Managers, Got a Grip on Your PR?

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 925 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

Managers, Got a Grip on Your PR?

What are you trying to do with your business, non-profit
or association public relations program? Get a little
publicity for a service or product? Or, perhaps, you’re doing
what you really should do, persuade your key external
stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to
take actions that lead to the success of your department,
division or subsidiary.

To reach that objective, and get a real grip on your PR
effort, you need a model 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.

No small matter because this blueprint will help you redirect
the focus of the public relations folks assigned to your unit
from communications tactics over to your external audiences
in a way that allows you to move ever closer to personal
success as a unit manager.

The reason this PR paradigm works is that it requires you
as the unit manager to zero in on exactly those people who
play a big role in how successful a manager you’re going
to be – your key external audiences.

The perceptions held by your most important outside
audiences are crucial to your success. So meet with your
PR crew and hammer out a consensus as to why it’s vital
to nail down just how your operation is perceived out there
in the real world. They’ll tell you quick-like that those
perceptions almost always result in predictable behaviors
that can help you or hurt you.

Which means you need to interact with members of your
most important target audience while posing a number of
questions. “What do you know about our organization?
Have you ever made contact with us? Was it a satisfactory
experience? Do you have an opinion about our people,
services or products? Do you have a problem with our
organization?

By the way, if your budget allows a significant expense,
you can retain the services of professional survey people
to interview target audience members. Of course your own
PR staff is already concerned with perception and behavior
matters, so they might lend a hand in this regard.

Those participating in monitoring the perceptions of your
key target audience must watch carefully for negative
responses to your questions. In particular for untruths,
misconceptions, inaccuracies, rumors or false assumptions.

The data collected during the perception monitoring
interviews are the ammunition needed to identify the
corrective public relations goal. Examples might be, fix the
untruth, clarify the misconception, or kill the rumor.

You still need help, however. Without a strategy to tell you
how to reach that goal, not much is going to happen. You
have a choice of three strategies. You can create perception/
opinion where there may be none, you can change existing
perception, or you can reinforce it. But be certain that your
new strategy is a natural fit with the public relations goal
you selected.

Now, identify your best writer because you must put
together the message which will do the heavy lifting when
it alters any questionable perceptions among your target
audience members. The message must not only be persuasive,
but compelling as well. And it should aim for both factual
accuracy and believability if it is to do the job. You may
also wish to consider a lower profile means for delivering
the message – perhaps during a presentation on another
matter – so as not to raise eyebrows by using the press
release format.

Actually getting your message to the right people –
members of your target audience – is not complex. You
have a wide selection of communications tactics at
your disposal. They include presentations, brochures,
newsletters and personal contacts as well as media
interviews, articles, open houses and many others. But
check carefully that those your select actually do reach
people similar to those who make up your target audience.

You need results, as do all managers. And the best way to
be certain your new public relations effort is succeeding is
to return to perception monitoring mode and ask the same
questions all over again. The difference the second time
around is, you and your team will be on the lookout for
signs that the negatives you discovered are actually being
altered, and that your target audience perception is moving
in your direction.

Fortunately, you can put things on a faster track by adding
more communications tactics, AND increasing certain
frequencies.

You’ll know you have a solid grip on your public relations
effort when you avoid communications tactics as a major
focus and, instead, apply your resources to persuading your
key external stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move
them to take actions that lead to the success of your department,
division or subsidiary.

end