1) Target the right magazines for the products you sell.

Many times, individuals will send out their press releases to every category of magazines listed in hopes that by doing this approach, something will stick. This is a common error and one that should be avoided. Always concentrate on the best possible categories of magazines for the product you are selling. For instance, let’s say you are offering products that are related to babies and small children. In this case, you would want to concentrate on sending out press releases to magazines closely related to your niche market such as baby magazines, parenting magazines, and Women’s magazines.

2) Contact the publisher of the magazine to get the name of the editor. This should be one of the first things you do before you submit your press release. If you are unable to locate the editor’s name in the magazine, contact the publisher and ask for the name and email address of the editor.

3) Add a "media" link on your website. A media link is a webpage where you list out your various press releases.

When the media visits your site they will see a link called "media" or "press releases." When a person from the media clicks on the link they will be able to see the various press releases you have listed on your website and they will be able to pick and choose which releases they want to use.

4) Follow up with an editor immediately after sending a high resolution image. When an editor contacts you and asks you to send a high resolution image of a product, be sure you follow up with a separate email to make sure that the attachment got to the editor. There is always a chance that a spam filter got the picture before it even got a chance to get to the editor’s inbox. It is never a good idea to assume that they received it and all is well. There is no guarantee that the editor will contact you back to let you know they did not receive it. Always contact the editor by sending a second "text only" email that says something like, "I just sent the high resolution image of the product and I wanted to make sure you received it. Can you confirm?" If you still don’t receive a response by sending the email, be sure to call the editor to follow up.

5) Getting your press release into special holiday or anniversary issues of magazines. Most magazines have a special holiday issue that you will want to try and get your press release listed in. These special issues for Father’s day, Mother’s day, holiday issue, and anniversary issues of a magazine(such as 25th anniversary issue)usually have wider distribution which means even more readers will have a chance to see your press release. You can contact the magazine and find out the closing date of the holiday issue or the closing date for the issue you are trying to get your press release in. You can also request a media kit which will list out the closing dates of each upcoming issue of a magazine. The closing date will be the last date you can add submissions for that specific issue. Once you know the closing date you can time your press release to be received before that exact date, which will help increase your chances of getting your press release in those specific issues.

6) Always include complete contact information in your press release. Such as the following: media contact, your name, job title, company name, address, phone, fax, website, and email. Including complete detailed information looks more professional and also makes it easier for the editors to get in touch with you.

7) Follow up with a fax press release. This is a new technique I just started implementing in recent months with fantastic results. Faxing a press release is a relatively new way of getting your press release into the hands of the editors. I find that faxing the editors in Addition to emailing the editors can help improve your chances of getting your release into print. In some cases your email press release may not get through for whatever reason or there isn’t an email for a particular editor. In this case, you can send your press release by fax to the attention of the editorial offices. The fax numbers for a particular publisher of a magazine will be listed in that specific magazine or you can simply call the publisher of the magazine and ask for the fax number to the editorial offices.

8) Always be consistent and persistent in your efforts when sending press releases to the editors. I cannot stress this enough. Get in the habit of sending out a new product press release to the editors once a month to every other month. By being persistent and consistent in contacting the editors on a monthly basis you could be well on your way to getting your press releases into print.

Dianne Beiermann is a results-driven internet marketer and online business owner. Dianne Beiermann is one of the leading experts in press release marketing for online businesses. Productpressrelease.com specializes in assisting individuals and businesses with obtaining free publicity for their products and website. To pick up a FREE 80-page copy of the new ebook, "How anyone can get free publicity just by using their email" visit their site at http://www.productpressrelease.com

I believe this about public relations.

People act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. So, when we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations mission is accomplished.

That fundamental premise grew out of many years in the public relations business. A time when I became increasingly appalled at what many general management people believe about public relations, if anything, and how the discipline does or does not fit into their organization’s strategic plan.

