In Case You (or I) Missed It: 'Public Relations: Strategies and Tactics' Recap, Part III

Today's post focuses on the last two pieces to the R.A.C.E. acronym, Communication and Evaluation.

From Chapter 7

Communication, as in most fields outside of public relations and related areas, is KEY. Otherwise known as execution (and not in the lethal sense), it's the most visible and prominent part of any PR campaign. In order to properly execute it, people need to know A) what makes up communication and how people take in messages, B) how they process said messages and either maintain or change their perceptions, and C) what avenues and tools in media will fit the needs of a certain message. Without that body of knowledge:

Within context, a PR campaign's communications-based objectives fall into the following steps:

1. Message Exposure, where personnel give mass media outlets certain materials and spread other messages through in-house media, be it the organization's website (for example) or newsletters.
2. Accurate dissemination of message, where it's made sure that the basic gist of the message stays intact as it is dispensed through journalists, editors, bloggers, and other channels.
3. Acceptance of message, where the audience takes it to heart and validates it.
4. Attitude change, where the audience verbally or mentally commits to change its behavior based on said message.
5. Change in overt behavior, where audience members show how much they've changed by actually buying the product or service and putting it to good use.

Most of the time, PR campaigns seek to accomplish the first two steps. In doing that, they seek to utilize six important parts of communication with audiences: reception of the message (via feedback and two-way communication), paying attention to said message (taking passive audiences (who like style and creativity) and active audiences (who prefer informative content) into account), understanding it (emphasizing common language), believing it (credibility, context, predispositions of audience), remembering it (repetition is key), and acting on it (via measuring awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption).

From Chapter 8

With evaluation, a PR campaign's personnel measure the results against their initial objectives, so as to be better with any future programs they may implement. With said objectives, they need to consist of a criteria agreed upon by the staff so that these objectives can be as feasible as possible. Probably the most common example of measurement of this is found in practitioners taking stock of media placements and message distribution, along with audience awareness/comprehension/retention coming second and finally measurement of changes in audience attitudes/opinions/behaviors. Typical forms of measurement include tabulating the numbers of message 'capsules' given out in a year, as the measurement of their production gives the higher-ups a picture of staff productivity and resulting output.

In measuring message exposure, practices include calculating media impressions and AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency), systematic tracking of coverage for both key messages and those of the competition involved, and evaluating the cost of reaching each audience member.

When measuring audience awareness, surveys are the choice tools for the job. They can also be utilized for measuring audience attitudes, which are also tracked through basic studies. The only difference is they can be done before, during, or after a PR campaign's been implemented. In looking at audience action, a PR campaign is evaluated based on changes in audience behavior via sales, fund-raising, or election of a candidate.

When looking at the supplemental activities of a campaign, pilot tests and split messages pretest a PR effort in order to give a good communication audit. Event attendance is used to measure audience acceptance, as is newsletter readership.