CHAPTER 6

Planning

Convincing people to wash their

hands more is a universal challenge.
How do international organizations
collaborate to change behavior and
measure success?
 KEY LEARNING OUTCOMES

6.1 Analyze strategic communication outcomes.

6.2 Define key terms of strategic communication planning.
6.3 Develop basic timelines to organize tasks in a strategic public
relations program.
6.4 Identify key categories of public relations budget items.
6.5 Apply consequentialism to make ethical decisions about setting
and achieving public relations objectives while enhancing the
profession.

RELATED UNIVERSAL ACCREDITATION BOARD

COMPETENCY AREAS

1.4 STRATEGIC THINKING • 1.5 PLANNING • 2.2 ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

4.2 BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION • 5.2 RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

ppear or occur suddenly and unexpectedly—that’s how Oxford

A Dictionaries defines the term pop up.1 But there is nothing sudden or
unexpected about pop-ups as strategic communication tactics. A pop-up is a
temporary storefront, event or experience designed to gain attention and
generate engagement by appearing quickly in an unusual place. Effective
pop-ups take planning with bigger organizational goals in mind. Melissa
Gonzalez, author of The Pop-Up Paradigm, advises, “Step back and think of
your goals before starting to plan a pop-up. Why are you doing a pop-up—
besides sales—and what are you ultimately looking to achieve, learn and gain
from it?”2 These are good questions for any kind of public relations activity,
from one-time tactics to long-term campaigns. Planning in public relations
refers to the forethought about goals and objectives and the strategies and
tactics for achieving them (Figure 6.1). Studying outcomes of past campaigns
and programs can help us develop goals and objectives for future ones.

Figure 6.1 In the RPIE cycle, planning is preceded by research (including evaluation of
past programs and campaigns) and drives implementation.
How does research help planners write better goals and objectives?

Think of all the planning required for the shoe company Timberland to
host a weeklong series of events in New York City, including the launch of
its first experiential pop-up store on Fifth Avenue. The 3,500-square-foot
retail store was designed to exist for only a few months during the fall and
holiday shopping season, but it featured live full-sized ficus and birch trees,
giant terrariums with ferns and moss, and various weather-themed rooms
including an immersive digital rain room and a “blustery, photo-ready winter
scene.”3 This was all very “Instagrammable” of course. But beyond
Timberland’s wish “to inspire the community to embrace the outdoors in the
city”4 (as stated in a Timberland news release), what was Timberland really
trying to accomplish? Or, as Vox’s Kaitlyn Tiffany asked, “What does any of
this have to do with actually buying Timberland’s shoes?”5
To better understand and evaluate public relations tactics like Timberland’s
pop-ups, we have to understand how and why they were planned in the first
place. According to Argu Secilmis, the company’s vice president of global
brand marketing, beyond product sales, one major goal was making an
emotional connection to Timberland’s commitment to environmental and
social responsibility.
There are a number of steps that take place between someone noticing a
giant boot on a city block, which was part of the pop-up park in the Flatiron
District of New York City, or seeing friends’ Instagram selfies from a
weather experience room on Fifth Avenue, and purchasing a $200 pair of
boots or rolling up their sleeves in Harlem to create a living rooftop. This
chapter discusses those steps as well as the key components of plans to
achieve them: goals, objectives, timelines and budgets.
For one day, this giant replica of Timberland’s iconic wheat boot drew families to a pop-up
park in the Flatiron District of New York City, kicking off a week-long series of events that
also included the opening of a temporary 3,500-square foot Timberland store on Fifth
Avenue.
What kind of planning is needed to make a pop-up event like this successful?
A Hierarchy of Outcomes
There are times when a client or organization knows they need help with
public relations, but they have a hard time specifying exactly what it is that
they want you to do. Your job as the public relations professional is to
convert fuzzy thinking into a strategy that will lead to meaningful results for
the organization.
One of the most common client requests is “Help us raise awareness.”
Awareness may be part of the desired results, but more often than not
awareness is only an intermediate step in a larger process to reach some other
goal. Awareness of a cause, a new product or an app is only part of the
process in leading people to donate, purchase or download, and to continued
involvement or use beyond that.
Planning for public relations means considering a number of outcomes
beyond awareness. Public relations practitioners need to think strategically
about communication. That is, they need to think about the specific outcomes
of their action and communication. Yale social psychologist William
McGuire developed a hierarchy-of-effects model that outlines key steps in
public communication campaigns (Figure 6.2): tuning in, attending, liking,
comprehending, learning, agreeing, remembering, acting and proselytizing.
Figure 6.2 McGuire’s hierarchy of effects.
Where does “raising awareness” fit in this hierarchy? What are the limitations of
making awareness a campaign goal?

