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah.
Jenn Elting: Okay, that’s definitely something that you would be upset about. But let’s see if we can dig down and figure out why you got that $800 bill. Is [00:14:00] there maybe a leaky toilet that you never got fixed? Is there an underground leak that you don’t even know is happening where we have to come out, do some investigations, things like that.
But that’s very much a, one-off upset customer.
but then let’s say we’re doing a, storm water project somewhere, and we are, acquiring some properties, taking down some homes, maybe changing the character of the neighborhood because we need to, manage storm water to, south flooded basements.
So you might have a whole neighborhood of folks that are outraged because every time we have a huge storm, their basements flood. but then we can come in, we can make some changes, and then we can solve that problem for folks, and I think that’s-
that’s really advantageous when you can do something to, to soften those voices and lessen those voices, and you can come to the table with a solution.
Michelle Garrett: Yes. Yeah. Because if people feel heard- then they’re gonna be less likely to, hopefully to be outraged.
Jenn Elting: Yeah, and then we can [00:15:00] help our member communities too, because then in turn, City Hall and your mayor or city council, they’re not receiving those, those phone calls of people that are panicked because for the third time in five years, their basement is flooded.
So you can do things to, help our customers through our local, like, member communities in our case.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. let’s talk a little bit about, your presentation, which is based- Okay … on, Diana Kander’s zombie hunting theory. And I was not familiar with this, so I would love for you to explain, what that is.
Jenn Elting: Sure. So almost a year ago, we recei- we, got a new chief administrative officer, here at the sewer district, and she, as she was getting around to meet people across like my department, other departments across the organization, she would get the comment from folks like, “Oh my gosh, we’re so busy, we’re so busy, we’re so busy.”
And she’s like, “Okay, we need to stop [00:16:00] being so busy. We need to be more strategic.” So she came in and she did a presentation for us all about zombie hunting, and it’s taking things that are, in your, work, you could apply it to your personal life as well, but in your work, so things that are zombies.
So things that, take up a ton of time, come back over and over, things that make you feel busy, but not actually creating value. And so it’s trying to get rid of things that are like, in other words, a time suck, and figuring out a way, can I kill this thing? Can I kill it? It could be a project that maybe it’s even a project that I started and it doesn’t have the value that it once did, and it’s okay, do I need to kill my own project?
It could be like a policy that’s out of date and redundant and not helpful. It could be, Excuse me. It could be, anything like that’s just something that you’re doing because you’ve always done it. Or sometimes it could be, [00:17:00] communicating, thinking you need to communicate with everybody when in fact you just need to communicate with the, the stakeholders that have the most value.
So you look at it on, like a, you can scale one to five, one to 10. I think Diana Kander does it one to 10, and you look at the things where how much time does this take and how much value does it bring? And you can plot different things on the grid. And so you wanna look at the things that have a ton of value but don’t need as many resources as some other things do.
And sometimes you might have something that takes a ton of resources, the value’s not quite there, but it’s really, worth it. so yeah, so zombie hunting, it basically gives you the permission to say, “Is this something that actually deserves to be alive or is it something that, that we can kill?”
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. Okay. So
Jenn Elting: So you can apply it to all sorts of… You could apply it to all sorts of things, but in my case, here at the district my team does, external communication, so whether that’s working [00:18:00] with media, working with stakeholders, planning public meetings, going to events, all sorts of different things.
So anything from that external a- affairs piece of it, falls to my team. And so there’s some things that just because we’ve gone to this fall festival every single year for the past 10 years when 12 people show up, is it really worth all that time and effort to go to this event even though you’ve been doing it every single year, but when you don’t have, that stakeholder engagement that you’d wanna have?
So it’s something like that would be an example of a zombie that you might wanna look at and decide if you can kill it.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah, ’cause those are hard to kill sometimes. ‘Cause people are like, we’ve always done it this way, and so we just need to keep doing it th-,” but no you don’t.
Jenn Elting: Exactly. Exactly. So it’s, but it’s taking that.
it could be a policy. It could be a report that you’ve been producing monthly that you know no one even reads. is that something that, you can work with your managers or leadership, or is it something that needs to change form? Is it something that we [00:19:00] don’t need to do anymore?
what’s the value that we have here in actually, continuing to do this thing that we’ve always done?
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. Doing… Instead of just doing the stuff, yeah, what is the reason for doing… And that’s w- I, yeah, I’ve, talked a lot about that because I feel like it’s the same thing with, a lot of things that we do in PR.
