PUBLIC RELATIONS

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TOOLS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS

Public relations practitioners have many communications vehicles to use in order to communicate their messages to their publics. Though they may be many, it is important for the practitioner to decide which tool is appropriate for which audience.

TOOLS OF PUBLIC RELATIONS Print publications

Stationery

Brochures

Flyers

Bookmarks

Notices

Annual reports

Guides

Lists

House journals

Newsletters

Cost

Production

Design

LanguageFrequency

Distribution

Displays and exhibits

BARRIERS TO PRODUCTION OF PUBLICATIONS

Cost

These include the reprographic process to be used, staff time involved in preparing and collating copy and the costs of distribution. Cost can be offset by making a charge for a publication or by carrying advertisement from a book vendors etc.

BARRIERS TO PRODUCTION OF PUBLICATIONS CONT’D

Production

Staff closely involved in the production should have some basic knowledge of reprography and also be familiar with copy preparation to be able to instruct printers in a way they will understand. The staff should build up good working relationship with the printing firm.

CONT’D Design

Decisions should be taken on choice of paper and typeface, design of cover attractive to encourage potential users to look at the material.

Language

Thought should be given to use of language. Avoid jargons, and the written words should be brief, simple and clear. There is much to be said for developing a house style so that all publications emanating from a particular archive/library use the same form of spelling and same presentation of figures etc.

CONT’D Frequency

The publications should appear so as to meet the requirements of their intended audience. It is important that regular publications, such as list of additions, do in fact appear regularly so that users begin to expect them at a particular time.

Distribution

Decisions need to be taken as to how many copies to produce. In order to reach that audience publications have to be distributed. Where mailing lists are used for this, it is essential that they are kept-up-to-date. Review copies should be sent to suitable newspapers and journals

PR TOOLS CONT’D Displays

They can be used to bring a client’s attention to various topics and materials, to exploit and increase the use of the archives/ information centre’s stock, to inform, to bring together material that may be separated by a classification scheme and to improve the general atmosphere of the library. Displays can also help the archives/ information centres further its contacts with the local community.

DISPLAYS AND EXHIBITIONS

Mounting a display

Displaying books

Displays in other places

Exhibitions

OTHER PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOLS

Audio-visual methods

Archives/ information center's now increasingly use audio-visual methods to promote their services. These are privately created, owned and controlled media which may be aimed at selected audiences. AV methods can include video film, synchronized tape-slide presentations, PowerPoint, multi-screen presentations, overhead projectors, Eidophor screen (CCTV), CD/DVD.

OTHER PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOLS Tape-slide presentations

A tape-slide presentation consists of a sequence of projected slide transparencies synchronized with a tape-recorded sound effects or a combination of any of these elements. Tape-slide productions can be used to convey factual information about a library/archive service, to instruct users (common use in academic libraries) to promote the service and to stimulate potential clients to join. Presentations can range from simple single-projector shows to sophisticated multi-screen productions.

OTHER PUBLIC RELATIONS TOOLS PowerPoint

This is one of the latest and most useful developments in desktop presentations. It enables the PR practitioner to create material on computer quickly and easily and present on computer or beamed up onto large screen. It also enables you to create notes both for presenter and audience. All the materials are stored on computer disk ready for presentation any time.

USES OF AVS

AV materials may be used for different purposes by the PR practitioner. Now let us look at some of the uses.

Invited audiences

Information centres

Catalogues and advertising

Press receptions

Exhibitions

Employee communication

Rural audiences

PHOTOGRAPHY Pictures can sometimes be more informative than

words.

Photographs may be used for PR purposes:

To build a photographic library so that prints are available to meet requests and for general use when pictures are needed

To supply with news releases

To illustrate feature articles

As picture stories, sometimes in sets

For window and showroom displays

For display – as enlargements (blow-up) on exhibition stands

For illustrating PR literature and visual aids, including educational leaflets, folders and booklets, posters, company histories, staff induction handbooks, annual reports, instruction manuals .

