Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate!
Whether you're trying to measure relationships, experiences, or the specific value of media coverage, evaluating is important to the practise. Just to recap, here's why:
 |
| Image via Flickr / Creative Commons / janneke staaks |
- Gaining solid quantitative or qualitative data
- Justifying budget and expenditure
- Understanding real-life stakeholder perceptions
The first two tie together; when communicating the impact of PR to upper management, it's only logical to have solid data backing up your claims. This is especially relevant when justifying expenditure, proving why you deserve the current budget, or applying for a larger budget.
However, in the real world, solid data is rarely recorded from public relations activities. The team responsible know what worked and what didn't, what they'll try again soon and what they'll dump - but how they arrived at these conclusions won't be based on cold, hard facts. Instead, it'll be based on gut feeling.
But don't despair just yet - you may find what you're looking for in strange places. Say, outside the public relations or communications department.
Being part of an organisation that is so large can be daunting. At VisAbility, which houses Guide Dogs WA (where my placement is located), the services are vast. You'll find Occupational Therapists, Assistive Technology professionals and Guide Dog Puppy trainers working under the same roof.
If you think PR is only happening within the communications team, you're sorely mistaken. A large part of PR is stakeholder relations, and the managers of each department are naturally highly attentive to their individual stakeholders' needs.
Recently, an event run by two VisAbility social workers proved to be a fantastic PR exercise. The social workers wanted to make their clients feel special, so they organised a pampering day trip. Each client was given free spa treatments and hours to engage in issues-based dialogue within their own small community as they enjoyed free food platters, beauty masks, pedicures and therapeutic massages. The organisation sponsoring the treatments indicated a commitment to ongoing events as well as offering a generous donation. Photos were taken of everyone enjoying their days of pampering - and each was sent a survey to fill out.
From this event, which was organised without 'official' PR input, the social workers managed to improve stakeholder relations, gain community support, create an issued-based dialogue, generate a mutually beneficial partnership and gain quantitative and qualitative data. If we hadn't looked, we might have missed it - but the perfect PR data package was sitting right under our noses. All we had to do was look in the right direction.
Stay tuned for my next (and last) blog post! It will feature a rather exciting announcement...
- Elena
No comments:
Post a Comment