Relations in the Local Community

After college, I want to work in a small town building up local businesses through design and public relations. I find it fitting to discuss some of the things I learned from this week’s reading in Measure What Matters. I hope you find some of these as helpful as I do.

1.      Determine who your neighbors are

It is important to note that communities are no longer just the people around you, but they can be virtual groups of people as well. Neighbors can be a variety of people including: customers, vendors, partners, external advocates, nongovernmental organizations, and others that your company has a relationship with.

2.      Know how relationships influence your organization

It is key to ignore those relationships that put you at risk or in danger. If you lose the trust of the community it can be hard to regain. It can be done though through an apology and admission of wrongdoing. When you have a good relationship with the community, they can be a support system and back up your business in time of crisis.

3.      Focus on the key publics

The key publics can include anyone from customers to financial analysts to the media. It has become expected that business have a global outreach program in place. If an organization does not have a good metrics plan in place, then it is easy to assume everything is fine and dandy. It is not until something goes wrong that you notice things should have been determined ahead of time.

With the desire to work in a small community, this information is great to keep in mind. I hope you all find it as informative and important as I do.