THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS Fraser P Seitel

THE PRACTICE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS (Fraser P. Seitel) CHAPTER I WHAT IS PUBLIC RELATIONS? In the US alone, PR is a multibillion –dollar business practiced by nearly 240, 000 professionals. It is one of the fastest growing industries, with a nearly 6% job growth by 2014. Median pay: $55, 680 per year ($27 per hour)*. In a study among Fortune 500 firms, a direct correlation was found between how much a company spends on PR and how much it is respected. *US Bureau of Labor Statistics (Department of Labor). 1

Negative Examples: The success of The Blair Witch Project. No big name stars, no sex and no on-screen violence. * The fall of The Walt Disney Company, one of the world’s largest, most respected organizations (PR approach built on arrogance. ) * In 1998, Clinton admitted lying to American Public about his relation with a White House intern, leaving his vice president, Albert Gore, to suffer when he decided to compete for the presidency in 2000. 2

THE CURSE OF “SPIN” Spin: Lying to hide what really happened! Clinton on national TV assured his constituents that he “did not have sexual relations” with a young intern as rumored. Six months later he turned out to be a liar! PR is an organization’s efforts to win the cooperation of groups of people. Whereas “marketing” and “sales” have their primary objective selling an organization’s products, PR attempts to sell the organization itself. Advertising also aims to sell products through paid means. PR can be defined in terms of five specific functions: ROSIE: Between Research and Evaluation, sandwiching Objectives, 3 Strategies, and Implementation.

PR practitioners are basically interpreters. On the one hand they must interpret the philosophies, policies, programs, and practices of their management to the public; on the other hand, they must convey the attitudes of the public to their management. PUBLICS A public is a group of people with a stake in an issue, organization, or idea. Publics can also be classified into several overlapping categories: 1. Internal and external 2. Primary, secondary, and marginal 3. Traditional and future 4. Proponents, opponents, and the uncommitted. 4

Ethics, truth, credibility are what good PR is all about. Cover-up, distortion, and subterfuge are the antithesis of good PR. Credibility can not be won overnight, nor can it be bought. PR professionals are the “conscience” of their organization. 5

CHAPTER 2 THE EVOLUTION OF PR There are five trends related to the evolution of PR: 1. 1930 s-The growth of large institutions and the rise of criticism against them (they need public support) 2. 1960 s-The increasing conflict, and confrontation in society towards private institutions 3. 1970 and 1980 s-Heightened public awareness (consumerism, environmental protection) 4. 1980 and 1990 s-Development of democracy (the want and right to be informed) 5. 1990 and 2000 s-Growth of the Internet (revolution at the information transmission and receival) 6

Although PR is a 20 th-century phenomenon, its roots are ancient. A famous motto of the Ancient Romans: “Vox Populi, Vox Dei!” Robber Barons: In the beginning of the 20 th century American public cursed big industrialists as robber barons. Those big industrialists were especially railroad owners, bankers, oil and steel bosses. Muckrakers: Journalists called “muckrakers” grossly harmed the reputations of those robber barons. Congress began passing laws telling business leaders what they could and couldn’t do (E. g. Anti-trust law against Rockefeller-in 1890; Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act — a source of American anti-monopoly laws, at last Standard Oil was dissolved in 1911 by US Supreme Court). Business freedom (freedom of robbing) at its very climax was confronted by a 7 swelling public opinion.

Ivy Lee: The real Father of Modern PR Lee believed that the only way business could answer its critics convincingly was to present its side honestly, accurately, and forcefully. A company should strive to earn public confidence and good will. Lee set forth his beliefs in a “Declaration of Principles”: “This is not a secret service bureau. All our work is done in the open. We aim to supply news. . . ” In 1914, Lee began to work for Rockefeller and tried to humanize the family. Years later the family came to be known as the nation’s finest example of philanthropy. 8

However, Lee was branded a traitor and dubbed “Poison Ivy” by members of Congress investigating un-American activities because of his consultancy to a German Firm (German Dye Trust). The firm had turned out to be an agent for the policies of Adolph Hitler. Despite this event Lee is recognized as the individual who brought honesty and openness to PR. 9

CHAPTER 3 PUBLIC OPINION An opinion is the expression of an attitude on a particular topic. When opinions become strong enough , they lead to verbal or behavioral actions. Attitudes Opinions Actions Public opinion is the aggregate of many individual opinions on a particular issue. Stated another way, public opinion represents a consensus. Trying to influence an individual’s attitude –how he or she thinks on a given topic- is a primary focus of the practice of PR. 10

Attitudes are based on a number of characteristics: 1. Personal: The physical and emotional ingredients of an individual, including size, age, and social status. 2. Cultural, 3. Educational, 4. Familial, 5. Religious, 6. Social class, 7. Race. How are attitudes influenced? Studies show that most people show no response (called silent majority), only a small percentage expresses strong support and another small percentage opposes. But this silent majority holds the key to success. In politics this group is 11 often referred to as “the swing vote” (undecided votes).

