With people checking their date’s online presence and sharing their social media profiles with friends after the second date, don’t think your clients are any different once you’ve landed the job.

Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) defines PR as the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics. Not too dissimilarly, the broader definition of strategic communication is at its most basic level, the deliberate use of communication to meet an organisation’s mission (Hallahan et al 2007, 3).

Every small organisation or business has a public it serves, stakeholders it works with and a reputation to build and maintain. Whether or not an organisation is seeking to grow its customer base or engage new supporters to further its social impact, the communication fundamentals should be acknowledged and factored in.

Speaking with an owner of a high end small building business I asked how they were managing their communication efforts. He said it sat with his partner who enjoyed doing it. It was something they did in house, and unlike legal or accounting matters didn’t seek further expertise on.

I asked if they felt it was a priority space for them to develop, and already with more business than they needed lined up, they didn’t feel the need to invest any further. As a result their website looked elementary, prepared by a builder as a hobby project. And their Instagram presented as inconsistent with

Neither of which reflected the warmth of the business, the sophistication and expertise of the work, and the integrity of the owners, who as a small business so heavily influenced the organisation itself.

While personal connections and networks were strong enough to acquire and line-up new work, it wasn’t always enough to help them navigate tricky conversations with clients and manage contracts in a way that duly respected their expertise and provided them with the allowances they need to deliver quality work.

Each and every time someone finds a new date, is excited to try a new restaurant, hears of a good charity to donate to, they Google them/ they Google it. They follow them on their social media accounts, Instagram, Facebook or LinedIn. And they garner an impression or importantly, validate an experience they already have had.

Was the doctor I dated as impressive as I thought? Is the charity as innovative as they said? Was the new restaurant as trendy as I expected? We look online to validate these experiences, and use these links to share with friends the experiences we’ve just had.

When there is a disconnect between the experience and the online representation, we question a) our own judgement, and b) whether to share this experience with friends at all. Because let’s face it, word of mouth is no longer simply word, but websites and profiles to share.

You don’t need a strong online identity to grow your business. You need a strong online identity simply to reassure existing clients of the experience they’ve just had.

This isn’t simply invaluable to supporting them to share their experience with others, it’s invaluable to providing you and your organisation with the gravitas your team needs to have that difficult conversation. To be taken seriously when you say that expectation is unreasonable, and to be afforded the budget required to deliver great work.

If you have the skills and knack to do it well yourself, fabulous. But as I expect, you require support to get the message right, get the image and brand on point, and have the content affirm the tone you present in person – bring in expertise, and pay for it.

If it helps you to remind clients of the calibre of your work and expertise, and reassure them of why they hired you in the first place, it is well worth the while.