What The Church Can Learn From GoDaddy About PR

In case you’ve been under a rock for the last week and missed it, Bob Parsons who the boss of GoDaddy has blogged about how he shot an elephant and put a video up on his blog.

Talk about a PR disaster. It has really hurt GoDaddy’s reputation, Bob managed to do that in one shot (if you forgive the pun) You Church, your leadership needs to know that:

1. It takes a lifetime to build your reputation but only one moment to loose it

2. Your perception of how you think others see you could be a deception

Ask yourself the following questions:

  1. What can possibly go wrong? What is the worst thing that could happen in my ministry/church?
  2. Who is responsible for fixing it, or making the event/story work?
  3. What ‘plan B’ do we have in place if something goes wrong?
  4. Who is responsible for actioning that plan if its needed, and do they have every resource on standby ready to go?
  5. What policies do we have in place that would prevent this from happening. If it happens, what policies and procedures do we have in place to help bring healing/reconciliation/legal restitution or closure.

What other PR disasters have you seen lately that the church can learn from?

Related posts – How To Avoid A PR Disaster At Your Church: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3
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2 comments

  1. Great point. To me, it seems like shooting the elephant could have been a case where the leader was above criticism from others. I mean, surely he didn’t show that to someone else and they went “Yea, that’s awesome. I’m sure the animal rights people will love getting to see an elephant!” It seems like he must not have been proactive in seeking advice from others, or they were too intimidated to disagree with him. Seems like that’s a common element anytime we see a church leader go down.
    (P.S. does “shooting an elephant” not sound like a great name for a brand of faux pas? TV shows jump the shark, and PR campaigns shoot the elephant)

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