WHITE NOISE

A client recently told me about a fascinating new approach to television advertising. Some advertisers, she said, are producing 30 second commercials without even a hint of sound.

That approach goes counter to every rule of television advertising. Since the combination of visual messages and audio allows for the greatest probability of the advertiser’s message actually sinking in, sound is a critical element. Plus, since so many people leave the room during commercials, advertisers want to make sure those people can at least hear the ad.

So why would a television advertiser leave the audio out? Imagine it’s dinner time. Dad is preparing dinner for the kids and has the television on in the corner of the kitchen. Dad’s not really watching – he’s focused on cooking – and the programming is basically just background noise.

But you’re an advertiser, and since you’re paying good money for that airtime, you want his attention. So the television, which has been providing consistent background noise for the past half hour, suddenly goes quiet. Dad notices, and his head snaps up to see if something is wrong with the set. He might even walk over and fiddle with the volume.

The advertiser has earned his attention. The tactic worked.

Good interviewees apply the same principle during media interviews. They know that on the other end of the radio or television speaker is a person who’s cooking dinner, driving the kids to school, or multitasking in some other way. They don’t assume that the audience is hanging on their every word; rather, they know they have to reach out and grab their attention.

Seasoned pros do it by varying the tone, volume and pace of their verbal delivery. If they’ve been speaking at a moderate pace, they suddenly speed things up. If they’ve been speaking rather softly, they may suddenly become emphatic. By doing so, they’ve recaptured the audience’s attention.

Let’s give an example. You’re on the radio and are working up to your key point. You’ve been speaking at a fairly moderate pace, and your volume has been rather steady. As you work your way to your key point, you suddenly slow down and reduce your tone to that of a whisper. By doing so, you’ve signaled to the audience that something important is coming. All of a sudden, their dinner preparation takes a momentary break so they can hear what you have to say.

ANYONE? ANYONE?

If you remember the 1980s film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you probably remember the sardonic actor Ben Stein playing an economics professor. Standing perfectly still, he would face the classroom with complete disinterest and say, “Does anyone know what this is? Anyone? Anyone?”

That oft-quoted iconic role is still used as the perfect example of a ridiculously boring, monotone speaker. But how many interviews have you heard or listened to that sound pretty much the same?

Although it may seem unnatural at first to speak in varying tones, volumes and speeds, great orators have been doing it for centuries. And since the number of distractions in the modern world have increased exponentially since the time of Cicero, it’s more critical than ever to use every tool at your disposal to retain an audience’s attention.

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 and media training e-tips, visit http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com.

If you’re trying to promote your store, but you don’t have a big advertising budget, relax. There are lots of ways to get in front of the audience you want to reach by using free publicity. Here are tips that will boost your publicity efforts and help you finally get noticed.

1. Tie your story ideas to the holidays. Here are some examples: Gourmet gift baskets that make the best Christmas gifts. Bookstores that are doing special programs that tie into Mother’s Day. Health food stores that can explain how to create a vegetarian meal for Thanksgiving.

2. Call the advertising department of every newspaper and magazine you want to get into and ask for a copy of their editorial calendar. It’s a free listing of all the special topics and special sections coming up during the calendar year. It will tip you off to sections where your story idea would be a good fit, so you can query the editor weeks and even months ahead.

3. Invite a reporter from your local newspaper or magazine for coffee or lunch. Instead of asking, “Will you write about me?” a better question is “How can I help you?” Offer yourself as a resource in your area of expertise. Talk about trends you are seeing in your store.

4. Consider starting your own television show on your cable TV station’s community access channel. A floral shop can do a program on how to create dried flower arrangements. The station can rent you the camera equipment for a nominal fee. Air time is free. Produce one show or an entire series of programs. Call your cable company for details.

5. Build a network of other retailers in your area. Agree informally that you will refer reporters to each other whenever they call and want your views on a topic on which you all could comment, such as a new sales tax increase.

6. Write how-to articles such as this one for newsletters published by groups in your community, or for newsletters read by audiences who buy your products or services. Be sure the last paragraph tells readers how to contact you.

7. Don’t forget newspaper and magazine columnists. They’re always hungry for fresh ideas. Keep in touch with them and feed them ideas regularly.

