Not having a communications strategy for your individual, organizational or service brand is like playing Russian Roulette. There’s a good chance nothing will go wrong when you speak to your stakeholders, but there’s also a good chance that if it does, consequences will be catastrophic.

Almost every day in the media, we see examples of how one bad Tweet (Quantas Airlines), email (Sony email hack) or messaging campaign (Airbnb’s “Dear San Francisco” ads) can cause irreparable damage to a reputation, revenue, and ultimately a business.

So while you, or your millennial nephew, might be a pro at writing photo captions, consider hiring a communications agency for additional support.

A communications agency like dovetail solutions can help you proactively deliver the right message, to the right audience, at the right time, through the right channel and for the right reasons, including to your own employees who need to feel that the values of the company inform how decisions are made.

A communications agency can also help you create a reactive communications plan, or crisis strategy, to triage the damage when missteps happen like when former JetBlue’s CEO David G. Neeleman transparently addressed the media after 1,000 flights were cancelledwithin five days.

Furthermore, a communications agency does more than tell stories. We build relationships and identify opportunities that expand our clients’ capabilities.

Therefore, before you ask your Vice President of Finance to write and distribute a press release about your company’s new product line, consider calling in the pros. It can save you time and money in the long run.