|
|
e-Mails Not Getting Answered? Shhhh! Here's Why...
Let's face it -- none of us like to be ignored. But sending an e-mail to a colleague that commits even ONE of these four cardinal sins can mean the difference between a speedy reply ... and that big e-mail receptacle bin in the sky. :-/
Here...
Five Secrets to Showing Your Customers You Really Care
Five Secrets to Showing Your Customers You Really Care Copyright © Ed Sykes. All rights reserved During our recent online poll, we asked the following question: What upsets you the most when receiving poor customer service? Eighty percent of the...
Human Resource Communication Pays Off
Human Resource Communications and Corporate Communications – are they one in the same? Both plan and develop written communication strategies to further the understanding and perceptions of their audience. Both provide counsel and editorial...
Top 3 Myths of Leadership Debunked
What happens people define “leadership” as something attached to a title, or a salary, or a corner office? Both managers and employees suffer the consequences! Explore what happens when leaders and staff buy in to the top 3 limiting “myths of...
What is "Confianza" and Why is it Important?
What is Confinanza and Why is it Important? Tried-and-true training methods can fail in a multi-cultural, multi-lingual environment, and can leave an unprepared trainer wondering what to do. In this article I share what I learned while leading a...
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
What You Don't Know About PR Can Hurt You
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 1115 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2004.
What You Don’t Know About PR Can Hurt You
And hurt bad if you are a business, non-profit or association manager. Especially when you rely too heavily on tactics like special events, brochures and press releases to get your money’s worth.
Instead, pursue public relations that does nothing less than alter individual perception and lead to changed behaviors among those key outside audiences of yours.
In other words, the best approach does something positive about the behaviors of those key external audiences that MOST affect your operation.
That approach persuades your important external folks to your way of thinking, and moves them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.
Thus it creates the kind of stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives.
Best part is, once you digest the underlying premise of public relations, you’ll understand how the right PR really CAN alter individual perception and lead to those changed behaviors you need. Here’s how it goes: 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 accomplished.
Keep in mind that it requires more than good old special events, brochures and news releases if you really want to end up with your PR money’s worth.
Fact is, business, non-profit and association managers who employ this kind of public relations can benefit from results such as new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; rebounds in showroom visits; membership applications on the rise; community service and sponsorship opportunities; enhanced activist group relations, and expanded feedback channels, not to mention new thoughtleader and special event contacts.
Over time, you’ll notice customers making repeat purchases; prospects reappearing; stronger developing relationships with the educational, labor, financial and healthcare communities; improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies, and even capital givers or specifying sources glancing your way.
It goes without saying that you want your most important outside audiences to really perceive your operations, products or services in a positive light. So take pains to be sure that your PR staff has bought into the whole effort. Convince yourself that they accept the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.
Spend some time together and review the PR blueprint very carefully with your staff, especially regarding how you will gather and monitor perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions such as: how much do you know about our organization? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased with the how things went? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?
Certainly you can count on professional survey people to handle the perception monitoring phases of your program IF the budget is available. But luckily, your PR people are also in the
perception and behavior business and can pursue the same objective: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.
We should spend a moment on your public relations goal. You need one that addresses the problems that cropped up during your key audience perception monitoring. Chances are, it will call for straightening out that dangerous misconception, or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or doing something about that damaging rumor.
Another truism is that goals need strategies to show you how to get there. And you have just three strategic choices when it comes to handling a perception or opinion challenge: create perception where there may be none, change the perception, or reinforce it. Unfortunately, selecting a bad strategy will taste like maple syrup on your ziti, so be certain the new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. For example, you don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.
Because persuading an audience to your way of thinking is awfully hard work, you now must create the right corrective language including words that are compelling, persuasive, believable AND clear and factual. This is a must if you are to correct a perception by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to the desired behaviors. So, meet again with your communications specialists and review your message for impact and persuasiveness.
Now you need to select the communications tactics most likely to carry your words to the attention of your target audience. Happily there are dozens available. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be sure that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.
