Creating an effective and successful PR plan requires an in-depth definition of your target audience. That can be rather difficult if you lack a great understanding of your target audience. A way to help alleviate that difficulty and to make it easier to cater to your target audience is to create a buyer persona for each customer/buyer that can be found in your target audience.

Though marketers and PR professionals have been using buyer personas for years, David Meerman Scott’s New Rules of Marketing and PR explains it well and helps readers to grasp the concept. In an undergrad class I was taking, we were asked to create buyer personas in groups so that we could create better campaigns for a company of our choice. My group and I made a few buyer personas so that we would better understand how to market to Toyota’s buyers. That was a valuable component to our overall strategy of creating marketing and PR tactics to reach our target audience.

Scott writes,

Smart marketers understand buyers, and many build formal ‘buyer personas’ for their target demographics… [I]f we break the buyers into distinct groups and then catalog everything we know about each one, we make it easier to create content targeted to each important demographic. (New Rules of Marketing and PR, pg. 32.)

Whether you plan to market to them or to target them in your PR tactics, knowing who ‘they’ are is a vital part to getting that right. Scott continues on to say that “[u]nderstanding buyers and building an effective content strategy to reach each of them is critical for success.” (pg. 33)

Creating those buyer personas helped us to create more targeted activities and commercials that would make more of an impact and speak to the needs of those personas. For example, part of our new campaign was to be present at music festivals and to have contests (including one giveaway of a Prius). We were able to create that contest idea by first creating a buyer persona that had the characteristics of someone who cared about the environment, attended these festivals, and were finally earning enough income to purchase a new vehicle.

Say for example you are an online community looking to gain more members. First, define who your target market is. MyWorkButterfly, who aim to help mothers in the workplace, have a few target audiences. They can include the mother to be who is still working and getting ready to take a maternity leave, the mother who wants to return to work, and the mother who is already returned to work after having a child (or children). What MyWorkButterfly could do then is to create three personas that include as much detail about each of these buyers as possible. Each buyer persona will include different points of information which will in turn warrant different strategies to cater to each of their needs.

Scott features some commentary from someone who has been using these buyer personas for more than 20 years. Adele Revella (who has an entire blog dedicated to buyer personas) relays to him:

A buyer persona profile is a short biography of the typical customer, not just a job description but a person description. The buyer persona profile gives you the change to truly empathize with target buyers, to step out of your role as someone who wants to promote a product and see, through your buyers’ eyes, the circumstances that drive their decision process. The buyer persona profile includes information on the typical buyer’s background, daily activities, and current solutions for their problems. (pg. 119-120)

In essence, these buyer personas are a way to give a face to the customers who visit your site, who buy your products, and who generate WOM (word-of-mouth) for your company. Give the buyer personas names, going so far as to even give them a picture of what you think they look like. This can help to make the marketing and PR process more personal and more tailored to the people who are looking to you for a new or better solution to the problems they are currently experiencing.

For MyWorkButterfly, to target their buyer personas and to make them feel welcome on the site, they could have three different sections that target each one directly. There could also be places on the website that cater to all three audiences that talk about postnatal health and mental health, for example. The point of creating the three different spaces on the website is so that each persona feels acknowledged and better understood.

In PR, knowing who to target in terms of publications, your website, and the media is critical to your success. Like advertising, you must know who you are targeting before you can have any measure of successful communication. Moreover, make an effort to get your buyer personas involved in the communication process. Know how they like to communicate and get them acting. This also requires that your calls to action are clear, links are present, and that you make benefits of doing such actions apparent.

Have you created a buyer persona in your PR or marketing efforts? Has that helped you in your communication goals? Click on the title of this post and start the conversation!

Public relations can be a somewhat difficult task to master; measuring the results and the payoffs of performing those tasks can be even more difficult, but that doesn’t make either of them less important. Measuring the success or results of a PR campaign is critical to making improvements, seeing what works, and establishing what can be done (or repeated) next time.

Despite its importance, many companies are not measuring their social media ROI. According to some figures from eMarketer.com, only 16% do so.

