What do PR people do in the meantime?

David A. Meeker
Reprinted from O’Dwyers Public Relations Journal

For the good, effective public relations professional, there aren’t many “in the
meantimes.” But, in between emergencies, we spend time preventing emergencies which
grow out of poor communication and spend the rest of our time building relationships
that pay bottom-line dividends to our organizations or clients.
Here are some of the things we do when we aren’t just “hanging around”:

Help you talk with your employees — Helping each employee understand
where he or she fits in the organization, what is expected of them and how
they can grow and prosper in their job. This might include explaining the
sexual harassment policy, the value of participating in the 401K, what
ISO9000 means to the company’s future sales, or where the company is
headed. If this is done well, you can measure the results by looking at
productivity, absenteeism, turnover, and successful recruiting.

Market your products – Using vehicles ranging from the Internet to the
daily newspaper, this function helps consumers understand that the company
is the kind of organization that deserves their business — committed to selling
quality products at fair prices. Whether it involves introducing new products,
communicating on the success of a product, or handling a product recall, this
aspect of public relations is an integral part of the marketing program.

Get to know your neighbors — A community unhappy about the way your
operations affect it can make life miserable for your organization and your
people. Building a reservoir of goodwill in the community will make it much
easier to get community understanding of your activities. Ask Goodyear what
that community support meant when it was faced with a takeover. From
environmental matters to reductions in the workforce, life is easier with a
sympathetic community. And employees feel better about working for an
organization which practices good corporate citizenship.

Make friends in high places — Ignoring what government is up to — at all
levels — can put an organization in peril. On the flip side, understanding
government and how to work in partnership with it can pay real dividends.
Every area of activity is vulnerable to government intrusion — from taxes to
consumer regulations to human resource issues. Demonstrating a willingness
to support necessary and thoughtful regulation while opposing onerous
government activity is essential to business success. And it is not a function
to be turned over wholesale to the lawyers.

Earn investors’ trust — There is abundant evidence that good communication
to shareholders and investors can have a positive impact on share price. No
matter how good a company’s game plan and prospects for success, they’re of
no value in encouraging investment if they are not clearly and frequently
communicated. Just as in building a reservoir of community support, having
shareholders who understand and support the direction that management is
taking a company can be of great benefit when a company encounters the
inevitable potholes on the road to success.

Work with the media — Any organization in the public eye will find itself
the subject of print and electronic media coverage. In many cases, the media
are an invaluable means of getting your messages to your important publics –
your customers, shareholders, neighbors, and so on. But in many other cases,
the media will cast a critical eye on your organization, your industry, or your
products. Those stories will be published or broadcast with or without your
participation. Only with your participation is there a likelihood that your
version of the story will be told. You simply cannot expect to be depicted
accurately in the news media unless you work to ensure accuracy. No one
knows your story as well as you do.

In the meantime — when the public relations professional is not helping to strengthen
your employee base, market your product, keep your neighbors happy, stay in touch with
City Hall, boost your stock, and help you get accurate news coverage — your public
relations staff should be an instrument of change, helping to prepare you to live in a much
different world in the years ahead. By carefully monitoring the world around you,
including your competitors, the public relations professional can keep you in harmony
with the chorus of change.

At the same time, it is the public relations professional, as much as anyone in the
organization, who should seek to maintain basic standards and hold the organization true
to its commitments, to be, in effect, a conscience. That’s what you might call being fully
utilized.