1. The Method Are Still the Same
The elements of creating great products and services remain the same. Qualitative (e.g. discussion forums) and quantitative (e.g. surveys) research are still the foundation for developing any product strategy. The difference is that online communities empower organizations to conduct these activities in less time, with a smaller budget, and more often.
2. Online Communities Makes Product Management Easier
Today, online customer communities allow product managers to use secure online groups and easy-to-use collaboration tools (along with proactive community management) to have conversations about market problems and get feedback on ideas through the product development process.
3. Discussions Are Key
Online communities only help innovate products and services if companies listen to their community. Similar to offline product management techniques, the most important component of listening and probing online is discussions. This includes customer forums and comment threads associated with files, videos, product ideas, and blog posts. These online conversations form the basis for understanding market problems, the competitive landscape, why you win deals, and why you lose.
4. Companies Need to Find Ways to Manage Data Better
Every organization will treat this challenge a little differently. The bottom line is that product managers need to be prepared to handle this valuable information in a way that is most usable in their planning and development processes.
5. Get the Market Data To The Right People At The Right Time
Your online customer community is giving you more data from your market. It is also allowing you to have discussions and validate product concepts more efficiently. An important step, often overlooked by businesses, is setting up processes to get the information that you are collecting and analyzing to the right people in the organization at the right point in the process. This usually means finding ways to effectively and consistently answer questions from your product development team throughout the development process about what the market wants and needs.
6. It is Ok to Get Started with Small Steps
Like most social business initiatives, starting small allows companies to grow buy-in, minimize risk, and work out the kinks in the process. A great way to get started using your online community to improve product management is to validate existing product ideas. Take your top features planned for the next version of your product or service and have a targeted customer group or advisory board vote in your online community on their top picks and explain their votes in the comments.
Saturday, 17 November 2012
FIVE STEPS AN EFFECTIVE ONLINE PRESS ROOM
1. PR Contacts
You HAVE to have PR contact info.
It should be easily found on your Press Room page.
Make sure that there is someone available to answer the emails or to pick up the phone for the press contact. A quick response to an inquiry is essential.
Provide a RSS link and News Links so that the editors can sign up and get automatic updates to the press room and/or to recent press releases.
Provide a Public Relations List contact form to enable editors, writers, analysts to easily sign up to receive updates and new press releases.
2. Photos, Images and Video
Editors and writers love photos and images.
If your press releases are product oriented, include a small thumbnail that links to a choice of product images of various sizes and angles. Have small gifs or jpgs for web and blog use. Have a large 300 dpi image for print purposes. If you have copyright worries, embed a small logo in the image.
Create and maintain a standalone image library that includes company logos, company execs and managers, graphics and charts, in addition to product shots. Video is also becoming very important. If you are using video in your PR and marketing mix, post a small thumbnail with a good description with a link to the video. You can simply link to your video posted at YouTube or you can create and use a customized player that preserves your company’s look and feel.
Your video library can include webinars, podcasts, product demonstrations and b-roll, presentations and management speeches, and even commercials for your product. The writer might want to watch a commercial or a how to install it video. You never know.
Notice the list on the right side – Press Contacts, Press Releases, facts about company, Image gallery, etc. Everything a reporter could want.
3. Background Information about Your Company and Products
Your press room should also include links to white papers, company backgrounders and corporate information, organizational history, profiles of company leaders and management, a list of upcoming shows where the company will be exhibiting or is available for interviews, etc.
If appropriate, include other technical documents, product descriptions, data sheets, etc.
Think how powerful it is when an editor cites your company as the source for info about particular technology, product line or industry initiative? You can also include a listing of various industry and standards organizations that your company belongs to, as well as awards and recognition.
4. Press Clips and Press Coverage Page
As a PR professional and as a writer, I really like to see an archive of recent press coverage. As a PR pro, this vindicates the work done and demonstrates that the editorial community is picking up on the news.
The list of press coverage demonstrates that other members of the community recognize the value of your company and its products and technologies.
The press coverage page should include news articles written by third party editors and journalists, press release coverage, as well as white papers and articles that have been written by company representatives and then posted in important trade magazines.
Spotlight the publications and writers that have written something over and above what was said in the original release.
