MANAGEMENT

IN PUBLIC
RELATIONS
CHAPTER 3
Discuss management process of public relations
 Reporting to top management
 Conceptualizing the public relations plan

 Creating the public relations plan

 Implementing public relations programmes

MANAGEMENT PROCESS OF
PUBLIC RELATIONS
 Professional public relations work starts from clear
strategies and bottom-line objectives that flow into
specific tactics, each with its own budget, timetable and
allocation of resources.
 Thinking “on your feet” is very much a desired ability in
the practice of public relations.
 But so, too, is the ability to think strategically and plan
methodically to help change attitudes, crystallize opinions,
and accomplish the organization’s overall goals.
 The relevance of public relations people in the eyes of top
management depends largely on the contribution they
make to the management process of the organization.
CONTINUE…….
 A boundary role: they function at the edge of an organization as
a liaison between the organization and its external and internal
publics.
 As boundary managers, public relations people support their
colleagues by helping them communicate across organizational
lines both within and outside the organization.
 Top managers are forced to think strategically about reaching
their goals. Specifically, they must constantly ask in relation to
their departments, functions and assignments:
 What are we attempting to achieve and where are we going in that
pursuit?
 What is the nature of the environment in which we must operate?
 Who are the key audience we must convince in the process?
 How will we get to where we want to be?
 REPORTING TO TOP
MANAGEMENT
 The public relations function must report to top
management.
 Public relations is often subordinated to advertising,
marketing, legal or human resources. However, public
relations promotes the entire organization.
 For the public relations function to be valuable to
management, it must remain independent, credible and
objective. This also mandates that public relations
professionals have not only communication competence
but also an intimate knowledge of the organization’s
business.
CONTINUE…….
 Public relations should be the corporate conscience ( an
organization’s public relations professionals should
enjoy enough autonomy to deal openly and honestly with
management).
 Advertising, marketing and all other disciplines must
work to maintain their own independence while building
long-term, mutually beneficial relationships for the good
of the organization.
 CONCEPTUALIZING THE
PUBLIC RELATIONS PLAN
 Before organizing for public relations work,
practitioners must consider objectives and strategies,
planning and budgets, and research and evaluation.

 The board environment in which the organization

operates must dictate the overall business objectives.

 These, in turn, dictate specific public relations

objectives and strategies.

 Once these have been defined, the task of organizing

for a public relations program should flow naturally.
Environment

Business
Objectives

Public Relations
objectives and
strategies

Public relations
programs
 The public relations management process involves
four steps:
 Defining the problem or opportunity
 This requires researching current attitudes and opinions about
the issue, product, candidate, or company in question and
determining the essence of the problem.
 Programming
 This is the formal planning stage, which addresses key
constituent publics, strategies, tactics and goals.
 Action
 This is the communications phase, when the program is
implemented.
 Evaluation
 The final step in the process is the assessment of what worked,
what didn’t and how to improve in the future.
 CREATING THE PUBLIC
RELATIONS PLAN
 Its organization must answer management’s concerns and
questions about the campaign.
1. Executive summary
 An overview of the plan
2. Communication process
 How it works, for understanding and training purposes.
3. Background
 Mission statement, vision, values, events that led to the need for the plan
4. Situation analysis
 Major issues and related facts the plan will deal with.
5. Message statement
 The plan’s major ideas and emerging themes, all of which look to the
expected outcome.
CONTINUE..
6. Audiences
 Strategic
constituencies related to the issues, listed in order of
importance, with whom you wish to develop and maintain relationships.
7. Key audience messages
 One-or-two-sentence messages that you want to be understood by each
key audience.
8. Implementation
 Issues,
audiences, messages, media, timing, cost, expected outcomes,
and method of evaluation – all neatly spelled out.
9. Budget
 The plan’s overall budget presented in the organization’s accepted style.
10. Monitoring and evaluation
 How the plan’s results will be measured and evaluated against a
previously set benchmark or desired outcome.
 IMPLEMENTING PUBLIC
RELATIONS PROGRAMS
 The duties and responsibilities of public relations practitioners
are as diverse as the public with whom different institutions deal.
 Here is a partial list of public relations duties:
 Media relations
 Coordinating relationships with the online, print, and electronic media which
includes arranging and monitoring press interviews, writing news releases and
related press materials, organizing press conferences, and answering media
inquires and requests.
 Social network marketing
 Marketing via social networking sites, from Facebook to Twitter to all the rest
has become a frontline responsibility of public relations agencies.
 Internal communications
 Informing employees and principals through a variety of means, including
intranet, newsletters, television and meetings.
 Government relations and public affairs
 Coordinating activities with legislators on local, state and federal levels.
CONTINUE..
 Community relations
 Orchestrating interaction with the community, perhaps including
open houses, tours, and employee volunteer efforts designed to
reflect the supportive nature of the organization to the community.
 Investor relations
 Managing relations with the investment community, including the
firm’s present and potential stockholders.
 Consumer relations
 Supporting activities with customers and potential customers, with
activities ranging from hard-sell product promotion activities to
“soft” consumer advisory services.
 Public relations research
 Conducting opinion research, which involves assisting in the public
policy formation process through the coordination and interpretation
of attitudinal studies of key publics.
CONTINUE..
 Public relations writing
 Coordinating the institution’s printed voice with its public through
reprints of speeches, annual reports, quarterly statements and product
and company brochures.
 Special public relations
 Coordinating relationships with outside specialty groups, such as
suppliers, educators, students, non profit organizations and
competitors.
 Institutional advertising
 Managing non-product advertising image as well as being called on
increasingly to assist in the management of more traditional product
advertising.
 Graphics
 Coordinating the graphic and photographic services of the
organization.
CONTINUE..
 Web site management
 Coordinating the organization’s online “face”, including Web site
design and ongoing counsel, updating and even management of the
site.
 Philanthropy
 Managing the gift-giving device, which ordinarily consists of
screening and evaluating philanthropic proposals and allocating the
organization’s available resources.
 Special events
 Coordinating special events, including travel for company
management, corporate celebrations and exhibits, dinners,
groundbreakings and grand openings.
 Management counseling
 Advising managers on alternative options and recommended choice
in light of public responsibilities.