Measuring Public Relations: The Plan

The Plan. It is the map for your trip.

1. Plan your plan.
2. Write your plan.
3. Approve your plan.
4. Work your plan.
5. Measure your plan.

The "unspoken rule" is to get everyone to stick to the plan, but always keep in mind that is a work in progress and not a "critical path." There is always room for adjusting, ramping up or down, and when facing a round-about, allowing enough flexibility in the plan to try another road that may ultimately end up being a much grander adventure.

Public relations measurement enables an organization, business, government, marketing firm or public relations agency to determine the direct relationship between proactive publicity efforts and the output of those efforts to their "key publics".

For the purpose for this series of articles, it will relate to the media as the key public. (other key publics include employees, investors, board of directors, elected officials, vendors, existing customers, new customers, community leaders,

There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of public relations and they all vary depending on goals and can be as diverse as the differences of hundreds of different services and businesses.

There are five parts to a public relations plan. Below is an example using a "made-up" and very simple example of a plan.

1. Objective. The main thing or purpose. Keep it short and to one sentence if possible. It is the "overarching mission statement" for the plan.

Use our annual special event to solidify our business as a charitable community partner, helps our employees see us a fun place to work and our customers and vendors excited about doing business with us.

2. Strategies. Think of them as painting the broad brush strokes of the picture which always goes back to your meeting your objective.

• Work with a well-known local charity that needs funding.
• Have a local celebrity serve as our spokesperson on behalf of the charity.
• Include current vendors as sponsors.
• Involve employees in the event.
• Reach our customers.
• Get news coverage.

3. Goals. Measurable and specific. Also...be reasonable. Everyone wants national coverage, but is there a national news angle to your event?

• Get confirmation from the local celebrity by January 2o.
• By February 3, identify the charity.
• Raise $3,000 for the charity by using our annual event.
• Host the first task force meeting on January 2.
• Engage the employee participation by 10% over last year's event.
• Secure one major and two minor vendor sponsorships to pay for entertainment.
• Obtain pre-event media coverage to increase company web page traffic by 1,000 new users per week for six weeks.
• Book six media outlets to attend the event as working media.
• Increase business by 3% over same time last year.

4. Tactics. These are what helps you reach goals, they support the strategies and all of them must meet the objective. ANY tactic that does not implicitly focus on the ultimate objective, does not support strategies and cannot be used toward reaching a measurable goal, in most cases does not need to be a tactic in your plan!

• Host a news conference at the (mall, park, downtown, college...place where there will already be lots of people there) with the charity and local celebrity to announce the annual event and explain the details.
• Write and distribute a media alert about the news conference.
• To get a head start on raising money, get the local celebrity to sell and sign their new book and take photos at a certain location (ball game, concert, mall) and get them to donate half the proceeds to the charity.
• Write and distribute news release about $$$ raised by book signing.
• Pitch story ideas for the event.
• Do a media blitz to media outlets with the celebrity and company CEO. Book them for morning radio and noon talk shows.
• Work with celebrity's public relations manager to promote event on the celebrity's web site, communicate event in fan mail, and see if celebrity will mention event at media opportunities, including national book tour leading up to the event.
• Write and distribute media alert about the event a week before and day before the event.
• Do media calls the day before and day of the event.
• Determine needs and secure (food, beverages, tickets, signage, seating, lighting, AV, etc.)
• Monitor media.
• And so on and so forth...all of the things that need to be done to support the event from catering, music, permits, volunteers, pitching media, securing photographer, event post-mortem and so on.

5. Measurement. This proves your success! Go back and see if you met or exceeded your goals? Keep in mind that there can be short-term and longer-term measurements resulting from the event may continue long after the initial event.

