Public Relations Strategies: Focus PR Campaigns wi

Public Relations Strategies: Focus PR Campaigns with Media Coverage Analysis

by: Richard Cunningham

Prior to launching a new public relations campaign, evaluate the media coverage you’ve gained and dig deep into the coverage your competition has received.

One of the first steps in defining a public relations strategy is to understand how you and your competition stack up in terms of media coverage. Taking the time to document and analyze press announcements, bylines, sourcing, thoughtleadership, and overall media relations helps to focus and streamline PR campaign tactics.

In the audio book, ขSound Advice on Public Relations,ข author Susan Misukanis says it is important to ขidentify who, in your marketplace, is winning in terms of positive press coverage.ข Evaluate who distributes the most press releases, and whether they are actually picked up by the media.

ขKnow who is continuously being quoted as an expert source within stories,ข says Misukanis. ขQuantify how many articles are being contributed, or bylined, by your competitors.ข From this, you begin to identify whether the companies being bylined are considered thoughtleaders.

Finally, obtain media kits from the publications in your market space, and study their circulation and reader profiles. ขYou can understand with whom your competition is building mindshare – which constituents’ categories your competition is reaching,ข says Misukanis.

Weighing these findings, you’ll be surprised how focused your PR campaign will become, and how clearly you can position your company’s public relations visàvis the competition.

Susan Misukanis offers advice on public relations strategies each week in the free audio newsletter from What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz/full_story.asp?ArtID=92

About The Author

Richard Cunningham is a principal of What’s Working in Biz, http://www.whatsworking.biz, a publisher of business audiobooks and online audio programs on marketing, sales, and small business strategies.

This article was posted on January 19, 2004

by Richard Cunningham

PR Tips For Your Business: Should We Issue A Press

PR Tips For Your Business: Should We Issue A Press Release?

by: Jo Chipchase

Question: Why should your business issue a press release? Answer: because you have something to say, you want to say it in public and a press release encourages the press to say it for you. And because you want to show your business in a favourable light from the outset and begin the longerterm process of building awareness and understanding of your product or service.

There’s plenty of research to show that young companies – weighed down by the business of simply running a new business – pay scant attention to PR, yet that’s exactly what they should be doing from the very start to get their names and products known. For most businesses, PR isn’t about spin or the abstract maintaining of ขgood relationsข with the press and public; it’s simply about telling people that you and your products or services are there and letting them know why they should be interested. It’s about getting column inches in newspapers and magazines and fulfilling the adage that an inch of good editorial is worth a page of advertising. It’s about making your sales easier.

Issuing press releases is a mainstay of basic PR. It’s how you start the ball rolling with the press. The good news is, if approached in the right way (whether you do it yourself or use an affordable professional, this activity need not cost the earth).

But do remember that you’re presenting your business to the public. A release that’s poorly written, with grammatical or spelling mistakes, or full of jargon, or longwinded and unfocused, can do you more harm than good. Given the importance of PR, there’s something to be said in favour of paying for professional writing skills. PR writers don’t just turn out good English: they know how to structure a press release and present facts in a way that appeals to busy journalists and grabs their attention.

The next question is: ขWhen should I issue a press release?ข Certainly, issuing releases willynilly, at whim, is no good. The time to make a business announcement is when you have something topical and newsworthy to say (but remember: what you consider topical might not be of interest to the wider world or to journalists). All releases need a strong ‘hook’ – in other words, an angle that will appeal to editors and give your story a good chance of gaining coverage.

So, what would be considered newsworthy? For starters, perhaps you’re launching a new product or service? Or opening a new branch? Or you’re launching a spinoff venture from scratch? Whatever it is, it should be presented as offering something reasonably new and interesting, not just as a ขme tooข.

Hopefully, your product or service has particular benefits and applications that will appeal to your market segment and generate interest. If whatever you’re launching is technically innovative or it’s being marketed in an unusual or high profile way, you could have the basis of a release. In this case, make sure you don’t fill your release with unnecessary jargon or marketingspeak that could alienate journalists, such as ขthe cost effective, integrated, seamless, onestopshop solution to meet all your business needs.ข Tell people what it is you’re actually offering. The above example is full of hype but what’s the product? An accountancy service? A stationers? An abattoir?

Other company activities could be newsworthy. Have you appointed any new members of senior staff who have a reputation in your industry? Won a large contract or client? Become involved in a sponsorship deal? Have you received an accolade or won an industry award? If so, the trade press might be interested.

Forthcoming events can provide ideal material for announcements. Are you holding any open days, speakers’ panels, rallies or debates? Charity events or donations from your organisation to good causes are worth highlighting, as are initiatives that benefit the wider community. If celebrities or public figures are involved, your newsworthiness will increase. The level of interest will relate to the stature of your company and the nature of your event. If a famous chocolate factory held an open day with lots of freebies, it would be of national press interest. If Bloggs the Grocers held a similar event, the local paper would be the main target.

When you’re seeking newsworthy stories, don’t forget one of your best assets – your personnel. Have any employees been recognised for outstanding achievements? Do they have unusual hobbies? Have they received any unusual requests or orders from customers that your company has fulfilled? The local press might opt for a quirky humaninterest story.

Whatever the reason for your announcement, remember this rule of thumb: yet another pizzeria on a high street full of pizzerias will not gain many column inches, no matter how good the pizzas. But a pizzeria offering the hottest jalapenos in the UK, singing waiters, Italian cocktails with every meal or three for the price of two (or something!) just might. Sometimes it’s even worth coming up with an offer of some sort (particularly in retailing) simply to garner press interest.

Remember to monitor the news for events to hook into. Can you associate your company with upcoming holidays, public projects, or fads? Statements that might seem controversial, such as stating your organisationกs stance on a volatile public issue, might gain coverage. Have you conducted research that gives you statistics you could release?

Finally, if you’re targeting different press sectors with the same story, write multiple releases rather than issuing one generic release. An announcement focusing on the metallurgy used to create your new range of stainless steel cooking pans would be of interest to the trade press. However, it wouldn’t be considered too thrilling by the lifestyle press and women’s magazines.

You need to think carefully about what you’re announcing and who it’s aimed at, rather than using the ‘scattergun’ approach and sending untargeted releases to whichever journalists you happen to find. Professional PR distributors retain uptodate lists of all the journalists in each industrial sector and geographical region, and take a great deal of care to target the right journalists with the right releases. If you’re distributing your release yourself, a few hours’ homework can pay enormous dividends

About The Author

Jo Chipchase

Editorial director

Press Dispensary (http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk)

A professional UKbased press release writing and distribution service that delivers news to the media and other opinion formers quickly and affordably.

