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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Public Relations Grand Illusion

Public Relations' Grand Illusion

"Public Relations is really all about communications tactics and publicity." Sorry, no. Whether you are a business, non-profit, government agency or association manager, PR actually is all about a high- impact action plan which does something meaningful about the behaviors of those important audiences that most affect your organization; creates the kind of external stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives; and does so by persuading those key outside folks to your way of thinking by helping move them to take actions that allow your department, group, division or subsidiary to succeed.

Communications tactics are nice, and really necessary when you need to move a message from here to there. But that's all they are.

The PR illusion that simple tactics like press releases, broadcast plugs, special events or brochures can deliver the end-products outlined in the first paragraph all by themselves, is not merely misguided, it's wishful thinking.

Worse, it can become a dangerous tactical preoccupation with many managers, diverting their attention from the PR end-product he or she has a right to expect. Unfortunately, it also denies that manager the best that public relations has to offer.

Of course, all options are open when our manager bases his or her public relations planning on its underlying premise: 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 usually accomplished.

At the core of PR's premise is the fact that good public relations planning really CAN alter individual perception and result in changed behaviors among key outside audiences. But you'll only get there when your PR demands more than news releases, special events and broadcast plugs. Only then will you receive the quality public relations results you deserve.

What kind of PR end-products can you expect? Here are several: politicians and legislators begin looking at you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities; new prospects actually start to do business with you; capital givers or specifying sources begin to look your way; welcome bounces in show room visits occur; community leaders begin to seek you out; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures start showing up; customers begin to make repeat purchases; and membership applications start to rise.

I'd suggest that you look first to your public relations professionals for your new opinion monitoring project since they're already in the perception and behavior business. But be certain that the PR staff really accepts why it's SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Essentially, be sure they believe that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.

Take the time needed to go over your plans for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Ask questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the interchange? Are you familiar with our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

The fact, however, is this. When you use professional survey firms to do the opinion gathering work, your costs can exceed the expense of using those PR folks of yours in that monitoring capacity. But whether it's your people or a survey firm asking the questions, the objective remains the same: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Setting a clearcut and realistic PR goal now comes front and center. As with most strategic programs, it must call for action on the most serious problem areas you uncovered during your key audience perception monitoring. Possibly, you will decide to stop that potentially painful rumor cold. Or straighten out that dangerous misconception? Or correct that gross inaccuracy?

Equally key, you must link your goal to an equally action-oriented strategy that shows how to get to where you're going. Actually, you have just three strategic options available to you when it comes to doing something about perception and opinion. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Needless to say, the wrong strategy pick will taste like some brands of vegetarian meatballs. So be sure your new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. You certainly don't want to select "change" when the facts dictate a strategy of reinforcement.

Because good writing is central to the public relations business, the best writer on your team must prepare a persuasive message that will help move your key audience to your way of thinking. It has to be a carefully-written message targeted directly at your key external audience. Your writer must come up with really corrective language that is not merely compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you have in mind.

Here's a lighter topic. Selecting the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. There are many available. 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.

Of course how you communicate must concern you at this point. The reason is that the credibility of any message is fragile and always suspect. Which is why the means by which you communicate is always be a concern. And that's also why you may wish to unveil your corrective message before smaller meetings through presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases.

To establish comparative progress, you may wish to demonstrate how the monies spent on public relations can pay off in the form of periodic progress reports. But, it's also an alert to begin a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. You'll want to use many of the same questions used in the benchmark session. But now, you will be on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

Any program can suffer from occasional slowdowns in momentum. Your options include speeding things up by adding more communications tactics and/or increasing their frequencies.

Clearly, it is no illusion when managers move beyond communication tactics, and create a high-impact, PR action plan certain to deliver to them the very best public relations has to offer.

end

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 1260 including guidelines and resource box.

Robert A. Kelly © 2006.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Trading, Gambling & Las Vegas

I was recently taking a little R&R with my parents in Las Vegas. While I am not a big gambler, I thought I would do an experiment.

I decided to use the same rules that are essential for profitable trading and apply them to gambling.

Rule 1: Choose the right game. In gambling you need focus on a particular game that that is easy to play and understand. The same is true in trading. You should never trade markets that you don\'t understand and are difficult to trade real-time. I think alot of traders trade something just because it is popular. That is very foolish as you can have your head handed to you if you don\'t know what you are doing.

Rule 2: Choose a bet size that is within your comfort level. I decided on a bet(unit) size of $1. To some of you that may be small, but I chose this amount simply because it is nothing to me and I know that my emotions would not affect the game over this small amount of money.

