Good Citizenship

Legally, corporations are treated like individuals. That tells you all you need to know about the right way for a company to talk with individual citizens: as an equal, and as an individual. Faceless communications and toneless "neutral" language scream "we've got something to hide." Stone-walling is even worse for your reputation. You wouldn't deal with a person who mouths words but refuses to give you straight answers, who attempts to confuse every issue with jargon and off-topic interjections, who shows no emotion, who displays no body language. Why should consumers trust a company that acts that way? Whether individual members of the company become legally liable for any particular problem or not, the company is responsible: if not legally, then morally and karmically, and definitely in the eyes of the marketplace.

People are just as turned off by boasting, bragging and other forms of grandiose ego-enhancement as they are by equivocation and evasion. It's great when you have good news to deliver, but the gracious way to do so is to maintain a posture of humility.

Above all, speak (and write) clearly. You lose interest in a conversation almost instantaneously if you can't understand what your interlocutor means. The public conversation operates the same way, with the added factor of competition: unlike at a social gathering where the rules of polite behavior may trap you in front of a bore, the public has an almost infinite array of choices. If your communications are dull, boring, vague or evasive, you'll be tuned out in a click.