This document discusses publics and stakeholders in public relations. It begins by outlining the four main steps of practicing PR: research, planning, action, and evaluation. It then focuses on publics and stakeholders, which are terms that are often used interchangeably but have subtle differences. Publics refer to uncommitted or uninterested groups whose support may impact an issue or situation, while stakeholders are groups that must be reached and managed differently due to their influence. The document outlines different types of publics and how understanding publics and engaging them effectively can impact the success of an organization or project.
Using Social Media to help drive real success for a non-profit is more than just blogging occasionally, setting up the Twitter account and the Facebook group. But, on the other hand, you also don't have to turn your entire Web strategy into a real-time content feed in order to benefit either. Learning how to balance the buzz and benefits is an extraordinarily important challenge for marketing in 2010. Michael and I are looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday. And, we're hopeful that the 90 Day plan included in this deck is helpful for guiding your Social Media Marketing Process,
Emakina/Social: Selling social media inside your organisation!Emakina
Emakina/Social: Selling social media inside your organisation!
Presentation delivered by Audrey Benoit, Head of Emakina/Social, for the Social Media Forum in Brussels, 24/06/11.
www.emakina.com/social
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Getting started with social media in large organisations requires time, conviction but also colleagues buy-in. Hereby a short description of a stepped approach to gain internal buy-in to get started with social media
Learning in ProjectsMuch has been written in the academic an.docxsmile790243
Learning in Projects
Much has been written in the academic and popular business press about learning in organizations, and learning has been given many definitions.1 For our purpose, we use a very specific definition of learning, one that emphasizes adjustment in response to emerging unk unks in a project:
Learning in projects is the flexible adjustment of the project approach to the changing environment as it occurs; these adjustments are based on new information obtained during the project and on developing new—that is, not previously planned—solutions during the course of the project.
The essence of this approach to project management is that each new activity will provide new insights and information, which can be used to review and revise the project plan, the resources required, and the stakeholders to be dealt with. While each of the changes may be minor, the project itself may look quite different at the end from the original plan and intention. This type of learning “as we go” should not be confounded with projects as instances of learning about the organization (because you do something out of the normal activities of your organization) or post-project audits that are used to improve future projects.
To understand learning “as you go,” let us briefly return to the simple mountaineering example that we used for illustration in the introductions to Parts I and II. There we contrasted two mountaineering expeditions, one up a known mountain for which we have a map and a weather forecast and another up an unknown mountain with unknown weather conditions. The essence of the comparison is between executing an existing plan versus developing the plan as one goes along and learns about the terrain en route. Mastering the unknown mountain requires more sophisticated mountaineering skills, and more experienced and flexible people who can observe the terrain and keep an eye on the weather conditions during the expedition and make decisions in response to what they learn. More information needs to be gathered, and coordination among all stakeholders must be more flexible.
To demonstrate the project learning approach to unk unks, we continue the Escend Technologies example from Chapter 4.2 There we showed how the presence of unk unks was diagnosed, and now we show how learning was managed in this project of rescuing this startup company and shepherding it to the next financing round. After this example, we discuss in further detail the process of project learning.
5.1 Learning at Escend Technologies
When Escend Technologies was founded in 1999, it was like most other startups in that it had a business plan. The business plan was an essential part of selling the Escend business proposition to potential investors, as is common practice in new venture funding (see Table 5.1 for a view of how venture capitalists expect a new venture to progress through various development stages to the initial public offering, or IPO). The business plan is ...
Leighton holdings digital monitoring case studyiGo2 Pty Ltd
Research into Leighton Holdings examining:
1) Brand
2) At risk construction projects
3) Crisis Management
Research value shows:
- Just a short period of monitoring provides a wealth of valuable business data
- Many opportunities to differentiate
- Many opportunities to improve service
- Many opportunities to improve loyalty
- Opportunities to improve competitive positioning
- Opportunities to improve brand consistency
- Opportunities to amplify the ‘good’ and contain the ‘bad’
- All in real time
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"How To Use Online Intelligence As Part of a Total Media Strategy ”
The webinar explores the importance and growing influence of not only social media, but total media –including traditional publications, virtual communities, multimedia, blogs, message boards, and opinion sites–and how organizations can leverage total media intelligence to inform and track marketing programs including product development, advertising, and competitive analysis.
