EFFECTIVE PUBLIC RETATION

PROJECT REPORT

BY

VANEET CHOHANROLL NO – B38

Regd. No- 10809756

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF

MR. PUNEET BAWA(Faculty Guide)

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENTLOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY

PHAGWARA 2010

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PREFACE

This project is a part of the business administration course being taken up at Department of

Management Studies, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab.

I was provided opportunity to work on the topic “ EFFECTIVE PUBLIC RELATION ’’

This project has been of great help in knowing about the different strategies that an organisation uses

effective public relation with customers and media . It gave me a chance to learn and enhance my

understanding and image of the market and business world.

This experience in decision making and practical application of knowledge will contribute greatly to

my growth both as a person and a trainee.

VANEET CHOHAN

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DECLERATION

I declare that report entitled:

“EFFECTIVE PUBLIC RELATION’’

A critical and comprehensive study of Global marketing strategies is my own work. I also

undertake that the work is purely academic and no part has been copied or taken from

anywhere.

VANEET CHOHAN

MBA (LSM)

Regd. No.: 10809756

Lovely Professional University

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

My all praises to Almighty God, who blessed me with sufficient courage and capacity to carry

out and complete this study. Being aware of my limitations and shortcomings, it was not possible

for me to accomplish this work without his help. First of all I would like to thanks my Respected

Sir. Mr. PUNEET BAWA who guided me from time to time and helped me in compiling this

report. Secondly, I am very much thankful to my friends also because they encouraged me from

time to time and also gave me some valuable suggestions for making this term paper more

beautiful.

VANEET CHOHAN

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INDEX

TITLE Page No.Public relations 6Objectives of Effective Public Relations 7

Advantages of Public Relations7

Method, Tools and Technique 8

Key Public Relations Tools 10Public Relations Requires Seeing the Whole 13Public Relations Tips | Using PR Strategies 15Public Relations Success Doesn't Come From Luck 16 Winning Public Relations Media Tactics 17Public Relations Strategies and Tactics | The Difference Between the Two

19

10 Steps to Creating a Successful Public Relations Plan

20

Marketing and Public Relations | What's the Difference?

22

Trends in Public Relations 25

Disadvantages of Public Relations27

Building Relationships: The Foundation for Good PR(Bloggers.com)

28

Literature review 30Bibliography 33

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Public relations

From the four promotional mix options available to marketers public relations (PR) is probably the least understood and, consequently, often receives the least amount of attention. Many marketers see public relations as only handling rudimentary communication activities, such as issuing press releases and responding to questions from the news media.

But in reality, in a time when customers are inundated with thousands of promotional messages everyday, public relations offers powerful methods for cutting through the clutter.

In this part our highly detailed Principles of Marketing Tutorials we see how public relations is growing in importance as a marketing tool and is now a critical component in helping marketers reach their objectives. We will see that PR uses a variety of methods to enhance the relationship between organizations and its target audience. And we will show that when handled correctly PR can allow a marketer’s message to rise above other promotional methods.

What is Public Relations?

Public relations involves the cultivation of favorable relations for organizations and products with its key publics through the use of a variety of communications channels and tools. Traditionally, this meant public relations professionals would work with members of the news media to build a favorable image by publicizing the organization or product through stories in print and broadcast media. But today the role of public relations is much broader and includes:

building awareness and a favorable image for a company or client within stories and articles found in relevant media outlets

closely monitoring numerous media channels for public comment about a company and its products

managing crises that threaten company or product image building goodwill among an organization’s target market through community,

philanthropic and special programs and events

In this tutorial most of our focus is on how public relations supports marketing by building product and company image (sometimes referred to as publicity). Yet, it should be noted that there are other stakeholders companies reached via the public relations function, such as

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employees and non-target market groups. Favorable media coverage about a company or product often reaches these audiences as well and may offer potential benefit to the marketer.

Finally, in most large companies, investor relations (IR) or financial public relations is a specialty in itself guided by specific disclosure regulations. However, coverage of this type of PR will not be provided here.

Objectives of Effective Public Relations

Like other aspects of marketing promotion, public relations is used to address several broad objectives including:

Building Product Awareness – When introducing a new product or relaunching an existing product, marketers can use a PR element that generates consumer attention and awareness through media placements and special events.

Creating Interest – Whether a PR placement is a short product article or is included with other products in “round up” article, stories in the media can help entice a targeted audience to try the product. For example, around the holiday season, a special holiday food may be promoted with PR through promotional releases sent to the food media or through special events that sample the product.

Providing Information – PR can be used to provide customers with more in depth information about products and services. Through articles, collateral materials, newsletters and websites, PR delivers information to customers that can help them gain understanding of the product.

Stimulating Demand – A positive article in a newspaper, on a TV news show or mentioned on the Internet, often results in a discernable increase in product sales.

Reinforcing the Brand – In many companies the public relations function is also involved with brand reinforcement by maintaining positive relationships with key audiences, and thereby aiding in building a strong image. Today it is ever more important for companies and brands to build a good image. A strong image helps the company build its business and it can help the company in times of crises as well.

Advantages of Public Relations

Public relations offers several advantages not found with other promotional options. First, PR is often considered a highly credible form of promotion. One of PR’s key points of power rests with helping to establish credibility for a product, company or person (e.g., CEO) in the minds of targeted customer groups by capitalizing on the influence of a third-party -- the media. Audiences view many media outlets as independent-party sources that are unbiased in their coverage, meaning that the decision to include the name of the company and the views expressed about the company is not based on payment (i.e., advertisement) but on the media outlet’s judgment of what is important. For example, a positive story about a new product in the business section of a local newspaper may have greater impact on readers than a full-page advertisement for the product since readers perceive the news media as presenting an impartial perspective of the product.

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Second, a well-structured PR campaign can result in the target market being exposed to more detailed information than they receive with other forms of promotion. That is, media sources often provide more space and time for explanation of a product.

Third, depending on the media outlet, a story mentioning a company may be picked up by a large number of additional media, thus, spreading a single story to many locations.

