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Who
Stepped Up
Strong Internal Relationships Create Great External PR: The results can be amazing when an organization's public relations team embraces the important role of supporting other organizational functions and operational units by taking the time to understand their responsibilites and build relationships.
The public relations team at Tidewater Builders Association is a great example of doing it right and creating an explosion of positive public relations.
PR professional Mary Prier says one of the goals of the TBA's public relations program is to support the Member Services and Builders Services divisions in creating a sense of community and making members feel they are part of the family.
Key to this public relations help is frequent communication to the association’s 1,200 members.
"Frequent communication and the recognition it inherently generates for our members creates its own energy," Prier says. "People want to take on new projects or get involved because they know that besides doing something good, they’ll also be recognized for it. Everybody loves recognition."
Some of the internal PR tactics TBA uses include:
- Blast emails to members
- The Builder, a TBA membership magazine
- Social events, such as the TBA picnic and Oyster Roast
- Charitable projects such as The Charity House to benefit CHKD, and The Scholarship House to benefit the TBA Scholarship Foundation
- Quarterly builder breakfast forums
- Weekly builder briefing e-mails on developments likely to affect them in local municipalities
- Academic scholarship awards and young designer scholarships for vocational technical students
- Cooperation with other organizations like Habitat For Humanity, which in turn leads to membership involvement
The PR folks are the glue connecting all these moving parts. They also seize the opportunity to communicate great internal stories to their external audiences. Here's a glimpse of what the TBA team recently accomplished with public relations help in just one month:
- Blast email sent to TBA members generated $30,000 in donations for Tornado Relief in Suffolk
- Helped plan, coordinate and generate publicity in The Virginian-Pilot's Home section for $85,000 in TBA scholarships to high school seniors
- Helped plan, coordinate and generate print, broadcast, radio and online publicity for Homearama
- Helped plan, coordinate and generate publicity in The Pilot's Home section and WVEC TV-13 for the dedication of the Charity House at Homearama in the name of a CHKD patient
- Created a compelling video during Homearama and posted it to YouTube.
This PR tactic shows Chuck Miller of Miller Custom Homes demonstrating the strength of the concrete form walls he's using to build "The Mothership" at this fall's Homearama. It features Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera Oberndorf using a Tornado Blaster to propel two-by-fours through wall panels, then at Chuck's concrete form walls.
The video also shows innovative green features of Chuck's home while it was still in its pre-drywall phase. In attendance were members of Virginia Beach's Green Ribbon Task Force, inspectors, and other important TBA target audiences. You can view this PR tactic here.
As you can see, a strong internal effort with public relations help leads to great external visibility.
How dedicated is your public relations team to learning about and building relationships with other divisions in your company or organization?
About Rourk Public Relations
Rourk Public Relations is expert at public relations, PR tactics, and publicity, and provides public relations help to clients in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Chesapeake and throughout Virginia. |
