Strategy, Planning and Scheduling & Tactics - Week 9

Strategy, Planning and Scheduling

The stages of the strategic process in public relations are creation of organizational vision and mission statements, creation of public relations vision and mission statements, establishment of performance indications (KPI), budgeting, writing of a strategic public relations plan, scheduling of public relations plan activities.

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings is to be aware of the relevance of strategy, planning and scheduling done by public relations practitioners to think and analyse strategically in order to be ahead and updated in today's organization.

In organizational strategy is a series of planned activities edsigned and integrated in order to achieve an organization's goal. It's impact would affect the leadership of an organization and allow the managing of communication much easier. Strategy is not a tactic; it guides the selection of these tactics or stages.

Public relations strategy from a pr perspective must allow strategies to be designed for communication with all target groups - employees, government, pressure groups and local community.

The readings made me think how widely ranged public relations practice can be and how critical it is in return. The strategic planning and scheduling of public relations plan is important to the effective implementation and the management of the goals and objectives that supports an organization.

Tactics

Stratgy and tactics are often being used in the same context but they are closely linked to one another. Tactics can be broken up into two major groups:

• controlled tactics - those which the public relations practitioner maintains every control of the process
• uncontrolled tactics - can be altered or blocked completely (e.g. media relations, media release)

Methods of delivery for suitable tactic and mix of tactics needs to be chosen carefully as it plays a vital role in determining its impact and effectiveness. Every method of delivery is important, however difficult to be flexible, there are advantages and disadvantages that should be looked upon.

The readings made me think that however stringent the method of delivery using a specific tactic or strategy in an organization, there is no guranteed result that the tactic used is the correct one and it will surely prove success. Tactics need to rely on strategy since they are closely linked and its ability to relate to target audience along with the message intended to be communicated.