8. Get on your local TV news and the morning TV news feature shows. Tie your product, service, cause or issue to a breaking news event. Pitch yourself as the local angle to a national story. Or suggest a feature story with great visuals.

9. Write articles for electronic magazines and include a paragraph of information at the end that leads readers to your web site.

10. Contact your trade association and ask them to refer reporters to you. Many reporters who don’t know where to find sources on a particular topic start by calling trade associations.

11. Always refer to yourself as an “expert” in your marketing materials, at your web site, in information that explains your workshops, in your introductions during public speaking engagements, and in your media kit. The media always seek out experts and interview them.

12. Pitch stories about your product, service, cause or issue that tie into the weather. Weather stories are mandatory at most media outlets, and newspapers and TV stations, in particular, are always looking for fresh angles that tie into today’s and tomorrow’s forecast.

13. Pitch story ideas about your business to the reporter who covers the retail beat for your local business journal or business magazine.

Joan Stewart, a.k.a. The Publicity Hound, shows you how to use the media to establish your credibility, enhance your reputation, sell more products and services, promote a favorite cause or issue, and position yourself as an employer of choice. She publishes “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” a free ezine on how to generate thousands of dollars in free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.PublicityHound.com and receive by email the free checklist “89 Reasons to Send a News Release.”

Dear New York Times:

I’d like to be quoted in one of your news stories. Enclosed is a check for $500. Please call me to arrange the interview sometime this week. Evenings are best. Thank you.

Imagine how such a letter would be greeted in the New York Times newsroom. The recipient would likely laugh out loud and might even post it on the bulletin board so other reporters could walk by and enjoy a good chuckle.

The letter wrongly assumed that the New York Times would accept “pay for play,” or would run a news story as long as a payment accompanied the request. It’s preposterous, of course, and U.S. news organizations just don’t work that way.

Or do they?

I recently booked a client on a Washington area radio talk show. After booking the client, I spent some additional time exploring the show’s website. Here’s what it said:

“Guest Opportunities: $600 to appear as a guest, 6 minute (minimum) interview.”

Although the host agreed not to charge my client, it made me wonder how pervasive this practice is, and whether media relations professionals should ever take advantage of this type of pay for play.

It’s not as uncommon as you might think. When I headed the media department for an environmental nonprofit, I used to get calls from production companies who were purportedly interested in producing half-hour documentaries on our group. The pitch was that they would then sell the completed program to a national network like Discovery or PBS, which would happily air it.

But later in the conversation, they would inevitably reveal their less than journalistic motives – they wanted us, as the subject of the piece, to pay tens of thousands of dollars to “defray their costs.” (Could you imagine Mike Wallace, after his recent interview with Russian President Putin on CBS, asking the Premier for a few grand to help 60 Minutes recover its production costs?)

When we asked the production companies what they could guarantee, they told us the show would appear on at least 80 PBS stations – but they couldn’t tell us in which markets and at what airtimes. In other words, they wouldn’t tell us if we would be buying a 3:00 A.M. timeslot in a small town or primetime in New York City. Something seemed off, and we decided to walk away from it.

A few months ago, I met someone who tried it. According to the president of a well-respected cultural nonprofit organization, the producers promised her that for $60,000, they could guarantee her that the show would air in at least 80 markets. After the show started airing, she asked the producers repeatedly for a list of the markets in which the piece was running. She never heard a word. She suspects the number was closer to 12 than 80.

So what should you do if you’re ever confronted with a pay for play opportunity? In general, I’d advise you to walk in the other direction. There are many news outlets that will report your story the right way – for free. Plus, the public is savvy enough to detect the difference between a balanced piece of journalism and an infomercial, and is more likely to regard the former with more credibility.

Is there ever a time to say ‘yes’ to pay for play? Well, perhaps. If, for example, the pay for play offer allows you to own the rights to any raw video footage the production team shoots and you can use that material in other ways, it might make sense. Or, if the venue is a direct hit on your target audience and you have no hope of getting coverage with that outlet in any other way, it might be worth it.

But in general, be wary. Pay for play has a way of making its customers pray for pay – in the form of a refund check.

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 and media training e-tips, visit http://www.PhillipsMediaRelations.com.

