A properly managed internal communications program in an organization requires regular attention and participation from the organization's leadership, staff to implement it, and thoughtful methods for evaluating its effectiveness. There are quite a few types of communication materials, and it depends on the organization which ones will be most in demand in each individual case.
1) report. The same report can be intended simultaneously for both the internal and the general external public; but, as a rule, the report is prepared for a specific purpose and is intended for a specific target audience.
First of all, these are reports related to so-called calendar dates (annual, quarterly, monthly reports), or reports upon completion of work or certain stages work performed by the entire organization at the request of a partner or client. A PR specialist may be invited to combine into a single document all materials and facts collected by different departments and compiled by different authors.
2) information leaflet, newsletter, bulletin. Different organizations use different terms to refer to almost identical materials, both in purpose and in content. By distributing newsletter materials among employees, the organization’s management pursues the following goals:
– informing about the affairs of the organization and the events taking place in it. It is very important that they receive this information directly from management, and not from rumors or secondary sources.
– employee motivation. Make it clear to employees that they are an integral part of the organization, that their well-being and future well-being are entirely related to the successful functioning of the entire organization. Show employees that management cares about each of them, that the difficulties of each of them are not just his own business.
– receiving feedback. Management wants to be aware of what employees think about the upcoming changes, what their reactions are, their ideas and suggestions, and what they are concerned about.
The most basic component of a newsletter is news, which is contained in the meaning of the word itself. Therefore, as in any other news material, the newsletter must contain answers to the questions: who? What? Where? When? Why? And How?
Since the volume of a newsletter is often limited to two to four A4 pages, the articles in it are mostly short, the presentation style is neutral. When a newsletter or information sheet consists of 4-8 pages, some organizations call it a “bulletin.”
There is no single, generally accepted format for this type of internal publication. The style and volume of the newsletter largely depend on the size of the organization: in a large corporation it could be a glossy publication of 8-10 pages, and in a company small size it may be four pages long and less formal in nature. However, it is easy to name the elements and sections that, as a rule, are present in any newsletter:
– name of the organization, its address, name of the editor;
– editorial article;
– letters from readers and responses to them;
– a brief overview of news about the organization;
- articles;
- ads;
– a calendar of upcoming events and dates important for the activities of the organization and its employees.
A type of newsletter is corporate newspaper– a non-profit publication published by an organization to maintain contact with employees. Newspapers various organizations They differ so greatly in size, style, fonts, and format that we can only talk about them as a type of publication based on their general focus. Regardless of what the newspaper looks like, its main goals are to create a sense of cohesion in the team, strengthen confidence in management, explain the organization's policies, attract employees to cooperate with the administration, awaken their interest in the affairs of the company, etc.
If we consider the content in percentage terms, then, according to experts, the blocks should look like this: 50% - information about the organization from the point of view of its present and future, financial and other prospects; 30% – information about the situation of employees: benefits, bonuses, working conditions, etc. P.; 20% is the same “entertainment miscellaneous”.
3) media card. All PR specialists are well aware that one of the main target audiences for an organization is always the media. In order for public relations work to be effective, one must have a good knowledge of not only the structure and specifics of the work of each individual type of mass media, but also journalists, with whom you will have to work. For these purposes, the organization creates a special document called a media card, which records all the essential information necessary to establish and maintain useful and effective relationships.
The media map includes all types of media with which the organization works: mass, industry and narrowly professional newspapers and magazines, radio and television channels, indicating the most interesting programs for the organization, circulation and volume of target audiences, release schedule and publication, names and the names of the editor-in-chief, editors of departments and areas, etc.
4) press digest is a selection or reprint of articles and notes from printed publications that directly or indirectly affect the activities and image of the organization, as well as information about all cases of mention of the organization on air, indicating the date and time of transmission, as well as outlining its summary. Based on the content analysis of the collected materials, a report is prepared regularly, weekly or monthly, for management and prompt action, if necessary.
Separately, it should be said about such a promising communication core as an internal corporate website (it must be distinguished from just a corporate website intended for the general public). In fact, it consists of two parts: an electronic bulletin board and a permanent forum (the introduction of real-time communication, i.e. chat, still seems too radical an innovation). In addition, it is possible to have internal corporate email.
The concept of target audience (or segment) is one of the central ones for public relations.
Frank Jefkins emphasizes that PR activities are not aimed at the public at large. It applies to carefully selected groups of people who are segments of the public. It is important not only clear definition its public, but also precise definition its ideals, interests and, accordingly, its communication channels. Thus, determining the audience includes 3 tasks:
· identification of a part of the public that has certain general features;
· clarifying her ideals
· clarifying communication channels.
