PR
C IPR
INVEST IN GOOD COMMUNICATIONS AND PR AND REAP THE BUSINESS BENEFITS Here’s a challenge. Take a pen and a piece of paper and write down your organisation’s objectives. suppliers or investors doing or saying something and their perceptions of your organisation are therefore very important to your success. This is especially true if your organisation wants to grow, when it will be essential that these groups are brought along on the journey with you. The odds are stacked in your favour if you have built strong relationships centred on trust which means listening, understanding and meeting expectations. This is sometimes easier said than done for organisations. If there is a gap between what your organisation says and what it does, its reputation is undermined. Good communication and PR bridges this gap. “Public relations helps businesses to communicate value, tell stories and manage their relationships with their stakeholders. A strategic approach to PR is crucial for businesses aiming to establish and strengthen their reputation” says John Foster of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). But what does good communications and PR look like? It can take many forms but with one thing in common: Connecting with audiences.
Y
our organisation will have a few broad aims or specific targets, even if you are ‘between strategies’. How many of those objectives rely on other people if they are going to be delivered fully? I would be surprised if it wasn’t every single one. Most will involve your employees, customers,
72
When The Greater Cambridge Partnership (GCP), a Government consortium which aims to create economic growth, was undergoing rapid change in 2017 it needed to communicate its new vison, ambition and identity. They set up a public engagement campaign called ‘Our Big Conversation’, aimed at getting more people involved in finding solutions to the Cambridge growth phenomenon. They wanted to raise awareness, boost dialogue and gather evidence for future investment strategies. Their in-house experts worked with an agency, Social Communications, to run a campaign that targeted residents, students, commuters, local businesses and all sections of the community. They set up a website and social media campaign, produced tailored leaflets and organised events including their launch event at a high-profile Cambridge United game which gained a lot of local media coverage. The campaign reached over ten thousand people across Cambridge and generated a similar number of individual comments to ‘Our Big Conversation’, building an evidence-base that can be drawn on to help develop growth policy in Greater Cambridge for many years to come. And the success went