With a dismal failure rate of more than 75 percent among restaurants, you must be sure you do everything you possibly can do to promote your restaurant through free publicity. Here are 16 tips that will boost your publicity efforts and help you finally get noticed–even if you don’t have a big advertising budget.

1. Call the advertising department of every newspaper and magazine you want to get into and ask for a copy of their editorial calendar. It’s a free listing of all the special topics and special sections coming up during the calendar year. It will tip you off to sections where your story idea would be a good fit, so you can query the editor weeks and even months ahead.

2. Call the food editor or columnist from your local newspaper and invite her to lunch or coffee—or to your restaurant. Offer yourself as a resource. Ask “how can I help you?” Feed her tips and story ideas. Become such a valuable source that she keeps coming back to you for more information and eventually writes about you.

3. Produce your own television show on your cable TV company’s community access channel. The station will rent you the camera equipment for about $20. You can produce either one show or an entire series of programs, from how to cook with fresh garden produce to a show on how to buy fine wines. Air time is free. Call your cable company for details.

4. Build a network of other restaurant and food industry professionals—even if they are your competitors. Agree informally that you will refer reporters to each other whenever the media calls. Often, reporters want more than one source for a story. It’s a chance for all of you to get additional publicity.

5. Whenever someone asks you to write for their electronic newsletter or online magazine, visit their web site first and see if they have a resource section where you would be a good fit. Ask to be listed for free, in exchange for providing an article.

6. If you publish an interesting print newsletter with information about new trends in your industry, helpful tips for your employees or interesting stories about things that happen in your restaurant, send complimentary issues to local and national food columnists, food reporters, restaurant industry trade publications and other publications whose audiences you want to get in front of. You’ll be amazed at how many reporters start calling you for interviews.

7. Don’t forget newspaper and magazine columnists. They’re always hungry for fresh ideas. Keep in touch with them and feed them ideas regularly. Tell them about trends you are seeing in your industry.

8. Call local radio talk show hosts and invite them to call on you when other guests cancel. They will be thankful you offered. Write articles for industry newsletters. My favorite resource is the Oxbridge Directory of Newsletters, which lists more than 18,000 newsletters by topic and includes detailed information on the type of audience and subjects covered. Most larger libraries have this resource directory.

9. Contact your trade association and ask them to refer reporters to you. Many reporters who don’t know where to find sources start by calling trade associations.

10. Always refer to yourself as an “expert” in your marketing materials, at your web site, in your email signature file, and in your media kit. The media always seek out experts and interview them.

11. If you receive a favorable restaurant review, reprint it on placemats, or frame it and post it in your restaurant wall. Quote from it in your paid ads. Post it at your website.

12. If you have found innovative ways to attract and retain employees, let the media know. The labor shortage in the restaurant industry is a hot topic.

13. Suggest profile stories of employees who have interesting hobbies or participate in outstanding community service projects. The reporter will ask them where they work—and that’s more publicity for you.

14. If your restaurant is a tourist attraction, pitch a story idea to in-flight magazines.

15. If you attend trade shows for the restaurant industry, hook up with reporters who are covering the show and pitch story ideas about trends in your industry, or an idea about your restaurant.

Joan Stewart, a.k.a. The Publicity Hound, shows you how to use the media to establish your credibility, enhance your reputation, sell more products and services, promote a favorite cause or issue, and position yourself as an employer of choice. She publishes “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” a free ezine on how to generate thousands of dollars in free publicity. Subscribe at her website at http://www.PublicityHound.com and receive by email the free checklist “89 Reasons to Send a News Release.”

When is your best advertisement not an advertisement? When it’s a press release.

In the competition for consumer attention, a well-written press release is one of your most valuable marketing tools.

Why is it vital to put yourself in the news?

Because most of us attend differently to the news than we do to advertisements. We make certain assumptions about the news, for example, that it is important, simply because it is news. We count on news editors and publishers to carefully sift through potential story leads and choose only the most relevant to report.

Many of us attribute a higher level of credibility to a news report than we do to a commercial claim. We accept (even expect) a degree of “spin” in advertising that we won’t tolerate in a news report.