This article was posted on March 21

by Jo Chipchase

To Strike While the Public Domain Iron is Hot, You

To Strike While the Public Domain Iron is Hot, You Must First Find the Iron!

by: Charles H. Smith

Surely you have heard of Ted Turner and Walt Disney, but do you know what they have in common? Both of these men started companies based public domain materials. Walt Disney updated or modernized characters from Grimmกs Fairy Tales, and Ted Turner founded Turner Classic Movies using many public domain movies.

With public domain materials rapidly becoming a very hot commodity these days, your competition for these materials gets more demanding daily. If you go to Google.com and search for Public Domain, there are over 40 million sites resulting from this search. So, how do you weed through these millions and millions of sites to find actual materials in the public domain?

Your search for these materials has just been simplified. We have compiled a toolbar containing almost 200 direct links to public domain materials and 7 public domain search engines into a free public domain toolbar. Imagine; if you will, searching the Library of Congress, eServer or Project Gutenberg; among others, directly from your toolbar. Simply for your convince, we have included a few links to old book resellers to the search bar. With your keywords in hand, this feature has proven extremely valuable in locating original public domain manuscripts or books for scanning and editing. Although, some of the public domain materials are donated and have special terms and conditions for using the material in commercial websites, your due diligence and discovery of the special cases is warranted and advised.

Because this Internet Explorer toolbar receives automatically updates from PublicDomainForum.com every time you launch it, available to you are the freshest public domain links available. As links die, they are removed. As new links are found, your toolbar is updated.

How do you get this great tool? This free toolbar is only available to registered forum members of Public Domain Forum. Visit us online and register for our free Public Domain forum. After you login to the forum, you may download this terrific tool.

About The Author

Charles H Smith

http://www.publicdomainforum.com Public Domain Blog http://www.publicdomainforum.com/forum Forum and Toolbar.

This article was posted on April 14

by Charles H. Smith

Public Domain The Philosophy Of Freedom

Public Domain The Philosophy Of Freedom

by: Eric Wichman

The philosophy behind the public domain is simple and very powerful. To elaborate we must first look at the traditional way in which Art and Intellectual property is governed. It is controlled by one thing, and that is money. People believe that to protect ones rights and to deter theft of their work, it (the work) must be protected by making it illegal to reproduce a work without authorization by the author. Any use other than use the author, ขauthorizesข will result in legal action against the person or corporation who infringes, by the person or corporation who originally created the work.

The law that makes it illegal to copy or reproduce a work is called fittingly ขCopyrightข.

The ideology behind copyright is sound, however, like other ideologies and theories it is inherently flawed. People will find ways to misuse the law for a profit. When someone creates something they are ขentitledข to and have ขrightsข to the benefits of that creation whether it be an invention, or and ขoriginal workข of art.

Art can be a song, poem, story, or one of many forms of visual art. The rights that come with the creation of a work are, and should be, automatic and natural. No one besides the creator of the work should be allowed to profit from or use the work in any way without ขauthorizationข from the works author.

However this idea flies in the face of the creation process, and poses a question. Why create the work in the first place? If no one, besides the original author has any rights to the work, and no one can publish the work without permission, why create it?

Culture.

Copyright law protects the author of the work and gives the creator the authority to sell the work for a profit without concern of theft of the work. The author can use the work as long as they own ขall rightsข. What I mean by this is that the author has the option of transferring ขall rightsข to whomever he or she chooses. The wonderful part about this area of law is that not only can the creator profit from the work itself, the rights to the work is fully transferable.

The author can transfer all rights or partial rights or set just about any limitations of usage they deem fit. This also poses another question.

How do you transfer rights and why?

Transferring rights to a work can get complicated and there are many ways to do it. The 3 most common are the temporary transfer, or what copyright law calls ขlicensingข. Here are the 3 I am referring to in order of commonality.

Commercial

Editorial

Educational

These 3 types of licensing are ขalmostข all encompassing. They cover just about any use you can think of. There are many different variations of these three licenses, and most likely unlimited variations, it would take too long to go through all of them if in fact there is a limit. The main purpose of this example is simplification. The next obvious question is.

ขHow long does copyright last?ข

This depends on where you are in the world. Different countries have different laws governing copyright laws. The one common factor here is ขrightsข. The owner of the work is the one who created it, and these rights continue on even after the authors death. Copyright can last as long as 120 years from the date of creation if created by a corporation, and life plus 70 years if created by an individual. This is according to current US Copyright Law 2004.

Now, since we have given you a brief overview of US copyright law, we will explain why we think that both the Public Domain and Copyright Law are extremely important.

Copyright Law protects the original authors rights to sell their work. The Public Domain is very important in preserving culture and providing a valuable resource for all kinds of great works. It is a resource, and the language that governs this area is negative in its connotation. Typically when a work is described as being public domain, it is described as having ขfallen intoข the public domain. This implies a negative state, and the public domain should not be considered as a catch all for unwanted, outdated material, or worse, an archive for the dispensable.

It should however, be considered as a vast natural resource, rich in culture, and fine works of art. It’s our history, it tells us where we have been and what we have done. It reminds us who we are, and possibly even where we are going. The public domain should be viewed as a Goldmine, chock full of free cultural riches. It belongs to everyone. No person can own it.

Anyone, anywhere, at any time should have access to this great treasure. That is what the Public Domain is all about.

It is about FREEDOM…

Copyright 2005 Eric Wichman. All rights reserved.

About The Author

Eric Wichman is founder of PDTimes.com, a public domain resources site specializing in free resources for web content and references for webmasters, researchers, marketers, and businesses alike. Be sure to tell your friends about this great new resource for businesses using the public domain. http://www.pdtimes.com.