For stills as used in TV studio backgrounds to speakers or during TV news bulletins

For conversion into slides for use in slide-tape presentations.

SPONSORSHIPS Sponsorship is the act of providing financial support for worthy subjects, causes and individuals.

There are three kinds:

there is the form of advertising whereby a company sponsors a radio or TV show.

when a whole program is sponsored and credit is given to the sponsor

when a sport, art exhibition, literary prize, educational bursary or an individual may be given financial support.

SPONSORSHIPS

Since nobody wishes to gain an award from a disreputable or even unknown or undistinguished patron, it follows that those who make public awards need to be reputable and well known. Sponsorship bears a mark of approval which is good PR in itself. Note that industrial sponsors are rarely philanthropic: they usually expect a return for their money. There are many reasons but generally there is a PR element if not the main purpose which aids understanding and goodwill.

SPONSORSHIPS To augment advertising campaigns through the

publicizing of company and product names. This will often get wide coverage by the media.

To assist the marketing policy, as when the sponsor gives financial support to something that interests potential customers and the company or product is associated with an interest such as youth, health, leisure or beauty.

To show a sense of social responsibility as when companies have sponsored university awards, medical research, libraries, theatres, festivals etc.

TYPES OF SPONSORSHIPS

Sports, cultural events and interests, publications, exhibitions, education, causes and charities, professional awards and local events.

OTHER PR TOOLS CONT’D

Seminars and conferences

Public speaking

Press Relations

Press

Letters to the editor

OP-EDS

Feature spots

Photo-ops

Editorials

Ads

News release

Public service announcements are free ads made available to non-profits as a community service. The announcements are submitted by you and published by a newspaper free of charge. Community newspapers are ideal targets for print PSAs. So are radio stations (see below.) PSAs are intended to provide information, and are not appropriate for “calls to action.”

NEWS RELEASE

News is information which is not already known to recipients. Such as a report on something timely that just happened or will happen soon. It is not necessarily about current events. This would include an expansion of your library or the receipt of a grant or large donation. Announcing an upcoming event is not as likely to be covered as a news story.

Newsworthiness means that information promises to be of interest to readers and is therefore worth publishing.

PRESS EVENTS

There are three main kinds and these are:

Press conference

Press reception

Facility visit

PRESS EVENTS CONT’D .Radio and Television

Radio and TV are major vehicles for the widespread distribution of PR information. This is because many people at least have radios and listen to it.

Radio News Release (RNR)

You may want to issue a press release as a taped message. However, this is more costly and time-consuming than a print release.

Public Service Announcements (PSAs)

Radio Talk Shows

HOW RADIO WORKS Radio programs consist of the following materials :

news programs,

live studio programs of all kinds including interviews;

taped program material, including interviews, prepared in advance,

taped in the studio or supplied from outside sources; specially produced radio versions of TV programs either live or taped; phone-ins. Also a lot of air time is taken up by popular music.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RADIO

Radio has the intimacy of the human voice and the attractiveness of the broadcaster’s voice is very important..

Program material can be produced very quickly and inexpensively. A phone-in is instantaneous. An urgent announcement can be broadcast in one of the frequent news bulletins

The transistor radio and re diffusion have brought radio to millions of people, including illiterates in developing countries

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RADIO CONT’D In countries with many languages, it is possible to

communicate with all or most ethnic groups in their own language and regional programs can be broadcast. This can be more successful than vernacular newspapers and can reach people denied TV because of lack of electricity.

However, it is a medium which suffers from the dysfunction that radio listeners may use radio as a friendly, companionable background noise, music being preferred to the human voice.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RADIO CONT’D For archives/ information centers radio stations

especial local radio stations, can be very useful. Special versions of news releases for broadcasting purposes should be sent to them. Archivist/librarians may appear as guests on talk shows, ‘phone-in’ programs and magazine programs.