SIX PRECEPTS IN ATTEMPTING TO CHANGE ATTITUDES: 1. Don’t use graphic (striking) images (e. g. death, destruction) unless they are accompanied by specific actions people can execute. 2. Go to the public instead of asking the public to come to you. 3. Don’t assume that attitude change is necessary for behavior change. (e. g. cigarette smokers know harmful the smoking is) 4. Use moral arguments as adjuncts, not as primary thrusts, (moral views are difficult to change) (e. g. to convert the people to a meatless diet, discuss the health benefits of vegetables instead of giving examples from Bible) 5. Embrace the mainstream (try to gain widespread approval, campaigns can not be won by being radical or faddish) 6. Don’t offend the people you seek to change (influence is stronger when people like the persuader or feel similar to themselves) (You can attract more flies with honey than you can with vinegar) 12

If you wish to persuade people, you must cite evidence that coincides with their own beliefs, emotions, and expectations. What kinds of evidence persuade people? 1. Facts (empirical data is important), 2. Emotions (people respond to emotional appeals-love, peace, family, patriotism), 3. Personalizing (people respond to personal experience), 4. Appealing to “you”. The one word that people never tire of hearing is “you”. “What is in this for me? ” is the question that everyone asks. 13

Five laws of Public Opinion by Hadley Cantril-a social psychologist: 1. Opinion is highly sensitive to important events, 2. Events of unusual magnitude are likely to swing public opinion temporarily from one extreme to another, 3. Opinion is generally determined more by events than by words. 4. Opinion is basically determined by self-interest. 5. Once self interest is involved, opinions aren’t easily changed. Corporate Image: This is a very fragile commodity. It takes a great time to build a favorable image for a corporation but only one slip to create a negative public impression. 14

CHAPTER 5 -RESEARCH Principles of PR Research: 1. Establishing clear program objectives and desired outcomes, tied directly to business goals, 2. Differentiating between measuring PR “outputs”, generally short term and surface (e. g. amount of press coverage received or exposure of a particular message), and measuring PR “outcomes”, usually farther-reaching and carrying greater impact (e. g. changing awareness, attitudes, and even behavior), 3. Measuring media content as a first step in the PR evaluation process. Such a measure is limited, in that it can’t discern whether a target audience actually saw a message or 15 responded to it,

4. Understanding that no one technique can expect to evaluate PR effectiveness. Rather, this requires a combination of techniques, from media analysis to cyberspace analysis, from focus groups to polls and surveys, 5. Being wary of attempts to compare PR effectiveness with advertising effectiveness. One particularly important consideration is that while advertising placement and messages can be controlled, their equivalent on the PR side can not be. 6. The most trustworthy measurement of PR effectiveness is that which stems from an organization with clearly identified key messages, target audiences and desired channels of communication. The converse of this is that the more confused an organization is about its targets, the less reliable its PR measurement will be. 16

PR evaluation can not be accomplished in isolation. It must be linked to overall business goals, strategies, and tactics. Methods of PR Research: 1. Surveys: They are designed to reveal attitudes and opinions-what people think about certain subjects. 2. Communication audits: They often reveal disparities between real and perceived communications between management and target audiences. 3. Unobtrusive (unnoticeable) measures: They enable the study of a subject or object without involving the researcher or the research as an intruder. a) Fact finding (organizational statistics, operation reports, publications, etc. ), b) content analysis (frequency of coverage, placement within news, people reached, messages conveyed…), c) readability studies (is message at the right educational level? ) 17