That’s a pretty sad number. How are companies supposed to know if their use of blogs, chats, podcasts, and social networking sites is working? It seems common sense to want to know if your efforts being spent online are paying off, no? Perhaps it’s intimidating, foreign, and unimportant; “everyone else is using blogs, social networking sites, and participating online, so it must be working”. I hate to blow that theory out of the water, but that is simply not the case. Some companies will not benefit from using social media. (If your target market is completely offline, what use would it be to spend your time and other resources online?)

To make measuring ROI a little less intimidating, know that there are some ways you can (easily) begin to measure your ROI. While it may be difficult to really see the results of your investments in social media, (and some argue that the ROI from PR and social media is immeasurable), these things can help you to see changes in popularity, traffic, and participation online. These changes can then help you to begin to attribute changes in sales, WOM generated, and PR coverage to the possible ROI from your social media use.

1. To start, do some of the basics. That can include simply creating a social networking site profile. As a PR professional, you should have your own social networking site profiles including those on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. You should also create pages, accounts, and profiles for the company as well. There are more and more social networking sites emerging every month, some more successful than others, so be sure you keep up-to-date with the changes and experiment with the new sites. This method can help to measure your already present online presence and the presence you can create with effort and time.

2. Another basic to implement: Google Analytics. This free tool can help you track traffic, traffic sources, and keyword statistics. This is crucial to your understanding of what is and what is not working online. You can determine if your efforts are paying off by seeing if your press releases, networking with other bloggers and getting them to link to your site, and participating on Twitter and Facebook are bringing traffic to your blog or website. Though this is the most frequently used tactic to measure the ROI of social networking efforts, there are other methods.
   

3. Measuring traffic is an important way to measure ROI, but another method not used as frequently is to measure “soft metrics” that includes participation on your blog or forum, engagement with your online profiles/ social networking sites, and WOM (word of mouth). This is part of an active PR plan that monitors your online brand.
4. Try searching for your blog, website, or company in Google. How are you faring? Having great content that changes and is linked to by other sites can increase your search engine rankings, which can result in more traffic. If they are not ranking highly, give it some time; seeing results and being able to determine any ROI takes patience. The Internet, though instantaneous in many ways, has a bit of a delay when it comes to seeing your pagerank (from Google), Alexa rating, and search result appearances. Know that creating great content and utilizing the right tools is the best way to ensure your website’s success.
5. Conduct research and simply ask your customers what they think. This can help you to really pinpoint what your customers are feeling and what areas you can improve upon.

Keep in mind that this requires persistent, hard work. Know how to interpret data, where visitors to your blog and website are coming from, and where you can spend more of your time and attention.

What are some ways you measure the ROI of your social media? Is it measurable?

Demographics: n. Or, demographic data, are the characteristics of a population as used in government, marketing or opinion research, or the demographic profiles used in such research. Commonly used demographics include sex, race, age, income, disabilities, educational attainment, home ownership, employment status, and even location. (Source)

Demographics are something used in many areas of business, from sales and marketing to public relations and advertising. While demographics are constantly changing, they can give you a good idea of what an area looks like, the changing trends (such as the average age of an area), and other statistics such as overall education of an area. Things like changing trends can be particularly useful in that they show the changes an area is undergoing; if the average age of an area is increasing or decreasing, you can have a better idea of which regions would be best to target when it comes to your new car, for example.

Additionally, there are also ethnographics. This information can also tell you about the groups of people in an area, but it focuses on the behaviors, cultural activities, and beliefs of a group, the overall nature. This can be more relevant to the PR and marketing team since creating respective plans really relies on the understanding of the behaviors of a demographic group rather than simply their education level or income earned. While I agree that having a particular amount of income and having received a specific level of education can greatly affect the way a group acts, there is more to it than simply race or gender.

Some find demographics to be somewhat limiting; they assume everyone in a group is the same, and they possibly help to perpetuate stereotypes. For example, assuming everyone who watches the Superbowl is the same can really limit the audiences you reach. Many of the commercials spoke to the mass audience that was watching the game and ignored the other smaller groups. While that may be the best way to utilize the million dollar commercial spot, in the long-run it can only hurt your reach. With the Internet, those small niches can now be reached in addition to the larger audiences. But, that’s for another post.