The result is, I’ve become a "preacher," but not to public relations practitioners. Rather, I direct my commentary to those general management people who, daily, pursue their goals and objectives largely without the insights, behavioral strategies and sheer power public relations can bring to the table.

Here’s what I believe they’re missing, i.e., the essentials that flow from the fundamental premise at the top of this article.

Any organization - non-profit, association, business, public entity, including your own -MUST take into account the perceptions held by those external audiences whose behaviors affect your organization, or the behaviors flowing from those perceptions can hurt.

What my commentaries often say to these managers is this: Is it just a matter of "hits?" You know, articles or interviews sold to editors? Is that all there is to public relations?

Or, could there be more to it?

Of course there’s more to it!

Why do you want the "hits" in the first place? What are you trying to accomplish?

I believe you want the same thing every other buyer of public relations services wants: to change somebody’s behavior in a way that really helps your organization reach its objectives.

So, wouldn’t it make more sense to start at the beginning and save tactics like "publicity hits" for that moment when you need those "beasts of burden" to do their thing? Namely, to efficiently carry persuasive messages to a key target audience of yours?

Sure it would.

So let’s start by taking a close look at those external target publics. They’re so important because how they think and behave can actually determine the success or failure of your business.

Don’t believe it? Look at those audiences whose behaviors directly affect the organization’s operations, in particular those completely unaware that the organization even exists. Are they likely to buy its products or services?

No.

Look at an external audience where members harbor a serious misconception about the organization. Does this reduce their desire to do business with you?

Yes.

Look at an external audience some of whose members believe a grossly negative and inaccurate set of facts about the organization. Will those people be first in line to buy its products or services?

No.

Obviously, what your key target audience believes about your organization matters, and matters a lot!

Why not begin by heading-off such a situation by listing those outside groups - those target audiences - in order of how much their behaviors affect your organization?

We’ll use #1 on your list as our trial "public."

Start by interacting with that group of people. Of course, if the budget will stand it, you could use a survey firm to gather their feelings, thoughts and perceptions.

Minus such a budget, do it yourself, and with colleagues, by carefully monitoring how these people feel about your organization. When you interact this way, you get to ask a lot of questions and gather a lot of information you really need.

What are you hearing? Misconceptions that need straightening out? Rumors that should not be allowed to fester? Inaccurate beliefs about your products and services that could drive people away from you? Notice other perceptions about you and your organization that need to be altered?

The answers to such questions prepare you to create your public relations goal. In brief, alter, and thus correct, each misconception, or inaccuracy, or rumor. Worthy goals all!

You’ve made some real progress by monitoring perceptions within your key target audience. You’ve established your public relations goal, and selected the right strategy to achieve it.

Sad to say, there’s a little more work to do in the form of "The Message." Hopefully, this will alter people’s inaccurate perceptions about you and the organization.

But it must be carefully written so that it is persuasive and perceived as creditable and believable. And it must speak the truth clearly and with authority.

Now, here is where your "beasts of burden" come in. They are the communications tactics that will carry your newly-minted message from your computer direct to the attention of those key target audience members whose behavior you hope to alter in your direction.

Happily, there are scores of communications tactics awaiting your pleasure. You might use a speech to communicate your message, or letters-to-the-editor, press releases, emails, brochures or face- to-face meetings, and many other tactics.

Sooner or later, you’ll wonder if you’re making any progress towards your behavioral goal. Of course, you’ll monitor local print and broadcast media, but REmonitoring those key audience members by interacting with them all over again is the real ticket.

This time around, you’ll be looking for perception and attitude changes hopefully produced by the combination of your persuasive messages and carefully targeted communications tactics. And you’ll be asking lots of questions all over again.

If you note considerable movement in opinion in your direction, you may consider your public relations goal as having been achieved.

Should little movement be noted, adjustments to the frequency and quantity of you communications tactics should be made. Your message also should be reviewed for its content and direction, and tested again for effect with a panel of target group members.

