Public relations is the art of changing perceptions. One is either managing, building and/or changing perception with groups or stakeholders whom the success of a business is highly dependent on. Stake holders or interest groups may include:
1. The press,
2. Current clients,
3. Prospects,
4. Trade and industry groups, essentially anyone who can assist in the growth of business.
All these relationships are managed, guided and steered effectively by good public relations practitioners. How many times have your heard the expression: “its all about perception”. Look what happened to New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani after September 11. His reputation literally skyrocketed into the stratosphere.
Well, good public relations IS all about perceptions. A note of caution: public relations is not only about putting seminars together, getting published, speaking, or sending out the odd news release to the media. What good public relations does is change behaviour. This, in turn, facilitates business growth. For example, your firm may want to:
1. Be seen in a more favourable light in an important target group. (This could be the firm’s ideal client target market);
2. Demonstrate how the firm’s services are different from its competition;
Communicate effectively the firm’s participation in a particular community that is critical to the growth of the firm;
3. Showcase attorneys in the firm who are experts, those at the top of their game in a specific area of law.
If you’re still not clear ask yourself, when was the last time you or another attorney in your firm received a call from the press regarding input on a story they were working on? When were you last invited to speak by a trade or industry group? When was the last time your work was published? Remember the old axiom of “publish or perish.” Its a critical component in building your firm’s reputation.
Finally, something that I come across all the time particularly in the legal field, don’t confuse public relations with advertising. One is based on building credibility, visibility and reputation through third party endorsements. The other is essentially paying to be seen and heard.
Each tactic has its merits. One thing is for certain, regardless of whether these strategies are implemented by in-house staff and or external agencies, success is dependent on the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing. Otherwise, it will be yet another case of throwing things at the wall and hoping that one of them will stick!
If you have any questions regarding public relations, please e-mail pmahli@suncommunicationsgroup.com or visit www.suncommunicationsgroup.com and I will try to answer on this blog
Comments