List the original wire URL and maybe one or two BIG NEWS sites that picked it up as well.
Please do not copy a Google news search results list of press release pick ups to your online press room.
5. Make It All Work For You
By creating an easy to access and easy to use online press room, your business will be able to more effectively leverage the work done by your PR and media relations group, as well as provide a modern outward looking face to the press.
Keep the press room updated and just don’t post the releases and press coverage and walk away. Make sure new press successes are added, new product information is uploaded and maybe most importantly, make sure that all editorial inquiries are handled promptly.
You HAVE to have PR contact info.
It should be easily found on your Press Room page.
Make sure that there is someone available to answer the emails or to pick up the phone for the press contact. A quick response to an inquiry is essential.
Provide a RSS link and News Links so that the editors can sign up and get automatic updates to the press room and/or to recent press releases.
Provide a Public Relations List contact form to enable editors, writers, analysts to easily sign up to receive updates and new press releases.
2. Photos, Images and Video
Editors and writers love photos and images.
If your press releases are product oriented, include a small thumbnail that links to a choice of product images of various sizes and angles. Have small gifs or jpgs for web and blog use. Have a large 300 dpi image for print purposes. If you have copyright worries, embed a small logo in the image.
Create and maintain a standalone image library that includes company logos, company execs and managers, graphics and charts, in addition to product shots. Video is also becoming very important. If you are using video in your PR and marketing mix, post a small thumbnail with a good description with a link to the video. You can simply link to your video posted at YouTube or you can create and use a customized player that preserves your company’s look and feel.
Your video library can include webinars, podcasts, product demonstrations and b-roll, presentations and management speeches, and even commercials for your product. The writer might want to watch a commercial or a how to install it video. You never know.
Notice the list on the right side – Press Contacts, Press Releases, facts about company, Image gallery, etc. Everything a reporter could want.
3. Background Information about Your Company and Products
Your press room should also include links to white papers, company backgrounders and corporate information, organizational history, profiles of company leaders and management, a list of upcoming shows where the company will be exhibiting or is available for interviews, etc.
If appropriate, include other technical documents, product descriptions, data sheets, etc.
Think how powerful it is when an editor cites your company as the source for info about particular technology, product line or industry initiative? You can also include a listing of various industry and standards organizations that your company belongs to, as well as awards and recognition.
4. Press Clips and Press Coverage Page
As a PR professional and as a writer, I really like to see an archive of recent press coverage. As a PR pro, this vindicates the work done and demonstrates that the editorial community is picking up on the news.
The list of press coverage demonstrates that other members of the community recognize the value of your company and its products and technologies.
The press coverage page should include news articles written by third party editors and journalists, press release coverage, as well as white papers and articles that have been written by company representatives and then posted in important trade magazines.
Spotlight the publications and writers that have written something over and above what was said in the original release.
List the original wire URL and maybe one or two BIG NEWS sites that picked it up as well.
Please do not copy a Google news search results list of press release pick ups to your online press room.
5. Make It All Work For You
By creating an easy to access and easy to use online press room, your business will be able to more effectively leverage the work done by your PR and media relations group, as well as provide a modern outward looking face to the press.
Keep the press room updated and just don’t post the releases and press coverage and walk away. Make sure new press successes are added, new product information is uploaded and maybe most importantly, make sure that all editorial inquiries are handled promptly.
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
Organizations rely on globally-distributed work groups to bring together employees from around the world. Rather than search for individuals who live near each other to complete a project, companies identify people with the needed skills and knowledge, no matter where they live and connect them via the internet, cell phones, and other new communication technologies (Baba, Gluesing, Ratner, & Wagner, 2004). Entrepreneurs form online groups to brainstorm, exchange ideas, and develop marketing strategies. Using email, videoconferencing, and instant messaging, these innovators launch new successful businesses (Matlay & Westhead, 2005).
You probably associate new communication technologies with the internet, iphone, iPad and similar digital media. But the printing press, telegraph, and telephone were all new communication technologies in our late time. What's different this time?
