APR Exam 2

Proactive strategies

Organization takes initiative to engage publics based on timing that fits organization’s interests & resources.

Reactive Strategy

Organization responds to influences from its environment.

Implementation of strategy

(Message/Content + Medium)

Strategy

an organization’s overall plan

Tactics

are the specific communication vehicles to implement the strategy

Action-focused strategy

Tangible deeds undertaken by organization to achieve its objectives (pro-active)

Organizational performance

focus on quality of organization’s goods and services (consumer values, adaptation) (action-focused)

Audience engagement

strong two-way tactics to connect with publics (interest, participation, feedback, triggering event) (action-focused)

Special events

planned activities created so that organizations can interact with their publics (staged activity & photo op vs. publicity stunt) (action-focused)

Alliances, coalitions, & partnerships

relationships among organizations to accomplish tasks (action-focused)

Alliance

an informal, loosely structured, and perhaps small working relationship among organizations, based on shared concerns and supporting mutual interests. Allied organizations agree to cooperate while remaining independent.

Coalition

a more formal and structured relationship among organizations, usually focused on doing some action. May disband when that purpose is achieved.

Partnership

a legal, contractual relationship among organizations to accomplish one or more tasks. Sometimes result in a merger among organizations, particularly those with a business orientation.

Sponsorships

for community relations that involves either creating a program directly, or providing financial, personnel, or other resources for an outside program (proactive)

Niche marketing

An approach to marketing and public relations intended to shore up an organization’s relationship with consumers.

Strategic philanthropy

the process by which business fund or otherwise support community relations gestures with an eye toward enhancing their own business interests as well as the interests of their employees and customers (action)
a) Give more bang for the buck. Provide something more valuable to others than it costs you.
b) Give what you already own.
c) Maximize your investment

Corporate social responsibility

the aspect of community relations and strategic philanthropy in which an organization contributes to the betterment of society, creating an ongoing process to produce a positive social impact.
should be the result of business decisions, not emotion. It’s less about charity and more about positioning the organization to constructively engage its publics, particularly consumers, and ultimately to make money.

Volunteerism

a corporate policy of encouraging and rewarding employees in projects that contribute to a better quality of life in a community (action) (employee participation in community)

Activism

a confrontational strategy focused on persuasive communication; draws on advocacy model of public relations (action)

Advocates

are vocal proponents for causes

Activists

are more inclined to act out their support for the cause

Communication

A category that includes publicity, newsworthy information, generating news, news pegs, and transparent communication (proactive)

Publicity

the aspect of communication strategy that involves the attention given by the news media to an organization, person, event, product, or idea. (proactive)

Third party endorsement

the concept referring to the added credibility that comes with the endorsement of an organization’s message by an outside and unbiased agent, such as a journalist. (proactive)

Media credibility

particularly the gatekeeper, the media person (such as editor, blogger, news director, producer, or webmaster) who controls the flow of information in earned media (proactive)

News

information that offers the audience a new idea, or the latest development, or other previously unknown information important to the audience

Newsworthy information

Significance, Local, Balance, Timely

Significance

First, news is information of importance and impact. It has meaning to many people, even those beyond the organization.

Local

News also deals with information relevant to the local area, defined by the coverage area of medium featuring the information, or to a specialized audience.

Balance

News is information with objectivity and balance. While practitioners use information to promote the organization or client, it should not be presented merely in a promotional manner. Rather, it should have an air of detachment and neutrality

Timely

The final key ingredient in news is that it is current, connected with contemporary issues, especially those high on public and media agendas.

Why news publicity is important?

• Publicity, attention given by the news media to an organization, perceived as more credible because of the nature of unpaid, third-party endorsement
• The news media tell us what to think about
• Issues that the media choose to report can raise them as topics of publics’ interests

Who decides news?

• Journalists as Gatekeepers and Agenda Setters.
• PR Practitioners as Information providers

Accountable

Providing complete and inclusive information

Participative

Encouraging active participation in information seeking, acquiring, and transmitting processes

Substantial

Providing accurate, reliable, timely, and easy to understand information

Reactive Strategies

Respond to negative influences from an organization’s environment (e.g., accusations, criticisms, natural disasters, workplace violence)

goal of Reactive Strategies

To protect organizational identity from internal/external threats, gain public understanding, maintain or restore reputation, and rebuild trust and support

Pre-emptive

Prebuttal
o Announcing its own bad news before target publics or competitors raise a concern
o Attempt to control over news coverage: The first telling of the story becomes normative, and other later versions are considered in light of the first account (reactive)

when to use premptive strategies

only (1) when bad news is inevitable and (2) when the organization has strong evidence to excuse its behavior. Disadvantage: generate more of an audience for the issue than it might otherwise have garnered

When can Offensive Response Strategies be used?

