|
|
|
A Plan, What a Novel Way to do Business!
If you're like me, green as a two week old willow and trying to set and run your marketing plan, kicking the proverbial tires to your business, as it were; then hark my message. I won't be telling you how to build a list, start a website, develop...
Making Money in Your Underwear! The Jeff Paul Marketing System
No, no! Im not talking about how to make money by selling underwears on the Internet Im talking about Jeff Paul, the super marketing guru of 90s who shouted How I Earn $4,000 a Day Sitting at My Kitchen Table in My Underwear? But its a...
Open Source Office Software
What is Really Free? It's funny. We have been programmed into believing that because something is free, that there is some kind of catch, or that it is not as good as a paid version, or that it is riddled with spyware and scumware. This may be...
Top 10 Business E-mail Basics
When it comes to your business e-mail communications, you need to make an impression that can lend to the determination that you are someone that will be a pleasure to do business with.
For your consideration below are the "Top 10 e-mail...
Working With Your Real Estate Attorney
Purchasing or selling a home will probably be one of your largest and most important financial transactions. Before signing a contract to purchase or sell a home, both buyer and seller should consult an attorney to assure that the real estate...
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Public Relations Going O.K.?
Yes?
Good!
Still, if youre not getting the behavior changes you paid
for, youre wasting your money.
Heres why I say that. People act on their perception of the
facts, and those perceptions lead to certain behaviors. But
something can be done about those perceptions and behaviors
that leads to achieving your organizations objectives.
Which means you really CAN establish the behavior change
you want, up front, then insist on getting that result before
you pronounce the public relations effort a success.
In other words, the way to increase your comfort level about
your public relations investment, is to make certain that
investment produces the behavior modification you said you
wanted at the beginning of the program.
That way, you KNOW youre getting your moneys worth.
Just what, you may ask, does your public relations team
have to do to achieve that result?
Heres one approach.
Because public relations problems are usually defined by
what people THINK about a set of facts, as opposed to the
actual truth of the matter, it will be especially helpful if
the public relations program is built upon the premise
mentioned above and, for emphasis, again here:
1. People act on their perception of the facts;
2. Those perceptions lead to certain behaviors;
3. Something can be done about those perceptions and behaviors
that leads to achieving the organizations objectives.
Now, Rank Your External Audiences
Identifying key audiences and prioritizing them a crucial
step in any public relations action plan -- starts with a
priority-ranking of those audiences with a clear interest
in your organization, often described as stakeholders or
publics. Included would be customers, prospects, employees,
media, the business community and local thought-leaders as
well as any number of other interest groups.
Stay Aware
Those with the public relations assignment must stay aware
of negative or counterproductive behaviors among the
organizations key stakeholders or publics. customers,
prospects, media, community activists, union leaders, competitors
the business community and others.
Interaction of one kind or another with key audiences will
tell you how they feel and how they perceive -- your
organization, and in particular areas where problems may be
brewing. This is informal polling, but essential
to any public relations effort. If resources are available,
a limited opinion poll of the priority audience would be
helpful.
There are many ways to gather such information. For example,
regular monitoring of headquarters and field location media,
staff activity reports, employee and community feedback,
regulatory and other local, state and federal government activities
involving your organization. High on any such intelligence
list is the Internet with its emails, ezines, chatrooms and
search engines.
Identify the Behavior Modification Problem or Challenge
Now is the time to identify the behavior modification
problem such as declining sales in a specific product line.
Or, is it an allegation of wrongdoing? Or a quality or
performance issue? Has an elected official spoken negatively
about your industry? Have you learned that a national activist
group may target a unit of your organization? Or, is there
clear evidence of negative behavior among a key audience?
Similarly, a behavior modification challenge might include
creating positive, first time impressions of a new soft drink
during a new market introduction. Or reinforcing the
reputation of a category leader whose sales have begun to
slip.
Verify the Accuracy and Severity of the Problem
Is it true and how bad is it? Determine through field
staff, key customers, media monitoring and, if the budget
is there, opinion sampling, just how serious the problem
is. If an allegation, is it true or false? If a drop-off in
sales, gather and carefully evaluate the likely reasons.