And the majority of us simply pay more attention to the news than we do to advertisements. Other than maybe during the Super Bowl, when is the last time you heard someone say, “Oh, good— the commercials are on now”?

A press release puts you on the front page of the public mind. It is an opportunity to build name recognition and generate interest in your company without delivering a sales message. If you’re not sure that you have anything newsworthy to report, think of a press release as a chance for the general public to go beyond your front door and to get to know your company and its employees.

Use a press release to announce:

• Formation of a new partnership or division
• Corporate citizenship or community involvement
• Launch of a new product, service or capability
• Company anniversary or milestone
• Recent awards, certifications, publications or patents
• Sponsorships, grants or educational opportunities

Successful marketers cultivate symbiotic relationships with the press. News editors and publishers need content; your business needs exposure. Relevant, well-written press releases are a way to establish yourself as a resource in your industry and to confirm your company as one to watch.

Quality interactions with the media generally lead to more quality interactions with the media, which leads to quality interactions with potential customers. Learn to harness the power of the press release and you too can enjoy the benefits of permanent press.

Copyright ©2005 by Dennis and Sally Bacchetta. All rights reserved.

Dennis Bacchetta is a Marketing Professional who writes on a variety of topics, including emerging technologies.

Sally Bacchetta is an award-winning sales trainer and freelance writer. She has published articles on a variety of topics, including selling skills, motivation, and pharmaceutical sales.

You can contact her at sb14580@yahoo.com and read her latest column on her website.

A press release is often your only chance to make a great first impression.

Newspapers, magazines and trade publications receive them by the truckload. That means sloppy, inaccurate, pointless releases are the first to hit the newsroom wastebasket. To make sure yours isn’t one of them, avoid these 7 Deadly Sins:

1. Providing insufficient or wrong information on your press releases, particularly telephone numbers. Releases must be complete, accurate and specific. (Note: A news release is the same as a press release.)

2. Writing too long. They should be no longer than a page.

3. Sending it too late. Mail or fax it to local media at least two weeks before an event, preferably three or four. Major magazines work four to six months ahead of time.

4. Sending a release with no news value. News is what happens that is different. If it isn’t different, it isn’t news.

5. Blatant commercialism. Avoid hackneyed words and phrases such as spectacular, incredible, the only one of its kind, breakthrough, cutting-edge, unique and state-of-the-art.

6. Omitting a contact name and phone number. At the top of the first page in the left corner, let editors know who they can call if they have questions. Include day, evening and cell phone numbers.

7. Calling after you send a release and asking questions like "Did you get my news release?" or "Do you know when it will be printed?" Don’t follow up with a phone call to see if the media got your release, unless you are absolutely sure that someone will check for you. Most reporters and editors don’t have time. If you do follow up, make sure you have a reason to call. Suggest a particular angle to your story, or ask the media people if they need any other information.

Joan Stewart publishes the free ezine “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” packed with valuable tips on how to generate thousands of dollars in free publicity. Subscribe at http://www.PublicityHound.com and receive free the handy checklist "89 Reasons to Send a News Release."

As a business, non-profit or association manager, do you see the value in doing something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of yours that most affect your operation?

Do you see the value in persuading those key outside folks to your way of thinking?

Do you see the value in moving them to take actions that allow your department, division or subsidiary to succeed?

Then you must see the value in good public relations that alters individual perception leading to changed behaviors among those key outside people. And further, that helps managers like you achieve your managerial objectives.

If you see those values, you also see PR’s REAL value. And you are a lucky manager!

Truth is, you probably should expand your view of public relations to emphasize the behaviors of your unit’s key outside audiences rather than publicity placements, special events, brochures and press releases.

Why should you go to that trouble? Because the people with whom you interact every day behave like everyone else – they act upon their perceptions of the facts they hear about you and your operation. Which means you should deal effectively with those perceptions (and their follow-on behaviors) by doing what is necessary to reach and move those key external audiences to action.

Luckily, your own carefully tailored PR plan can make the job a lot easier. I’m talking about a plan like this. People act on their own 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.

Take a few minutes to consider what might result from such activity. Community leaders beginning to seek you out; prospects starting to do business with you; customers making repeat purchases; rising membership applications; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; welcome bounces in show room visits; and new approaches by capital givers and specifying sources not to mention politicians and legislators viewing you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities.