Sponsored by Social Strategy1 and Write2Market
As with all things that become fashionable more people are taking the next step from having an idea to pursuing a business start-up. The positive side of this is that there is a flood of new ideas which could lead to successful innovative businesses that solve a consumer need. However, before investing precious time and capital into the next great idea
we should put some rigour around selecting the one that
has a best chance of being successful.
Internal Social Media: Weaving the threads togetherDavid Thompson
Brief overview of the work of the U.S. Social Media Advisory Committee at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. This was presented at the Social Media for Pharm conference in New York City, December 7th 2011
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At the 2012 Global Channel Partners Summit (which was held at Graph Expo in Chicago), interlinkONE and Grow Socially CEO John Foley, Jr. delivered the presentation "How Social Media Works for the Channel".
He provided an overview of strategies, tactics, tools, and tips that can be used to achieve success with social media in the channel environment.
How I practice public relations. Mostly it's about listening. At the end of the day, PR is about People and Relationships. It's how you manage them that counts.
Using Social Media to help drive real success for a non-profit is more than just blogging occasionally, setting up the Twitter account and the Facebook group. But, on the other hand, you also don't have to turn your entire Web strategy into a real-time content feed in order to benefit either. Learning how to balance the buzz and benefits is an extraordinarily important challenge for marketing in 2010. Michael and I are looking forward to seeing you all on Saturday. And, we're hopeful that the 90 Day plan included in this deck is helpful for guiding your Social Media Marketing Process,
Emakina/Social: Selling social media inside your organisation!Emakina
Emakina/Social: Selling social media inside your organisation!
Presentation delivered by Audrey Benoit, Head of Emakina/Social, for the Social Media Forum in Brussels, 24/06/11.
www.emakina.com/social
Social media in your company - getting colleagues and bosses buy-inAudrey Benoit
Getting started with social media in large organisations requires time, conviction but also colleagues buy-in. Hereby a short description of a stepped approach to gain internal buy-in to get started with social media
Learning in ProjectsMuch has been written in the academic an.docxsmile790243
Learning in Projects
Much has been written in the academic and popular business press about learning in organizations, and learning has been given many definitions.1 For our purpose, we use a very specific definition of learning, one that emphasizes adjustment in response to emerging unk unks in a project:
Learning in projects is the flexible adjustment of the project approach to the changing environment as it occurs; these adjustments are based on new information obtained during the project and on developing new—that is, not previously planned—solutions during the course of the project.
The essence of this approach to project management is that each new activity will provide new insights and information, which can be used to review and revise the project plan, the resources required, and the stakeholders to be dealt with. While each of the changes may be minor, the project itself may look quite different at the end from the original plan and intention. This type of learning “as we go” should not be confounded with projects as instances of learning about the organization (because you do something out of the normal activities of your organization) or post-project audits that are used to improve future projects.
To understand learning “as you go,” let us briefly return to the simple mountaineering example that we used for illustration in the introductions to Parts I and II. There we contrasted two mountaineering expeditions, one up a known mountain for which we have a map and a weather forecast and another up an unknown mountain with unknown weather conditions. The essence of the comparison is between executing an existing plan versus developing the plan as one goes along and learns about the terrain en route. Mastering the unknown mountain requires more sophisticated mountaineering skills, and more experienced and flexible people who can observe the terrain and keep an eye on the weather conditions during the expedition and make decisions in response to what they learn. More information needs to be gathered, and coordination among all stakeholders must be more flexible.
To demonstrate the project learning approach to unk unks, we continue the Escend Technologies example from Chapter 4.2 There we showed how the presence of unk unks was diagnosed, and now we show how learning was managed in this project of rescuing this startup company and shepherding it to the next financing round. After this example, we discuss in further detail the process of project learning.
5.1 Learning at Escend Technologies
When Escend Technologies was founded in 1999, it was like most other startups in that it had a business plan. The business plan was an essential part of selling the Escend business proposition to potential investors, as is common practice in new venture funding (see Table 5.1 for a view of how venture capitalists expect a new venture to progress through various development stages to the initial public offering, or IPO). The business plan is ...