This article was posted on January 05

by Eric Wichman

PR: The Wildcard Marketing Strategy

PR: The Wildcard Marketing Strategy

by: Dali Singh

What is the true purpose of public relations and how can it really help impact the growth of your small business? In order for the media to succeed, they need information that is both useful and entertaining for their readers. This is where you, the business owner or marketing executive, come in.
When thinking of public relations, many things may come to mind, like: Sweaty palms as you pick up the phone to try and convince a reporter how great your business is; getting writers block while trying to write a press release about your company; countless hours of faxing your story to hundreds editors just to find out that your piece did not make it to print.
However, public relations does not have to be such a daunting effort. If done right, public relations can also bring rewarding thoughts to your mind, like: The constant ringing of phones in your office of people interested in your products or services; gaining credibility and becoming a leading expert in your industry; or thousands of people learning about your company in a matter of days without costing you a dime!
This is the type of public relations that every business owner should strive for. First of all, letกs analyze the true meaning of public relations. The Webster dictionary defines public relations as กCommunication with various sectors of the public to influence their attitudes and opinions in the interest of promoting a person, product, or idea.ก Sounds easy enough, right? Well, if thatกs the case then why do so many companies struggle with implementing effective PR campaigns?
Most small business owners think that public relations is too time consuming of an effort. This may be true in cases where small businesses have very limited resources (i.e. staff, budget), but this should not discourage you from doing it. It is just a matter of prioritizing your goals and leveraging the resources that you do have available to take advantage of what is an invaluable marketing tactic. Now that we have established the importance of PR for your business, here are a few tips to get you started in the right direction:
1. Create several creative story pitches. The way to get into the hearts and minds of the media is through a great story pitch. Shamelessly promoting your business or its products is not going to do you much good. Not only that, but editors may classify you as that annoying selfpromoter that won’t stop pitching their product line, and then refer you to the advertising department. When developing story pitches you should ask yourself the following questions:
What makes this story different from the hundreds of other stories being submitted? Will this benefit readers financially, professionally, emotionally, or even spiritually in any way? Is this really entertaining or fun to read? If the answer to any of these questions is กNoก, then it is time to adjust your story until the answer is กYesก.
2. Match your target audience with the right media channels. If your companyกs main customer base is women in their 30s, then you probably don’t want to focus on media channels that target a demographic of men in their 50s. Really understanding your target audience will help you in the next step of your PR plan targeting the right media channels.
Even if you were to get exposure in these กA Listก publications, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get the same results than if you had a writeup in a more targeted publication that focuses specifically on Human Resource issues.
After getting your initial list of potential media targets together, rate each one on how good it fits with your target markets, and go after the ones that fit best first, regardless of the circulation or popularity of the source.
3. Have a spokesperson or PR firm represent your company. So letกs assume that you have executed your calling campaign and have sparked interest with an editor or reporter looking to secure an interview with someone at your firm. They contact your office but no one is available to take their call. One thing that journalists and editors lack is patience, and rightfully so they have deadlines to fulfill! The last thing you want is to be unavailable when an editor or reporter wants more information about your company or products.
4. Take advantage of your opportunities when they present themselves. PR results do not happen overnight. You must be patient and persistent. However, when activity comes up, you must ensure that the company is rewarded for the hard work put in! So do not forget to include your company information including a 13 line sentence describing your company, author byline (if applicable), and a URL of your web site. Media professionals will sometimes forget to include this information so it is your job to include it in your press release, articles, or interview. If you have a welcoming relationship with your media contact, see if you can check the article before it goes to print. If you are doing a talk show, make sure they mention your company name and/or web site on the bottom of the television screen.
5. Follow up with your contacts. Now that you have received press, do not forget to thank the reporter or editor who wrote it. Maintaining solid relationships is essential to the success of your PR campaign. Taking a reporter out to lunch or dropping them a kind note every now and then doesn’t hurt either.
In sum, PR is a wildcard marketing strategy that can yield tremendous results if implemented correctly. Companies need to have either an inhouse or third party person dedicated to PR, at least on a parttime basis. This person needs to be the champion of the company, products or services, in a tireless fashion. Don’t forget that your number one goal is to get in front of your target audience. In your next marketing plan review or initial development of one, make sure to give PR serious attention and the resources necessary to implement a longterm PR strategy.

About The Author

Dali Singh is the Managing Director for Blueliner Marketing, a fullservice marketing and communications firm based in New York City. Visit her website at www.bluelinermarketing.com or contact her [email protected].

This article was posted on July 16, 2004

by Dali Singh

PR Tips Should We Issue a Press Release?

PR Tips Should We Issue a Press Release?

by: Jo Chipchase

Question: Why should your business issue a press release? Answer: because you have something to say, you want to say it in public and a press release encourages the press to say it for you. And because you want to show your business in a favourable light from the outset and begin the longerterm process of building awareness and understanding of your product or service.

There’s plenty of research to show that young companies – weighed down by the business of simply running a new business – pay scant attention to PR, yet that’s exactly what they should be doing from the very start to get their names and products known. For most businesses, PR isn’t about spin or the abstract maintaining of ขgood relationsข with the press and public; it’s simply about telling people that you and your products or services are there and letting them know why they should be interested. It’s about getting column inches in newspapers and magazines and fulfilling the adage that an inch of good editorial is worth a page of advertising. It’s about making your sales easier.

Issuing press releases is a mainstay of basic PR. It’s how you start the ball rolling with the press. The good news is, if approached in the right way (whether you do it yourself or use an affordable professional, this activity need not cost the earth).

But do remember that you’re presenting your business to the public. A release that’s poorly written, with grammatical or spelling mistakes, or full of jargon, or longwinded and unfocused, can do you more harm than good. Given the importance of PR, there’s something to be said in favour of paying for professional writing skills. PR writers don’t just turn out good English: they know how to structure a press release and present facts in a way that appeals to busy journalists and grabs their attention.

The next question is: ขWhen should I issue a press release?ข Certainly, issuing releases willynilly, at whim, is no good. The time to make a business announcement is when you have something topical and newsworthy to say (but remember: what you consider topical might not be of interest to the wider world or to journalists). All releases need a strong ‘hook’ – in other words, an angle that will appeal to editors and give your story a good chance of gaining coverage.

So, what would be considered newsworthy? For starters, perhaps you’re launching a new product or service? Or opening a new branch? Or you’re launching a spinoff venture from scratch? Whatever it is, it should be presented as offering something reasonably new and interesting, not just as a ขme tooข.

Hopefully, your product or service has particular benefits and applications that will appeal to your market segment and generate interest. If whatever you’re launching is technically innovative or it’s being marketed in an unusual or high profile way, you could have the basis of a release. In this case, make sure you don’t fill your release with unnecessary jargon or marketingspeak that could alienate journalists, such as ขthe cost effective, integrated, seamless, onestopshop solution to meet all your business needs.ข Tell people what it is you’re actually offering. The above example is full of hype but what’s the product? An accountancy service? A stationers? An abattoir?

Other company activities could be newsworthy. Have you appointed any new members of senior staff who have a reputation in your industry? Won a large contract or client? Become involved in a sponsorship deal? Have you received an accolade or won an industry award? If so, the trade press might be interested.

