Tuesday, October 9, 2012

PR Tools

As we speak for CSR recently, there are view things we must know as a PR. As we know, Public Relations need a media tools for communicating informations. It is a basic needs for PR and it is important to be familiar with the tools available for PR.

The types of key tools available to carryout the public relations function include:
  • Media Relations
  • Media Tours
  • Newsletters
  • Special Events
  • Speaking Engagements
  • Sponsorships
  • Employee Relations
  • Community Relations and Philanthropy

Media Relations

Historically the core of public relations, media relations, includes all efforts to publicize products or the company to members of the press — TV and Radio, newspaper, magazine, newsletter and Internet. In garnering media coverage, PR professionals work with the media to place stories about products, companies and company spokespeople. This is done by developing interesting and relevant story angles that are pitched to the media. It is important to remember that media placements come with good stories and no payment is made to the media for placements. In fact, in order to maintain the highest level of credibility, many news organizations bar reporters from accepting even the smallest gifts (e.g., free pencils with product logo) from companies.
Key tools used in media relations include:
  • Press Kits - Include written information such as a news release, organization background, key spokesperson biographies and other supporting materials that provide information useful to reporters.
  • Audio or Video News Releases - These are prerecorded features distributed to news media that may be included within media programming. For instance, a local news report about amusement parks may include portions of a video news release from a national amusement park company.
  • Matte Release - Some media, especially small local newspapers, may accept articles written by companies often as filler material when their publication lacks sufficient content. PR professionals submit matte releases through syndicated services (i.e., services that supply content to many media outlets) or directly to targeted media via email, fax or snail mail.
  • Website Press Room - While hard copies of materials are used and preferred by some media, marketers are well served by an online press room that caters to media needs and provides company contact information.
As PR people know, many story ideas for newspapers, magazines and television news often start with a suggestion from a PR person. If things work out, a reporter or editor will, at best, write a positive story with the company as a key feature or, at minimum, include the company’s name somewhere within an industry-focused article.

Media Tour

Some new products can be successfully publicized when launched with a media tour. On a media tour a company spokesperson travels to key cities to introduce a new product by being booked on TV and radio talk shows and conducting interviews with print and Internet reporters or influencers (e.g., bloggers). The spokesperson can be a company employee or someone hired by the company, perhaps a celebrity or "expert" who has credibility with the target audience. One common use of the media tour is the book tour, where an author travels the country to promote a newly released book. A media tour may include other kinds of personal appearances in conjunction with special events, such as public appearances, speaking engagements or autograph signing opportunities.

Newsletters

Marketers who have captured names and addresses of customers and potential customers can use a newsletter for regular contact with their targeted audience. Newsletters can be directed at trade customers, final consumers or business buyers and can be distributed either by regular mail or electronic means (i.e., e-newsletters delivered via email or rss feed). Marketers using newsletters strive to provide content of interest to customers as well as information on products and promotions. A bookstore may include reviews of new books, information on online book chats and information on in-store or online promotions. A food manufacturer may include seasonal recipes, information on new products and coupons. Online newsletters offer the opportunity to link to stores carrying the marketer's products. Effective newsletters are sought out by and well received by interested audiences.

Special Events

These run the gamut from receptions to elegant dinners to stunts. Special events can be designed to reach a specific narrow target audience, such as individuals interested in college savings plans to major events like a strawberry festival designed to promote tourism and regional agriculture. Stunts, such as building the world’s largest ice cream sundae during National Ice Cream month captures the attention of an audience in the immediate area, but also attracts the attention of mass media such as TV news and major newspapers, which provide broad reach. The Oscar Mayer Weiner mobile is a classic example, providing a recognizable icon that travels the country garnering attention wherever it visits. As with all PR programs, special event planners must work hard to ensure the program planned conveys the correct message and image to the target audience.

Speaking Engagements

Speaking before industry conventions, trade association meetings, and other groups provides an opportunity for company experts to demonstrate their expertise to potential clients/customers. Generally these opportunities are not explicitly for company or product promotion; rather they are a chance to talk on a topic of interest to potential customers and serve to highlight the speaker’s expertise in a field. Often the only mention of the company or its products is in the speaker biography. Nevertheless, the right speaking engagement puts the company in front of a good target audience and offers networking opportunities for generating customer leads.