Finally, in many cases public relations objectives can be achieved at very low cost when compared to other promotional efforts. This is not to suggest public relations is not costly, it may be, especially when a marketer hires PR professionals to handle the work. But when compared to the direct cost of other promotions, in particular advertising, the return on promotional expense can be quite high.

Method, Tools and Technique

Public relations and publicity are not synonymous but many PR campaigns include provisions for publicity. Publicity is the spreading of information to gain public awareness for a product, person, service, cause or organization, and can be seen as a result of effective PR planning.

Public targeting

A fundamental technique used in public relations is to identify the target audience, and to tailor every message to appeal to that audience. It can be a general, nationwide or worldwide audience, but it is more often a segment of a population. Marketers often refer to economy-driven "demographics," such as "black males 18-49," but in public relations an audience is more fluid, being whoever someone wants to reach. For example, recent political audiences include "soccer moms" and "NASCAR dads." There is also a psychographic grouping based on fitness level, eating preferences, "adrenaline junkies,"etc...

In addition to audiences, there are usually stakeholders, literally people who have a "stake" in a given issue. All audiences are stakeholders (or presumptive stakeholders), but not all stakeholders are audiences. For example, a charity commissions a PR agency to create an advertising campaign to raise money to find a cure for a disease. The charity and the people with the disease are stakeholders, but the audience is anyone who is likely to donate money.

Sometimes the interests of differing audiences and stakeholders common to a PR effort necessitate the creation of several distinct but still complementary messages. This is not always easy to do, and sometimes – especially in politics – a spokesperson or client says something to one audience that angers another audience or group of stakeholders.

Lobby groups

Lobby groups are established to influence government policy, corporate policy, or public opinion. An example of this is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, AIPAC, which influences American foreign policy. Such groups claim to represent a particular interest and in fact are

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dedicated to doing so. When a lobby group hides its true purpose and support base it is known as a front group. Moreover, governments may also lobby public relations firms in order to sway public opinion. A well illustrated example of this is the way civil war in Yugoslavia was portrayed. Governments of newly succeeded republics of Croatia and Bosnia invested heavily with American PR firms, so that the PR firms would give them a positive war image in the US.

Spin

In public relations, "spin" is sometimes a pejorative term signifying a heavily biased portrayal in one's own favour of an event or situation. While traditional public relations may also rely on creative presentation of the facts, "spin" often, though not always, implies disingenuous, deceptive and/or highly manipulative tactics. Politicians are often accused of spin by commentators and political opponents, when they produce a counter argument or position.

The techniques of "spin"s include selectively presenting facts and quotes that support one's position (cherry picking), the so-called "non-denial denial," phrasing in a way that assumes unproven truths, euphemisms for drawing attention away from items considered distasteful, and ambiguity in public statements. Another spin technique involves careful choice of timing in the release of certain news so it can take advantage of prominent events in the news. A famous reference to this practice occurred when British Government press officer Jo Moore used the phrase It's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury, (widely paraphrased or misquoted as "It's a good day to bury bad news"), in an email sent on September 11, 2001. The furor caused when this email was reported in the press eventually caused her to resign.

Spin doctor

Skilled practitioners of spin are sometimes called "spin doctors," though probably not to their faces unless it is said facetiously. It is the PR equivalent of calling a writer a "hack." Perhaps the most well-known person in the UK often described as a "spin doctor" is Alastair Campbell, who was involved with Tony Blair's public relations between 1994 and 2003, and also played a controversial role as press relations officer to the British and Irish Lions rugby union side during their 2005 tour of New Zealand.

State-run media in many countries also engage in spin by selectively allowing news stories that are favorable to the government while censoring anything that could be considered critical. They may also use propaganda to indoctrinate or actively influence citizens' opinions. Privately run media also uses the same techniques of 'issue' versus 'non-issue' to spin its particular political viewpoints.

Meet and Greet

Many businesses and organizations will use a Meet and Greet as a method of introducing two or more parties to each other in a comfortable setting. These will generally involve some sort of incentive, usually food catered from restaurants, to encourage employees or members to participate.

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There are opposing schools of thought as to how the specific mechanics of a Meet and Greet operate. The Gardiner school of thought states that unless specified as an informal event, all parties should arrive promptly at the time at which the event is scheduled to start. The Kolanowski school of thought, however, states that parties may arrive at any time after the event begins, in order to provide a more relaxed interaction environment

Key Public Relations Tools

Marketers have at their disposal several tools for carrying out public relations. The key tools available for PR include:

Media Relations Media Tours Newsletters Special Events Speaking Engagements Sponsorships Employee Relations Community Relations and Philanthropy

Before choosing among the various tools marketers should begin by identifying their targeted audiences (e.g., target markets) and key messages they wish to send. These should align with the messages and audiences identified for the product being promoted or corporate goals for non-specific product promotions, such as corporate image promotions.

The key messages are used in the development of public relations materials and supporting programs described below. The purpose of key messages is to provide a consistent point of view over time and across numerous PR methods that reinforce product positioning (i.e., customer's perceptions) and reach the desired target audience.

Media Relations

Historically the core of public relations, media relations, includes all efforts to publicize products or the company to members of the press — TV and Radio, newspaper, magazine, newsletter and Internet. In garnering media coverage, PR professionals work with the media to place stories about products, companies and company spokespeople. This is done by developing interesting and relevant story angles that are pitched to the media. It is important to remember that media placements come with good stories and no payment is made to the media for placements. In fact, in order to maintain the highest level of credibility, many news organizations bar reporters from accepting even the smallest gifts (e.g., free pencils with product logo) from companies.

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Key tools used in media relations include:

Press Kits - Include written information such as a news release, organization background, key spokesperson biographies and other supporting materials that provide information useful to reporters.

Audio or Video News Releases - These are prerecorded features distributed to news media that may be included within media programming. For instance, a local news report about amusement parks may include portions of a video news release from a national amusement park company.

Matte Release - Some media, especially small local newspapers, may accept articles written by companies often as filler material when their publication lacks sufficient content. PR professionals submit matte releases through syndicated services (i.e., services that supply content to many media outlets) or directly to targeted media via email, fax or snail mail.