If a quality issue, probe deeply for its real cause.
After an exhaustive review of all evidence surrounding the
behavioral problem, establish conclusively its size and shape.
Does it threaten employee or public safety, financial
stability, reputation, the organizations mission, or sales?
The answers to these questions help determine the resources
to be assembled.
The Public Relations Goal
Simply stated: the goal is to begin the process of altering
public perception and, thus, behaviors, to a view consistent
with that held by your organization.
The Public Relations Strategy
Now, you must select one of three choices available to you
when you determine the public relations strategy. You can
create opinion where none exists, change existing opinion or
reinforce existing opinion.
Lets assume
that we will strive to change existing opinion
on the key issue. With your perception, behavior modification
goals and now, the strategy, established, progress will be
measured in terms of specific altered behaviors, i.e., floor
traffic returns to the showroom; activist rhetoric declines;
a low employee retention rate reverses. Such progress
indicators can be set down, and agreed upon, once the
negative perceptions are truly understood, thus establishing
the degree of behavioral change that realistically can be
expected.
A Persuasive message
What do we say? Well, we prepare persuasive messages designed
to inform, clarify, and impact individual perception in such
a way that individual behaviors flowing from those perceptions
are consistent with that desired by our organization. Bringing
important target audiences around to ones way of thinking
really does depend heavily on the quality of the message
prepared.
The messages must contain clear evidence supporting your
organizations views on the issue such as a credible
third-party endorsement of your position. Regular assessments
of how opinion is currently running among employees,
suppliers and community leaders should be made. Finally,
action-producing incentives leading individuals to change
their perceptions of the issue, thus altering their behaviors,
should be included in the message incentives that testify
to the organizations good intentions and veracity.
Its Tactics Time
Now, you select the most effective communications tactics
available to you.
The question is, how will you reach your target audiences
especially in various locations? You have many choices.
Face-to-face meetings, email, hand-placed feature articles
and broadcast appearances, special employee, supplier or
community briefings, news releases, announcement luncheons,
onsite media interviews, facility tours, promotional contests,
brochures and a host of other carefully targeted communications
tactics.
Reaching such audiences with the message through special
events is particularly effective. They offer news value and
include activities such as financial roadshows, awards
ceremonies, celebrity appearances, open houses and trade
conventions.
Your public relations effort effort can be accelerated, even
amplified by carefully selecting the very best tactics from
among print or broadcast media, key podium presentations,
special events or top-level personal contacts. When
these tools communicate with each target audience, they must
score direct bullseyes.
And remember that vital to the success of any action
program is the selection and perceived credibility of the
actual spokespeople who deliver the messages. They must
speak with authority and conviction if they are to be believed,
and if meaningful media coverage is to be achieved.
Action
While its pull-the-trigger time, you should insure that you
approach your target audiences with a tactical schedule
calculated to reach them consistently as well as through
varied media such as newspapers, radio and television
appearances, high-profile speeches, facility tours and
community briefings.
How are we Doing?
The key activity here is monitoring progress, seeking signs
of improvement in target audience perceptions and behaviors.
You and your colleagues should speak regularly with members
of each target audience, monitor print and broadcast media
for clear evidence of the organizations messages or viewpoints
and regularly interact with key customers, prospects and
influential citizens.
Indicators that the messages are moving community opinion
read perceptions and behaviors -- in your organizations
direction will start appearing. For example, indicators like
comments in community meetings, local newspaper editorials,
e-mails from suppliers as well as public references by
political figures and local celebrities.
The End Game
Youll know when you arrive at the public relations end game
because the changes in behaviors will become truly apparent --
among them, encouraging supplier and thought-leader comment,
increasingly upbeat employee and community feedback and
an increased pace of positive media reports.
