How do you involve your board in public relations?

My Board accepted my mantra that perception is reality & be first to publicise bad news - before the competition did it for us!

One effective approach is to maintain regular communication with board members, providing them with updates and insights on PR initiatives and the organization's public image. We encourage their input and perspectives, ensuring alignment with the company's vision and objectives. Additionally, we identify opportunities for board members to be brand ambassadors, engaging them in media appearances, speaking engagements, and community events to foster positive relationships with key stakeholders. Through collaborative planning and strategizing, we leverage the board’s expertise and networks to amplify our PR efforts, ensuring a cohesive and impactful public image.

Having a communications expert on a board is always helpful, not only to focus on public relations, but to continually prompt and coach other members to share/promote all the great stuff happening in the organization. Sending the board a “three things to share/promote” email each month could be helpful. And you might consider creating a communications committee on the board that can focus more of their time on PR. We do this on the Buffalo Tool Library Board and it’s effective.

In my experience, it’s helpful when board members build relationships with journalists and influencers. An existing relationship raises the organization’s profile and makes story placement easier.

Start with the end in mind. What does success look like? What does the target audience need to think, feel, or do as a result of the campaign? How does this effort fit into the organization's strategic plan? These questions clarify a campaign vision quickly and realistically. Once defined, now you can create a plan to achieve these results.

Make sure you create objectives that are SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound. For example: “Increase funding for operations by 5% in the next 12 months”. Then move on to tactics which are the specific actions you’ll take to achieve the objectives.

It is important to identify not only your own opportunities but also those to whom you are addressing. From the outset, exposing the win/win is key.

Don’t assume that all of your board members are equally comfortable engaging in a PR role. Some of them may feel greater confidence after participating in a media role-playing session. Even more seasoned board members can benefit from observing or engaging in one of these sessions. This kind of training can make a board much more enthusiastic about engaging in PR efforts.

Developing a PR plan is critical and many agencies can help. Having a complete package including key messages, collateral design pieces, and media training can really differentiate your organization.

When they are functioning at their best, boards are advisors and ambassadors - not media spokespeople or active marketers. Sure, there are occasional exceptions, particularly in crisis. But a board member is there to give guidance (and fiduciary oversight) to leaders, not to help shift products or services through broadcast interviews or media appearances. Their network may be highly useful to help build relationships and those can lead to revenue. But let your management team, marketers and comms people lead the charge on PR, and have your board stick to the reason you brought them in in the first place.

The most important thing is to align the board members' expertise and interests with our public relations strategy, to educate them on its importance, to set clear expectations, to provide continuous trainings, and of course to regularly update them on the impact of their involvement. This approach ensures their meaningful engagement in our PR activities and maximizes their contributions.

Be realistic in and strategic about what your board members can actually achieve, and therefore, prioritize your training to leverage their skills and bandwidth. Use opportunities such as board retreats and quarterly meetings to train board members on key messaging, campaign messaging, crisis planning, among other PR functions, and how to use them properly. Coach them to lean on the PR team for guidance to minimize instances of going off message.

Sharing these achievements on Linkedin can be a way to reward your board members. Journalists also can be mentioned in your posts.

Include events and experiences where you can also motivate and strengthen as a team. Trips, dinners, etc. They serve to motivate and also have spaces for exchanging ideas and unifying messages.

Board members can contribute meaningfully to PR strategy of any organisation by aligning their views, their own interactions with other stakeholders with the overall vision of the org and shareholders values. For this they need to be apprised, from time to time, of the challenges that confront the org viz a viz tangible goals as well as intangible ones. So if you are on board of an education or health NFP, be clear to your board about the convergence and conflicts if any with funding organizations, with the policies where you are operating and the community’s priorities. That’s when Board members can also align their own views to help amplify the organisation Board they serve on in most transparent and authentic way.

As you work though your plan, be sure to survey and collect data on the outcomes. By reviewing efforts after the fact, you can better make adjustments in the future when it’s time to complete another PR campaign.

To involve your board in public relations, establish open communication channels, keeping members informed about PR strategies, goals, and outcomes. Regularly share key messages, updates, and successes to align the board with organizational PR efforts. Encourage board members to leverage their networks for outreach and amplify the organization’s message. Foster a culture of collaboration by seeking input on PR initiatives and involving them in media opportunities. Provide training or resources to enhance their understanding of PR’s impact. Ultimately, a well-informed and engaged board can significantly contribute to building a positive public image for the organization.

Die Kernfrage: Wann hat ihre Organisation und die Führung der Organisation etwas im ?ffentlichen Diskurs in welcher Tonalit?t beizutragen und wann nicht? Dazu braucht es Strategie, Prozesse und belastbare Journalistennetzwerke. Ich bin überzeugt, je mehr die Vorstandsperson das selbst verinnerlicht hat, desto besser klappt es. Auch das Bewusstsein für Zielgruppen ist dabei relevant. Und es hilft sehr, wenn die Organisation selbst authentisch agiert und nicht etwas vormachen oder verstecken m?chte.

Your board members are your company's or organization's best "brand ambassadors." Not only are they fluent in your work, they're charged with helping your brand to grow, recruitment of other board members or supporters, and championing your cause. In addition to prepping them to speak to media on your behalf, lean into where they or their companies might have achieved coverage or have media relationships. Board Members are more likely to tout the goodness of your brand to media contacts who have celebrated their own or their company's work.

When I decided to retire, I was invited to join the Council (comprising a Board of Directors) of the Cruising Association after being retained for four years as their Press & PR Manager. We enjoyed an excellent relationship. They didn’t want to lose my industry inside knowledge, my PR and marketing expertise and my enviable black book of industry contacts after 30 years of running my one-woman PR consultancy in the marine industry. It was a smart move! Two years into my three year tenure, we’re all benefiting as I’m also learning more about good business practices. It’s interesting, lively, keeps me involved to enough of a degree to satisfy me ... and it gives me the opportunity to more gently ease myself into full-time retirement!

Always make sure your CEO is comfortable with any PR activity/approach involving board members and that s/he is fully informed in advance. Ensure CEO has advance opportunity to provide feedback to your plans. No surprises! And give CEO status reports and summary of how things went once completed. When your CEO talks/meets with board members, you want it to be about how great your work was, not about having been blindsided.

As a board member, just like an employee, you are a brand steward. In the space to leverage their resources and spheres of influence for the organization, board members should be equipped with a style guide. This tool should share everything from colors and logo use guidelines (they'll know and Will be empowered to advise incorrect uses of the logo), as well as the way that you speak about the org's beneficiaries, to an overview of the org's story, and key words and phrases that ensure that there is consistent messaging about the org. When folks have a full picture, they can color within the lines of the brand when there isn't a canned quote for them to share.

Lideran?a na Transforma??o Brasileira para a Indústria 5.01. **Restri??o de Uso:** A Empresa Contratante concorda que, após a conclus?o da primeira fase do projeto e independentemente de optar ou n?o por avan?ar com o planejamento, materiais, estudos e afins apresentados pela Empresa Contratada, a Empresa Contratante se compromete a n?o utilizar tais planejamentos, materiais, estudos e afins com terceiros por um período de 60 (sessenta) meses a partir da data de conclus?o da primeira fase do projeto ("Período de Lock-Up"). 2. **Multa por Desrespeito:** Em caso de desrespeito ao Período de Lock-Up, a Empresa Contratante concorda em pagar uma multa proporcional ao valor total do contrato