The target audience generally defined as the totality of people who are targeted .
The main inclusion criterion individuals in Central Asia is their interest in the subject of promotion. In other words, the target audience can be defined as the one in whose eyes the company or individual must first create a favorable image and positive attitude.
Key audiences we can name those groups that can accelerate or slow down a company’s entry into the market and its further development. These include government officials and media specialists.
It should be emphasized that PR should be focused both on external audience, and on internal audience(internal target group, internal segment), which means own employees or staff. Any competent employer should be interested in efficient work their employees.
External environment Organizations are usually divided into:
1) the environment of direct influence (microenvironment), which includes consumers, competitors, trade unions, local and government bodies management;
2) the environment of indirect influence (macroenvironment), which can include socio-cultural factors, national and international events, etc. Naturally, the environment of direct influence, or the public of a given organization (“its own” public), is of primary importance for an organization.
There are other classifications and characteristics by which target audiences are distinguished. The audience may be explicit, which was the target, and the unexpected one, which received the message randomly, since the sender of the message was not initially interested in her.
Another classification divides the audience into three types: group, category, totality.
Group represents the most preferred type of target audience. This is a collection of people related general activities and purpose. Groups are divided into primary (such as a family or platoon) and secondary (such as parliamentarians). It is the primary groups that are most protected from external influences.
Totality is an association based on a common geographical area.
In social psychology the following classification of audiences (public, public) is given:
1. Narrow audience - a small part of the population that purchases goods, uses services, or enters into other types of direct contact with a given organization. These are visitors to the company’s exhibition pavilion, an invited group of journalists to the presentation, etc.
2. The formed audience is societies and associations formed on any basis: trade unions, political parties, sports clubs, etc. These audiences represent a certain organic whole.
3. Mass audience – all types of audiences whose members are united through any media.
Mass and specialized audiences differ from each other not in the number of their members, but in the nature of the association. Thus, several dozen people randomly gathered around the speaker is a mass audience, and millions of depositors of Sberbank of the Russian Federation are a specialized audience. Thus, mass audiences are unorganized and have no fixed boundaries.
F. Kotler identified the so-called “contact groups”, which included any group that shows real or potential interest in a given organization and has a certain influence on the organization’s ability to achieve its goals. F. Kotler lists the following contact audiences:
Financial circles: banks, shareholders, investment companies, brokerage firms, etc.
Media: newspapers, magazines, radio stations, television centers, Internet, etc.
Government institutions: tax office, local authorities, etc.
Civic action groups: consumer associations, minority representatives, green groups, etc.
Local contact groups: local residents and so on.
Internal contact groups - workers and employees of a given company
Since all contact groups in relation to the company take a different position (benevolence, neutrality, aggressiveness), the PR service must constantly monitor the state of certain contact groups and vary its behavior: who to invite for cooperation and who to stay away from.
An important task of PR is to carry out audience segmentation. The market must be divided into significant subgroups and these subgroups must be identified.
Characteristics that help identify a particular audience segment include:
geographical characteristics . Includes the study of regional characteristics.
demographic characteristics (age, gender, income level, profession, education).
psychological or psychographic characteristics, Psychological (psychographic) segmentation helps to find a connection, for example, between the aggressive type of man and his use of aftershave lotion. Psychographics means the study of life patterns.
Socio-cultural segmentation. Here attention is paid to the mental (cognitive) map of a person. This is an ideal structure of preferences, stereotypes, interests, associations recorded in a person’s head. Various methods, in particular the focus group method, allow us to penetrate into the depths of this structure.
A good illustration is the lines written by Alexander Dovzhenko “Two are looking down. One sees a puddle, the other sees stars.” This means that different target audiences may see different characteristics in the same object. The task of PR is to place an object by communicating about it by the right party and at the right time for a particular target audience.
TYPES OF TARGET AUDIENCES. Classification by target and key audiences.
A) Target audiences - a set of specific persons to whom the impact is directed. The main criterion for including individuals in the target audience is their interest in the subject of promotion. The target audience can be defined as one in the eyes of which the company or individual must first of all create a favorable image and positive attitude (Employees of the organization, its clients, shareholders, bank employees, investors , partners.
B) Key audiences are those groups that can accelerate or slow down a company’s entry into the market and its further development. These include government officials and media specialists.
2.Classification by internal and external audience.
