Chapter 6 - Research and Evaluation

I think the key point to remember from this week's readings was research is an essential task within public relations, used to identify the requirement for a communication program, to assist in establishing that program, to check progress and to evaluate the effectiveness.

There are three considerations in conducting research; Time, money and the availability of human resources.

One of the most effective ways of viewing the research process is in terms of inputs, outputs and outcomes. Inputs research into the organisation, situation, publics and proposed message and strategies while output and outcome shows the measurement of activity and achievement respectively.

The readings made me think more about public relations practice of research and evaluation. From the earliest stages of planning, evaluating inputs, outputs and outcomes in a repetitive process by using a range of formal and informal methods leads to evaluation being strategic and more valuable to management. It becomes a tool to plan, reduce wastage, improve effectiveness and even save money. Thus, evaluation is the key to long-term success for the organisation.

Chapter 8 - Tactics

I think the key point to remember from this week's readings was tactics can be broken into controlled and uncontrolled communication. Controlled tactics are those over which the public relations practitioner maintains control of every aspect of the process. Uncontrolled tactics are those that can be altered or even blocked completely.

Common PR tactics are brochures, flyers, web sites and the following:

Publicity and Media relations - news releases, press kits, media advisories, news conferences, press tours, and personal letters or phone calls to editors and reporters.

Special Events - Open houses, fund-raisers, trade shows, awards ceremonies, contests, stunts, receptions, speeches by V.I.Ps., are examples of special events.

Newsletters - Publications typically four to 12 pages in length, although some are longer, with short articles intended to keep your customers, clients, members, investors, or donors up-to-date on what your organization and its people are doing.

Annual Reports - Lawfully required of publicly traded corporations. For nonprofits and community groups, an annual report communicates your accomplishments and provides financial information demonstrating your effective use of donor and public funds. It can also be used to acknowledge major donors.

Presentation - Arrange to have individuals in your organization speak at meetings of professional and trade associations, service clubs, civic organizations, and community groups.

Sponsorships - sponsor a local sports team, musical group, or community theater and having the sponsorship acknowledged on advertising, programs, uniforms, posters, or other promotional materials.

The readings made me think more about public relations practice in that there is no guaranteed correct set of tactics that will ensure successful implementation of a PR campaign. The success relies on the analytical and creative skills of the PR practitioner to consider tactics on the light of a complex range of impacting factors.

Chapter 13 -Sponsorship

I think the key point to remember from this week's readings was the way in which organizations use the specific tactics of sponsorship and special events to achieve their goals.

Sponsorship is the purchase of specific rights and benefits associated with an event, organisation or individual. Sponsorship expects a return thus it cannot be considered as charity. Sponsorship is popular as it generates goodwill for the company and provides awareness and opportunity to enhance the image and reputation of the organisation by association.

Events, which always include careful planning and timing, can demand the greatest attention to detail of all available tactics. The larger the event, the more likely it is to require some form of sponsorship, often requiring these two tactics to be considered in tandem.

The readings made me think more about public relations practice in that special events and sponsorship represent a high profile aspect of public relations that focus public attention on an event, organisation or product intensely over a short period if time. They are often highly visual, and for that reason offers strong media opportunities. But sponsorship can back-fire too. There is no guarantee of recall by the public. As sponsoring an event can give a brand tremendous exposure and in the case of tobacco companies, sponsorship lends social acceptability to smoking and neutralizes health concerns held by the consumers. Tobacco companies associate their products with healthy and desirable activities, instead of with disease and death which is required by the law. The "glory" ended soon when a ban on tobacco sponsorships was imposed as health concerns arises. It drills down to the ethnic problem as tobacco companies is using the PR tactics to improve on its image but ultimately the product which is the tobacco will not turn healthy with the amount of sponsorship. By making the consumer of less guilt or silly admiration of sport stars endorsing the product is a serious health problem.

To contact ... or not?

I think the key point to remember from this week's readings was the crux of the news-gathering process is the transactional information exchanges between practitioners and journalists that often become the news of the day.

