For business, non-profit or association managers like yourself, survival pretty much depends on whether you achieve, or fail to achieve your department, division or subsidiary objectives.

Which strongly suggests that, if you haven’t already done so, you may wish to employ a set of tools that will help you persuade your most important outside audiences to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to your success.

The tools comprise the fundamental premise 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 is accomplished.

And the promise those tools hold for managers are behaviors like new prospects and more existing buyers, repeat purchasors, highly qualified job seekers, new capital contributions, increased membership referrals or more proposals for strategic alliances.

But there is work to do. You need information about those key external audiences. What do they know about your unit and its operations? How familiar are they, if at all, with your services or products? Have they ever worked with any of your people? Was the experience positive?

Tell the public relations folks assigned to your department, division or subsidiary that you want answers to those questions. And for the simple reason that how those important outside audiences perceive your operation usually leads to behaviors that can help or hinder you in achieving your objectives.

Work with them on a list of your key external audiences whose actions most affect your operations. Put those groups in priority order and let’s have a go at #1.

Remember that the success of your new public relations effort depends heavily on how well you gather these key audience perceptions.

Here, you have a choice. You and your PR staff can interact with members of that target audience, which seems appropriate since your PR folks are already in the perception and behavior business. Or, if a substantial budget is available to you, you can hire professional survey counsel to do the work for you.

Either way, asking members of your key target audience questions such as those outlined above along with the responses you receive, provide the foundation data that underpins your entire public relations effort.

But, as you monitor audience member responses to your questions, stay alert for hesitant or evasive observations about your organization. Do you note statements that are untrue or misconceived? How about inaccuracies, rumors or false assumptions? You’ll need to remedy them because we know that negative perceptions inevitably lead to negative behaviors that must be fixed to protect your operation.

As mentioned, the data your interactive monitoring produces is the raw material with which you create your public relations goal. And that might well be clearing up that misconception, correcting that inaccuracy or replacing an untruth with the truth.

Reaching that goal is another matter. You need the right strategy to show you how to get there. As luck would have it, they’re but three strategic choices in perception/opinion matters like this. Create perception/opinion where you have none, change that perception, or reinforce it.

Good writing doesn’t come easy, but that’s your next challenge. Here, you must put together the message you will use to transmit your corrective facts and figures to those members of your target audience.

Now, all at the same time – in a single message – you must be clear about why the false assumption, the misconception or the inaccuracy should be clarified, or even corrected. Your message must present truthful supporting facts, and must be believable and, if at all possible, compelling.

Your public relations team will provide that talent. Also discuss with them blending the message into a variety of public presentations so as not to damage its credibility with a high-profile announcement.

Keep in mind that the timetable can always be accelerated by adding new communications tactics and by increasing their frequencies. Also a good idea to continue refining and updating the message itself.

Happily, what you will have done is use a set of tools that helped you persuade your most important outside audiences to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to managerial success and, some might say, survival.

About The Author

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com

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Tags: public relations tools, public relations manager, public relations

Most business, non-profit and association managers live to tell about it only IF they achieve their operating objectives. Very little wriggle room there.

But among such managers are those who fail to do anything about the behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect their business, non-profit or association.

On top of that omission, they risk their careers by choosing to pursue their operating objectives without using the fundamental premise of public relations. Thus, they fail to produce external stakeholder behavior change leading directly to achieving those very same managerial objectives.

Then, despite the wonder of it all, they end up failing to persuade those important outside folks to their way of thinking and, finally, fail to move them to take actions that help their department, division or subsidiary succeed.

Wow! Why would any clear thinking manager operate that way? I don’t know why. What I DO know is that they can start turning things around in a New York minute!

Best advice? Start with that fundamental premise of public relations mentioned above, because it’s the action blueprint you need to reach your objectives. 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.

There’s no end to the number and variety of results this process can achieve — politicians and legislators starting to view you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities; prospects starting to do business with you; community leaders beginning to seek you out; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; growing numbers of membership applications; customers starting to make repeat purchases; a welcome jump in sales floor visits; and even capital givers or specifying sources beginning to look your way.

Enlist the PR folks assigned to your unit and spend some time with them nailing down those outside audiences whose behaviors help or hurt you in achieving your objectives. Then list them according to how severely they impact your operation. For starters, select the audience in first place on your list.

I would guess that you have very little current input as to how most members of that key outside audience perceive your organization. Of course, these data would be available to you if you had been regularly sampling those perceptions.

If the budget isn’t there to defray the cost of professional survey work, your PR team will have to monitor those perceptions by interacting with members of that outside audience. Ask questions like “Have you ever had contact with anyone from our organization?” And, “Was it a satisfactory experience?” And, “Are you familiar with our services or products?”

Your team must watch closely for negative statements, especially evasive or hesitant replies. Stay alert for false assumptions, untruths, misconceptions, inaccuracies and potentially hurtful rumors. When you find such damaging perceptions, they will need to be corrected, because experience shows they usually lead to negative behaviors.

The trick is to do something about such negativity before it morphs into injurious behavior. Which means you now pick the specific perception to be altered. Not surprisingly, that becomes your public relations goal.

Now, the reality is that a PR goal without a strategy to show you how to get there is like a meatball without a cheesy center. That’s why you must select one of three strategies especially designed to create perception or opinion where there may be none, or change existing perception, or reinforce it. The challenge here is to insure that the goal and its strategy match each other. You wouldn’t want to select “change existing perception” when current perception is just right, suggesting a “reinforce” strategy.

Good writing required here. Somebody has to prepare a really compelling message carefully designed to alter your key target audience’s perception, as required by your public relations goal.

Be careful here. Combine your corrective message with another newsworthy announcement of a new product, service or employee, which may lend credibility by not giving too much emphasis to the correction.

As you might suspect, the message also must have several values. For example, clarity. Also, your facts must be truthful and your position on the inaccuracy must be persuasive, logically explained and believable if it is to hold the attention of members of that target audience, and actually move perception your way.

Now things get more relaxing. Namely, choosing the actual tactics you will use to carry your persuasive new thoughts to the attention of that external audience.

And there is no shortage of such tactics. For instance, radio and newspaper interviews, personal contacts, newsletters, letters-to-the-editor, brochures, press releases and speeches. Or, you might settle on group briefings, special events or facility tours, always making sure those tactics you select have a record of reaching the same audiences as those that make up your target stakeholders.

Sorry, but you will be queried about progress and will have to once again monitor perceptions among your target audience members. And with a line of questioning similar to that used during your earlier monitoring session. The difference now is that you must stay on the lookout for indications that audience perceptions are beginning to move in your direction.

But this is our lucky day. We can always expedite matters and speed up the process by employing additional communications tactics, AND by increasing their frequencies.

My experience has been that business, non-profit and association managers survive very nicely, thank you, when they sharpen their focus on the very groups of outside people who play a major role in just how successful a manager they will be – their key external stakeholders.

About The Author

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association managers about using the fundamental premise of public relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communi- cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.

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Tags: public relations manager, public relations, PR