Definition and basics of public relations

1. PublicRelations
Public Relations for a Healthy
Organization
2021
BY Ms. KANTONO REHEMA
ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY IN UGANDA

2. What is Public Relations (PR)?
PR is the practice of managing the
communication between an
organization and its publics
Public relations means the actual relationship
of the company to the people and that
relationship involves more than talk.
The company must act by performing good
deeds.

3. Public Relations Defined
• Public relations is the management function
that identifies, establishes, and maintains
mutually beneficial relationships between an
organization and the various publics on whom
its success or failure depends.

4. Public relations is the strategic
management of relations between an
organization and its audiences to affect
business outcomes.
Effective public relations efforts are
designed to result in a win-win situation
for both the organization and the audience
with which it is communicating.

5. PR Audiences include
• Customers/students
• Employees
• The financial community
• The media
• Communities in which organizations do
business
• Government (local, regional, and
national)
• Activist groups
• Academia

6. Need for a strategic communications plan
There are many communication-planning
models available, including seven-step
and ten-step plans. For the sake of
simplicity, though, we’ll narrow the steps
required to develop a strategic
communication plan down to the following
four:

7. ➫ Step One: The Goal. Ask yourself;
a. What are you trying to achieve?
b. What does success look like if you achieve it?
For example your goal could be:
‘‘Establish a new Campus in Kenya on the site of
our choice.’’
The goal is the outcome you are trying to attain. In
a strategic communication plan, it is not a
communication goal, but rather the outcome that
the organization is looking for.

8. ➫ Step Two: Strategies.
• How will you go about achieving the
goal?
In this example, the overriding strategy is
to move public opinion so that most of the
members of the local community—
including influencers and opinion
leaders—support the establishment of the
new Campus.

9. ➫ Step Three: Objectives.
• Each strategy needs to have measurable
objectives, or steps that must be taken to complete
the strategy.
• In this case, one objective would be to thoroughly
and candidly communicate information about the
project, including everything being done to minimize
environmental impact and the benefits of the project
to the community.
• Another might be to actively engage community
representatives in discussions about the project to
negotiate the issues that present a concern.

10. ➫ Step Four: Tactics.
• It is only after the goal, strategies, and objectives
have been established that you can finally talk
about how to go about it.
• How to communicate through Meetings?
Newspaper articles? Advertising? E-mail? Web?
Billboards? Or some combination of all of these?
• How to identify the opinion leaders?
• How to conduct the negotiations?
• If you start with ‘‘Let’s build a Web site,’’ you won’t
know how that Web site is supposed to affect the
outcome!

11. INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY Vs. INFORMATION ECONOMY
Top-down
Based on quantity
Batch-processed
Producer-driven
Networked
Based on quality
Customized
Customer-driven

12. Purpose of PR
• Identify
• Build
• Sustain mutually beneficial
relationships through:
• Media relations,
• Employee relations,
• Investor relations,
• Community relations,
• Public affairs,
• Lobbying,
• and social media, etc.

13. How To Manage Communication In The Online World

14. Online constituent intelligence.
Given the many-to-many nature of the
Internet, it becomes vital for us to be the
eyes and ears of selves/organization
online:
• Monitoring constituent content,
• Extracting value from that content,
• Providing intelligence based on that
content, which the organization can use
to make strategic business decisions.

15. Online communication management.
Your voice must be reflected in the
company’s various Web presences:
• e-mail responses to queries,
• Participation in discussions,
• Engagement of constituents,
• Content it contributes to other online
resources
• However, the online voice should match
the image projected on ground

16. Community building and participation
 Its important to learn to participate in
discussions on behalf of their clients
and companies, and to create
communities targeting constituent
audiences that support the institution’s
objectives.

17. Technology skills
 We must learn enough of the technology to
know which tools to employ and to manage
the vendors and suppliers who will create the
online resources for us to assure the desired
outcomes are achieved.
Such tools include:
 E-mail
 The World Wide Web
 Virtual communities (these discussion
groups became influential communities in their
own right, and worthy of the attention of
organizations)

18. Principles of influencing audiences online
 Understanding your audiences
 Wielding influence in the many-to-many world
 Narrowcasting (to your target audience)
 Integration (use a combination of platforms)
 Netiquette(the conventions of politeness used on Usenet, such as
avoidance of cross-posting to inappropriate groups and avoiding use of
complex formats’’)
 Push versus pull (push your stories to other websites and
attributing other web stories by directing the reader to the origin of the
information used in your story)

19. How To Monitor Your Online Presence/Content
 Reading discussions
 Search engines and other Web services
 Software
 Subscribing to mailing lists

20. Reactive vs. Proactive PR
• Reactive PR must react or respond to a
public relations issue or problem.
™
• Proactive PR allows
organizations to plan and
execute public relations
activities on their own timeline.
Proactive PR
What to do before the is set!

