Transparency: how see-through do you want to be?

A hot topic of conversation in the PR world these days is transparency. We want to make an effort to invite our customers/fans into our world so they can see what is really going on and know they are involved and have a stake in what we're doing.

Let me go on record (as a PR person w/background in crisis management), I believe in transparency. I know the only way to save your behind in a crisis or to elevate your stock with your stakeholders is to cultivate transparency. But how see-through do you want to be?

I could ask the same question about my clothing, or anyone's clothing for that matter. My comfort level with see-through blouses is very low. Others, on the other hand, have a high level of comfort with it. I think see-through is great if there is something underneath it besides my underwear--maybe another shirt. I'm not a big one to flaunt my skin either. At my age and body type, one is trying to cover-up those things, not expose.

The same can be said of PR transparency. It's a comfort level thing. Some people have way too much comfort with transparency which can result in disastrous consequences. Have you ever hear of "too much information"? It holds in the PR world as well. Some people want to expose the wrong things--kind of like women who wear colored bras under see-through blouses. Sorry ladies, bygone...These are the companies/schools that take their worst assets, or non-impacting events and parade them out there. It's like talking about how many hamburgers your chain has served in a year after an outbreak of ecoli.

So in athletics, how much transparency do we need? Fans have questions--do you have answers? Answers that can give enough information to satisfy without sounding hokey or self-promoting? Whether it's a crisis or just a capital campaign, what to do...

Our fans have a message board. After a recent loss to our interstate rivals, the board got crowded with all kinds of "fire the whole athletic department" kind of stuff. So, we instituted a forum where fans could email in questions and the AD would answer them. http://www.msubobcats.com/sports/2009/12/8/GEN_ADforum.aspx?id=35. This is something we should have done before and something we will keep doing as long as fans have questions.

Everyone's fans have concerns. How are you addressing them, or are you?