• Confirmed local celebrity, hosted task force meetings and identified charity by goal dates.
• Raised $5,500 for the local charity.
• Increased employee participation at the event by 15% over their participation last year.
• Distributed employee survey six months before event as a benchmark. Two weeks after the event the company did a second employee survey. Employee satisfaction is up 15% over benchmark survey. There are no other measurables for the increase (such as raises, incentives, training or programs). Though not specifically attributed to increased employee involvement and the success of event, one consider that the event played some role in raising employee satisfaction. HR will add a question for next survey to determine influence up or down for employee satisfaction.
• Secured one major and eight minor vendor sponsorships which paid to book a very popular band for the event.
• The band provided a signed guitar for us to give away on our web site. Social media, news releases and client email campaign helped double the web site traffic goal.
• Increased business by 20% during the month of the event over last year, and business has remained at 2.9% over last year, even though there was a huge drop in the stock market two months after the event.

Applause. Applause. Applause.

Now, get started on a real plan! If you don't have a plan or need help writing one, you know who to contact !

Pretty In My Heart

Have you ever thought much about how we live in an age of quantity?

From conversations with our peers to what we see, hear and read we are told that larger, faster, newer and getting more is always better. And, that we need all of it to be truly happy.

How often do you see kids and even adults buying into that philosophy? Yes, much of it is called advertising! Does it bother you? Can you turn it off? Do you appreciate the small things?

Maybe it is with age and challenging life experiences, I am learning that small and inexpensive things can bring great joy into my life. The red beaded ring, that I bought in Costa Rica for two dollars, is one example. I was shopping one night when it practically jumped on my hand. I'd just enjoyed dinner of an 8 oz. of yellow fin tuna, jasmine rice, fresh vegetables and cervesa Imperial. It cost around $8 (would have been $38 in the U.S.) and the meal was fabulous for sure! In the moment, I certainly enjoyed every bite and sip. But...it was gone.

I bought the ring. Made by hand, there is not another one exactly like it anywhere in the world. To make that ring, someone carefully strung the tiny beads together, then sewed the string into a row of beads.

The ring is on my finger today. Not only am I wearing something pretty, but as I look at my hand, the ring brings a smile to my face remembering that evening of a nice meal, window shopping along the streets of Jaco and then going back and showing my treasures to my friend at the Spanish schoole. He said it was muy bonito (very pretty).

I smiled at him in agreement. I thought so then, and still do only it is more than pretty to look at...it is pretty in my heart.

Something small and inexpensive can be as satisfying as something big and expensive. I could be wearing a 5 carat diamond, but I don't know if it would bring me as much pleasure as my red beaded ring.

If we all could take live like this, maybe we would all be happier. A simple meal with a friend becomes more than time shared…it becomes a treasured memory. Sure we open our eyes to see, but look up, down and around...you get many different views. Smile and stop and smell the roses.
Whether a single smile or the beauty of a small treasure - each day I want to pursue the things that certainly are pretty to see, but mostly I want to pursue things that are very pretty in my heart (muy bonito en mi corazon).

Setting Deadlines For Dreams

An illuminating study on goal setting sponsored by the Ford Foundation found:

• 23% of the population has no idea what they want from life. As a result they don't have much.
• 67% of the population has a general idea of what they want but they don't have any plans for how to get it.
• Only 10% of the population has specific, well-defined goals, but even then, 7 out of the 10 of those people reach their goals only half the time.
• The top 3%, however, achieved their goals 89% of the time!

What accounts for the difference between the top 3% and the others?

The top 3% wrote down their goals.

Can it really be that simple?

Dreams and wishes are not goals until they are written as specific end results on paper. In some very real sense, writing them down materializes them.

Goals should be thought of as "dreams with a deadline". Without writing them down how can you know where you are going? How will you ever reach any destination?

Written, specific goals provide direction and focus to actions. This creates a road map providing the directions of when to stop, turn, how fast to go and how far it is to the end. A map keeps you aware of today's location. By knowing your GPS and the specific directions to the destination, it is much easier to know where you have been, serves to guide what is ahead and ensures that you will arrive on time.

