Evaluation in PR

In order to effectively evaluate whether PR activity has been successful is by weighing up the effort put into something with the results that comes out of it. The output is what comes out of the work you've done and the outcome is what happens next/how the PR has changed awareness, opinion and behaviour of the publics involved.

There are numerous ways to measure and evaluate the success of a PR campaign:

1. Column inches- This is used to measure how much space you have for your PR content, it measures the amount of same you take up in the publication and then the cost of the space used is compared with the predicted impact it has had on the audience and this is seen as a way to evaluate success. A disadvantage of this is that it doesn't measure whether the coverage received is positive or negative and therefore it doesn't measure how the public will react.

2. Advertising Value Equivalency- AVE involves comparing the cost of the coverage with how much it would have cost to place an advert there instead. e.g. compare the cost of a press release in a magazine with how much it would have cost to have placed an advert in the same place. However, the same disadvantage applies to AVE in that you can't measure how the publics will respond to it or if they'll even react. Also, it is only measuring the cost of placing something in the press and not the VALUE of placing it there. Therefore this will be less useful in actually representing how effective the PR actions were.

3. Hits on Sites: The number of hits on a website can be recorded and reviewed as an evaluation tool. Although, yet again this doesn't prove audience reaction. A huge number of people could visit an organisations website but they could still not agree with the content or not react in the way the organisation would want them to. For example, people could all follow a link and visit a certain website but they could still not sign the petition the website is asking people to sign. Therefore this method of evaluation has its flaws.

4. Return on Investment: How much money back from the money they put in.

5. How many journalists/bloggers you've met with: Ineffective as you don't know whether they will even write about you and if so whether what they say will be accurate and positive.

More effective things to investigate in reference to measuring the success of PR:

-Exposure
-Engagement: how, when, who actively engaged
-Influence: on perceptions/attitudes
-Action: any action taken
-Conversion Rates: For example, if you speak to 32 bloggers and 8 of them write about you then you have a conversion rate of 25%. Many PR campaigns will aim to increase organisational conversion rates.

Smart objectives allow an organisation to measure the outcome of their PR campaigns and stunts and therefore whether these are worthwhile.
S- Specific
M- Measurable
A- Achieveable/Agreed
R- Realistic/Relevant
T- Time

Overall, I think that conversion rates are the most effective way to measure success as this separates the actual participation from the publics from general activity that may not even be relevant.