PR: Focus on What Matters!

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Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

PR: Focus on What Matters!

Sure, as a manager, you have a talented member of the
PR team assigned to your department, division or
subsidiary, or housed at your agency, and s/he is darn
good at placing product and service plugs on radio and
in the newspaper. Which may be all you want. And
that’s fine.

Unfortunately, when your PR folks concentrate primarily
on tactical fixes like publicity placements, at least be
aware of what you are NOT getting.

You don’t get a comprehensive effort that persuades
those important outside folks to your way of thinking,
then moves them to take actions that help your department,
division or subsidiary succeed.

You don’t get the use of the high-impact, fundamental premise
of public relations to deliver external stakeholder behavior
change – the kind that leads directly to achieving your
managerial objectives.

And you don’t get the creative potential of your assigned
PR team needed to positively impact the behaviors of the
very outside audiences that MOST affect your business,
non-profit or association.

That’s a fair amount NOT to be getting!

It certainly doesn’t sound like the best use of your public
relations resources, but it’s fixable. In which case, you might
begin to see results such as prospects starting to do business
with you; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint
ventures; membership applications on the rise; customers
starting to make repeat purchases; capital givers or specifying
sources starting to look your way, community leaders
beginning to seek you out; welcome bounces in show
room visits; politicians and legislators starting to view you
as a key member of the business, non-profit or association
communities, and even higher employee retention rates.

From Day 1, you have to get the public relations people
assigned to your unit on board. Make certain they all accept
the realities that it’s vitally important to know how your
outside audiences perceive your operations, products
or services. And that perceptions almost always lead to
behaviors that can hurt your unit.

Get your team involved in plans 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 the interchange? How much
do you know about our services or products and employees?
Have you experienced problems with our people or
procedures?

After all, your PR people are in the perception and behavior
business to begin with, so they can be of real use for this
opinion monitoring project. Professional survey firms are
always available, but that can be very expensive. But
whether it’s your people or a survey firm who asks the
questions, your objective is to identify untruths, false
assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, and
misconceptions .

Then you must decide which of the above troubles rate
designation as your corrective public relations goal – for
example, clarify the misconception, spike that rumor,
correct the false assumption or fix a certain inaccuracy.

In the same way soy sauce goes with stir fry, the right PR
strategy tells you how to reach your goal. But just three
strategies are available in matters of perception and
opinion -- change existing perception, create perception
where there may be none, or reinforce it. But be sure your
new strategy is a natural fit with your new public
relations goal.

When you finally have the chance to address your key
stakeholder audience to help persuade them to your way
of thinking, what will you say?

Here’s where a talented writer earns his or her keep
because s/he must put together some very special,
corrective language. Words that are not only compelling,
persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they
are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view
and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Now the job gets easier – select communications tactics
to carry your message to the attention of your target
audience. Making certain that the tactics you select have a
record of reaching folks like your audience members,
you can pick from dozens that are available. From
speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer
briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings
and many others.

As the method of communication can affect the credibility of
the message, you may wish to deliver it in small meetings
or presentations rather than through high-visibility media
announcements.

Questions will soon surface as to progress. And that will require
a second perception monitoring session with members of your
external audience. Employing many of the same questions used
in the first benchmark session, you will now be watching
carefully for signs that the offending perception is being altered
in your direction.

In this business, we’re fortunate that efforts such as this can
be accelerated by adding more communications tactics as well
as increasing their frequencies, if deemed necessary.

We’re also fortunate that the people we deal with behave like
everyone else – they act upon their perceptions of the facts
they hear about us and our operations. Which leaves us little
choice but to deal promptly and effectively with those
perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and move
our key external audiences to action.

So, in the proverbial nutshell, here you have a workable public
relations blueprint that can help you persuade your most
important outside stakeholders to your way of thinking, then
move them to behave in a way that leads to the success of
your department, division or subsidiary.

end