The printing press allowed the mass distribution of information from one person or party, such as a newspaper publisher, to many people. With the telegraph, people for the first time could send brief messages almost instantaneously across long distances. The telephone provided voice transmission and a person-to-person connection from people's homes and businesses. The internet gave individuals a wide variety of ways to communicate and share information, but initially still left them tied to wire and specific locations. However, with WiFi (wireless fidelity) enabled laptops, iphones, and similar devices, you can access the internet from an increasing number of locations.
At the beginning of the 21st century, you can communicate nearly anywhere at anytime to anyone. You live in a pervasive communication environment that gives you multiple access points to an integrated communication structure with text, audio, video, and voice capabilities (Coopman, 2009). So what does this mean? Much more than chatting with your friend in Japan while you are stuck in KL traffic. A pervasive communication environment gives communicators the ability to access, create, and share information in multimedia from almost anywhere, at anytime, for any reason. The social impacts of such a development are staggering. And I'm not just talking about online shopping and getting friends together for happy hour. Mobile devices connected to the internet played important roles in organizing political protests that toppled governments.
The pervasive communication environment in which you live influences all these aspects of group and team communication. Location specific media, especially telephones and desktop computers, allow group members to interact with each other without being in the same physical space. Although group and team members often rely on analog media such as paper magazines, newspapers, and books for their research, new communication technologies have greatly increased the ease of identifying relevant materials within these media. In addition, print and radio become multi-directional when combined with new media devices such as complex mobile or cell technologies, WiFi-enabled portable computers, and digital recording devices. These mobile technologies link into a larger and increasingly more integrated communication infrastructure broadly construed as the internet. This digital infrastructure brings together older media forms, both mobile and location specific, into a larger pervasive communication environment. Of course, at the model's center is the fundamental interaction and production of human interaction. All these elements combine in an interactive dance with each part of the communication structure linked in a multitude of ways with every other part.
This pervasive communication environment has changed how group and team members communicate in fundamental ways. Many groups still meet at least a few times face-to-face. But they also use email, net meeting, chat, text messaging, instant messaging, and other media to exchange ideas, solve problems, and make decisions. With the internet linking technologies and people together, time and place no longer constrain a group's activities.
If team members meet online, such as via email, chat, or discussion board, does that mean the communication isn't real? Initial distinctions between realand virtual have subsided as scholars develop a better understanding of how groups and teams use new media. Early research on computer-mediated communication (CMC) and teamwork focused on differences between CMC and face-to-face groups. More recent research recognizes that most groups use a mix of communication tools—phone, email, text-messaging, instant messaging, net meeting, face-to-face. Rarely do team members communicate using a single method, such as only email or only face-to-face.
Calling face-to-face real and all other communication virtual presents a problem. If you instant message (IM) a friend, isn't that real communication? When you email a family member, do you think of your message as not real? How about phone conversations. Are they real or virtual? For this class, we meet online—is it real? When practically every device from a telephone to a baby monitor has a computer in it, even the idea of computer mediated communication seems a little antiquated. These situations highlight just a few of the problems with the real-virtual distinction.
Recent research found that teens use IM to begin, maintain, and end romantic relationships (Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005). These relationships—and the feelings that go along with them—are quite real. Categorizing IMing, emailing, podcasting, blogging, and the like as virtual suggests that these communication forms lack substance, impact, and meaning. Yet these messages produce actual effects. When you start thinking about what you do with various communication technologies rather than what they are, you're better able to use them in the best ways for group and team communication.
You probably associate new communication technologies with the internet, iphone, iPad and similar digital media. But the printing press, telegraph, and telephone were all new communication technologies in our late time. What's different this time?
The printing press allowed the mass distribution of information from one person or party, such as a newspaper publisher, to many people. With the telegraph, people for the first time could send brief messages almost instantaneously across long distances. The telephone provided voice transmission and a person-to-person connection from people's homes and businesses. The internet gave individuals a wide variety of ways to communicate and share information, but initially still left them tied to wire and specific locations. However, with WiFi (wireless fidelity) enabled laptops, iphones, and similar devices, you can access the internet from an increasing number of locations.
At the beginning of the 21st century, you can communicate nearly anywhere at anytime to anyone. You live in a pervasive communication environment that gives you multiple access points to an integrated communication structure with text, audio, video, and voice capabilities (Coopman, 2009). So what does this mean? Much more than chatting with your friend in Japan while you are stuck in KL traffic. A pervasive communication environment gives communicators the ability to access, create, and share information in multimedia from almost anywhere, at anytime, for any reason. The social impacts of such a development are staggering. And I'm not just talking about online shopping and getting friends together for happy hour. Mobile devices connected to the internet played important roles in organizing political protests that toppled governments.
