Every PR campaign has a purpose and a message. Public relations professionals plan for months and months to achieve the campaign goals and get the message out there. But what happens when it is over? Do you just start planning the next one, or do you gather feedback?
PR campaigns are generally communication-driven. There is a message to distribute to an audience in the hopes of getting them to take a specific action.
It seems straightforward, except these campaigns don't come with a scorecard to judge the success and give you a grade at the end.
So how will you know if you got an A+? Feedback is your unofficial grading tool.
media update's Alrika Möller explains the why and how of PR feedback here:
The Why
In the time of social media and cancel culture, people are quick to let a brand know when they did something wrong — however small it might be. That makes it easy to adopt the idea of "no news is good news".
If you didn't make any cancel-worthy mistakes, your campaign was a success.
That is not exactly the case. The success of a campaign is determined by whether the campaign message made its way to the intended audience and if they had a positive reaction.
Having the feedback will tell you if you need to expand further on the campaign or make small changes for the next one.
But how will you know?
The How
While it's possible to ask people to share their thoughts publically, you might not get honest answers if you ask yourself.
The best way to get the real opinions of your audience is to keep an ear out for what people are saying. People tend to share their true thoughts on social media and in the media in general.
Use monitoring services to help you track conversations about your campaign. Another great way is social media engagement. Are people interacting with the posts about your campaign? Are they using the hashtags?
The media really is a window into the world of public opinion.
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Okay, now that we have covered what happens after a PR campaign, let’s recap what happens before and during the campaign. Check out our guide to The Perfect Time For a Press Statement [Infographic].
*Image courtesy of Canva