Transcript design search engine marketing political website

RESEARCH
We will study why research is important in
public relations and the techniques used to
conduct this research in order to obtain valid
results.
Research in public relations is a cyclical process
through which practitioners:
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Monitor the environments of organizations and their publics.
Identify and track events and trends that may influence public
relationships.
Measure the productivity of public relations efforts.
Provide data to enhance the program’s efficiency and
effectiveness.
A diagram may help you visualize these four aids…
Monitor
Environment
Identify & Track
Events
Measure
Productivity
Enhance Efficiency
& Effectiveness
Research enables practitioners to:
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Provide information for issues management.
Identify and define publics involved in specific
problems.
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Pretest messages and media to ensure that programs
will produce the best possible results.
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Evaluate the results of programs and campaigns.
Design and execute follow-up activities.
Identifying and Defining Publics
Practitioners define publics
by several aspects.
Age
Gender
Ethnicity
Attitude
Opinion
Behavior *
Marital-family
status
Political &
religious
affiliation
Media use
Education
Income level
Work location
Residence
* In relation to specific products, services, or organizations
 Public relations deals with public opinion
rather than mass opinion; with the opinion of
defined, targeted populations.
 These publics have been categorized by John
Dewey as groups that…
 face similar indeterminate situations
 recognize what is indeterminate in their situations
 organize to do something about the problem
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Avoid the general
public
Define broad
categories
Narrow to definable
components
Set priorities
Identify gatekeepers
Examine Overlap
Let’s consider an example…, who are the publics of AUN students?
Message and media pretests enable practitioners to:
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Identify those that generate the greatest responses.
Adjust message content and/or media schedules to
enhance results.
Produce the best possible result with the lowest possible
expenditure.
What preliminary research
is needed?
 What informal research will
help?
 Which formal research
techniques do you need?
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Survey
Content analysis
Experimental
Other
Zooming in on Preliminary research…
We often begin by doing secondary research such
as:
 Libraries
 Databases
 Internet
 Electronic Publications
 Government Documents and websites
 Professional Organizations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Academic journals
Government documents
Directories and reference works
Professional and trade publications
Newspapers and periodicals
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Academic Universe [consisting primarily of
periodicals]
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Dialog [a gateway to hundreds of
databases – the industry’s largest]
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ERIC [a repository for academic research]
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EBSCO HOST
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Search engines
Online publishers
Governmental agency databases
Professional and business web sites
Corporate web sites
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Several types of search engines are available
to users of the World Wide Web. Click on any
underlined engine:
 General Web-based indexes such as Yahoo.
 Industry-specific indexes such as ZDNet.
 Web-based meta-search engines, such as Jeeves.
Online publishers include …
 Electronic publications by traditional print
media of all kinds (Forbes Magazine).
 E-zines (online magazines such as
Internet.Com) and newsletters published
electronically by a many organizations
Caution: content reliability varies!
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Information compiled by governmental agencies at
all levels is accessible via the Internet. Included are
databases from…
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Legislative bodies such as the…
• U.S. Congress
• state legislatures
• both county and municipal lawmaking bodies
Regulatory agencies at all levels:
• Federal Food and Drug Administration
• local zoning boards
Many organizations maintain Web sites that
may contain …
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Survey data dealing with their industries and/or members.
Archives of their publications and other materials.
Links to other sites or files containing information of value to
practitioners.
Now let’s look at content analysis …
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Analyzing file records or news clippings
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Interviewing key contacts (salespeople) or centers of
influence
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Organizing committees or study panels
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Using focus groups or national polls
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Practicing ‘casual monitoring’ through phone calls, e-mail,
letters
Personnel
Records
Sales Records
Production
Records
Here are some various types of
organizational records.
You could also include
attendance records.
Sales Records
How many other types of organizational
records can you name?
Regulatory and Governmental Records: Every
organization operates under Federal, state,
county and municipal regulations
 Key Contacts and Centers of Influence: Elected
officials, appointed officials of various
organizations, clergymen, Imams,
 Special Committees in Public Relations: These
identify issues before they become problems;
suggest alternative courses of action and
provide objective views of matters that are
difficult for ‘insiders’ to evaluate
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Most commonly used in qualitative
research.
Usually composed of small
numbers of individuals…
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who share one or more
demographic characteristics
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Interviewed using openended questions to
prompt interaction and
gain insight into their
attitudes, opinions and
beliefs.
Usually videotaped so that
researchers can examine
nonverbal as well as verbal
expressions.
Public
practitioners
monitor
information
• Printrelations
and electronic
news often
reports,
monitored
for
thatquantity
routinely
comes
to their
attention, including:
and
quality
of coverage.
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Incoming mail, telephone calls, sales reports and
other documents.
Content of business and industry publications, trade
association reports, and the like.
What other information sources might you
monitor?
Informal research techniques are most often used by
practitioners. The six listed most often in one study:
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Literature searches and electronic retrieval
Publicity tracking
Telephone/mail surveys with simple cross-tabs
Focus groups
Communication audits
Secondary analysis studies
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Survey Research--this is the
formal tool used 90% of the
time in public relations.
Content Analysis--statistical
sample of content
Experimental--Used some with
control groups.
Each technique offers potentially
different results that vary in
reliability.
Formal research may be conducted at…
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Most survey research is
designed to…
 Identify and/or
categorize members of
one or more publics.
Content analysis is a process through which
information can be converted into quantitative data.
The process applies equally to:
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Printed materials of all kinds
Transcripts of broadcast information
Transcripts of focus group interviews
How does it work?
1. Representative samples are drawn from sets of documents
or other sources
2. Selected items are searched for key words and sorted by
such factors as length, tone and position in the publication
3. Resulting data are analyzed over time or in comparison to
other data sets, e.g., for competing organizations.
Experimental research encompasses…
 Laboratory experiments conducted in controlled
environments to minimize external factors
 Field experiments, in which control is sacrificed to
observe reactions to real environments.
Experimental research in public relations usually
deals with pre-testing communication channels
and their content, as in brochures and
newsletters.
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Survey research in public relations examines the attitudes
and opinions of audience members.
Experimental research in public relations usually deals with
pre-testing communication channels and their content, as in
brochures and newsletters.
Formal research almost always deals with samples
drawn at random from specified publics. Random
sampling is …
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Based in probability theory
Used to ensure that results can be generalized to the
larger population
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Simple random sampling allows each member of a population
an equal chance to be selected
Systematic sampling uses a list or directory to select a random
sample
Stratified random sampling, in which the population is divided
into two groups and samples are drawn from each
Cluster sampling, in which groups rather than individuals are
selected at random
Quota sampling, in which fixed numbers of individuals are
drawn from sub-groups
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PR practitioners often outsource for their research needs.
Marketing Research Services, Inc. is an example of a research
contractor.
Neilsen
ABC
NBS
Public Relations Practitioners have many
research techniques available to them to
study their publics and find out the best
way to communicate their messages.
Your client is an environmental organization
and had requested you prepare a PR
campaign for managing waste during the
raining seasons.
1. Who are your target audience?
2. What informal research will you use?
3. Where will you get preliminary data from?
4. What formal research technique will be
okay?
5. List at least 10 questions you will ask
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