The important thing to remember is that demographics were used in traditional advertising and marketing campaigns and it seemed to work well, or at least well enough. With the Internet making it easier and easier to categorize and group people by the way they act, instead of simply the area in which they live, it’s time to consider really utilizing the tools available. Looking at a demographic group online, there are bound to be many differences, making it difficult to target them. To look at an ethnographic group online who spend their time in the same places, you can better see what methods would work to reach them.

PR and the Social Web wrote a post on this recently that help to corroborate my point:

In social networks we can build an accurate ethnographically detailed picture of our target audience based on what they do and what interests and excites them. Whatever part of the social spectrum they might come from the fact is that they have shown an interest in a relevant area. That’s an insight more powerful than any generalisation [sic] based on class, sex, race or place.

What are some benefits of demographics that still makes it critical to pay attention to them? What is your take on ethnographics?

Communicating properly is vital to the success of your PR efforts. Having successful two-way communication is even more important; talking with your customers instead of simply to them makes a world of difference.

Even though the Internet has made this two-way communication easier, it is still a struggle to send the right message, respond properly, and to actively listen to what you are being told. The goal of the PR professional is to ultimately change the beliefs of a customer (or to further enhance them) so that their actions reflect those of your current customers.

In order to achieve that goal, we must do the following:

• Convey information and share knowledge
• Increase understanding
• Gain acceptance
• Provide action

  (pg. 221 The Public Relations Practitioner’s Handbook by Larry Litwin)

Here are a few ways to improve your two-way communication skills:

• Establish the needs of your company and your audience. This is perhaps the most important step to follow. What do your customers come to you for? What do the media, other bloggers, or others in your industry ask of you? This can help for you to define and determine where your efforts need to be spent. Establishing your needs can also help for you to better understand what you are capable of and where your resources can be used.

• Write well. Since most of your conversing will take place through written copy, ensure that your writing skills are up-to-par. There is really no faster way (than through aesthetics) to deter a reader to finish reading than to misspell words and to misuse grammar and punctuation. Often times, a poorly written copy, pitch, or press release will not even be read due to poor writing skills. Take the time to reread what you write and to have someone else check your work.
• Listen. Not listening is another great way to alienate customers, the media, and others in your industry. Customers will often tell you what they think (and for free) if you would only listen. Moreover, they would give you that information if it were simple enough for them to do so.
• Respond. Once you make it available to them to give feedback and voice opinions, please remember to reply. This is a key part of the two-way communication process that many companies forget to do. This is a dangerous game to play if you do not intend to be responsive, and your company’s reputation and image are on the line. Don’t underestimate the power of the customer and the word of mouth (WOM) they can create.
• Encourage interaction. Make it easy for customers to communicate with you. This can include newsletters, emails, comments on a blog or website, forums, wikis, social networking site accounts (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.), and surveys. Try to monitor these tools to see if they are getting used. If they are not, try advertising them more on your blog or website, try moving links around on your blog’s homepage, or try making links and next steps more visible and apparent. Use these tools to see how the audience you’re reaching feels and what they think about you and your company. Again, be sure to respond.
• Vehicles and methods of communication. Consider where and how you are reaching your audience. This can tie back into the first step of evaluating needs; determine how your audience likes to be reached. Is it through the web, TV, or the radio? Do they prefer print? Knowing this can save you time and resources and increase your chances of having a successful campaign.

Overall, know that any communication may not be better than none at all. Your communication efforts need to be well planned and they need to be maintained. Customers come to expect a certain level of responsiveness from all companies. Remember, too, that this all takes time, trial and error, and preparation. The only way to figure out if this new plan will work is to really try it out. To better your chances of that plan working, ensure that you research properly, budget well, and exhaust any possible analysis that ought to take place before implementing a new PR plan.

What are some ways you communicate with your customers? Do you have any tips for improving the two-way conversations that need to occur to better relationships with your audiences?