The organization is operating from a position of strength in the face of opposition.

attack

targets accusers, to question the credibility of the source of the accusations or to accusers of their maliciousness for causing the organization’s wrongdoing.

shock

lessening accusers’ influences by revealing their unethical behavior or sensational events.

threat

The harm may be in the form of defamation

Denial Defensive Response Strategies

o Refuses to accept blame (reactive)
o Best to use the strategy of denial only when – the case can be proven that the organization did no wrongdoing.
o strategy can backfire if the organization is responsible

Excuse Defensive Response Strategies

Minimize its responsibility for the harm or wrongdoing. Lack of control, accident, and victimization

Diversionary Response Strategies

Goal: Attempt to shift people’s attention away from the criticism.
o Relabeling: Replacing a negative label perceived by the public
o Disassociation: Distancing the organization from wrongdoing associated with it

Vocal Commiseration Strategies Concern/Condolence

Organization expresses grief or empathy to a problem without admitting guilt

Vocal Commiseration Strategies Apology

o Admits sorrow and accepts responsibility
o Use when the organization is clearly fault and when long-term rebuilding of relationship is vital.
o What, Whom, How, When

Rectifying Behavior Strategies investigation

o Promises to examine the situation and then to fix it accordingly (short-time strategy → buying time)
o Use the investigation strategy only when the facts are uncertain enough.

Rectifying Behavior Strategies corrective strategy

o Repair the damage and prevent the recurrence of the situation
o generally is expected when the organization has been at fault

Rectifying Behavior Strategies Compensation/Restitution

Mends the situation by compensating victims or restoring earlier condition

Rectifying Behavior Strategies Repentance

o The strongest type
o Demonstrates full atonement and becoming an advocate to prevent the recurrence of the situation
o Apology + Corrective action

Reactive Strategies

• Pre-emptive Action
• Offensive Response
• Defensive Response
• Diversion Response
• Vocal Commiseration
• Rectifying Behavior

PESO Model

paid media, earned media, shared media, owned media

Paid media

Media purchased by the organization

Earned media

Message written about an organization voluntarily by third parties and published on media channels that the organization does not own (Journalism-based information is a form of earned media)

Shared media

Involve user-generated messages that are shared on a social media network

Owned media

Communication venues that are controlled by an organization (e.g., timing, packaging, distribution, and audience access)

PESO model tactic pyramid

reflects the relationship between the size of the audience that each category can reach and the impact they can have on that audience

print media

media delivered primarily through print vehicles, such as newspapers and magazines - earned

electronic media

media delivered primarily through electronic vehicles, such as television and radio - earned

Benefits of earned media

Wide reach; No cost/low cost; Credibility, power of third-party endorsement – added credibility that comes with the endorsement of an outside and unbiased agent such as reporter or editor

Media Use and Credibility

• People get news from all kinds of media
• But they turn to radio and print publications far less than digital devices and television

Attracting Publicity

• Publicity through news releases is more powerful and valuable than advertising.
• Publicity is “earned”; advertising is bought. There’s a big credibility difference.
• Publicity costs only the time and effort expanded by public relations personnel and
management in conceiving, creating, and attempting to place the publicity effort in the media.
• Publicity, which appears in news rather than in advertising columns, carries the implicit third- party endorsement of the news source that reports it.
– In other words, publicity is perceived not as the sponsoring organization’s self-serving view but as the view of the objective, unbiased, neutral, impartial news source.

Announcing a new product or service - value of publicity

Publicity can be regarded as news, It should be used before advertising commences.

Reenergizing an old product - value of publicity

When a product has been around for a while, it is difficult to make people pay attention to advertising. Therefore, publicity techniques – staged events, sponsorships – may pay off the rejuvenate a mature produc

Explaining a complicated product - value of publicity

Often, there’s no enough room in an advertisement to explain a product or service. Insurance companies which offer products that demand thoughtful explanation, may find advertising space too limiting

Little or no budget. - value of publicity

To make an impact, advertising requires frequency. But when an organization or individual can’t afford the significant sums that advertising demands, seeking publicity is the desired course.

