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If so, what is a “hard” discipline? One that involves HUGE
money or personal pain? One that absorbs all the general
counsel’s time? Or, is it the blinding success of a brand
new business or, maybe, something that affects individual
careers? Or must it simply employ clubs and brass knuckles?

I believe public relations is as “hard” as ANY discipline
can get when it puts together for a business, non-profit,
government agency or association, the resources and action
planning needed to alter individual perception leading to
changed behaviors among their most important outside
audiences. When it goes on to help managers persuade
those key folks to his or her way of thinking, then move
them to take actions that allow their department, group,
division or subsidiary to succeed, that’s hard, real hard.

Since, plain and simple, that can mean success or failure for
the organization, yes, I’d call it a very “hard” discipline
indeed!

And that notion isn’t just sitting out there all by itself.
Its foundation is the underlying premise of public relations
itself: People 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
moving-to-desired-action the very people whose
behaviors affect the organization the most, the public
relations mission is usually accomplished.

That’s why many managers are comforted by the thought
that the right public relations planning really CAN alter
individual perception and lead to changed behaviors
among key outside audiences!

Should you be that manager, try to remember that your
PR effort must demand more than special events, press
releases and brochures if you are to receive the quality
public relations results you want.

It will all seem worthwhile when capital givers or
specifying sources beginning to look your way; customers
begin to make repeat purchases; membership applications
start to rise; new proposals for strategic alliances and
joint ventures start showing up; politicians and legislators
begin looking at you as a key member of the business,
non-profit, government or association communities;
welcome bounces in show room visits occur; community
leaders begin to seek you out, and prospects actually start
to do business with you.

Close by are your public relations professionals who
can be of real use for your new opinion monitoring
project because they are already in the perception and
behavior business. But be certain that the PR staff really
accepts why it’s SO important to know how your most
important outside audiences perceive your operations,
products or services. Above all, be sure they believe
that perceptions almost always result in behaviors that
can help or hurt your operation.

Before you monitor and gather perceptions by
questioning members of your most important outside
audiences, go over your plans with your PR staff.
Rehearse asking questions like these: how much do
you know about our organization? Have you had prior
contact with us and were you pleased with the
interchange? Are you familiar with our services or
products and employees? Have you experienced
problems with our people or procedures?

Be ready for an epiphany when you discover that using
professional survey firms to do the opinion gathering
work will cost considerably more than using those
PR folks of yours, who already happen to be in the
perception monitoring business. However, whether
it’s your people or a survey firm asking the questions,
the objective remains the same: identify untruths,
false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies,
misconceptions and any other negative perception
that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

Goal-setting time has arrived, a goal that calls for
action on the most serious problem areas you
uncovered during your key audience perception
monitoring. Will it be to straighten out that dangerous
misconception? Correct that gross inaccuracy? Or,
stop that potentially painful rumor cold?

The facts of life say that setting your PR goal
requires an equally specific strategy that tells you
how to get there. Only three strategic options are
available to you when it comes to doing something
about perception and opinion. Change existing
perception, create perception where there may be
none, or reinforce it. The wrong strategy pick will
taste like Hollandaise Sauce on your waffles, so
be sure your new strategy fits well with your new
public relations goal. You certainly don’t want to
select “change” when the facts dictate a strategy
of reinforcement.

Good writing is always important in public relations,
but never more so than now. Here, you’ve got to
put together a persuasive message that will help
move your key audience to your way of thinking. It
must be a carefully-written message targeted
directly at your key external audience. Select your
very best writer because s/he must come up with
corrective language that is not just compelling,
persuasive and believable, but clear and factual if
it is to shift perception/opinion towards your point
of view and wind up with the behaviors you have in
mind.

Selecting the communications tactics most likely
to carry your message to the attention of your
target audience can be a fun chore. There are many
available to you. From speeches, facility tours, emails
and brochures to consumer briefings, media interviews,
newsletters, personal meetings and many others.
Take time to assure yourself that the tactics you pick
are known to reach folks just like your audience
members.

Another reality we labor under in PR is that the
credibility of any message is fragile and always
suspect to some folks. So the method you use to
communicate it is a very valid concern. Which is why
you may wish to unveil such a corrective message
through smaller presentations and meetings rather
than using higher-profile news releases.

Many eventualities can lead you to begin a second
perception monitoring session with members of your
external audience. But nothing like talk of progress
reports. You’ll want to use many of the same questions
used in the benchmark session. But now, you will be
on strict alert for signs that the bad news perception is
being altered in your direction.

Not all programming runs apace, so should momentum
flag, you can always move things along by adding more
communications tactics as well as increasing their
frequencies.

Calling tactical devices tactical devices (like the
communications tactics discussed above), avoids confusing
them with the broader, more comprehensive mission
known as public relations. A mission that we now see
allows managers of all stripes to alter individual perception
in a way that leads to changed behaviors among key
outside audiences.

A discipline you certainly could call one of the “harder”
disciplines insuring the success of any manager’s operation.

Please feel free to publish this article and resource box
in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website.
A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net.
Word count is 1245 including guidelines and resource box.
Robert A. Kelly © 2005.

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has published over
200 articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S.
Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The
White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia
University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net

Visit:http://www.PRCommentary.com

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Build reading skills while playing with these unique
personalized storybook CDs from Ann’s Personalized Books.

