For one, it will have to be importance of PR students being equipped with basic business knowledge as it will definitely boost one's status in an organisation. Another will have to be the usage of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in which employees understand whether was a proposal successful.
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From the readings, I was pleased to find out that a typical PR department in an organisation can actually provide an average of 185% return on investment to its organisation! This figure can even increase to 300%, should the CEO of the organisation support the department.
PR practitioners are often deemed as mere 'technicians' in the company, where they have to deal with all the technical tools such as printing and typing. It is definitely rare to find one sitting down at the board's meetings and offering decisive advices to the CEO, due to the very fact that they lack the strategic understanding of business.
As such, I find it exceptionally important that as a PR student, I ought to understand the mechanisms of how the business world work and also the important strategies I have to employ in helping an organisation. By understanding, I will then be able to bring this knowledge into an organisation and work my way up into important decision-making roles. With such a basic knowledge, there will then be a notch over others and PR practitioners will be even more highly valued by a company. Not only will we be mere 'office boys and girls' in photocopying, typing and printing, but reliable and vital communicators working hand-in-hand with the board in strategic planning for the company.
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This chapter is crucial in shaping my understanding between the usage of qualitative and quantitative measures in research for success.
Prior to this, I have never realised the reliance of executive directors, CEOs on quantitative research such as statistical reports. It was quite an alarming fact to me that qualitative research, which is crucial to PR, was usually neglected or overlooked. In dealing with a communicative and cross-cultural study like PR, it is imperative to rope in the 'more humane' qualitative research that is based on consumers' preferences and reactions.
Undoubtedly, the scientific approach of statistics and figures will appeal more to the higher authorise as they are trained to see things this way. It will also be much easier to quantify and collate. However I feel that it is essential to include both approaches, where statistics can show how many press releases were sent out and how much coverage was received, and interviews and surveys could show how effectively press releases had affected the target audience. In corroborating these two main aspects together, it will reveal how efficient a particular strategy was and what could be done to improvise. This is vital to a company's survival as it is a key area where improvements can be made to expand the company and help carry out ongoing and future plans.
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I have learnt a lot from this chapter, and uncovered knowledge that I have never knew or even understood. It can be seen that being a PR practitioner is not a simple job.
One must do his/her best in being the 'middleman' and spokesperson in which communication has to undertake a dual approach. Planning and strategies are vital in this job scope and it is apparent that a PR practitioner spend most of his/her working time planning and devising strategies to aid an organisation. It is with careful planning and accurate implementation of a plan that things will succeed and go with the flow.
As mentioned in the book, there is no such thing as satisfactory present, and the PR department is specially trained to devise methods to strive for the more perfect future.
So now I truly wonder, am I ready to take up this tough challenge?
Love, Erika
Hey Erika!
ReplyDeleteThis is certainly a very specific and detailed analysis of this week's readings, it revealed a lot about what you learnt about Pr and also your thoughts about it.
Firstly, I have to say that it made me think more about PR as well from the important points you mentioned in your entry. I agree with the point about the importance of acquiring business knowledge in order to do well in an organization, because it is very common for PR practitioners to have insufficient experience in that area. However, the point about the use of KPIs to understand PR better is in my opinion not of high importance to PR practitioners. As mentioned in the book, KPIs usually consists of more quantitative measures that is not very applicable to the area of PR, as it is not a tangible topic.
You have pointed out though, that a combination of both quantitative and qualitative measure is a better approach for achieving success in PR plans. I think that is a very good point, and certainly a very useful point to note for a PR practitioner.
Well done, I hope you're ready to take up the challenge to be a PR practitioner!