Either way, your public relations program is on track and preparing to deliver the key target audience behaviors your business needs to succeed.

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.

Robert A. Kelly © 2003.

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association 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. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.

Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com; bobkelly@TNI.net

Corporate gift giving ideas are best discussed within the company level. Gift giving can be a touchy issue and it will be great to have another colleague(s) to brain storm it. The benefits of corporate gift giving can never be underestimated and its time to put on your thinking cap. Very often that customer is also shared by another colleague in the company. Your colleague might have sent the customer a gift before and by now have some knowledge about the customer personal tastes or interests.

Once your colleague has agreed to your suggestion to send the customer a gift, with the combined budget, the choice of gift is probably limited by ones’ imagination. Isn’t a better choice to present a uniquely memorable gift than to present 2 ordinary gifts from the same company?

Corporate gift giving ideas should adhere the following concerns:

1) Timing of gift
That well sought customer of yours is probably an Anchor customer to another rival company. Everybody budget for gift can never be the same and it is best not to send your gift within that same working week. Worst, if your gift is heaven and earth apart in comparison! Although this is a very difficult question to answer but with some efforts through getting to know your customer better daily, subtle hints can generate a wealth of knowledge about your customer for your benefits.

2) Gift policy
It is better to be safe than sorry in checking out the gift policy of your own company and the customer. You might be new in this company and what is being practiced in your previous company might not be applicable to the present company. Incurring personal expense and yet against your company policy can be detrimental for career advancement.

Most companies have some sort of gift policy for the recipient. It is probably set on the number or the value of the gift. Others can be vague and define it as a "token" gift. In some extreme, no gift is allowed !

3) Desired gift
The effort of getting a desired gift out-weights a less desirable gift for the relationship building. Since the intention is clear, might as well make it a superb corporate gift giving idea to the delight of the customer! How, you will wonder? Well, can you still remember that perfect timing of the gift for the customer birthday through constant conversations and subtle information gathering questions? Am glad this suggestion brings a smile to your face!

Basically the above are just some of the corporate gift giving ideas which you knew but just didn’t find time to polish it to perfection to bring your relationship with your customers to the highest degree.

For more great ideas on corporate gift giving solutions, visit Corporate Gift Ideas Guide

You are getting a good deal when you accept the fact that the right PR really CAN alter individual perception and lead to the changed behaviors you need.

Especially when you recognize that people really DO act upon their perceptions of the facts they hear about your operations, and about you as a manager. Meaning you have little choice but to deal promptly and effectively with those perceptions by reaching and moving those key external audiences of yours to actions you desire.

Thus, you are certainly getting a good deal when your business, non-profit or association PR investment creates behavior change among those important outside audiences that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives. However, you’ll be able to accomplish this only after persuading those key outside folks to your way of thinking, then moving them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed.

Obviously, these managers are doing something positive about the behaviors of those important outside audiences of theirs that MOST affect their operations.

Underlying such efforts is the fundamental premise of public relations: 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.

Public relations helps business, non-profit and association managers achieve their managerial objectives with outcomes like these. New proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; rebounds in showroom visits; customers making repeat purchases; stronger relationships with educational, labor, financial and healthcare interests; enhanced activist group relations; new membership applications; capital givers and specifying sources looking their way, as well as improved relations with government agencies and legislative bodies; new thoughtleader and special event contacts; and expanded feedback channels.

Like most managers, you want your most important outside audiences to view your operations, products or services in the most positive light. So, you need to be certain that your PR staff accepts the fact that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your unit.

Discuss with your PR folks how you will gather and monitor perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions like these: 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?

Yes, if necessary, the perception monitoring phases of your program can be assigned to professional survey people to handle, IF the budget is available. If that’s not the case, you can depend on your own PR people who 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.

Obviously, problems that surfaced during your first perception monitoring session, will identify your public relations goal. Which should shoot to straighten out that dangerous misconception, or correct that gross inaccuracy, or do something about that wretched rumor.