The pervasive communication environment in which you live influences all these aspects of group and team communication. Location specific media, especially telephones and desktop computers, allow group members to interact with each other without being in the same physical space. Although group and team members often rely on analog media such as paper magazines, newspapers, and books for their research, new communication technologies have greatly increased the ease of identifying relevant materials within these media. In addition, print and radio become multi-directional when combined with new media devices such as complex mobile or cell technologies, WiFi-enabled portable computers, and digital recording devices. These mobile technologies link into a larger and increasingly more integrated communication infrastructure broadly construed as the internet. This digital infrastructure brings together older media forms, both mobile and location specific, into a larger pervasive communication environment. Of course, at the model's center is the fundamental interaction and production of human interaction. All these elements combine in an interactive dance with each part of the communication structure linked in a multitude of ways with every other part.
This pervasive communication environment has changed how group and team members communicate in fundamental ways. Many groups still meet at least a few times face-to-face. But they also use email, net meeting, chat, text messaging, instant messaging, and other media to exchange ideas, solve problems, and make decisions. With the internet linking technologies and people together, time and place no longer constrain a group's activities.
If team members meet online, such as via email, chat, or discussion board, does that mean the communication isn't real? Initial distinctions between realand virtual have subsided as scholars develop a better understanding of how groups and teams use new media. Early research on computer-mediated communication (CMC) and teamwork focused on differences between CMC and face-to-face groups. More recent research recognizes that most groups use a mix of communication tools—phone, email, text-messaging, instant messaging, net meeting, face-to-face. Rarely do team members communicate using a single method, such as only email or only face-to-face.
Calling face-to-face real and all other communication virtual presents a problem. If you instant message (IM) a friend, isn't that real communication? When you email a family member, do you think of your message as not real? How about phone conversations. Are they real or virtual? For this class, we meet online—is it real? When practically every device from a telephone to a baby monitor has a computer in it, even the idea of computer mediated communication seems a little antiquated. These situations highlight just a few of the problems with the real-virtual distinction.
Recent research found that teens use IM to begin, maintain, and end romantic relationships (Lenhart, Madden, & Hitlin, 2005). These relationships—and the feelings that go along with them—are quite real. Categorizing IMing, emailing, podcasting, blogging, and the like as virtual suggests that these communication forms lack substance, impact, and meaning. Yet these messages produce actual effects. When you start thinking about what you do with various communication technologies rather than what they are, you're better able to use them in the best ways for group and team communication.
AMONG THE TOP ONLINE TOOLS SHOULD BE USING BY PUBLIC RELATIONS PRACTITIONERS TODAY
During the past few decades, computer usage has grown immensely. Thanks to numerous technological innovations, such as the Internet.
The Internet growth in popularity has undoubtedly changed the way people view mass communications. More importantly, it has helped professions such as public relations, advertising and marketing better understand how to effectively communicate with their audiences.
During the 90’s, the Internet was primarily used by the military and scientist to conduct research and exchange information. Today it has become more widely used by regular folks such as you and me. Many PR practitioners now consider using advancements in online technology a leading trend in the profession because the Internet has evolved into a vital communications tool for millions of people in the world.
The Internet has provided PR practitioners with various tools and interactive services. It uses two way communications to reach key publics. The ability to insert text, photographs, graphics, sounds and video onto websites has helped with the progression of social media and has directly affected the role of PR practitioners.
I personally believe that among the top online tools should be using by public relations practitioners today are:
E-mail
E-Mailing allows a PR practitioner to send and receive messages to single person or an entire group of people given the situation at hand. With advancements in e-mail technology such as hypertext and attachments, a practitioner can successfully send newsletters, news releases, pitch letters, photos, sounds and even entire presentations to their necessary public.
