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Learn essential skills in corporate and public relations writing, including best practices in communication, online responses, social media content, persuasion techniques, PR planning, and research strategies.
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Corporate writing (KOC3466) Lecturer: Dr. Nurul Ain Mohd Hasan Contact details: 8946 8323/ namh@upm.edu.my
Corporate / Public relations writing • A PR writer’s work is • Purposeful - mempunyaitujuan • Persuasive - persuasif • Principled - berprinsip
PR writers must be versatile (serbaboleh) • Need to cater (memenuhikeperluan) to all types of messages for any medium, and to a variety of publics (pemegangtaruh).
Global PR environment • Best practices (AmalanTerbaik) in PR have always been two way communication (komunikasiduahala) and the global setting has forced companies to be responsive to publics. • Appropriate responses in online communication is critical in building image and reputation.
The social media content for organisations will open up communication to all publics • Interactive media such as Facebook & instagram, enable online conversations. • These conversations turn into relationships with specific members of a public. • This relationship will need time to develop • To build this relationship requires PR planning and strategy. • Choosing the right words for this purpose is very important.
Always and remaining critical issues for PR people are the ability to recognize potential news stories and anticipating how these might be received by global audience. • The most important challenge is to use words that will be acceptable to your audience.
KOC3431: Corporate Writing Topic 2: Persuasion & Research in PR Dr. Nurul Ain Mohd Hasan Reference: Public Relations Writing Form and Style, Doug Newsom & Jim Haynes.
In the case of Farm Fresh, there is a change of opinion due to the persuasion of words. • These persuasive writing has changed the perception of the blogger, from a negative view about the company to one that is positive. • There is a change of personal opinion to one that will influence bigger group opinions.
Persuasion: Communication and the audience • The problem for Corp Comm/PR writer is that an audience for persuasive communication is often is not responsive because: • The wrong medium is used • The wrong spokesperson is delivering the message • The message itself is slanted wrong • The audience is “tuned out” (Don’t care)
Persuasion continued… • The Communication Design aspects of Persuasion • Stimulus-response – e.g. attractive images, colours • Cognitive – e.g understanding • Motivational – e.g.celebrityfavourite • Social – e.g. peers, members of the community, family members • Personality – it fits your identity
Persuasion continued.. • In persuading audience – tell the good news first, and then the bad news. • Use both factual and emotional appeals. • The spoken word is more persuasive than the printed words. • The convergence of traditional media and social media makes understanding publics difficult.
Two types of information for PR research • Primary • Secondary
Primary Information • Primary information is developed mostly through interviews and survey questions. • In order to do this, a PR practitioner will need to prepare good questions to the right target audience under the right situation. • You have to be smart and not believe everything the public says – investigate further to gain the truth.
Secondary Information • The most common sources of secondary information include: • Internet sites, • libraries, • reference works, • bibliographies, • periodicals, • databases and • government records.
KOC3431: Corporate Writing Topic 3: PR Planning Process Dr. Nurul Ain Mohd Hasan Reference: Public Relations Writing Form and Style, Doug Newsom & Jim Haynes.
The PR Planning Process • Everything you say & wear, the logo, the colours of the environment, the building, the set up of the workplace, everything communications something about your organisation • We can’t avoid communicating • We can’t choose whether or not we want to communicate • What we can do is decide how to communicate & whether we choose to manage communication flow. • That’s what PR planning process is all about!
The PR Planning Process • Review, revise and affirm (or develop) the organization’s mission statement • The organization’s mission statement establishes the scope, domain and fundamental purpose of the organisation. • The focal point for goals, objectives, and activities • Ask yourself these questions: • Is it current? • Does it reflect the organisation as it exists today? • Is the mission clear and understandable from the start?
Continued.. • Examples of company mission:
Continued… • Situation Analysis • Examine the present situation • Answer the questions – i. what are our strengths, our weaknesses, will we have the support of our selected publics with the campaign? • Summarize of all important aspects of the current situation • Include both strengths and weaknesses • Compare with competition
Continued.. • Develop public relations strategies • In addition to objectives, selecting effective public relations/communications strategies is important • A strategy is an approach to solving a problem or capturing an opportunity e.g: Remember the organisation’s mission statement Understand the success stories of the organisation. Work on a strategy around the mission statement and success stories. Starbucks – success stories of their CSR work in third world countries. Nestle – success story – one of the first and leading brands of food and beverage.
Continued... • Write goals Examples of writing goals of your campaign: Weak: “enhance our public image” Stronger: “Improve recall of important facts about our organisation – from 3- 5 among key media representatives by June 1 of next year. Weak: “Improve media relations” Stronger: “Increase by 10% from 60% to 70% positive remarks on both traditional and especially online media by June 1 of next year.
Continued.. • Prepare objectives • Short-term results desired • To be measurable, each objective should contain: • What is being measured • Duration or time • Target audiences
Continued.. • State rationales • Each rationale should answer the question, “Why do we need to accomplish this goal or objective?” • Not always used in public relations plans – something new, something original, something unforgettable.
