DEPARTMENT OF

INFORMATION STUDIES

PUBLIC RELATIONS (INFS 325) LECTURER: DR. MUSAH ADAMS

godsonug.wordpress.com/blog

There are many different types of PR

programmes, from long-term perception

changing and awareness raising to short-term

product launches and events.

Planning Public Relations

Regardless of the type of programme, all require good

planning to focus effort, improve effectiveness,

encourage a long-term view within the organization,

reduce the chances of mishaps, manage conflicting

priorities and keep the campaign proactive.

CONT.

A well-planned programme also helps to

demonstrate value for money.

The effectiveness of public relations depends on

planning.

Planning is determining the best way to accomplish

whatever you want to do or to get wherever you

want to be.

CONT.

In public relations, planning is simply identifying

with whom you want to have a relationship, what

you want from that relationship and what you can

do to achieve it.

A public relations plan helps maintain self-discipline

as well as being an excellent information tool.

CONT.

1. Planning focuses effort by eliminating unnecessary and

low-priority work

2. Planning improves effectiveness by ensuring the planner

works to achieve agreed objectives from the outset

3. Planning encourages the long-term view by requiring the

planner to look to the organization’s future needs,

preparing it for change and helping it manage future risks

IMPORTANCE OF PR PLANNING

4. Planning assists pro-activity, that is, setting the

agenda means planners can be proactive and

ready to be on the move

5. Planning reconciles conflicts

6. Planning minimizes mishaps

7. Planning demonstrates value for money

CONT.

1. Lack of time

2. Plans are out of date as soon as they are

written

3. Planning raises unrealistic managerial

expectations

REASONS WHY PR PRACTITIONERS ARE RELUCTANT TO PLAN

4. Plans are too rigid and stifle the impromptu

and opportunistic

5. Plans are a block to creativity

6. Plans always reflect the ideal, not the real

CONT.

A public relations planning is both strategic and

tactical.

Strategic plans are long-range plans while

tactical plans develop specific decisions about

what will be done at every level of the

organization

The planning is ordered and enables the PR

practitioner to structure their approach around certain

key aspects which should answer these six basic

questions:

1. What is the problem?

2. What does the plan seek to achieve?

3. Who should be talked to?

4. What should be said?

5. How should the message be communicated?

6. How is success to be judged?

Marston provided one of the best known planning

formulae for public relations which is encapsulated in

the mnemonic RACE

R - Research

A - Action

C - Communication

E - Evaluation

1. Appreciation of the situation

2. Definition of objectives

3. Definition of publics

4. Selection of media and techniques

5. Planning a budget

6. Assessment of results

SIX-POINT PLANNING MODEL

This stage seeks to gather knowledge about the

current state of affairs in the archives/information

centres, and is helpful as it makes it possible to

establish the institution’s current strengths,

weaknesses and potential.

Your analysis of the situation is the crucial beginning to

the process

1. APPRECIATION OF THE SITUATION

It is imperative that all involve-planners, clients,

supervisors, key colleagues and the ultimate decision

makers are in solid agreement about the nature of the

opportunity or obstacle to be addressed in this program

It also helps to get a feel of the publics’ attitudes

towards the institution, thereby providing a basis to

gauge the impression of the institutions’ public image.

Furthermore by analysing the organization

involves a careful and candid look at three

aspects of the organization:

1. Its internal environment

2. Its public perception

3. Its external environment

In short, the situation analysis helps answer the

question “Where are we now?” enabling planners

to work out strategies of reaching the desired

destination. The situation analysis could be carried

out through a number of ways, including:

1. Desk research

2. Personal contacts

3. Press and media monitoring

4. Opinion/image research, which involves getting

the opinion of the people

5. Reflective thinking

6. Questioning

7. Listening to what people say

8. Observing

9. Studying

This situation analysis helps obtain useful

information, which will enable staff of any

organization such as the archives/information

centres to effect the PR transfer process, changing

negative to more positive ones:

Hostility – Sympathy Prejudice – Acceptance Apathy – Interest Ignorance - Knowledge

PR means establishing a mutual understanding

between an organization and its publics. At no time is

this more important than when dealing directly with

people, be the staff or public

Public relations plans/programs must define objectives

against which results can be measured

2. SETTING OBJECTIVES

This requires the organization to specify their

goals or aims

The objectives outlined in the PR plan should

comply with the mission statement or the

construction

Public Relation is used to address several broad

objectives including:

1. Building Product Awareness

2. Creating Interest

3. Providing Information

4. Stimulating Demand

5. Reinforcing the Brand

PR objectives for archives/information centres could be:

1. To create awareness and use of archives/information

centres amongst parents stakeholders

2. To increase awareness, change attitudes and promote

your information services to your peers

3. To influence favourably public opinion and attitudes

towards archives/information centres by informing

various audience about the collection, services and

programs

4. To build confidence in the services that

archives/information centres provide

5. To position the archives/information centres as one of

the institution’s key facilities

6. To justify or seek an increase in staffing and resources –

budgets that will enhance learning/research

opportunities for students, researchers and staff

7. To promote reading to students

8. To publicize the archives/information centres via

media coverage of events such as author visits

or Book Week, commemoration of national

events, etc

9. To encourage library donations via the

fundraising body in your school

Communication and public relations are directed at

audiences and stakeholders or publics

The publics are not homogenous and they may have

different interests and concerns

It is for that reason that practitioners need to target PR

programmes at identifiable publics in order to have

successful campaigns

3. DEFINITION OF PUBLICS

This is indeed the third stage of the PR planning process

Definitions differ on precisely what constitutes a public

One definition states that a public arises when a group of

people:

a. Face a similar indeterminate situation

b. Recognize what is indeterminate and problematic in that

situation

c. Organize to do something about the problem

Another definition states that a public is a group

of people with a stake in an issue, organization

or idea; a group of people who share a common

interest in a specific subject – stockholders,

employees, community residents

Yet another definition states that Publics are

those groups of people, internally and externally

with whom an organization communicates

Each organization has its own special publics with

whom it has to communicate internally and

externally