Granddaddy because this public relations strategy has always been true, and because it delivers to business, non-profit, public entity and association managers, the best value public relations has to offer. Value in the form of doing something really significant about those important outside audience behaviors that MOST affect the department, group, division or subsidiary unit you manage. Then letting you take advantage of the perception levels youve achieved as those key external audiences of yours become persuaded to your managerial way of thinking. What you end up with, of course, is public relations activity that creates perception and behavior change among your key outside audiences behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives. Heres a blueprint outlining how to manage this kind of public relations. 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 usually is usually accomplished. There should no longer be any doubt about whether youll need a lot more than news releases, brochures, special events and broadcast plugs to get a satisfactory return on your PR investment. Among the results business, non-profit, public entity and association managers can expect from this kind of public relations are new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; rebounds in showroom visits; membership applications on the rise; community service and sponsorship opportunities; enhanced activist group relations, and expanded feedback channels, and even new thoughtleader and special event contacts. In due course, you should notice customers making repeat purchases; prospects reappearing; stronger relationships with the educational, labor, financial and healthcare communities; improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies, and perhaps even capital givers or specifying sources looking your way. Because you want your key outside audiences to really perceive your operations, products or services in a positive light, be sure that you and your PR staff are really on the same page in the hymn book.. Reassure yourself that they accept the basic truth that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit. Review with your people how you will gather and monitor perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the how things went? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures? Although somewhat expensive, you can always depend on professional survey people to handle the perception monitoring phases of your program. But fortunately, your PR people are also in the perception and behavior business and can pursue the same objective: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors. Setting your public relations goal requires that you address the problems that appeared during your key audience perception monitoring. Its likely that your new goal will call for straightening out that dangerous misconception, or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or doing something about that awful rumor. To show you how to get there, youll need the right strategy. And, luckily, you have three such strategy choices when it comes to handling a perception or opinion challenge: create perception where there may be none, change the perception, or reinforce it. Unfortunately, selecting a bad strategy will taste like grape salsa on your caviar, so be certain the new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. For example, you dont want to select change when the facts dictate a reinforce strategy. Since persuading an audience to your way of thinking is hard labor, the way in which you put together your corrective message is top priority. Especially when youre looking for language that is compelling, persuasive, believable AND clear and factual. Yes, hard work, but a must if you are to correct a perception by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to the desired behaviors. Review your message with your communications specialists for its impact and persuasiveness. You want your communications tactics to carry your words to the attention of your target audience, so you need to select the precise tactics most likely to reach them. Fortunately, you can pick from dozens of available tactics. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be certain that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members. The credibility of your message can be dependent upon HOW you deliver it. Which means you might try introducing it to smaller gatherings rather than using higher-profile communications such as news releases or talk show appearances. Shortly, youll need to produce a progress report, which means you and your PR folks should get back out in the field for a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Yes, you can use the same questions used in the first benchmark session, but now you must stay alert for signs that your communications tactics have worked and that the negative perception is being altered in your direction. By the way, things can always be accelerated with a broader selection of communications tactics AND increased frequencies. Yes, I call this the Granddaddy of PR strategies because human nature hasnt changed over the millenia. People have always acted upon their perceptions of the facts they hear, see or read about an organization or person, then behaved accordingly. Thus, remember please, a single issue for example, a potentially dangerous, unattended perception among a key audience, and its resulting behaviors, can spread like wildfire nudging any operation closer to failure than success. |
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