When properly applied by business, non-profit and association managers, public relations "medicine" does something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of theirs that MOST affect their operations.

It's easy-to-swallow "medicine" when it leads managersto persuade those key outside folks to their way of thinking, then move them to take actions that allow the manager's department, division or subsidiary to succeed.

In other words, effective public relations "medicine" isapplied when PR alters individual perception leading tochanged behaviors among a manager's target "publics,"thus helping achieve his or her managerial objectives.

Here's the underlying essence: people act on their ownperception of the facts before them, which leads topredictable behaviors about which something can bedone. When we create, change or reinforce that opinionby reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-actionthe very people whose behaviors affect the organizationthe most, the public relations mission is accomplished.

But managers should always remember that their PReffort must demand more than special events, brochuresand press releases if they are to come up with the public relations results they paid for.

Here's a sampling of what this "medicine" can deliver:fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures;capital givers or specifying sources beginning to lookyour way; customers starting to make repeat purchases;membership applications on the rise; community leadersbeginning to seek you out; welcome bounces in showroom visits; prospects starting to do business with you;higher employee retention rates, and even politicians andlegislators starting to view you as a key member of thebusiness, non-profit or association communities.

Luckily, your PR people are already in the perception andbehavior business, so they should be of real use for thisinitial opinion monitoring project. But you must be certainof several things. First, who among your PR team reallyunderstands the blueprint outlined above and showscommitment to its implementation, starting with keyaudience perception monitoring? Second, be certain thatyour public relations people really accept why it's SOimportant to know how your most important outsideaudiences perceive your operations, products or services.And third, make sure they believe that perceptions almostalways result in behaviors that can help or hurt youroperation.

Review the bidding with your PR staff. Especially yourgame plan for monitoring and gathering perceptions byquestioning members of your most important outsideaudiences. Questions along these lines: how much do youknow about our organization? Have you had prior contactwith us and were you pleased with the interchange? Areyou familiar with our services or products and employees?Have you experienced problems with our people orprocedures?

You may wish to use those PR folks of yours in thatmonitoring capacity since, as noted, they're already inthe perception and persuasion business. And further,because it can run into real money using professionalsurvey firms to do the opinion gathering work. But,whether it's your people or a survey firm asking thequestions, the objective remains the same: identifyuntruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors,inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negativeperception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Here, you are aiming at creating a PR goal that doessomething about the most serious problem areas youuncovered during your key audience perceptionmonitoring. Will it be to straighten out that dangerousmisconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or,stop that potentially painful rumor cold?

Where you establish a goal, you must establish astrategy that tells you how to get there. So keep inmind that there are just three strategic optionsavailable when it comes to doing something aboutperception and opinion. Change existing perception,create perception where there may be none, orreinforce it. The wrong strategy pick will taste likeblue cheese on your corn flakes, so be sure your newstrategy fits well with your new public relations goal.You wouldn't want to select "change" when the factsdictate a strategy of reinforcement.

It's always a challenge to create an actionable messagethat will help persuade any audience to your way ofthinking. Here, you must do so, and it must be awell-written message target directly at your keyexternal audience. Identify your strongest writerbecause s/he must build some very special, correctivelanguage. Words that are not merely compelling,persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if theyare to shift perception/opinion towards your point ofview and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Now it's selection time once again, namely, thecommunications tactics most likely to carry yourmessage to the attention of your target audience.There are scores available. From speeches, facilitytours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings,media interviews, newsletters, personal meetingsand many others. But you must be certain that thetactics you pick are known to reach folks just likeyour audience members.

By the way, you may wish to keep this kind ofmessage low profile and unveil it before smallermeetings and presentations rather than usinghigher-profile news releases. Reason is, thecredibility of any message is fragile and always atstake, so how you communicate it is a concern.

You'll need preliminary progress reports, whichwill alert you and your PR team to begin a secondperception monitoring session with members ofyour external audience. You'll want to use manyof the same questions used in the first benchmarksession. But now, you will be on red alert for signsthat the bad news perception is being altered inyour direction.

If things are not moving fast enough for you, youalways have the option of accelerating the effortby adding more communications tactics as well asincreasing their frequencies.

The value of public relations as effective medicinefor managers becomes clearer when you realize thatthe people you deal with behave like everyone else ?they act upon their perceptions of the facts they hearabout you and your operation. Which means you reallyhave little choice but to deal promptly and effectivelywith those perceptions by doing what is necessary toreach and move those key external audiences of yoursto actions you desire.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource boxin your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.

Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

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 communi- cations, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant presssecretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degreefrom Columbia University, major in public relations.

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