Are You Real, Virtual or Both? While e-commerce technology has come a long way since its first implementation, most people still would prefer to make purchases in person or at least speak with someone on phone. This gives prospect sense they are receiving personal attention. Since sites that offer addresses and phone numbers typically perform on a higher level, it is important to express to visitors critical information such as details about company, contact information and easy to understand privacy policies. These are important parts of a website because open system almost always outperform closed ones. Who would you trust more: person selling watches from a storefront or one selling them front trunk of their car?

Do others find you Trustworthy? One of most profound mistakes web site owners and managers make is not proving their trustworthiness to their visitors. Sites that sell successfully online realize importance of earning visitors' trust through a policy of open communication. By providing secure billing pages and explaining and abiding by content within your sites' privacy policies, earning trust with prospects becomes exponentially simpler.

Finding secret to being trustworthy is more simple that most people think. By being what users expect you to be (honest, truthful, reliable, dependable) you increase chances that you will earn visitors trust. The next time you look at your site, ask yourself, "Do I trust this business?"

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How you get to that goal, however, is another question because you have just three strategy choices when it comes to perception/ opinion matters like this. Create perception/opinion where there isn’t any, reinforce existing opinion, or change it. A warning: insure that your new strategy is an obvious match for your new public relations goal.

Now, alert your team to a real writing challenge – a message tasked with altering offending perception. Which means your writer must produce a message that changes what many target audience members now believe. No easy job!

It must be clear about how current perception is out of kilter. And it must not only be truthful, but persuasive, compelling and believable if it is to lead ultimately to desired behavior. True heavy lifting!

By way, messages like that best retain their credibility when delivered along with another news announcement or presentation, rather than a dedicated, high-profile press release.

Speaking of delivery, it’s time for you and your PR team to select communications tactics to carry that message of yours to members of a target audience that really needs to hear it. Fortunately, there are dozens of such tactics awaiting your pleasure – speeches, radio/newspaper interviews, brochures, op-eds, newsmaker events, newsletters and many, many more. Be careful that tactics you use have a record of reaching folks just like those you’re aiming at.

It won’t be long before people around you begin asking about progress. Which, once again, will put your team back in opinion monitoring mode out among members of your target audience. And questions they ask will be very similar to those used in first perception monitoring session.

Difference this time around will be your close attention to just how much current perceptions are really undergoing change for which you planned. You want solid signs that offending perception is actually being altered.

You can always shovel more coal into boiler by adding new communications tactics, then using them more frequently to achieve faster progress.

When you apply a comprehensive and workable plan like this, you have little to fear from “a PR scam.” Instead, you are on-track to achieve those key audience behaviors you must have to reach your unit’s operating objectives.

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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