| ||
| ||
|
PR Information | |
|
|
Just What Kind of PR Matters to You?
Parties, videos, booklets and column plugs? Or public relations that does something positive anddirectly about those important outside audiences of yourswhose behaviors most affect your operation? How happy are you -- as a business, non-profit or associationmanager -- when you see your PR folks futzing around with special events, brochures, press releases and TV talk show mentions? Especially at a time when you probably need to create the kind of key stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives? What it comes down to is this: are you simply looking for publicity, or do you want public relations that really CAN change individual perception and lead to equally changed stakeholder behaviors that help you get your PR money's worth? If that sounds more like it, here's the roadmap for you: 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. Here's where that roadmap can go: customers starting to make repeat purchases; membership applications on the rise; 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. Do you believe your PR team will accept such a blueprint? Will they show commitment to its implementation, starting with key audience perception monitoring? Fortunately, your PR people are already in the perception and behavior business, so they should be of real use for this initial opinion monitoring project. What they really need to accept is why it's SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Namely, the reality that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation. Review your game plan with them, especially details 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? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures? You may find that using professional survey firms to do the opinion monitoring work can be costly so, as noted, you may wish to use those PR folks of yours in that capacity since they're already in the perception and persuasion business. 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. At this juncture, you want a PR goal that does something about the most serious distortions you discovered during your key audience perception monitoring. It may be to straighten out that dangerous misconception? Or correct that gross inaccuracy? Or, stop that potentially painful rumor cold? Naturally, without the right strategy to tell you how to proceed, you won't get there at all, So please remember that you have just three strategic options 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 whipped cream on your barbequed ribs, so be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You wouldn't want to select "change" when the facts dictate a strategy of reinforcement. Fact is, it's always a challenge to create an actionable message that will help persuade an audience to your way of thinking. Nevertheless,you must produce that well-written message and send it to members of your target audience. So you must use your strongest writer because s/he must build some very special, corrective language. Words that are 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 want. With draft copy in hand, you move on to the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. There are scores available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But you must be certain that the tactics you pick are known to reach people like your audience members. The need for a progress report will crop up about now which is your signal to begin 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. But now, you will be on red alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction. Please remember that efforts such as these usually can be accelerated simply by adding more communications tactics and increasing their frequencies. Experience shows that the kind of public relations that will matter most to you will be PR that recognizes that the people you deal with behave like everyone else - they act upon their perceptions of the facts they hear about you and your operation. Which means you must move rapidly to create the kind of key stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives. end 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 1070 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2005. 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 been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi-cations, 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
MORE RESOURCES:
PR - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Promoting Your Website Through a Press Release Have you ever gotten one of those letters from your localproperty tax appraiser, informing you that your tax bill isgoing up about 20 percent?I got one of those recently, so I took it to my friendJoe Gross in San Antonio. He appeals property tax assessments for a living. PR Planning: Mapping Out Your Strategies, Tactics With all due respect to all those stereotypical males out there who hate to ask for directions, the fact is that even if the territory is somewhat familiar, if you don't have a roadmap and follow its directions, you're going to get hopelessly lost.So it goes with your PR program. Leveraging Media Coverage - Your Tool For Business Growth Media relations, simply put, is the business of building and growing reputations. One of the strengths of media coverage is that its free and gives great credibility because it is written by a third party, namely a journalist. Publicity - How to Write a Headline That Will Garner Free Publicity Taking your ad and turning it into paragraph-style prose is not a press release - chances are it will only lead the publisher to call and invite you to run it as a paid ad. A press release is for news or for information about a topic the audience needs to know. Public Relations The wind of changes.. Its Just Common Sense! When a group of outsiders behaves in a way that hurts your business, you usually do something about it. Yet, many business people are amazingly casual about their own external audiences. Want to Light a Fire Under Your PR? Yes? Then do something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of yours that MOST affect your operation.Those embers can leap into flame when business, non-profit or association managers use public relations to alter individual perception among their target publics, leading to changed behaviors and helping to achieve their