Second, interact with members of your key audience and jot down their first impressions of your fledgling operation, especially any problem perceptions.

Use questions like these: Now that you’ve read our brochure, do you believe our products/services will be of use to people in this area? Have you used services of our competitors? Did you find them useful? Fairly priced? Any problems? Listen carefully for any rumors or misconceptions about your new operation.

Third, decide which of negatives you discovered, rates as #1 corrective public relations goal – for example, clarify misconception, spike that rumor, correct false assumption or fix a certain inaccuracy.

Fourth, when you finally have chance to address your key stakeholder audience to help persuade them to your way of thinking, what will you say? Ideally, you will prepare persuasive and compelling messages that not only provide details about your product and service quality and diversity, but address perception problems that surfaced during your monitoring sessions. As method of communication can affect credibility of message, you may wish to deliver it in small meetings or presentations rather than through high-visibility media releases.

Not so incidentally, 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 believable, but clear and factual if they are to correct negatives and shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to behaviors you have in mind.

Fifth, in same way Quesadillas come with sauteed onions and smoky cheese, 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. And be sure your new strategy is a natural fit with your new public relations goal.

Sixth, things get simpler here. Select communications tactics to carry your message to attention of your target audience. Making certain that tactics you select have a record of reaching folks like your audience members, you can pick from dozens of tactics. Everything from speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others.

Seventh, how do you decide that your efforts are changing perceptions for better? As time passes, you should notice increased awareness of your business, a growing public perception of role your business plays in community; and, of course, growing numbers of prospects.

You can track these results by interacting on a regular basis with people from each of your key audiences, especially by monitoring print and broadcast media and through interaction with key customers and prospects.

But eighth, questions will soon appear as to progress. That will demand a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Using same questions used in first benchmark session, you will now be alert to indications that negative perception is being altered as you wished.

In public relations, we’re lucky that these efforts can be accelerated through more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

The stakes are high – very survival of your new enterprise!

So, concentrate on what’s most important -- people in your new venture’s community or marketing area behave like people everywhere, they take actions based on their perception of facts available to them.

In 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 success of your new enterprise.

end

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to 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 communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com