It’s like, we always write a press release about this thing.” maybe instead of writing a press release we post about it on social media this time, and maybe we don’t need the…” So it’s just having
Jenn Elting: that- Maybe we create our own content instead of relying on- Yeah … the media to, create it for us,
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. Yeah. It’s just thinking, like, thinking through, it’s taking a beat and, thinking through what you’re doing. Does it make sense? ‘Cause things change over time, and, we should be evolving as well probably with our processes and things. Yeah. So I like
Jenn Elting: that. And I think as communicators too, I think we’re, like, just very, What’s the right word? vulnerable to, zombie work and zombie projects because people are like, [00:20:00] “Oh, hey Jen, can you just help me with something real quick?” And it’s never real quick, and the next thing you know, your to-do list hasn’t gotten anything crossed off of it because you just…
“Oh, can you just help me with one more thing? Can you just do this one quick thing?” And so a lot of times even that can be like zombie work, or that’s a little bit more of like setting your own boundaries. But, but it’s still along the same lines of, “Okay, I really have to get these three things done.”
So maybe my answer instead of, “Sure, I’ll help you,” is, “Can you circle back…” I hate that word. “Can you come back at about, 2:30 and, I can help you with it then or something else?” So it’s a little bit boundary setting too, but I think communicators- Yeah … we’re, like, we’re, like, super, we’re people pleasers.
We’re all people pleasers. I was gonna say,
Michelle Garrett: yeah.
Jenn Elting: So it’s a little bit about setting, setting boundaries too. But it’s, trying to make sure that you can be strategic about the work that you’re doing.
Michelle Garrett: That’s so funny. I’m writing that down because I have a people pleasing, tendency anyway, and I never thought about
Jenn Elting: [00:21:00] that.
I think we all do. I think it’s like we pick this field for a reason, and it’s because, we want to talk positively about what it is that we do. And, you want people to, not only understand what you’re talking about, but come back and like actually like your organization and be like, “Oh my gosh, that’s really cool.
They’re doing this amazing engineering project. They’re, spending my dollars wisely.”
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. No, that’s crazy. That was a light bulb for me. So that- i- in the overview of the session, it, talks about how, this process, the zombie hunting, protects the communicator’s time and also the organization’s credibility.
So I want to talk a little bit about that.
Jenn Elting: Sure. I think if you’re always, wanting to jump to every single person that says, “Hey, Jen, can you help me with this?” I think you just get into this reactive mode, and you don’t have that ability [00:22:00] to, to be strategic, and you’re just… and you don’t have that ability to be proactive in the work that you do, because you’re always reacting to whatever it is you’re reacting to.
now, in a lot of cases, a reporter could call my phone right now. I have to be reactive, and I have to, get back to them and be responsive and all of that. But, but you want to be able to have time to, be proactive, be strategic, and start, thinking about things. So if you think you have to respond to every single comment that’s out there, it’s gonna, it’s gonna eat up a lot of your time, and you’re not gonna be able to focus on those projects that are really valuable to your organization.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. and I think, it, the other thing is it sets a precedent because if you s- if you are doing, responding and doing and, to every single thing, then it’s gonna be the expectation, right? That, that you’re always gonna be able to do that, and you won’t always be able to do that.
Jenn Elting: And like we have a, it’s not a formal [00:23:00] policy, but it’s an informal policy that we respond to every single reporter inquiry. they could call me about drinking water, has absolutely nothing to do with what I do- … but I’ll still respond back and try to point somebody, p- try to point somebody in the right direction.
But sometimes, though, you can get back to that reporter. for example, I had one project. It involved a legal issue, but a reporter called me and was like, “Oh, hey, do you have a comment? My deadline’s in 30 minutes.” to try to get a deadline, like it was for a legal journal, so it was a, just a different thing.
But to try to get like an answer in 30 minutes, I’m like, “Look, I know I can’t meet that deadline for you, so do you have any flexibility? Can you work a little bit longer?” But I knew that was one of those things that even if I tried my hardest, like if his deadline was in half an hour, I’m, I know I’m not gonna get anything like, out to, to be able to meet that deadline.
still call him back, still be responsive, but I’m like, “Look, I know I can’t do it. If you can give me a little bit more time, I can see what I can do for you.” [00:24:00] But, they were ready to, go with something anyway. But like I said, even if somebody calls with something that’s completely unrelated, like we still, always get back to the reporter.
Michelle Garrett: Sure …
Jenn Elting: and so we’re responsive in that sense, because that’s-
Michelle Garrett: Yeah …
Jenn Elting: yeah, it’s media relations. That’s important.
