Communication is a process of sharing and expressing views, opinions, experiences and information. Not only personally, professionally too, communication is very important. Business organizations inform customers about their products/services/goods through the process of communication.
According to PRSA, “Public relation is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between individuals, organizations and the public.”
PR As A Communicator
In order to build a relationship with the target audience and maintain it on a high level, PR specialists use communication strategy that will help their organizational objectives and foster quick growth.
When anything untoward happens, e.g an accident in an organization, it is the job of public relations to provide honest and accurate information so that the true situation of the people involved directly will be known. Natural disasters, management malpractice, bankruptcy, and product/service failures are crises which public relations must play a large part in containing.
PR As An Agent Of Skilled Communication
With the increased competition among businesses, it becomes vital for organizations to effectively communicate with their target customers. As a result, it is expedient as PR personnel, you must be very proficient in writing and astute in speaking. Before a PR agency can offer a person that type of position, it must have been satisfied with structural arrangement of his grammar and linguistics.
More so, the person must be able to deliver great speeches at a speed of light (brief and precise). This will make the message to stand and stick to whoever it's being directed to.
PR As An Agent Of Controlled Communication
The more issues in an organization, the more time the PR personnel comes out to address the situation. Crisis may loom in any organization, your responsibility as a PR personnel is to calm the situation and make sure it does not spread and damage the image of his organization, or do more harm than the one already at hand.
Protecting the image of your organization through the media is a big deal. Before the media reports your story, you should have reported it yourself through a preferred channel. This way, You will have control over issues and know how to calm it down. Advertising creatively and effectively communicates, and persuades audience to buy a particular product. Public Relations, on the other hand, has emerged as an effective communication tool for the companies which not only inform, but also helps in building the positive image of the company.
Supervisor and Employee Communications
Supervision is often considered to include designing the job, hiring someone to fill the job, training them, delegating to them, guiding them via performance previews, helping them develop their career, noting performance issues, and firing them, if needed. Obviously small nonprofits may not be able to afford full attention to all of these activities.
PR As A Reporter/Correspondence
As a reporter/journalist, you must report the truth and nothing but the truth at your beat. This is the required ethic of a reporter, and this also should form part of the ethics of PR personnel. A PR specialist should be able to understand the situation, predict the possible consequences, create a mutual beneficial friendship between his organization and the general public.
Though, it is advisable professionally, as a PR personnel, you must be able to create some suspense and after effects in the minds of your public through the use of propaganda, nevertheless, you must be able to tell a true message and not creating a false marketing message, if that message is truly meant for the public.
PR As A Speech Maker
It is the responsibility of the PR specialist to write, rehearse and speak in to the public or stakeholders who are concerned about an issue from time to time.
Channels Of PR Communication Techniques
There are traditional commonly used channels where PR messages must pass through before it will get to the government. the most effective ones are;
1. Speaking At The Public Events
In order to attract public attention and keep it engaged with a particular organization or an individual, PR specialists take an advantage of every public event and the opportunity to speak publicly. This enables them to directly reach the public by attending the event and indirectly, a much larger audience.
2. Press Releases
Information that is communicated as a part of the regular TV / radio program, newspapers, magazines, and other types of mainstream media achieve a much bigger impact than advertisements. This is due to the fact that most people consider such information more trustworthy and meaningful than paid adds. Press release is therefore one of the oldest and most effective PR communication tool.
The beauty of press release is that it helps in promoting image of an individual or an organization. People trust PR messages over advertising messages more because advertising is a paid medium, and PR media messages are perceived as directly coming from editor's desk.
3. Newsletters
Sending newsletters – relevant information about the organization or its products and services - directly to the target audience is also a common method to create and maintain a strong relationship with the public. Newsletters are also a common marketing strategy but PR specialists use it to share news and general information that may be of interest to the target audience rather than merely promoting products/services.
4. Press Conference
A news conference or press conference is a media event in which news-makers invite journalists to hear them speak and, most often, ask questions. However, a joint press conference is held between two or more talking sides. In a news conference, one or more speakers may make a statement, which may be followed by questions from reporters. Sometimes only questioning occurs; sometimes there is a statement with no questions permitted. This is a form of communication for PR to get through its audience.
5. Blogging
Lately, to reach the online audience, PR specialists use the digital forms of press releases and newsletters, but they also use a variety of other tools such as blogging and recently, micro-blogging. It allows them to create and maintain a relationship with the target audience as well as establish a two-way communication system. As blogging is the latest means of creating and advertising a brand, it is expedient for you as individual and to bring your organization to the new community. You can use blogging and micro-blogging channels like, Blogger, WordPress, Twitter, etc.
6. Social Media Marketing
No means of advertising today can sell more than the social networking sites. The social networking channels is becoming the next trend in marketing and publicity.
Like its name suggests, it is used primarily by the marketing industry. Social media networks, however, are also utilized by a growing number of PR specialists to establish a direct communication with the public, consumers, investors and other target groups. These social networks includes, facebook, linkedin, skype, twitter, etc. But in all, Facebook is recorded as the most effective marketing platform.
How Effective Is PR Message
PR message can be effective in terms of reach and feedback if gets to the appropriate target customer after using the right channel. It is a slow and continuous process. It helps in building trust and confidence among the customers about the company and product(s)/service(s) it offer. Effective PR campaigns not only produce results in good times, but a credible image of the company acts as its shield in bad times.
Evaluating The Communicator And The Effect
You must evaluate the message exposure, media impressions, internet traffic, SMS, e-mail & social media messages, audience attendance. Actions Attitudes Awareness and feedback traffic. All these must be properly monitored and at the end evaluated. The effect must be felt while you are doing your company's performance appraisal. Your appraisal sheet must show that the level of the message being passed to the audience is highly felt to satisfactory.
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