Tweet

Can Newbies Avoid the Pitfalls

Written by: Bob Kelly

Article Overview: Newcomers can avoid those pitfalls by grasping early-on The Rosetts Stone of public relations, i.e., a guide to understanding the discipline and its core strength.

Can Newbies Avoid the Pitfalls

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
Only requirement: you must use the Robert A. Kelly
byline and resource box. Net word count is 800 including
guidelines and box. Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

Can Newbies Avoid The Pitfalls?

Yes indeed! If you are a young person who has decided
that a career in public relations will be your Latte Grande
in life, here are four situations in which you do not want
to find yourself:

1. You confuse the basic function of public relations with
sub-parts that make up the whole like publicity,
crisis management or employee communications.

2. You feel unsure in approaching public relations problems,
then uncertain about what counsel to give your
employer/client.

3. As the years pass, you rely on career-long misconceptions
about public relations but forge ahead anyway advising
the employer/client ineffectively sometimes with damaging,
if not dangerous counsel.

4. You realize too late that you have gone through your entire
career without a firm grasp of what public relations is
all about.

Newcomers can avoid those pitfalls by grasping early-on
The Rosetta Stone of public relations, i.e., a guide to
understanding the discipline and its core strength. Namely,
people act on their perception of the facts before them. Those
perceptions lead to certain behaviors; and something can be
done about those perceptions and behaviors that lead to
achieving an organization’s objectives.

Which is why, when public relations goes on to successfully
create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching,
persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose
behaviors affect the organization, it usually accomplishes its
mission.

NO organization – business, non-profit or public sector –
can succeed today unless the behaviors of its most important
audiences are in-sync with the organization’s objectives. And
that means public relations professionals must modify
somebody’s behavior if they are to help hit the employer/client’s
objective and earn a paycheck. All else are but means to that end.

And here’s one way to get there:

-- identify the problem or challenge
-- identify target audiences
-- set the public relations goal
-- set the public relations strategy
-- prepare persuasive messages
-- select/implement key communications tactics
-- monitor progress
-- and the end game? Meet your own behavior
modification goal.

A bonus: you are using a near-perfect public relations
performance measurement. I mean how can you measure the
results of an activity more accurately than when you clearly
achieve the goal you set at the beginning of that activity?
You can’t. It’s pure success

So, as a beginner, can you expect to avoid the four pitfalls
listed above? Yes, and here’s why:

-- With proper preparation, you will not confuse action
tactics with the basic mission of public relations because
you will know precisely what each is and just what fits
where in the public relations problem solving sequence.

-- You will feel more confident about providing counsel to
the employer/client because the public relations problem at
hand can be clearly identified allowing you to select
solutions that obviously fit into the action sequence
outlined above. You will identify your target audiences
because you will know exactly who your employer/client
wants to reach, and the necessary action tactics will
then be self-evident.

-- You realize that you have gone through your entire career
WITH a firm, successful grasp of what public relations
is all about.

Of course, on the way you will also nurture the relationships
between your target audiences and your employer/client’s
business by burnishing the reputation of the organization,
its service and/or products. You will do your best to persuade
those target audiences to do what your employer/client wants
them to do. And while seeking public understanding and
acceptance of that employer/client, you’ll insure that your
joint activities not only comply with the law, but clearly
serve the public interest. Then, you will pull out all tactical
stops to actually move those individuals to action. And your
employer/client will be pleased that you have brought matters
along to this point.

But when will that employer/client of yours be fully satisfied
with the public relations results you have produced? Only
when your “reach, persuade and move-to-desired-action”
efforts have produced that visible modification in the behaviors
of those target audiences you, and they wish to influence.

In my view, this is the fundamental premise of public relations,
its central, strategic function and the basic context in which
you must operate in your pursuit of a successful and satisfying
public relations career.

end

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to 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 Authors, 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:http://www.prcommentary.com

Related Articles
  5 Adwords Mistakes That Literally Flush Money Down The Toilet
  Internet Marketing Without Experience - It Can Be Done
  Legal Marketing: Is your communication effective?
  Stress-Free Selling® - How to Talk About Competition
  Take control of projects with PMP certification

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
Re: $8 website turns into a million-dollar empire - I’ve read about this girl… Very Inspiring and motivational. Great Post for Newbies
Re: Search Engine Friendly Web Development - I would like to add some more things in search engine friendly web development. 1. PPC campaign 2. Viral marketing 3. Social Media Marketing Avoid flash in website and other use CSS files to shows the content style.
Re: Poll: Blogger or Wordpress Blog? - [quote="Alan Mater":2aywjb20]I'd have to say if you want long-term success, definitely take a little extra time to learn Wordpress (it's not very complicated) and run it on your own site.[/quote:2aywjb20] Hi Alan, Forgive me for not being the most tech savvy person, but what are some of the benefits of running the blog on your own site? And what's the "go to place" for Wordpress Newbies? Is there a site with all the answers to questions I might have?
Re: 365 Foolish Mistakes Smart Managers Make - [quote="litekepr":2v18lglp]This morning's Google Alert held a pleasant surprise. WORTH MENTIONING A List of New Books Compiled by The Management and Government Information Center (MAGIC) Chinn Park Regional Library 703-792-4880Summer 2007 Indicates titles relating to the FISH Philosophy 365 Foolish Mistakes Smart Managers Make Every Day: How and Why to Avoid Them by Shri L. Henkel, 2006 interesting. Is anyone else here familiar with the FISH philosphy? i[/quote:2v18lglp] Congrats on the mention of your book! Hopefully it will drive up sales! For myself, I don't really care for their acronym... MAGIC. Gives people the subtle impression that good things happen at the snap of a finger instead of lots of hard work!
Re: Top Banner Help - We need "social glue" - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":1putnquj] Hi Evan, In my opinion, I don't think giving away freebies is a good strategy for getting user participation in the "long run". I feel that visitors don't immediately register, jump into conversations or ask questions for the same reason people act shy when they first arrive at a party/social event/classroom/etc and don't see any recognizable faces. Newbies are looking for "social glue". According to branding expert, Martin Lindstrom, he says "The role of the brand therefore is simply to create the social glue to connect people, finding their common ground and thus, most importantly, generating a strong sense of belonging" ([i:1putnquj]BRANDsense[/i:1putnquj] 177 & 178).[/quote:1putnquj] I agree with a lot of what you have to say Kevin. From all the forums I visit, this is an age old problem, so many lurkers and only a few participants. At the end of the day I think there’s only so much you can do, if people want to get involved in the conversation they will if not it’s next to impossible to get them to change their habit. I know myself that I view a lot of forums but only post on 1 or 2. My reasoning on this differs from forum to forum, sometimes it’s because I’m lazy, sometimes it’s because I don’t feel I can contribute anything extra and so don’t see the need for participating. I feel that by giving people a little extra reason, something like a freebie, they’re more likely to make their first few posts. I then think once they’ve made a few posts they’ll be more inclined to carry on because they’ve already got a username and password and they’ve potentially gotten involved in one or two discussions that they’ll want to carry on in. Sure this won’t work for everyone and some people will take their freebie and never post again but you’ll still get a few that do stay on. I DO think freebies would help, but I also see the point that buy doing this you do open the forum up to being abused, simply for the purpose of the freebie. I like the idea where you would vet the posts a bit more and send the private message. But his would obviously increase your workload. If or not it would work, who knows, but I do think its worth experimenting with for a few months and seeing what results you get.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Work at home Opportunities for the Disabled

SEO Gurus, Software and Ebooks

Google Panda and Your Search Engine Rankings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.