The internal audience is the one that represents the personnel of the facility for PR. All other potentially useful public will be the audience external to the facility.
Internal and external PR should reinforce each other. If an organization has a high reputation in the eyes of the entire public, then its own employees treat it with great respect and are proud to be part of this respectable structure. On the other hand, when the external public is informed that staff are committed to their company and management cares about its employees, this strengthens the corporate image.
CATEGORIES OF TARGET AUDIENCES. Public opinion is formed by specific groups of people. In this case, the so-called “reference (standard) groups” are noted. A positive reference group is that real or imaginary group that serves as a role model, an attractive standard. The closer an individual is to it in terms of lifestyle, the more satisfaction he feels. Therefore, in most cases, when introducing a new company, product or service to the market, it is important to get the most advanced part - “avant-garde” consumers - as the first clients, partners and buyers. Then the popularity of certain objects, with appropriate quality and proper “promotion,” grows in the geometric profession. A negative reference group is a real or imaginary (constructed) group that acts as a repulsive example. This is a group with which they strive to avoid contact and association. Information reference group- this is the group of people whose information we trust. It does not matter whether we fall into error or are close to the truth. home distinguishing feature such a group is that we trust the information coming from it. This group appears in two main forms.
1. Carriers of experience. People who have tried this product or service in practice. We turn to their amateur experience to confirm or refute doubts regarding the planned purchase, voting, etc.
2. Experts, those. specialists in this field. This is the group that is considered by others to be the most knowledgeable in a particular area.
Thus, the PR campaign plan must be focused on the use of all of the listed groups. As a result of exposure, target audiences should clearly understand:
a) what opinion they must adhere to in order to be involved in the standard positive groups;
b) what opinions should not be accepted in order to avoid being assigned to negative reference groups and not to oppose oneself to society.
External and internal audience.
The purpose of PR is to organize two-way communication, during which the general ideas or common interests and mutual understanding is found, which is based on truth, knowledge and full awareness. The size of such interaction, aimed at developing stable public relations, can be very different, it depends on both the size and the nature of the parties.
PR specialists use modern methods communication and persuasion to establish contacts and find mutual understanding. Understanding is facilitated by reputation, existing experience and cultural factors!. Important components of a large number of PR programs to gain a reliable reputation are to create an atmosphere of trust and implement a unified strategy.
For effective PR activities, it is necessary to identify key audiences, as well as target ones, which, in turn, are divided into internal and external. When working with external and internal audiences, appropriate communications (internal and external) and certain tools for influencing a certain type of audience are used.
When preparing PR campaigns important stage is a complete study of the audience (target groups). Moreover, it is necessary to decide who belongs to the external target audience and who to the internal one.
The internal target audience includes all employees of the organization, as well as retirees and relatives of company employees, i.e. that part of society that is directly related to the organization and is the bearer of the corporate image.
The external target audience refers to that part of society to which the organization’s activities extend.
Once target audiences have been identified, the expectations that are necessary to perform actions when working with these target audiences should be identified.
When working with target audiences, PR specialists strive to solve a number of problems, such as:
- studying the expectations of target audiences;
- informing target audiences;
- establishing and maintaining contacts;
- conflict prevention;
- formation of a strategy for activities in the domestic and foreign markets.
Specialized events are developed for external target audiences, which include press releases, press conferences, press events, press tours, press lunches, briefings, conferences, customer surveys, direct mailings, etc.
Specialized events are also held for the internal target audience: competition for the best specialist, corporate events, demonstration of achievements of the internal target audience. Internal corporate events contribute to the formation of a positive corporate image.
The concept of audience is one of the central ones for S.O. It is important not only to clearly define your audience, but also to accurately define its interests and correspond specifically to its communication channel.
It should be especially noted that PR focuses on both external and internal audiences.
Domestic audiences - as employees of an organization, are of particular importance, but are most often excluded from the interests of domestic public relations.
Any employer should be interested in the effective work of its employees, so public relations should extend to internal audiences.
As a rule, the internal audience consists of small social groups that are the object of PR; for PR to be effective, it is necessary to clearly understand the structure of the small group. First of all, social group has a leader. The leader is the member of the group who enjoys the most sympathy and who makes decisions in the most important situations. The leader has the greatest authority and power. The leader is not appointed, he is nominated due to his personal qualities.
An outsider is a person with the least authority. As a rule, he does not participate in decision-making, or is involved in participation extremely rarely. Few people take the opinion of an outsider into account. If there is usually only one leader in a small group, then there may be several outsiders.