Corporate Blogs
It is vital to set up a blog for company or organization. This is because blogs usually provide commentary or news on a particular subject meaning that a majority of people who view the blog are already a part of your target audience. Setting up a blog not only helps the organization gain credibility but allows users to put in their “two cents” which in turn could help with the organization’s future success. Beside, a practitioner can monitor and keep track of what competitors, opponents and other individuals are saying and make any improvements if necessary.
YouTube
This is a great online service because it allows users upload and share video content such as movie clips, TV clips and music videos. YouTube also lets users to upload self-created video blogs and short films, and then receive feedback from others viewers. This is ideal for practitioners because they can place messages and products within their videos that can potentially reach a mass audience.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO involves numerous strategies used to move an organization’s web pages to the top search results on search engines. One of these strategies known as Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) aims to push negatively slanted or opposing websites associated with the organization further down the search engine results. By implementing strategies like SERM, a practitioner can help their organization maintain credibility and reputability.
Twitter/Facebook
The Internet growth in popularity has undoubtedly changed the way people view mass communications. More importantly, it has helped professions such as public relations, advertising and marketing better understand how to effectively communicate with their audiences.
During the 90’s, the Internet was primarily used by the military and scientist to conduct research and exchange information. Today it has become more widely used by regular folks such as you and me. Many PR practitioners now consider using advancements in online technology a leading trend in the profession because the Internet has evolved into a vital communications tool for millions of people in the world.
The Internet has provided PR practitioners with various tools and interactive services. It uses two way communications to reach key publics. The ability to insert text, photographs, graphics, sounds and video onto websites has helped with the progression of social media and has directly affected the role of PR practitioners.
I personally believe that among the top online tools should be using by public relations practitioners today are:
E-Mailing allows a PR practitioner to send and receive messages to single person or an entire group of people given the situation at hand. With advancements in e-mail technology such as hypertext and attachments, a practitioner can successfully send newsletters, news releases, pitch letters, photos, sounds and even entire presentations to their necessary public.
Corporate Blogs
It is vital to set up a blog for company or organization. This is because blogs usually provide commentary or news on a particular subject meaning that a majority of people who view the blog are already a part of your target audience. Setting up a blog not only helps the organization gain credibility but allows users to put in their “two cents” which in turn could help with the organization’s future success. Beside, a practitioner can monitor and keep track of what competitors, opponents and other individuals are saying and make any improvements if necessary.
YouTube
This is a great online service because it allows users upload and share video content such as movie clips, TV clips and music videos. YouTube also lets users to upload self-created video blogs and short films, and then receive feedback from others viewers. This is ideal for practitioners because they can place messages and products within their videos that can potentially reach a mass audience.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO involves numerous strategies used to move an organization’s web pages to the top search results on search engines. One of these strategies known as Search Engine Reputation Management (SERM) aims to push negatively slanted or opposing websites associated with the organization further down the search engine results. By implementing strategies like SERM, a practitioner can help their organization maintain credibility and reputability.
Twitter/Facebook
Twitter / Facebook is a free social networking site that lets users send/receive messages quickly and efficiently. This micro-blogging service has grown in popularity substantially over the past couple years which means that placed messages can potentially reach a wider audience which is important in Public Relations.
MEDIA ONLINE
The basics of online media relations include:
§ Web site Newsroom
The best organizations create extranets, devoted exclusively to serving the media, as derivatives of their Web sites. These corporate newsrooms include all the traditional press materials that the media require such as news releases, executive speeches, annual/quarterly reports, annual meetings, digital press kits, photographs, profiles, ad copy, etc.
§ News Release Via Newswires
It has become essential for public companies to issue news releases over newswires in order to notify their shareholders and potential investors to know of its activities. Newswire copy gets picked up by online databases, such as AOL, Yahoo!, etc. There are three types of newswires:
1. General wires
The Associated Press (AP) is the granddaddy of all general wire services, reporting on general news of interest to the broad society.
2. Financial wires
Dow Jones, the wire service of the Wall Street Journal, the nation’s business newspaper, is perhaps the most well-known financial wire.
3. Paid wires
The most prominent being PR Newswire and Business Wire, as well as the newer Market Wire (formerly Internet Wire) are paid services that reproduce organizational news announcements verbatim, for a fee.
§ Online Publicity
Online publicity comes in many different shapes and colors. One thing is we must remember that it is very important to actively perform online publicity and PR to spread the word not only on our services or products but to also build own brand online.
