Kim Leslie’s PR Blog

Tactics, an important part of the PR planning process, should be evaluated as they are being implemented. PR practitioners who evaluate their tactics while implementing them have an advantage in their PR campaign and over others in the industry. Evaluation should be a constant, continuous process because tactics can be reevaluated or changed if they are found to be ineffective during a campaign. If evaluation does not occur until the end of a campaign, it is too late to change ineffective tactics and an unsuccessful campaign may result.  Feedback on tactics from publics is constantly being received and can be used to change tactics to better reach specific publics.

For example, a PR campaign at Celebrate Life Christian Church includes a tactic evaluation section for every tactic under each strategy in the campaign. These tactic evaluations include monitoring feedback on social networking sites and measuring the number of people who access and positively respond to content on these sites. By constantly evaluating the tactics, the PR practitioner for this campaign can decide to redirect the conversations on these sites or to find and utilize a new tactic entirely.  

Being aware of the effectiveness of tactics with the intent of improving them can make or break a campaign. Practitioners should remain focused on implementing their plan in order to communicate the message to the right publics, but should be able to easily adapt and change their tactics when they are ineffective.

The use of social media is the newest PR tactic and is beneficial for many reasons. Social media encourage participation, openness and conversation, and foster community and connectedness among individuals and organizations (Guth & Marsh, p. 268). Successful PR through the use of social media occurs through conversation. PR practitioners must join the conversation and connect with their audience in order to understand their audience’s values and beliefs. In addition, PR practitioners must integrate this information with the message their organization is trying to send. Social media make it possible for instantaneous message sharing and feedback while providing broad coverage to a wide range of audiences. Further, social media increase brand awareness and complement marketing tactics by building relationships with a public important to marketing professionals: consumers.   

Despite the benefits of social media, some PR practitioners continue to be hesitant to utilize social media as a tactic. However, the most successful PR practitioners in the industry today have embraced social media in order to direct various publics to an organization’s online content and messages. These successful practitioners are using social media to post their original thoughts, become part of the conversation, involve others in the conversation, and ultimately to share stories which convey their message.

Social media tactics are used to complement, not replace, more traditional tactics such as news releases and media kits. This is partly due to increased journalist participation in social media. PR practitioners must know how to use social media as well, if not better, than journalists in order to communicate their messages to journalists through social media. These important gatekeepers may not feel as though they are being bombarded with news releases and may be more likely to accept and distribute a message if they come across it through social media use.

Being social media savvy is essential to becoming a successful PR practitioner today, and in the future.

The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, launched by Dove in 2004, successfully utilized and continues to utilize the written PR planning process.  The campaign is truly values driven, as it reflects Unilever’s (owner of the Dove brand) values statement on the company’s website. Unilever’s values statement states that the company seeks to address social concerns through local groups. Prior to the planning process, Dove conducted extensive research in ten countries which identified women’s unrealistic perceptions of beauty and low self-esteem as a social issue. In its worldwide study “The Real Truth About Beauty: A World Report,” Dove found that many women do not describe themselves as beautiful and have low self-esteem.

This extensive research and planning by Dove allowed the company to create an effective written plan containing a goal, objectives, strategies, and tactics. While not explicitly detailed on the Dove page on the Unilever site, Dove’s goal is to improve women’s self-esteem by using everyday women instead of models in promoting its products. Dove effectively fulfilled its goal of promoting its products through the use of everyday women in its advertisements because it gained enormous publicity for the company in newspapers, on television, online, and through word of mouth. By increasing awareness about women’s perceptions of themselves, Dove successfully promoted its products and brand. In addition, programs such as the “Uniquely Me” program for Girl Scouts, addresses beauty and self-esteem locally. This is also in-line with Unilever’s values statement.

The Dove Campaign demonstrates how values should be an integral part of the research, evaluation, and planning processes of PR. Every part of the planning process must reflect the organization’s values in order to keep the organization aligned with its values. If Dove had not strategically planned the Campaign for Real Beauty to support its values statement, the campaign may not have been as successful or influential.

            Advertising value equivalency, or AVE, has been used by PR practitioners in order to demonstrate return on investment, or ROI because it is easier to calculate and understand. However, both AVE and ROI are controversial forms of measurement for PR profitability and have been a source of debate in the industry for years. By definition, AVE shows how much advertising, rather than PR, would have cost if it had been given the same value as PR. An article on Metrica online explains this, and other downfalls of AVE. These downfalls include the failure of AVE to account for social networking and online content. Further, AVE was not created to measure the effects of advertising or PR as online content, such as when a message is communicated on a social networking site which sparks a large response. Similarly, online content and advertising cannot be evaluated by AVE either, as advertisements on Facebook and newspaper websites change position each time the page is visited or refreshed.

Due to widespread disagreement, alternatives to AVE should be considered. The advertising industry is in decline, and using the measurements of a declining industry as an evaluation tool for PR is ineffective, according to the Metrica article. In addition, clients are in disagreement as to whether AVE is an effective tool for PR evaluation, according to an article on PRWeek.com. As a result of this debate, many have called for a new measure of PR evaluation such as measuring PR value. Unfortunately, PR value is arbitrary and is calculated differently by various PR agencies.

After such harsh criticism, it is interesting that AVE remains a popular measure of profit generated by PR, according to a study by Metrica. The PR industry must find a better way to define PR value, or formulate a new evaluation tool in order to continue to be taken seriously by clients. Clients require numbers that show a PR campaign’s effectiveness, and without these, clients may choose other strategies.