Forthcoming events can provide ideal material for announcements. Are you holding any open days, speakers’ panels, rallies or debates? Charity events or donations from your organisation to good causes are worth highlighting, as are initiatives that benefit the wider community. If celebrities or public figures are involved, your newsworthiness will increase. The level of interest will relate to the stature of your company and the nature of your event. If a famous chocolate factory held an open day with lots of freebies, it would be of national press interest. If Bloggs the Grocers held a similar event, the local paper would be the main target.

When you’re seeking newsworthy stories, don’t forget one of your best assets – your personnel. Have any employees been recognised for outstanding achievements? Do they have unusual hobbies? Have they received any unusual requests or orders from customers that your company has fulfilled? The local press might opt for a quirky humaninterest story.

Whatever the reason for your announcement, remember this rule of thumb: yet another pizzeria on a high street full of pizzerias will not gain many column inches, no matter how good the pizzas. But a pizzeria offering the hottest jalapenos in the UK, singing waiters, Italian cocktails with every meal or three for the price of two (or something!) just might. Sometimes it’s even worth coming up with an offer of some sort (particularly in retailing) simply to garner press interest.

Remember to monitor the news for events to hook into. Can you associate your company with upcoming holidays, public projects, or fads? Statements that might seem controversial, such as stating your organisationกs stance on a volatile public issue, might gain coverage. Have you conducted research that gives you statistics you could release?

Finally, if you’re targeting different press sectors with the same story, write multiple releases rather than issuing one generic release. An announcement focusing on the metallurgy used to create your new range of stainless steel cooking pans would be of interest to the trade press. However, it wouldn’t be considered too thrilling by the lifestyle press and women’s magazines.

You need to think carefully about what you’re announcing and who it’s aimed at, rather than using the ‘scattergun’ approach and sending untargeted releases to whichever journalists you happen to find. Professional PR distributors retain uptodate lists of all the journalists in each industrial sector and geographical region, and take a great deal of care to target the right journalists with the right releases. If you’re distributing your release yourself, a few hours’ homework can pay enormous dividends.

About The Author

Jo Chipchase

Editorial director

Press Dispensary (http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk/).

A UKbased press release writing and distribution service.

This article was posted on March 14

by Jo Chipchase

Will Content Ever be Profitable?

Will Content Ever be Profitable?

by: Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

THE CURRENT WORRIES

1. Content Suppliers

The Ethos of Free Content

Content Suppliers is the underprivileged sector of the Internet. They all lose money (even sites which offer basic, standardized goods books, CDs), with the exception of sites profering sex or tourism. No user seems to be grateful for the effort and resources invested in creating and distributing content. The recent breakdown of traditional roles (between publisher and author, record company and singer, etc.) and the direct access the creative artist is gaining to its paying public may change this attitude of ingratitude but hitherto there are scarce signs of that. Moreover, it is either quality of presentation (which only a publisher can afford) or ownership and (often shoddy) dissemination of content by the author. A really qualitative, fully commerce enabled site costs up to 5,000,000 USD, excluding site maintenance and customer and visitor services. Despite these heavy outlays, site designers are constantly criticized for lack of creativity or for too much creativity. More and more is asked of content purveyors and creators. They are exploited by intermediaries, hitch hiker sand other parasites. This is all an offshoot of the ethos of the Internet as a free content area.

Most of the users like to surf (browse, visit sites) the net without reason or goal in mind. This makes it difficult to apply to the web traditional marketing techniques.

What is the meaning of ‘targeted audiencesก or กmarket sharesก in this context? If a surfer visits sites which deal with aberrant sex and nuclear physics in the same session what to make of it?

Moreover, the public and legislative backlash against the gathering of surferกs data by Internet ad agencies and other web sites has led to growing ignorance regarding the profile of Internet users, their demography, habits, preferences and dislikes.

กFreeก is a key word on the Internet: it used to belong to the US Government and to a bunch of universities. Users like information, with emphasis on news and data about new products. But they do not like to shop on the net yet. Only 38% of all surfers made a purchase during 1998.

It would seem that users will not pay for content unless it is unavailable elsewhere or qualitatively rare or made rare. One way to กrarefyก content is to review and rate it.

2. QualityRated Content

There is a long term trend of clutterbreaking websiterating and critique. It may have a limited influence on the consumption decisions of some users and on their willingness to pay for content. Browsers already sport กWhatกs Newก and กWhatกs Hotก buttons. Most Search Engines and directories recommend specific sites. But users are still cautious. Studies discovered that nouser, no matter how heavy, has consistently revisited more than 200 sites, a minuscule number. Some recommendation services often produce random at times, wrong selections for their users. There are also concerns regarding privacy issues. The backlash against Amazonกs ‘readers circlesก is an example. Web Critics, who work today mainly for the printed press, publish their wares on the net and collaborate with intelligent software which hyperlinks to web sites, recommends them and refers users to them. Some web critics (guides) became identified with specific applications really, expert systems which incorporate their knowledge and experience. Most volunteerbased directories (such as the กOpen Directoryก and the late กGoก directory) work this way.

The flip side of the coin of content consumption is investment in content creation, marketing, distribution and maintenance.

3. The Money

Where is the capital needed to finance content likely to come from?

Again, there are two schools:

According to the first, sites will be financed through advertising and so will search engines and other applications accessed by users.

Certain ASPs (Application Service Providers which rent out access to application software which resides on their servers) are considering this model.

The recent collapse in online advertising rates and clickthrough rates raised serious doubts regarding the validity and viability of this model. Marketing gurus, such as Seth Godin went as far as declaring กinterruption marketingก (=ads and banners) dead.

The second approach is simpler and allows for the existence of noncommercial content.

It proposes to collect negligible sums (cents or fractions of cents) from every user for every visit (กmicropaymentsก). These accumulated cents will enable the siteowners to update and to maintain them and encourage entrepreneurs to develop new content and invest in it. Certain content aggregators (especially of digital textbooks) have adopted this model (Questia, Fathom).

The adherents of the first school point to the 5 million USD invested in advertising during 1995 and to the 60 million or so invested during 1996.

Its opponents point exactly at the same numbers: ridiculously small when contrasted with more conventional advertising modes. The potential of advertising on the net is limited to 1.5 billion USD annually in 1998, thundered the pessimists. The actual figure was double the prediction but still woefully small and inadequate to support the internetกs content development. Compare these figures to the sale of Internet software (4 billion), Internet hardware (3 billion), Internet access provision (4.2 billion in 1995 alone!).