Bottom line? The public relations program can be deemed a
success when you clearly meet the original behavior
modification goal you set when it all began.
end
About the Author
Bob Kelly, public relations consultant, was director of public
relations for Pepsi-Cola Co.; AGM-Public Relations, Texaco Inc.;
VP-Public Relations, Olin Corp.; VP-Public Relations, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications,
U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press
secretary, The White House. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net
|
|
|
|
|
| Oral Presentation Advice |
| Your presentation should not replace your paper, but rather whet the ... Below I consider goals for academic interview talks and class presentations. ... |
| www.cs.wisc.edu |
|
| Presentation Skills |
| This site contains annotated links to resources concerned with presentation and communication skills. |
| lorien.ncl.ac.uk |
|
| Presentation Helper - Free PowerPoint templates, help, advice and ... |
| Resources on how to make effective presentations. Includes tips on PowerPoint and topic ideas. |
| www.presentationhelper.co.uk |
|
| Neurobehavioral Systems, Inc. |
| Neuroscience stimulus delivery software can be used for cognitive psychology, fMRI, erp and single unit research (Windows). |
| nbs.neuro-bs.com |
|
| Why tables for layout is stupid: problems defined, solutions offered |
| Why tables for layout is stupid:. problems defined, solutions offered. Tables existed in HTML for one reason: To display tabular data. ... |
| www.hotdesign.com |
|
| The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation |
| This presentation prepared with the help of Microsoft Powerpoint Autocontent Wizard. ... Permission is granted to use this presentation in any course or ... |
| norvig.com |
|
| Presentation Zen |
| I love the clear presentation of the ideas in the book and the fact that the ... In the context of presentations, moving info away can help you and the ... |
| www.presentationzen.com |
|
| Presentation Tips for Public Speaking |
| Better Public Speaking & Presentation - Ensure Your Words Are Always ... On the Job: Public Speaking Tips - Twelve Steps to Great Presentations by Elise ... |
| www.aresearchguide.com |
|
| Presentation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
| Presentation is the process of presenting the content of a topic to an ... You should plan to rehearse your presentation out loud at least four times. ... |
| en.wikipedia.org |
|
| OSCON 2005 Keynote - Identity 2.0 |
| A barn-burner of a presentation. I loved this. - Cory Doctorow. I watched it twice, and greatly enjoyed it both times. - Jon Udell ... |
| www.identity20.com |
|
| Presentations - Effective Communication - Public Speaking |
| Tips and tools for creating and delivering presentations: text, techniques and technology. |
| www.presentations.com |
|
| Presentation Information Resources - Presentation Technology News ... |
| Presentation Information Resources - Comprehensive presenter's resource providing instant access to up-to-date information on technology and techniques for ... |
| 199.249.170.231 |
|
| Effective Presentations homepage |
| In addition, the skills needed to prepare an oral presentation can be used ... A spiffy presentation discussing Effective Teaching with Powerpoint from the ... |
| www.kumc.edu |
|
| Impress |
| Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, ... Slide show Animation and Effects bring your presentation to life. ... |
| www.openoffice.org |
|
| PRESENTATIONPRO - experts for Microsoft PowerPoint |
| A series of products and services to help enhance PowerPoint presentations with templates and backgrounds. |
| www.presentationpro.com |
|
| Leadership - Presentation Skills |
| Presentation, PowerPoint, and Leadership. ... Presentations and reports are ways of communicating ideas and information to a group. But unlike a report, ... |
| www.skagit.com |
|
| Presentation: See what people are saying right now on Technorati |
| See all blog posts tagged with presentation on Technorati. |
| www.technorati.com |
|
| Secretary of State Addresses the U.N. Security Council |
| My friends, this has been a long and a detailed presentation. And I thank you for your patience. But there is one more subject that I would like to touch on ... |
| www.whitehouse.gov |
|
| Rubric |
| Organization, Audience cannot understand presentation because there is no sequence of information. Audience has difficulty following presentation because ... |
| www.ncsu.edu |
|
| Presentation Skills |
| Presentations are one of the first managerial skills which a junior engineer ... This article looks at the basics of Presentation Skills as they might apply ... |
| www.see.ed.ac.uk |
|
|