PR Advice You Didn't Ask For

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 1025 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

PR Advice You Didn’t Ask For

Although, as a business, non-profit or association manager,
you may be glad this came your way.

Especially if your current public relations effort is delivering
more publicity plugs than real behavior change among your
most important outside audiences. Change that could lead
directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

I’m talking about persuading those key outside folks to your
way of thinking, then moving them to take actions that help
your department, division or subsidiary succeed.

There’s even a blueprint to help you do it. 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 kind of results can you expect? Consider these:
membership applications on the rise; customers starting to
make repeat purchases; fresh proposals for strategic
alliances and joint ventures; community leaders beginning to
seek you out; welcome bounces in show room visits;
prospects starting to do business with you; higher employee
retention rates, capital givers or specifying sources
beginning to look your way, and even politicians and
legislators starting to view you as a key member of the
business, non-profit or association communities.

An obvious first step involves getting the public relations
people assigned to your unit on board. Make certain the
whole team buys into why it’s so important to know how
your outside audiences perceive your operations, products
or services. Be sure they accept the reality that perceptions
almost always lead to behaviors that can hurt your unit.

Review how you plan to monitor and gather 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?

Since your PR people are in the perception and behavior
business to begin with, they can be of real use for this
opinion monitoring project. Professional survey firms are
always available, but that can be a budget buster.
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 carefully select which of the above
becomes your corrective public relations goal -- clarify the
misconception, spike that rumor, correct the false
assumption or fix certain other inaccuracies.

You can achieve your goal by picking the right strategy
from the three choices available to you. Change existing
perception, create perception where there may be none,
or reinforce it. But be sure your new strategy fits comfortably
with your new public relations goal.

But what will you say when you have the opportunity to
address your key stakeholder audience to help persuade
them to your way of thinking?

Select your best writer to prepare the message 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.

Happily, the next step is easy. You 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.

Since how one communicates often affects the credibility of
the message, you may wish to deliver it in small getogethers
like meetings and presentations rather than through a higher-
profile media announcement.

You’ll soon feel pressure for signs of progress. And that means
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.

Luckily, matters can be accelerated by adding more
communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

This workable public relations blueprint will 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.

So, while you may not have asked for this public relations
advice, I hope you will agree that the people you deal with
behave like everyone else – they act upon their perceptions
of the facts they hear about you and your operation. Leaving
you little choice but to deal promptly and effectively with
those perceptions by doing what is necessary to reach and
move your key external audiences to action.

end