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. Net word count is 845 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2003. What Is “Best Practice” Public Relations?
Why, public relations that stays true to its fundamental premise, of course.
In a nutshell, “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 those people whose behaviors affect organization, public relations mission is accomplished.”
Adhere to that, and you can’t go wrong!
Even those who believe public relations is just a bunch of communications tactics, can improve their performance because premise and its strategy will keep those tactics on straight and narrow.
How? The premise requires that tactics be selected on basis of (1) knowing how a target audience perceives organization, (2) precisely who tactics should be aimed at, and (3) and most important, what changes in perception, and thus behaviors, are desired so that you can set a goal, then tell if you achieved it or not.
That way, tactics have a fair chance of doing some good by visibly helping you achieve your business objectives.
Happily, even when “practiced best,” this isn’t rocket science. All it takes is a brief but logical plan.
Decide which external audience of yours has most serious impact on your organization. That becomes your key target audience, and off we go!
Can’t do much if we don’t know how they perceive you and your organization. So, you’ve got to get out there among members of that key target audience and ask some questions.
What do they think of you and your operation? Notice any negatives? Are misconceptions, inaccuracies or rumors becoming evident? Any undercurrents surfacing? Is there a problem coming down pike?
When this monitoring phase is complete, you can set a public relations goal that corrects problem you turned up. For example, your goal might try for a positive impact on individual perception by explaining your pricing policies, or replacing a damaging rumor with truth.
Now you need to know how you’re going to reach that goal. And that’s where strategy comes in. You have three choices. You can create opinion (perception) where none exists, or you can change existing opinion, or simply reinforce it. Your choice will respond to what you turned up during your monitoring phase.
