Public Relations is one of the fastest growing professional fields. It is estimated that public relations managers are increasing in number as well as in percentage due to the growing demand of the field. Almost all the international and national organizations, whether government or non-government require public relation managers to deal with the people in the most effective method and to communicate to the public in a proper way. It is an essential and powerful tool because it conveys the message of the organization to the public as it is important for the organization to maintain its community base (Pria.com.au 2018). Organizations maintain its own public relation strategy and groups for a good relationship with the press and to maintain a good image in public by promoting its values and objective (Botan and Towbridge 2015). The organization chosen for this paper is Australian Red Cross. This paper will analyze the public relations strategies of the above-mentioned organization.
The Australian Red Cross is a charitable non-profit organization based in Australia has a robust public relation management strategy (Redcross.org.au 2018). It maintains communication with the media through periodic press releases. It also promotes its messages through the podcast and online platform. The organization maintains annual and monthly publications. The target public for this organization is people who are facing problems like sexual abuse, refugees, the middle and ole aged, children and women. It tries to maintain communication with these target population on a regular basis. This paper will analyze the ways in which this company manages its public relations activities (Redcross.org.au 2018)
According to Macnamara (2016), public relation is a two-way connection between the organization and the public. The Shannon-Weaver model of communication developed in 1940’s can be perfectly applied to this organization’s activities. The role of the Sender is played by the organization (Red Cross) and the encoder is the electronic media while the receiver is the public to whom it is communicated (Gillespie et al 2018) .The role of a public relation manager becomes essential here, as it is he who will communicate the message of the organization to the public. The public relations practitioner is to research about the organization, find the positive messages about the organization and finally to communicate it to the media. They create an “architecture of speaking” (Macnamara 2016)
Similarly, the Red Cross in Australia, which is based on humanitarian values shares stories of people through the podcast and media interactions. The spokespeople of the company talk to the vulnerable people about the threat of the future emergencies and recovering from the disaster (Redcross.org.au 2018) . Their annual report is released which gives an overall development and achievement that has been done throughout the year. The Red Cross organization arranges the Blood Donation campaign at regular interval to achieve communication goals and promotes the motto of the organization through these campaigns (Donateblood.com.au 2018).Red Cross Australia maintains its own social media on Facebook and Instagram to maintain effective communication with the public. Their extensive chain of communication covers Facebook, Instagram,Twitter,Google+ and LinkedIn. For managing a better public communication, they connect with the public at level (Redcross.org.au 2018).These activities on the social media call for people’s attention into the organization’s motto. It gives a clear picture to the people that Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that promotes the cause of the people.
According to Johnston (2014), “engagement” with the stakeholders is the key to survival for an organization. This develops a relationship of cooperation and communication. Australian Red Cross is ranked as the most trusted and active partner in disaster management maintains a good relationship with the stakeholders in governmental and non-governmental agencies (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2018). It maintains a strong relationship with the Australian government, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This communication with the government helps them to achieve the humanitarian goals (Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2018).
Effective PR means effective communication and relation with the public. Red Cross in Australia proposes surveys to find out about the issues concerning them and anticipate them for better outcomes. For example, it conducted the “loneliness survey” during the Christmas to find out reasons for loneliness during the festive season (Redcross.org.au 2018). Based on these surveys, the organization comes up with a viable programme in order to maintain a good relation with the people.
Crisis management is a challenging task. The public relations management prepares strategies to fight these crises. It has taken a different form, especially in the digital era. Red Cross-in Australia maintains a digital platform to keep people informed about its role during crises period. The primary purpose of doing it is to empower communities, grow a secure network of people and promoting goals through social engagement (Baja et al2015).It believes in “one step can make you suffer” and developed resource center for individuals and groups through the digital media applications (Redcross.org.au 2018). Moreover, they manage and maintain three different portals for “resources”, one for the people, one for the agencies associated with it and one for the targeted group of parents and teachers. Through these resources, they communicate to the people regarding the crisis. For example, they manage resources on their website regarding the “climate hazards” to prepare people during natural emergencies (Redcross.org.au 2018).
There are issues that every organization face while working. It is the responsibility of the public relations managers to manage these issues effectively and convey it to the public. The Australian Red Cross manages to look into the issues affecting the people at large. For Example, it has taken up issues of child sexual abuse, human trafficking, and refugees and prepares plans for their strategic management (Redcross.org.au 2018).As an organization, they identify the issues, set priorities, develop a response to that issue and monitor effective management. At a regular interval, they publish that report on their website to give people an idea about their effective management of the issue. During the issue of Bangladeshi refugees in the refugee camp, the organization published its report on the overall issue and its probable response to it. For example, The Australian Red Cross has released their report and progression in this field. (Redcross.org.au 2018).
