Members of the Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) in the country, have been challenged to, as professional Practitioners of image-making and reputation-building managers, put more efforts towards strengthening the promotion of positive values and image of the country and organizations they represent, work, or consult for.
The challenge was made by the Managing Director and CEO of North-East Development Commission (NEDC), Mohammed Goni Alkali in a keynote address titled: ‘Empowering Communities Through Strategic Communication: The Role of Public Relations Practitioners in Championing NEDC interventions’ delivered at the Annual General Meeting /Conference of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Bauchi State Chapter held on Thursday in Bauchi.
According to him, “To maintain a favourable image in any organization, public relations practitioners need to maintain absolute oversight over the New Media technology and continually monitor the webs for unwanted online exposure.”
He added “Furthermore, inadequate and erroneous online information broadcast by disgruntled employees, target beneficiaries and stakeholders should be promptly addressed by PR experts in organizations to avoid unfriendly relations with the public bearing in mind that the goal of Public Relations, is to create goodwill for the organisation among its Stakeholders, employees, community and government.”
“At this juncture, I want to appeal to public relations practitioners to always be guided by professionalism through accurate reporting and telling the story as it is,” he stressed.
The NEDC Boss also stated, “In this digital age, the power of Public Relations (PR) is real because it helps to enhance reputation, build credibility and grow overall organizational awareness which in turn promotes accountability.”
Goni Alkali said that recent studies have shown that Public Relations Practitioners of both public and private organizations, do perceive the adoption of new media technologies in the performance of their function for the promotion of mutual understanding as supportive to quick and interactive approaches to information dissemination to stakeholders and the public.
According to him, “The general consensus is that more Public Relations practitioners of organizations especially public organizations such as ours, should be encouraged to use New Media in the course of executing their professional assignments because of its advantages.”
He stressed that, “There is no doubt that the revolution in the information technology sector, has ushered in fundamental and far-reaching changes in the mode of communication across the globe.”
“This phenomenon has its pros and cons depending on how one looks at it. The digital media have provided Public Relations Practitioners unique opportunities to gather information, monitor public opinion on issues, and engage in direct dialogue with their audience since there are no longer passive bystanders on variety of issues,”he added.
Goni Alkali stressed that “At NEDC, we see Public Relations as the practice of maintaining a positive public image for the organization by managing communication with the media, the general public and people of influence.”
According to him, “Strategic communications on the other hand, can be viewed as a specialized approach to disseminating and receiving information. It means communicating the best message, through the correct channels, to the right people, at the right time and using feedback from this process to stay focused on organizational goals.”
“For us at the North East Development Commission (NEDC), realising the importance and strategic role of Public Relations in promoting and enhancing our activities, we accorded it special attention by creating Units such as Strategic Communications, Digital/New Media and of course Protocol and logistics in the Corporate Services Department of the Commission,” he added.
According to him, “Not only that, we went ahead to employ competent and reliable Public Relations practitioners to run affairs of the Department who mostly are Registered Members of our prestigious Institution, NIPR.”
He said that, “But more importantly, NEDC has taken advantage of the revolution in information technology to widen the scope of our reach to the public and other stakeholders.”
“We avail ourselves the use and patronage of not only the traditional media but also social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp groups to publicise our activities using PR strategies. Indeed, this approach has given us the opportunity to receive feedback and gauge people’s views, opinions as well as feelings regarding our activities and programmes targeting them,” he stressed.
Goni Alkali added that, “Without any exaggeration, I want to say NEDC in Nigeria today, is one public organization that has enjoyed tremendous Media support and assistance since the beginning of our operations.”
He also stated that, “There has never been any single public event we held that has gone unpublicized. This healthy relationship between us and the Media facilitated by our able Public Relations practitioners, has helped immensely in creating positive image before the public, Government and other relevant stakeholders.”
“In conclusion, as partners in progress, I will enjoin NIPR to continue to give the NEDC maximum support and cooperation in promoting our activities across the nooks and crannies of the North East Region and Nigeria as a whole,” he concluded as represented by NEDC’s Head of Corporate Services, Mallam Abba Musa.
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