Many traders' downfall lies in betting too big!

Take forex traders for example, when they trade a regular sized forex contract each point(pip) is worth $10.00. If they lose just 20 pips on a trade, that is $200 and that may be way too big both financially and psychologically for the trader to stomach. As a result they start trading out of fear and anxiety and make a lot of mistakes.

If this sounds like you, then by simply switching to the smaller mini forex contract where each point(pip) is worth just $1.00 you may find that all your anxiety is gone and that you trade easily and confidently.

If you are a stock trader, you may found that trading 500 shares is way too stressful, but dropping down to 100 shares makes all the difference in the world.

Rule 3: Choose your \"windows of opportunity\" wisely. In every casino there are hundreds of slot and poker machines all trying to grab your attention to get you to play.

When I look for a machine that can give me a \"window of opportunity\" I have 2 criteria.

First, I only look for video poker machines because you can apply certain strategies that can increase your odds. Second, I always look for ones near the casino entrance area as these machines are often programmed to pay out more frequently so that they attract attention and lure gamblers into the casino.

Now in contrast, let's look at how my Father picked a game. He had no rules and was sucked into the first machine that grabbed his attention. In addition, he would choose regular slot machines which didn't allow for any strategies and would play machines that were in the middle of nowhere. Time after time he would lose all his money on these machines.

In trading you must pick your market wisely too. How do you do this? Only trade markets you can afford to trade and also make sure you understand all the rules and nuances of it.

Rule 4: Money management - Use a stop loss. In each new game I would start with the same $100.00 buy in which gave me 100 - $1 units. If I lost 30 units I would end the game and take a break.

Many traders have no set money management plan before they get into a trade and just wing it. You absolutely must know what your risk is before you enter the trade and use protective stops to protect your capital.

Rule 5: Getting a read on the game. I know from experience that when a machine is really hot I will be profitable practically right away and it will pay out often. These characteristics give me important clues to games that want to stay in until I hit my win target.

In trading what often happen is that when the trader is quickly profitable they get really excited and at the same time nervous. This is because they are so worried about losing all the time, that they get the overwhelming desire to get out of the trade and lock in some profit.

The problem with this is that they never ride the trade up far enough and to succeed at this game you have to fight the urge to bail out of a winning trade. You must learn to stick with a profitable trade so that you can lock in some big trades. It is the only way to succeed as it will make up for all your losses.

On the other hand, I would leave if the machine wasn't paying out quickly. Sometimes I would sit there for 15 minutes and keep winning a few and losing a few. After all this effort I would still not be above my starting buy-in amount.

This type of game was a sure sign that things were not going my way and probably wouldn\'t do so either. When I am in this situation I will walk away. When faced with this situation the average gambler will convince himself his luck will change. This is rarely the case as the casino usually gets the last laugh!

In my trading courses I teach that if a trade doesn't go your way within 5 bars it is more than likely going to turn into a loser. The reason is that there is no momentum. When you observe this type of market behavior then it is usually better to exit the trade and wait for a new setup.

Rule 6: Money management - Setting a stop win. When you are in Las Vegas everyone has the "Las Vegas Mentality". They think that when they start winning that their luck will continue and they are going to get rich. This is exactly the stupidity that the casinos count on as they know the longer a gambler stays at the table the less likely the odds will stay in his/her favor.

It was interesting to watch my Father play as he has the "Las Vegas Mentality" and on many occasions he would have a nice profit and I would tell him to walk away. He would always say, "Just a bit longer" and I constantly watched him lose not only his profit but his entire buy-in amount as well.

When you trade you must have a "Stop Win" strategy. What this is is a pre-determined profit objective for you to exit at. For example it could be when you are up 5% or $200 or 15 points etc. It could be when the market hits a particular price level. For example, say you buy a stock at $10.00; you would tell yourself ahead of time that if it hits $11.00 then you are getting out. Your strategy cousl also be based on using a trailing stop.

You absolutely must decide what your "Stop Win" strategy is before you get into the trade!

My "Stop Win" strategy for the poker machines was 50 units. Anytime I was above this level I would simply cash out and take a break. For example, I got real lucky in one game and hit for 220 units on one hand and another time I hit for 1240 units. In each instance, I took the money and ran.

After 3 days in Las Vegas, it was interesting to see how I had a very profitable experience while my Father had the exact opposite. The only difference between us was that I had rules and he didn't.

Viva Las Vegas!!!