How Managers Hit PR Paydirt

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Robert A. Kelly © 2003.

How Managers Hit PR Paydirt

As a business, non-profit or association manager, you’ll
know it’s PR paydirt when you’re able to persuade your
key external stakeholders to your way of thinking, then
move them to take actions that lead to your department,
division or subsidiary’s success.

Proof of the pudding will be outside stakeholder behaviors
like increasing repeat purchases, more inquiries about
strategic alliances, new specifiers of your components,
more membership inquiries, or a jump in capital
contributions.

But to realize such results, you’ll have to get personally
involved with the public relations people assigned to your
unit. Then shift their emphasis from communications tactics
to a workable and comprehensive blueprint that will lead
to your success as a unit manager.

A blueprint, for example, 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.

What such a public relations blueprint will require of you,
is a sharper focus on those outside groups of people who
play a role in just how successful a manager you will be.
In other words, the blueprint targets your most important
external audiences.

Get your PR people on board early on. This should be an
easy task as some of them, no doubt, are wondering if there
may be more to public relations than press releases, special
events and brochures.

Enlist them instead in a core public relations effort to
determine how all of your crucial outside audiences really
perceive your operation. I speak here of audiences with
perceptions leading to behaviors that affect your
organization the most. So discuss with your staff how you
can gather those key audience perceptions in the most
cost-effective manner.

Since retaining a professional opinion survey firm can be
very expensive, you may well conclude that you and your
PR staff can interact with members of your target audience
and ask the necessary questions. And I would agree.

Among the questions: What do you know about us? Have
we ever worked together? Was it a positive experience for
you? Did you ever have a problem with our people? Watch
for evasive or hesitant answers and, especially, for
negativities such as inaccuracies, misconceptions, false
assumptions or rumors.

The data you collect lets you set your public relations goal.
For example, clarify that misconception, correct that inaccuracy,
kill that rumor dead.

You are a manager fully aware that every good goal needs a
good strategy to show you how to reach that goal. When it
comes to matters of opinion or perception, you have just
three strategy choices: create perception where there may be
none, change existing perception/opinion, or reinforce it.
But take care that the strategy you select fits nicely with your
new public relations goal.

Now it’s message time – the special words you will use to
alter what you discovered some of your target audience
members have come to believe. This corrective message is
crucial to the success of the program and, all at the same time,
must be clear, believable and compelling.

The next step truly can be called “special delivery.” Here,
you take steps to get your message before the eyes and ears
of your target audience. Communications tactics will handle
that chore for you, and there are dozens of them available
like newsletters, brochures, press releases, media interviews,
emails, facility tours and lots of others. Be sure that the
tactics you select have a track record of reaching people like
those who make up your target audience.

Your two-part bottom line? A workable and comprehensive
public relations blueprint that (1) assists you as a manager
in creating the external audience behaviors you need and (2),
in so doing, helps you achieve your department’s business,
non-profit or association objectives.

end