Who will do this specialized kind of work? Your own public relations people? Folks assigned to your operation? An outside PR agency team? But regardless where they come from, they need to be committed to you and your PR plan beginning with key audience perception monitoring.

Be certain that the PR people assigned to you are serious about knowing how your most important outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. They must accept the reality that perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can help or hurt your operation.

Go over your PR plan with them, especially how you will monitor and gather perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. For instance, how much do you know about our chief executive? 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?

If the budget is available, don’t hesitate to use professional survey firms in 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.

With the right PR goal, you should be able to deal handily with the most serious distortions you discovered during your key audience perception monitoring. Your new goal could call for straightening out that dangerous misconception, or correcting that gross inaccuracy, or stopping that potentially fatal rumor dead in its tracks.

Now you must take pains to select the right strategy, one that tells you how to move forward. Keep in mind that there are just 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. Since the wrong strategy pick will taste like onion gravy on your key lime pie, be certain the new strategy fits comfortably with your new public relations goal. You don’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

While it’s tough to write tight and strong, you must write such a strong message and aim it at members of your target audience. Because crafting action-forcing language to persuade an audience to your way of thinking is tough work, you need your first-string varsity writer because s/he must create some very special, corrective language. Words that are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to correct something and shift perception/opinion towards your point of view leading to the behaviors you are targeting.

Now it’s time to select the communications tactics most likely to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. You can do this after you run the draft by your PR people for impact and persuasiveness. There are dozens available to you. From speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others. But be sure that the tactics you pick are known to reach folks just like your audience members.

As you may be aware, a message’s believability can depend on the credibility of the means used to deliver it. So you may decide to unveil it before smaller meetings and presentations rather than using higher-profile news releases.

Requests for progress reports signal you and your PR team to begin a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Many of the same questions used in the first benchmark session can be used again. But this time, you will be watching carefully for signs that the problem perception is being altered in your direction.

Occasionally, momentum will slow, but you can always speed up matters by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

Thus, what you really want PR’s value to accomplish is to persuade your most important outside stakeholders to your way of thinking, then move them to behave in a way that leads to the success of your unit.

end

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. Word count is 1175 including guidelines and resource box. 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 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. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com

If you want to succeed, build a great team. A great team multiplies your prospects for success; it enables you to form relationships with powerful people who can make your dreams come true. A great network supports your strengths, fills in your weaknesses and allows you to d build on your teammates’ accomplishments. When you have a great team, people assume that you are great and will stand in line to get to know you, do business with you, and help you. They will also be delighted to pay your price.

Okay, so you understand the value of a strong network. Now, how do you get started in building a great network?

Well, unless you’ve been living in total seclusion, you already have a network in place. And your network is probably more extensive than you realize. It may not be a great network yet, but it’s a beginning and a place from which to build. Your network most likely consists of your family, friends, schoolmates and business associates. It includes people with whom you’ve conducted business, socialized or otherwise interacted. In addition, the members of your network members’ networks are also members of your network. Therefore, if your accountant is a member of your network, so are all the members of your accountant’s network.

To build great networks, you need great people: great lawyers, doctors, dentists, accounts, insurance agents, friends, etc. If a disaster arose in the middle of the night, whom would you call? Can you count on him/her? Would he/she solve your problem? If a disaster arose in the middle of the night, who would call you? How could you help? Could they count on you?

If you want to build a great network, you must continually expand and upgrade your existing network. Everything always changes and what constitutes a great network today, could be less than great tomorrow. Network members drop out and lose interest: they change businesses, interests, and their lives and so will you. In networking, expanding and upgrading is a never-ending process: heads of states, CEOs, established leaders at every strata of society are constantly seeking to find the best people and incorporate them into their networks, add them to their teams. So the process of expanding and upgrading never stops; it’s what building a network is about.

To expand and upgrade your network requires focus. Once you realize that you have a network, it’s time sharpen your focus and begin to see with new eyes. Continually look for new and better network members and search for links that tie your network members with virtually everyone you meet and everything you experience. Search for opportunities for your network members and help them reach their goals.

