How to Create a Public Relations Plan

While your organization's public relations strategy must be planned based on the specific nature of your group, there are some general points you must address. If you plan ahead, you can build good publicity before you face any crises, making it easier to maintain good public relations throughout a problem.

Instructions

Decide How Your Organization Will Handle Public Relations

1. Select a spokesperson for your organization. This person should create relationships with the media and channel communications from your organization. You may need to explain to members of your organization that in most cases, they should not deal with the media directly but through your spokesperson instead.

2. Develop a media contact list by finding out who covers issues relevant to your organization in the local media. Newspaper and television reporters, radio shows and bloggers can all be included in your contact list.

3. Determine what overall message you want to convey to the public. Your public relations can all focus around one central theme, or you can create new themes for different issues. Your organization's message can be as simple as "we're the best at what we do," or it can be much more complicated.

4. Narrow down your audience. Rather than trying to spread your message to the general public, focus on a smaller group, such as your typical consumer. Marketing research can make this decision easier.

5. Plan to support your message with press releases, events and other opportunities to interact with the community and the media. Try to arrange your public relations efforts so that you are reinforcing your message with your audience on a regular basis.

6. Create a general plan of action for crises. Determine who will be responsible for keeping employees or clients informed now, rather than making a last-minute decision under stress. Practice dealing with problem situations and see if you can streamline the process as much as possible.

Tips & Warnings

• If you are uncomfortable creating your organization's public relations plan, you can hire a public relations firm. Some firms specialize in local public relations, while others focus on public relations for certain types of companies.

• You can use advertising and marketing to support your public relations efforts and combine elements of each to create the best plan for your organization.

• If your organization is already involved with philanthropy, community-building projects or other positive works, you can support your overall public relations plan by making those projects known.

• It can take a lot of trial and error to determine which public relations methods work best for your organization.