This second post on effective communication skills and public relations, covers communication through influentials. It also covers creating effective strategies, tactics and messages.
Effective communication skills and public relations fit together like Internet marketers and blogs. And any marketer can learn to improve communications by adopting public relations communication practices.
One of those practices is conducting a communication confirmation table. It’s really a communication plan in table form to help you visualize strengths and weakness in your communication plans.
Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Sample Communication Confirmation Table
The table above illustrates a simple communication confirmation table. I introduce the table, the benefits of using it and discuss the first two columns in today’s post. I’ll explain the last four columns in Monday’s post.
Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Benefits of Using A
Communication Confirmation Table
Public relations practitioners use communication confirmation tables because they provide the following seven benefits:
Checks that your planning decisions are consistent with information about your target public,
Checks the soundness of your analysis and planning,
Confirms alignment of messages, strategies, and tactics with purpose and markets,
Assures that relevant self-interest of the target market are included in messages,
Assures that public’s influentials are being used appropriately,
Assures that strategies and tactics are appropriate for the target market,
Reveals discrepancies in logic missed in written plan.
Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
How To Use A
Communication Confirmation Table
The table above illustrates six major parts of a communication confirmation table as columns. You can read about each column below:
Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Column 1 – Key Public
The first column identifies the key or target public. The key or target public for this communication campaign is high school students.
A target public is similar to a target market. The difference is that target markets are through of as potential customers while target markets can represent any group of people who have an effect upon or are affected an organization.
I took more of a target public approach in a recent post that you can access below. It gives you a good idea of what public relations practitioners refer to as key or target markets.
Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Column 2 – Self Interests
Public relations practitioners use the term “self interests” in the same way that marketers use “benefits.” Both terms seek to determine what targeted people want and how to appeal to them.
In the case of high school students, major self interests are peer acceptance, having fun, making and keeping friends. By deciding what your target market wants and listing it in the table, you’ll be more likely to include those wants in your communications.
If you need to improve your external or internal communications, don’t miss 101 Ways To Power-Up Your Writing. It contains writing tips and advice from a Fortune 500 writer. It will help you prevent embarrassing mistakes in English, and teach you to write with power and impact.
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Posted 1-9-09:
Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations, Part 1
Linda holds a Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.) and is accredited in Public Relations (APR). She has practiced marketing, public relations and communication skills for over 30 years. She is President of Best Books Plus, Inc., an online and off line publishing company.
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