Michelle Garrett: That is important. if, Joe Blow- … comments or calls or, and if you’re trying to respond to every single one of those, people, and they, they are, community members, but, you just, it’s, it would be, like we were talking earlier, impossible to try to address everybody’s, Concerned, every minute of the day all the time.
That would, that just-
Jenn Elting: And like I said, like we, at the district, we try to be, timely, thoughtful, truthful, and two-way. So we always wanna get back to somebody. We wanna, get back to them on time. We wanna give them, it might not be the answer that they like, but the answer that they need. thoughtful, spend some [00:25:00] time, proper care and feeding.
And then two-way and open up that door for that conversation so that we’re not just constantly sending you information. we want, we wanna have that, that meaningful engagement with you.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. And that’s a good, that’s just good, relations for, in any way, community relations.
That’s just, part of that because you want people to have that, that good feeling if they do have a problem, then at least they won’t immediately go to that place of outrage or, yeah.
Jenn Elting: Builds your, it builds your organization’s credibility too, because it’s not just like what you say, but it’s how you say it, which is just the good for like long-term, goodwill.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. Absolutely. so talk about, and I think you g- you’ve given a couple examples about how you have used this model, in your work. you talked about the, the community festival example.
Maybe, do you have other examples you can share?
Jenn Elting: Sure. So we have, [00:26:00] And this is the example that I, use at ICON.
So we have, a stormwater project because, we have two separate utilities. We have the wastewater treatment utility and the stormwater management utility. And this is a project that’s been going on for years, and it was the first project that I was ever involved in where we went out to the community during the pre-design process.
So normally you have pre-design where the engineers figure out, okay, what’s gonna be the best solution, and then you do design where you get into, the super detailed design. You bid it, you construct it, the whole thing. But this was the first time that we went out because we wanted community feedback in pre-design.
Because we were transforming a space and there was a huge opportunity for the community to, choose the amenities they wanna have in this project. So we wanted to know what we were looking at before we got into detailed design. So we did, huge, outdoor events. We let people come, work with our designers to, draw pictures, what would they like.
We had [00:27:00] one event where they came in, they had a budget, and they had all of these different things, and they had to figure out how they would build a project with, the amount of resources that they have. We did traditional public meetings and webinars of c- of course. But because we really wanted to make sure that we had great community input from the get-go, we went in and we did a ton of this very intensive, detailed outreach.
So when you’re looking at the zombie theory, okay, it took a ton of resources, but what was the value that we had out of that? And the value was, like, way up there. So even though there were a ton of community resources, or, I’m sorry, personal, district resources, the value to the community was so strong.
So you can’t always look at it like black and white, “Oh, this is gonna take too much time. I’m not gonna do it.” You can look at, what you get out of it. And the, the community is gonna have an amazing park once this, once this project is finished. But, it goes the same way, too, sometimes, [00:28:00] with, media.
You have, you know you have like your, what was like the daily paper, but your main news source in your community. And, how much time and proper care and feeding do you maybe need to work with some of those reporters to make sure that they fully understand all of the work, the work that you do to get a story that’s not only compelling, but, detailed and thorough, and you know you’ve got like the eyeballs on that webpage reading that story.
So again, sometimes it’s something that’s a lot of resources, but you get the high value for it. but then we’re starting to do… We’re starting to streamline some of our, educational outreach right now, because we have great community partners that can do, environmental and water education on our behalf.
So we’re trying to stre- streamline a lot of it, because we found that it would maybe take two or three of us on staff to cover an entire [00:29:00] third grade class at a school. And you got the third graders, but it, which is super important that we educate our kids, don’t get me wrong. But for three of our staff to spend an entire day working with third graders, when we have some other organizations like, we have the children’s museum right across the street from where I work, that part of what they do is they have, they know the Ohio State, like curriculum standards.
They do this all the time. So we partner with them to go out and do that environmental education, that wa- that clean water education, for some of these, grades, so that when we’re looking at other students, we can maybe focus some more of our district time on talking to an AP science class, or having somebody go out and talk about careers at a high school where it’s got…
It’s not that the other students aren’t important, but we can tap into our community partners so that they can do what they’re really, great at, and we can be a little bit more strategic about talking about the organization and, using our [00:30:00] resources in a better way
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. No, that’s a good example because, again, that’s another thing, leveraging those partnerships, having those good relationships, across your audiences, your publics.