The closer the correspondence between the practitioner's subsidy (media release) and the journalist's story expectations, the greater the possibility of placement.

The readings made me think more about public relations practice in that PR practitioners should work hard to sharpen their framing skills. Studying of journalists' definitions of news and using accepted styles of news presentation (the inverted pyramid) can decrease the chance of the media releases lending inside journalists' trash cans or spam filters.

Chapter 10 - Media Relations

I think the key point to remember from this week's readings was that the term media relations is often used synonymously with publicity. PR practitioners worked hand-in-hand with the media, just as PR provide information to the media, so too does the media provide information to the PR profession by monitoring news/media every day.

Public relations activities include helping the public to understand the organization and its products. Similar to effective advertising and promotions, effective public relations often depends on designing and implementing a well-designed public relations plan. The plan often includes description of what you want to convey to whom, how you plan to convey it, who is responsible for various activities and by when, and how much money is budgeted to fund these activities. Similar to advertising and promotions, a media plan and calendar can be very useful, which specifies what media methods that are used and when. Often, public relations are conducted through the media that is, newspapers, television, magazines, etc.

The readings made me think more about public relations practice in that public relations include ongoing activities to ensure the organization has a strong public image. Dealing with the media is a crucial part of the PR practitioner's profession. It incorporates both technical as well as people skills. Technical skills as such in writing media releases and compiling media kits, etc whereas people skill is as equally important as publicity is mention in the media. Organizations usually have little control over the message in the media, at least, not as much as they do in advertising. Regarding publicity, reporters and writers decide what will be said.

Chapter 4 & 5 - The Legal Environment and Ethical Practice

I think the key point to remember from this week's readings was in regards to the legal environment and ethical practice in PR world.

Legal issues can affect both reputations and relationships. The tort of defamation aims to protect a person's reputation. It limits what a PR practitioner can publish but also provides protection for PR practitioners and their clients' reputations.

Ethics are personal values which underpins the behaviour and moral choices made by an individual in response to a specific situation. The best-practice PR serves the public interest by developing mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics, contribution to informed debate about issues in society and facilitating a dialogue between the organisation and its publics.

The readings made me think more about public relations practice in that any practitioner engaged in litigation PR has a duty to be aware of the legal status of any case and factor the contempt of court laws into any advice offered to clients seeking strategies to minimise potential harm.

In addition, the organisation should develop a legal strategy and compliance systems to go a long way towards minimising harm arising from legal problems.

Lastly, PR professional ethics interacts with professional conduct and is part of an overall search for excellence which in no way neglects the bottom line but instead humanises it.

Chapter 7 - Strategy, Planning and Scheduling

I think the key points to remember from this week's readings were the importance of strategic and systematic design of public relations plans that is vital to the effective identification, implementation and management of the public relations goals and objectives that complement and support organisational goals and objectives.

The readings made me think more about public relations strategy in that the first strategic move is to influence the top management and educating them about the value of strategic public relations. By doing so, it clearly differentiate the role of a professional public relations manager from a technician. One is able to participate in the shaping and development of the strategic plan while another is just the disseminator of other people's plans.

One academic journal that I would like to share in regards to this chapter is "Yahoo investment in blog insight pays off"(2006).

Yahoo works with several PR firms to help develop a program that reaches out to bloggers and other online influencers. Yahoo has already began to pay attention to blogs about two years ago.

One of their strategy is to "listen to the public". For the first 6 months, there has been monitoring of the online conversations that were taking place about Yahoo to understand where the conversations are happening and to source out some ideas.

In addition to blogs, the PR team also looked into message boards and forums where Yahoo's products are commonly discussed. From that, the PR team found out that some of the bloggers were advertisers or search marketing consultants, which gave them some new perspective in the marketing segment.

With several different divisions and dozens of in-house PR people, it is possible to have face-to-face meetings with online influencers several times a month. Members of the PR team also make a point to seek out these influencers at industry events, such as Search Engine Strategies, Web 2.0, and Gnomedex.

In just two years time, it appears that Yahoo has been reaping the benefits of engaging this unique and growing audience.