PR Where it Matters Most

What’s more crucial to success of a business, non-profit or association than its most important outside audiences and stakeholders?

Nothing.

Those stakeholder behaviors directly impact virtually every management and operating activity of organization. From retail patronage, recruiting, civic activity, contributions, and strategic alliances to membership, program participation, plain old sales, and just about everything else.

Which means, if you are such a manager, you may have a real opportunity to do something positive about behaviors of those important outside audiences of yours that most affect YOUR operation.

In other words, you can create kind of external stakeholder behavior changes that lead directly to achieving your own managerial objectives.

You can do so by persuading those key outside folks to your way of thinking, then help move them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.

When you decide to move your managerial public relations to a whole new level, here’s some real help for you.

It’s called fundamental premise of public relations and it goes like this: 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.

But it won’t be of much use unless PR team members assigned to your unit understand that blueprint and commit themselves to its implementation, starting with key audience perception monitoring. Truth is, your PR people are already in perception and behavior business, so they will be of real use for this initial opinion assessment project.

But pause here. You must reassure yourself that your public relations people truly understand just WHY it’s so important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be certain they accept reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.

Why not take some time to review with them your 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? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with interchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Yes, survey specialists can always be brought in to do opinion monitoring work, and they also can run up your costs. But, no matter who asks questions, objective remains same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.