Best Practices in Public Relations

1. Best Practices in Public Relations • What is public relations? • Best Practices in Public Relations • The good and the bad in p.r. • How the Internet is affecting p.r.

2. How do we define Public Relations?

3. Public Relations Goals • Build Relationships • Educate the public • Promote objectives Always uppermost in your mind is the reputation of your organization.

4. Best Practices in Public Relations • Include Public Relations in Management Planning • Know Where You Need to Go • Build Relationships • Utilize Crisis Management • Give Ethics the Highest Priority

5. Include P.R. in Management Decision-Making • Is communication reaching all the right people? • How will it play on Page One? • Avoid “shooting from the hip” • What is the most effective wayto communicate with stakeholders? Have you considered your Achilles’ Heels?

6. Know Where You Need to Go • Survey • What do people know about you? • Are there smoldering issues out there? • Do we understand the economic and political issues? • Establish benchmarks • What can we measure? • What do we want our efforts to accomplish?

7. Build Relationships • Use the right format… • … with the right people… • … who have the right contacts.

8. By connecting with key influencerswe can achieve greater • Acceleration • Collaboration • Validation • Recognition You cannot accomplish the missionbehind a desk!

9. Focus on Crisis Management • Don’t take ownership of an issue that is not yours • The issue should be the incident itself, not the handling of it

10. Focus on Ethics • Set business practices that are beyond reproach • Build a solid reputation bank • Value your reputation

11. Why were these P.R. Blunders? • Dixie Chicks • KFC’s healthy (?) fried chicken • The FEMA news conference