Being a humanitarian non-profit organization, its primary concern has been serving the people. However, to do that there is a requirement of a strategic public relations management. Among other humanitarian organizations, the Red Cross in Australia has strong Public relation management. Analyzing them, it is found that this organization has a list of stakeholders who work with people at the ground level to cater to their needs. This is the basic requirement of strong public relation. It has good communication with 106 members of the Australian Parliament who directly support their initiative at the global and local level (Redcross.org.au 2018).
Secondly, on the digital front, it has launched a flagship magazine called “Humanitarian” which is sent to over 45000 recipients and has 9000 supporters in Australia and overseas. Through this medium, they connect to the public in forecasting their objectives, recent projects, progress and many more issue. This magazine is available at the digital and non-digital platforms helping the organization to broaden its community base (Redcross.org.au 2018).
Thirdly, they have dynamic social media operations. It operates through a number of television channels. On the social media front, they operate through the Facebook page, which has over 49000 likes, which have also increased on an average of 19000 likes. This medium helps them to reach people through the most used platform of the people (Redcross.org.au 2018). They also initiated a campaign on the Twitter named “cycloneowen” to support the people affected by the cyclone (Redcross.org.au 2018).
Fourthly, Red Cross “word of mouth” campaign for the Blood Donation service was initiated at the online and offline platform. This drew people from all parts of the country who are aged between 30-54 and have not donated blood since last five years. This was reported to successfully draw 1827 blood donors for that event (Campaign Brief Australia 2018).These factors contribute to broadening its community base and spread the motto of the organization. However, no organization is free from problems. It also has its inherent weaknesses like lack of innovative projects, limited resource and competition with other organization.
Public relations is the systematic and strategic management of communication and relationship between the organization and the public. As it is based on certain perimeters like media relations, press release, website and podcast, spokespeople of the organization, an organization can only manage to have an active public relations management when it qualifies all the above-mentioned parameters. For the Australian Red Cross, they are able to promote their objective successfully and communicate with the media and the public.
References
Austin, E.W. and Pinkleton, B.E., 2015. Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication campaigns. Routledge.
Bajaj, G., Pillai, A. and Gupta, R., 2015. Crisis Communication in the Digital Era. In Managing in Recovering Markets (pp. 377-394). Springer, New Delhi.
Botan, C.H. and Trowbridge, J.G., 2015. Public relations theory: Past, present and future. In Handbuch der Public Relations (pp. 357-377). Springer VS, Wiesbaden.
Campaign Brief Australia, 2018. Australian Red Cross Blood Service case study: How an influential word of mouth campaign increased blood donations via Social Soup. [online] Campaign Brief Australia. Available at: https://www.campaignbrief.com/2013/05/australian-red-cross-blood-ser.html [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2018. Australian Red Cross. [online] Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Available at: https://dfat.gov.au/aid/topics/investment-priorities/building-resilience/humanitarian-policy-and-partnerships/Pages/australian-red-cross.aspx [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
Donateblood.com.au 2018. About | Australian Red Cross Blood Service. [online] Donateblood.com.au. Available at: https://www.donateblood.com.au/about [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
Gillespie, D.J. and Schiffman, R., 2018. A Critique of the Shannon-Weaver Theory of Communication and Its Implications for Nursing. Research and theory for nursing practice, 32(2), pp.216-225.
Johnston, K.A., 2014. Public relations and engagement: Theoretical imperatives of a multidimensional concept. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(5), pp.381-383.
Macnamara, J., 2016. Organizational listening: Addressing a major gap in public relations theory and practice. Journal of Public Relations Research, 28(3-4), pp.146-169.
Pria.com.au, A. 2018. Public Relations Institute of Australia. [online] Pria.com.au. Available at: https://www.pria.com.au/public-relations/what-is-it/ [Accessed 13 Dec. 2018].
Redcross.org.au 2018. Help end loneliness this Christmas. [online] Redcross.org.au. Available at: https://www.redcross.org.au/news-and-media/media-centre/media-releases/help-end-loneliness-this-christmas [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
Redcross.org.au 2018. Resources to help you. [online] Redcross.org.au. Available at: https://www.redcross.org.au/get-help/emergencies/resources-about-disasters [Accessed 12 Dec. 2018].
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