So, the leader is the focus of group processes. Group members by default delegate to him the power and right to make decisions for the entire group and do this voluntarily. It follows that the communicative impact should be on the leader of the group, and not on the outsider.
12. External audience in the structure of S.O. "Spiral of Silence" e. Noel-Neuman.
In modern mass society, the center of public attention is shifting from leaders of production to leaders of consumption. Therefore, external audiences are the most common PR target.
Today, public relations is focused on the mass character of people and mass behavior. Social psychology claims that a crowd can be leveled only by low reactions, since the highest reaction is different for everyone.
Our time has brought new challenges related to control over large human masses.
The German researcher Noel-Neumann writes about the crowd: “if under ordinary conditions an individual has difficulty determining what behavior is approved, then in a mass scene in a crowd this is clear as day... The position of individuals in a specific crowd is completely different than in an individual situation. In a spontaneous crowd, the usual careful checking of the individual is not required at all, which can be publicly discovered. The main spring is (fear of isolation) - “switching off”, the individual feels part of the whole and may not be afraid of the control authority.
In addition, there is a concept at work in public opinion that Noel-Neumann called the “spiral of silence.”
The “spiral of silence” is the fear of being isolated. This fear makes people remain silent or support the majority opinion.
In this situation, the media perform an important function. They form the agenda that is discussed by individuals in small groups and mass audiences.
The media decides what is relevant and what issue needs to attract public attention.
We react to the media and public opinion and conclude what we can say and do without being isolated.
PR goal consists of organizing two-way communication, during which common ideas or common interests are determined and mutual understanding is found, which is based on truth, knowledge and full awareness. The size of such interaction, aimed at developing stable public relations, can be very different, it depends on both the size and the nature of the parties.
PR specialists use modern methods of communication and persuasion to establish contacts and find mutual understanding. Understanding is facilitated by reputation, existing experience and cultural factors!. Important components of a large number of PR programs to gain a reliable reputation are to create an atmosphere of trust and implement a unified strategy.
For effective PR activities it is necessary to identify key audiences, as well as target ones, which, in turn, are divided into internal and external. When working with external and internal audiences, appropriate communications (internal and external) and certain tools for influencing a certain type of audience are used.
In preparation An important stage in PR campaigns is a complete study of the audience (target groups). Moreover, it is necessary to decide who belongs to the external target audience and who to the internal one.
TO internal target The audience includes all employees of the organization, as well as retirees and relatives of company employees, i.e. that part of society that is directly related to the organization and is the bearer of the corporate image. V.A. plays a decisive role in the activities of any company, however, employees most often serve in the interests of the domestic S.V.A. composed of small groups and are the object of PR. For COs to be effective, it is necessary to clearly represent the structure of the small group. The group has a leader (this is the name given to a member of the group), the cat enjoys great sympathy, and the cat makes decisions in important situations. The outsider is the person with the least authority. He does not participate in decision making. If there is only one leader, then there may be several outsiders. The structure of the group shows that information and communication influence should be oriented towards the leader. The leader is the focus of group processes. Group members give him the right to make decisions, in the interests of the group, they do this voluntarily .
The external target audience refers to that part of society to which the organization’s activities extend. External A. is a typical object of SO.PR focuses on mass people and mass behavior. Social psychology claims that the crowd can be leveled only by low reactions. Since the highest ones are different for everyone. SM is the fear of being in isolation. This fear forces people to remain silent or support the opinion of the majority. The media perform one of the main functions in this regard. The media imposes an agenda of conformity. The media decides which issue to attract everyone's attention to. Thanks to them, we can trace how they influence an individual’s perceptions and conclude what can be said and done without being isolated. There is another phenomenon that reveals the reasons why the majority may turn out to be silent. As the majority grows, its representatives lose the ability to argue their position, since they do not encounter people with different views. For example: communists 70 years ago could only speak the words of the CPSU, but that’s it level it is impossible to conduct discussions without reasoning. Once target audiences have been identified, the expectations that are necessary to perform actions when working with these target audiences should be identified.
When working with target audiences, PR specialists strive to solve a number of problems, such as:
1) studying expectations target audiences;
2) informing target audiences;
3) establishing and maintaining contacts;
4) conflict prevention;
5) formation of a strategy for activities in the domestic and foreign markets.
Specialized events are developed for external target audiences, which include press releases, press conferences, press events, press tours, press lunches, briefings, conferences, customer surveys, direct mailings, etc.
