measuring.

Measuring the effectiveness of a public relations campaign is one of the most important things a PR professional can do. This is important because it can enhance the future performance of that professional and establish whether the goals of management by objective have been met. Without effective public relations campaigns, companies or organizations may be at risk of losing their target audience. These campaigns keep the public happy and help to keep sales up; and not to mention keep a good reputation with the public. The effectiveness of every public relations campaign should not have any goal less than perfect.

There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of Public Relations programs. The most basic ways  of measuring them is to measure message distribution and media placements, and audience awareness, comprehension and retention. The most advanced level is the measurement of changes in attitude, opinions, and behaviors.

The criteria used in measuring the effectiveness of a campaign include “the compilation of press clippings and radio/television mentions; media impression, or the potential audience reached; number of hits on a website; advertising equivalency; systematic tracking by use of computer databases; requests for additional information; and audience attendance at special events.” If any of these areas are high, then it would be safe to assume that the public relation campaign was pretty successful.

PR campaigns are ultimately evaluated based on how they can help organizations achieve its objectives through changing the audiences behavior and attitudes, fund-raising, or the election of a candidate.

*Information from Think! Public Relations.

-cw