Awareness of a cause, new product or app

is only one step in leading people to donate,
purchase or download.
Tuning In
Before communication can have any effect at all, people must be exposed to
the messages. Think of all the messages you see and hear every day:
advertising, announcements, posters, fliers, email, social media posts and so
on—you get the picture; even the most tuned-in media users are exposed to
way more messaging than anyone can possibly pay attention to. While
exposure is necessary in communication, it is only the first step in effective
communication.

Attending
Attention is the next challenge. Take almost any bulletin board in any college
hallway, classroom or lecture hall. Watch as people walk by the posted fliers
day after day. They are all exposed to the message if they even glance at the
bulletin board, but how many of them actually pay attention? Next time you
listen to ads on a streaming music service like Pandora or Spotify (assuming
you haven’t subscribed to the ad-free version), pay attention to how you pay
attention. Do you notice the first ad or two more than the ones that come on
after you’ve been listening a while?
There’s evidence of limited success with this hallway flier because some of the contact tabs
have been taken.
When someone takes a contact tab, which steps to persuasion are complete? Which still
remain?

Liking
On Facebook, we can signal our “likes” with a thumbs-up. It’s one of many
emotions we can express. According to McGuire, “liking” in particular is an
important step in message processing because people must maintain interest
in a message in order to process it further. In public relations, our messages
are often more complex than a Facebook photo, a hallway flier announcing
an event, or a streaming radio ad for tacos. Our publics may not love the idea
of donating blood, eating more vegetables or joining a community discussion
on a controversial issue, but if we are going to convince them to participate,
our communication has to keep them engaged. If they dislike or just do not
understand a message, they are unlikely to process it.
The USDA has a lot on its plate in communicating dietary guidelines in a likable and
understandable way.
How is the newer message design (C) an improvement over older designs (A and B)?

Comprehending
Sometimes people like a message, but they just don’t get it. Again, in public
relations, goals and objectives for communication often depend on publics
understanding complex ideas or considering different sides of
multidimensional issues. A clever post or credible influencer may get lots of
“likes,” but effective communication requires comprehension.
I really liked the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s old food pyramid to
promote balanced eating. My reading of that poster on the cafeteria walls of
elementary, middle and high school was that I should carb-load like an
endurance athlete and then top off with maybe a nice steak and a milkshake.
In hindsight, that’s probably not what the USDA was really trying to
communicate. They later revised the food pyramid to emphasize more
exercise and more individually appropriate choices. But that revision
confused people too. Realizing that their message may have been liked but
was too often misunderstood, the USDA settled on a plate graphic to
illustrate the importance of a balanced diet.

Learning
Helping publics acquire relevant skills is one of the more difficult goals to
achieve in public relations. Consider campaigns to get people to save for
retirement, properly separate recyclables or maintain safe privacy settings on
social media accounts. Public relations basically becomes an act of teaching.
However, instead of the students sitting captive in a classroom, the primary
public may be new employees who are overwhelmed in their first week on
the job, tired residents taking their trash out or distracted teenagers uploading
to their Instagram accounts. Reaching and teaching each public will require
different tactics. New employees may be asked to view an online video about
retirement plans at their leisure before registering for benefits. Instructions
for recycling might be placed right on the bins. Teens’ parents may be
recruited to review privacy settings before signing mobile contracts (although
teaching parents may be harder than teaching their kids).

When campaign goals include helping

publics acquire relevant skills, public
relations basically becomes an act of
teaching.
Agreeing
So let’s say you’ve taught your public how to open a retirement account,
where to dispose of pizza boxes or how to revoke access to third-party
websites when posting photos on mobile apps. That still doesn’t mean they
will agree to do so. Attitude change is at the heart of persuasion.

Remembering
McGuire reminded communicators that publics must both store what they’ve
learned in memory and later retrieve that knowledge and attitude at the right
time. Even with the best intentions, people often forget to do what it is they
learned and agreed to do. When was the last time you actually reviewed your
privacy settings on your social media accounts? Would a reminder help?
Building reminders into public relations campaigns makes sense.

Acting
A lot of work goes into using communication to change knowledge and
attitudes, but the most important results are usually behavioral. I’m thinking
of my annual flu shot. Each fall, I view, read and hear messages about flu
season and the importance of getting a flu shot. I pay attention because I hate
getting sick. I wouldn’t say I love the messages, but they do hold my interest
as I think about how vaccines work and the risks and benefits for individuals
and communities. I understand what getting a flu shot entails, that I am
eligible and that it will be covered by my insurance. I learn that all I have to
do is walk in to a clinic on a Monday through Friday, sign a form and roll up
my sleeve. I agree it’s a good idea. Then I get an email reminder on a
Tuesday afternoon when I have no other appointments. But none of this
matters to me, my immune system or the general state of public health in my
community if I don’t actually walk into the clinic and get the shot. Behavior
is what matters most.