Even if online advertising were to be restored to its erstwhile glory days, other bottlenecks remain. Advertising encourages the consumer to interact and to initiate the delivery of a product to him. This the delivery phase is a slow and enervating epilogue to the exciting affair of ordering online. Too many consumers still complain of late delivery of the wrong or defective products.

The solution may lie in the integration of advertising and content. The late Pointcast, for instance, integrated advertising into its news broadcasts, continuously streamed to the userกs screen, even when inactive (it had an active screen saver and ticker in a กpush technologyก). Downloading of digital music, video and text (ebooks) leads to the immediate gratification of consumers and increases the efficacy of advertising.

Whatever the case may be, a uniform, agreed upon system of rating as a basis for charging advertisers, is sorely needed. There is also the question of what does the advertiser pay for? The rates of many advertisers (Procter and Gamble, for instance) are based not on the number of hits or impressions (=entries, visits to a site). but on the number of the times that their advertisement was hit (page views), or clicked through.

Finally, there is the paid subscription model a flop to judge by the experience of the meagre number of sites of venerable and leading newspapers that are on a subscription basis. Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal) and The Economist. Only two.

All this is not very promising. But one should never forget that the Internet is probably the closest thing we have to an efficient market. As consumers refuse to pay for content, investment will dry up and content will become scarce (through closures of web sites). As scarcity sets in, consumer may reconsider.

Your article deals with the future of the Internet as a medium. Will it be able to support its content creation and distribution operations economically?

If the Internet is a budding medium then we should derive great benefit from a study of the history of its predecessors.

The Future History of the Internet as a Medium

The internet is simply the latest in a series of networks which revolutionized our lives. A century before the internet, the telegraph, the railways, the radio and the telephone have been similarly heralded as กglobalก and transforming. Every medium of communications goes through the same evolutionary cycle:

Anarchy

The Public Phase

At this stage, the medium and the resources attached to it are very cheap, accessible, under no regulatory constraints. The public sector steps in : higher education institutions, religious institutions, government, not for profit organizations, non governmental organizations (NGOs), trade unions, etc. Be deviled by limited financial resources, they regard the new medium as a cost effective way of disseminating their messages.

The Internet was not exempt from this phase which ended only a few years ago. It started with a complete computer anarchy manifested in ad hoc networks, local networks, networks of organizations (mainly universities and organs of the government such as DARPA, a part of the defence establishment, in the USA). Non commercial entities jumped on the bandwagon and started sewing these networks together (an activity fully subsidized by government funds). The result was a globe encompassing network of academic institutions. The American Pentagon established the network of all networks, the ARPANET. Other government departments joined the fray, headed by the National Science Foundation (NSF) which withdrew only lately from the Internet.

The Internet (with a different name) became semipublic property with access granted to the chosen few.

Radio took precisely this course. Radio transmissions started in the USA in 1920. Those were anarchic broadcasts with no discernible regularity. Non commercial organizations and not for profit organizations began their own broadcasts and even created radio broadcasting infrastructure (albeit of the cheap and local kind) dedicated to their audiences. Trade unions, certain educational institution sand religious groups commenced กpublic radioก broadcasts.

The Commercial Phase

When the users (e.g., listeners in the case of the radio, or owners of PCs and modems in the case of the Internet) reach a critical mass the business sector is alerted. In the name of capitalist ideology (another religion, really) it demands กprivatizationก of the medium. This harps on very sensitive strings in every Western soul: the efficient allocation of resources which is the result of competition. Corruption and inefficiency are intuitively associated with the public sector (กOther Peopleกs Moneyก OPM). This, together with the ulterior motives of members of the ruling political echelons (the infamous American Paranoia), a lack of variety and of catering to the tastes and interests of certain audiences and the automatic equation of private enterprise with democracy lead to a privatization of the young medium.

The end result is the same: the private sector takes over the medium from กbelowก (makes offers to the owners or operators of the medium that they cannot possibly refuse) or from กaboveก (successful lobbying in the corridors of power leads to the appropriate legislation and the medium is กprivatizedก). Every privatization especially that of a medium provokes public opposition. There are (usually founded) suspicions that the interests of the public are compromised and sacrificed on the altar of commercialization and rating. Fears of monopolization and cartelization of the medium are evoked and proven correct in due course. Otherwise, there is fear of the concentration of control of the medium in a few hands. All these things do happen but the pace is so slow that the initial fears are forgotten and public attention reverts to fresher issues.

A new Communications Act was enacted in the USA in 1934. It was meant to transform radio frequencies into a national resource to be sold to the private sector which was supposed to use it to transmit radio signals to receivers. In other words: the radio was passed on to private and commercial hands. Public radio was doomed to be marginalized.

The American administration withdrew from its last major involvement in the Internet in April 1995, when the NSF ceased to finance some of the networks and, thus, privatized its hitherto heavy involvement in the net.

A new Communications Act was legislated in 1996. It permitted กorganized anarchyก. It allowed media operators to invade each otherกs territories. Phone companies were allowed to transmit video and cable companies were allowed to transmit telephony, for instance. This was all phased over a long period of time still, it was a revolution whose magnitude is difficult to gauge and whose consequences defy imagination. It carries an equally momentous price tag official censorship. กVoluntary censorshipก, to be sure, somewhat toothless standardization and enforcement authorities, to be sure still, a censorship with its own institutions to boot. The private sector reacted by threatening litigation but, beneath the surface it is caving in to pressure and temptation, constructing its own censorship codes both in the cable and in the internet media.

Institutionalization

This phase is the next in the Internetกs history, though, it seems, few realize it.

It is characterized by enhanced activities of legislation. Legislators, on all levels, discover the medium and lurch at it passionately. Resources which were considered กfreeก, suddenly are transformed to กnational treasures not to be dispensed with cheaply, casually and with frivolityก.

It is conceivable that certain parts of the Internet will be กnationalizedก (for instance, in the form of a licensing requirement) and tendered to the private sector. Legislation will be enacted which will deal with permitted and disallowed content (obscenity ? incitement ? racial or gender bias ?) No medium in the USA (not to mention the wide world) has eschewed such legislation. There are sure to be demands to allocate time (or space, or software, or content, or hardware) to กminoritiesก, to กpublic affairsก, to กcommunity businessก. This is a tax that the business sector will have to pay to fend off the eager legislator and his nuisance value.

All this is bound to lead to a monopolization of hosts and servers. The important broadcast channels will diminish in number and be subjected to severe content restrictions. Sites which will refuse to succumb to these requirements will be deleted or neutralized. Content guidelines (euphemism for censorship) exist, even as we write, in all major content providers (CompuServe, AOL, Yahoo!Geocities, Tripod, Prodigy).

