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The Public Relations Process: Introduction and Stage 1 Research - Coggle…
The Public Relations Process: Introduction and Stage 1 Research
Course Outcome
Understand the importance of research in public relations planning
Organize a focus group
Conduct online and database research
Design a scientific survey
Determine the best method of reaching respondents
Write a survey questionnaire
Conduct basic Web and social media analytics
The Public Relations Process:
ROPE
Objectives
Programming
Research
Evaluating
Social Media Monitoring Tools
Increasing revenues
Tracking and managing issues
Developing content that tracks trends in thinking and fashion (called memes)
Increasing awareness of the organization’s mission
Improving public opinion of a particular cause or organization
1st process: Research
“the controlled, objective, and systematic gathering of information for the purpose of describing and understanding”.
Why it is important in PR?
Achieve credibility with management
crucial in providing accurate information to the management
Define audiences and segment publics
Research allow messages to be received to specific publics
Formulate strategy
PR activity can be strategically planned to achieve its goal
Keep in touch
PR makes survey on public opinion, hence, management is aware of the needs and wants of publics thus create better policies and communication strategies
Prevent crisis
Helps identify issues or problems encountered in org. “Be prepared” in planning and communication strategy
Monitor competitor
Survey enables org. understand the competition of products and services between one org. to another
Sway public opinion
Helps to influence publics on issues that interest the mass and generate publicity
Measure success
The success of a PR project must be measured. This is due to the fact that money and time has been spent and it has to be spent effectively.
Determining the Research Role and Scope
What is the problem?
What kind of information is needed?
How will the results of the research be used?
What specific public (or publics) should be researched?
Should the organization do the research in-house or hire an outside consultant?
How will the research data be analyzed, reported, or applied?
How soon will the results be needed?
How much will the research cost?
The purpose of public relations research
Formative (Inputs)
Designed to help formulate PR programs and activities.
eg; Communication Audits are used to:
Evaluate effectiveness of existing channels of communication.
Identify gaps between how organization would like to be perceived and how it is actually perceived
Evaluative (Outcomes)
Aims to determine whether stated outcome goals/objectives were achieved.
eg; Pre and Post-Test Design Monitoring the progress/implementation of a campaign. eg;
How many issues of the newsletter were produced?
Were the media releases issued on time?
Also referred to as measuring the achievement of ‘process’ goals/objectives
Types of Research
Qualitative
Usually uses open-ended questions, unstructured
Generally uses nonrandom samples
"soft data"
eg: focus group, in-depth interviews, one-on-one, role-playing studies
Techniques
Content analysis
Interviews
Focus groups
Copy testing
Ethnographic techniques
Quantitative
Generally uses random samples
Usually uses close-ended questions, highly structured
"hard data"
eg: telephone polls, face-to-face interviews, mailed surveys
polls and surveys conducted using precise, scientific sampling methods
Primary/formal
New and original information is generated through a research design that is specific and directed to answer a specific need
Involves a systematic methodology. The more formal research is, the more likely it can be replicated by others
.
Secondary/informal
Research of any kind carried out previously which may have some relevance to your problem
Can include desk and field research as well as analysing secondary sources, e.g.
Interviewing key experts, opinion leaders, Searching published sources, databases
Analysing media clippings and transcripts
Questionnaire Construction
Carefully consider wording text
Avoid loaded questions
Consider timing and context
Avoid the politically correct answer
Give a range of possible answers
Use scaled answers
How to Reach Respondents
Mailed questionnaires
Telephone surveys
Personal interviews
Omnibus or piggyback surveys
Web and e-mail surveys
Social Media Participatory Research
Tweeting and following influential tweeters
Pinning and viewing pins on Pinterest
Watching and posting YouTube or Vimeo videos
Reading blogs
Reviewing user comments on news stories and opinion pieces relevant to the client’s business
Tracking what people consider important or good current reading on Reddit
Monitoring activity in Facebook groups that impact one’s business
Contribution of Digital Analytics to PR Research
Message Testing
Social media montoring and participation afford wonderful test environments for determining how well messages will be received
Crisis prevention
Online tools enable environmental scanning and issue tracking in real time with quantifiable measurements of trends in sentiment
Credibility with management
Large datasets and extensive textual analysis of comments and online discussion offer management real value from PR researchers
Strategy Formulation
Web analytics and social media monitoring ensure evidence-based solutions to measurable problems and objectives
Public Opinion Influence
Social media participation can serve to equip an organizations with opportunities to engage in discourse that shapes media agendas and public opinion