Leighton holdings digital monitoring case studyiGo2 Pty Ltd
Research into Leighton Holdings examining:
1) Brand
2) At risk construction projects
3) Crisis Management
Research value shows:
- Just a short period of monitoring provides a wealth of valuable business data
- Many opportunities to differentiate
- Many opportunities to improve service
- Many opportunities to improve loyalty
- Opportunities to improve competitive positioning
- Opportunities to improve brand consistency
- Opportunities to amplify the ‘good’ and contain the ‘bad’
- All in real time
How to Use Online Intelligence As Part of a Total Media StrategySocial Strategy1
"How To Use Online Intelligence As Part of a Total Media Strategy ”
The webinar explores the importance and growing influence of not only social media, but total media –including traditional publications, virtual communities, multimedia, blogs, message boards, and opinion sites–and how organizations can leverage total media intelligence to inform and track marketing programs including product development, advertising, and competitive analysis.
Sponsored by Social Strategy1 and Write2Market
As with all things that become fashionable more people are taking the next step from having an idea to pursuing a business start-up. The positive side of this is that there is a flood of new ideas which could lead to successful innovative businesses that solve a consumer need. However, before investing precious time and capital into the next great idea
we should put some rigour around selecting the one that
has a best chance of being successful.
Internal Social Media: Weaving the threads togetherDavid Thompson
Brief overview of the work of the U.S. Social Media Advisory Committee at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. This was presented at the Social Media for Pharm conference in New York City, December 7th 2011
How Social Media Works for the Channel [Global Channel Partners Summit]interlinkONE
At the 2012 Global Channel Partners Summit (which was held at Graph Expo in Chicago), interlinkONE and Grow Socially CEO John Foley, Jr. delivered the presentation "How Social Media Works for the Channel".
He provided an overview of strategies, tactics, tools, and tips that can be used to achieve success with social media in the channel environment.
How I practice public relations. Mostly it's about listening. At the end of the day, PR is about People and Relationships. It's how you manage them that counts.
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Explore how micro-credentials are transforming Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) with this comprehensive slide deck. Discover what micro-credentials are, their importance in TVET, the advantages they offer, and the insights from industry experts. Additionally, learn about the top software applications available for creating and managing micro-credentials. This presentation also includes valuable resources and a discussion on the future of these specialised certifications.
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A workshop hosted by the South African Journal of Science aimed at postgraduate students and early career researchers with little or no experience in writing and publishing journal articles.
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
2. This unit:
PR’s basic steps:
2.Publics and
1.Research stakeholders
2.Planning 3.PR research &
evaluation
3.Action
4.Planning
4.Evaluation
5.Goals and
Friday, 7 January 2011
Studying and practising PR’s a bit like the chicken and the egg. Which comes first?
strategies
In the case of PR, it’s a question of what do you need to look at first? There are many components to undertaking PR, which I’ll list briefly.
In the broad scope of PR, there are four main step to practising PR. These are:
Research - understanding public opinion.
Planning - ensuring the effectiveness of the process.
Action - how public relations messages are transmitted to the publics.
Evaluation - the ways in which practitioners assess the outcomes of their activities.
In the context of this unit, we look at “micro” facets of PR contained within each of these four broad steps. Weeks 2 to 5 involve looking at what I’d term the basics (or the research
and planning) required to complete a PR program. These include:
*****
After that we move on to looking at how PR works, and how we use these processes, in specialised areas of PR.
As you will will hopefully see as we progress, that when it comes to implementing PR, there are no hard and fast rules about how you go about doing things. It’s a case of adapting
to the situation at hand, and mixing and matching the various components that comprise PR in order to achieve the desired result.
3. Engaging the right people in the right way
makes a big difference to an organisation’s
success.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Maybe we could have looked at research first. After all, it is the first thing you do when you set out to achieve anything, whether itʼs buying a car, or writing an
essay.
However, first up weʼll look at publics and stakeholders - two terms which are often interchangable, but they do have subtle differences. Perhaps publics, or
audiences, could be the overarching term for both of them. You see, already there are different interpretations regarding terminology.
Iʼve chosen to look at this component first because itʼs essential that you first need to know who you are trying to reach with your message.
Youʼll recall that PR is all about persuasion and influence ... about trying to convince people of your point of view. But who are you trying to influence and inform.
