The Tight-Rope of PR

Risk = Walking a tight-rope.

Issues = A lack of balance.

Crisis = Falling fifty feet to your doom.

Recovery = Accepting medical help.

At least this is what these terms refer to if my brother, the semi-professional, adrenalin addicted; teenage wrestler ever gets the stupid idea to try tight-rope walking without any safety harnesses. In public relations the effects are somewhat less extravagant but no less important to understand.

Risk is essentially being put into a situation where the outcome is unknown; therefore, in this case the public relations practitioner must be able to make an informed guess as to what the outcome may be. This is managing the risk.

Management skills are also needed when dealing with a crisis, after all, no matter how well a campaign is planned its almost guaranteed that something unplanned will happen. According to this week’s readings, the ten steps to good crisis management are:

1. Tell the truth.
2. Tell it quickly, consistently and fully.
3. If blame is deserved admit it and apologise.
4. Explain what is being done to overcome the crisis.
5. Contact effected families, employees and other important stakeholders.
6. Provide email addresses, fax and phone numbers for media queries.
7. Keep the media and important stakeholders informed of progress.
8. Do not speculate.
9. Keep a log of media queries and return calls promptly.
10. Be alert to rumours and correct misapprehensions as quickly as possible.

Readings: Chapter 11 ‘Risk, issues, crisis and recovery’ in J. Johnston & C. Zawawi (Eds.), Public Relations: Theory and Practice (pp. 298-327). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.

Pamphlets / Brochures: Use them wisely or leave them at home!

Upon reading the title of this week’s article the creative side of my brain had a complete and utter freak out. Typical?! What happened to innovative, original, colourful and inspirational public relation?! As with al of my reactions to this course I have been promptly settled by the fact that although I have outrageously exciting ideas of public relations, the practice of it also requires hard work and more knowledge than how to update a Facebook status or how to retweet on Twitter.

This week’s reading opens with what I believe should be stuck to the desk of every public relations practitioner in Australia, if not the world. It reminded me of a hospital waiting room I was in recently. I took notice of the pamphlet section of the wall which was overflowing with health warnings and parenting how-to’s then I noticed that everyone was either reading a hundred year old issue of National Geographic or Women’s Day or watching the muted television in the corner. I find myself unable to elaborate on or paraphrase what the author has written so I have included the series of questions that one should have an answer to before designing any pamphlet or brochure.

Set objectives:

Why are we producing it?

Who will receive/read it?

What do they think now?

What do we want them to think/do?

Plan and budget:

How often should it be produced?

What should it look like: how big, how think, how glossy?

What will it cost? Steps involved and timings.

Implement program:

Who will produce it?

Who will provide material for it?

How will we distribute it?

Evaluate:

How will we measure the readers’ response?

How often will we check progress?

Reading: Article from" The new Australlian and New Zealand public relations manual, Tymson & Lazar", 5th rev. and updated ed., Chapter 4, 2006, pp. 74-116

Research and Evaluation: Boring but Necessary

Research and evaluation…sounds awfully strict, obsessive and uninviting if you ask me. In fact on first impressions it reminded me of the PR equivalent to some torturous task that would have been set by Captain Harris of the Police Academy films. Not a fantastic start to the readings this week. However, like all industries Public Relations can not simply be all glamour and Hollywood-esque events. The reality is that research and evaluation are on-going processes throughout any communications campaign. The reasoning behind this is that it allows for accountability, which is a major focus of management in this day and age. This need for accountability is displayed prominently in the fact that most research focuses on the environment in which the organization operates. The importance of research and evaluation can not be stressed enough.

As glamourous and Hollywood-esque events sound, it must be remembered how crucial the evaluation is also. This week’s reading suggests the use of three evaluation tools: the debriefing meeting; the event assessment; and the business activity assessment. A debriefing meeting is defined as being useful to “review each aspect of the event planning management and marketing, examine any problems and identify ways that future events can be improved” (p. 278). It is important to note here that everything that is evaluated should be measured against the campaign goals. The event assessment is the financial side of the evaluation and deals with things like ticket sales and so forth. Finally, the business activity assessment looks at how the event helped raise business for both affiliated and non-affiliated industries.

Readings: Chapter 6 ‘Research and Evaluation’ and Chapter 10 'Sponsorship and event Management' in J. Johnston & C. Zawawi (Eds.), Public Relations: Theory and Practice (pp. 139-170 and 268-297). Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.