As I had already read and commented on chapter 7 for week 5, I am just going to blog about the readings for chapter 8. However, revising over chapter 7 allowed me a deeper understanding into tactics and it complemented the chapter 8 reading and made the information much more easier to digest.
I found the chapter 8 reading quite tedious at times as it went into great depth about many of the tactics availabe to public relations practitioners and their value. However, this information is quite useful and once again outlines the depth of knowledge a PR practitioner needs on a variety of issues and practices.
In summary, the key points I learnt from this weeks reading were that strategy and tactics are two different things, although they do work together and complement one another. It is however, important to recognise their differences. Tactics must be measurable to the strategic outcome.
There are many different tactics, but successful PR campaigns do not neccesarily mean using all of them. The two different types of tactics are controlled (such as things the PR practitoner has control over, like annual reports) and uncontrolled tactics (such as things that can be changes, like media relations.) Some of the tactics mentioned include; media relations, annual reports, direct mail, newsletters. The success of the tactics employed by the PR practitioner however, relies on their ability to utilise it correctly and most efficently for their targeted publics; there is no proven tactic that will definately produce success.
My learning builds upon previous learning about public relations in that there is a considerable amount of knowledge a public relations practitioner must have in this industry, regarding not only legal and ethical aspects of the proffession, but also different tactics and how they are best produced. With each reading, the amount of knowledge and information that we need to know becomes very daunting, yet extremely exciting as it emphasises once again that this is an industry that is so diverse and allows the involvement of so many different things.
2 comments:
Kelly,
I found your blog to be clear and great to understand. I agree with you in that strategy and tactics are closely connected however are strongly different when it comes to public relations. I believe that it is essential that practitioners must know how to use both of these elements which will eventually aim towards a successful aim and/or outcome. I also find interesting that you mentioned how diverse public relations is. We all must be considering how to put all of these practices in to place.
I think it puts alot of pressure on PR practitioners to choose tactics becasue like you said in your blog there is certainly no proven tactic that will definately produce success. Thats why it is vital for PR professionals to research what tactic will be best for a given situtation and evalute its success.
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