Last year, a colleague of mine was working with a student to help her understand the differences between objectives, strategies and tactics for her first PR plan (an assignment for my principles of public relations class).
The student thought about it for a few minutes and then offered this analogy. Public relations planning is kind of like football:
The objective = to score.
The strategy = the plays the team uses on offense or defense to reach the objective.
The tactics = the individual players.
All three parts need to work together to achieve the goal – to be the best in the league.
My students in the same course are working on the objectives, strategies and tactics for a hypothetical plan for the local humane society. What tips would you offer to students working on their first PR Plan? What about planning is intuitive? What is not?
Photo by Adam Klepsteen, via stock.xhchg.