Enhancing the organization’s reputation - value of publicity

Advertising is, at its base, self-serving

Crisis response. - value of publicity

publicity techniques are the fastest and most credible means of response.

Pitching

The activity of trying to place positive publicity in a periodical, on a news site, or in the electronic media—of converting publicity to news. Traditionally, public relations people do this for journalists through mail

Be time sensitive. - pitching publicity

News events should be scheduled, whenever possible, to accommodate news deadlines.

Generally write first then call. - pitching publicity

Reporters are busiest close to deadline time, which is late afternoon for morning newspapers and early afternoon for local television news. Thus, it’s preferable to e-mail news releases first, rather than trying to explain them over the telephone.

Direct the release to a specific person or editor. - pitching publicity

Newspapers are divided into departments; bloggers have specialties: business, sports, style, …

Determine how the reporter wants to be contacted. - pitching publicty

E-mail? Call? Tweet? Treat them as the client!

Direct news subsidy

information presented to the media in ready-to-use formats, such as news releases, News brief, Event listing, Fact sheet, feature releases, and Interview notes.

Fact sheet

brief (one page) outline of bulleted items about a newsworthy event

News release

news-style article written by a PR professional and given to media gatekeepers for verbatim use or as background information

news brief

a two- or three- paragraph article that provides the information of the summary lead of a news release

Event listing

(community calendar listing) – notice for media about an upcoming event

Interview note

a verbatim transcript of an interview with an organizational news source done by the PR writer in question-and-answer format

Feature release

focuses on background on the news; types include biography, history of the organization, backgrounder (on an issue), question-answer piece, and service “how to” article

Photo with caption

a short account of a newsworthy event with a photo - direct subsidy

Audio news release

an edited story package that public relations writers offer to radio journalists (30 to 60 seconds long) - direct subsidy

Video news release

a news release written and produced specifically for television stations, presented as an edited story package (30 to 90 seconds long) direct subsidy

Social media release

direct subsidy an earned media vehicle intended for blogs, websites, and other online uses - direct subsidy

Media kit

a collection of items such as news releases, fact sheets, feature releases, photos, and graphics that can be presented to journalists who attend news conferences; often delivered to invited reporters who fail to attend - Direct News Subsidies

Online newsroom

a comprehensive set of web pages within a website that provides resources for journalists (e.g., news releases, social media releases, transmedia news packages, fact sheets, photo gallery, executive bios, organizational histories, audio and video material) - Direct News Subsidies

Indirect news subsidy

information presented for media guidance but not meant to be published or aired.

Media advisory (a.k.a. media alert)

a brief note given to media gatekeepers; informs them of upcoming news opportunities including photo opportunities (news media can photograph public figures, usually without asking questions), news conferences, or newsworthy activities - indirect news subsidy

Story idea memo (a.k.a. tip sheet)

informal, for media gatekeepers; PR professionals suggest available interview subjects that can be developed by the newsmedia outlet’s reporters - indirect news subsidy

Query letter

written to editors or broadcasters proposing a story and inquiring about their interest; commonly used by freelance writers but also some public relations professionals - indirect news subsidy

Opinion subsidy

use of the news media by public relations professionals to present an organization’s opinion.

Position statement (a.k.a. white paper

a type of opinion material used by organizations to analyze issues and present formal opinions on issues of public policy - opinion subsidy

Letter to the editor

use to announce items that don’t make it into the news columns, to advocate a cause, or to correct errors in published report - opinion subsidy

Interactive Media Engagement

allow public relations practitioners to interact with journalists

News interview

a session in which journalists ask questions and public relations professional or organizational spokespersons respond. Usually one-on-one question-and-answer sessions; resulting news stories are published in print and online newspapers or aired on radio or television newscasts -Interactive Media Engagement

Public affairs program

a radio or television program in which journalists interview community newsmakers about a particular topic; generally 30 minutes or one hour long. Such programming fulfills Federal Communications Commission requirements to act as public trustees and keep station licenses - interactive media engagement

News conference

a hybrid of speech and group interview used to announce important news to reporters and to engage their questions. Use to announce major news, to serve media interests when a prominent newsmaker is available for only a short time, or to avoid accusations of playing favorites among reporters. - interactive media engagement