Sponsorships

Companies and brands use sponsorships to help build goodwill and brand recognition by associating with an event or group. Marketers can examine sponsorship opportunities to find those that reach target groups, fit within a specified budget and provide sponsorship benefits that suit the marketer’s objectives. There are numerous local, regional, national and international sponsorship opportunities ranging from a local art center or theatre to the Olympics. Most organizations seeking company sponsors provide information on the variety of sponsorship levels which include data on event audience, exposure opportunities, which can include signage, T-shirts, public announcements and numerous other opportunities, receptions and much more. Marketers can use this information to help match sponsorship opportunities with the company’s objectives.

Employee Relations

For many companies communicating regularly with employees is important in keeping employees informed of corporate programs, sales incentives, personnel issues, as well as keeping them updated on new products and programs. Companies use a variety of means to communicate with employees, including Intranet, email, online and print newsletters. In larger firms an in-house PR department often works in conjunction with the Human Resources Department to develop employee communications.

Community Relations and Philanthropy

For many companies fostering good relations with key audiences includes building strong relationships with their regional community. Companies implement programs supportive of the community ranging from supporting local organizations and institutions (e.g., arts organizations, community activities, parks) to conducting educational workshops (e.g., for teachers, parents) to donating product for community events and charitable fundraisers. The goal is generally to develop a positive relationship with members of the community (i.e., be known as a good neighbor). Effective community relations can help a company weather bad publicity or a crisis situation that can unexpectedly arise due to a problem with a product, unethical behavior by management, or even by false rumors. Some companies also make an effort to contribute to charitable organizations, often organizations that have some relationship to the company’s mission or to a key principal of the company.

Source: http://www.knowthis.com (access: Okt, 2012)






Employee Relation and CSR

Employee Relations is "The maintenance of employee/employer relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivate employees and ensure healthy employee morale.  This is generally the representation of an organization's management to inform or motivate employees through training, award programs, rewards, internal communications, or other events. 

For many companies communicating regularly with employees is important in keeping employees informed of corporate programs, sales incentives, personnel issues, as well as keeping them updated on new products and programs. Companies use a variety of means to communicate with employees, including Intranet, email, online and print newsletters. In larger firms an in-house PR department often works in conjunction with the Human Resources Department to develop employee communications.

Employee Relations is one of the function of PR in a Company.Recently, many companies are developing their employee relations plans to help increase the morale and productivities of their Employee. There are several factor that can influences employees  morale and productivities (Fujita and Miura, 2009) :
  1. Understanding - Employee must understand the all aspect of the company and in turn, the leaders of the company must have a good understanding of their employee. In this case, a PR can be a mediator.
  2. Apreciation & Recognition - People often leave an employer because they have not received the recognition they want, or feedback on how they are doing. One of the way to communicate appreciation to your employee is through a regular internal newsletter or special event.
  3. Involvment - Many individuals want to feel the essensial to the success of their company and in order to do so, they should feel free to make suggestions to their managers. Not only giving suggestions or idea. The employee involvment to the company program is also important. 
  4. Compensation - Employee need to feel they well compensated, which means having salary and benefits consistent with or better than other people doing similar place.
  5. Management Loyalty - Manager must treat employees as they would expect to be treated, and they must lead by wxample.
  6. Work Environtment - Employee are happier and more productive when the physical location of their workplace is clean, comfortable and pleasant.
  7. Social Responsibility - People judge firms from their philosophy and level of customer service, their involvment in community activities, and their commitment to moral, environmental and even political issues. Nowadays, employees are concerned about wheter the values of the company for which they work are compatible with their personal viewpoints. 
From the factors below, we can conclude that Employee Relations are very important for the company. And on of the factors that could affect the employees is Social Responsibility.


EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) frequently evokes thoughts of the environtment, engaging with social community and shareholders, and issues ranging from pollution to fairness and ethics. Employee are frequently engaged in delivering project or working in partnership with others to help their local community. Nowadays, the recognition and the imperative need for increasing employee engagement has raised. CSR initiatives are not any different. The company may chart out a policy, draw up a plan, and invest funds, but it needs complete endorsement and active participation by employees to carry it forward and implement it as perceived.

Employees are among the key stakeholders for any of the CSR strategy or program. The critical first step in the mission, vision, values and strategy development is to understand the key concerns, priorities, and perspective of all key stakeholders, particularly employees. Employees who were consulted and engaged in the development of new programs and approaches are likelier to follow through with their implementation. Many companies or organizations consult and engage their employees in the development and like mentioned before, delivered to their community involvement and charitable donations programs. 

