I remember staying in a New South Wales country town a few years ago with a friend who was the local GP. When he faced the prospect of going around the street to pick up the Sunday night fish and chips, he asked me to go into the shop as the proprietor always wanted a free consultation about his bad back.
I sometimes feel like that when I am cornered at a social function with the question ‘How do I start a PR program for my business?’
I usually ask: What are you trying to achieve, because PR is always objective driven.
OK, that is all straight forward but when it comes to what do you do first, invariably the first objective is to build ‘awareness and visibility’, because if the target audiences don’t who you are they aren’t likely to want to do business with you.
This of course, opens up a can of worms and leads to the need for a plan to set out what you are trying to achieve, detail your objectives, the target audiences you need to influence to achieve those objectives and then the means of communication that will be required to influence them.
That then means at least a couple of hours of meeting time in the office, followed by a written PR plan.
And if it’s the local fish and chip man that wants to start a PR program, I think I’ll get my GP friend to pick up the fish and chips.