Crowdsourcing is a somewhat self-explanatory term, but knowing the meaning of the two words that makeup the term (crowd and sourcing) does not really explain what it actually means. Looking at the word, one might be able to gather that crowdsourcing means sourcing (or gathering) something from a crowd or group, or that it deals with outsourcing, which is ultimately correct. However, it is a little more specific than that. Crowdsourcing is a sort of tactic that companies can use (though it is not limited solely to company use) to supplement tasks that would normally be dealt with in-house. Among some of these tasks: idea/brainstorming, software and product solutions, to research and development strategies.

Your public relations effort really should involve more than press releases, brochures and special events if you are to get your PR money’s worth.

In particular, you should be pursuing those three pots of gold at the end of the PR rainbow.

First, when you use the fundamental premise of public relations to produce external stakeholder behavior change – the kind that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

Second, when you do something positive about the behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect your business, non-profit or association.

And finally, when you persuade those important outside folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed.

The fundamental premise of public relations mentioned above is the action blueprint you need to reach those 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.

Look at the kinds of results this process can achieve — fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; community leaders beginning to seek you out; membership applications on the rise; prospects starting to do business with you; customers starting to make repeat purchases; welcome bounces in show room visits; 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.

If you wish to pursue such results, spend some time listing those outside audiences of yours who behave in ways that help or hurt you in achieving your objectives. Then prioritize them by how severely they impact your operation. Best place to start is with the target audience in first place on your list.

The chances of you having current information as to how most members of that key outside audience perceive your organization, are not that good. If you had been regularly sampling those perceptions, however, these data would be available to you.

You and your colleagues will have to monitor those perceptions yourselves if the dollars aren’t there to pay for professional survey people. Interact with members of that outside audience by asking questions like “Have you ever had contact with anyone from our organization? Was it a satisfactory experience? Are you familiar with our services or products?” Be alert for negative statements, especially evasive or hesitant replies. Watch carefully 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.

You must do something about such negativity before it morphs into injurious behavior, so you now select the specific perception to be altered, and that becomes your public relations goal.

Sorry to say, a PR goal without a strategy to show you how to get there, is like Huevos Rancheros without the hot sauce. 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.

Here is where your writers earn their money. Someone on your PR team must put those writing skills to work and prepare a compelling message carefully designed to alter your key target audience’s perception, as called for by your public relations goal.

A word of caution: combine your corrective message with another newsworthy announcement of a new product, service or employee, which may lend credibility by not overemphasizing the correction.

Your corrective message also must be multifaceted, including several values. Clarity for example. It must be clear about what perception needs clarification or correction, and why. Your facts must be truthful and your position 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.

Here is a less rigorous part of your campaign, selecting the the actual tactics you will use to carry your persuasive new thoughts to the attention of that external audience.

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

Inevitably, you will be asked about progress and will have to once again monitor perceptions among your target audience members. Using questions similar to those used during your earlier monitoring session, the difference here is that you will now watch carefully for indications that audience perceptions are beginning to move in your direction.

Luckily, one option remains ours to exercise — we can always expedite matters and put the pedal to the metal by employing additional communications tactics, AND by increasing their frequencies.

When you target behavior change that lets you achieve your operating objectives, you are doing what is necessary to move those important outside audiences towards actions that will lead to the success of your department, division or subsidiary.

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. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations. Visit his website.

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Tags: public relations strategies, managerial strategies, public relations

The most important PR in America: Just happens to be public relations activity that alters individual perceptions leading directly to changed behaviors. PR pulls that off by persuading a manager’s key outside audiences with the greatest behavior impacts on the organization, to its way of thinking. Then it moves those external stakeholders to take actions that help the organization succeed.

I don’t believe public relations can deliver much more than that.

Not surprisingly, PR runs best on its own fundamental premise that gets everyone working towards the same external audience behaviors. Insuring that your PR effort stays focused, the blueprint goes 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.

Results can range from community leaders beginning to seek you out, welcome bounces in show room visits and specifying sources looking your way to prospects starting to do business with you, customers making repeat purchases, and even fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures.

If, as a manager, that scenario appeals to you, try this path.

First, who handles the work required to produce such results? Your own full-time public relations staff? Some people assigned by the corporate office to your unit? An outside PR agency team? No matter where they come from, they need to be committed to you, to the PR blueprint and to its implementation, starting with key audience perception monitoring.