Consumers or customers are an important traditional public reached through public relations (Guth & Marsh).  I fall into the category of Generation Y consumers, or those born between 1980 and the early ‘90s. Generation Y consumers are a unique segment of the consumer public because they buy according to price and quality rather than brand. For example, an article on the USA Today website explains that Generation Y consumers will move to another website when shopping online if the page takes too long to load or provides free shipping that is not express. Regardless of the brand, if the website is not fast enough, the company will lose the customer. Brand loyalty is often not considered by Generation Y consumers, instead they choose the company which provides the cheapest price with the best quality.

In addition, members of Generation Y are part of another important traditional public, employees. According to another article on USA Today, Generation Y employees often clash with older, Baby-Boomer generation employees. This is due to Generation Y’s need for constant communication and feedback from supervisors and employers. Generation Y employees also desire to feel like they are making an impact in their company. Public relations practitioners must learn to build relationships with Generation Y employees as well as members of other generations. Baby-Boomer supervisors should be taught how to respond to Generation Y employees in order to maximize their productivity and improve their relationships. Organizations could also foster various relationships with different sets of employees in order to appeal to each generation. This mutual understanding between generations could improve the vital relationships between organizations and their employees.

By understanding how members of Generation Y respond as consumers and as employees, public relations practitioners can effectively reach Generation Y within various publics.

“After more than a century of evolution, why does the profession of public relations still face questions about its values and integrity?” (Guth & Marsh, p. 79).

The Las Vegas Chapter of PRSA’s blog addresses this ongoing issue within the public relations industry.  According to the blog, CBS Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen provided commentary on the show “CBS Sunday Morning,” which questioned the ethics and integrity of the PR profession. This commentary was sparked by the recent release of a book written by a former White House Press Secretary who acknowledged he lied to Americans during his employment. In the commentary Cohen states, “The reason companies or governments hire oodles of PR people is because PR people are trained to be slickly untruthful or half-truthful.” This is bad public relations for public relations! Cohen’s commentary reflects many American’s views regarding the public relations industry and its practitioners. It only takes one dishonest practitioner to cast a shadow on the entire industry. PRSA recognized this and immediately released a statement addressed to Cohen. In this statement, the CEO of PRSA cites the PRSA code of ethics and defends the industry. Some criticized PRSA for overreacting to the commentary. However, in the public relations industry everything released about an organization, whether good or bad, must be considered. Cohen’s commentary did require a response from the industry. Without one, the industry would have been agreeing with Cohen’s statements.

As long as public relations practitioners continue to be dishonest and do not adhere to the PRSA code of ethics , the industry will continue to be criticized as it has always been. After all, the father of public relations, Edward L. Bernays, was criticized for his public relations tactics and practices (Guth & Marsh). Until every public relations practitioner makes ethical standards their primary concern, the values and integrity of the public relations industry will continue to be questioned.

As with the majority of jobs, excellent communication skills are essential for obtaining a job in the public relations industry. Communication skills are ranked as the most vital skill for a career in public relations (http://www.careers-in-marketing.com/adskill.htm). The website lists specific job skills and their importance within the public relations field.  People skills and creative ability are also vital skills needed to become a public relations practitioner. Not only must practitioners be proficient speakers, they must be talented copy writers.  Entry level positions in public relations, such as those listed on http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobs-c-advertising_pr, involve writing press releases and newsletters, among other tasks.

In addition, the ability to use social media and social networking sites is imperative to having a career in public relations. Only those who are online oriented are qualified for a public relations career. “When people think of the environment, or national security, or education, do they think of your blog, your Twitter feed, your YouTube video channel? Probably not yet – but they could” (http://www.briansolis.com/2009/09/proactive-social-media-filling-the-information-space-with-great-content/).  Not only is it important to be an active participant in social media and become part of different communities, it is equally important to become a trusted member of such communities. As a trusted member of an online community, you become the message, and people will be greatly influenced by you.

Beyond these resume-type skills, public relations practitioners need to have a passion for building relationships between an organization and its publics, and a desire to use social media to do so. Public relations practitioners must be confident in who they are and what they do, and in their ability to use social media. Being an exceptional communicator in person, on paper, and online will get one far in the public relations industry.

Integrated marketing communications or IMC represents the merging and overlap of public relations, advertising, and marketing. Will advertising, marketing, and public relations eventually merge into one? “Yes!” say some in the PR industry, while others declare, “Never!”

Betsy Ann Plank, former PRSA President states, “The interest in IMC comes from people in marketing and advertising and not from people in public relations. The vested interests of marketing and advertising are in a campaign to merge public relations under the rubric of marketing … (because) advertising and marketing people are looking for additional fees” (http://www.nku.edu/~turney/prclass/readings/mkting3.html).  If Plank is correct, why is there an entire chapter in our public relations textbook devoted to marketing and IMC? At the moment, IMC is a blend of public relations, marketing, and advertising.

Additional opinions listed with Plank’s state that the merge of marketing and public relations is beneficial to corporations and will allow public relations to have a large influence on marketing. Should such a merge solely benefit corporations, what about consumers, PR practitioners, and marketers? The IMC does benefit all parties, as consumers’ voices are heard more clearly and listened to more closely through individualized and specialized messages. In addition, sending one clear message, the foundation of the IMC, makes it easier for consumers to understand messages and for PR practitioners and marketers to convey those messages.

Guth and Marsh claim that IMC only targets one public: consumers. However, in an article on PRweek.com, the author states that IMC uses the basis of PR to reach consumers and other publics. “IMC goes beyond the customer to recognize the potential influence of all of an organization’s stakeholders, including the media, stockholders, suppliers, government, Wall Street, and staff” (http://www.prweekus.com/Integrated-marcomms-a-boon–not-a-problem–for-PR/article/53019/).  Now that sounds like PR to me.