While you can’t have a public relations goal without a strategy to tell you how to reach it, fact is, 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. Of course, picking the wrong strategy will taste like seaweed on your popcorn, 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.

At this point, because the structure of your corrective message is crucial, we start the search for words that compel and persuade. Above all, they must be believable AND clear and factual if they are to persuade an audience to your way of thinking. But a must if you are to correct a perception by shifting opinion towards your point of view, leading to the behaviors you desire. Take the time to review your message with the PR staff for its impact and persuasiveness.

Here you get to pick those communications tactics most likely to attract the attention of your target audience. Fortunately, you can pick from dozens of available techniques. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. Just be very sure that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.

Because the very credibility of your message can depend on the way you deliver it, you might introduce it to smaller gatherings rather than using higher-profile communications such as news releases or talk show appearances.

In due course, you can expect you and your PR folks will move back to the field for a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Same questions used in the first benchmark session, will do the trick again. But you must stay alert for signs that your communications tactics have worked and that the negative perception is being altered the way you want it to be altered.

If things slow down, you can always accelerate matters with a broader selection of communications tactics AND increased frequencies.

Public relation’s single most important contribution to a business, non-profit or association manager is building the resolve to do something positive about the behaviors of those important outside audiences that most affect their operations.

And that can only be effective when you, the manager in charge, has accepted the fact that the right PR really can alter individual perception and lead to those changed behaviors you need.

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.

Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association 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. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.

Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com; bobkelly@TNI.net

If yours is a product business, you know that certain times of the year are absolutely crucial to your sales.

For many product companies, sales opportunities increase during the Christmas holiday season, as well as other gift-giving times — Valentine’s Day, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduation, Back to School, Halloween, Thanksgiving and others, depending on your product.

That’s why many businesses rely on a strategic Public Relations effort to boost sales during these peak seasons. And one of the most effective ways to kick up your sales is to get your product listed in a magazine, newspaper, or TV Holiday Gift Guide. Why is this so important? Because these holidays are when readers or viewers are READY TO BUY and eager to see what a media outlet recommends.

Another good reason to get your product featured in Holiday Gift Guides is because media outlets almost ALWAYS list the ways for readers to order the product (usually a Web site, telephone number and/or retail store location), while in many standard publicity articles, contact information is not included.

As you might imagine, getting into a Holiday Gift Guide is not all that easy. There’s lots of competition from hundreds, sometimes thousands, of other companies that are also pitching their products. Here are a dozen tips to help you get your products covered in Holiday Gift Guides:

1. Send your pitches at the right time. Timing is critical. Know the deadline for each Holiday Gift Guide. Magazines, for instance, have long lead times, and newspaper and TV have shorter lead times (more specific information about deadlines is covered later in this Special Report). And remember, while sending product samples out too late is obviously a wasted effort, sending them out too early is also not a good idea, because the products can get misplaced.

2. Determine the category of gifts that each media outlet covers. For example, Southwest Airlines’ in-flight magazine covered only technology gifts in their Christmas Holiday Gift Guide this year, while Alaska Airlines’ in-flight magazine covered upscale items.

3. Pay attention to your packaging and shipping. I’ve been told many times by media people that products often arrive broken, or with unappealing packaging, and the media people often won’t even consider those products for coverage in the Holiday Gift Guide.

4. Submit Gadgets/Technology if you have those products. Most business magazines, men’s magazines, and in-flight publications cover gadgets (technology) in their Holiday Gift Guides, as do many consumer magazines. Family Circle, for instance, covered Family Technology in their 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide. Family Circle will also cover tech gifts for Moms, Dads, and Grads in their Spring/Summer 2006 issues. U.S. News & World Report is another publication looking for tech gifts for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

5. Offer inexpensive products. Many media outlets cover gifts under $50, $25 or even lower cost stocking stuffers. Good Housekeeping’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide, for example, was titled “Great buys under $50.” Redbook’s 2005 Christmas Holiday Gift Guide was titled “40 gifts under $40.”

