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Now, let’s talk about your public relations goal. You need one that speaks to
aberrations that showed up during your key audience perception monitoring. In all probability, it will call for straightening out that dangerous misconception, or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or doing something about that damaging rumor.
The realities of public relations are that goals need strategies to show you how to get there. And also that you have just three strategic choices when it comes to handling a perception or opinion challenge: create perception where there may be none, change perception, or reinforce it. Unfortunately, a bad strategy pick will taste like ice cream on your corned beef and cabbage, so be certain new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. For example, you don’t want to select “change” when facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.
Your PR team must create just right, corrective language. Persuading an audience to your way of thinking is awfully hard work, so we’re looking for words that are compelling, persuasive and believable AND clear and factual. You must do this if you are to correct a perception by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to desired behaviors.
Here you must select communications tactics most likely to carry your words to attention of your target audience. Meet again with your communications specialists and review your message for impact and persuasiveness. You can pick from dozens of available tactics. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. Just be sure that tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.
On chance that old line about credibility of a message depending on its delivery method is true, you might think about introducing it to smaller gatherings rather than using higher-profile communications such as news releases or talk show appearances. Consider yourself alerted when topic of a progress report is suggested. Time for you and your PR folks to return to field 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 watching very carefully for signs that your communications tactics have worked and that negative perception is being altered in your direction.
If impatience rears its head, you can always accelerate things with a broader selection of communications tactics AND increased frequencies.
Obviously, this will convert bad PR into good PR by doing something positive about behaviors of those important outside audiences of yours that most affect your operation. It will do job by creating external stakeholder behavior change leading directly to achieving your managerial objectives. And it will pull this off by persuading those key outside folks to your way of thinking, thus moving them to take actions that allow your business, non-profit or association to succeed.
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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
