1. The most basic level measures message distribution and media placement.  This level lets practitioners know where the message is being sent, and who is receiving it. Message reach and dissemination details are a starting point to gauging effectiveness.
2.  The second level serves as a measurement of audience awareness, comprehension, and retention of the message. On this level there is more information about what portion of the audience was aware of the message. With this one can gauge what they took from the message and what they clearly remember about it.
3. The third and most advanced level is the measurement of changes in attitudes, opinions, and behavior. With this detail oriented measurement comes the part that practitioners love –how did the audience react, did they buy something, change their opinion, not buy something? This level gets to the core of not only message reach and perception, but audience synthesis and adaptation.

Public relations is talking to your publics and sharing information that means something. Publics are people inside an organization and outside that need to know about what’s going on when things are good and bad. Public relations is not bout lying and spin, it’s about telling a story and setting a tone. Public relations work is not marketing or advertising, there is no media buying, it’s all about relationships with people who can spread your message –and not always in the way you intended. It’s art and skill combined.

Be sure to read parts I and II.

References

Brevard, K. M. (2010). The story of oil: how it changed the world. Mankato, MN: Compass Point Books.

Somervill, B. A. (2002). Ida Tarbell: pioneer investigative reporter. Greensboro, N.C.: M. Reynolds..

Tarbell, I. M. (1939). All in the day’s work;. New York: The Macmillan Co..

Her central moment as an American journalist arrived in the form of an exposé, The History of the Standard Oil Company a 19-part series grew to become Ida’s most historical work. In the series Ida exposed Rockefeller’s unethical tactics. A pioneer in what we now call investigative journalism, Ida set forth with hundreds of documents, interviews –an amount of work rare to the business those years. Tarbell would bring Rockefeller’s strong-arming in the industry to the forefront and help shape the progressive era in which this was yet another example of big business marginalizing smaller businesses and consumers, all the while being labeled a “muckraker” by businessmen and political leaders at the time –a term not viewed upon in a positive manor in her time. The portrayals of her work in a negative light never affected her effort, and she kept on using her investigative power to shed light on the abuses she witnesses. It also is important to note that she did not condemn capitalism itself, but “the open disregard of decent ethical business practices by capitalists.” (Brevard, 2010, p.33) Remaining as impartial as possible, even with stories that struck close to home. Rockefeller’s Stand Oil Company’s methods, once revealed by Ida, outraged the public and led the government to prosecute the company for violations of the Sherman anti-trust act of 1890. (Somervill, 202, p.48) Realization of fairness in the marketplace was one step closer.

Be sure to read parts I and III.

References

Brevard, K. M. (2010). The story of oil: how it changed the world. Mankato, MN: Compass Point Books.

Somervill, B. A. (2002). Ida Tarbell: pioneer investigative reporter. Greensboro, N.C.: M. Reynolds..

Tarbell, I. M. (1939). All in the day’s work;. New York: The Macmillan Co..

Of truly humble beginnings –even for mid-1800’s standards, Ida was to be born in a log house in Erie County Pennsylvania (Tarbell, 1939, p.8) With a story beginning like most other immigrants at the time, her parents strived for land of their own, for success, and a westward move that would occupy most family planning through Ida’s early years in which Ida’s father would work in Iowa while striving to earn enough money to bring his family along with him, yet this isn’t the most important part of her life, and there is no defining moment –only sets of moments, that in which she begins to notice the things in life that are out of place or wrong in her view, and question them. At the age of a year and a half Ida’s father, Frank Tarbell, moved back after success evaded him in Iowa, and as the story was told to and then by Ida “I deeply resented the intimacy between he strange man and my mothers so far my exclusive possession. Flinging my arms around my mother, so the story went, I cried ‘Go away, bad man.’” (Tarbell, 1939, p.8) As Ida’s childhood progressed, her farther took advantage of the Pennsylvania boom at the time and used his skills to build wooden oil storage tanks of which later opened opportunities to become an oil producer and refiner, she was growing up feet from her fathers work and witnessed success, tragedies of workers, wives, and news of presidents lost to an assassin –the world which would define her up-bringing. Throughout her 1939 autobiography All in the day’s work patterns other than her curiosity arise, yes she questions, but she also observed. In one case she wondered what exactly dictated whether objects tossed in the creek floated or sank to the bottom –to add one more to the list, she led her younger brother to a footbridge near her house and dropped him in, it turns out to her delight, even after being spanked she remembered “only the peace of satisfied curiosity in the certainty that my brother belonged to the category of things which floated” (Tarbell. p.8) Exhibiting her tenacity for getting to the bottom of things.