6. Send in your most colorful products. Most media outlets are visual, and color looks better in the pages of a magazine or on TV than drab colors do. If you flip through magazines with Holiday Gift Guides, you’ll notice that most of the items are bright colors. So, make sure that either your product or your packaging has eye-catching color to capture their attention.

7. Donate a portion of your product’s sales or profits to charity. Some media outlets ONLY cover products that donate to charity. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also increases your chances of getting publicity. Be sure to mention this in all of your pitches.

8. Offer something that is brand new to the marketplace. Remember, Gift Guide Editors are just like other media people — they want something new. If you create a new product, you’ll get the media’s attention.

9. Don’t forget products for pets. While Prevention Magazine’s December, 2005 issue didn’t have a Gift Guide for people — it did have a “Pet Gift Guide”. Many other Gift Guides, especially in women’s magazines, include gifts for pets. Remember, there are millions of pet lovers out there who consider pets their “family” and want to buy holiday presents for them. If you have a unique gift for a pet, you may very well get coverage.

10. Mention any celebrity tie-ins. Some entertainment media outlets will only cover your products if celebrities use them. Other media outlets like to know that celebrities use the product, because readers and viewers are fascinated with celebrities, and want to use the same products. So, if your brother-in-law’s cousin knows someone famous who’s willing to tout your product, go for it.

11. Manufacture the product yourself. It is much easier to get coverage if you make the product (unless, of course, you’re an exclusive seller of a product). For example, Real Simple Magazine’s Beauty and Grooming Department will do a three-page Gift Guide for Dads in June. They are looking for men’s beauty and grooming products. If you make anything in this category (shaving creams, hair and skin care products, etc.), this would be a great opportunity for you (Real Simple Holiday Gift Guide products often get hundreds, even thousands of sales).

12. If you can get a major retailer to sell your products, include that information in your pitch. Gift Guide Editors feel more comfortable recommending products sold by major retailers.

Remember . . . throughout the year the media is working on Gift Guides. Use these tips to help obtain great public relations coverage leading to sales for your product.

Copyright 2006 Margie Fisher All Rights Reserved

Margie Fisher, President of Zable Fisher Public Relations, is the author of the Do-It-Yourself Public Relations Kit. For more information on the Kit, the Pay for Results Publicity Program, and to sign up for the complimentary PRactical P.R. newsletter, visit http://www.zfpr.com

Back in July this year, blogger and Yahoo! employee Russell Beattie published a well-publicised rant about the tactics PR firms are using to insert their promotional press in this untapped domain of publishing. In it, he fumed at the PRrazzi: “What are these people thinking? Do they really think the same lies and manipulation that they use on the corporate media establishment is going to work on me? Blogging isn’t my “job” - I do this for fun. I’m not looking to fill column inches or dead airtime with your crap, I’m looking to provide real information and opinion to my readers who in turn return the favour and educate me.”

This type of article should make anyone working in PR sit up and think hard. As media trends towards a more democratic process, everywhere from sit-at-home online book reviewing on Amazon up to the more substantial form of Blogging, customers are becoming increasingly savvier about identifying PR insertions.

The most obvious – and intellectually redundant – aspect of PR is that it is designed specifically to sell products, and as such it initiates a dialogue but does not follow up on it. On the few occasions that it does follow-up, the dialogue contains none of the natural reasoning that ordinary conversation tends towards and hence there is little valuable exchange of information, opinions or ideas.

What the PR firms miss in targeting ‘weblogs’ and media platforms where people are publishing for themselves is that this new form of media is more akin to a dinner party environment than a newspaper. Just as no reasonable person would never think of attending a social function with the sole purpose of selling a product in mind, so no PR firm should seek to disguise comments geared at selling products as ‘newsworthy exchanges’ in the more democratic form of online publishing.

