Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 1200 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2004. A Great Way to Do PR
As a business, non-profit or association manager trying to get a bang for your PR buck, you could pretty much concentrate on simple print and broadcast mentions or, for that matter,
whole basket of tactical public relations weaponry including old favorites like high-visibility speech appearances and newsworthy special events.
But if you really want premium public relations results, you must use a broader, more comprehensive and workable public relations blueprint to alter your key, external audience perceptions – perceptions that lead to changed behaviors you’ll need to reach your managerial goals.
In short, you had best take steps to persuade those key external stakeholders with greatest impacts on your organization to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed.
The PR blueprint is best place to start: people act on their own perception of facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action very people whose behaviors affect organization most, public relations mission is accomplished.
Publicity tactics, of course, have their role in blueprint, but they are not be-all or end-all of public relations plan, nor should they be.
Savor for a moment premium results like those mentioned above. Prospects starting to do business with you, and customers starting to make repeat purchases; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; welcome bounces in show room visits; rising membership applications, and community leaders beginning to seek you out; new approaches by capital givers and specifying sources, not to mention politicians and legislators viewing you as a key member of business, non-profit or association communities
But who will do work such results demand? People assigned by corporate office to your unit? Possibly your full-time public relations staff? Or even an outside PR agency team? No matter who they are, they must be committed to you, to PR blueprint and to its implementation, starting with key audience perception monitoring.
Sad to say, simply because someone describes him/herself as a public relations person doesn’t mean they’ve accepted PR as you understand it. So by all means make certain public relations people assigned to your unit honestly believe why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Make sure they accept reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.
Sharpen your plan – your blueprint -- for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions like these: how much do you know about us? Have you met our chief executive or other senior managers? Have you had other contacts with our staff and were you pleased with interchange? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
Use professional survey firms in perception monitoring phases of your program if you can afford them. But your PR people 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.
