The field of public relations is concerned with measuring and altering the attitudes and beliefs that members of the public hold toward a business, institution, issue or individual. Public relations professionals use many different techniques to influence public opinion. They also employ methods for evaluating the status of public attitudes before they begin their work and as a means of measuring their effectiveness during or after a campaign.
Measuring Key Performance Indicators
A public relations firm or business can evaluate the effectiveness of a campaign by tracking key performance indicators, or KPIs, over time. KPIs vary from one type of business to another. They include statistics that are relatively easy to measure and count, such as total sales, number of units sold, net profit margin and quarterly revenue. Other key performance indicators rely on demographics. For example, a business may wish to appeal to younger customers after noting that more than half of the people who enter its stores are over age 40. Following a PR campaign that targets young people, a new check on the age of customers who shop with a business will reveal whether the campaign was successful.
Subjective Surveys
Another essential technique for evaluating the effectiveness of PR involves the use of a subjective survey. Unlike key performance indicators, subjective surveys don't attach numerical values to the responses they ask for. Instead they rely on participants to share their feelings on a subject. For example, a business may wish to rebuild its reputation after a product recall. Administering a survey at the beginning of a PR campaign allows the PR professionals to gauge public attitudes toward the company. Another survey following the campaign will reveal whether opinions have changed.
Predetermined Objectives
A business may employ a PR firm with a very specific idea of what it wants to achieve through a public relations campaign. In these cases, businesses may lay out predetermined objectives that guide the PR firm and ultimately determine its success. Predetermined indicators that can be useful to determine whether a public relations campaign is effective include website page views and mentions in social media.
Outcome
Each type of evaluation technique allows a public relations firm to learn something about a client's current and changing public status. Likewise, evaluation techniques give businesses tools to determine whether their money has been well spent. But each type of evaluation technique is limited by its own scope. Subjective surveys, for example, lack numerical data to create obvious results. At the same time, key performance indicators can change for many reasons besides a PR firm's efforts. PR professionals and business leaders need to use all of the techniques available to them within the context of the specific PR problems they face to mount an effective campaign.