This is in stark contrast to advertising, which has had some encouraging success online with the likes of banner ads and Google Ads. As the publishing process becomes more user-oriented, the boundaries of forms of product promotion are going to have to become more clearly defined, or organizations are going to end up doing one worse than not selling any products at all: making sure that no one wants to buy them in the first place.

http://danielmarkharrison.blogs.com

Up to 90 per cent of stories in newspapers and on the TV news appear because someone sent out a press release. Can you imagine what that means?

What would happen to your business if you appeared on Oprah? Or if a major magazine did a feature story on you? Or a major newspaper? Your business would never be the same again. No amount of paid advertising can match free publicity.

And yet, very few small businesses ever bother sending out a press release. (The terms "press release" and "news release" are interchangeable, but I prefer "news release" because it reminds me that the release must contain news of some kind.)

=> Super Secret #1: Send out news releases regularly, to your local media, national media, and post them online too.

This means educating yourself as to what constitutes a news release. And that education is VITAL. Nothing ticks off a reporter more than receiving a blatant ad masquerading as a news release. I’m a computer journalist, and I receive news release every day that are nothing more than blatant advertising. My editors’ attitude is: "If you want to advertise, buy an ad. If you want free publicity, give us a story in return."

Here’s a brilliant resource which tells you everything need to know about crafting news releases that not only get read, but also get used:

http://sprite.netnation.com/~greenbri/ABCPublicityFAQ.html

=> Super Secret #2: A lack of response doesn’t mean NO response

A point to keep in mind —- most releases you send out seem to go nowhere. "Seem" is the operative word.

Let’s say you’ve spend four hours sweating over a news release. You send it out. To coin a cliché, the silence is deafening.

However, all is not as it seems. The more often your name crosses a reporter’s desk, the more familiar you become. When I’m wearing my journalist’s hat, I appreciate marketers who send me releases: after the third or fourth release, their names are familiar. I might not use their story, but if they keep sending me releases, they WILL get some response.

In my copywriting practice, I send out news releases for clients regularly, on a set schedule, because news releases which aren’t picked up do have an effect. Send your releases out, and sooner or later, if you persist, you will get the publicity.

A big benefit of sending Web news releases is that the releases are indexed by search engines. This sends traffic to your site painlessly.

Author of many books, including Making the Internet Work for Your Business, copywriter and journalist Angela Booth also writes copy for businesses large and small, and consults on search engine marketing. Angela has written copy for companies in many industries, ranging from technology and real estate to the jewellery trade. Her clients include major corporations like hp (Hewlett Packard), WestPac Bank, and Acer Computer. For copywriting services and marketing advice contact Angela at angelabooth.com.

Everything, that is, if you ignore those folks whose behaviors have the greatest effect on your business.

What those people see and believe about your enterprise, pretty well determines what their follow-on behaviors will be - for example, do business with you, or move on to someone else.

Is that what you want? Of course not. So let’s do something about it.

While I recognize that there are other factors bearing on the success of your business, this one is simply too important, and its impact too severe and too immediate, to ignore.

You get this airplane off the ground by listing your top outside audiences who, when they like you OR ignore you, you feel it.

In other words, they are groups of people important to you whom we refer to as target audiences or target publics. The one MOST important to you, we call your key target audience. And that’s why you must list them in priority order so you know where you really need to direct your resources.

How do you determine who thinks what about you? Sounds like work, but you must continually monitor that key target audience (and probably others). Are you bothered by what they tell you? Is there a perception problem? If there is, we know it usually turns into a behavior problem, so something must be done about it now, at the perception stage.

What you’ve just done is establish your public relations goal - a specific behavior flowing from an equally specific perception, which we’ll work on creating starting right now.

Now that you’ve got a public relations goal, you need a public relations strategy. Lucky for you (and for all of us), there are only three possible strategies. Create opinion among that target audience where there may be none, change existing opinion, or reinforce it. We’ve picked "create" so let’s proceed.