Proselytizing
The very best campaigns and communication efforts go beyond a two-step
communication flow from sender to media and from media to receivers. They
go viral. People not only learn, agree and act, but they encourage others to do
likewise; this is referred to as proselytizing. Proselytizing may be the secret
sauce of viral social media, but it also is key to the endurance of historical
social movements in religion, education and politics (see Chapter 2).

Using McGuire’s Hierarchy of Effects for Planning

While not every public relations program will address all nine of these
outcomes, and the steps do not always happen in the same order, thinking
through McGuire’s list (McGuire and others have offered other steps besides
these) can help your planning in a number of ways. First, the list will help
you avoid the mistake of setting goals at one level (e.g., liking) when what
you and your client really want is effectiveness at a greater level (e.g.,
acting).

Avoid setting goals at one level (e.g., liking)

when what you and your client really want
is effectiveness at a greater level (e.g.,
acting).
Second, the list will help you identify specific objectives and tactics and
remind you not to forget any key steps. The remembering step may cue you
to include reminder emails or build an app feature that notifies publics when
it’s time to act. When you are evaluating your efforts, the list may help you
diagnose what worked and what didn’t. Maybe your campaign message was
tremendously popular (lots of liking) but led to very low participation. You
might then review whether people actually understood your key message
(comprehending) and knew how to act (learning).
Third, the list serves as a reminder to be realistic about expected outcomes.
Let’s say you get your story placed in The Wall Street Journal, and it
contains your key messages just how you want them. Score! The 2019 U.S.
circulation figure for the national edition is 1,011,200. For simplicity, we
might optimistically estimate the following:
• A million people are exposed to the message.
• A quarter of those who are exposed pay attention (250,000).
• A fifth of those who pay attention are interested enough to read the story
(50,000).
• Half of those who read it understand the key message (25,000).
• Most of those who understand the key message acquire the skills you want
them to (20,000).
• Half of those with the skills agree (10,000).
• One in 10 of those who agree remember (1,000).
• Half of those who remember finally act on the message (500).

Convincing 500 people to do something is excellent if you’re leasing

airplanes or seeking large donations to a nonprofit, but it may not be as
meaningful if you’re selling smoothies or trying to get out votes for a national
election. And in either case, 500 is a far cry from the 1 million impressions
—the measure of how many people were exposed to a message—that you
may be tempted to claim as a metric of success.
Change.org makes it easy to start an online petition as part of a strategic communication
plan.
What is the overall goal of this petition and what are the measurable steps that can be
tracked in reaching it?

Video 6.1: This Secret Gave Her Daughter Cancer

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content.]

Planning
Videos like this one for "No more kids with cancer: clean up the Santa
Susana Field Lab” are key tactics in strategic communication campaigns
and allow for tracking of steps to persuasion.

Digital media allow for better tracking of steps as well. For some steps,
such as liking and proselytizing, subscribers can gather fairly specific data.
Metrics available for online video sites like YouTube allow subscribers to see
the number of unique views, the average view duration, the number of people
who shared the material or commented on it and the content of those
comments. You may find that almost everyone who started a video watched it
all the way through or that almost no one who clicked on it actually watched
it or shared it.
Digital marketers, who are focused on sales as a final outcome, sometimes
refer to the process outlined in McGuire’s model as a funnel. The funnel
represents a customer’s journey from exposure to purchase (and eventually
post-purchase loyalty and sharing/proselytizing). In Google Analytics, the
basic process is termed a conversion funnel. “With this funnel in place, you
can see whether users navigate from one page or screen to the next,” as
explained on a Google Analytics support page.6 Any online action that can be
tracked electronically then becomes a measurable step in the process. For
example, a marketer might track the number of people who find their
business’s home page from a Google search, then the number of those people
who click on a promotion, then those who fill in a form, and then the number
of people who make a purchase online. Similar processes can be tracked for
organizations with goals of recruiting new members or getting petitions
signed.
For now it’s important to think specifically and realistically about the
outcomes of strategic communication. Chapter 8 will delve more into
measurement at various levels of outcomes.
Quiz 6.1
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content.]