It is expected that as CSR becomes an acknowledged component of employee engagement and therefore driver of business value,CSR alignment will become a more critical tool for fostering corporate success over time. Nowadays, the CSR program has been proved to impact the employee engagement. It is a key driver of shareholder value in a firm and is becoming a key metric for monitoring corporate performance by Board and management. The level of employee engagement are evolving to several levels (Melcrum, 2006): 
  • “I’m aware of the message” -  in which employees are familiar with the CSR strategy and how it helps the company meet its objectives
  • “I understand the message” - wherein employees learn the reasons behind the company’sCSR objectives and begin to understand their role in making the company successful. 
  • “I believe” - where employees feel conviction towards the company’s CSR values and objectives.
  • “I am committed to act” -  Those employees who are and feel their basic job needs are being met and who achieve this level, will be inspired to act in ways that help the company reach its goals.
This is employee CSR engagement at the most engaged level – employees helped to align their total work experience with their community and home values become highly engaged, motivated and loyal employees. 
In addition to ensuring employees are included in key decisions, an employee CSR involvement and participation program can help develop the employee value proposition that can foster retention and enhance recruitment.  It is important not to miss this step as organizations that fail to engage their employees in key decisions and in their CSR embedment will generate low employee engagement resulting in employees that either quit and leave or quit and stay.

Sources:
Melcrum, Employee Engagement. 2006. Melcrum Publishing. (in http://www.ic.gc.ca) Access: Oct, 2012
Vembu, Renuka. Article: Engaging Employee in CSR. 2001. Indian Express Newspapper. (in http://www.expresscomputeronline.com) Access: Oct, 2012
Fujita and Miura, Blog Article: Get Great Employee Relations. 2009. in http://www.yourpubliciswaiting.com Access: Oct, 2012

Monday, October 8, 2012

Community Relation

As we speak about Corporate Social Responsibility Program, automatically we also talking about Community Relations. There is a reason for this statement, CSR is closed to the community especially for Public around the company environment. There are a lot of CSR programs made for community. 

Building local community relationships can be the most important communication activity undertaken by an organisation, yet it is often overlooked. Community relations refers to the various methods companies use to establish and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the communities in which they operate. The underlying principal of community relations is that when a company accepts its civic responsibility and takes an active interest in the well-being of its community, then it gains a number of long-term benefits in terms of community support, loyalty, and good will.

There are several activities can be used as a tool with an effective communication strategy and PR plan, can be highly effective in raising awareness of your business within your community:
  1. Media relations
  • In a community relations program, it is very important to build relationships with key journalists from the local media outlets. By doing this, you have an already established rapport with them which could be of a huge benefit in times of crisis.
      2. Sponsorship
  • This could mean, for example, sponsoring a local event (community day or fair), donating new sports equipment to the local soccer club or donating a prize to the local schools speech night. This type of sponsorship is reasonably inexpensive yet can be capitalised on to make a great local newspaper story.
     3. Business and community groups
  • An increased involvement in key business groups should also be introduced as part of the promotional activities. This involvement will help create visibility of your organisation within a business and community audience, therefore increasing the chances of developing strategic partnerships with other local businesses and groups. There could also be an opportunity for cross promotion in the business groups' members' newsletters, publications or website. 
From those activity, as a PR we must get involve in it.


What is The Differences between CSR and Community Relations?
Community relations is a PR (Public Relations) function, which means it's essentially marketing the company to the community it operates in. Social responsibility has nothing to do with marketing (not that it can't or won't be marketed and used by a company seeking to enhance its community relations). CSR is about doing things that actually make the community better or at the least don't harm society, such as environmentally friendly products, cleaning up any toxic pollution the company produces, or contributing to schools.

Types of Community Relations Program is various. According to Norman R. Soderberg in his book Public Relations for the Entrepreneur and the Growing Business, small businesses can become involved in their communities in any number of ways. Some recommended routes toward increasing community involvement include: taking an active interest in community problems; sponsoring youth activities; participating in local government; joining business and service groups; purchasing materials and supplies from local companies; encouraging community education and culture; making offices or other facilities available to community organizations; supporting local charity drives; and taking part in civic activities. 