Follow the example of the successful people in your life. Have you noticed how frequently they take new information and relate it to their particular area of expertise? Have you observed that writers tend to see everything as material for potential stories, financiers always look at the bottom line, publicists think about promotional possibilities, comics turn everything into humor, lawyers probe for hidden liabilities and medical workers zero in on health?

Well, successful networkers operate on the same principle. They’re obsessed with connections and instinctively search for them. Accomplished networkers see the world in terms of leads, contacts, and opportunities that will bring them closer to network relationships. They view the world optimistically and see every possibility as an opening that could lead them to their pot of gold.

Examine how the successful people you know process new information. Then apply their methods to your situation.

In most cases, your contacts have been around for quite a while. However, you confined them to specific niches. To you they were friends, family, business associates, or service people, not potential network contacts. When you expand your awareness to see those around you also as members of your network, you can refine your networking focus.

Focus on networking. Practice honing your networking focus until it becomes a highly-developed skill. Begin by:

* Asking yourself if people you know, meet or hear about could help you network.

* Clarifying precisely how these people could help. For example, introduce you to the mayor, recommend you for the membership in the garden club or inform you where they found their antique Venetian carnival masks.

* Find out what places and events would be worth attending to expand your contacts.

* Question how you can make the best use of information to connect you with your targets.

Developing networking focus isn’t difficult and before long, it will become second nature. Work to get it down pat because the ability to focus sharply is a priceless skill that will bring you rewards for the rest of your life.

Jill Lublin, author of the best selling book, Guerrilla Publicity, is a renowned public relations strategist and marketing expert. Jill is founder of GoodNews Media, Inc. a company specializing in positive news. She is currently the host of the nationally syndicated radio show, Do the Dream where she interviews celebrities who have achieved their dreams. Jill also has a TV pilot, The Good News, and an upcoming book, Networking Magic (Adams Media). Websites: www.promisingpromotion.com and www.jilllublin.com.

You can if, as a business, non-profit or association manager, you can honestly say you are doing something positive about the behaviors of those important external audiences of yours that most affect your department, group, division or subsidiary.

And particularly so when you persuade those key outside folks to your way of thinking, and move them to take actions that allow you to succeed.

In its simplest form, of course, what you are doing is helping achieve your managerial objectives by the simple tactic of altering perception leading to changed behaviors.

And there’s a reliable guideline that supports that notion: 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 usually accomplished.

I call that guideline the fundamental premise of public relations from which a variety of satisfying results can emanate. For instance, community leaders beginning to seek you out; capital givers or specifying sources starting to look your way; overdue bounces in show room visits; prospects starting to work with you; membership applications on the rise; customers starting to make repeat purchases; fresh proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; and even politicians and legislators starting to view you as a key member of the business, non-profit or association communities.

First things first, you’ll need to get your public relations people on board this public relations bandwagon. They must agree with the vital necessity to know how your outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be especially certain they accept the reality that negative perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can damage your organization.

Schedule a special sitdown with PR staff to run through just how you plan to guage perception and monitor opinion among your key outside audiences. Go over the questions to be asked: 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?

It’s fortunate for you and I that our PR people are already in the perception and behavior business and can be of real use for the opinion monitoring projects. You always have the option of using professional survey firms, but that can wind up costing real money. But, whether it’s your people or a survey firm who handles the questioning, the objective is to identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, and misconceptions.

One of the aberations you discover will stand out clearly as your corrective public relations goal – it could easily be to clarify the misconception, spike that rumor, correct the false assumption or fix a variety of other possible inaccuracies.

Simplifying matters is the reality that you can meet that goal only when you select the right strategy from the three choices available to you. Change existing perception, create perception where there may be none, or reinforce it. Using the wrong strategy is about as satisfying as using horseradish on your grits! So please be certain the new strategy fits comfortably with your new public relations goal. You wouldn’t want to select “change” when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

Here, you may come to see this chore as the toughest part of the job — write a persuasive message aimed at members of your target audience. Yes, it’s always a challenge to put together action-forcing language that will help persuade any audience to your way of thinking.

By all means, pick your best writer for this assignment. You need words that are not only compelling, persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if they are to shift perception/opinion towards your point of view and lead to the behaviors you desire.