With your goal and strategy in hand, you begin thinking "messages." And I mean persuasive messages carefully designed to deal with that perception problem you discovered when you interacted with your key target audience. Keep your message focused on correcting that perception problem, and keep it believable and credible. Try it out on a few colleagues to see it if really is persuasive.

Now you need a few "beasts of burden," communications tactics whose job it is to carry those persuasive messages directly to the attention of the folks who make up that key target audience of yours.

And there are tons of them from trade show appearances, awards programs and news releases to speeches, brochures, radio interviews and face-to-face meetings.

Well, here we are again at the monitoring stage. At the start of the program, you monitored the feelings and perceptions of your key target audience so that you could identify the problem and set your public relations goal and strategy.

Now, you monitor all over again to see what kind of progress you made. Specifically, you want to know how many individuals received the message, through what tactics, and how many are aware of your messages’ actual content. Also gives you a chance to make mid-course corrections by adjusting both message content and your mix of communications tactics.

Keep the faith! As time goes by, you’ll begin noticing signs of awareness of your business, and a growing receptiveness to what you have to say. The bottom line, of course, will be welcome indications that the behaviors you have sought to modify in your direction are, in fact, doing just that.

In public relations, that spells success!

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.

Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association 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 communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.

Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com; bobkelly@TNI.net

Odds are you have access to a medium or big town newspaper. Have a few extra minutes? Flip through it and pay close attention to the pictures.

Do you see any awkwardly posed shots of a politician handing a check to the staff of some local nonprofit? Do you see a “ribbon cutting” shot to mark the opening of a new park? Do you see a bunch of head shots of executives?

If you looked at one of the top 100 newspapers in the United States, odds are you didn’t. So why do people keep posing for these photos in the same unoriginal (and ineffective) manner?

It’s cheesy and minor league – and it may be hurting you.

Why? Because a great photograph can actually move a story that would otherwise be in the back pages onto the front page. Again, look at your local paper. Over the next few days, you’ll probably notice that there are a few stories that make it onto the front page for one reason only – the great picture that accompanied it.

Craft a Clever Photo Op

One recent client works for a major nature park. Each year, Steve meets with a group of school children to teach them about the wildlife in the park. Reporters and photographers occasionally attend in order to write a local story about the visit. But he always speaks to the kids indoors and uses slides to make his point. Not exactly the stuff of a great photo.

Here are three ways to improve Steve’s next photo op – and yours:

1. Create An Action Shot: Photojournalists like to capture moments of something in the process of happening – a cheerleader in midair, a thief being arrested, or a woman laughing hysterically. Instead of teaching in a drab classroom, Steve should teach his seminar outdoors against the backdrop of the woods. Instead of slides, Steve could show the kids actual stuffed birds. As the kids lean in to see the bird, the camera goes click – and a great photo is born.

2. Take ‘Em Where You Want ‘Em: About a decade ago, the radio station I was working for moved to a brand new, state-of-the-art facility. So I never understood why the grand opening press event was set up outside. Newspapers clicked pictures of that dreaded ribbon cutting, and although one ran, it was buried in the back of the paper.

The station’s management should have arranged a photo op in the main studio. They could have set up banners inside the studio highlighting the station’s channel number. They could have had their three biggest stars clowning around in the picture to lend the impression of a “fun and friendly” station. Instead, they squandered a great opportunity for free advertising.

3. Consider Time of Day: Great outdoor photos require great light. Early morning (dawn) and late afternoon (dusk) provides photographers with terrific lighting; just keep in mind that the late afternoon timeslot may make it hard for the reporter to meet his deadline. If you can, avoid scheduling your event to coincide with the midday sun, which tends to wash pictures out.

Brad Phillips is the founder and president of Phillips Media Relations. He was formerly a journalist for ABC News and CNN, and headed the media relations department for the second largest environmental group in the world.

For more information and to sign up for free monthly media relations, media and presentation training e-tips, visit http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com.