managerial objectives. Know What Matters Most About PR? When, as a business, non-profit or association manager, you are able to persuade your key external stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to your department, division or subsidiary's success.And again when those outside stakeholder behaviors deliver results like more people returning to buy again, new prospects sniffing around, individual capital gift levels rising, or more inquiries arriving about strategic alliances and joint ventures. How to Take Advantage of Public Relations Decide once and for all to do something about those outside audiences whose behaviors affect your organization the most.When members of those "publics" of yours perceive and understand who and what you are, and like what they see, the behaviors that flow from those perceptions will put a smile on your face. Attention PR Shoppers! As a business, non-profit or association manager, what do you want?Publicity that delivers newspaper and talk show mentions, or behavior change among your key outside audiences that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives?Special events that attract a lot of people, or public relations that persuades your most important outside audiences to your way of thinking, then moves them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed?Zippy brochures and videos, or a way for you to do something positive about the behaviors of those external audiences of yours that MOST affect your organization?What I believe you need to know about PR are two realities:1) The right PR really CAN alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors that help you succeed, and2), your public relations effort must involve more than special events, brochures and news releases if you really want to get your money's worth,The underlying truth about PR goes this way: 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. What is News? What may be the more appropriate question is: What makes a story newsworthy enough to get picked up by the media? Here are a few rules of thumb to determine if you have a news angle worthy of press coverage.First, is the subject relevant to anyone outside of your organization? For example, if your firm is announcing changes to the employee health plan, that's newsworthy of coverage in the company newsletter but not typically for the mainstream press. Three Communication Secrets of The Great Communicator I've worked in media and public relations for 20 years, and experience has taught me that communication is an essential skill to master in order to be successful in all aspects of one's life. No one person can do many things without the involvement of other human beings; having superior communication skills, then, is a highly enviable quality, and those who manage such a feat serve as role models to the rest of us. Is PR All About Image? NO!! That's like asking if advertising is all about type faces and photography. The answer to both questions is a teeth-clenched"of course not!"What public relations IS all about, rather than hollow images,is the very real business of dealing effectively with targetaudience perceptions and behaviors that have a major effect onan organization. Are You Newsworthy? Non-news professionals often have a hard time understanding why their ENORMOUS news announcement, creates barely a ripple in the media.That's not to say a news release shouldn't be done about it. Financial Planning Publicity: When Talking to the Media, Dont Fake What You Dont Know Relationships are based on trust-not just romantic relationships, or doctor/patient relationships, but practically any relationship, even the one with your auto mechanic.That's why the absolute worst thing a financial planner can do in their relationship with a reporter-especially a new relationship-is to give them false information. 6 Steps to Using Trade Magazines To Reach Customers When developing a publicity campaign for their business many owners overlook the importance of trade magazines and journals as vehicles for reaching new customers. While mass media publications have widespread readership, the targeted nature of trade publications make the information that appears within them even more powerful. A PR Question For Chinese Managers As the practice of public relations in China continues to mature, it seems appropriate to ask whether Chinese business managers - tutored as they have been by European, North American and other PR specialists - continue to apply major public relations emphasis to print and broadcast communications tactics. In other words, do they still see PR through the lens of simple publicity, as many in the West still do?Or, do the best among Chinese managers -- as is also true for many businesses in Western economies -- realize they need true behavior change among their most important outside audiences leading directly to achieving their managerial objectives?And, do they then take steps to persuade those key external stakeholders, who have the greatest impacts on their organizations, to their way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help their departments, divisions or subsidiaries succeed?Let us presume that you are that business manager in China, and that you are well aware of the high-impact fundamental premise of public relations. Best Approach For Free Advertisement Product/service publicity is the superhighway to business success everyone dreams. Then imagine having your product/service written on newspapers, trade publications, aired on radio and viewed on television absolutely for free!!! That's going to skyrocket your profit target only if you know how to use the best method of getting free publicity. A Well-Oiled Strategy Machine Yes, that's what public relations really is when it tracks important external audience perceptions and follow on behaviors. And again when it does something about those perceptions and behaviors by reaching, persuading and moving to actions you desire, those people whose behaviors affect your organization the most. Writing a Press Release: The Design Basics Big corporations like General Motors and Coca-Cola spend thousands of dollars on press kits with specially-designed folders, full-color stationery, digital photos and lots of other goodies. Does this make a reporter more likely to do their story? In my experience, the answer is no.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
