I think we are all aware by now that effective communication deals a lot with what you’re saying, but it also deals a lot more with what you do too. More often than not, words and actions go hand-in-hand, and a lot of negativity can happen when you do exactly what you say you will not do, and vice versa.
This plays into our every-day life, but it is completely true for organizations and work-life as well. Reacting before you think, can result in the overall life of your organization and loss of friends. Many companies have experienced tremendous loss by reacting before strategizing. This is why it is immensely important to strategize before you respond to your organizations public.
While there are many strategies you can take that are related to PR communication, one of the strategies that I believe will give you the most opportunity is the proactive strategy.
What is proactive strategy?
Proactive strategy is a tool that we can use to avoid an issue or negative behavior from occurring. According to Strategic Planning for Public Relations by Ronald D. Smith proactive strategy enables the initiative to launch a communication program under conditions relating to a particular timeline that best fits your organization. This strategy falls right under action and communication to focus on transparency, presentation and publicity of information to its public. (Smith, 2013) Proactive strategy uses modification, re-organization and revision. This is important because the way you talk to your grandmother, will not be the same way you talk to your friends. It is crucial to alter your communication style in a proactive way so you can get what you want to say across in an effective way. This is why we use the term “think before you speak”, which applies to organizational communication as well.
This YouTube video gives the overall essence of proactive strategy, and even gives examples on how it you can see it in your own life and self:
Internal vs. External
Internal proactive strategy looks a lot like what you think it does, organizational performance. This is a quantitative measure of examining what your company does versus what they say they do. If the organizational performance is extremely low, this is a good indicator that your organization is not proactively strategizing and communicating within the organization in a way that is beneficial. It all starts with the C-suite. Making sure that your organization is working at the best level of quality for its employees is an important aspect of proactive strategy.
External proactive strategy can be implemented and measured by audience engagement. Whether it be from audience interest, participation or feedback, proactive strategy will be used to get the attention of your public. For example, it might be more beneficial to explain the reason your organization will be donating to a particular cause, versus just plainly entering a link for your customers to donate to with no context. (Smith, 2013) Context and information giving is a big process in this portion of proactive strategy, because if there is one thing the public likes, it is to be informed.
Now that we have went over what proactive strategy is, and the difference between measuring/seeing internally and externally, Here is a list of organizations such as Netflix, FaceBook and Amazon that have used proactive strategy to have a mutually beneficial relationship with the public and employees. (FreshDesk, 2019)
references:
15 examples of brands that deliver proactive support and how to learn from them. Freshdesk Blogs. (2022). Retrieved from https://freshdesk.com/customer-support/proactive-support-brands-examples-blog/
Smith, R. D. (2013). Strategic planning for public relations. Routledge.
YouTube. (2016). Proactive vs reactive | be proactive. YouTube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tex0zKuLCMg
