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The Importance of Proactive Strategies
In order to create a truly effective public relations campaign, your organization needs to implement action, as well as strategy. This blog post will focus on the importance of implementing proactive strategies, as well as when to use the different types.
What is proactive strategy?
According to Smith's book, Strategic Planning for Public Relations, proactive strategies are defined as, "an approach to organizational strategy that enables an organization to take the initiative in engaging its publics by launching a communication program under the conditions and according to the timeline that seems to best fit the organization's interests."
There are two types of proactive strategy- action and reactive.
Action strategy is a proactive strategy and consists of physical deeds done by the organization in order to achieve certain goals. It involves audience participation, organizational performance, alliances and coalitions, special events, strategic philanthropy and sponsorships (Smith, 2020). You use active strategy when you are trying to achieve goals within your organization.
Reactive strategy is, go figure, reactive. It involves responding to and capitalizing on influences from external environments (Smith, 2020). You use reactive strategies when you are responding to outside influences that may either be creating a problem or an opportunity for your organization.
Action Strategy
Now that we know the definition of action strategy, let's look more at how it is implemented in real life. For example, my senior capstone class is working on a campaign for Scissortail Park in Oklahoma City. Part of the project we have been tasked with is to create an event that aims at engaging young professionals, ages 21-35, in order to establish more relationships in the community and engage a different audience. Because this campaign is based on reaching internal goals set by the client, we will be using action strategies.
Although I can't disclose what our campaign ideas are yet, we are utilizing special events, sponsorships, organizational performance and audience participation to meet the needs of our client.
Reactive Strategy
As I mentioned above, reactive strategy is about responding to external factors. Although this is not something our client is currently facing, it doesn't mean they won't in the future and it may be something we, as PR professionals, need to consider.
For example, let's say that the grass, trees and other vegetation in parks around Oklahoma and Texas have been dying due to a new type of mold. If Scissortail Park is not yet facing this problem, it is still important to act. External factors are affecting competitors and could quickly affect Scissortail Park. In this situation, it is important to be proactive and capitalize on this opportunity to get ahead of the problem. Maybe you could take consistent measures to ensure the mold is not in and does not come to your park. Maybe you could fund research on how to combat the effects of the mold. Reactive strategies give you the opportunity to set your organization apart and potentially help others.
References
Smith, R. D. (2020). Strategic Planning for Public Relations (6th ed.). Taylor & Francis. https://bookshelf.vitalsource.com/books/9781000201468