Inoculate Yourself Against Bad PR
What is bad PR?
Well, if you’re a business, non-profit or associationmanager, bad PR does nothing positive about thebehaviors of those important outside audiences ofyours that most affect your operation.
It fails to create external stakeholder behavior changeleading directly to achieving your managerial objectives.
And it never does persuade those key outside folks toyour way of thinking, or move them to take actions thatallow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.
Good PR, on the other hand, really CAN alter individualperception and lead to the changed behaviors you need.At the same time, however, it requires more than specialevents, brochures and news releases if you really want toget your PR money’s worth.
Your inoculation against bad PR is the underlying premiseof public relations, and here it is: people act on their ownperception of the facts before them, which leads topredictable behaviors about which something can be done.When we create, change or reinforce that opinion byreaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action the verypeople whose behaviors affect the organization the most,the public relations mission is accomplished.
You may be surprised that good PR can generate results likeprospects starting to work with you; customers makingrepeat purchases; stronger relationships with the educational,labor, financial and healthcare communities; improvedrelations with government agencies and legislative bodies,and even capital givers or specifying sources looking your way
As the effort gains momentum, you can also see resultssuch as new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures;rebounds in showroom visits; membership applications on therise; community service and sponsorship opportunities; enhancedactivist group relations, and expanded feedback channels, notto mention new thoughtleader and special event contacts.
Just how vital is it that your most important outside audiencesreally perceive your operations, products or services in apositive light? Vital indeed, so assure yourself that your PRstaff has bought into the whole effort. Be especially carefulthat they accept the reality that perceptions almost alwayslead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.
Take the time to review the PR blueprint in detail withyour staff, especially how you will gather and monitormatters by questioning members of your most importantoutside audiences. Questions like these: how much do youknow about our organization? How much do you knowabout our services or products and employees? Have youhad prior contact with us and were you pleased with theinterchange? Have you experienced problems with ourpeople or procedures?
The perception monitoring phases of your program canobviously be handled by professional survey people, IF thebudget is available. But always keep in mind that your PRpeople are also in the perception and behavior business andcan pursue the same objective: identify untruths, falseassumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies,misconceptions and any other negative perception thatmight translate into hurtful behaviors.
Now, let’s talk about your public relations goal. You needone that speaks to the aberrations that showed up duringyour key audience perception monitoring. In all probability,it will call for straightening out that dangerous misconception,or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or doing something aboutthat damaging rumor.
The realities of public relations are that goals need strategiesto show you how to get there. And also that you have justthree strategic choices when it comes to handling a perceptionor opinion challenge: create perception where there maybe none, change the perception, or reinforce it. Unfortunately,a bad strategy pick will taste like ice cream on your cornedbeef and cabbage, so be certain the new strategy fits wellwith your new public relations goal. For example, you don’twant to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce”strategy.
Your PR team must create just the right, corrective language.Persuading an audience to your way of thinking is awfullyhard work, so we’re looking for words that are compelling,persuasive and believable AND clear and factual. You mustdo this if you are to correct a perception by shifting opiniontowards your point of view, leading to the desired behaviors.
Here you must select the communications tactics most likelyto carry your words to the attention of your target audience.Meet again with your communications specialists and reviewyour message for impact and persuasiveness. You can pickfrom dozens of available tactics.
From speeches, facility tours,emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews,newsletters, personal meetings and many others. Just be surethat the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just likeyour audience members.
On the chance that the old line about the credibility of amessage depending on its delivery method is true, you mightthink about introducing it to smaller gatherings rather thanusing higher-profile communications such as news releases ortalk show appearances.
Consider yourself alerted when the topic of a progress reportis suggested. Time for you and your PR folks to return to thefield for a second perception monitoring session with membersof your external audience. Using many of the same questionsused in the first benchmark session, you’ll now be watchingvery carefully for signs that your communications tactics haveworked and that the negative perception is being altered in yourdirection.
If impatience rears its head, you can always accelerate thingswith a broader selection of communications tactics AND increased frequencies.
Obviously, this will convert bad PR into good PR by doingsomething positive about the behaviors of those importantoutside audiences of yours that most affect your operation.It will do the job by creating external stakeholder behaviorchange leading directly to achieving your managerialobjectives. And it will pull this off by persuading those keyoutside folks to your way of thinking, thus moving them totake actions that allow your business, non-profit or associationto succeed.
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. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com
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