Thursday, March 16, 2023

Why Does RIOC Care MORE About Its 3,229 Followers and Friends on Social Media Than the 12,000 Residents on Roosevelt Island Asks Local Resident And Public Relations Professional Janet Falk

Roosevelt Island resident and Public Relations professional Janet Falk reports:

You haven’t gotten the official word about the fees at Sportspark from RIOC yet, but they’ve broadcasted it on social media.

The exorbitantly high fees RIOC proposed to charge are suspended.

There’s no information about what the fees might be and when they might be instituted.

I say the official word, because RIOC, which emails me almost daily, and sometimes more than once a day, has yet to announce this news to me and fellow residents through their usual means: RIOC Advisories.

The initial announcement of the fees was distributed in an advisory on February 23; the latest news has not been sent to subscribers.

As a Public Relations professional, I follow the Code of Ethics of the Public Relations Society of America, the national professional membership organization. I consider these guidelines to be best practices.

Under the rubric of Disclosure of Information, the Code of Ethics states:

Open communication fosters informed decision making in a democratic society.

The intent is: To build trust with the public by revealing all information needed for responsible decision making.

Here I give my colleague Akeem Jamal, AVP, Communications, a resounding F on the announcement of the suspension of fees. Even if he is not a member of PRSA, as someone who has an undergraduate degree in Communications & Media Studies, and as someone who served for more than three years as Deputy Communications Director for the City of Yonkers, Jamal should know better.

There’s no rationale for this miserable job on the announcement.

Posting a notice to 1,944 followers on Instagram, 1,235 followers on Twitter and 49 friends on Facebook does not build trust with the public. On the contrary, it undermines trust among the subscribers who learn the news by other means.

Nor does it approach revealing all information needed for responsible decision making by the 12,000 residents who do not connect with RIOC on social media. It’s the reverse; people cannot decide in the absence of timely and relevant information.

Ask yourself, why would RIOC notify its social media contacts but NOT the subscribers to the RIOC Advisories?

Could it be they were taken aback by the (predictable) backlash and petition regarding the extravagantly high fee structure? Or were they hoping to hide from the elected officials who berated them for their injudicious fees?

If it’s important enough to create a flashy graphic design and post it to the RIOC accounts on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, it’s important enough to share the details via the usual RIOC advisory.

In other words, lather, rinse and repeat, the same way the fees were announced in the first place.

Meanwhile, keep your eye on the RIOC Advisories. Maybe a notice of the revised fees will be distributed by email. Or maybe not.

Learn more about public relations from our Roosevelt Island neighbor Janet Falk.

By ROOSEVELT ISLANDER at 11:58:00 AM

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