In public relations, I create road maps for other people and their businesses. It really is easier to do it for someone else. i.e. "the cobbler's kids have no shoes."

This week, I plan to write down a few of my goals (both personal and professional) with a timeline and set some deadlines for my dreams. Will you join me?

Getting In The News

Securing one story in the news often more than covers the cost of hiring an expert to do the work. While projects, strategies, goals and clients here are some tips about the costs of getting your story in the news.

Writing

To write a news release usually runs from $300 to $600 (400-800 words or so). It should include:

- A minimum one hour consultation
- Review of marketing materials
- Writing the release
- Client reviews release
- One round of edits

Wire Distribution

This can cost is as little as $300 for one state. (cost varies by state) A wire service charges this every time their service is used to send out a release about your company.

- A national distribution runs about $900+ — this is the most comprehensive premium U.S. distribution and you get:
- Online media monitoring for 30 days
- Premium access reporting from www.prnewswire.com
- Unlimited number of expert profiles to include in ProfNetSM
- Links to ProfNetSM expert profiles with every release you send

For more than 400 words, there is an additional fee of $100 to $150. There is also an additional fee to send a photo or logo.

Most agencies have a membership to a newswire service and the cost for the service is passed along to their clients making it cost less for everyone to be a part of using.

Custom list and distribution

Agencies pull a custom media list, i.e. for a Fashion story: fashion reporters, fashion editors what's new writers, celebrity reporters, lifestyle reporters, women's reporters, and can be thousands of reporters and media outlets, etc. This great for a company with a very specialized product because the custom list identifies the media outlet (TV, Radio, Magazine, Newspaper, Online, Blog) the specific reporter's name, title, beat, email, phone number, address, info about the reporter, etc.

Your agency should share with you the media outlets that will be receiving the release! The list can often be used again for future releases, but will need to be updated at least once per quarter as reporters are always moving around to other publications.

To pull and sort a custom list can run between $250 and $800 depending on the depth and width of the list. (TV, radio, newspaper, magazines, online, blog, freelancer, producer, assignment desk, general reporter, booker, host, anchor, photograher, meterologist, sports reporter, feature reporter, entertainment reporter, bureau chief, DMA, only certain cities, by frequency, etc.)

To distribute a release usually runs around $250 and up. (no matter how many words are in the release and a photo and logo can be attached without an extra charge - there is an extra fee with wire services)

Pitching Is Key

This is the key to getting a story published. Anyone can "just send out" a news release through a wire service or a custom distribution list.

Reporters and outlets get hundreds of releases a day and they usually only read the subject line and maybe the first sentence...that is...if they get to your release.

To ensure they receive...and read your release : - ) a good agency will call the key reporters that are most likely to cover your story to be sure they received the release (statistics show that when a pitch call is made 50% will ask to have it sent again. Calling offers the opportunity to get an even bigger story than is often portrayed in a release (phone interview with morning radio host, chance to personally invite the reporter to come and see the "story" in person, ask what angles of the release the reporter is interested in, provide more information by discussing the story with the reporter, the reporter asking about or offering an angle, or they...tell you they are not interested and hang up.

Depending on the release and story, pitching requires time on the phone and that can vary depending on the project. It is rare to reach a reporter the first time, and many times the news desk or a producer will ask to be called back at another time to discuss the story.

Of late, it seems to take a minimum of three calls to a media outlet to speak to the right person. Then, depending on their interest, time pitching the story can range from a minute to five or ten minutes. Then when sending a follow up email when a story is secured means 10 to 15 more minutes. Agencies usually have a good idea of how long it will take to pitch and can quote a range of hours. Then, ask the agency to keep you updated on results as they are pitching. Depending on results and interest, hours can be added to a pitching project.

Success Story

Do releases right. Hire a great writer. Build a custom list. And take advantage of an agency’s media relations to "sell" a story to the media and reach your target market.