The Bloodbath

This is the phase of consolidation. The number of players is severely reduced. The number of browser types will settle on 23 (Netscape, Microsoft and Opera?). Networks will merge to form privately owned meganetworks. Servers will merge to form hyperservers run on supercomputers in กserver farmsก. The number of ISPs will be considerably cut. 50 companies ruled the greater part of the media markets in the USA in 1983. The number in 1995 was 18. At the end of the century they will number 6.

This is the stage when companies fighting for financial survival strive to acquire as many users/listeners/viewers as possible. The programming is shall owed to the lowest (and widest) common denominator. Shallow programming dominates as long as the bloodbath proceeds.

From Rags to Riches

Tough competition produces four processes:

1. A Major Drop in Hardware Prices

This happens in every medium but it doubly applies to a computerdependent medium, such as the Internet.

Computer technology seems to abide by กMooreกs Lawก which says that the number of transistors which can be put on a chip doubles every 18 months. As a result of this miniaturization, computing power quadruples every 18 months and an exponential series ensues. OrganicbiologicalDNA computers, quantum computers, chaos computers prompted by vast profits and spawned by inventive genius will ensure the continued applicability of Mooreกs Law.

The Internet is also subject to กMetcalfกs Lawก.

It says that when we connect N computers to a network we get an increase of N to the second power in its computing processing power. And these N computers are more powerful every year, according to Mooreกs Law. The growth of computing powers in networks is a multiple of the effects of the two laws. More and more computers with ever increasing computing power get connected and create an exponential 16 times growth in the networkกs computing power every 18 months.

2. Content Related Fees

This was prevalent in the Net until recently. Even potentially commercial software can still be downloaded for free. In many countries television viewers still pay for television broadcasts but in the USA and many other countries in the West, the basic package of television channels comes free of charge.

As users / consumers form a habit of using (or consuming) the software it is commercialized and begins to carry a price tag. This is what happened with the advent of cable television: contents are sold for subscription or per usage (Pay Per View PPV) fees.

Gradually, this is what will happen to most of the sites and software on the Net. Those which survive will begin to collect usage fees, access fees, subscription fees, downloading fees and other, appropriately named, fees. These fees are bound to be low but it is the principle that counts. Even a few cents per transaction may accumulate to hefty sums with the traffic which characterizes some web sites on the Net (or, at least its more popular locales).

3. Increased User Friendliness

As long as the computer is less user friendly and less reliable (predictable) than television less of a black box its potential (and its future) is limited. Television attracts 3.5 billion users daily. The Internet stands to attract under the most exuberant scenario less than one tenth of this number of people. The only reasons for this disparity are (the lack of) user friendliness and reliability. Even browsers, among the most user friendly applications ever are not sufficiently so. The user still needs to know how to use a keyboard and must possess some basic acquaintance with the operating system. The more mature the medium, the more friendly it becomes. Finally, it will be operated using speech or common language. There will be room left for user กhunchesก and built in flexible responses.

4. Social Taxes

Sooner or later, the business sector has to mollify the God of public opinion with offerings of political and social nature. The Internet is an affluent, educated, yuppie medium. It requires literacy and numeracy, live interest in information and its various uses (scientific, commercial, other), a lot of resources (free time, money to invest in hardware, software and connect time). It empowers and thus deepens the divide between the haves and havenots, the developed and the developing world, the knowing and the ignorant, the computer illiterate.

In short: the Internet is an elitist medium. Publicly, this is an unhealthy posture. กInternetophobiaก is already discernible. People (and politicians) talk about how unsafe the Internet is and about its possible uses for racial, sexist and pornographic purposes. The wider public is in a state of awe.

So, site builders and owners will do well to begin to improve their image: provide free access to schools and community centres, bankroll internet literacy classes, freely distribute contents and software to educational institutions, collaborate with researchers and social scientists and engineers. In short: encourage the view that the Internet is a medium catering to the needs of the community and the underprivileged, a mostly altruist endeavour. This also happens to make good business sense by educating and conditioning a future generation of users. He who visited a site when a student, free of charge will pay to do so when made an executive. Such a user will also pass on the information within and without his organization. This is called media exposure. The future will, no doubt, will be witness to public Internet terminals, subsidized ISP accounts, free Internet classes and an alternative กnoncommercial, publicก approach to the Net. This may prove to be one more source of revenue to content creator sand distributors.

About The Author

Sam Vaknin is the author of กMalignant Self Love Narcissism Revisitedก and กAfter the Rain How the West Lost the Eastก. He is a columnist in กCentral Europe Reviewก, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.

His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com

This article was posted on February 2, 2002

by Sam Vaknin, Ph.D.

The Truth About Public Relations

The Truth About Public Relations

by: Robert A. Kelly

The truth is, you CAN attract the support of those external audiences whose behaviors have the most effect on your enterprise. But you must do it by first achieving the positive changes you need in their perceptions and, thus, behaviors.

You’ll get both using this strategic approach to public relations which means your chances of achieving your organizational objectives are enhanced.

It all starts with the fundamental premise of public relations shown just below.

ขPeople act on their own perception of the facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and movingtodesiredaction those people whose behaviors affect the organization, the public relations mission is accomplished.ข

The core strength of those comments lies in the behavior changes that can take place among your key, outside audiences. When those changes occur – and the combined perceptions of members of that important external ขpublicข begin to move in your direction – it can spell public relations success.

For instance, with a strong factual basis, you convince area activists gathering at your plant gate that (1) you don’t dump chemicals into the river, and (2) both State and Federal investigations found that to be true. When they finally clear out, you’ve limited the damage an expensive and longlasting disruption could have caused. That saved the organization cold, hard cash!

What happened? You managed to change the perception of those activists which, predictably, led to the change in their behavior that you desired. In other words, a successful use of public relations’ fundamental premise.

While public relations can bring real power to bear, and while there’s a wellworn path leading to each success, truth is, you can’t change perceptions, and thus behaviors of your important outside audiences if you are not in touch with them on a regular and meaningful basis.

That’s why it’s so important to interact with members of each target audience, and ask questions. What do you think of our services, our programs, or our products? Are you satisfied? Listen carefully for signs of a misconception or a factual inaccuracy. Is there a belief alive out there that simply isn’t true? Do you detect a hurtful rumor that must be squashed?

The answers you receive let you establish your public relations goal. For example, correct that inaccuracy, clear up that misconception, or get out the facts in order to neutralize that rumor.