And hwo much influence or effect do they actually have on your organisation.
The term stakeholder conjurs images of movers and shakers. You often hear and read it in financial reports.
Stakeholders are, in essence, a group of people that have to be reached. However, because of their nature (and the power they often wield) they have to be
managed differently from other publics.
Youʼll often find the terminology associated with large projects. In Western Australia youʼll often hear government ministers using the term when talking about
major infrastructure projects, such as the Mandurah Rail or the Gorgon gas project.
In this lecture we will also look at publics, and the differences between them and stakeholders.
• By engaging the right people in the right way in your project, you can make a big difference to its success.
4. ‘Publics’
Friday, 7 January 2011
First, weʼll look at publics.
When the term pubic is used it usually describes the uncommitted, often uninterested bystanders whose support may or may not eventually have a bearing on the
outcome of a situation or issue.
Because they are unaware, or uninterested, members of the general public do not feel much of a stake, or depth of conviction.
Thatʼs not to say the donʼt share common problems or goals and recognise their common interest. Itʼs just that they havenʼt moved to an active stage of
awareness.
So, for example, if thereʼs a vote taking place at a local council, and it means that residents will have to pay more in rates, or perhaps it will increase pollution in a
local area, involvement of the public can be vital.
From this point of view, the task of PR people is to either (a) get people involved or (b) discourage them from thinking about the issue.
5. Public involvement
Understand the debate
Friday, 7 January 2011
So, getting people interested is the trick. How can this be done?
The basic rule is to understand the debate about the issue. Who’s involved and what is at stake?
Sometimes individuals and organisations will get people interested by speaking for the general public. An example is consumer/action groups
voicing concerns over mobile phone billing. It’s a task most people are happy to let other do for them. But if religious fundamentalists demand the
removal of certain movies, and claim they represent the pubic, they are rejected, and the public takes over.
One case study (this week) highlights that a general public does exist, can be influenced. (see Texas Shopping). Also topical, given the debate over
Sunday trading that has been going on in WA for years.
6. Publics and issues
which create ...
Issues
which create ...
Publics
create ...
Problems
Decisions
> policies, actions
Friday, 7 January 2011
But where and when do publics become a part of the issues/crisis management process? What part do they play in the process?
As we know, the way to avoid issues is to see them coming and to find ways of accommodating them before they become hot. I would say that
often the real value of PR is demonstrated when you don’t do anything. Of course it’s then you have to count the cost, both reputationally and in
dollar terms.
Grunig’s four-step model is a great issue anticipation and planing tool.
• • • • (run steps)
7. Public’s characteristics
Proximity
Economics
Work issues
Personal values
Friday, 7 January 2011
Publics generally are affected more by the “daily” aspects of an issue, such as:
• proximity (they live nearby so they may be affected by, eg, a new development and increased traffic),
• their economic situation (they stand to lose income, eg, shop owners, affected by road closures)
• work issues tend to characterise their reasons for involvement (pay, conditions)
• personal values (concern for an issue or its byproducts, eg global warming, Gunns Paper Mill in Tasmania, or the Alcoa aluminum smelter at Wagerup -
involvement of Erin Brockovich)
But in all instances, theyʼre not essential to the outcome or success of the program that is causing their involvement. Eg, despite their interest in the Tas pulp mill,
activists have not stopped it from proceeding. On the other hand, activists can halt projects, such as Mauds Landing at Exmouth, and limiting development at
Smiths Beach.
8. Types of publics
Non-publics
Latent
Aware
Active
All-issue
Single issue
Hot issue
Apathetic
Friday, 7 January 2011
There are, believe it or not, different types of publics. James Grunig defined them as:
• Non-publics, which are groups that neither are affected by, or affect the organisation. For example, a WA-based company will have no effect on and will not be affected by publics based in Sydney. Broadly speaking, these
publics can be ignored and are often not even identified.
•" Latent publics, which are groups that face a problem as a result of an organisation's actions, but fail to recognise it. For example, a haulage company expanding its business may increase local traffic levels, yet the local
residents may be unaware of this.
•" Aware publics, which are groups that recognise that a problem exists. In the haulage company example, the local residents may read a press story that tells them about the expansion.
•" Active publics, which are groups that do something about the problem. For example, local residents may blockade the haulage company's gates.
