It’s hard to believe in the early days of the 21st Century that there is even a possibility of
A significant field with many different, partial, or ambiguous opinions about its purpose. Here is a sample of opinions from professionals
about what the public relations industry is all about:
- speaking with the press on behalf of the client.
- selling a service, product, or idea.
- reputation management.
- Engineering of perception
- doing well and earning credit for doing good and getting credit.
- earning credit for a company for its good work and limiting the risk when it is not doing well
Although these definitions have a bit of truth, they tend to focus on a small portion of what public relations can be doing, an unsubstantial assumption. In addition, they do not answer the question: to what goal do they aim? Many do not even consider the REAL final goal, behavior modification, which is the objective for all public relations activities to be held accountable.
This is my take on the fundamental idea behind PR: Individuals make decisions based on their beliefs about the truth, which leads to the behaviors that determine whether actions can be taken. When public relations creates, changes, or reinforces that opinion by reaching, persuading, and moving to the desired action, the public relations mission is accomplished by those people whose behaviors affect the organization.
Although we are confident about public relations’ fundamental principle, we should take a second look. If we’re wrong at best, we are denying public relations’ huge advantages. If we are not careful, we may cause harm to ourselves and our organizations.
The premise that underlies the study suggests that to gain an advantage in competitiveness, management must ensure that its investment in public relations is directed directly at influencing the most influential audience. Also, ensure that experts in the field can effectively prepare and deliver messages that influence viewers’ perceptions and, consequently, their behavior. For public sector organizations or non-profit organizations, the focus should be on achieving the organization’s principal goals.
What happens if we observe some public relations personnel complete their entire career without a solid understanding of the fundamental concept behind public relations? The way they respond to crises or the need for well-thought-out solutions to problems in public relations is a sign of a grave inability to comprehend. They confuse the primary role, public relations, with the multitude of tactical components, including public relations, crisis management, or employee relations. They are, naturally, uncertain when it comes to approaching problems with public relations and not sure of the advice they should provide their clients. Many, who rely on their long-standing beliefs about public relations, continue to advise the client poorly, often with risky, even harmful counsel.
To find a solution to this problem of understanding, we can’t just rely on the tactics of others or even imitate the artillery training commander who instructs his students to “point your guns in any direction and fire when you feel like it!”
In the same way that an artillery commander is teaching his newbie gunners to analyze their targets and precisely what they have to do to achieve them, so is it in the realm of public relations.
Our greatest opportunity is right from the beginning of our journey when we can ensure that our public relations students comprehend the fundamentals of public relations in the early stages of their professional careers. Also, they must clearly understand the context in which they work -non-profit, business, or public sector- where they will have to apply what they’ve learned and where they will have to perform their jobs successfully.
Bright and bushy-tailed The young generation of PR professionals need to be aware that their client or employer wants us to utilize our particular talents in a way that can help them achieve their goals in business. No matter what strategy we devise to tackle a problem or issue, regardless of the tactical strategy we devise in the end, at the end of the day, we have to alter our behavior to make money.
The most exciting part is that three benefits are evident when the changes in behavior are evident, and they meet the original program’s behavior modification goals.
One is that the program for public relations is working. In addition, when we achieve the goal of influencing behavior, we set it at the start by making use of reliable and accurate measurements of public relations performance. And three, when our “reach, persuade and move-to-desired-action” efforts produce a visible modification in the behaviors of those we wish to influence, we use public relations’ special strengths to their best advantage.
Professionals who are just beginning their careers should realize from the start of their career that clients and employers aren’t focused on our ability to interact with media, communicate or create images. They are also not particularly impressed by our efforts to determine the target audience, establish goals for public relations and strategies to write clear messages, choose the right communication tactics and strategies, etc.
Every employer or client will require a change in the behaviors of key audiences, which will directly lead to the attainment of their goals for the business. Therefore, this article focuses on meticulous planning to accommodate changing views of the key audience and altered behaviors.