21. PR Skills every one needs
• Writing ™
• Research ™
• Interpersonal communication ™
• Media and cultural literacy ™
• Critical thinking ™
• Business knowledge

22. Principles of PR

23. Principle #1
Organization
Community
Gov’t
Financial
Institutions
Employees
Neighbors
Media
• Organizations
exist only by
public consent.

24. Principle #2
• It’s not our job to put
a clean shirt on a
dirty body.
Principle #3
“Communication is not a
two street…..
Either you have one or you
build one. Its about
connecting, not correcting”
• Relationships
require two-way
communication.

25. Principle #4
• Act, then
communicate: You
can’t talk your way
out of something
you behaved your
way into.
• If your product is
defective… fix it ™
• If your service is
subpar… improve it ™
• If your policy is
damaging… revise
it;
• THEN, talk about it

26. Principle #5 Principle #6
Clarity is better than
cleverness:
• When you have an
important point to
make, don’t try to be
clever.
Activity does not equal
results:
• Something has to
happen as a result of
your efforts
• Organizations are
looking for tangible ROI
(return on investment)
• Measurement has
become more
sophisticated

27. Principle #7
 Never refuse an
opportunity to tell your
side of the story
 What’s the one
response you
never want to use
in answering
media questions?
“No Comment”

28. Principle #5 Principle #6
• Manage
expectations.
Practice public
relations proactively,
whenever possible:
 Build the “reservoir
of good will.”

29. Protects the
organization
from its publics
one way
communication
Runs interface
with the media
Connects
organization
with its publics
Facilitates a two
way
communication
Makes mutual
adjustments
Barriers Bridges
Vs.
Principle #10: Be a Bridge, not a Barrier

30. PR Process: the RACE Formula
• Research – What is the problem or
situation? ™
conduct research to assess the
status quo
• Action (program planning) – What is going
to be done about it? ™
state the action plan
• Communication (execution) – How will the
public be told? ™
this is the implementation
stage
• Evaluation – Was the audience reached
and what was the effect?

31. Research
• The first step in the public relations
process. ™
• Clearly define problem/situation
(situational analysis) ™
• S.W.O.T. (Organizational analysis) ™
• Audience Analysis (needs, wants,
desires, VALs)

32. Action
• Goals/Objectives ™
• Themes/Key
Messages ™
• Strategies/Tactics ™
• Calendar ™
• Budget ™
• Evaluation
Goals are general;
objectives are
specific. ™
Objectives
should measure
outcomes, not
means. ™
Objectives
should be SMART: ™
Specific ™
Measureable ™
Agreed Upon ™
Relevant ™
Timetabled
This implies that you have
set goal & objectives

33. Communication
• Implementation of tactics ™
• Visible part of a public relations plan ™
• Comes AFTER research and planning

34. Evaluation
• Measuring production ™
• Measuring awareness ™
• Measuring attitude change ™
• Measuring behavior change (ultimate
objective)

35. Persuasion
This is defined as an effort to gain public
support for an opinion or course of action
1. Recipients of the message
2. Message construction
3. Source of the message
Persuasion has three components

36. 1. Who are they?
2. What do they know
3. What do they believe about
the issue/organization
involved?
1. What do you want to
happen as a result of
communicating your
message?
2. What effect does it
have on each of the
intended audience?
3. What about the
unintended recipients?
1. Who is the most
credible source with
particular publics?
Recipients Message Construction
Source of the Message

37. The Persuasion Process
1. Stimulus response
2. Cognitive
3. Motivational
4. Social
5. personality

38. Stimulus response
• It is based on the idea of association
(connection)
• There’s a low level-almost thoughtless
response from the audience
• Useful for establishing the relationship
between an idea and your organization

39. Cognitive
Basic idea: people can reason and think
about what they read, see, or hear
Provide reasonable arguments to
persuade them to agree with you
Limitation: people are rarely persuaded
with the facts alone

40. Motivational
• Basic idea: people change ideas to fulfill
a need
• Your message must offer an emotional
reward for accepting your message
• You must identify the relevant needs of
your audience

41. Social
• Basic idea: an individual’s background,
social class and group norms affects
attitude
• The message will not be effective
across regional, national, and ethics
norms boundaries

42. Personality
• Basic idea: every individual
is unique
• Personality characteristics
can determine which
argument works best
• Difficult to implement
when you want to
communicate to mass
audience

43. Key issues Regarding Persuasion
• Behavior is both rational and emotional
• Attitude formation if complex
• You must know the target audience for
you to shape effective persuasive
message
• You must know the goal of the
persuasive message for you to craft it
well

44. Limits of persuasion
 Selective perception
 Selective retention
 Lack of message penetration
 Competing messages
Ever read the poem of John Godfrey Saxes?
“The blind men and the Elephant”

45. PR Trends
 The public relations profession continues to
evolve. ™
 The Internet offers challenges and
opportunities. ™
 Transparency is more important then ever. ™
 Performance with a purpose on the rise. ™
 Social media has become a key strategic tool
in relationship building and “public
engagement.” ™
 Push vs. Pull strategies (Era of Content
Creation) ™
Global expansion of the
profession.

46. Thanks