But how will you actually reach that goal? With a clear and urgent strategy.

Fortunately, in dealing with perception/opinion, we have just three options available to us. Create perception/opinion where there is none, change existing perception, or reinforce it.

The goal you established will quickly tell you which strategy choice you must make.

But, of course, what you say to that target audience, in pursuit of your public relations goal, is crucial. Your message must be persuasive, compelling and clear as a mountain stream. It also must be credible and believable, which means truthful in all detail. It should also address the particular inaccuracy, misconception or rumor head on and not allow room for any further misunderstandings.

Now, how do you get that carefully chiseled message to the attention of members of that key, target audience? I still call them ขbeasts of burdenข because they carry messages from Point A to Point B. Communications tactics is the answer, and you have a huge selection from which to choose. Everything from open houses, contests, news releases and speeches to brochures, community briefings, letterstothe editor, emails, radio/TV and newspaper interviews, and lots more.

Sooner rather than later, you will wonder whether you’re making any progress. And the only realistic way to nail that down is to go back to members of that target audience again and ask them the same questions all over again.

The big difference this time around is, you’re looking for signs that opinion/perceptions have begun to change in your direction. By that I mean clear indications that the miscon ception is clearing up, or the inaccuracy has been corrected, or that a negative impression is slowly turning around.

Truth is, that’s when this strategic, and powerful approach to public relations – supported by appropriate tactical firepower – delivers the altered perceptions and modified behaviors promised in the fundamental premise of public relations.

end

About The Author

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks about the fundamental premise of public relations. He has been DPR, PepsiCola Co.; AGMPR, Texaco Inc.; VPPR, Olin Corp.; VPPR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:[email protected].

Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com

This article was posted on July 06, 2003

by Robert A. Kelly

Public Relations

Public Relations

by: Jan Fritz

The wind of changes…

The digital world has changed the form and scope of all communications. The positive aspects of this new world are as overwhelming to interactivity as a truckload of candy is to a three year old. The field of Public Relations is rapidly transforming as well.

PR can bring a human touch to business and, if it is used correctly and effectively, can be that powerful tool bringing you success in all spheres, public and private, commercial and nonprofit. Please notice that it is not possible to consider PR as an isolated process, since every act or intervention has a direct effect on a perceptiv market.

Grab the components from your personal marketmix and see if your profile is currently congruent to the basics of the company marketing strategy or trademark policy. To make it move just be out of your mind and pick an activity to trigger the spinoff process. Anything from an ad on the local BBS to actions designed to match and target the market with a performance that will be easy to identify for agents demanding whatever you plan to provide. Combine new ideas even if not evaluated when you are stucked in rigid or predictible behavior which can be obstructive and raise limitations when you approach the position as a confident provider of services and products you wish to expose. /ceteris paribus

Firetail Networks/JF

About The Author

All rights reserved Fritzlabs/Prosensa

fritzlabs.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on September 17, 2004

by Jan Fritz

Running a Program on a Remote Server Using SSH

Running a Program on a Remote Server Using SSH

by: C.S. Deam

How do you run a program on a remote server using ssh?

For this example weกll have two servers, one named Johnny and another named Cash. Both are running openssh. Our goal is to have a program on Johnny login to Cash and run a program on Cash. To make the task a little more complex weกll be using different users on each machine.

The first thing weกll need to do is generate public and private keys on Johnny. So, logged into Johnny as user กboyก we create public and private keys by creating them in the .ssh directory as follows:

Johnny$> pwd

/home/boy/.ssh

Johnny$> sshkeygen t rsa f sue

Generating public/private rsa key pair.

Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):

Enter same passphrase again:

Your identification has been saved in sue.

Your public key has been saved in sue.pub.

The key fingerprint is:

8d:e9:c0:g1:c7:1f:e3:b3:2f:38:12:aa:b5:3b:2e:b3 boy@Johnny

Johnny$>

In the example above we picked an arbitrary name, sue, to identify the files that hold the generated keys. When prompted to enter a passphrase (twice) we simply hit enter twice.

As the output of sshkeygen indicates, the public key has been saved in a file named sue.pub.

The output of sshkeygen implies, but doesn’t indicate directly, that the private key is in a file named sue (Yes, a user named boy created a file named sue.)

Johnny$>ls l

rwx 1 sue suegrp 887 Oct 17 14:27 sue

rwx 1 sue suegrp 223 Oct 17 14:27 sue.pub

The private key file, sue, will remain on Johnny for the reaminder of this exercise, but the public key must be moved to the remote server, Cash. Note that the .ssh directory itself, as well as the sue and sue.pub files should have permissions of 700.

Now youกll need to ftp the sue.pub file from Johnny to Cash. The user on Cash that weกll login as is user กnamedก.

Johnny$> ftp Cash

Connected to Cash

220 Cash Propery of Xyz. Authorized users only

Name (Cash:boy): named

331 Password required for named.

Password:

230Last unsuccessful login: Fri Oct 17 13:12:55 2003 on ftp from Johnny 230Last login: Fri Oct 17 16:02:11 2003 on /dev/pts/1 from Johnny

230 User named logged in.

ftp> cd .ssh

ftp> mput sue.pub

mput sue.pub? y

200 PORT command successful.

150 Opening data connection for sue.pub.

226 Transfer complete.

224 bytes sent in 0.000781 seconds (280.1 Kbytes/s)

local: sue.pub remote: sue.pub

ftp>bye

221 Goodbye.

Johnny$>

Now weกll telnet into Cash and concatenate the sue.pub file into /home/named/.ssh/authorized_keys file.

Cash$> pwd

/home/named/.ssh

Cash$> cat sue.pub >> authorized_keys

Cash$> exit

Connection closed.

Johnny$>

Letกs recap what weกve done so far.

1) Weกve created public and private keys on Johnny.

2) Weกve ftpกd the public key file, sue.pub, from Johnny to Cash.

3) Weกve telnetted to Cash, and concatenated the contents of sue.pub into authorized_keys

We’re now ready to manually login from Johnny to Cash using ssh.

Johnny$> ssh i /home/boy/.ssh/sue named@Cash

The authenticity of host กCash (xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa)ก can’t be established.

RSA key fingerprint is 65:11:7d:ef:ed:a3:cc:34:d1:b5:ba:c9:16:22:31:23.

Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

================================================================

*** NOTICE TO ALL USERS ***

================================================================

Cash$>exit

Connection to Cash closed.