Website Press Room - While hard copies of materials are used and preferred by some media, marketers are well served by an online press room that caters to media needs and provides company contact information.

As PR people know, many story ideas for newspapers, magazines and television news often start with a suggestion from a PR person. If things work out, a reporter or editor will, at best, write a positive story with the company as a key feature or, at minimum, include the company’s name somewhere within an industry-focused article.

Media Tour

Some new products can be successfully publicized when launched with a media tour. On a media tour a company spokesperson travels to key cities to introduce a new product by being booked on TV and radio talk shows and conducting interviews with print and Internet reporters or influencers (e.g., bloggers). The spokesperson can be a company employee or someone hired by the company, perhaps a celebrity or "expert" who has credibility with the target audience. One common use of the media tour is the book tour, where an author travels the country to promote a newly released book. A media tour may include other kinds of personal appearances in conjunction with special events, such as public appearances, speaking engagements or autograph signing opportunities.

Newsletters

Marketers who have captured names and addresses of customers and potential customers can use a newsletter for regular contact with their targeted audience. Newsletters can be directed at trade customers, final consumers or business buyers and can be distributed either by regular mail or electronic means (i.e., e-newsletters delivered via email or rss feed). Marketers using newsletters strive to provide content of interest to customers as well as information on products and promotions. A bookstore may include reviews of new books, information on online book chats and information on in-store or online promotions. A food manufacturer may include seasonal recipes, information on new products and coupons. Online newsletters offer the opportunity to

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link to stores carrying the marketer's products. Effective newsletters are sought out by and well received by interested audiences.

Special Events

These run the gamut from receptions to elegant dinners to stunts. Special events can be designed to reach a specific narrow target audience, such as individuals interested in college savings plans to major events like a strawberry festival designed to promote tourism and regional agriculture. Stunts, such as building the world’s largest ice cream sundae during National Ice Cream month captures the attention of an audience in the immediate area, but also attracts the attention of mass media such as TV news and major newspapers, which provide broad reach. The Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile is a classic example, providing a recognizable icon that travels the country garnering attention wherever it visits. As with all PR programs, special event planners must work hard to ensure the program planned conveys the correct message and image to the target audience.

Speaking Engagements

Speaking before industry conventions, trade association meetings, and other groups provides an opportunity for company experts to demonstrate their expertise to potential clients/customers. Generally these opportunities are not explicitly for company or product promotion; rather they are a chance to talk on a topic of interest to potential customers and serve to highlight the speaker’s expertise in a field. Often the only mention of the company or its products is in the speaker biography. Nevertheless, the right speaking engagement puts the company in front of a good target audience and offers networking opportunities for generating customer leads.

Sponsorships

Companies and brands use sponsorships to help build goodwill and brand recognition by associating with an event or group. Marketers can examine sponsorship opportunities to find those that reach target groups, fit within a specified budget and provide sponsorship benefits that suit the marketer’s objectives. There are numerous local, regional, national and international sponsorship opportunities ranging from a local art center or theatre to the Olympics. Most organizations seeking company sponsors provide information on the variety of sponsorship levels which include data on event audience, exposure opportunities, which can include signage, T-shirts, public announcements and numerous other opportunities, receptions and much more. Marketers can use this information to help match sponsorship opportunities with the company’s objectives.

Employee Communications

For many companies communicating regularly with employees is important in keeping employees informed of corporate programs, sales incentives, personnel issues, as well as keeping them updated on new products and programs. Companies use a variety of means to communicate with employees, including Intranet, email, online and print newsletters. In larger firms an in-house PR

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department often works in conjunction with the Human Resources Department to develop employee communications.

Community Relations and Philanthropy

For many companies fostering good relations with key audiences includes building strong relationships with their regional community. Companies implement programs supportive of the community ranging from supporting local organizations and institutions (e.g., arts organizations, community activities, parks) to conducting educational workshops (e.g., for teachers, parents) to donating product for community events and charitable fundraisers. The goal is generally to develop a positive relationship with members of the community (i.e., be known as a good neighbor). Effective community relations can help a company weather bad publicity or a crisis situation that can unexpectedly arise due to a problem with a product, unethical behavior by management, or even by false rumors. Some companies also make an effort to contribute to charitable organizations, often organizations that have some relationship to the company’s mission or to a key principal of the company

Public Relations Requires Seeing the Whole

Many cultures have a similar story of the 6 blind men and the elephant. If you are unfamiliar with this parable, here is a brief summary: None of the men had ever seen an elephant, and they desired to "see" it with their hands. Each of the men had a chance to touch the elephant and each discovered a different part of its body: the trunk, the side, the tusk, the legs, the tail, and the ear. Each man created an idea of what the elephant looked like. He was an animal resembling a snake, a wall, a spear, tree trunks, rope, and a fan. Each man was certain that they were correct in what the elephant looked like. In reality, each man only had a fraction of the knowledge they needed to fully understand what the elephant looked like, and their arguing continued.

Like public relations, not knowing the whole story can make you blind. More importantly, being blind to your limitations or abilities because of insufficient knowledge or a large ego can cause you to lose sight of things. When creating a PR plan, pitch, media alert, or even website copy, you need to know the entire story so that you can properly convey it to others. A rule many public relations practitioners follow is that truth is key, and part of being truthful is telling the whole story.

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As a PR team, members need to work together and communicate. The 6 blind men were unable to see what the other men were seeing and assumed each was wrong. Though each person in a PR team cannot as easily "touch" and fully understand the other parts of the plan being created (if that is not their area of expertise), they can listen and try to understand. As a whole, the six men could not properly explain what the elephant looked like. They had a general idea, but each man thought the elephant had no other attributes, which is not the case. Moreover, like a PR plan, there are many components that need to exist together.

When writing a PR plan, press release, etc., there needs to be collaboration between team members to create the best story and to represent the company or client in the best light, giving the most complete interpretation of what the story is trying to express. Like each man seeing a different part of the elephant, team members in a PR team can see things better than others. In order to work effectively as a team, each member needs to acknowledge that their lack of knowledge in an area is OK; that is, after all, why we work in teams. Doing so can help to ensure that everyone can work successfully together to see the entire elephant.

