Who, would you guess, is going to do the work? Regular public relations staff? Folks assigned to you by those above? Or could it be a PR agency crew? Nevertheless, they must be committed to you as the senior project manager, and to the PR blueprint starting with key audience perception monitoring.

A word of advice. Be certain that your team members really believe deeply why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be certain they buy the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can hel

Trouble is, you may know very little about the public relations someone else is doing on your behalf.

And that could cost you dearly.

Why? If your PR is focused on simple tactics like press releases, broadcast plugs or brochures, you’re not getting the best public relations has to offer a manager like you.

Instead of just tactics, consider using a strategic public relations plan that alters the individual perception of members of your key outside audiences, thus beginning the process of changing their behaviors.

Then, your new PR plan will lead you to actually persuade many of those key outside folks to your managerial way of thinking, helping to move them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.

So, what are you REALLY doing at this point?

You are using public relations to do something positive about the behaviors of the very outside audiences of yours that MOST affect your operation. Especially welcome when PR creates the kind of external stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your most important managerial objectives.

Which is why I believe you need a clearcut public relations blueprint designed to get all your team members and organizational colleagues working towards the same external stakeholder behaviors.

A blueprint, say, like this one: 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.

This approach to public relations will ring true when results like these appear: capital givers or specifying sources looking your way; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; a rebound in showroom visits; membership applications on the rise; fresh community service and sponsorship opportunities; new thoughtleader and special event contacts; improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies; prospects starting to work with you; customers making repeat purchases; and even stronger relationships with the educational, labor, financial and healthcare communities.

Who, would you guess, is going to do the work? Regular public relations staff? Folks assigned to you by those above? Or could it be a PR agency crew? Nevertheless, they must be committed to you as the senior project manager, and to the PR blueprint starting with key audience perception monitoring.

A word of advice. Be certain that your team members really believe deeply why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be certain they buy the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help

Then, your new PR plan will lead you to actually persuade many of those key outside folks to your managerial way of thinking, helping to move them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.

So, what are you REALLY doing at this point?

You are using public relations to do something positive about the behaviors of the very outside audiences of yours that MOST affect your operation. Especially welcome when PR creates the kind of external stakeholder behavior change that leads directly to achieving your most important managerial objectives.

Which is why I believe you need a clearcut public relations blueprint designed to get all your team members and organizational colleagues working towards the same external stakeholder behaviors.

A blueprint, say, like this one: 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.

This approach to public relations will ring true when results like these appear: capital givers or specifying sources looking your way; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; a rebound in showroom visits; membership applications on the rise; fresh community service and sponsorship opportunities; new thoughtleader and special event contacts; improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies; prospects starting to work with you; customers making repeat purchases; and even stronger relationships with the educational, labor, financial and healthcare communities.

Who, would you guess, is going to do the work? Regular public relations staff? Folks assigned to you by those above? Or could it be a PR agency crew? Nevertheless, they must be committed to you as the senior project manager, and to the PR blueprint starting with key audience perception monitoring.

A word of advice. Be certain that your team members really believe deeply why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be certain they buy the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can hel

Which is why I believe you need a clearcut public relations blueprint designed to get all your team members and organizational colleagues working towards the same external stakeholder behaviors.

A blueprint, say, like this one: 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.

This approach to public relations will ring true when results like these appear: capital givers or specifying sources looking your way; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; a rebound in showroom visits; membership applications on the rise; fresh community service and sponsorship opportunities; new thoughtleader and special event contacts; improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies; prospects starting to work with you; customers making repeat purchases; and even stronger relationships with the educational, labor, financial and healthcare communities.

Who, would you guess, is going to do the work? Regular public relations staff? Folks assigned to you by those above? Or could it be a PR agency crew? Nevertheless, they must be committed to you as the senior project manager, and to the PR blueprint starting with key audience perception monitoring.

A word of advice. Be certain that your team members really believe deeply why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be certain they buy the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can hel

This approach to public relations will ring true when results like these appear: capital givers or specifying sources looking your way; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; a rebound in showroom visits; membership applications on the rise; fresh community service and sponsorship opportunities; new thoughtleader and special event contacts; improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies; prospects starting to work with you; customers making repeat purchases; and even stronger relationships with the educational, labor, financial and healthcare communities.

Who, would you guess, is going to do the work? Regular public relations staff? Folks assigned to you by those above? Or could it be a PR agency crew? Nevertheless, they must be committed to you as the senior project manager, and to the PR blueprint starting with key audience perception monitoring.

A word of advice. Be certain that your team members really believe deeply why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be certain they buy the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can hel

Who, would you guess, is going to do the work? Regular public relations staff? Folks assigned to you by those above? Or could it be a PR agency crew? Nevertheless, they must be committed to you as the senior project manager, and to the PR blueprint starting with key audience perception monitoring.

A word of advice. Be certain that your team members really believe deeply why it’s SO important to know how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be certain they buy the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit. Take the time to review your PR blueprint with your team members, especially your plan for monitoring and gathering perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. 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? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Of course you can always use professional survey counsel for the perception monitoring phases of your program. But remember that 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.

At this juncture, you have to set down your public relations goal. Here, you can do something about the most serious distortions you discovered during your key audience perception monitoring.Your new public relations goal might call for straightening out that dangerous misconception, or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or stopping that potentially fatal rumor.

It seems obvious, but it bears repeating. To achieve success, you need a solid strategy, one that clearly shows you how to proceed. To keep things simple, note that there are only three strategic options available to you when it comes to handling a perception and opinion challenge. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Of course, the wrong strategy pick will taste like Braunschweiger on your bread pudding, so be certain the new strategy fits well with your new public relations goal. Naturally, you don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

In this business, inevitably, you must do some writing. And now’s the time to share a powerful corrective message with members of your target audience. But persuading an audience to your way of thinking is no easy task. Which is why your PR folks must come up with words that are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual. Only in this way will you be able to correct a perception by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to the behaviors you are targeting.

At a meeting of your communications specialists, decide if your message’s impact and persua