While personalized books make a fantastic unique gift for any
child, Storybook CDs help bring your child even further into the
story by adding animation and play time. Each CD features a
personalized story with your child and their friends.

In between each page you read, there is the opportunity for the
child to click on the pictures on the page to see what sound
they make or other animation. This helps keep them more
interested in the story and wanting you to read more. You can
easily read through the story several times and still find new
items to click that you may have missed before.

When you finish the story, there are also games to play. This
bonus adds much value to the CD, because it provides hours of
fun for your child, with or without you. Another important part
of the CD is the three reading levels, so whether your child
isn’t reading yet, or has been reading for several years, these
CDs have a level just for them.

Each Storybook CD has a sample text page and sample animation
page to let you try the CD a little bit before you choose which
one to buy. Once you decide on a CD, the first step in the
ordering process is filling out their very detailed form for
personalizing the book.

Storybook CDs come with the following personalization:

- Child’s name - Two friend’s names - Child’s age - Dedication
(example: “From Mom”)

Several different CD Storybooks are currently available for both
boys and girls. The CD we got was “Too Many Monsters”, which at
first I was afraid was a bit too scary for my 5yr old. I quickly
discovered it wasn’t (although he did jump a few times at some
of the animation), and found him laughing the entire time.

Personalized Storybook CDs from Ann’s Personalized Books can be
found at:
http://www.anns-personalized-books.com/storybook-cds.htm

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What do you do when you have a brand new shiny web site, and no way of promoting it? Well for starters you could hold an online press conference. This is actually a very simple process. You will either hire a professional to write out a web press release and have it reviewed by an editor, or you can be brave and take your chances by writing it yourself. When you decide to do it yourself you take a great risk of being either very disappointed, or shut down entirely.

There are other ways of promoting your new web site however; you could always go the route of affiliation. This is a good method of not only promoting your new site, but an easy fashion of making some quick money as well. How this works is you sign up for an affiliation to a site, generally you will want to find a site that has some relevance to the site you are trying to promote. When ever someone goes to the site you are affiliated with, and they link on to your site by pay per click method it takes them to your site and right into the thick of your content. This can be the unfortunate part, whenever someone clicks onto your site from your affiliate; you end up paying the affiliate for the transfer of sites. Although this could easily be a very small fee to the affiliate, the point to remember is if they come and you pay the affiliate, there is no guarantee that they will buy from you.

This could easily become a very costly endeavour if you are getting many time wasters, and no buyers. This is where you will be paying for people to view but not pay. As you know this is no way to conduct a business. Sometimes people go to the extent of hiring a service that guarantees web traffic. This service states that they can increase traffic to your site, or generate hits if you like. The problem with this theory however, is that you cannot guarantee anything, you can never be sure that you will ever generate traffic, let alone sales. This is in no way to say that the program that they offer is a complete waste of time and money, it is just that absolutely no organization or single person alike can truly guarantee that they can generate traffic for you to the point that you will see successful results on your site.

Which leads back to the first mentioned thought, is it not worth the time, money, and effort, to ensure that you are getting the best exposure for your site? Don’t waste your money, time, and sanity wondering whether or not you will receive this exposure to your site. Go get it yourself.

Vincent Murphy can help you to find the best home based business ideas and money making opportunities so you can work at home visit: www.HomeGrail.com

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Building links to your website is of huge importance and something you should focus on significantly if getting ranked high in the search engine results is important to you. If you have a website, then more than likely getting a high ranking is of utmost importance. However, you might not know the best way to go about increasing your links. Consider the following suggestions in order to build your links and promote your website.

Suggestion #1 - Reciprocal Link Manager Software

You can always work on gaining reciprocal links on your own, however if you are very busy then a reciprocal link manager software will be of utmost importance to you because it will initiate and setup your new links and then maintain them as well. The software will continue requesting new links for your websites and inform you when links have been added as well as delete any old links that are no longer working.

Suggestion #2 - Weigh Your Popularity

Since the amount of links to your website ultimately determines your websites popularity with many search engines, it is important to have a lot of links. However, you need to know where your website stands in the search engine rankings in order to see how much work you need to do to increase and maintain that popularity rating. There are software programs that will help you do this and it is certainly a smart idea to monitor your link popularity progress.

Suggestion #3 - Secrets to Link Building

While software can take a lot of the work out of increasing your links, there is one great secret to link building you should keep in mind. That secret is the personal touch. If you send an email to a webmaster complimenting them on their website and provide a good reason why you want them to link to your page, you will have a good chance of receiving your request. Keep this in mind and pinpoint the top 25 websites you are most interested in having a link to your page, then make the effort to personally contact them rather than through software. It will be more effective.

There are many ways to increase your link popularity and you’ll end up with a highly ranked website because of it. However, keep in mind that the personal touch will certainly go a long way and sometimes it is the only way to get the links you really want. Let your software do the grunt work on the regular list of websites you want to contact for links, but the really important ones go after yourself.

This in itself is a tactic like no other, especially in a world when everything is computerized and run by technology. Remember, people are still behind those keyboards and when you make personal contact, you do yourself and your website a favor.

Michael Turner reveals his foolproof way to increase website traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it free right now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

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