Surveys: 1. Descriptive surveys: They offer a snapshot of a current situation or condition. (e. g. public opinion poll) 2. Explanatory surveys: They are concerned with cause and effect. Such explanatory or analytical surveys are designed to answer the question “Why? ”. (e. g. Why is our credibility being questioned? ) Surveys generally consist of 4 elements: 1. The sample, 2. The questionnaire, 3. The interview, 4. The analysis of the results. A. The sample: The sample, or the selected target group must be representative of the total public whose views are sought. Two approaches are used in obtaining a sample: 1. Random sampling (equal chance, drawing a lot), 2. Nonrandom sampling (volunteer samples, focus groups, etc. ). 18

B. The Questionnaire: Designing a questionnaire: 1. Keep it short, 2. Use structured, not open-ended questions, 3. Measure intensity of feelings, (rather than using simply “yes”, or “no”; use “very satisfied”, “satisfied”, “dissatisfied”) 4. Don’t use fancy words, 5. Don’t ask loaded questions, (Is management doing all it can do to communicate with you? ) 6. Don’t ask double barreled questions, (“Would you like management meetings once a month, or are bimonthly meetings enough? ”) 7. Pretest, 8. Attach a letter explaining how important the respondent’s answers are, and let recipients know that they will remain anonymous. 19

Evaluation: For the evaluation purposes “pre-and post-testing” to determine whether a particular program helped facilitate a shift in attitudes is quite effective. 20

CHAPTER 6 -COMMUNICATION SMR approach is a strong model of communication. Model suggests that communication process begins with the source (S), who issues a message (M) to a receiver (R), who then decides what action to take. In this process there is an encoding (E) stage of the message by the source and a decoding (D) stage of receiver. So the SMR formula evolves into a comprehensive form: SEMDR. The source of a message is the central person or organization doing the communicating. The source encodes his or her message and can carry this message in a variety of communications media; speeches, newspapers, news releases, press conferences, broadcast reports, and face to face meetings. 21

A message may trigger several different effects: 1. It may change attitudes (very difficult to achieve), 2. It may crystallize attitudes (influence those thinking about taking action but in need of an extra push), 3. It might create a wedge of doubt (a persuasive message can cause receivers to question their original thinking on an issue), 4. It may do nothing (e. g. American Cancer Society anti-smoking campaign) 22

CHAPTER 8 -MANAGEMENT PLANNING FOR PR Before organizing for PR work, practitioners must consider objectives and strategies, planning and budgets, and evaluation. Environment Business objectives PR objectives/strategies PR programs 23

PR Management Process involves four steps: 1. Defining the problem or opportunity. (Requires researching current attitudes and opinions about the issue or product or company in question and determining the essence of the problem) 2. Programming. (This is the formal planning stage, which addresses key constituent publics, strategies, tactics, and goals) 3. Action. (This is the communications phase, where the program is implemented. ) 4. Evaluation. (The final step in the process is the assessment of what worked, what didn’t, and how we might improve in the future. ) 24

PR tasks can be divided into four broad categories: 1. Advice (provided to management on organizational decisions and policies, to ensure that they are consistent with the public interest), 2. Communications service (including the outward communication of information to various external publics and the inward communication of corporate philosophy, policies, and programs to the employees) 3. Public issues research and analysis (identifying, evaluating, and communicating to management, the external information that may be most relevant to organizational policies and programs) 4. PR action programs (designed to generate goodwill through comprehensive programs focused on a particular issue or audience) 25

CHAPTER 9 -CRISIS MANAGEMENT 3 METHODS IN CRISIS MANAGEMENT PROACTIVE CM Receiving signal Crisis Preparing REACTIVE CM (CRASH MANAGEMENT) Limiting the damage Recovery Learning INTERACTIVE CM 26

Perception is Reality! Slogans for any crisis plan are the following: 1. Be prepared 2. Be available 3. Be credible In a crisis situation four planning issues are important: 1. For each potentially impacted audience, define the risk (the poison in the pill will make you sick) 2. For each risk defined describe the actions that mitigate the risk (don’t take the pill, we are recalling the product) 3. Identify the cause of the risk (if the public believes you know what went wrong, they are more likely to accept that you will quickly remedy the problem: e. g. . airplane crashes) 4. Demonstrate responsible management action (let people know that organization has a plan and is implementing it; this will help convince them that you are in control) 27

Cardinal rule for communication during a crisis to be: TELL IT ALL TELL IT RIGHT TELL IT FAST A shorthand approach to communicating in crisis would include the following principles: 1. Speak first and often, 2. Don’t speculate, 3. Be open, concerned, not defensive, 4. Don’t war with the media, 5. Make your point and repeat it, 6. Stay calm, be truthful and cooperative 7. Never lie. 28