Be sure to read parts II and III.

References

Brevard, K. M. (2010). The story of oil: how it changed the world. Mankato, MN: Compass Point Books.

Somervill, B. A. (2002). Ida Tarbell: pioneer investigative reporter. Greensboro, N.C.: M. Reynolds..

Tarbell, I. M. (1939). All in the day’s work;. New York: The Macmillan Co..

The importance of two-way communication comes in the form of a dialogue. With discourse of course comes information (feedback), which can serve as a guide during further discussions, decisions and can establish a positive tone and mutual respect. PR practitioners engage with an ever-changing, ever-connected, always-informed audience, and a two-way connection can ease a lot of technological growing pains and build strong brands and relationships.

1) Situation: What is the problem, and what is desired?

2) Objectives: The specific set of actions the need to happen to create the change.

3) Audience: One must figure out who can supply what is needed.

4) Strategy: The over-arching themes and approaches will be used.

5) Tactics: Are the formation of smaller portions of the strategy –how it gets done.

6) Calendar/ timetable: A set of dates and deadline with goals to be reached by them in order to fully implement the campaign efficiently and effectively.

7) Budget: Both a means, and a guide to what strategies and tactics are feasible.

8 ) Evaluation: A set of benchmarks that should be set in place during the campaign planning process, which are to be used after (and sometimes during,) a campaign that is in full swing.

We all need to know where we are to figure out how to get where we’re going; the research portion of a PR campaign does just that. It provides a base to stand on using information on sales, perception, awareness, and just about anything related to a PR campaign at its infancy.

The Action portion put pencil to paper and sets a plan into formation. “How exactly do we get where we want to be?” is the question at the forefront, what will change, and what will it accomplish.

Communication is the key to putting the plans in motion; this means weighing options on which strategies and tactics are feasible and available –and then setting them in motion.

R.A.C.E. is the easy to remember acronym for the process of public relations: Research, action, communication, and evaluation. It is the complete cycle from identifying the problem or situation through careful research, which leads into planning a mode of action, and then execution and evaluation which can lead back to the analysis/research portion –starting the cycle again if need be.

The eight factors of persuasive communication are:

1) Audience analysis, one must know not only the demographics of a message receiver, but their beliefs, attitudes, concerns and lifestyles, in other words, their values.

2) Source credibility, without credibility it is obvious that a message will not gain any real, or meaningful, traction.

3) Appeal to self- interest simply means that a message –if to carry clout,  must appeal to an audiences economic or physiological needs.

4) Clarity of message, a clear and concise message is a must, people have to know what they’re being told in terms they understand.

5) Timing and context,  a message has to be appropriate in the way it is formulated, and the delivery must be on par with the societal norms and current events, for example, after 9/11/2001,  there was a rush to get any messages that may be deemed as incentive off the air.

6) Audience participation,  is important in the age of crass-roots organizational movements, if a message can get a large following or active supporters, it is likely to help convey a strong message with –at least seemingly, large support.

7) Suggestions for action, much like audience participation, help mobilize change and support by means of a call to action.

8 ) Content and structure of messages lends itself to a broad set of techniques that can be used to persuade, be it drama, stats, examples,  endorsements –or my personal favorite, the emotional appeal.