TELEVISION

Let us look at another interesting medium of communication. This time it is the TV. Television systems vary from country to country. Hours of viewing may be different and may be restricted to educational subjects, etc.

HOW TV WORKS

TV programs consists of the following materials:

National news bulletins, current affairs programs, sports programs, series on numerous topics, both informative and entertaining (cooking, quizzes), drama (films, plays and serials); music, religion, chat shows, children’s programs, science programs, educational programs. Programs of all kinds have been included to show the versatility of TV because as with press features, news can be about products and services, interests, hobbies, personalities and all the things that go to make up the kaleidoscope of TV programs.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TV (AS OPPOSED TO AUDIO MEDIUM) In addition to sound, TV has movement, vision and colour

although some still are black and white.

In developed countries, TV is the great mass medium while

in developing countries it is largely an elitist medium.

Changes are occurring through the introduction of

community viewing in public halls and at workplaces.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF

TV (AS OPPOSED TO AUDIO

MEDIUM)

The production of TV programs is time-consuming and costly, the reverse of radio. But it is possible to make joint venture or cooperative documentaries, costs being shared by two organizations and a TV contractor.

SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF TV (AS

OPPOSED TO AUDIO MEDIUM)

Being predominantly a visual medium, the material or personality must be visually interesting and attractive. In PR terms, this means that great care is necessary in choosing people for TV interviews, for viewers will be looking at both their physical appearance and their mode of dress, as well as listening to what they have to say. TV can crucify someone who appears badly on TV.

A press reporter needs only pen and paper and a radio reporter needs only a tape recorder, but TV coverage requires equipment and technicians. TV shooting may also have to take place on its own, at a special time and place. Camera crews are unlikely to attend a press reception or a facility visit.

DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN RADIO AND TV Radio material can be produced more quickly and

less expensively than TV material.

Radio is more immediate, whereas TV programs often need to be filmed or videotaped in advance. This is however, changing.

On radio the voice is important and the speaker is unseen, but on TV the speaker is visible which may be either a handicap or an advantage. Dress and use of colour are also important on TV

DISTINCTIONS BETWEEN RADIO AND TV ) TV audiences in industrialized countries can be

much larger than radio audiences which often means that TV programs are more ‘popular’, appealing to the mass market. However, in developing countries where TV is mainly confined to elitist urban audiences and perhaps only to areas served by electricity, radio will predominate and have greater penetration of distant and rural audiences.

EVALUATING THE RESULTS It is difficult for archivists/librarians to obtain much

air time but when they do, they should examine their broadcasting as carefully and as critically as they would look at other aspects of their organization.

Electronic media

Many PR practitioners are relying on the electronic media as a means of communication because it is fast and can provide up to date information. Having timely information as you already know by now, is an important way of dealing with the “grapevine.”

EVALUATING THE RESULTS Electronic Discussion Lists

Electronic discussion lists are voluntary networks where

individuals sign up to receive e-mails and messages

“posted” or submitted by other electronic discussion list

members or owners.

Viral Marketing

Viral marketing is much like word-of-mouth marketing,

but it generally relies on the Internet. Because e-mails can

be duplicated and forwarded to multiple recipients—

without damaging the content of the data—viral

marketing is cheap and only limited in the ability of the

product to sell itself

EVALUATING THE RESULTS Blogs

Blog, or an online journal, is short for weblog. There are more than four million active blogs on the Internet, although the vast majority of them are rarely read. you don’t know what to do with them yet.

Forums

Web forums are the child of the old Internet bulletin board services where people can post their opinion often anonymously.

EVALUATING THE RESULTS

RSS Feeds

An important trend for delivering company information is through an Internet technology known by the acronym RSS (what it stands for depends on who you ask but most accepted name is Really Simple Syndication). This technology makes it easy for people to know when new content is posted to a website. While there are several flavors of RSS, the basic concept has content providers, such as news sites, corporate websites, blogs, etc