My car’s clutch went on me the other day, and it made me think about PR.

I grew up in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the tail-end of the Steel City’s reign as one of the most polluted cities in the United States – and as a young boy developed a peculiar fondness for the odor of industrial pollution.

About a week ago I smelled something while driving to work – a faint aroma both metallic and burning — that sent me mystically back to my boyhood days in Pittsburgh, in the time-warping way that smells often do. I think I actually smiled at the thought of it.

It’s true that my car’s power and shifting had changed over the past few days, weeks, or months. I couldn’t remember how long it had been since the changes had started, or how the issues had progressed. I put it all down to the cold weather.

I didn’t connect the smell with the power and shifting until plumes of acrid smoke filled the intersection near our office on Commerce Way last Tuesday.

I’ve been around the block. I’ve seen clutches go out more than once. But this is the point: The clutch had been staring me in the face the whole time and I didn’t even see it.

With public relations it’s also easy to get used to a subtle reduction in performance that, over time, adds up to a drastic and even frightening breakdown in visibility and influence. No search results in Google News. No media releases for months, no product announcements, no survey results, no executive interviews, no podcasts, no analyst meetings. No awards.

The sound of crickets chirping is nice on vacation. But it’s not what you want to hear when it comes to your company’s buzz. Listen hard. What do you hear?

Remain calm. There is no need to panic. My advice for worried marketing folks? Pop the hood of your organization now. Use a hybrid mix of social media tools and traditional PR to get your name back in the conversations that matter. Recession? Who cares. Life – and buzz – go on.

And besides, sitting on your PR strategy without doing anything will propel you down a shame spiral of coulda-shoulda-woulda’s that even primal scream therapy won’t cure.

Whatever you do, please be proactive. And remember that Topaz is always here to help.

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