This is why a high-quality preparation and the level of change in behavior it creates is what defines whether or not an effective public relations strategy. If done correctly, If public relations result in a change in behavior in groups of people that are vital to any business, it could be about anything but its existence.
However, why do we feel such a firm conviction about the core idea behind public relations as young people? We have learned from the top professionals in the field as well as from mentors and many years of experience that there are only three ways that a public relations campaign can influence behavior: make people believe that there isn’t any, and then strengthen existing opinions or change the perception of others. It’s no surprise that the method that helps achieve those goals is known as public relations. While the focus is on behavior and a variety of communications strategies are instruments, our strategy is the leverage offered by public opinions.
We also discovered the difficult method that once your client or employer is looking to earn a profit on their investments in public relations, it’s obvious fast that the aim must be to create a shift in the behaviors of key stakeholders, which leads directly to achieving the business’s goals.
I believe we should inform our newcomers to be aware that if their clients or employers ever claim that they’re not receiving the change in behavior they’ve been promised, they’re likely losing money in public relations.
Let me explain why. We know that people’s actions depend on their perceptions of facts, that these perceptions can lead to certain behavior, and that something can be done to alter these perceptions and actions that help achieve the client’s or employer’s business goals.
This means that s/he can initially determine the desired behavior change and insist on achieving that outcome before declaring the PR campaign successful.
The best way to improve their confidence with the investment in public relations is to ensure that it results in the behavior change they stated they would like at the beginning of the program.
So, they can ensure they’re getting value for their money.
I would be remiss by not mentioning the challenges that those new to the field face when trying to judge public relations performance. They often encounter highly subjective restricted, and only partially accurate performance judgments. For instance, they can use inquiry-based generation, story content analysis, gross impressions, and even the value of advertising that is equivalent to the advertising space they have obtained.
The most crucial reason behind the current situation is the inability to find affordable public opinion surveys, which can prove conclusively that the perception of public relations and behavior goal that was established at the start of the campaign was actually accomplished. In general, opinion surveys are suited to establish without doubt that a particular behavior objective was actually achieved; however, they are expensive and usually significantly more than the price of the program!
For young people, everything can be saved. Specific behavioral changes can be observed immediately, for example, returning customers to showrooms, environmentalists quitting plant gate protests, or a rapid increase in job retention rate. We monitor less obvious behavior shifts by tracking factors that directly influence the way people behave, such as comments made at public meetings for the community and business speeches and local radio, newspaper, and TV editorials, email messages from people who are targeted by the audience, thought-leaders, as well as public statements made by politicians as well as local celebrities.
We also analyze our own communication strategies to determine their effect on perceptions of the audience techniques like meetings in person, Internet emails and ezines, hand-placed magazine and newspaper features or broadcast broadcasts of complete information for the consumer, announcements announcement luncheons, on-site media interviews, tours of facilities brochures, and even special events such as promotional competitions, financial roadshows ceremony of awards, trade confabs celebrity appearances, and open houses each one designed to change the individual’s perception and behavior.
It does work in a position to show an impact on the behavior and perception of the client/employer. However, a reasonable professional opinion survey is the most effective solution. The solution to this problem is a significant problem for survey and public relations disciplines.
Another tip to the soon-to-be public relation professional. As we progress towards proficiency in public relations, a concrete route to success begins to show up:
- Identify the issue
- identify target audiences
- Establish the goal of public relations
- determine the strategy for public relations
- prepare persuasive messages
- choose and implement the most important communication strategies
- track the progress
What is the final goal? Reach the goal of behavior modification.
I hope these comments can help better understand the essential role of public relations within our companies, particularly among our junior colleagues. Mainly how it can help enhance relationships with the most crucial groups of people, the target audience, the “public,” whose perceptions and actions can either aid or hinder the accomplishment of our client’s or employer’s business goals.
One final thought for those who are preparing or aspiring to work in the public relations field -You’ll be able to tell you’ve arrived at the end of each game when changes in behavior become evident through feedback from clients, for example, an increase in positive media articles, positive comments from thought-leaders and suppliers, and a heightened level of positive employees and public chatter.
