And the best way to mind your own business is to insure thatthose audiences whose behaviors have the greatest effect onyour enterprise keep thinking about you in the most positiveway. Reason is, bad behaviors often follow bad perceptions,so what your external audiences think about you can meansuccess or failure.
It's not hard to do, but it's something you must attend to ona regular basis. How? Try this.
Nobody can do it all, so put those outside audiences inorder-of-importance with the REALLY key audience at thetop-of-the-list.
Once prioritized. and beginning with #1, learn more aboutwhat's on the minds of that audience. In other words, monitortheir feelings and perceptions about you and your business.Ask questions. While you will appreciate positive input(and take it into account), it's absence of awareness,misconceptions, inaccuracies and hard feelings that you'rereally after because that's what can cause you grief. Also,stay alert for similar indicators coming from print andbroadcast media, emails, and business and communityspeeches and pronouncements.
In public relations, we know that people act on their ownperception of the facts before them, which leads to predictablebehaviors about which something can be done. So, when wecreate, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuadingand moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviorsaffect the organization, the public relations mission isaccomplished.
O.K., you've now gathered a lot of information about how yourkey target audience feels or doesn't feel about you and/or yourbusiness. What do you do with it?
You establish your public relations goal. For example, correctthis inaccuracy; straighten out that misconception; reinforceand strengthen a slightly positive perception; change a view ofyour business that's just plain wrong.
But now, you need a strategy to help you achieve that goal. Inpublic relations, that means you get to choose one of threebasic strategies: create opinion (perceptions) where none mayexist; change existing opinion; or reinforce it.
Take another look at the public relations goal you've established and make certain that the strategy you've selected is a logicalmatch.
Which brings you to "the message." Exactly what meaning andwhat remedial understanding do you want to convey to membersof that key target audience? Your message must be crystal-clearabout the misconception, rumor, inaccuracy or wrong-mindedbelief you discovered while interacting with, and gatheringinformation from members of that audience.
The corrective message must be persuasive and believable - notaggressive or overbearing - as it outlines in plain language thesimple truth of the matter.
How do you move messages from your business to the eyes andears of members of your key target audience? You usecommunications tactics, or "beasts of burden" as I like to callthem. There are a ton of them and their job is to carry yourmessage directly to the attention of key audience members.
Tactics range from Internet communications, facility tours,editorial board meetings and press releases to broadcastinterviews, promotional contests, brochures, face-to-facemeetings and many others.
But how do you know whether the effort is succeeding or not?You remonitor members of that key target audience, watchingcarefully for signs that perception (opinion) is moving in yourdirection. In other words, do you see progress towards achievingthe public relations goal you established at the beginning ofthe program? For example, increasing numbers of people appearto understand why the rumor was wrong, or what they believedabout your business was simply inaccurate.
If your goal and strategy make sense, and if your message ispersuasive and your communications tactics aggressive andwell-targeted, signs of public understanding and acceptancewill steadily increase.
In which case minding one's business in this manner will proveespecially rewarding as the public relations program achievessuccess.
Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in yourezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy wouldbe appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.
Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit andassociation managers about using the fundamental premise of publicrelations 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: http://www.prcommentary.com; bobkelly@TNI.net |