Soderberg stresses that for a small business, community relations should involve more than just an annual contribution to the United Way. Instead, the small business owner should become personally involved in the effort, and should encourage employees to participate as well. A company's employees should try to represent it well in all their interactions—from practicing good manners on the road while driving company vehicles to treating customers and even visiting salespeople with courtesy. In order to motivate employees to be good company representatives, small business owners should take whatever steps are needed to boost morale. These might include maintaining an open-door policy, setting up a complaint box, or recognizing employees who are helping the community.


Corporate Social Responsibility and Public Relations

There is no universal definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), because the concept is always being redefined to serve changing needs and times. It is up to each company individually to define the values and principles it stands for. The fundamental of CSR remain the same everywhere, different emphases are found in different parts of the world. The issues vary in nature and importance from industry to industry and location to location. 

The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility means that organizations have moral, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities in addition to their responsibilities to earn a fair return for investors and comply with the law. CSR is related to business ethic, but it is not identical. While CSR encompasses the economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary responsibilities of organizations, business ethics usually focuses on the moral judgments and behavior of individuals and groups within organizations. 


There are eight-step program for CSR Issues Management (Ogilvy PR, 2012):
  • Identification: What issues could arise either because of the client's industry or its scale?
  • Prioritization/classification: Which of these issues could cause significant damage to the client's reputation or business operations if not managed effectively?
  • Monitoring: How is this issue evolving, on a monthly or even daily basis?
  • Preparation: How can we anticipate the course of this evolution and devise an action plan?
  • Action to influence issue: What steps can we take to change the course of an issue's progression?
  • Issue/crisis response: If the issue developed into a crisis that threatened the company's ability to conduct business, how would we react?
  • Evaluation: Did we respond effectively to the issue, preventing its emergence as a crisis? What lessons were learned?
  • Re-classification: Has the issue lessened in severity over time? Is it still a concern moving forward?
If we look further, there will be a question "What is the relationship between CSR and Public Relations?"
We can answer this question in short : CSR is a blessing for PR but also a curse for PR. It is a matter of which come first and what is the intention. 

Public Relations is vehicle for a company. If the CSR program done properly, PR could show the progress of they are making, or what the world may not know about them. Done improperly, PR is publishing the "sins" of the company to the public. True CSR guides the company away from making the “sins” or mitigating them in the first place.

Company who do not understand CSR is about business sustainability as much as social program, often make the mistake of CSR a marketing of PR program/problems. PR should lightly handle CSR initiatives until the CSR program has momentum and there is something to actually celenbrate and brag about. In CSR, it is not good for PR to celebrate decency and expected behavior. PR should let the public know about the existence of the CSR program, there will be a report, and some of the program are under development, or highlight historical CSR efforts. But the report on the activities is not out of proportion to the other activities of the company.

CSR program takes time to mature and years to yield significant, sustainable result though quite often are substantial change that occur the first year. The true test of sustainability and a company committed to CSR is history of improvement and performance. Unfortunately these initial documents tend to be fodder for PR and Marketing departments, which in their need for short term results and fantastic figures tend to overstate or understate the findings as they try to make the company look good. In CSR, however, the proof is in the year-to-year changes, the response from stakeholders, the integrity of the companies actions and words (Rochte, 2009)

CSR is about smart business practices. It is about constant improvement and integrity. PR is about reporting on the events as they occur or showcasing a history of events and trending. The danger is when the showcasing precedes the actual work.

The foundation of the relationship between an organization and its various publics depends upon whether that organization behaves responsibly. If it does, then its relationships will have a solid foundation; if it does not, those relationships will be incredibly difficult to sustain. I’d go so far as to suggest that an organization can’t have good PR without good CSR.
CSR benefits for a company is because it leads to improved relationships with many publics: employees are more motivated because the company has a purpose beyond the enrichment of shareholders and senior executives; customers are more loyal because they see an organization that shares their values; legislators and regulators are more favorably disposed because they see an organization contributing to the greater good; and so on.
In a well-run organization, CSR and PR are symbiotic, inseparable. In a company that’s truly committed to both, they’re synonymous (Holmes, 2011)

Source:
Goodwin, Felicity W. and Bartlett, Jennifer L. (2008) Public Relations and 
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - Working Paper.

Holmes, Paul. (2011) PR and CSR: symbiotic, inseparable, and synonymous - Blog Article (http://blog.holmesreport.com) access: Oct, 2012

Rohce, Mattew. 2009. (http://www.opportunitysustainability.com) Access: Oct, 2012

http://www.ogilvypr.com Access: Oct, 2012