Active publics can be further broken down into three categories:
+" All-issue publics are active on all issues affecting an organisation. For instance, that public might be opposed to the organisation in principle and try to disrupt all its activities. An example of this is the anti-nuclear
lobby,which will oppose all the work of any company involved in handling nuclear material, even that which may be non-nuclear related.
+" Single-issue publics are active on one issue or a small set of issues - for example the Save the Whale campaign. They might not be opposed to an organisation per se, but will oppose any activity that is contrary to their
view on that particular issue. In fact they may be broadly supportive of an organisation, but totally opposed to one particular activity, such as giving advantageous share options to directors.
+" Hot-issue publics are those involved in an issue that has broad public support and usually gets extensive media coverage. An example of this would he the public support for Greenpeace over the issue of the disposal of
the BrentSpar oil platform.
There are also what Grunig calls:
+" Apathetic publics, which are publics basically unconcerned by all problems and are effectively not a public at all. However, some theorists would argue that these publics are a grouping that should concern public
relations practitioners - everyone has the potential to become interested in an issue.
9. Latent publics
Don’t recognise the problem
Friday, 7 January 2011
Let’s now look at the three stages publics move through.
10. Aware publics
Develop after recognising the
problem
Friday, 7 January 2011
11. Active publics
Do something about the problem
Friday, 7 January 2011
12. An alternative view
Face similar unknown situation
Recognise what is unknown
Organise to rectify it
Friday, 7 January 2011
American educator John Dewey took a slightly different view, categorising publics into three groups. Those that ...
• face similar unknown situations
• recognize what is unknown in their situations
• organize to do something about the problem
13. Identifying publics
Distinctions between publics and
markets
Organisations can choose their markets, but
publics arise on their own and choose the
organisation for attention.
A public may not ever use/buy the service or
product of the organisation
Friday, 7 January 2011
So Publics are groups of people who share interests or concern. They can be active, or latent/passive.
In line with the differences between marketing and PR, there are marked distinctions between the audiences of the two disciplines. These are:
Organisations can choose their markets, but publics arise on their own and choose the organisation for attention.
A public may not ever use/buy the service or product of the organisation. SO you might not purchase wood chip products made by Gunns, or asbestos fencing
made by James Hardie, but you can certainly be an active public by demonstrating against the companyʼs practices.
14. Identifying and defining
publics
DEMOGRAPHICS PSYCHOGRAPHICS
Age, gender, ethnicity Attitude
Marital/family status Opinion
Education, Occupation,
Behaviour
Income, Suburb
Political/religious affiliation
Friday, 7 January 2011
Practitioners define publics by several methods, or characteristics. Commonly these are
referred to as a public’s demographic. These include:
(show table, column 1)
Age gender ethnicity
Family/Marital status
Education
The way publics are analysed can be further refined by considerinng intangible
characteristics. This is called psychographics is
(show table column 2)
15. Tips for researching publics
Avoid “general public”
Define broad categories
Narrow to definable
components (eg., Surfers >
body boarders,
longboarders, big-wave)
Set priorities (which are
most important?)
Friday, 7 January 2011
The reason why PR uses these clearly defined techniques to identifying audiences is because it
deals with specific publics’ opinions, rather than mass opinion. And this is only increasing in
importance as audiences fragment into ever smaller sub audiences.
17. Brief
• Work with EP to find project
• Goal: to promote Film Australia as a leading
producer of quality films in the national
interest
Friday, 7 January 2011
19. Objectives
Results objective:
• To increase awareness of FA’s niche products
among specific publics
Process objectives:
• Generate interest via media.
• Launch to attract key influencers.
Friday, 7 January 2011
• Results objective:
• To increase awareness of FA’s niche products among specific publics, in this case plane enthusiasts.
• Process objectives:
• To conduct a media campaign during production and post-production to generate interest in the film, gaining coverage in all Sydney dailies and national
papers; and three key aviation mags.
• To hold a launch during May at KS airport which would attract at least 120 flying buffs and aviation/film journalists.
