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Your Organization What Role PR

Written by: Bob Kelly

Article Overview: As a manager, if you're not happy with the performance of your public relations investment, maybe your PR effort should concentrate on delivering what you really need?

Your Organization What Role PR

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
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Your Organization: What Role PR?

As a manager, does your current business, non-profit or
association public relations effort concern itself primarily
with radio and newspaper publicity? Or does it concentrate
on a specialty area like financial communications or trade
relations? Or, possibly, it deals each day with sales support
or government affairs?

Actually, maybe your PR effort should concentrate on
delivering what you really need?

For example, PR that really does something positive about
the behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect
your organization?

PR that uses its fundamental premise to deliver external
stakeholder behavior change – the kind that leads directly
to achieving your managerial objectives?

And PR 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?

What fundamental PR premise are we suggesting as
your new action 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 accomplished.

The results can be very satisfying: membership
applications on the rise; customers starting to make repeat
purchases; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint
ventures; community leaders beginning to seek you out;
welcome bounces in show room visits; prospects starting
to do business with you; higher employee retention rates,
capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look
your way, and even politicians and legislators starting to
view you as a key member of the business, non-profit or
association communities.

The first step, obviously, is involving the public relations
people assigned to your unit and getting them on board
the new approach. Be sure everyone buys into why it’s so
important to know how your outside audiences perceive
your operations, products or services. Be especially certain
they accept the reality that negative perceptions almost
always lead to behaviors that can damage your organization.

Plan carefully how you will monitor and gather 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?

Your PR people, who are already in the perception and
behavior business, can be of real use for this opinion
monitoring project. Yes, you can always use professional
survey firms, but that can turn out to cost real money .
However, whether it’s your people or a survey firm who
handles the questioning, the objective is to identify untruths,
false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, and
misconceptions .

Your next chore is identifying which of the above problems
becomes your corrective public relations goal -- clarify the
misconception, spike that rumor, correct the false
assumption or fix certain other inaccuracies?

You achieve that goal only when you select the right strategy
from the three choices available to you. Change existing
perception, create perception where there may be none,
or reinforce it. Picking the wrong strategy is only slightly
worse that forgetting to serve horseradish mustard with the
corned beef. And please be certain the new strategy fits
comfortably with your new public relations goal. You
wouldn’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a
“reinforce” strategy.

Here we have the question of what to say when you sit down
to create a persuasive message aimed at members of your target
audience. Always a challenge to put together action-forcing
language that will help persuade any audience to your way of
thinking.

Be certain you have your best writer on this assignment 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 shift perception/opinion towards
your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Now, an easy step – pick the communications tactics to carry
your message to the attention of your target audience. Insuring
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.

With, as always, the credibility of the message at stake, you
may wish to deliver it in small getogethers like meetings and
presentations rather than through a higher-profile media
announcement.

Inevitably, you’ll soon hear from your colleagues re: signs
of progress. What that signals for you and your PR team is a
second perception monitoring session with members of your
external audience. You’ll want to use many of the same questions
used in the first benchmark session. More to the point, you will
now be watching very carefully for signs that the bad news
perception is being altered in your direction.

We’re lucky in this business that these matters usually can be
accelerated by adding more communications tactics as well as
increasing their frequencies.

This workable public relations blueprint will 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.

So, while you did not ask for this public relations advice, I
hope you will agree that the people you deal with do, in fact,
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.

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

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