PR Heres What Works

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.
Word count is 1150 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

PR: Here’s What Works

When it comes to public relations, what can work best for
you as a business, non-profit, government agency or
subsidiary manager, is doing something meaningful about
the behaviors of those key outside audiences of yours that
MOST affect the department, group, division or subsidiary
you manage.

You confirm that success by helping persuade those key
folks to your way of thinking, then moving them to take
actions that allow your unit to succeed.

What you’ve actually done is apply public relation’s
underlying premise. Namely, 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.

What you will soon come to see is that the right public
relations planning really CAN alter individual perception
and actually lead to changed behaviors among your key
outside audiences.

You will do well to recall that your PR effort should
require more than talk show tactics, special events and
news releases if you are to receive the quality public
relations results you believe you deserve.


The payoff for using this approach to public relations will
soon be apparent: community leaders begin to seek you out;
capital givers or specifying sources begin to look your way;
new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures start
showing up; politicians and legislators begin looking at you
as a key member of the business, non-profit or association
communities; welcome bounces in show room visits occur;
customers commence making repeat purchases; membership
applications begin to rise; and prospects actually start to do
business with you.

You’ll want to be certain your PR people really accept why
it’s SO important to know how your most important outside
audiences perceive your operations, products or services.
Because they’re already in the perception and behavior
business, they can be of real use for your new opinion
monitoring project. But, most important, be sure they
believe that perceptions almost always result in behaviors
that can help or hurt your operation.

Also insure that a solid discussion with your PR staff
takes place re: your plans for monitoring and gathering
perceptions by questioning members of your most
important outside audiences. Suggest that questions like
these be asked: how much do you know about our
organization? Have you had prior contact with us and
were you pleased with the exchange? Are you familiar
with our services or products and employees? Have you
experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Please stay aware that it could cost considerably
more to use a professional survey firm to do the
opinion gathering work versus using those PR folks
of yours in that monitoring capacity. But, whether
it’s your people or a survey firm asking the
questions, the objective remains the same: identify
untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors,
inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other
negative perception that might translate into
hurtful behaviors.

In all likelihood, you uncovered a few serious
problem areas during your key audience
perception monitoring. Because you now must
call for action on the most serious distortions, you
will have to set down your public relations goal.
Will it be to straighten out that dangerous
misconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or,
stop that potentially painful rumor dead in its tracks?

An equally specific strategy that tells you how to
get there is now called for. However, only three
strategic options are available to you when it comes
to doing something about perception and opinion.
Change existing perception, create perception where
there may be none, or reinforce it. The wrong
strategy pick will taste like crème anglaise on your
bratwurst. So, be sure your new strategy fits well
with your new public relations goal. You certainly
don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate
a strategy of reinforcement.

Good writing becomes crucial when you realize that
you have to prepare a persuasive message that will
help move your key audience to your way of
thinking. It must be a carefully-written message
targeted directly at your key external audience.
Assign the task to your very best writer because s/he
must come up with really corrective language that
is not merely 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.

How will you carry your message to the attention
of your target audience? By selecting the
communications tactics most likely to reach those
key folks. There are many such tactics available.
From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures
to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters,
personal meetings and many others. But be certain
that the tactics you pick are known to reach people
just like your audience members.

HOW you communicate your message can affect
its credibility and fragility. Because of such uncertainty,
you may wish to unveil your corrective message
before smaller meetings and presentations rather
than using higher-profile news releases.

In order to produce a comparison between opinion at
the beginning of the program and now, you will need
to begin a second perception monitoring session with
members of your external audience. The need for such
a progress report will cause you to use many of the
same questions used in the benchmark session. But
now, you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad
news perception is being altered in your direction.

Should the program lose any of its steam and actually
slow down, you can always speed things up by adding
more communications tactics as well as increasing
their frequencies.

What will have worked at the end of the day, are your
efforts to marshall the resources and action planning you
need to alter individual perception leading to changed
behaviors among your most important outside audiences.
During which, you will have helped persuade those key
folks to your way of thinking, and moved them to take
actions that allow your department, group, division or
subsidiary to succeed.

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 published 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



PR Heres What Works - 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
Real Work at Home Jobs - Are There Any Good Ones Left?
	Heres the scary truth about real work at home jobs, they are few and far apart. Yes, you can find them; yes there are many legitimate work at home companies out there, but many of them have hundreds of candidates ba...
10 Smoking Resources to Boost Your Data Entry Work at Home Jobs
	Besides having the necessary skills a data entry work at home agent can greatly increase their job prospects and ultimately their income by having the right equipment.
Father's Day Advice from My Father
	Sunday is Father’s Day which, of course, always makes me think of my dad, Fred C. Trump.
Rule 19 Watch What DirectResponse Advertisers Are Doing and Plagiarize
	This is Rule #19 in a series of articles on "21 ways to Increase the Power and Profit of Your Advertising Without Spending an Extra Cent," by Brad Sugars.
Wanted: jobs for Africa’s youth - Public Works
	In many countries, immediate, short-term solutions are needed to quickly ease the burden of unemployment. Public works programmes are a popular option. South Africa, which commits more than $800 mn to public works, ...

---

Related Forum Posts
	Free Desktop sharing apps
	frequency of blogging
	Re: If its a website, you have got to have . . .
	Re: Read the description (VERY) CAREFULLY
	Teleseminars
	Hiring a Short Term Employee
	Progile: Judi Henderson, Mannequin Madness

---

Related Businesses - Evan Elite Authors

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