20. Channels
• Media releases – during production
• Launch at Kingsford Smith Airport
Friday, 7 January 2011
21. Evaluation
• Sales
• Media coverage
• Attendance at launch
Friday, 7 January 2011
22. Case study: save TV show
Friday, 7 January 2011
WB announced 13 Feb 2008 they would cancel the show Angel The Save Angel Campaign was formed from the fan base and created the
saveangel.org.website. Online petitions, letter writing, rallies outside warner bros, full page ads in variety and hollywood reporter, get a friend viewing –
manipulating the ratings food drive to help the helpless and …
23. Friday, 7 January 2011
Also available in number of tee shirt designs
Demos potential of strategic alliances – blood bank already has a good name and large data base, so by teaming up get better results.
Publics –
Warner bros
Fox
Viewers
Unactivated viewers
Religious groups
Other networks
27. What’s a ?
“Stakeholders are those individuals who perceive
themselves as having an interest (stake) in the
actions of an organization.”
– Baskin, Aronoff & Lattimore (1997)
“Any group or individual who is affected by, or can
affect, the achievement of an organization’s
objectives ... any identifiable group or individual on
which the organization is dependent for its
continued survival.”
– Freeman (1983)
Friday, 7 January 2011
The term stakeholders actually originated from the early mining days, when prospectors struck a claim. The marked the boundary by driving stakes into the area.
Itʼs now commonly used to describe someone with a stake in an organisation and infers they have something at risk. Stakeholders are concerned with how your
organisation performs.
More modern definitions are:
• Baskin and Aronoff (1997)
• Freemanʼs definition has been expanded to include groups who have interests in the corporation, regardless of the corporationʼs interest in them. Others have
narrowed the definition to those who contribute to the financial bottom line of the organisation.
"Stakeholder" is not a word that is used much in marketing. In marketing, you have consumers, shoppers, customers, prospects, segments, niches - but not stakeholders. Part of the
reason is that traditional marketing communications is outbound persuasion. Here is the product/service. Here are the features and benefits. Here are the competitive advantages and the
unique selling proposition. Now buy the product or service.
28. Stakeholder characteristics
They may be customers, shareholders,
employees, members, donors, customers,
or (sometimes) members of society (the
public).
They generally express themselves through
groups that share a common purpose (e.g.,
shareholder/staff meetings).
Friday, 7 January 2011
• They may be customers, shareholders, employees, or just members of society.
• They generally express themselves through groups that share a common purpose (see examples on screen).
In any case, stakeholders are usually specific, or clearly-defined audiences, that PR people spend most of their time working with (or on) as the case ma be.
They are people who are perceived to have self-interest as a reason for their association with an organisation, so that makes them the organisationʼs key
“constituents”. Much of the PR personʼs time is spent working on reinforcing, broadening or deepening the two-way communication that helps bind them
together.
29. Stakeholders & key ‘publics’
Stakeholders Publics
Vested interest. Passing through
Performance-orientated Issues-orientated
Influence policy Influence decisions
Heavy-hitters Activists
Individuals Groups
Investment-orientated Action-orientated
Specialised information Specific information
Performance Behaviour
Chosen by organisation Arise on their own
Friday, 7 January 2011
Baskin and Aronoff say: “A public is a group of people who share a common problem or goal and recognise their common interest.”
Stakeholders is a term which refines a public to mean those with a vested interest or “stake” in an organisation.
So in that regard they differ markedly from publics (or audiences) are generally affected by more the “daily” aspects of the issues generated by an organisation
and are the recipients of most messages.
The table presented here can be considered a general summary of the differences between publics and stakeholders.
30. Publics v stakeholders
Organisations choose stakeholders
Publics arise on their own ... they
Similar Do
Recognise problem
problem something
Friday, 7 January 2011
Just to recap from slide 9, James Grunig differentiated the terms “stakeholder” and “public” the following way:
• organisations choose stakeholders by their marketing strategies, recruiting, and investment plans, but
• publics arise on their own and choose the organisation for attention.
In essence a public is a group of people who ...
face a similar problem > recognize the problem, and > organize themselves to do something about
it.
31. Importance of stakeholders
1. Globalisation
2. Professional investors
3. Sophisticated customers
4. Empowered employee
5. Information revolution
6. Increased business reporting
Friday, 7 January 2011
A number of factors is behind the growing importance of stakeholders. These include:
1." Globalisation - most organisations need to compete more strongly for customers, capital and employees as more of the world opens up to international trading markets.
