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A Great Way to do PR

Written by: Bob Kelly

Article Overview: As a manager, you really have little choice but to deal promptly and effectively with the perceptions held by your key outside audiences by doing what is necessary to reach and move those important groups of people to actions you desire.

A Great Way to do PR

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A Great Way to Do PR

As a business, non-profit or association manager trying to get
a bang for your PR buck, you could pretty much concentrate
on simple print and broadcast mentions or, for that matter,
the whole basket of tactical public relations weaponry including
old favorites like high-visibility speech appearances and
newsworthy special events.

But if you really want premium public relations results, you
must use a broader, more comprehensive and workable public
relations blueprint to alter your key, external audience perceptions –
perceptions that lead to the changed behaviors you’ll need to
reach your managerial goals.

In short, you had best take steps to persuade those key external
stakeholders with the greatest impacts on your organization to
your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help
your department, division or subsidiary succeed.

The PR blueprint is the best place to start: people act on their
own perception of the facts before them, which leads to
predictable behaviors about which something can be done.
When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching,
persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very people whose
behaviors affect the organization the most, the public relations
mission is accomplished.

Publicity tactics, of course, have their role in the blueprint, but
they are not the be-all or end-all of the public relations plan,
nor should they be.

Savor for a moment premium results like those mentioned above.
Prospects starting to do business with you, and customers starting
to make repeat purchases; fresh proposals for strategic alliances
and joint ventures; welcome bounces in show room visits; rising
membership applications, and community leaders beginning to
seek you out; new approaches by capital givers and specifying
sources, not to mention politicians and legislators viewing you
as a key member of the business, non-profit or association
communities.

But who will do the work such results demand? People assigned
by the corporate office to your unit? Possibly your full-time
public relations staff? Or even an outside PR agency team? No
matter who they are, they must be committed to you, to the PR
blueprint and to its implementation, starting with key audience
perception monitoring.

Sad to say, simply because someone describes him/herself as a
public relations person doesn’t mean they’ve accepted PR as
you understand it. So by all means make certain the public
relations people assigned to your unit honestly believe why it’s
SO important to know how your most important outside
audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Make
sure they accept the reality that perceptions almost always lead
to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.

Sharpen your plan – your blueprint -- for monitoring and
gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most
important outside audiences. Questions like these: how much
do you know about us? Have you met our chief executive or
other senior managers? Have you had other contacts with our
staff and were you pleased with the interchange? How much
do you know about our services or products and employees?
Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Use professional survey firms in the perception monitoring
phases of your program if you can afford them. But your PR
people are also in the perception and behavior business and
can pursue the same objective: identify untruths, false
assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions
and any other negative perception that might translate into
hurtful behaviors.

Here, it’s time to establish your PR goal, one that aims to do
something about the worst distortions you turned up during
your key audience perception monitoring. It could be to
straighten out that dangerous misconception, correct that
gross inaccuracy, or stop that potentially fatal rumor dead in
its tracks.

Now, with the PR goal established, select the right strategy,
one that tells you how to proceed. But keep in mind that there
are only three strategic options available to you when it comes
to handling a perception and opinion challenge. Change
existing perception, create perception where there may be none,
or reinforce it. Since the wrong strategy pick will taste like onion
gravy on your raspberries, be certain the new strategy fits
comfortably with your new public relations goal. You don’t want
to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

With that homework complete, prepare a clear message and
aim it at members of your target audience. Because crafting
action-forcing language to persuade an audience to your way of
thinking is hard work, you need your best writer because s/he
must create some very special, corrective language. Words that
are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear
and factual if they are to correct something and shift perception/
opinion towards your point of view leading to the behaviors
you are targeting.

Run it by your PR team for impact and persuasiveness. Then,
select the communications tactics most likely to carry your
message to the attention of your target audience. You can pick
from dozens that are available. From speeches, facility tours,
emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews,
newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be sure
that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your
audience members.

Rather than using higher-profile news releases, since a message
is often dependent for its credibility on the means used to deliver
it, you may decide to unveil it before smaller meetings and
presentations. When questions about progress are heard, you and
your PR team should get busy on a second perception monitoring
session with members of your external audience. And remember
to use many of the same questions used in the first benchmark
session. Difference this time is that you will be alert for signs that
the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

If momentum flags, you can always accelerate matters by adding
more communications tactics and increase their frequencies. When
all is said and done, you want your new PR blueprint to persuade
your most important outside stakeholders to your way of thinking,
then move them to behave in a way that leads to the success of your
department, division or subsidiary. Period.

And, when you think about it, we are fortunate indeed that our key
stakeholder audiences behave like everyone else – they act upon
their perceptions of the facts they hear about you and your operation.
Leaving you little choice but to deal promptly and effectively with
those perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move your
key external audiences to actions you desire.

A great way to do PR.

end

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has authored
245 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S.
Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The
White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia
University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:www.PRCommentary.com

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