With message writing behind you, you need to identify the communications tactics you need to carry your message to the attention of your target audience. Insuring that the tactics you select have a record of reaching folks like your audience members, you can select from speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters, personal meetings and many others.

Another reality in this business is that the credibility of the message can depend on the credibility of its delivery method. Which could lead you to deliver it in smaller meetings and presentations rather than through a higher- profile media announcement.

As it becomes obvious that a progress report will be needed, you and your PR team will want to undertake a second perception monitoring session with members of your external audience. Many of the same questions used in the first benchmark session can be used again. Now, however, you will be on alert for indications that the bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

In the event of a slowdown in program momentum, PR program such as this usually can be accelerated by adding more communications tactics as well as increasing their frequencies.

Trusting your PR program to deliver the bacon is really a matter of persuading your key external stakeholders to your way of thinking, then moving them to behave in a way that leads to the achievement of your managerial objectives and the success of your operation.

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 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. mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net

Visit:http://www.prcommentary.com

Although it seems less common these days, there are still a fair number of us public relations practitioners who enter the business by crossing over from the journalist’s side of the notebook.

When you make that transition, you become something of an oracle. Colleagues and clients expect you to be the walking, talking answer to the Rubik’s cube puzzle of how to gain the attention of the media. If only it were that simple!

Landing media placements is at least as much about art as it is science.

But it’s also about you and who you are as a PR person. What did I learn in two decades of writing and editing for newspapers, magazines and news services?

First of all, a PR pro doesn’t need a journalistic pedigree to succeed with journalists.

But you do have to possess something else: knowledge of what journalists really want from PR people. I’m not talking about what journalists want from your story – that’s another subject.

I’m talking about you. Do you know what journalists want from you, as the individual who’s e-mailing, faxing, calling and (too often, I fear) pestering them?

Here’s my short list of attributes that will get you a hearing from journalists (and that’s all you want – your story will sink or float on its own merits):

1. Honest brokers

Journalists know PR people have something to promote – a company, a product, a point of view. That’s not the issue.

It’s whether the journalist trusts that the story is coming from someone who won’t waste their time – someone who has invested the effort to understand them, their organization, their boss, and whether the story might interest the audience the journalist serves.

Trust is fundamental – but it’s also earned. Becoming an honest broker requires more than one conversation with a journalist. It requires enough dialogue that a relationship and a history of honest dealings can be established.

2. Facilitators

Face it, journalists don’t want to talk to PR people – at least not on the record, and not as newsmakers.

Good PR practitioners know they’re not newsmakers. They recognize that their role is to make stories happen, not be part of them. So good PR pros focus on being matchmakers, putting journalists together with the sources who make stories come alive.

For the PR pro, as well as the journalist, it’s all about the story. It’s not about you, or the institutional challenges you face in making the story happen. It’s about making the story real. And that leads me to what journalists really, really want from PR practitioners (and what we should strive to be):

3. Advocates for communication

No journalist wants to deal with a PR person who’s primarily unavailable, and when he or she is available, has a vocabulary limited to phrases such as “no comment.”

All other things being equal (including working for an organization or a leader who doesn’t communicate) journalists still give the benefit of the doubt to a PR person whom they know to be an advocate of communication.

That doesn’t mean someone who’s going to speak at inappropriate times about subjects that aren’t in the best interests of their organization. It means someone who understands deadlines, editors, the competition and the other pressures that journalists face while trying to do their jobs.

It means someone who understands that the best interests of their organization always include good relationships with the news media, the trusted purveyors of independent information for the customers, employees, investors and other audiences that the PR pro wants to reach.

In the end, that’s what all of media relations is really about: A good journalist and a good PR pro want to serve their audiences first.

It’s not always possible for journalists and PR pros to achieve that objective from their respective viewpoints in every interaction. But over the course of time, in a relationship of trust, respect and understanding, honest brokers who facilitate the story and advocate for communication will succeed in landing media placements.

Paul Furiga is president of WordWrite Communications LLC, a Pittsburgh-based virtual agency. He is the former editor of the Pittsburgh Business Times, and has also covered Congress, the White House, edited magazines and written for publications ranging from Congressional Quarterly to Frequent Flyer magazine.