Win People Over and Promote Yourself - 12/01/2006

by Gloria

Without realizing it, most people engage in public relations every day. Success in almost any endeavor requires you to win people over, communicate effectively and sell yourself and your products or ideas.

It’s not easy. Even some of the world’s largest and most powerful companies have suffered from a reputation for being arrogant and aloof as a result of poor public relations. To change such an image in the public’s mind requires radical action by a spokesperson who can project the opposite image of caring, candor and approachability. Not only must the company spokesperson project this image, he must feel it. If you do not like or respect your public, it will show, and your public will not like or respect you.

If that sounds kinda like the old Golden Rule of treating others how you want to be treated … well, it is. The trick is to learn how to apply that Rule to the practical world of business, to your social sphere and even to your own household. What? Public relations with your friends? Your teenager? Your spouse? Yes! Because winning people over and getting them to happily do what you want is all about communication and human relations.

A well-known textbook, the Practice of Public Relations by Faser P. Seitel, cites a 1999 study by the Council of Public Relations Firms that a direct correlation was found between how much a company spends on public relations and how much that company is respected. “Public Relations,” says Seitel, “is the practice of doing the right thing — of performing — and communicating the substance of that performance.”

As an example, this week I interviewed a client who wants to promote himself and his business by winning a particular award. We talked about how he needs to “beef up” his community service to win that award and improve his public image. The wonderful result of this realization on his part is that the Hospice of Wake County will benefit through his involvement on the Big Bad Ball. Through his efforts to promote himself, this client is helping others, and enjoying it more than he realized.

You depend on good public relations with your public — those customers, groups and organizations whose actions, decisions and opinions can affect your well being and survival in the world of business and commerce. And like everything else in life, good public relations begins with you and what you project outward to your community.

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