It took me a while to see just HOW crucial the behaviors of an organization’s key audiences really are to its success, be it big or small, non-profit, business, association or even a public sector enterprise.

Sounds elemental, doesn’t it? But the truth is, few organizations can succeed today if those target audience behaviors don’t fit the organization’s objectives.

Fortunately for those working in public relations, most people act on their own perception of the facts which leads to behaviors about which we can do something. And that means that when we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired- action those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations mission is accomplished.

So, while applying that reality to your operation helps you achieve your objectives AND success, the public relations people still must modify somebody’s behavior if they are to help you hit those objectives. Happily, it can be done and done well, as long as you keep your eye on that behavioral endgame.

For example, you may wish to influence people to begin thinking more positively about your organization, thus strengthening its reputation and business potential. It could be as simple as communicating your organization’s strengths to a target audience leading them to want to work more closely with you. Or even providing environmental activists with the facts about the company’s full compliance with Federal regulations, in the hope they will bring their plant-site demonstrations to an end.

But remember, until you have a solid indication that target behaviors have, in fact, changed in ways that meet your primary behavior modification goal, you DON’T know if your investment has paid off.

So, let’s look at ways to increase one’s comfort level about that public relations investment. Here are five steps, that can help you hit the public relations goal - desired behavior modification — on your next public relations venture.

Above all, in my opinion, you must keep your eye on the end-game, and not merely the communications tactics, because the reason we do public relations in the first place is to change the behaviors of certain groups of people important to the success of our organization.

Step 1 Accept the Fact That People Act on their

Perception of the Facts

Most behavioral experts agree that people really do act on THEIR perception of the facts, and that how they react to those facts actually does affect their behaviors. It follows that individual understanding of those facts must be contin- ually informed if those behaviors are to help achieve the organization’s goal and objectives.

Step 2 Create, Change or Reinforce Opinion

Here, after assessing opinion among your target audiences through media monitoring, opinion sampling and thought- leader contact, you must decide how you will approach each target audience. Choosing the correct mode - 1) reinforcing existing opinion, 2) creating new opinion from scratch or 3) changing current and possibly long-held views — is obviously central to your message preparation strategy and its copy approach.

Step 3 Reach, Persuade and Move-to-Action

Now, you must reach, persuade and move-to-action those people whose behaviors will affect your organization. That includes, among others, a variety of stakeholders including customers, employees, prospects, retirees, media, legislators and regulators, and both financial and plant communities.

Reaching these target groups means applying the most effective communications tools available to you. Again, among others, these will include such tactics as media relations and publicity- generating news conferences and press releases, newsletters and e-mails, high-profile speeches, charitable contributions, investor relations and informal opinion surveys.

Persuading these important groups of stakeholders to your way of thinking depends heavily on the message you prepare for each target audience. You must understand and identify what is really at issue at the moment; impart a sense of credibility to your comments; perform regular assessments of how opinion is currently running among that group, constantly adjusting your message; as well as highlighting those key issue points most likely to engage their attention and involvement.

Step 4 Gain and Hold Understanding and Acceptance

By this time, your action program should begin to gain and hold the kind of public understanding and acceptance that leads to the desired shift in public behavior.

Signs that your messages are turning some opinion in your direction should appear. A chance comment in a business meeting, a popular columnist’s observations, e-mails from interested parties or co-worker alerts that this political figure or that local celebrity made public references to your topic, should begin to build. Many of these indicators, each reflecting the state of individual perception, will gradually begin to reflect the modified behaviors you have in mind.

Step 5 Modify the Behavior, Achieve your Goal

When the changes in behaviors become truly apparent through media reports, thought-leader comment, employee and community chatter and other feedback, at the same time clearly meeting your original behavior modification goal, your public relations program is a success.

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.

Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks to business, non-profit and association 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 communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia University, major in public relations.

Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com; bobkelly@TNI.net