§ Web site Newsroom
The best organizations create extranets, devoted exclusively to serving the media, as derivatives of their Web sites. These corporate newsrooms include all the traditional press materials that the media require such as news releases, executive speeches, annual/quarterly reports, annual meetings, digital press kits, photographs, profiles, ad copy, etc.
§ News Release Via Newswires
It has become essential for public companies to issue news releases over newswires in order to notify their shareholders and potential investors to know of its activities. Newswire copy gets picked up by online databases, such as AOL, Yahoo!, etc. There are three types of newswires:
1. General wires
The Associated Press (AP) is the granddaddy of all general wire services, reporting on general news of interest to the broad society.
2. Financial wires
Dow Jones, the wire service of the Wall Street Journal, the nation’s business newspaper, is perhaps the most well-known financial wire.
3. Paid wires
The most prominent being PR Newswire and Business Wire, as well as the newer Market Wire (formerly Internet Wire) are paid services that reproduce organizational news announcements verbatim, for a fee.
§ Online Publicity
Online publicity comes in many different shapes and colors. One thing is we must remember that it is very important to actively perform online publicity and PR to spread the word not only on our services or products but to also build own brand online.
MEASURE AND IMPROVE PR
Measuring the success of public relations (PR) activities will help us to identify tools and tactics that work and avoid activities that do not produce results.
It is important to be clear about what to look for when measure our PR. Before you start, review your PR objectives and consider:
the target customer segments you have identified
the business characteristics you identified in your PR goals and objectives
the set of key messages you chose to profile your business.
It is important to be clear about what to look for when measure our PR. Before you start, review your PR objectives and consider:
the target customer segments you have identified
the business characteristics you identified in your PR goals and objectives
the set of key messages you chose to profile your business.
What to measure and how
1. Stay focused on your target audiences. This not only helps you direct your PR efforts, it also helps you measure changes in their awareness, attitudes and behaviours as a result of your PR activities.
2. Types of measurements include:
the amount and quality of media coverage relevant to your audiences
the number of times your key messages reach customers
the number of customers contacting you after picking up brochures or catalogues at trade shows
people clicking through to your website as the result of web directory listings or your email newsletter
word-of-mouth referrals
walk-ups due to increased awareness
people phoning your business as the result of PR activities.
Using surveys to measure PR
1. Many businesses create surveys to answer questions on:
where customers heard about the business
how their awareness, attitudes and behaviour has changed as the result of key messages.
Using social media and website traffic to measure PR
Businesses are increasingly using social media to measure their online PR. Taking your PR online makes it easier than ever to track communication about your business. Following online media, blog posts, tweets and e-newsletters, for example allows you to track what consumers and journalists are saying about your business.
Many businesses communicating with state or national audiences use media monitoring services. This may be unnecessary if you are mainly engaged in local public relations activities and can simply record electronic coverage or obtain copies of newspapers or industry newsletters.
To measure website traffic generated by their public relations activities, many businesses use internet statistics or analysis tools. Your website hosting company may offer a simple tool. Businesses often use third-party solutions.
Criteria to measure your PR
Keep in mind that you are not just looking for outputs that the quantity of media you produce but for outcomes that the quality of relevant messages you produce that meet your PR objectives.
Develop a series of questions that help you measure whether you have met your PR objectives. For example:
Did we reach our target audiences?
Which of our key messages are reaching our audiences?
How often are they reaching our audiences?
Which tools and activities are we reaching them through?
How many times are those tools and activities successful?
Which material was taken up by our media channels?
What tangible responses to the PR did we receive from our customers?
Your answers to the above questions will help you identify which of your PR activities produced the results you wanted. Keep records about what worked.
Making decisions about your PR
Be careful to evaluate whether the tools, activities and material you used met your goals for building your business's reputation.
If your activities generated positive media but did not reach your customer base, you still have work to do.
Review your market research. The information you have gathered about your customer segments will help you look for ways to better target your audiences.
Objectives you've identified in your marketing plan may also suit PR tools and approaches. Consider whether it is a PR objective about promoting awareness, attitudes or behaviour change.
Good PR is an ongoing creative process.