It’s useful to make certain the public relations people assigned to your unit really believe – deep down – why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Make sure they accept the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.

Working closely with the PR folks, start by nailing down who among your important outside audiences is behaving in ways that help or hinder the achievement of your objectives. Then, list them according to how severely their behaviors affect your organization.

Now, take steps to find out precisely HOW most members of that key outside audience perceive your organization. If you don’t have the budget to pay for what could be costly professional survey counsel, you and your PR colleagues will have to monitor those perceptions yourself. Actually, they should be quite familiar with perception and behavior matters.

Best way to get that activity under way is to meet with members of that outside audience and ask questions like “Are you familiar with our services or products?” “Have you ever had contact with anyone from our organization? Was it a satisfactory experience?” Be sensitive to negative statements, especially evasive or hesitant replies. And watch carefully for false assumptions, untruths, misconceptions, inaccuracies and potentially damaging rumors. When you find such, they will need to be corrected, as they usually lead to negative behaviors.

Now, it’s time to select the actual perception to be altered, which then becomes your public relations goal. Naturally, you want to correct any untruths, inaccuracies, misconceptions or false assumptions.

Kind of goes without saying that a PR goal without a strategy to show you how to get there, is like a sailor’s sandwich without the knockwurst. As you select one of three strategies especially constructed to create perception or opinion where there may be none, or change existing perception, or reinforce it, what you want to do is insure that the goal and your new strategy dovetail. You don’t want to pick “change existing perception” when current perception is just right suggesting a “reinforce” strategy.

At this juncture, you create a compelling message carefully structured to alter your key target audience’s perception, as directed by your public relations goal.

Your message must be a grabber and crystal-clear about what perception needs clarification or correction, and why. Of course you must be truthful and your position logically explained and believable if it is to hold the attention of members of that target audience, and actually move perception in your direction.

Then try this. Combine your corrective message with another news announcement or presentation which may provide more credibility by downplaying the need for such a correction.

Believe it or not, I call the communications tactics you will use to move your message to the attention of that key external audience, “beasts of burden” because they must carry your persuasive new thoughts to the eyes and ears of those important outside people.

You will be glad to know that a long list of such tactics awaits your pleasure. It includes letters-to-the-editor, brochures, press releases and speeches. Or, you might choose radio and newspaper interviews, personal contacts, facility tours or customer briefings. The only selection requirement is that the communications tactics you choose have a record of reaching people just like the members of your key target audience.

A fortunate factor is, things can always be accelerated by adding more communications tactics, AND by increasing their frequencies.

Questions will soon arise with regard to progress. Of course, you will already be hard at work remonitoring perceptions among your target audience members to test just how good your PR program really is. Using questions similar to those used during your earlier monitoring session, you’ll now be alert for signs that audience perceptions are beginning to move in your general direction.

We are fortunate indeed that our key stakeholder audiences 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 actions you desire.

There’s never a happier moment in the practice of public relations than when the data shows that you have achieved the kind of key stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your department, division or subsidiary objectives.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 1125 including guidelines and resource box.

Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

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.

Visit his website.

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Tags: public relations strategies, changing perceptions with public relations, PR, public relations

For business, non-profit and association managers, is it
publicity that delivers newspaper and talk show mentions
backed up by colorful brochures and videos, combined
with special events that attract a lot of people?

Or could your business, non-profit or association PR dollar
be better spent on public relations activity that creates
behavior change among your key outside audiences that
leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives? And
does so by persuading your most important outside
audiences to your way of thinking, then moves them to take
actions that help your department, division or subsidiary
succeed?

What we’re talking about is the kind of PR that lets you
do something positive about the behaviors of those external
stakeholders of yours that MOST affect your organization.
Which means the right PR really CAN alter individual
perception and lead to changed behaviors that help you
win.

Here’s a recipe for you: 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 it can generate results like increased membership
applications; prospects starting to work with you; customers
making repeat purchases; capital givers or specifying sources
looking your way; stronger relationships with the educational,
labor, financial and healthcare communities; and even
improved relations with government agencies and legislative
bodies,

Once the program gets rolling, you also should see results
such as new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures;
rebounds in showroom visits; community service and
sponsorship opportunities; enhanced activist group relations,
and expanded feedback channels, not to mention new
thoughtleader and special event contacts.