Furthermore, when creating a PR plan, the team needs to see the industry, company situation, and company goals as a whole. Without this knowledge and sight, the plan is destined to fail and not meet the expected results. When working together to gather the correct information, the plan has a better chance of succeeding. Even more helpful would be to enlist the assistance of a PR expert or firm who has some experience in the industry. They can help create ties with media, other companies looking to collaborate, and buyers. They also offer experience and insight into possible outcomes, and can perhaps estimate which tools will be best for your company and situation.

Lastly, when writing a press release, as the image above helps to represent, it is important to remember to include all of the important details that help readers to understand the story. For a journalist or reporter reading a press release missing any of the components of "who, what, when, where, and why", the story won't make much sense. If a story doesn't make much sense, it isn't difficult to move on to the next story. Additionally, you want to give buyers the best information so that they can understand what you are trying to say. Have someone outside of the company help you to proofread your releases to make sure they contain all of the necessary information. A story is much easier to understand when all of the information is present.

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Public Relations Tips | Using PR Strategies

When creating a strategic PR plan, there is much that needs to be done. Collaboration and cooperation between the different areas of a business need to take place. A key component (though all parts of the PR plan are necessary for the plan to be successful) are the strategies the company or PR firm creates and identifies.

These strategies can be things like changing perceptions of the company, creating more brand awareness, telling a company's story, and winning industry awards, among others. These strategies are created to move the company forward and give it a competitive advantage over other companies.

Once a company has created their strategies, tactics need to be set in place that will accomplish those strategies. Using these tactics will make the strategies come to life. Using strategies can greatly help a company reach their goals and objectives. A key to making these strategies successful is to ensure that they are in line with those overall company goals and objectives. Otherwise, strategies that work towards a goal that is not congruent with the overall goals and objectives of a company can cause chaos, disconnect, and perhaps detrimental effects for the company.

To help guarantee that the strategies are created correctly, you must first ensure that the goals and objective of a company are clearly defined. Ensure, too, that everyone involved in the PR plan creation process is aware of these goals. To create great company goals and objectives, know that they need to be tangible and realistic goals, though still challenging at the same time. This means that your goals should fit in line with where your company wants to go and where it is possible to go. For example, if your company wants to expand it's product line or reach more niche markets, craft the PR plan around those goals and create new specified goals for the PR plan that works towards accomplishing the larger company goal.

Moreover, to certify the success of a strategy, a company needs to be on the same page; get everyone together and make decisions as a team. This can help reduce the blame when something goes wrong ("we made this plan together") and can help increase participation and ownership of a

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plan when everyone is involved.

Brainstorm, talk things out, and constantly ask for feedback. If you are working as an internal, In-House PR team, seek guidance from an outside agency or someone who may have more experience and possibly more opportunities to connect your company with the media or buyers. These can be great resources of knowledge, and will generally cost you less than hiring them full time. Respect their time and try not to expect things for free, since they have a living to make too.

Overall, strategies are the bread and butter of any PR plan; to get these strategies created and implemented, you have to know where the company is currently, where they want to go, and if your strategies work after implementation. Monitor your strategies and their outcomes and see where you can better improve. Keep in mind that trial and error is the best way to find out what works for your company or client, and know that different things will work for one company and not work for another.

Public Relations Success Doesn't Come From Luck

It comes from hard work. While we cannot control other people's perceptions, their mood, or their reaction to our actions, we can work hard and know that the best results will come to us from doing so.

No matter how much we wish and will it to be true, there is no magic to making PR work, and work well at that. It takes commitment, perseverance, and the attitude of believing that you will be successful. Many training videos (and even The Secret, if you remember that) talk about the power of the voice in your head: if you believe it, and believe it enough, it will happen. Knowing that you can succeed, and telling yourself you can, can greatly improve your outlook on things, increase your desire to work hard, and can even help you succeed.

While that's a little more philosophical than this blog usually gets, it's good to remember that

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what happens in life is because of our own doings.

In PR, there is no such thing as luck. What happens in response to your PR plan and PR efforts reflects the effort you put into it, the outlets you've exhausted, and the intentions you had behind your actions. Luck is not a component of a winning PR plan or part of a successful PR strategy. It takes research, respect for others (i.e., reporters, journalists, bloggers, the community, and other businesses), planning, and an overall understanding of your company, industry, and situation. These are components of a winning PR strategy or plan. Moreover, you need an understanding of your audience and target markets. Without an idea of who you are directing your messages and efforts, you're bound to be unsuccessful. .

Finally, those who do have success who seem to be doing "the exact same thing" as you are not doing the exact same thing. They may have been at it longer, know more people to connect to, and have more options when it comes to gaining that success than you do. Remember that no one company situation is the same as the next, and with that, you shouldn't be doing the same thing as another company. If you are trying to replicate the activities of another company you see experiencing success, and you are not, that could be why; their activities are working for them, and were tailored for them. You should, in the same fashion, create activities and plans that work for you and your company

There is no magic to PR; it may seem mysterious and magical if the understanding isn't there, and there are some "formulas" that work for every company. Just keep in mind that if someone does offer you some magic or a genie to grant your wishes, something could be awry.

Winning Public Relations Media Tactics

When creating a successful media plan for your company, there are tactics to implement. In order to gain the strategic benefit of having a good media plan in place, try using the following tactics:

1. Create relationships with the media . This means more than simply pitching them when you need a story published. Offer to be of assistance to them and see what can happen from there. Be appreciative of their efforts, and be aware of their deadlines and priorities. Treat them like a person, and know that they are not out to get you or make you

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look bad. Both your job and theirs requires the flow of stories and news; the worst you can hear is "no". Remember that you are talking on their time too, so offer to take them somewhere for coffee or lunch when you'd like to talk more about a story (if they're able and have the time) and try to create a relationship with them that can be seen as more than simply a reporter or journalist being pitched.

2. Create relationships with other bloggers . This is also a great venue to grow your network and to get others in the industry 'on your side'. There is some controversy about bloggers receiving "gifts" for posting a blog article on a company, so know that while there are bloggers who will allow you to bribe them, there should be more to the relationship than a give and take of material goods. Offer to help the blogger in ways you are able, such as exposure on your blog or website, and see if you are able to get them to feature a story about your event or special offer.

