The Ultimate PR "Scam"

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Robert A. Kelly © 2003.

The Ultimate PR “Scam”

It happens to business, non-profit and association managers
when their public relations budget fails to deliver the crucial
external audience behaviors they need to achieve their
department, division or subsidiary objectives.

Behaviors they should have received leading directly to
boosts in repeat purchases; growing community support; more
tech firms specifying the manager’s components; increased
capital donations; stronger employee retention rates; new
waves of prospects, or healthy membership increases.

If that rings your bell, you need to take two actions.

First, insist that your public relations activity is based on a
fundamental premise like this: People act on their own
perception of the 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 the very people
whose behaviors affect the organization the most, the public
relations mission is accomplished.

Second, as the manager for whom they labor, get personally
involved with the professionals managing your PR effort.
Tell those specialists that you must list, then prioritize those
key external audiences whose behaviors effect your unit
the most.

Identify that outside audience sitting at the top of your slate,
and we’ll work on it right now.

Nothing happens, of course, until you gather some pithy
information. Namely, how do members of that key target
audience, whose behaviors affect your unit’s success or
failure, actually perceive you?

You and/or your PR team must interact with members of
that audience and monitor their perceptions by asking a
number of questions: Do you know anything about us?
What have you heard about our services or products?
Have you ever had contact with our organization? Was
it satisfactory?

The trick here is to stay vigilant for negative signs, in
particular, untruths, exaggerations, inaccuracies, rumors or
misconceptions.

By the time you complete this exercise, you will have
gathered the raw material you need to establish a corrective
public relations goal. It might aim to fix an inaccuracy,
clear up a misconception or lay that rumor to rest.

How you get to that goal, however, is another question
because you have just three strategy choices when it
comes to perception/ opinion matters like this. Create
perception/opinion where there isn’t any, reinforce
existing opinion, or change it. A warning: insure that
your new strategy is an obvious match for your new
public relations goal.

Now, alert your team to a real writing challenge – a
message tasked with altering the offending perception.
Which means your writer must produce a message that
changes what many target audience members now believe.
No easy job!

It must be clear about how the current perception is out
of kilter. And it must not only be truthful, but persuasive,
compelling and believable if it is to lead ultimately to the
desired behavior. True heavy lifting!

By the way, messages like that best retain their credibility
when delivered along with another news announcement or
presentation, rather than a dedicated, high-profile press release.

Speaking of delivery, it’s time for you and your PR team to
select the communications tactics to carry that message of
yours to members of a target audience that really needs to
hear it. Fortunately, there are dozens of such tactics awaiting
your pleasure – speeches, radio/newspaper interviews,
brochures, op-eds, newsmaker events, newsletters and many,
many more. Be careful that the tactics you use have a record
of reaching folks just like those you’re aiming at.

It won’t be long before people around you begin asking about
progress. Which, once again, will put your team back in the
opinion monitoring mode out among the members of your
target audience. And the questions they ask will be very
similar to those used in the first perception monitoring session.

Difference this time around will be your close attention to just
how much current perceptions are really undergoing the change
for which you planned. You want solid signs that the offending
perception is actually being altered.

You can always shovel more coal into the boiler by adding
new communications tactics, then using them more frequently
to achieve faster progress.

When you apply a comprehensive and workable plan like
this, you have little to fear from “a PR scam.” Instead, you are
on-track to achieve those key audience behaviors you must
have to reach your unit’s operating objectives.

end