To garner such results your PR crew – agency or staff – must
be committed to you, as the senior project manager, to the PR
blueprint and its implementation, starting with target audience
perception monitoring.

As you know, its extremely important that your key outside
audiences see your operations, products or services in the most
positive light. So make certain that your PR staff has bought
into the whole effort. For example, do they accept the reality
that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help
or hurt your unit?

Review the PR blueprint with your PR team, especially the
plan for monitoring and gathering 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 interchange? Have you experienced problems
with our people or procedures?

IF the budget is available, survey firms obviously can handle the
perception monitoring phases of your program. But remember
that 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.

But what about your public relations goal? You need a goal
statement that speaks to the aberrations that showed up
during your key audience perception monitoring. And it
could call for straightening out that dangerous misconception,
or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or doing something about
that damaging rumor.

PR 101 says when you set a goal, you need a strategy that
shows you how to get there. Here, you have three strategic
choices when it comes to handling a perception or opinion
challenge: create perception where there may be none, change
the perception, or reinforce it. A bad strategy pick will taste
like lime zest on your veal chops, so be certain the new
strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. For
example, you don’t want to select “change” when the
facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

Your PR team has their work cut out for them because now
they must come up with just the right, corrective language
that will persuade an audience to your way of thinking. Words
that are compelling, persuasive and believable AND clear and
factual. You have little choice if you are to correct a perception
by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to
the desired behaviors.

Message impact is also key in such a message, so sit down
again with your communications specialists and review your
message for that quality as well.. Then, select the communications
tactics most likely to carry your words to the attention of your
target audience. 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. But be sure that the tactics you pick are known to
reach folks just like your audience members.

The credibility of a message can depend on its delivery method.
So, think about introducing it to smaller gatherings rather than
using higher-profile tactics such as news releases or talk show
appearances.

Calls for progress reports will send you and your PR folks back
to the field for a second perception monitoring session with
members of your external audience. Using many of the same
questions used in the first benchmark session, you’ll now be
watching very carefully for signs that the bad news perception
is being altered in your direction.

If colleagues (or bosses) seem impatient for results, you can always accelerate things with more communications tactics and increased frequencies.

Folks act on their perceptions of the facts they hear about you
and your operation. Which means you have next to no choice
but to deal promptly and effectively with those perceptions by
doing what is necessary to reach and move those key external
audiences of yours to actions you desire.

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 1085 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

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. Visit his website.

Article Source.

Tags: public relations strategies, good strategies, public relations

Business to Business relationships come to expect a certain level of professionalism, from the first telephone call to the final delivery.

Your business can be on the Really Big 500 list, employ only a handful of people, or be a business of one but what is said by that business to other business customers will reflect the personality of that business. It can be a PR boost or a PR blowout.

Have you called the telephone company or your long distance provider lately? Chances are you will get a machine telling you to “listen closely because the menus have changed” (as if they know you called last year).

When you do listen closely, chances are there is not a choice on the menu that sounds like the reason you called. Worse, you could choose a selection and be directed to an area that does not answer with no way to get back to real people. What does that say about the company? Terrible impression.

Only the company’s bean counters will argue that all that “select and press” boogie-woogie is good for the company. Word of mouth is faster and cheaper than any other form of advertising, and very widespread. Have you talked with anyone that thinks voice mail menus are nifty?

Same if you have to call an insurance company, or credit card company. Now, it seems, more and more calls are greeted with the “all our agents are busy, please hold” message. Can you imagine how that one got started? “Look, Herb, if we put the main line on voice mail, we can trim our customer support staff in half, just have the machine say ‘everyone is busy helping other customers’, we can save really big bucks!” Not much for PR is it? Even worse if they ditch the 800 number and make you pay for the call.

For years I have told my clients to look to the big boys to see how they do things. Now I hedge my advice, by pointing them at the big boys that are doing it right, because so many have made more than one wrong turn on the road to a professional, caring image.

The telephone is only one part of the puzzle, but one of the most important parts. I tell my clients with small to mid size businesses to call the office from time to time to see how the phone is answered.