3. Pitch your stories and solutions you provide to buyers , not just the product you offer. Make the story more interesting and avoid making it simply a sales pitch. This can help readers and buyers to relate to your company, and to see where products and services you offer may be of assistance to them. Make the story relevant, including the effects on others outside the company. Be sure to include information on why this story is important and why it involves others in the community.

4. Re-read and re-write your stories . This is crucial to getting your press release, pitch, media alert, etc., even read! Typos, grammatical errors, and spelling mistakes drive me up the wall. They show a lack of attention to detail, lack of pride in your work, and show laziness and sloppiness. Even when receiving emails, seeing typos makes me lose some respect for the email writer. Then, seeing their title of CEO of their company, I wonder how they were able to get there with such poor writing. Take the time to proof-read your copy! If you don't have time, get someone else to read it for you! That's what a PR team is for, so utilize them to help you send out the best copy. This takes minutes of your day and make the difference in your story making it to print.

5. Personalize your pitches . This goes hand in hand with #1 and #3: make the story relevant and important to the people who are reading your story. If the media person you are pitching has no interest in your company who offers technological support for POS (point of sale) software, what makes you think your story will make it into their pile of "stories-to-write"? This can also show a lack of attention to detail when you simply send mass amounts of pitches (also referred to as spam) to people, hoping at least one person finds it interesting. Take the time to figure out what reporters and journalists enjoy covering, and read what they write so you can make a personalized pitch that is tailored for their interests.

Overall, know that your pitch reflects you and your company or client. Having a bad pitch can be detrimental to you and your client, and can burn bridges with media that you may have otherwise had a great opportunity to connect with. Wait to pitch reporters or journalists (and even bloggers) that you're interested in talking to until you have something of value to offer them. This can greatly increase your chances of success.

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Public Relations Strategies and Tactics | The Difference Between the Two

'Strategies' and 'tactics' are terms that are often used interchangeably, but they are two very different things. One is the way in which a competitive advantage is (attempted to be) gained, and the other is the competitive advantage. That makes the two things related in the sense that they are both part of the public relations planning process. A strategy is what will set your company apart or help your company or client to reach a goal and objective. For each strategy, there are tactics needed to accomplish that strategy.

Let's start with some definitions:

Strategy: noun a : a careful plan or method : a clever stratagem b : the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal. Tactic : noun a device for accomplishing an end.

Those definitions help to show the differences between the two. One is the strategy or the art of creating a plan, while the other is the means with which that plan is executed.

When creating a PR plan, there are essential components (which can be found in the previous post) that include strategies and tactics. Having these components gives the plan a better chance of success and makes the plan more relevant and tailored for the company or client when these strategies and tactics are based on the company's overall business objectives. To help ensure that success companies should create strategies corresponding with the company's and PR plan's objectives as well as tactics tailored for the intended/targeted audiences and media.

While strategies and tactics seem to be the same thing, they are not. Know that one requires the other, and vice versa. To take action and implement a tactic without knowing why wouldn't be very helpful, and to create a strategy without acting upon it would be somewhat pointless.

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10 Steps to Creating a Successful Public Relations Plan

Creating a public relations plan takes time, knowledge, and understanding of your company or client needs and wants. Here are some steps to ensure you capture those wants and needs in the plan creation process and that you create a plan that is relevant and useful to your company or client.

1. Know your company's or client's current situation . This is essential to knowing where the company now stands, where the company is able to go, what the company's market/industry looks like, and what direction the company is headed. This helps to put things in perspective.

2. Know your resources . This can be a part of the first step, as it is a part of the situational analysis needed to understand where your company or client currently stands. This can help you better build your tactics and strategies while considering the budget, time, and other resource limitations the company or client may have.

3. Know your objectives and goals . Also essential to the PR plan having success, you must know where the company hopes to go. Like driving with no directions, a PR plan with no goals or objectives is an aimless action with no knowledge of what could come, or even what results are desired. Be sure that the PR plan's objectives are in line with the rest of the company's overall objectives, and ensure that they are clear to all involved.

4. Know and define your target audience(s) . This means that you've defined your target buyer audiences and target media audiences. Each audience will need a different

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message and a different approach. Knowing these audiences will help you to frame your strategies and tactics so that you can effectively reach the people you hope to reach.

5. List messages and strategies you will use to reach the target audiences you defined. These should be in line with the goals and objectives listed earlier; if they are not, the plan is already off to a somewhat bad start. Know that your strategies and messages also need to relate to one another, otherwise there is some disconnect happening that needs to be addressed.

6. Define the tactics you will use to make the strategies you've listed a reality. These tactics will take the messages and strategies listed and make them happen. If, for example, a strategy is to enhance a company's brand awareness, tactics could include community outreach, social media use, press conferences, etc. There first needs to be a strategy defined before tactics can be addressed and assigned to a message.

7. Create a time-line for implementation . This needs to be realistic but also challenging. Remember that there should be no lapses in the PR plan where press releases are being sent out, events are taking place, or media are being engaged. There needs to be constant reminder to the public that the company is alive and well, and that can be done with constant information being sent out.

8. Delegate obligations and responsibilities to your team or your client's team to ensure all parts of the PR plan are completed. This helps to ensure that everyone is on board and that everyone knows their own responsibilities and duties. This is crucial to seeing the PR plan come to fruition. This step should be done with everyone involved so that no one feels over-burdened, left out, or given too much responsibility. This can also help to give everyone the feeling of responsibility since the plan was created with everyone together and not just one person's say.

9. Create measurements of results/ success . To know if your plan is effective, create measurements and benchmarks for the tactics you implement. This is a place for the PR team to gauge the success of the plan and to see if goals were realistic. Creating measurements can also help to show what could have been done with the expertise and estimations of a PR firm or team.

10. Review the plan after implementation and conclusion of the plan. This is the time when all who helped to create and carry-out the plan can come together and share their thoughts on what went well, what didn't go so well, and what could be done differently in the future. This needs to be done to ensure that future plans have a chance of being successful. This step can help to encourage group members to continue working for the company's success by giving everyone a chance to talk and contribute to the next planing.

