Monitoring and evaluating PR campaigns

There are many aspects of the campaign that need to be measured such as expenditure, timelines and results. In every case, it is absolutely critical that PR campaigns be precisely measured. Kerslake (2015, p.1) explains that an 'effective evaluation can show management the "worth" of the campaign as well as proving its success.'

Source: Farm3 2015

Monitoring is keeping an eye on what is going on in the campaign throughout the process of it. Without this step, it is difficult to address what needs to be changed for the end success of this campaign. An evaluation on the other hand takes place at the end of the campaign and is the overall evaluation of the campaign and if it was successful or not. The PRIA (2014) explains that practitioners should design their public relations campaign to enable effective measurement and planning with demonstrable results in mind such as conducting benchmark research. 

There are various methods to measure concepts like expenditure, timelines and results. Firstly to measure expenditure, it is important to have a spreadsheet for expenditure tracking against a predetermined budget. In regards to measuring timelines, usually a GANT chart is the best method to use as it is easy to track the progression of the campaign. Lastly, to see the results of the campaign, a good method is to ask for feedback. Sending out surveys are a common method to see how the public acted towards the campaign and if it achieved its goal (Wilcox, Cameron, Reber & Shin 2013).

In conclusion, there are two different parts of the measurement process. Monitoring is during the campaign and evaluation is after the campaign. Without measuring the campaign, it would be unclear whether or not the campaign was on the right track or was successful. Therefore, measurement of a campaign is absolutely critical. 

Source: Fresh spectrum 2015

References:

Farm3 2015, Evaluation, digital image, viewed 30 April 2015, http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2795/4514141088_df16489639_o.jpg

Fresh spectrum 2015, evaluation, digital image,viewed 30 April 2015, http://freshspectrum.com/what-is-evaluation-anyway/

Kerslake, T 2015, Module 7: The public relations campaign: monitoring and evaluation, COMM11110, Introduction to Public Relations, CQUniversity e-courses,  https://moodle.cqu.edu.au/course/view.php?id=215

Public Relations Institute of Australia 2014, Statement of principles on best practice in PR measurement and evaluation, viewed 30 April 2015, http://www.pria.com.au/knowledgebank/area?command=record&id=546

Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education, New Jersey. 

#The Uproar of Twitter

Since 2006 with the uproar of the popular social media tool called Twiiter, the world has found communication to become far easier. The rapid rise of social networking sites has dramatically changed the landscape particularly in public relations (Wilcox, Cameron, Reber & Shin 2013). Twitter has been a wonderful platform for PR companies such as Memery who attempt to get a public talking about their client which may be a brand or organisation.    

Twitter Logo
Source: Siteseeker, 2013

The use of hashtags are very important as Twitter (2015) explain that people use this symbol before a relevant keyword in their tweet to categorize those tweets and help them show more easily in the Twitter Search. This becomes easier for the public to search for certain accounts and their messages. Also, the @symbol is used to call out usernames in Tweets. People will use someone’s @username to mention that person in Tweets, send them a message or link to their profile. From this, communicating with the public becomes far easier for a PR company such as Memery. Tweet A shown below is a good example of PR as it is has developed hype about an event to raise money for their client. For every retweet of the created hashtag #tweet4kids, a company was willing to donate $1. Tweet B also successfully proves to be PR. This is evident as the company has created a hashtag #experiential_campaign to create a hype about a certain event for a client.

Memery successfully provides an effective image of each of their clients by generating goodwill and hype via Twitter and other social media tools.

Tweet A
Source:Twitter, 2012

Tweet B
Source: Twitter, 2012

References:

memery [memeryaustralia] 2012, 'Every tweet helps! @Bankwest is donating $1 to @Telethon7 for every #tweet4kids today, so everyone get on board for a great cause!', Tweet, 3 July 2012, viewed 15 April 2015, https://twitter.com/memeryaustralia


memery [memeryaustralia] 2012, 'Bring ur muscle + umbrella! RT @Charlesgilroy1 : Heading to the city to be the hired muscle for the girls are @memeryaustralia #experiential_campaign',Tweet, 11 July 2012, viewed 15 April 2015, https://twitter.com/memeryaustralia


Siteseeker 2013, Twitter logo, digital image, viewed 15 April 2015, http://www.site-seeker.com/wp-content/uploads/twitter-logo.png


Twitter 2014, Using hashtags on twitter, viewed 15 April 2015, https://support.twitter.com/articles/49309-using-hashtags-on-twitter


Wilcox, D, Cameron, G, Reber, B, Shin, J 2013, Think public relations, Pearson Education, New Jersey.