Competence-oriented education. Competence-oriented tasks in student education
The biggest problem that any business leader faces is how to calculate the effectiveness of a PR specialist? There is an opinion (especially among the heads of companies) that this is simply impossible to do, since it is impossible to measure the level of attitude towards your company from the media, society and other businesses. But this is not so, there are a number of indicators (KPI) by which you can measure the effectiveness of the work done. It is quite difficult to accurately assess the effectiveness of the ongoing PR campaign. However, in the current conditions, it is the performance evaluation indicators that are the main measure of the quality of PR work. There are several methods that allow you to indirectly determine the effectiveness of a particular PR campaign.
Here are the methods:
- Analysis of indicators « feedback» . After the PR event, the number of responses to the event, changes in public opinion, awareness of the target audience about the product, service or company as a whole is assessed.
- Analysis of quantitative indicators of a PR campaign. The report to the customer indicates how many materials were published in the media, how many calls were made after this, how many and what materials were prepared during the campaign. The disadvantage of this method is obvious - it does not take into account qualitative results.
- Analysis of the degree of achievement of goals. Any PR campaign begins with the development of specific goals that must be achieved as a result of its implementation. Accordingly, a simple answer to the question: "Was the goal achieved?" is also considered a method for evaluating performance. Say, if a PR campaign was carried out in order to draw the attention of the target audience to a new product, then the goal can be considered achieved if consumer interest in the new product increased after the publication of a number of materials on this topic in the media.
- Analysis of financial indicators. The easiest way to evaluate the effectiveness of a PR campaign is to analyze financial indicators: the dynamics of sales growth, profit growth, analysis of the percentage of attracted customers, and comparison of the size of the average check.
The choice of one or another assessment tool will depend on the specifics of the ongoing PR campaign (for example, whether it was external or internal PR).
In addition, it is not necessary to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the entire event every time. Sometimes it is enough to analyze the effectiveness of individual PR tools.
For example, when analyzing the effectiveness of publishing press releases in the media, you can evaluate:
- How many press releases were prepared in total and how many of them were published as a result. Thus, it is possible to analyze the effectiveness of the distribution (if out of 100 materials sent out, 30 appeared in print, then this figure is 30%);
- What was the “return” from publications? (The number of calls, comments, letters received from the target audience and journalists is analyzed);
- How much did each post cost? (You can calculate the average value or compare the performance of the current and previous PR campaign).
Using several evaluation methods simultaneously, you can get a fairly accurate performance indicator.
Don't have time to check yourself? Contact the Zebra Company PR agency and we will do it for you. Order the service and we will help you analyze the financial performance of a PR campaign.
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An advertising campaign is a set of interrelated, coordinated actions developed to achieve strategic goals and solve problems of an enterprise, and which are the result of a common advertising plan for various, but related advertising messages placed in various media over a period of time. certain period time.
From the definition, we can highlight the fundamental points for any advertising campaign:
- - an advertising campaign is a process that includes several successive stages, starting with setting goals and ending with an analysis of effectiveness;
- - advertising campaign involves the complex use of advertising media.
Lack of budget and lack of time are two of the most frequently cited reasons for not analyzing the effectiveness of PR campaigns. However, there are other factors that influence the implementation of performance appraisal.
At the core of the PR industry's approach to research and evaluation is the history and nature of PR practice. The 4 PR models by James Grünig (see appendix #1) provide insight into the evolution of PR and suggest why research and analysis of campaign effectiveness has not been used as much as it should be.
The concept of "public relations" was born in press agencies, which concentrated almost exclusively on advertising in the glorious era that gave rise to the phrase "any advertising is good advertising." This was followed by the evolution of the public awareness model, which became dominant after the 1950s. This model went beyond publicity, events and other communication activities, but still focused on the dissemination of information. This information could be tracked and measured by counting the number of articles, the number of lines in the advertising column, the number of publications in general, and so on, as they say, the information was "weighted in kilograms."
The dissemination of information, what the Public Awareness model focused on, is a one-way flow of information, focused on releasing a product (in this case, information) rather than achieving a result. According to this approach, responsibility for the disseminated information - which is read, understood, remembered, believed - is not considered the prerogative of a PR specialist. Therefore, there is no need for evaluation studies.