Sad, but the credibility of your message could depend on its delivery method. So, consider introducing it to smaller gatherings rather than using higher-profile communications such as news releases or talk show appearances. Progress reports will suggest themselves in due course. And that probably will mean you and your PR folks should return to the field for a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Using many of the same questions used in the first benchmark session, watch carefully for signs that your communications tactics have worked and that the negative perception is being altered in your direction.
If you sense your colleagues or your client becoming impatient, you can always accelerate matters with a broader selection of communications tactics AND increased frequencies.
You won’t get hurt when you apply your budget to public relations activity that creates behavior change among your key outside audiences that leads directly to achieving your goals.
That will demonstrate conclusively that the right PR really CAN alter individual perception. And better yet, lead to changed behaviors that help you reach those managerial objectives and come out on top.
end
About the Author
Bob Kelly counsels 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. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com
|
|
|
|
|
Language Tools |
Translation of text and web pages between English and several European languages. |
www.google.com |
  |
Language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Gestures are a part of human language too. Some invented human languages have ... In human languages, the symbols are sometimes known as lexemes and the ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
English language - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
Estimates about second language speakers of English vary greatly between 150 million ... Distribution of first-language native English speakers by country ... |
en.wikipedia.org |
  |
Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL ... |
SDL International is the world's number 1 provider of free and professional language translation services for websites and documents. |
www.freetranslation.com |
  |
AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation |
Select from and to languages, Chinese-simp to English, Chinese-trad to English, English to Chinese-simp, English to Chinese-trad, English to Dutch ... |
babelfish.altavista.com |
  |
yourDictionary.com • Comprehensive and Authoritative Language Portal |
Comprehensive index of on-line dictionaries in more than 200 different languages. Includes an index of on-line grammars, word of the day by email, ... |
www.yourdictionary.com |
  |
iLoveLanguages - Your Guide to Languages on the Web |
The Human-Languages Page is a comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources. The over 1900 links in the HLP database have been hand-reviewed ... |
www.ilovelanguages.com |
  |
AltaVista - Babel Fish Translation |
AltaVista Babel Fish provides the online text and web page language translation! ... Select from and to languages, Chinese-simp to English, Chinese-trad to ... |
world.altavista.com |
  |
BBC - Languages - Homepage |
Learn French, Spanish, German, Italian and other languages with the BBC. Start up with our courses or brush up with our audio magazines. |
www.bbc.co.uk |
  |
Online Dictionaries and Translators |
online dictionaries that assist in the conversion from one language to ... If the dictionary only translates from one language to another you will see this ... |
www.word2word.com |
  |
The Klingon Language Institute |
Nonprofit organization offers language tutorials, related merchandise, mailing list and membership information. |
www.kli.org |
  |
MARC Code List for Languages |
MARC Code List for Languages prepared by the Library of Congress Network Development and MARC Standards Office. |
www.loc.gov |
  |
Python Programming Language -- Official Website |
Home page for Python, an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, extensible programming language. It provides an extraordinary combination of clarity and ... |
www.python.org |
  |
SYSTRAN Language Translation Technology |
Machine translation products. Free online translation available (the engine used by Altavista's Web translator) - English to French, German, Italian, ... |
www.systransoft.com |
  |
Project MUSE - Language |
Language, the official journal for the Linguistic Society of America, ... Edited by Brian Joseph , Language serves a readership of over 7000 and has been ... |
muse.jhu.edu |
  |
Learn a Language :: English, Spanish, German, Italian, French ... |
English language courses online: e-learning, learn English online, ... English language learning events,news, conferences, workshops and seminars ... |
www.edufind.com |
  |
Parlo - Welcome to Parlo - learn to speak a new language. |
Parlo helps you learn English, French, Spanish and other languages with free online courses, music, a magazine, flash cards, chat rooms, message boards and ... |
www.parlo.com |
  |
PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor |
PHP is a server-side HTML embedded scripting language. It provides web developers with a full suite of tools for building dynamic websites: native APIs to ... |
www.php.net |
  |
Ethnologue, Languages of the World |
Home page of ethnologue.com, a searchable database of language resources. |
www.ethnologue.com |
  |
Language Log |
Weblog run by University of Pennsylvania phonetician Mark Liberman, with multiple guest linguists. |
itre.cis.upenn.edu |
  |
|