Be persistent, stay positive and continue looking for opportunities to position your business and encourage consumers to trust, loyal and like your business.
1. Stay focused on your target audiences. This not only helps you direct your PR efforts, it also helps you measure changes in their awareness, attitudes and behaviours as a result of your PR activities.
2. Types of measurements include:
the amount and quality of media coverage relevant to your audiences
the number of times your key messages reach customers
the number of customers contacting you after picking up brochures or catalogues at trade shows
people clicking through to your website as the result of web directory listings or your email newsletter
word-of-mouth referrals
walk-ups due to increased awareness
people phoning your business as the result of PR activities.
Using surveys to measure PR
1. Many businesses create surveys to answer questions on:
where customers heard about the business
how their awareness, attitudes and behaviour has changed as the result of key messages.
Using social media and website traffic to measure PR
Businesses are increasingly using social media to measure their online PR. Taking your PR online makes it easier than ever to track communication about your business. Following online media, blog posts, tweets and e-newsletters, for example allows you to track what consumers and journalists are saying about your business.
Many businesses communicating with state or national audiences use media monitoring services. This may be unnecessary if you are mainly engaged in local public relations activities and can simply record electronic coverage or obtain copies of newspapers or industry newsletters.
To measure website traffic generated by their public relations activities, many businesses use internet statistics or analysis tools. Your website hosting company may offer a simple tool. Businesses often use third-party solutions.
Criteria to measure your PR
Keep in mind that you are not just looking for outputs that the quantity of media you produce but for outcomes that the quality of relevant messages you produce that meet your PR objectives.
Develop a series of questions that help you measure whether you have met your PR objectives. For example:
Did we reach our target audiences?
Which of our key messages are reaching our audiences?
How often are they reaching our audiences?
Which tools and activities are we reaching them through?
How many times are those tools and activities successful?
Which material was taken up by our media channels?
What tangible responses to the PR did we receive from our customers?
Your answers to the above questions will help you identify which of your PR activities produced the results you wanted. Keep records about what worked.
Making decisions about your PR
Be careful to evaluate whether the tools, activities and material you used met your goals for building your business's reputation.
If your activities generated positive media but did not reach your customer base, you still have work to do.
Review your market research. The information you have gathered about your customer segments will help you look for ways to better target your audiences.
Objectives you've identified in your marketing plan may also suit PR tools and approaches. Consider whether it is a PR objective about promoting awareness, attitudes or behaviour change.
Good PR is an ongoing creative process.
Be persistent, stay positive and continue looking for opportunities to position your business and encourage consumers to trust, loyal and like your business.
CHOOSE AND APPLY THE RIGHT PR TOOLS
Setting clear goals for building reputation and understanding the target market will help in choosing the right public relations (PR) tools for the job. These steps will help guide your PR decisions.
· Decide on your goals and objectives
Think about the type of reputation you want to build for you business. What do you want to be known for? What characteristics will draw new customers to you?
Identify a clear set of characteristics that you want to define your business. For example, do you want to be known as friendly, prestigious, innovative, dynamic, sustainable, community minded, socially responsible?
Expand on these characteristics to define a short set of messages that positively and accurately position your products, services and business activities. Establish a budget that will help you plan and support your annual investment in PR.
· Identify your target audiences
Consider your market research, or refer to your marketing plan, and list your target market segments.
Review the information about who your customers are, how they live and where they get their information from. This information will help you identify your best PR tools and tactics.
· Work out which PR techniques work best
Always be on the hunt for interesting stories, angles and anecdotes about your business. Identify the 'material' that will help build your chosen profile. Make this a habit that is part of the way you and your team think.
Choose material that is topical, interesting, stands out from the crowd, and best fits your target audiences. Matching your PR material to your target audiences will help you choose your most effective PR tools.
· Tailor the mix of PR tools you use to reach your target audience
PR and media tools exist for each of your customer segments. Your task is to match your media to your market. Consider the list of PR tools and activities and choose the tactics that will reach your customers.
Research community groups, websites, publications and local and regional media sources and start to build records of distribution sources matched to your target markets.
Review social media sources and seek advice from PR professionals if you need direction on how to access your customers through the fast-changing world of social media.
Developing a list of media sources that reach your customer base will help you choose your mix of tools.
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