Go over PR blueprint with them, in particular plan 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? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with interchange? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

As you might suspect, perception monitoring part of effort can be handled by professional survey people IF budget is there. However, you can always use your PR people who are also in perception and behavior business and can pursue same objective: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Here, you need to set your public relations goal, one that addresses aberrations that cropped up during your key audience perception monitoring. No doubt your new goal will strive to straighten out that dangerous misconception, or correct that gross inaccuracy, or do something about that damaging rumor.

Every goal needs a strategy to show you how to get there. There are three strategic choices when it comes to doing something about a perception or opinion challenge: create perception where there may be none, change perception, or reinforce it. By way, if you select wrong strategy, it will taste like horseradish sauce on your brownies. So be certain new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. For example, you don’t want to select “change” when reality dictates a “reinforce” strategy.

Since there is never any rest for weary, you must now task your PR team to prepare some carefully targeted, corrective language. Language that is compelling, persuasive and believable AND clear and factual. There is little choice here. You must correct a damaging perception by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to desired behaviors.

Now, work with your communications specialists to select communications tactics most likely to carry your words to attention of your target audience. 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. But be sure that tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.

Because credibility of a message can depend on how it’s delivered, you might introduce it to smaller gatherings rather than using higher-profile tactics such as news releases or talk show appearances. When you no longer can resist calls for a progress report, you will have to respond by returning to field with your PR team for a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Using many of same questions used in first benchmark session, you’ll now be alert for signs that bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

In event program loses momentum, you can always accelerate matters by using more communications tactics along with increased frequencies.

Again as kids say, it IS cool when public relations gives you a choice, one that lets you alter individual perception in a way that results in changed behaviors that lead directly to your organization’s success.

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Bob Kelly counsels 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. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com