However, as shown in Grünig's 4 PR Models, the most effective model will be one that evolves from bilateral asymmetry to bilateral symmetry in dealing with the target audience. In the two-way model, the focus shifts from simply disseminating information to persuading and building rapport, which includes changing attitudes and behaviors. Although such changes are possible, achieving these goals and providing specific numbers for these changes requires in-depth research.
Today, private and public sector clients expect and demand persuasion, not just information - whether it's buying a product, service, donating money to charity, and so on. The dominant paradigm of practice today is to find a balance between PR and persuasion.
If you follow the theory of the psychology of communication, you can distinguish 6 stages of persuasion:
- 1) Submission
- 2) Attention
- 3) Understanding
- 4) Acceptance
- 5) Memorization
- 6) Action
Public awareness concentrates only on the first point - performance. To achieve the persuasion effect, PR and communication must create a situation of using points 2-6 with the target audience. In most cases, the attention, understanding, acceptance, remembering and action of target groups can only be tracked through research.
However, in a large number of cases, PR and communication remain one-way dissemination of information, focused on the "release" of information, which is a barrier to the development of PR as a strategic management function.
New interactive communication technologies such as websites, chats, and online forums are potential venues for two-way communication. However, if there is an opinion that new technologies will help facilitate and establish a dialogue with stakeholders, there is another thing - these technologies are just a new channel for disseminating information.
PR professionals need to learn how to apply new strategic approaches to communication, and find a way to create a two-way interaction process aimed at getting results. It will also make research more meaningful: both formative research to determine the opinions and needs of the audience, and evaluative research to measure the level of change.
Another important factor affecting the evaluation of the effectiveness of PR is the lack of properly set goals, that is, goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely.
Most PR programs have goals that are too broad, vague, and imprecise to be impossible even with a good budget. In projects, goals are often formulated as follows:
increase awareness of the program;
successfully launch a product or service;
improve the image of a company or organization.
Such goals are formulated too generally, so it is not clear by what criteria to evaluate the result. What is the current level of awareness? Which target group requires more awareness? What is the current image of this company, and what is the desired image?
Many leading PR professionals note that the lack of setting clear goals hinders the development of PR and communication processes. James Grünig, for example, speaks of "the typical setting of ill-defined, unintelligent, and unmeasurable communication effects, which PR people refer to as goal setting."
According to Dennis Wilcox, before any PR program is evaluated, it is necessary to clearly formulate measurable goals.
Validity is also an important factor for proper goal setting. Many companies and organizations have already established corporate and marketing goals, and PR can inherit them. PR campaign goals and corporate information goals should complement and interact with the overall corporate goals, they should be reasonable and clear, only under this condition it will be possible to track the results. If PR communication in a company has common goals of advertising and direct marketing, then it will be quite difficult to determine the effectiveness.
The principle of micro- and macro-measurements is one of the most effective approaches in goal setting. Macro measurement refers to establishing an overall outcome for a company or organization. Micro-measurements are necessary to determine the effectiveness of individual events: product release, publicity, briefings. Macro measurements are important in order to know the result as a whole, in the end; micro-measurements are needed in order to:
- 1) determine success and find out whether it is worth continuing this or that event;
- 2) identify the cumulative effect in relation to overall result in the long term.
Using the aforementioned measurements, and given that numbers and percentages should appear in the measurement of the results of the set goals, approximate PR communication goals can be as follows:
- - increase in profits by at least 10% compared to the previous year;
- - improving the image of the organization in the eyes of leading journalists;
- - attracting at least 40,000 visitors per month to the company's website;
- - increase in attendance at special events by 20%;
- - Decrease in the number of customer complaints by 25%.
These goals (which can also be called key performance indicators) provide a framework for measuring results and can be used in PR communications.
Another important detail in setting goals is to coordinate them with management. It is necessary to convince managers that the achievement of a particular goal will be beneficial for both company-wide goals and marketing strategies. Very often, PR specialists develop a whole set of goals that management does not like and lead to inevitable disappointment on both sides.
To ensure the effectiveness of the results of the goals set, PR specialists must have at least a basic understanding of communication theory. Misconceptions about what can be achieved with communication methods lead to incorrect and often overly optimistic assertions, which in turn make evaluation problematic.
The third factor influencing research in the field of public relations and corporate communication is predominantly liberal education most PR-specialists and lack of experience in conducting research.
