A Protective Measure Against Negative Public Relations
A Protective Measure Against Negative Public Relations
As a manager of a company, nonprofit, or association, you should know that negative public relations has little effect on the actions of the key external audiences that have the most impact on your operations.
It will not help you achieve your management goals by changing the behavior of external stakeholders.
Also, it will not win over those influential outsiders to your point of view or motivate them to do what is needed to make your division, subsidiary, or department a success.
But effective public relations can change people's minds and get them to do what you want them to. But if you want your public relations investment to pay off, you need more than just events, brochures, and press releases.
As a preventative measure against negative public relations, consider the following: individuals respond based on their personal interpretations of the information at hand, which in turn causes predictable actions that can be influenced. The goal of public relations is achieved when the opinion is formed, altered, or strengthened through contacting, convincing, and motivating the individuals whose actions have the greatest impact on the company.
A surprising number of outcomes can be achieved through effective public relations, including: prospects beginning to work with you; customers making repeat purchases; improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies; stronger relationships with the educational, labor, financial, and healthcare communities; and even capital givers or specifying sources looking your way.
New proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures, an uptick in showroom visits, an increase in membership applications, chances to serve and be sponsored, better relations with activist groups, more feedback channels, and new connections with thought leaders and special events are all signs that the effort is picking up steam.
To what extent is it matter that the people outside your company view your operations, goods, and services positively? Critically important; you must ensure that your public relations team fully supports the initiative. Be extra cautious to make sure they understand that their views nearly always influence their actions, which might benefit or harm your unit.
Discuss the PR plan with your team in depth, paying close attention to the sections that outline how you will collect data and keep tabs on developments via polling your most influential external stakeholders. Such as: what is your level of familiarity with our company? What is your level of familiarity with our company, its offerings, and its personnel? Was your previous interaction with us satisfactory, and have you had any past contact with us? Were our employees or processes problematic for you?
If funds are available, it is clear that expert surveyors can manage the perception monitoring aspects of your program. Never forget that public relations professionals work in the perception and behavior industry as well and can work toward the same goal: dispelling myths, misinformation, inaccurate claims, baseless rumors, and any other unfavorable impression that could lead to harmful actions.
Your public relations objective is the topic at hand. You should choose one that addresses the outliers discovered while monitoring the perceptions of your target audience. Probably, it will necessitate clearing up that harmful misunderstanding, resolving that blatant error, or addressing that detrimental rumor.
In public relations, the truth is that objectives necessitate plans to reach them. In addition, there are only three possible approaches to dealing with a problem with perception or opinion: either making perception where none exists, altering perception, or reinforcing it. Be careful that the new plan meshes nicely with your revised PR objective; otherwise, it will be like putting ice cream on top of corned beef and cabbage. For instance, if the evidence calls for a "reinforce" approach, you should not choose "change" as your strategy.
Your public relations group has to craft the perfect reprimand language. We are seeking phrases that are captivating, convincing, and credible while also being precise and true because convincing an audience to your viewpoint is quite difficult. Doing so is essential if you want to change someone is mind about something and achieve your desired results in terms of behavior.
This is where you get to pick the communication strategies that will get your message heard by the people you are trying to reach. To make sure your message is as effective and convincing as possible, meet with your communications experts once more. Dozens of strategies are at your disposal. These can range from briefings for consumers to tours of facilities, emails, pamphlets, talks with media, newsletters, in-person meetings, and countless more. Be careful that the strategies you use are tried and true methods for reaching people in your target demographic.
Instead of employing more high-profile communications like press releases or appearances on talk shows, you can consider presenting it to smaller groups if the old adage about the credibility of a message dependent on its delivery mode is correct. When someone suggests writing a progress report, you should consider yourself notified. Once again, it is time to take your public relations team out into the field to gauge how your external audience perceives you. You will now be closely monitoring for indications that your communication strategies have been effective and that the unfavorable impression is being changed in your favor, using many of the same questions utilized in the initial benchmark session.
If you find yourself becoming impatient, remember that you can always speed things up by increasing the frequency and variety of your communications strategies.
By positively impacting the actions of those crucial external audiences that have the greatest impact on your operation, this will naturally turn negative public relations into positive PR. Inspiring a shift in attitude and action among external stakeholders will get the work done and get you closer to your management goals. And it will achieve this by winning over those influential outsiders to your point of view, inspiring them to take the necessary steps for your organization to thrive.
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This article and its resource box are available for use in any online or offline publication, including ezines, newsletters, and websites. Please forward this to mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net so that I can get a copy. Including the instructions and resource box, the word count is 1100.
Copyright 2004 Robert A. Kelly.
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