The key to remember when creating a PR plan is that all plans are going to be unique and different for each company, and even within the same company, they will be different for each plan objective/goal. Do your homework before creating a plan, and be sure that you work closely with the company or client to make the plan a success.

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Marketing and Public Relations | What's the Difference?

Often times, marketing and public relations get lumped into one category. While the two categories have been growing more and more similar with the Internet and companies being able to do their own marketing and PR, there are still a few differences to keep in mind. Also important to remember is the existing differences between advertising, PR, branding, and marketing. These four components of business are all interrelated and need to work together to ensure that a business is successful. In order to understand how to use each of these components, you must first understand how to identify them.

Marketing is more closely related with selling than public relations. While the ultimate goal of both marketing and PR is to gain customers and business, PR is more focused on the relationship aspect of the buying process that a buyer goes through. Moreover, PR helps to maintain the relationships with current users and new customers, whereas marketing is primarily focused on gaining new business. PR also helps to maintain and build relationships between the company and the public.

Some state that public relations is all about building relationships. While that is true, PR also has a dual purpose in a company: to help maintain relationships, as noted above. Once marketing has helped to instill recognition of a company in a buyer's mind, it is PR's job to foster these relationships and ensure they continue to grow in a positive manner. This can be done through communication, honesty, and engagement of those audiences.

Reading materials from other blogs to see what my take on this was, I came across a few things that made me wonder: 'What is the difference between marketing and PR?' Other bloggers were stating that the difference between the two were that marketing asks buyers to take an action, whereas PR does not. Some were stating that marketing has nothing to do with relationship building.

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So, what does differ between PR and marketing? I think perhaps it boils down to the bottom line: marketing aims to increase sales and overall company performance. While that is an outcome desired from having great PR, that is not what drives companies' PR. We do PR because we want to have another side to our companies that customers can see, talk to, and engage with. This PR side of our companies is a more personified and honest interpretation of our company that does away with the advertisements and marketing seen in our other business objectives. While we would love for this tactic to earn us more business, we know the ultimate PR goal is to build relationships with our customers, potential customers, communities, and general public.

Marketing, on the other hand, is looking to convince customers of something, whether that be that our company is awesome or that our competitor is not; we are trying to force-feed customers and buyers the beliefs we want them to hold. This is more difficult than what PR does, which is to allow customers to make their own interpretations of our company (with a little help). We want to put our company in the best light, but there is only so much we can do without reverting back to marketing or advertising. With public relations, customers are given more to go off of, and can create a message or idea of their own in terms of what our company means to them.

Public relations, then, is seen as more credible than marketing. When a customer comes to a conclusion on their own, it is easier to believe and it makes more sense to them than the overdone methods of advertising and marketing. There is a very fine line between marketing and PR that is being ever blurred with the available online tools. The Internet has made it easy to perform tasks that were once labeled marketing and are now classified as PR, such as distributing press releases to the public.

When it comes down to it, customers will embrace the company they like more. Getting a customer to like your company more cannot easily be done with marketing, though it is possible. It is easier for them to like your company when they hear about you from someone else (PR), when they read about you in a newspaper article written by the paper's staff (PR), when they see your press conference on the news (PR), or when they see the news at your awesome fundraiser event (PR).

PR responsibilities that affect marketing

Any legal issue is handled by the PR department. Marketing and advertising is responsible for spreading the word, however it is the primarily role of the PR department to withhold the image of your company in the market place. PR is responsible for protecting the company, corporation, or organization.

Public Relations must handle the slander, bad-mouthing, and pitfalls a company might encounter in the global and regional marketplace; such as the many recalls of foods or products. Recently there have been disasters for toy companies with lead-based paint. Handling situations like this are the primary role of your PR department.

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Companies must have PR campaigns in place to immediately follow the offset of negative media surrounding a threat to the company. These campaigns must be ready to defend the integrity of the company.

Public Relations must increasingly pursue global strategies also with regard to culture of different communities and countries. The marketing department is in charge of doing research on their customers and relaying this information to the PR department. PR must know the language of the countries they are doing business with and make sure their intended message is not translated differently.

Therefore public relations must at all times be aware of culture and language not only globally but also regionally to effectively communicate a good image message.

Advertising is a highly expensive piece of marketing. Having a good PR department helps reduce the advertising costs by setting the image of the company. If a company has lost its good public image through the recall of its best products, what good can advertising do - nothing?

PR and government

Public Relations is not only important in business but in government. Governments need to establish good public relations with other governments. Political campaigners use public relations all the time to further their cause. Obviously, the campaigners with a good PR department usually become the winners. Typically, government campaigns and corporations are non-profit. Having funding for a good marketing strategy and PR department to spread the word is essential.

The government effectively uses public relations to persuade the people. Public relations are the new word in effective communication between countries, governments, and communities.

How PR affects marketing

PR is a huge chunk of your overall marketing strategy. Along with advertising, PR is responsible for how you look in the marketplace. With a bad PR group, certain situations will not be handled properly and it could spell disaster for your company. Be sure to take the time to have your PR team sit down with your marketing team and discuss how you can market to benefit both teams. Come up with some situations and how you think they should be properly handled.

Designate one person on the PR team to be the official spokesman for the department. They will be in charge of facing the media in bad times and good times. Designate 2 or 3 individuals to send out press releases on the good marketing and handling bad PR for the company as well. Just be sure to keep open communication between the departments to keep everyone on the same page. Keeping the PR department ready for any situation will be a great benefit to the overall good of the company

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Trends in Public Relations

Until recently most public relations activity involved person-to-person contact between PR professionals and members of the media, such as journalists and television news reporters. However, several trends are developing that alter the tasks performed by PR people. In most cases these changes are the result of new Internet technologies that are quickly gaining widespread acceptance among Internet users and are becoming new media outlets in their own right.

Blogs Discussion Forums RSS Feeds Podcasting Search Engine Optimization

PR Trends: Blogs

Blogs, short for weblogs, are a phenomenon that shows just how powerful and influential the Internet has become as a communication medium. Millions of blogs are now available and specialized search engines have been developed to search millions of postings.

