Message Charisma: A Magnetic Appeal

Persuade, Influence, Achieve

When compiling and working on your message for a public relations campaign, it is important to identify how you will use your message to affect the reader or client. The use of persuasion is “a conceptual approach to communication that focuses on ethical attempts to influence people” (Smith). Although you might think you know how to persuade someone to believe, purchase, or present interest in something, you might not realize that there is a magnetic appeal that you should hone in on and perfect.

What’s the Magnetic Appeal?

Charisma is an essential element of persuasion. Charisma is “the magnetic appeal or personal charm of a message source” (Smith). Temiloluwa Awonbiogbon states, “Confidence without charisma is like a slice of bread eaten as is, without any supplement say butter or jam” (Awonbiogbon). This appeal is different for everyone - you might not have the same charisma as your neighbor, colleague, or even teammate. This also is the same for credibility, when looking at the Three C’s of Effective Communication. You might be asking, what does this charisma have to do with public relations? Well… this can be easily answered through the halo effect. The halo effect is “the phenomenon in which a message is likely to be believed mainly because the source is credible, charismatic, and/or in a position of control over an audience” (Smith). The halo effect involved the three c’s that were mentioned earlier. Through this phenomenon, if a public relations professional is credible, charismatic, and in a position of control, they have a higher chance of getting their audience to believe and act upon their message.

Charisma can be broken down into various characteristics. These include familiarity, similarity, likability, and attractiveness. These factors all influence your charisma to be stronger and more likely to be magnetic for your audience. Familiarity is “the extent to which an audience already knows the message source” (Smith). This could be well-known people in the community, celebrities, etc. Likability relates to whether or not the audience likes the message. This is simple - if you are neutral on political and social issues and provide a diverse and ethical viewpoint, the majority of the time, you will be likable. Similarity refers to how similar the message source, or PR professional, is to the audience. If an audience is full of moms over 40, a mom over 40 should probably be delivering that message. Attractiveness is another element of charisma. By presenting yourself well and having a confident demeanor, your charisma will be higher. PR Moment states, “communicators of higher physical attractiveness are seen as more credible in terms of perceived expertise, trustworthiness, and liking” (PR Moment).

Through these methods and tidbits of advice, a public relations professional or communicator will be able to grow their charisma, in order to best interact, engage and inspire their audience.

Works Cited

Are you good looking enough to be successful in pr? PRmoment.com. (n.d.). Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.prmoment.com/pr-insight/are-you-good-looking-enough-to-be-successful-in-pr#:~:text=Not%20necessarily%20a%20conscious%20awareness,ultimately%2C%20are%20more%20persuasive.%E2%80%9D

Awonbiogbon, T. (n.d.). Increase your charisma and confidence in public speaking. LinkedIn. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/increase-your-charisma-confidence-public-speaking-awonbiogbon/

Paananen, T. (2017, September 14). Photo by Teemu Paananen on unsplash. Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://unsplash.com/photos/bzdhc5b3Bxs

Smith, R. D. (2021). Step 6: Developing the Message Strategy. In Strategic planning for public relations (pp. 261-262). essay, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

Yang, C. (2018, February 21). Photo by Chris Yang on unsplash. Beautiful Free Images & Pictures. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://unsplash.com/photos/ggugq7wDoBU