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 1040 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2004. Managers: Can We Agree on This?
Your public relations effort really should involve more than press releases, brochures and special events if you are to get your PR money’s worth.
In particular, you should be pursuing those three pots of gold at
end of PR rainbow.
First, when you use fundamental premise of public relations to produce external stakeholder behavior change – kind that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives.
Second, when you do something positive about behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect your business, non-profit or association.
And finally, when you persuade those important outside folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed.
The fundamental premise of public relations mentioned above is action blueprint you need to reach those objectives. 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.
Look at kinds of results this process can achieve -- fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; community leaders beginning to seek you out; membership applications on rise; prospects starting to do business with you; customers starting to make repeat purchases; welcome bounces in show room visits; capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your way, and even politicians and legislators starting to view you as a key member of business, non-profit or association communities.
If you wish to pursue such results, spend some time listing those outside audiences of yours who behave in ways that help or hurt you in achieving your objectives. Then prioritize them by how severely they impact your operation. Best place to start is with target audience in first place on your list.
The chances of you having current information as to how most members of that key outside audience perceive your organization, are not that good. If you had been regularly sampling those perceptions, however, these data would be available to you.
You and your colleagues will have to monitor those perceptions yourselves if dollars aren’t there to pay for professional survey people. Interact with members of that outside audience by asking questions like “Have you ever had contact with anyone from our organization? Was it a satisfactory experience? Are you familiar with our services or products?” Be alert for negative statements, especially evasive or hesitant replies. Watch carefully for false assumptions, untruths, misconceptions, inaccuracies and potentially hurtful rumors. When you find such damaging perceptions, they will need to be corrected, because experience shows they usually lead to negative behaviors.
