From the professional angle, public relations (PR) can be defined as a communication and problem-solving business for the good of an organization or government at any tier and its relevant publics. In other words, it could be to disabuse the minds of the consumers or any other person from false impression on the government or they are holding about a particular brand of a company’s products or combating a major disaster in an organization. Planning in P.R. can also be used to project and protect the activities of government in the federal, state, and local governments. Needless to say that the enormity doesn’t matter, what is necessary is the strategies a professional PR practitioner is able to address the problem.
Consequently, planning is a logical and systematic approach, which PR practitioner needs to adopt in dousing tensions and misunderstanding as well as seeking lasting solutions to both existing and expected problems in any arm of the government and within any organization.
One wrong impression is that many people believed that planning in PR is all about problem solving. This, I think and believe is absolutely wrong because problem-solving enjoys a larger proportion of PR planning skill, that is to say, it is not the only focal point. It is necessary for a Public Relations Executive (PRE) to map out plans and relevant ways either on short-term or long-term basis towards the realization of some necessary objectives.
In PR, planning helps to educate the consumers on the use of a particular product, in other words, promoting the relationship existing between the employers and the employees. This could be adequately achieved by organizing press conferences to keep the press and entire public informed of developments in the organization or making moves to avert any crisis or disaster that might spell doom on the corporate existence of an organization. This could also be applied successfully in the three tiers of government including our numerous churches.
It is abundantly clear that planning in PR is absolutely necessary, If there is no adequate planning, no PR activity can be successful and such organization or government is not only bound to fail but failed woefully, if I may borrow from former President Olusegun Obasanjo while assessing NEPA now PHCN in his first tenure. Professional public relations executives are no fire brigade, and they believed being proactive and not reactive. It is most appropriate to say that they must always be given the opportunity to appreciate a situation before selecting tools to combat whatever problem that might be looming in the organization or government. Only a mad person will allow his house to be completely burnt by fire before calling on his neighbours or fire brigade for assistance.
Planning is absolutely necessary in public relations practice. Lack of strategic thinking and planning can lead to programmes that reinforce controversy rather than solve them and or add confusion instead of clarification to misunderstanding. Planning is all about making tomorrow’s decisions today. Planning in PR involves deciding what must be done.
For the professional PR to do this, he must determine the nature and scope of the work to be performed. He should see priorities, and then prioritize priorities. Determine key resource areas and decide where to invest, time, energy and talent. He should also be able to identify and specify indicators of effectiveness. Set objectives, decide results to be achieved and establish a sequence of action to be followed. Importantly, he should establish timetable for actions to be taken as well as set budget required to reach objectives. There is need also for him to decide who will see to the accomplishment of objectives, that is, accountability. There is also the need for him to test and revise tentative plan and establish rules, regulations that is policy-making. He needs to also establish procedures, determine systematic methods of handling the work. There is a saying that “if you plan well you will be successful”.
Importantly, a good PR programme should cover a full fiscal year. In some big organizations, three to four years planning is necessary. This will make the PR department and entire management a clearer insight into the nature of activities to be executed at a given period.
Finally, the major task of PR in planning especially a programme is to change people. It is not to change them from bad to worse or by feeding them with spurious information with a view to winning them over but rather through education and enlightenment in order to create knowledge and understanding. This task of changing people’s brain of thought and general impression is an uphill task to PR practitioners as it often clashes with self-interest which is more often than not placed first by every individual.
Charles Ikedikwa Soeze, fhnr, fcida, fcai, cpae, son, emba is a Mass
Communication Scholar and Chief Officer (Administration) at the
Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun, Delta State, Nigeria.
(08036724193) charlessoeze@yahoo.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment