Now you must select specific perception to be altered, which then becomes your public relations goal.

But clearly, a PR goal without a strategy to show you how to get there, is like French Toast without syrup and bacon. So you select one of three strategies especially constructed to create perception or opinion where there may be none, or change existing perception, or reinforce it. But insure that goal and its strategy match each other. You wouldn’t want to select “change existing perception” when current perception is just right suggesting a “reinforce” strategy.

Here, you put together a compelling message carefully structured to alter your key target audience’s perception, as specified by your public relations goal.

A thought. Combine your corrective message with another news announcement or presentation which may provide more credibility by downplaying need for such a correction.

Clearly you have to produce a compelling message, one that’s quite clear about what perception needs clarification or correction, and why. Goes without saying that you must be truthful, believable and your position logically explained if you are to hold attention of members of that target audience, and actually move perception in your direction.

On a light note, we sometimes call communications tactics you will use to move your message to attention of that key external audience, “beasts of burden” because they must carry your persuasive new thoughts to eyes and ears of those important outside people.

There is no shortage of communications tactics because list is long indeed. It includes customer briefings, brochures, press releases and speeches. Or, you might choose facility tours, radio and newspaper interviews, personal contacts, or letters-to-the-editor. There are many available to you and only selection requirement is that communications tactics you choose have a record of reaching people just like members of your key target audience.

If things slow down on you, accelerate them by adding more communications tactics, AND by increasing their frequencies.

With passage of time, you’ll anticipate that folks will soon be questioning you about progress, so you will already be hard at work remonitoring perceptions among your target audience members. Using questions similar to those used during your earlier monitoring session, you’ll now be watching carefully for signs that audience perceptions are beginning to move in your general direction.

Satisfying curiosity in this regard is largely a matter of laying out results you will receive when you undertake this aggressive public relations plan. Put another way, you may be excused for relaxing when you achieve kind of key stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your department, division or subsidiary objectives.

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 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

Have a well thought out check in process. This is especially important if you are dealing with a large volume of people. You may want to consider following questions:

-How will guests be checking in? Alphabetically? By name? By company? -How can registration tables be placed to decrease congestion? -Do you have enough staff on hand to check attendees in quickly and efficiently? -Have you evaluated facility layout? When attendees first arrive, is it immediately apparent where they need to go? If not, you may want to station a few volunteers to direct traffic.

-The name and phone number of your venue manager. -A copy of your catering and venue rental contract. -The names and phone numbers of your vendors and time expected to arrive. -A copy of vendor agreements and contracts, so that they may be easily referenced. -A roster of all volunteers with phone numbers and tasks assigned. -Your complete meeting agenda.

Having this information on hand will allow you to retain control over meeting management process and more quickly deal with any crises that may arise.

Coordinating hundreds or even thousands of people for an offsite meeting may seem like an insurmountable obstacle. However, with just a little bit of strategy and organization, you can significantly cut down on confusion factor and run your meeting smoothly and effectively.

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