Continued.. • Define, analyze and prioritize publics • A public is a group of people with similar characteristics that can: • Help your organization achieve its goals and objectives, • Stop your organization from achieving its goals and objectives, or • Hurt your organization in some way
Continued.. b. Each should have similar characteristics: i) Demographics ii) Psychographics (interests) c. Analyze the decision-making constituency i) Each constituency is made up of smaller groups ii) Each smaller group has characteristics which prejudice them in varying degrees for or against any proposition iii) The need for research on target audience • If we want someone to do something, we need to understand why he/she would want to do that thing • What’s the reward?
Continued.. d. Develop key message statement for each audience e. Identify “Gatekeepers” • Gatekeepers are intermediate publics; they are key to reaching your “final” publics • They include groups such as: • News media representatives • Opinion leaders between the public and politicians • Administrative assistants • Educators • Ministers iii) The Internet is eliminating gatekeepers • Allows communication with: • Anyone • Anytime (24-hour day) • Anywhere (distance is dead) (2) Allows international, spontaneous public discussion groups (3) Increases the power of the individual (One person seems the same as thousands) (4) Greatly speeds the development of issues
Continued.. • Write central message statement • 50-100 word “umbrella” statement • Summarizes the purpose of the organization or activity • Additional message statements should be “customized” for each constituency and, often, for each medium or channel for communications used
Continued.. • Determine communications vehicles • Mass media • Specialized “tools” designed to reach specific constituencies. • In public relations, anything can be a communications vehicle: • Street dance & mob dance OR mannequin challenge! • Doorknob hanger • And so on…
Continued.. • Select spokesperson(s) who is/are: • Trained/experienced in dealing with news media • Comfortable in front of a TV camera and with reporters • Skilled in identifying key points • Able to speak without using jargons • Respectful of the role of the reporter • Knowledgeable about the organization and the crisis at hand • Able to establish credibility with the media • Able to project confidence • Suitable diction, appearance and charisma, sincere, straightforward and believable • Available and accessible to the media • Able to remain calm in stressful situations
Conclusion • Effective campaigns or programs are built around a unified message strategy. The organization must speak with one voice. • The writer’s primary role in a campaign is to craft messages that are consistent with campaign strategy • Public relations writers are involved in campaign planning mostly at the stage of crafting creative message strategies and in tactical application of those strategies. • An effective organizational strategy is rooted in the mission of the organization.
KOC3431: Corporate Writing Topic 4: PR Role in corporate writing – writing to clarify and simplify Dr. Nurul Ain Mohd Hasan Reference: Public Relations Writing Form and Style, Doug Newsom & Jim Haynes.
The question is…. HOW? HOW? HOW??? WORDS CAN BE SCARY! Therefore PR writing is craft, With any craft, you must learn and think creatively! Know who you are Writing to!
The formula forPublic Relations Writing • Message, Public, Medium • Message – Know your message • Public – Know your public, Tailor your message to your audience • Medium – Know your communication channel
2. Style • Readability/Listenability 2 key principles are: • Sentence length – Keep it short, with only a few long sentences in between the paragraph. BUT keep most sentences short and simple. • Word length – avoid ”sesquipedalianism” – it means – excessive use of long words. This sound confusing right? It would be much easier if I just wrote- avoid long words. • That’s what I mean wiith style of writing – keep it short and simple
2. Style (cont..) • Naturalness Conversational style is easiest to read e.g. 1. Smith was not disturbed that Johnson had submitted his resignation. He said that the position held by Johnson was not of high significance. Written well but lengthy and not personal 2. Johnson’s resignation didn’t bother Smith. He said Johnson’s job wasn’t important, anyway. Natural & conversational
How to make a conversational style writing? • Use active word, NOT passive. • If in your sentence, you twist your toungue to read it.. And there are a lot of the word such as ”by” in the sentence.. Then you have to change it. E.g. Passive: Everything possible was done by company engineers to restore service. Active: Company engineers did everything they could to restore service Which is passive & active? The company president asked museum officials to keep the exhibit open. Active It was requested by the company president that the exhibit be kept open by the museum officials Passive
2. Style (cont..) • Variety – Vary sentence structure to avoid dullness. Don’t repeat same words in a sentence E.g. When my books arrived, I took the hardbound texts from the package and placed the treasured volumes on my bookcase next to my other bound publications A better one… I took the books out of the box and put them on the shelf with my others.
2. Style (cont..) • Euphony – write to please to ear but be sure your words are clear. • Human Interest – Use personal words to involve the readers. • Trite expressions – eliminate clichés. One that is too opinionated. e.g. “The performance highlights….”, ”The campaign features…” – these are trite expressions. Try to minimise this. e.g. In news releases – “an array of flavourful food…” – that’s very commonly used and editors are sick and tired of it. • Simply avoid using words you always hear or read. Be more creative in order to stand out!
2. Style (cont..) • Eliminating bias - bias remarks are a No-No! Use gender neutral language. e.g. Chairperson not ‘Chairman’, People skills not ‘man skills’. e.g. don’t mention ethnicity unless really necessary in your news releases and any public write-up. –e.g. “these group of Malay community” –wrong!