I think that’s, that’s just something that we do, right? that’s
Jenn Elting: a natural- And next year we’re even looking to go, a little bit farther and really do, ‘Cause our partners, they’ll talk about the sewer district and the importance of clean water and how we treat it.
But to really, work with some of our partners to do an even deeper dive into the work that we do, so that they can really better understand, the, the science and the math and the highly technical aspects of the work that we do so that they can talk about it to even, the next level up so we can up their game as well.
Michelle Garrett: And there’s so much to it. like I said, my, my, window into it is mostly through the social media, but it’s, but it is pretty fascinating. you wouldn’t necessarily know that if you didn’t, [00:31:00] follow, but I think it is pretty interesting. so okay. So let’s talk a little bit about, what you would see as the most important thing or things, to keep in mind, when you’re working in a communications role that’s public-facing, like a government role, a nonprofit, role.
Jenn Elting: I think, you really need to understand your organization’s, mission, vision, values, and know what it is that really matters most to, your organization. does it matter not only to our organization, does it matter to our customers, to our community?
Does it matter to our credibility? And so strategically come up with ways that you’re gonna respond to things. But you also have to remember not to confuse, like the loud voices with the representation. So it’s the loudest [00:32:00] person in the room, that’s the person you’re gonna notice, but you need to notice everybody else in that room so that they can get the information that they’re here, that they’re here for.
So you need to, be able to remember that you’re communicating to everybody, not just that, that one loud person in the corner.
Michelle Garrett: Because again, just because they’re the loudest doesn’t mean that they are representative of the entire group or even the majority of the group, right? I think that’s…
We’ve seen that, for sure.
Jenn Elting: Exactly. yeah, and if you, think about, communications and the direction that we’re going in, we have so many channels and so many media and so many outlets. I think we really have to decide not only what’s, what it’s important that we communicate about, but also what we don’t need to communicate about.
again, it’s, yeah, I keep using the word strategic, but it’s really being strategic about the work that you do because you only have so many hours in the day. And as much as we both, love working in PR, we’ve got other things we need to do too.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. Finding that balance [00:33:00] too. What don’t we need to communicate about?
I’ve seen a lot of discussion about, sometimes staying quiet now is more of the strategy. I think, again, that’s a change for some of us that have been doing this a long time. It’s like, we’ve got to respond to everything right away, and sometimes A, you can’t, and B, if you wait, it might… I don’t know if I want to use the word blow over, but it might, calm down a little bit.
So I don’t know that we
Jenn Elting: often- It’s still important though that you, keep, yeah, keep, your finger on the pulse of what’s- Sure … going on and what people are saying, of course,
Michelle Garrett: Sure. Yeah. Be aware, so listening. So and social listening, of course, is really important. But- but yeah, we don’t necessarily need to jump and respond. And I remember that was kind of the training, back in the day, was like, you wanna be on top of it right away, and I see a lot of people now saying, “Nope. We wanna monitor it, but we’re not gonna step in. w- we’re gonna see how this plays out a little bit before we step in.”
But I, feel like that’s a little bit of a risk [00:34:00] sometimes, but it just, I guess it depends, on the situation. But-
Jenn Elting: It depends, and like a lot of like government facing or public facing, organizations, like they might only have one communications person that’s doing everything. That’s handling, the community newsletter, all the media relations, possibly representing like police departments, fire department, you know- Yeah
works directly for the mayor. So a lot of, a lot of organizations might not have, the privilege to have a team of folks that can do things, or what’s also important, is that this is not only in government, but, I think you need to work on building your bench so that you have a really deep bench of people that you can lean into-
when certain things come up. So it’s not only a question of, Have, have people that either, maybe know where in the c- where in your communities, certain staff members live, so that if you’ve got something coming up, it’s like, “Oh, hey, we’re gonna be, [00:35:00] out, in, Smithville, USA for their fall festival.
I know you live out there. Any chance you can come cover the booth for a couple of hours and talk to people?” so you know that. You have subject matter experts that can come in, so that you’re not building your team, at the last minute. So that you can really rely on other people.
and it’s amazing, like it’s amazing how many people, wanna wear a water drop mascot sometimes. they’re like- … “Hey, can I, be Wally Waterdrop at the event?” I’m like, “If you wanna be. It’s real hot and sweaty in there, but, go for it.” But then people, people are really thrilled to be, like, invited to have a seat at the table to come, help out at an event.
because there’s, a lot of events. Sometimes we might have a weekend where we have eight different things that we have to be at, and, my team can’t always do weekends, but we’ve got folks that, that are happy to be invited to, to come be a part of that event, represent [00:36:00] their organization, and, get a new swag T-shirt or something to go along with it as a little, bonus.