Blogs may be most famous as a tool for political discussion, but they are also becoming an important communication tool for public relations. Many companies in both technical fields, such as eBay, Google, and Microsoft, and non-technical fields, such as General Motors, McDonalds and Well Fargo Bank, now produce in-house blogs that report on happenings at the company. These blogs allow company employees, including CEOs and marketers, to post messages updating company developments and, thus, serve as useful PR tool.

While in the past developing such website applications was considered time-consuming and often overly technical undertaking for the vast majority of marketers, this has changed with the evolution of easier to use site development applications which allow for quick creation and convenient updating of site content such as blogs.  In fact, severeral free blog services are available making the creation of a blog as easy has writing a word processing document.

PR Trends: Discussion Forums

Web forums are the child of the old Internet bulletin board services where people can post their opinion often anonymously. Forums pose both opportunities and threats for those involved in PR. A presence in an influential forum helps build credibility for an organization as forum members recognize a company’s effort to reach out to the public. On the other hand, forums can cause major problems as a breeding ground for rumor and accusation.

Public relations personnel must continually monitor forums and respond to misguided comments posted on a web discussion board to help squelch rumors before they can catch fire.

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PR Trends: Podcasting

The emergence of the Apple iPod and other digital audio players has significantly altered how people listen to music by allowing easy downloading of desired songs. But the use of audio players is not limited to music downloads; a fast growing application is to deliver other content including programming. Public relations may soon find podcasting to be a quick and easy way to send out audio news releases and other promotional material.

PR Trends: RSS Feeds

An important trend for delivering company information is through an Internet technology known by the acronym RSS (what it stands for depends on who you ask but most accepted name is Really Simple Syndication). This technology makes it easy for people to know when new content is posted to a website.

While there are several flavors of RSS, the basic concept has content providers, such as news sites, corporate websites, blogs, etc., creating RSS documents that provide basic details of new content, such as content title, authorship information, description and links to the full content. The nature of the technology allows anyone who links to the RSS feed to instantly receive details of the content. Many journalists and other media members are finding this to be a more convenient way to acquire information, particularly if they follow a specific industry and can identify specific information websites to monitor. By subscribing to relevant RSS feeds they have information delivered rather than spending time searching.

PR Trends: Search Engine Optimization

Publicity is about getting media outlets to mention the name of a product, company or person. For several years Internet marketers have recognized the importance of getting their company and products listed in the top rankings in search engines. So called efforts at Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involve concerted efforts and specific techniques to attain higher rankings.

While at first glance SEO may not seem like a responsibility of public relations, it would appear to contain the main characteristics for making it so, namely getting a third-party media outlet (i.e., search engine) to mention the company (i.e., search rankings) at no direct cost the company (i.e., no payment for ranking). And, just as PR people can use methods to affect coverage within traditional media, optimizing a website can work to influence results in search engines by using techniques that allow a website to fit within ever-changing search engine ranking criteria. In this way SEO does what PR professionals do, namely obtain good placement in third-party media outlet. Consequently, SEO may soon become an important PR function.

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Disadvantages of Public Relations

While public relations holds many advantages for marketers, there are also concerns when using this promotional technique. First, while public relations uses many of the same channels as advertising, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, TV and Internet, it differs significantly from advertising in that marketers do not have direct control over whether a message is delivered and where it is placed for delivery. For instance, a marketer may spend many hours talking with a magazine writer, who is preparing an industry story, only to find that their company is never mentioned in the article.

Second, while other promotional messages are carefully crafted and distributed as written through a pre-determined placement in a media vehicle, public relations generally conveys information to a member of the news media (e.g., reporter) who then recrafts the information as part of a news story or feature. Thus, the final message may not be precisely what the marketer planned.

Third, while a PR campaign has the potential to yield a high return on promotional expense, it also has the potential to produce the opposite if the news media feels there is little value in running a story pitched (i.e., suggested via communication with the news outlet) by the marketer.

Fourth, with PR there is always a chance that a well devised news event or release will get “bumped” from planned media coverage because of a more critical breaking news story, such as wars, severe weather or serious crime.

Finally, in some areas of the world the impact of traditional news outlets is fading forcing public relations professionals to scramble to find new ways to reach their target markets.

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Building Relationships: The Foundation for Good   PR (Bloggers.com) For the past few weeks, the blogosphere has been home to a dynamic conversation

about the necessity of public relations. I know this happens every now and then:

someone says that hiring a PR shop is useless, and we in the profession come together

to defend our honor. While I don’t appreciate the bashing, it does allow me to step back

and evaluate my role as a public relations practitioner.

I can tell you one thing: I didn’t decide to pursue a career in public relations so that I could send

out spam-like e-mails to bloggers and spend hours hounding reporters about my clients. Media

relations is not what drew me into PR, and even though it’s valuable, it is not why I will stay in

this field, either.

I chose PR for a number of reasons. I loved the idea that I could facilitate relationships between

an organization and its consumers. Me? I like people. I like helping people. I like talking and

engaging in informative conversations. I love writing and thinking strategically. All of these

interests translated well into a career in PR, where these interests could become a valuable skill

set.

Last night put a lot of things into perspective for me. I had a great time hanging out with  Paull

Young, Converseon employee and fellow PR blogger. Paull introduced me to

some incredibly smart, hilarious people who all happen to have blogs. As we sat there talking and

eating fried pickles (yeah, I know… but they’re actually good!), I realized why I love what I do.

The most rewarding part of my job is not landing a placement in the Wall Street Journal or on a

top-tier blog. For me, the gold medal comes from meeting someone and trying to figure out how I

can build a mutually beneficial relationship between that person and myself, and maybe down

the road, between that person and my client.

And you know what? That’s what the people we’re trying to reach want, too. You know – the

important people, the consumers. They want to interact with companies and organizations that

seem personal, that at least try to understand the people using their products or services. The same

goes with the media: if they know and trust you, they are going to be more inclined to work with

you. This is simple Communications 101, yet it seems to get lost as we struggle to get large

impressions numbers and prove our contributions to the bottom line.

