Communicating Effectively. Public Relations campaign and effectiveness of the communication techniques - Assignment Example

? Communicating Effectively Introduction The London College of Communication is Celebrating 50 years on the Elephant & Castle site, and on this occasion the college will communicate with the important publics those should be present at the celebration. Identifying and defining the important publics, internal or external, greatly affects the usefulness of the Public Relations campaign and effectiveness of the communication techniques. The publics that London College of Communication should communicate with and invite to the celebration are the students, the parents and families of the students, the board of directors and investors and the members from the ministry of education. Creating public relations is not just informing and administering the information flow between the college and the publics. In fact, it is a communication chain that involves and engages the targeted publics in building relationships and binding closely with the organization. Developing successful communication disciplines with the publics will lead the organization to achieve its strategic goals (Bland, Theaker, Wragg, 2005, p. 243). The college also has to ensure that publicity and managing public relations is not the same thing. The event can be publicized in various ways on various mediums but public relations will target specific groups using broad strategic communication capabilities of the organization (Bowdin, Allen, O’Toole, Harris, McDonnel, 2006, p. 122). The students are the customers for the college and they play an important role. Their performance and participation affects the organization’s goals and strategies directly. The students can be reached through various ways of effective communication. The college assembly takes place every week and every student is bound to attend it. The college can announce about the celebration in the assembly where the students are gathered. This is a traditional method of communication but has proven to be effective especially in schools and colleges. The students can also be given formal invitation cards with their names on them. All the students are equally important and it is the college’s duty to ensure every student is invited. Telephone calls can be made to those students who are not present. Telephonic communication is considered an effective communication channel as it supports two way communication (Cornelissen, 2011, p. 56). Announcements would be the most effective to reach the students because students are aware that important announcements are made in assemblies, thus they pay attention. The large number of students can be reached quicker and the message can be conveyed face to face. The invitation cards can be given out to students in order of their roll numbers. The parents and families of the students are the beneficiaries of the services of the organization. They are important groups and must be reached for the celebration. The communication channel to be used for them can be formal letters for invitations. These can be sent through the students to their homes. This is also a traditional method of communication in colleges and schools (L’Etang, 2008, p. 75). Mostly, the parents are accessed through their children. However, nowadays many modern and easy methods of communication allow the college officials to connect directly with the parents without consuming much time. For those students’ parents who are not present, the college must post the invitation cards to their homes. This can be the suitable communication channel as the students know that according to the rules and policies of the college, they must handover the invitations to their parents. Strict actions are taken against those who don’t; hence it is believed that communicating via students is an effective way. The board of directors and investors of the organization should be reached through formal communication methods (Diggs-Brown, 2013, p. 421). The most efficient traditional way is to call for meetings. Annual meetings and emergency meetings are often called up and they prove to be effective as it is face-to-face. The invitation for the 50 years celebration can also be given at such a meeting. The meeting is a formal gathering where the directors and investors can ask questions and evaluate the activities of the organization. These members stay comfortable with such meetings and discussions (Gordon, 2011. p. 65). The members from the ministry of education which is a local government body can be reached through direct mails and social networking. None of the members of the organization might know these members personally thus social groups and forums are chosen to reach them. The main members from the ministry of education such as the director and general manager can be reached through direct mails. This would be a formal invitation and effective since these members are to be communicated formally rather through phone calls or meetings. Grunig’s Situational Theory of Publics shows the difference between the stakeholders and publics for an organization. According to Grunig and Hunt, publics are those stakeholders that are affected by the decisions of the organization and the organization is affected by their decisions. Publics are more active and aware of the organization’s activities and problems (Smith, 2011, p. 159). According to Grunig’s theory, the publics can be classified into groups according to the extent to which they know the problem and do something about it. He also identified four categories of publics: nonpublic that recognizes no problem and there is actually no problem, latent public that doesn’t identify the problem even when it exists, aware public is the one that recognized the problem and active public is the one that recognizes the problem and attempts to solve it. All organizations must communicate effectively with its latent and active public in order to solve problems (Tench & Yeomans, 2009, p. 211). The target publics identified in this report are: the students who are the aware public as they are aware of the problem since they visit the college daily and observe how it functions. The parents are the latent public as they do not recognize the problem even if it is there. The directors and investors are the active public as they recognize the problems through reports and meetings that they attend and organize to respond to them effectively. The members of the ministry of education are the aware public as they identify the problem with their checks and reports of how an organization is operating. Communication theory relevant here deals with the people that are communicating. The communication must have a speaker and a listener who are willing to communicate and interact (Theaker, 2012, p. 32). Communicating effectively will mean that the sender sends his message; the receiver receives it and understands it, and responds to it. The message contains no other meaning than what the sender has put in it. The communication should have clarity, credibility, content, context, continuity, capability and channels. In order to ensure that the communication is concluded effectively with the target groups, the college should ensure that the right channel has been used, the message was clear, there was no confusing, misleading or irrelevant information since it was a formal invitation. Formal communication methods do not include irrelevant stories or information (Windahl & Signitzer, 2008, p. 90). Even though it is an invitation for which a reply is not required, the college can ensure that the students and parents have confirmed that they received the message. The traditional SMCR models consist of general communication patterns. It is considered as too simple because it is not specific. The model is in linear form including source, message, channel and receiver. The feedback and responses are not mentioned which makes it incomplete. A communication is complete when it is two way (Foster, 2012, p. 96). The model is simply based on the belief that all people are equal and will follow this model, which is not true in practical life. Thus, the SMCR model is a traditional model which is simplified to the basics of communication. The year’s biggest celebration! London College of Communication has completed 50 years on the Elephant & Castle site. The celebrations will last the whole year; however, the biggest event will be the function taking place next week on 19th August 2013. This event will celebrate the grand 50 years completion. It will include the college students, their parents, government officials and other board members. The event will not be open for the general public but the coverage will be done through various TV channels and news reporters. In the following year, there will be many events in which the public can take part; the details of these events will be announced shortly. The preparations for the event are going on since 5 months and the students say they are ‘way too excited’. The invitation cards have been sent out, and now the biggest celebration of the year is awaited. References Bland, M., Theaker, A. and Wragg, D. (2005) Effective Media Relations.3rd ed. London:  Kogan Page. Bowdin, G., Allen, J., O’Toole, W., Harris, R. & McDonnell, I. 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