It’s been real easy to this point, now you must prepare message that will hopefully alter perception and behavior of your target audience. It’s not easy. But it must be done in a believable, persuasive and compelling manner. The message must be clear and to point with regard to exactly what is incorrect or untruthful. Remember this about message: its only function is to alter existing perception on part of members of target audience. So, guidelines are clarity, persuasiveness and credibility.

Here we are at “public relations stable” housing our “beasts of burden” – your communications tactics whose job it is to carry your message to attention of those key target audience members.

There is a really long list of tactics from which you can choose. Letters-to-the-editor, news releases, speeches, briefings, personal meetings, emails, newspaper and radio interviews and dozens more. Main requirement? Do they have a proven record of reaching members of your target audience?

Are you making progress? Short of spending some real money on professional surveys (the cost of which often exceeds entire public relations budget!), best way to find out is to interact again with members of that target audience. In addition to being among very people with whom you should regularly interact anyway, you and your colleagues can now personally assess attitudes, responses and degrees of awareness of your organization as well as particular misconceptions, untruths, inaccuracies or rumors.

Now, after six or eight weeks of your communications blitz, difference between these perceptions and those gathered during earlier interaction is that you are looking for signs that perceptions are now moving in your direction.

Should you decide to speed up process, you might add a few more communication tactics to mix, and increase their frequencies. Another look at your message would also be in order to reassure yourself that its factual base, clarity and impact measure up.

Once your perception monitoring shows that you have persuaded many target audience stakeholders towards your way of thinking, you may be sure that instead of wasting your PR budget, you are moving those stakeholders to behaviors that will produce public relations success you want.

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Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks about the fundamental premise of public relations. 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

The question then becomes, how do you position this message so that it can do what it’s supposed to do? You select a strategy, of course. You’re in luck in that there are just three strategies from which to choose. Create perception/opinion where there really isn’t any, change existing perception, or reinforce it. When you choose your strategy, make sure it matches goal from which it flows.

Here, real work rears its ugly head. You must prepare message you hope will alter perception, and thus behaviors in your direction. No easy task but it really is “where rubber meets road.” Imagine writing something that ends up changing somebody’s opinion? Now that’s satisfaction!

But message must highlight truth in a credible manner while addressing problem that came up when you monitored your target audience perceptions. Your message must make a compelling case for your point of view, and do so persuasively, with clarity, believability and in a compelling way.

Then you must throw that message to receivers in end-zone. You must take advantage of long list of communications tactics available to you to carry that message to eyes and ears of members of your target audience. You can use facility tours, contests and press releases or speeches, media interviews, newspaper guest columns, emails and many, many others to do job.

Your real challenge is deciding if you are making acceptable progress. Because you will probably balk at spending a lot of money on professional opinion research, you and your colleagues must then go back to your target audience members and ask same questions all over again.

What you want to see are indications that perceptions are changing, as corrective elements of your message take effect.

By way, if things aren’t moving along fast enough for you, you can always add more tactics to effort as well as increasing their frequencies. It’s also a good idea to take another look at your message to make certain that it measures up as to factual support, clarity and impact.

Finally, you may be certain you have avoided “junk PR” when your public relations effort targets kind of stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your objectives.

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Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to general management personnel about the fundamental premise of public relations. 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