Publics Publics Publics are anyone that may have an interest or association with your organization They may also be people who have the potential interest or association with your organization The groups are sometimes referred to as stakeholders The challenging part of PR is that some groups may not be obvious or known to Publics Why do we care about who is in our public Publics An organization does not exist in a vacuum They must be an integrated member of the community and culture Knowing your publics is knowing how to communicate with the other people in your community Publics Moreover some publics like the media tend to have persuasive power over other publics They are opinion leaders Types of Publics Traditional and non traditional publics Traditional publics are those groups with which an organization has a defined long term relationship Can include media investors employees government community other businesses consumers Non traditional are groups that you have no existing relationship with but you may come across Harder to define Traditional Publics Media mass communication Government mass organizational interpersonal Employees organizational Investors organizational mass Consumers Constituents mass Community Communities mass organizational interpersonal Businesses organizational interpersonal Who are their publics Types of Publics Latent Aware and Active Latent non active unaware groups that haven t been targeted by your organization yet Aware groups that are aware of how they may interact with your organization but haven t established a relationship Active aware and in a relationship with your organization Who are their publics Types of Publics Intervening Publics this is a public that has influence over or communication with other publics The media is the most obvious and powerful intervening public There are other intervening publics Interest groups Vocal critics Anyone with an interpersonal group word of mouth Who are their publics Types of Publics Primary and secondary publics Primary publics have influence over your goals have resources you need and require a maintained relationship Secondary publics don t have influence over your goals don t have resources you need but are still one of your publics that require maintenance We tend to focus on primary publics instead of secondary publics We get to secondary publics if we have time Who are their publics Types of Publics Internal External publics Internal publics are those inside your organization Employees Shareholders Even people with a tenuous connection ex alumni External publics are those outside your organization This distinction seems most important with classified or proprietary information It is also tricky in a crisis situation Who are their publics Types of Publics Domestic International publics Domestic is within your country perhaps even region International are those outside your country region Who are their publics