PR Focus on What Matters

Please feel free to publish this article in your ezine, newsletter,
offline publication or website. Only requirement: you must use
the Robert A. Kelly byline and resource box. Word count is
1125 including guidelines and box. Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

PR: Focus on What Matters!

Sure, as a manager, you have a talented member of the
PR team assigned to your department, division or
subsidiary, or housed at your agency, and s/he is darn
good at placing product and service plugs on radio and
in the newspaper. Which may be all you want. And
that’s fine.

Unfortunately, when your PR folks concentrate primarily
on tactical fixes like publicity placements, at least be
aware of what you are NOT getting.

You don’t get a comprehensive effort that persuades
those important outside folks to your way of thinking,
then moves them to take actions that help your department,
division or subsidiary succeed.

You don’t get the use of the high-impact, fundamental premise
of public relations to deliver external stakeholder behavior
change – the kind that leads directly to achieving your
managerial objectives.

And you don’t get the creative potential of your assigned
PR team needed to positively impact the behaviors of the
very outside audiences that MOST affect your business,
non-profit or association.

That’s a fair amount NOT to be getting!

It certainly doesn’t sound like the best use of your public
relations resources, but it’s fixable. In which case, you might
begin to see results such as prospects starting to do business
with you; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint
ventures; membership applications on the rise; customers
starting to make repeat purchases; capital givers or specifying
sources starting to look your way, community leaders
beginning to seek you out; welcome bounces in show
room visits; politicians and legislators starting to view you
as a key member of the business, non-profit or association
communities, and even higher employee retention rates.

From Day 1, you have to get the public relations people
assigned to your unit on board. Make certain they all accept
the realities that it’s vitally important to know how your
outside audiences perceive your operations, products
or services. And here’s the key: perceptions almost always
lead to behaviors that can hurt your unit!

Start with the fundamental premise of public relations and
make sure your PR effort sticks closely to this blueprint:
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 usually
accomplished.

Then involve your PR team in plans for monitoring and gathering
perceptions by questioning members of your most important
outside audiences. Questions like these: how much do you
know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with
us 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?

After all, your PR people are in the perception and behavior
business to begin with, so they can be of real use for this
opinion monitoring project. Professional survey firms are
always available, but that can be very expensive. But
whether it’s your people or a survey firm who asks the
questions, your objective is to identify untruths, false
assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, and
misconceptions .

Then you must decide which of the above troubles rate
designation as your corrective public relations goal – for
example, clarify the misconception, spike that rumor,
correct the false assumption or fix a certain inaccuracy.

In the same way soy sauce goes with stirfry, the right PR
strategy tells you how to reach your goal. But just three
strategies are available in matters of perception and
opinion -- change existing perception, create perception
where there may be none, or reinforce it. But be sure your
new strategy is a natural fit with your new public
relations goal.

When you finally have the chance to address your key
stakeholder audience to help persuade them to your way
of thinking, what will you say?

Here’s where a talented writer earns his or her keep
because s/he must put together some very special,
corrective language. Words that are not only compelling,
persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they
are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view
and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Now the job gets easier – select communications tactics
to carry your message to the attention of your target
audience. Making certain that the tactics you select have a
record of reaching folks like your audience members,
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.

As the method of communication can affect the credibility of
the message, you may wish to deliver it in small meetings
or presentations rather than through high-visibility media
announcements.

Questions will soon surface as to progress. And that will require
a second perception monitoring session with members of your
external audience. Employing many of the same questions used
in the first benchmark session, you will now be watching
carefully for signs that the offending perception is being altered
in your direction.

In this business, we’re fortunate that efforts such as this can
be accelerated by adding more communications tactics as well
as increasing their frequencies, if deemed necessary.

We’re also fortunate that the people we deal with behave like
everyone else – they act upon their perceptions of the facts
they hear about us and our operations. Which leaves us little
choice but to deal promptly and effectively with those
perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move
our key external audiences to action.

So, in the proverbial nutshell, here you have a workable public
relations blueprint that can help you 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.

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 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:http://www.prcommentary.com



PR Focus on What Matters - To learn more about this author, visit Bob Kelly's Website.

Like this article? Share it with your friends

E-Mail | Print | More

Related Articles
100 Ways to Succeed #52
	Work Like a Dog at Your Writing!
Ever notice how some people can relentlessly pursue their goals while others languish in minutiae
	Ever notice that the first group invariably achieves what they set after, while the later group often falls victim to "might have been's"? We all think that there is something special about those people who pu...
Clarity is the New Creativity.
	In the language of clarity: Can your product be differentiated? Can you point out that difference quickly? Can you explain why the difference matters? This is effective marketing.
Live a Life of Discovery
	"What lies behind us, and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Arbitration Clauses in Franchising
	As in any business partnership, the ups and downs along the way somewhat resemble those of a marriage. Sometimes everything is going smoothly and the parties involved couldn’t be happier.

---

Related Forum Posts
	Entrepreneurs to profile
	Re: HABIT:... The Helper of Entrepreneur
	Success Strategies
	Re: HABIT:... The Helper of Entrepreneur
	Re: Congrats to Kevin!
	Re: Boosting Confidence
	Follow up from last Focus Group Mastermind
	Re: Search Engine Optimization

---

Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors

Vwodek Wojczynski Business Coach and Consultant Vwodek Wojczynski (pronounced Voy-chin-ski) brings fun, awareness, accountability and fresh perspectives based on his diverse experiences in life and business. Born in Poland and educated in Greece and Canada, he is trilingual with 8 years experience in business development with clients in Canada, USA, Switzerland and Poland. His approach is systematic and process-driven. He fuses the know-how of proven business methods with his commitment that entrepreneurs experience satisfaction and joy based on their values, motivations and strengths. He believes that businesses succeed based on their ability to generate value by providing what’s needed and wanted. Ultimately, he trains executives and true business owners - people who work less, produce more, own businesses that run automatically after a while and make a difference globally. His current research focus is the development of intelligent business systems and the application of emerging artificial intelligence technologies in business. He is also an avid traveler, spoken word performer and visual artist. He resides in Toronto, Canada. - Visit Vwodek Wojczynski's Website

The Evan Elite Authors program is currently in beta phase. For details please contact us.