This isn’t my first mention of Ian, the head of public relations for Barclaycard, here. Then again that’s because he’s a savvy operator who’s learned that PR is more than about ‘what’s written in the papers’. This blog is prompted by his response to a post in the forum, by a woman, who’s suffering from a brain trauma and is struggling to deal with Barclaycard afterwards. Ian read the post, and reacted without asking to make sure the situation was dealt with properly. It’s an action to be applauded.
Now, one could be cynical and say that now the forum reaches 500,000 people and the site as a whole 2 million a month; Ian’s realised that the message spreads to more people than many of the traditional media. You could also say that as I’d already replied in the thread, it was obvious I was going to make a call and there was a potential story.
And perhaps a touch of that cynicism is correct; yet more importantly though is the fact I know Ian regularly reads the forums, monitors his company’s reputation and, where he can, tried to both protect that reputation and help people. Bravo Sir.
Discuss this blog and/or read the relevant thread
