What first comes to mind when you think of government relations? Building relationships. Rubbing elbows. Connecting clients to government officials or elected representatives. Achieving policy goals for clients.
What about public relations? Shaping the narrative. Managing a crisis effectively. Generating company or organization awareness. Influencing public opinion.
Some of these objectives or tactics sound similar. That is because they are. But each profession brings its unique approach and perspective to the table.
When you pair your government relations efforts with strong public relations, you dramatically increase your clients’ ability to achieve their goals and set them up for long-term success.
Here are five tips on how government relations and public relations teams can work together to achieve success for clients:
1. Align Messaging: Ensure that your government relations and public relations teams are singing from the same sheet of music. When these two teams are aligned on messaging and delivering it through their unique mediums – the message is amplified and becomes even more impactful.
2. Agree on Stakeholders: Agree on who needs to hear from your organization. Who will the government relations team connect with? Who will hear from the public relations team? Coordinating your approach to stakeholders makes sure no key audience is left out.
3. Leverage Networks: Government relations professionals know elected officials, department liaisons, and political consultants. Public relations teams know the media, social media influencers, and government communications professionals. Leverage each network to ensure the best outcomes.
4. Outline Tactics: Like messaging and stakeholder engagement, know when, where, and how you are going to communicate important messages. The theme here is coordination. If someone decides to diverge from an agreed-upon strategy, the entire plan can be put in jeopardy.
5. Trust One Another: Perhaps the most important tip- if government and public relations teams are aligned on message, tactics, and stakeholders there should be no reason not to trust one another. Everyone wants to achieve success and it’s important to build relationships with one another that instill trust
When applied correctly, there is not a more powerful one-two punch combo than a coordinated government relations team working side by side with a professional public relations team.
