Defining public affairs

1. Public affairs is necessarily all-embracing, making definitions tortuous. However, at the heart of public affairs activity is the need to ensure that the organization’s aims, philosophy and motives are consistent, both in terms of the way in which the organization acts with its external markets or target audiences and the way in which its own (i.e. internal) functions reflect the organization’s core objectives.

2. It is essential therefore to have a clear vision of what is trying to be achieved; what the strategic aims are; how that can be broken down into core areas for action; who the key audiences are; identifying the main messages for those groups of people, and the most effective way of achieving and maintaining contact with them.

3. Your client or employer may think that they have gone through this process. But as the professional adviser it is important that you appraise their objectives too because there is every opportunity that such a reappraisal will provoke new thinking or a different interpretation. And the over-arching strategy will need to be adjusted to take this into account.

4. In building up the strategy sufficient time should be given to reviewing and then revising the campaign, along the way ensuring the focus remains on the core objectives, and that the strengths and weaknesses are identified and acted upon. Importantly, scope should exist to ensure the intelligence gathered is harnessed and fed back into the information flow to ensure it influences future policy.

5. The range of activities expected of those involved in public affairs will entail the following types of activity in varying degrees:

• communicating with government;

• communicating with local authorities;

• media relations;

• community relations;

• advertising;

• issue management;

• investor relations;

• staff communications;

• corporate publications;

• conferences and seminars.

6. The overall aim in any campaign must be to build support for your cause, using as many influential outlets as possible and, especially, calling on the advocacy of others who will act as essential third party support. These are the beginnings of a sphere of concentrated and coordinated action to support the strategy and the birth of consensus.

7. Once it starts to build pressure can be applied (though not necessarily always publicly) to ensure the issue at hand is brought to the attention of those who will ultimately be debating or creating policy, or taking the final decisions.

8. The ultimate target may be a change in legislation or a shift in attitude by those who are in a position to influence others. The democratic process allows plenty of opportunity to contact those at the heart of such activities, while the process of applying pressure can be orchestrated through robust media campaigning and/or a combination of the activities listed above.