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When you really listen to others, you start to gauge their interests and passions – with this, you

can gain their trust. Trust is the building block to relationships, and relationships should be the

foundation of good PR.

If you are the CEO of a major company or the president of a new start-up, you might not have the

time or resources to find the right people to build quality relationships with. That’s where we PR

folk should come in handy – it’s what we do, or at least what we should do. As communicators,

we have an onslaught of tools and tactics that can help create worthwhile relationships, whether

it’s with consumers, journalists, bloggers, analysts, employees.

Even though measurement and proving our contributions is fundamental to the success of our

profession, it will be easier to do so if we start acting a little more human and a little less like

impressions fiends. Don’t get me wrong – I know the value of measurement! I’m simply agreeing

with others in the field who are saying that the key to these numbers depends on strong

relationships and excellent communications skills. It takes time, but so does the creation of any

good foundation.

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Literature review

The concept of multiple individual publics, as opposed to the general public, or the mass audience, emerged in the field of public relations with the adoption of the relationship-building approach, which, to a certain extent, replaced the communication and, arguably, public opinion manipulation approach. The idea of relationships being at the core of public relations was first advocated by Fergusoin in 1984 (as cited in Ledingham and Bruning, 2000, p. xiii). The concept was then advanced through the adoption of a relational definition of public relations in leading texts: Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000) defined public relations as “the management function that establishes and maintains mutually beneficial relationships between an organization and the publics on whom its success or failure depends”

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Publics are often divided into external – i.e., those existing outside the organization – and internal – such as employees, management, investors, etc. This categorization, however, is too broad for public relations purposes. Coombs (2000) takes a more detailed approach and distinguish between primary and secondary stakeholders: primary stakeholders, such as employees, investors, customers, suppliers, government and the community, “are those whose actions can be harmful or beneficial to an organization. Without the continued interaction of primary stakeholders, the organization would cease to exist.” (p. 75). Secondary stakeholders, or influencers, such as media, activist groups, and competitors, “are those who can affect or be affected by the actions of the organization. (p. 75) An even more definite typology has been developed by Hendrix, who identifies media, employees, members, community, government, investor, international, special and integrated marketing as the organization’s key publics, including 140 subcategories.

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Cutlip, et al. (2000) suggest that, according to systems theory, different publics can be defined for different situations or public relations problems. This principle is illustrated by comparing a university’s publics when the goal is to recruit students as opposed to the goal being to raise money for a new computing facility. In the first case, the publics would include college-bound high school students, their parents, high school counselors, students currently enrolled at the university and alumni. The second example would require a different definition of the current system: it would be necessary to determine what groups would be most interested in such a facility, which might include local businesses, corporate foundations that have historically funded innovative educational programs, computer hardware and software companies, and those alumni who have succeeded in computer-related careers.

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Effective Media Relations

One way of maintaining good media relations is to up to date available data and evaluate organisation performance constantly. Therefore, enhancing effective communications is essential. Nothing can replace the need for strategically planed communications. According to Cutlip (1976, pp. 19 – 21) in the early years of PR, practitioner endeavoured almost exclusively to get attention in the mass media for their organisations. Building up relationships with media is a hard task and maintaining it, is even harder. A well established media relation is the best avenue to create positive impression in the eyes of strategic public. It is important to have an available and accessible point of contact within an organisation whom, can wisely disseminate information as well as understand what media mean by certain phrases. If problems arise, an experienced and well trained spokesperson should deal with media to communicate complete and appropriate information. PR Practitioners and scholars agree that the person should be from senior management board (Wells and Spinks, 1998). This is about credibility and reliability of content which an organisation can deliver to public.

Originations continuously strive for developing their image and improving their longterm relationship with key publics (Grunig, 1990); where Wells and Spinks (1999a) suggest, ethics and honesty enhance positive “media exposure” while dealing with publics. This [positive media exposure] needs to be taken into the core of every organisation activities, in order to increase chances of improving community image. Young (1984) suggests that, media network is an opportunity to every organisation to communicate information with public. Thus, well established media relations offer organisations and businesses a higher exposure to publics and community. However, sustaining community image will not happen, unless organisations and conglomerates have concrete media relations. Therefore, they need to be on-line, on papers, in TV and radios with positive comments on them. As it would not always be possible to have good news; dissemination of bad news needs to be well structured and justified in order to save organisations image and reputation.

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Kruckeberg and Starck (1988) argued that “most of the concerns of public relations practitioners today simply did not exist before the loss of community [and] it was this loss of community that provided impetus for the development of modern public relations.”. The authors concluded that public relations, while being commonly practiced as persuasive communication to obtain a vested goal on behalf of a client, is “better defined and practiced as the active attempt to restore and maintain the sense of community.”

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According to Cutlip (1976, pp. 19 – 21) in the early years of PR, practitioner endeavoured almost exclusively to get attention in the mass media for their organisations. Building up relationships with media is a hard task and maintaining it, is even harder. A well established media relation is the best avenue to create positive impression in the eyes of strategic public. It is important to have an available and accessible point of contact within an organisation whom, can wisely disseminate information as well as understand what media mean by certain phrases. If problems arise, an experienced and well trained spokesperson should deal with media to communicate complete and appropriate information. PR Practitioners and scholars agree that the person should be from senior management board (Wells and Spinks, 1998). This is about credibility and reliability of content which an organisation can deliver to public.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.evancarmichael.com/Public-Relations/325/How-To-Measure-The-Effectiveness-Of-Your-PR-Program.html

http://www.keenancomm.com/Articles/measuring.html

http://www.cuttingedgepr.com/articles/prplans_set_goals.asp

http://publicrelationsblogger.com/

http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/types-of-public-relations-tools/types-of-public-relations-tools/

http://www.knowthis.com/principles-of-marketing-tutorials/public-relations/public-relations/

http://www.rasaneh.org/persian/pics/rasaneh-991F7.pdf

http://www.marcommwise.com/article.phtml?id=433

http://publicrelationsblogger.com/2010/02/public-relations-strategies-5-ways-to.html

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