2." The rise of the professional investor - more than ever before, companies are subject to the influence of professional fund managers, such as superannuation funds.
3." The rise of the sophisticated customer - customer expectations are higher than ever before.
4." The rise of the empowered employee - individuals are taking more responsibility for their own and their employer's performance and are demanding more involvement in decision
making.
5." The information revolution - electronic information technology equips stakeholders with information almost instantly.
6." Rising awareness of the influence of business on society - ethics and corporate integrity are high on society's agenda today - stakeholders are aware more than ever before of
company behaviour.
32. Stakeholder groups & aims
GROUP AIM
Shareholders Max. share price, dividend
Customers Supply, fair price, environment, cultural & social benefits
Banks, creditors Stable, safe, sufficient income stream
Employees Stable, fair conditions, maximum pay
Affiliates Steady business, managerial support
Competitors To compete without damaging the other
taxes, legal & fair trading, environment, social/cultural
Government
benefits, compliance
Suppliers Steady business flow, low cost, honesty
Friday, 7 January 2011
They may be customers, shareholders, employees, or just members of society. They generally express themselves through groups that share a common
purpose, such as environmental or consumer causes.
33. Stakeholders on tap
• Don’t turn them off
• Nurture
• Long-term strategy
• Understanding
Friday, 7 January 2011
Since many communication projects and programs are relatively short-term in nature, it is all too easy to move on and forget some of your most important stakeholders when an issue is
resolved. It is easy to forget, or at least to put on the backburner, consideration of those stakeholders. Yet some of those stakeholders will continue to be important to you.
• Good relationships canʼt be turned on and off like a tap. You need to nurture them or they will wither. If you donʼt nurture them, they will invariably be more difficult to resurrect when needed
later. Good relationship management is required.
For instance, your organisation may need to maintain a good relationship over a number of years with a legislator, government department, regulatory body, consumer association, supplier or
shareholder group. They may influence decision makers or make their own decisions that could have a profound impact on your organisation at a later time.
• • Stakeholders have to be nurtured over the long term, which is one of the core principles of PR – thatʼs it focuses on long-term relationships, unlike many forms of marketing.
• The way stakeholders view a problem can cause an organisation to modify or change its stance (and PR has to be fluid). Just remember that they are viewing the situation from their
perspective, not managementʼs, so you will have to understand their situation in order to address it.
34. Instant bad ‘press’
Shift in the “power of voice”
Friday, 7 January 2011
I mentioned globalisation and increased business reporting. In the same vein, organisations are now under more pressure to respond at an ever-
increasing pace to crises. You might recall from your textbook readings last week, that the Tylenol case was mentioned. That was back in 1982.
When Johnson and Johnson was ready to announce its strategies, it did so using satellite technology - one of the first companies to do so. Much in
the same way, Greenpeace used satellite broadcasts in the Brent Spar incident. We’ll discuss this in a later lecture. However, it highlights that
publics today can be anywhere and everywhere, and instantly.
• I’ll just also briefly mention a trend which is referred to as a shift in what’s called the ‘power of voice’. It is argued that companies are being
outwitted and out-manoeuvered by people and organisations with differing views.
35. Managing stakeholders
Listen
Engage
Relevance
Credibility
Friday, 7 January 2011
Finally, there are several things which underpin the approach to stakeholder management, whether on line, or by more traditional means. In fact these are central
to all facets of PR. They are:
• Willingness to listen
• Willingness to engage
• Provision of relevant, timely information
• Credibility
Certainly by doing those things you will lessen the negative impact of issues and crises when they hit.
36. Managing stakeholders
Define
Prioritise
Measure
Friday, 7 January 2011
Finally, in your online material there is a Paper by Brad Rawlins, who presents thinking into the science of managing stakeholders (in four steps):
■ First make sure everyone knows who all the stakeholders are and what (conflicting) agendas they are bringing into the game.
■ Second, prioritise stakeholders based on their attributes of legitimacy, power and urgency.
■ Third, determine the extent to which individual stakeholders personally connect with the situation or issue.
■ The real payoff is a set of guidelines for communications to different types of stakeholders (handy for doing assignments).
So stakeholder management is not an arcane practice. It is actually something we engage in every day.