I cannot count the number of times I have had to ask to person answering the phone to repeat the mesh of words that just flew by. Hundreds of times I have been ka-thudded on hold with not so much as a “Hang on Bub!”

It is true, you can hear a smile on the other end of the phone. You can also hear indifference and the Easy one to spot is outright disgust. One bored telephone person can do more to undo what took years to do more than any other company asset (or liability).

What if your company is you? Staff of one with a home office. What happens when a call comes in and you are not there to put on your best voice? Does a machine get it? In how many rings? What does the machine say? Does your machine make sense if you call from a pay phone?

It only takes a few minutes to draft a script for the answer machine. So much better than an ad lib. Even the pros write it down. Forget about that “I’m not here” stuff, any moron can figure that one out. No need to lecture them with “..say your phone number twice” or “talk slowly, I am not a stenographer”. Record it over and over until it sounds bright, happy, and clear enough for Grandma to understand.

How do you feel when you make a business call and a machine answers to tell you “if you want to send a fax, press start now!”? Makes you question the quality of the business, doesn’t it? Can’t they even afford a separate fax number?

You see it on printed material, too, “..for fax, call first so we can turn on the machine”. It is hard to imagine such a setup being used for more than one or two faxes a year. The impression that a lack of a separate fax number gives is negative in every respect.

The ultimate professional faux pas is to use your home phone number as your business number. This might work if you are the only one ever to answer the phone and your machine always answers if you are away (even if the house of full of kids and an in-law or two). What usually happens is a child, or grandchild, will answer “huh-whoah?”

“Is this Acme Consulting?”

“I’ll get my Mommee (clunk) Mommeeee”

Neat first impression. Consider the ramifications if a teenager in your house has figured out how to dial out.

Here are two simple ideas to help give your business a professional front, telephone-wise.

If you already use a separate line for the fax machine, but still use your home phone as your business line, start using the fax number as your main business number. Make sure no one else answers it. Put your answer machine on it and leave the home phone alone. Put your new number on everything and send email to those that may have the old one. The transition won’t take long.

You won’t lose any faxes because you can get a free fax number from several sources that send the faxes to your computer. No banner ads to read, just free fax service. I have had one for years. I have a dedicated fax number and don’t pay a penny.

My fax number converts any fax to an eMail attachment and it arrives in my eMail box. I can read my faxes from any computer, worldwide. In my office I can read and pitch, or print and read. I don’t buy fax paper anymore. Some folks call them electronic faxes. The point is, you can get a fax number all your own, without extension, that anyone can use, 24 hours a day, for free. No hidden costs or startup fees.

The two most popular are jfax and efax but any Internet search for “free fax numbers” will bring up a bigger list.

If you don’t have a fax number at home, call the telephone company and order a second residential line. Just tell them you want a second line, no need to explain. Once it is installed, make it your main business line and get a free fax number.

Now your business card can show a main line, a fax line and a cell phone and your mother-in-law can’t run off new business.

If it walks like a pro and acts like a pro…

©2007 BIG Mike McDaniel is the Small Business Advertising Expert. Get BIG Mike’s Free Newsletter BIG Ideas for Small Business. Find hundreds advertising articles at Small Business Advertising Articles

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Public Relations Strategies

Public Relations Strategies & Tips

I read a recent article by Bill Blasé within the Emerging Manager Monthly Newsletter. Here are the tips that I gleaned from this article:

• TV viewers and interviewers love contrarians, conflicting views make for interesting television
• Take a pass on issues where you are not an expert and don’t have any value-added insight on the issue
• Media appearances might not bring in a windfall of new business but a well coordinated PR plan combined with grass roots relationship develop and an online presence can be very effective
• Maintain eye contact with the interviewer and not the camera
• Speak slowly and match the interviewers tone and pace
• Short brief 30 second sound bites are ideal for TV appearances
• Michael Barron who is the CEO of Knott Capital Management commented in the article, “Everyone knows the Fidelitys, the Putnams and the rest of the larger firms in our industry. For some of the smaller firms, this is away you can build recognition and credibility
• Ignore the monitor and the audience, imagine speaking to a single viewer

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