And, it’s really amazing to have such a great group of people to work for that, people are willing to do that and are appreciative of the fact that you invited them in the first place.
Michelle Garrett: That’s, I think that’s, something for sure that’s maybe a little bit different about nonprofits than government organizations because they can’t call on…
Y- it’s more of a, I feel like it’s more of a grassroots, bootstrap effort sometimes, Because it’s just- it is a smaller team often, and the funding isn’t the same as a giant corporation that can hire, 10 agencies and do… it’s different. And
Jenn Elting: we have partners for some of our things as well, and that’s one thing that’s great about if you have some nonprofit organizations that you’ve partnered with, they have their own bench of volunteers, so you can take that, that education base, one step further.
You can reach [00:37:00] out, and they can have their volunteers help with a beach cleanup or whatever it is that you might be doing that you might want to,
to get a little bit more involved in because they’ve got their own team of, of great resources as well.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. No, I think that’s, that’s important, and I feel like it’s, actually, it can be, I think those roles can be really enjoyable that way because it is more of a, it’s just there’s more, I don’t know, just a sense of teamwork or something maybe a little bit more.
Yeah.
Jenn Elting: There’s like, that, that passion for the work that, that, that nonprofit is doing.
so I think that’s a really, I think it’s something that’s definitely worth, leaning into as well.
Michelle Garrett: So as we, kinda wrap up here, is there anything else that we haven’t covered that you wanna share?
I’m gonna go ahead and put some links up again about, Icon and how people can register and so forth.
Jenn Elting: Sure. I think just with communications, especially communications [00:38:00] nowadays, it’s just increasingly an exercise in triage, and that you’re always, there’s always something coming at you, and it’s a question of, okay, what needs my attention right now?
What can I just, monitor off to the side? And really does it matter to… Not does it matter. That’s a bad way to put it. but how much value does this piece of information, bring to the table? And a- again, how can I, really plan out my communications in a way that meets the needs of, all of my customers?
Michelle Garrett: Yes. yeah. So let’s see. What else? Is there anything else? Have we covered everything? I mean-
Jenn Elting: I think we have. I’m so excited to actually get to meet you face-to-face in person and not on a screen at ICON next month.
Michelle Garrett: I
Jenn Elting: know … for those of you who aren’t familiar, ICON, it’s, a great conference.
You get a couple thousand of amazing [00:39:00] communicators all in, one, one room together. there’s breakout sessions. There are tracks for, if you’re more into corporate communications, if you’re more into, social media side of things. So all, there’s all sorts of different tracks and different events you can go to.
we have some amazing keynote speakers. I’m personally excited about the manager of the Savannah Bananas. That’s my personal one that I’m looking most forward to. but great keynote speakers. Amazing networking. PRSSA, which is the, student, group of PRSA members, they have their event at the same time, so you can have opportunities to meet students, help with, like resume reviews.
I’m part of the public affairs and government section, so we always have a table to talk about government communications with students. and it’s a great event. I think there’s a couple of sections, maybe health and educators, I’m not sure, that have their conference at the same time. So definitely, it’s not too late to register for ICON.
[00:40:00] And if you do, I hope to see you there.
Michelle Garrett: Yes. I think we’re both looking forward to seeing, some, some familiar faces and meeting some new people as well. And, I’m really excited about the conference. I just, I want to thank you for being here today, Jen.
Jenn Elting: Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks so much for having me.
Michelle Garrett: Yeah. If you are at the conference, Jen’s session is on October 19th at noon, and I’m sure she would love to see you there. So- I would … we both, we both hope to see you there. And I want to thank everybody for tuning in, and, I will see you again very soon. Thanks so much.
Jenn Elting: Thanks again, Michelle.
About the host: Michelle Garrett is a B2B PR consultant, media relations consultant, writer and author of B2B PR That Gets Results, an Amazon Best Seller. She helps companies create content, earn media coverage, and position themselves as thought leaders in their industry. Michelle’s articles have been featured by Entrepreneur, Content Marketing Institute, Muck Rack, and Ragan’s PR Daily, among others. She’s a frequent speaker on public relations, marketing and content. Michelle has been repeatedly ranked among the top ten most influential PR professionals.
Learn more about Michelle’s freelance PR consulting services here. Book a no-obligation call to talk about your needs here. Buy Michelle’s book here.
