Public relations planning starts with four fundamental questions.
They're very similar to the four questions Professor Harold Lasswell used to analyze mass communication. He asked:
- Who says what?
- In which channel?
- To whom?
- With what effect?
Someone doing public relations planning should ask:
- What needs to be said or otherwise communicated?
- In what way?
- To which target audiences?
- For what purpose?
If you can't clearly and concisely answer these four questions, you simply don't have a clear idea of what you're trying to do or why you're doing it. If you can answer them, those answers constitute a very basic public relations plan. -- You know what needs to be done and how you can go about accomplishing it. -- Sometimes, that's all the planning you'll need to do. Other times, a more formal and fleshed out plan will be necessary. But, why take those extra steps unless you need to?
When more formal and detailed planning is needed, there are dozens of communication planning models you can use. Most of them are based on anywhere from four to thirty or more steps you should take one by one.
The challenge for communication professionals is to find a planning process that suits their own personal working style as well as the situations and organizations with whom they work. In some cases, your organization or your supervisor will tell you which planning practices and formats you have to use. In other cases, you may be allowed to choose the approach you prefer. If so, you'll probably have to experiment with several approaches before learning which one works best for you.
The fifteen-step public relations planning process I describe in the online readings listed below has worked well for me and for many other people over the years, but it is just one of many useful and usable approaches to planning. I'd say it's of medium-complexity, and I like the fact that it combines both strategic and tactical planning in one set of steps. Try it. See if you like it. But remember, you have lots of choices, and you should try to find the one that works best for you and the situations you're most likely to face.