Until relatively recently, research was not included in the study of PR and communication, which led to the fact that people who came to the field of PR did not have the necessary knowledge of how to plan and conduct research, they did not have knowledge of statistics, psychology , sociology.
The paradigm of Edward Bernays, on which until recently the idea of modern PR was based, needs to be supplemented and new approaches such as, for example, the Bilateral symmetric Grünig PR model.
Grünig's paradigm defines public relations as a form of communicative persuasion that inclines public opinion towards systematization. "Co-orientation theory" uses two-way approaches to communication, in which the sectors of the audience and the organization meet in the middle, or at least somewhere between the poles of their views.
Many PR professionals have only a vague idea of Otto Lerbinger's four main types of PR research: Evaluation environment, expertise public opinion, expertise of communication channels, social expertise. Many use these terms interchangeably, which is wrong, many do not have an idea about the principles of compiling public opinion polls, compiling questionnaires and, thus, experience some difficulties in conducting and planning research.
Another barrier to research is the "multimedia" nature of PR. This concept does not refer to multimedia technologies, but to the numerous disciplines that make up PR and to the channels used by PR.
PR includes such areas as relations with the press, employees, the public, the government, shareholders, and so on. In all these areas of relations, specialists use a wide range of communication tools to interact with the target audience: publicity, publications, video and multimedia programs, events, websites, sponsorship.
Some studies evaluate public relations as a general rating system using the same methods for all areas. However, many experts claim that different areas of PR use different techniques to suit their goals and audiences. There is no single study or method that can be applied with equal effectiveness to all PR disciplines.
PR specialists and communication specialists must recognize the existence of separate methods that are characteristic of a particular area. There is also a wide range of tools that are also used in narrow areas - publicity, publications, events. No one technique can be applied in all areas of PR.
The fifth important factor in evaluation and measurement is the traditional strong notion that evaluation is done after work has been completed. Management theory throughout the 20th century defended the PIE Model - planning, implementation, evaluation.
However, the PRO model is ineffective in research and evaluation. For starters, there is no need for formative research here before work on the project has begun. In addition, evaluation at the final stage of the project faces three main problems that make it ineffective:
- 1. In practice, in most cases, PR specialists do not have enough time and money to conduct research by the end of the project.
- 2. Management usually does not wait until the end of the program to see evidence of effectiveness.
- 3. More importantly, it is too late to evaluate the results after the completion of the project, because this does not represent a great strategic benefit. Why do you need to find out after the letter was published, no one read it? Or, why find out that employees want access to the Intranet after budget money has been spent on an expensive multimedia presentation.
Evaluation at the end of the program does not provide much benefit and carries a certain risk that the results will be unpleasant. And ultimately leads to the emergence of "fear of evaluation studies."
The identification of all these weaknesses in the traditional form of "evaluate the effectiveness of the project at its completion" has led to the creation of new evaluation approaches that debunk the old concept. Modern approach is that research, surveys should be conducted before the start of the project. Marston introduced the new RACE formula, where R is research (research), A is Action (action), C is Communication (communication) and E is Evaluation (evaluation).
Based on system theory, Richard Carter coined the term "behavioral molecule" for a model that describes actions that occur in a chain reaction. In the context of this formula, Grünig identifies the following elements of PR: discover, create, determine, select, confirm, develop, discover.
Craig Aronov and Otis Baskin further develop this idea: “evaluation is not the last stage of the PR process. In practice, evaluation is the beginning of efforts. The research function is important in planning as well as in action and evaluation. These are interconnected processes that, set in motion, have neither beginning nor end.”
This approach gets rid of the “fear of assessment”, which was a major obstacle to the wider application of the assessment procedure. That is, the re-positioning of the assessment is required directly in the field of PR: from the assessment of work already performed to the process of constant systematic accumulation of information, in order to more effectively plan future actions.
Costs, both monetary and time, can be a barrier to conducting research.
If the PR professional does not recognize the importance of two-way communication and focuses only on achieving results such as changing attitudes, behaviors, and building relationships, the assessment will be irrelevant and he will remain a "technical communication worker."
Without clearly defined goals, activity costs can exceed budget.
If evaluation is nevertheless scheduled for the final stage of the project, it may not be completed due to lack of time, money, or both. And if it is done, it will be too late to use the results in strategic planning.