Johnny$>

Now on Johnny, create a shell script called กboynamedsue.shก with the following one line of contents and chmod the script to 777.

ssh i /home/boy/.ssh/sue named@Cash /usr/bin/ls l

Next, execute the script on Johnny.

Johnny$> boynamedsue.sh

================================================================

*** NOTICE TO ALL USERS ***

================================================================

rwxrwxrx 1 named namedgrp 10020 Oct 17 14:35 namedfile1.txt

rwrr 1 named namedgrp 680 Aug 14 16:18 namedfile.html

rw 1 named namedgrp 1148 Aug 18 09:51 mbox

drwxrxrx 2 named namedgrp 512 Jun 17 13:38 old

Johnny$>

You just executed a program on Johnny, that logged into Cash and ran a program (unix กls lก).

The next step youกll want to take is to replace the ก/usr/bin/ls lก command in the boynamedsue.sh program with the path and name of the program that you want to run.

About The Author

C.S. Deam is a small business owner. His eBook Computer Nuggets: NonTechie Internet Tips For InLaws, OutLaws, and the Rest of Society is a great gift for nontechie family members and is available at www.LinkertonPublishing.com where you can sign up for FREE ECourses & Newsletters to help you on your path to selfemployment.

This article was posted on December 27, 2003

by C.S. Deam

Writing Suitable Copy for the Press

Writing Suitable Copy for the Press

by: Carolyn Moncel

Summer is finally here and school is out, but learning for the rest of us continues. Whether you’re a seasoned PR professional working for a top agency, a novice just beginning a career, or a midlevel manager working inhouse at a small business, the time comes when we all could use a refresher course in properly writing suitable copy for the press.

My lesson occurred recently upon reading an interesting interview with retired Wall Street Journal assistant managing editor, Paul R. Martin, Sr., in The Bulldog Reporter, a public relations trade newsletter. Reporters and public relations professionals alike greatly admire Mr. Martinกs experience, and they should because his advice for avoiding common writing mistakes is the best primer available for writing great press releases.

Allow me to share with you what I learned: ·

Keep your press release short and simple. Try to use one word instead of two, and ask yourself if what youกve written is redundant. If in doubt, have a colleague or friend read your release. Reporters want to understand your key points immediately. They don’t want to call you multiple times for clarification. ·

Write plainly and avoid companyinsider phrases, clichés or industryspecific jargon. Unless you are targeting the trade press, avoid all jargon because it has have no meaning outside of the company or industry. An example phrase would be กstate of the art.ก ·

Do not capitalize titles to elevate your boss or company. Never capitalize titles like กPresidentก or กChairmanก. Capped titles should only be applied to things like the names of countries or political heads of State.

Refrain from creating new words or phrases. Instead of saying, กgrow the economyก verbs like กexpand,ก or กincrease,ก still work just as well. ·

Write in active voice. Remember that no one likes to read poorly written copy. Brush up on your grammar and never use the passive voice, which is boring.

Whether you are a PR professional or a smallbusiness owner writing press releases inhouse, you must know how the media writes. Keep in mind that journalists expect the quality level and same attention to detail in your copy that their editors demand from their own stories. If you violate these rules, here is yet another instance where your release will receive a oneway trip to the reporterกs trash can.

Notable PR Resources:

The Bulldog Reporter

Steven R. Van Hookกs All About Public Relations

PR Newswire

About The Author

Carolyn DavenportMoncel is president and founder of Mondave Communications, a global marketing and communications firm based in Chicago and Paris, and a subsidiary of MotionTemps, LLC. Contact her at [email protected] or by phone in the United States at 877.815.0167 or 011.331.4997.9059 in France.

This article was posted on July 04, 2003

by Carolyn Moncel

Sound Like Your Situation?

Sound Like Your Situation?

by: Robert A. Kelly

What a shame! Potentially productive public relations people resting on their oars in a large organization. Just kind of tinkering with tactics and leaving target audience perceptions (and behaviors) to pretty much do their own thing.

Big pain on the way!

Unattended, key public perceptions can morph into painful behaviors that hurt the organization.

Just plain shouldn’t happen.

In militaryspeak, all it takes is some ongoing ขintel.ข

First, insist that that potentially productive public relations team get busy by prioritizing your most important audiences. They can’t work on everything at once. So for starters, they can identify that really key target audience.

Then monitor perceptions by interacting with some folks who make up that audience, and do it on a regular basis. Same with other important external publics, when time allows.

What’s on their minds? Any negative feelings? See or hear anything that needs correcting? Is there a problem on the horizon that may come your way?

The answers to those questions help your crew form the public relations goal – altered perceptions leading to altered behaviors. For example, correct the impression that you sell shoddy merchandise; or a perception that you favor one particular ethnic group; or a belief that your services aren’t worth the price you charge.

Setting the public relations goal let’s your public relations team focus on which strategy they want to employ to reach that goal.

There’s not a big choice. In fact, just three are available. They can choose between creating perceptions (opinions) when none exist, or changing existing opinion, or reinforcing it.

But their ammo will be the persuasive messages they prepare for communication to that key target audience. Messages designed to affect perceptions in a way that leads to the behaviors you desire.

The message must outline what the problem is and what some members of that target audience believe. Then it must clearly set down the truth of the matter omitting any exaggeration or hype. In other words, it must be believable, credible and especially persuasive and compelling.

Enter ขbeasts of burden,ข the communications tactics your people will use to move your message to the attention of members of your key, target audience.

There is a vast array of communications tactics from which your public relations people can choose. They include everything from facetoface meetings, emailings, opeds and news releases to special events, speeches, trade show appearances and town hall meetings.

Wait a minute, not so fast! How will your public relations team measure progress? Best way is to put on the monitor hats again and fan out among members of the target audience.

Using the persuasive message as a guide, are respondents aware of the message? If so, what is their reaction to it? Does your crew find evidence that prior opinion (perception) has moved in your direction? If so, to what extent? Was the create/change/reinforce strategy choice correct, or must it be adjusted? Are refinements in the message in order, meaning there is still considerable work to be done?

Obviously, the problem solving sequence must be carefully retuned as progress is made in order to keep it on target – alter perception, change behavior, and achieve not only a successful, but the desired public relations result.

end

About The Author

Bob Kelly counsels, writes and speaks about the fundamental premise of public relations. He has been DPR, PepsiCola Co.; AGMPR, Texaco Inc.; VPPR, Olin Corp.; VPPR, Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S. Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The White House. mailto:[email protected] Visit: http://www.prcommentary.com

This article was posted on July 10, 2003

by Robert A. Kelly