CHAPTER 11 PUBLIC RELATIONS WRITING Fundamentals of writing: 1. The idea must precede the expression. Think before writing. Writing requires ideas and ideas must satisfy four criteria: A) They must relate to the reader B) They must engage the reader’s attention C) They must concern the reader D) They must Be in the reader’s interest The trick in coming up with clever ideas lies in borrowing old ones than in creating New ones. “Don’t reinvent the wheel!” 2. Use draft. 3. Simplify, clarify, edit. 4. Writing must be aimed at a particular audience. 29

The key to good writing is getting to the point. Remember A’s and B’s of writing: Avoid big words Avoid extra words Avoid clichés Be specific Be simple Be short Be organized Be convincing Be understandable 30

The Beauty of Inverted Pyramid Newspaper story form is the opposite of that for a novel or a short story. Whereas the climax of a novel comes at the end, the climax of a newspaper story appear at the start. In this way if readers decide to leave a news article early, they have already gained the basic ideas. First one or two paragraphs of an article answers the questions of who, what, when, where, and how. This same style forms the basis for the PR tools. 31

News Releases: One of the most common critics of PR news releases is that they are not newsworthy. There are some requisites for something to be “news”: Impact: A major announcement that affects an organization, its community, or even society Oddity: An unusual occurrence or milestone, such as the one millionth customer being signed on. Conflict: A significant dispute or controversy, such as a labor disagreement or rejection of a popular proposal Known principal: The greater the title of the individual making the announcement, the greater the chance of the release being used. Proximity: How localized the release is or how timely it is, relative to the news of the day. 32

CHAPTER 12 WRITING FOR THE EYE AND THE EAR THE SPEECH A speech possesses five main characteristics: 1. It is designed to be heard, not read, (speeches ought to sound good) 2. It uses concrete language, (ideas must be expressed sharply not generally) 3. It demands a positive response, (speech should possess a vitality) 4. It must have clear-cut objectives, (the speech must have a worthy thesis) 5. It must be tailored to a specific audience (audience needs to feel that it is hearing something special). 33

THE SPEECHWRITING PROCESS: 1. Preparing 2. Interviewing 3. Researching 4. Organizing and Writing A) Preparing: One easy way to prepare for a speech is to follow 4 W checklist: Who (the speaker and the audience) What (a clear topic) Where (a large hall, a roundtable forum. . . ) When (morning, dinner time, a special celebration. . . ) 34

B) Interviewing: Speechwriter has to interview with the speaker for the following purposes: 1. Determine the object of the talk (it is different than the subject) 2. Determine the speaker’s main points (three or four main points should be determined) 3. Capture the speaker’s characteristics (observing the speaker for understanding how comfortable, formal etc. he or she is. ) C) Researching: For overcoming blocks in finding suitable ideas, adopt a formalized research procedure: 1. Dig into all literature, books, pamphlets, articles, speeches, and other writing on the speech subject. 2. Think about the subject. 3. Seek out the opinions of others on the topic. 35

D) Organizing and Writing: The speech is organized into four essential elements: 1. Introduction (Grab the audience and hold its interest with smart, humorous introduction) 2. Thesis (It is the subject of the speech-its purpose or central idea. A simple sentence where a speech is going and how it will get there) 3. Body (Facts, statistics, figures, comparisons and contrasts for easier understanding) 4. Conclusion (Conclusion is short and to the point. It is wise to review major points and thesis quickly. ) 36

MAKING AN EFFECTIVE PRESENTATION: 1. Get organized. Think about 4 Ws Who are you addressing? What are you trying to say? Where and when should something happen? 2. Get to the point. Know your thesis. What are you trying to prove? What is the central purpose of your presentation? 3. Be logical. Don’t skip randomly from one thought to another. 4. Write it out. Always have the words right in front of you. 5. Anticipate the negatives. Dismiss vulnerable (open to attack) parts of the presentation. 37

6. Speak, don’t read. Reading suggests uncertainty. Speaking asserts assurance. 7. Be understandable. Clarity and concreteness. 8. Use graphics wisely. Use audio visual support to support the presentation not to provide full information. 9. Be convincing. Be energetic, interesting and enthusiastic. 10. STOP! A short presentation is more effective than a lengthy one. 38