Planning
Strategic Planning
Tactical decision-making refers to daily management and communication
without consideration of the strategic objectives, goals and mission of an
organization. Strategic decision-making, on the other hand, means that
public relations tactics are planned and implemented to help an organization
pursue its mission and goals.
What may at first look like a simple publicity stunt to gain attention may
actually serve as part of a broader strategy. For example, on March 8, 2018,
McDonald’s flipped its iconic golden arches on many of its menus, french-fry
containers, uniforms, and even one of its giant outdoor signs in the
Lynnwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Naturally people were surprised
when they noticed a giant “W” where the “M” had become an established
part of the landscape. However, as described by McDonald’s Chief Global
Diversity Officer Wendy Lewis on her Medium page, these upside-down
letters were part of a strategy to honor the “extraordinary accomplishments of
women everywhere and especially in our restaurants.”7 March 8 is
International Women’s Day, and one of McDonald’s key corporate values is
commitment to their people:

We provide opportunity, nurture talent, develop leaders and reward

achievement. We believe that a team of well-trained individuals with
diverse backgrounds and experiences, working together in an
environment that fosters respect and drives high levels of engagement, is
essential to our continued success.8

While McDonald’s International Women’s Day tactics certainly drew

attention, they were designed in a way that promoted understanding of the
company’s values. A dedicated website (McDonalds.com/IWD) was
launched to explain and celebrate the contributions of women, including
statistics such as 6 of 10 McDonald’s restaurant managers are women. The
site also featured stories on amazing women who have worked at
McDonald’s and owned franchises and included a “Proud Sponsor” link
illustrating the company’s relationship with International Women’s Day with
a link that directed website visitors to McDonald’s careers page where
women were invited to search jobs and apply.

Owners Patricia Williams, center, and her daughters Kerri Harper-Howie (left) and Nicole
Enearu pose for a portrait in front of their upside down, iconic, McDonald’s “M.” The three
own 18 McDonald's franchises in the Los Angeles area.
What makes this tactic of turning the “M” upside down strategic?

As discussed in Chapter 5, an organization’s mission and vision describe

an organization’s overall purpose and desired end-state. The mission or
vision should guide all management and communication. Finding the cure for
a disease, sustaining democracy, making money or preserving the
environment may be central to various organizations’ missions. An example
of a mission/vision would be: Zero waste in Orange County.
 Goals are desired outcomes that directly help an organization pursue its
mission or vision. Dollars donated, percentage of the population registered to
vote, products sold and pounds of waste recycled are all examples of goals
that could be set at various levels to contribute in a meaningful way to an
organization’s mission. An example of a goal would be: Orange County high
school students will recycle ten tons of plastic by June 1.
Objectives are the specific measurable steps that you must achieve to
accomplish larger goals. Video views, people in attendance at a special event,
coverage in news media of a press event, placement of recycling bins at key
locations, a minimum percentage of social media followers who use a
particular hashtag or number of app downloads all could be quantified and
measured as evidence of objectives being met. Objectives are valuable to
organizations when they help meet broader goals. An example of an objective
would be: To achieve 1,000 downloads and registrations of the recycling app
by high school students in the Orange County school district by February 15.
Tactics are the specific actions you take and items you produce in public
relations. Video clips, news releases, websites, fliers, special events, press
conferences, infographics, TV ads, email messages, hashtags and apps are all
tactics. Indeed, public relations isn’t public relations without tactics.
However, absent a broader strategy, it’s hard to say what value tactics have
for your organization. An example of a tactic would be: Development of an
app that allows high school students to record, upload and post a running
total of the amount of material they recycle.
Pounds of recycled material may be used to define a campaign goal.
What kinds of public relations tactics and objectives could be used to achieve such a
goal?

Of course, many tactics go into achieving an objective, multiple objectives

are normally required in order to attain a goal, and organizations perpetually
work toward goals in pursuit of their missions or visions (Figure 6.3).
Strategy is the underlying logic that holds a plan together and offers a
compelling rationale for why we expect a plan to work. A campaign can have
one overarching strategy as well as several smaller strategies that work in
conjunction to support various dimensions of success. An example of a
strategy would be: High schools will compete to see which school logs the
most recycled material by the end of the school year, with progress posted
online and publicized on social media, and the winner will receive a full day
off for an eco fair and picnic at the end of the school year.
Figure 6.3 In strategic public relations, a mission drives goals, goals drive objectives, and
objectives drive tactics. Think about what you’re doing right now (reading this book!).
Are you being strategic or tactical? If strategic, what are your own larger objectives,
goals and mission?

Case Study

Global Handwashing Day: Goals,

Objectives and Outcomes
Did you know that October 15 is Global Handwashing Day? The Water
Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council (WSSCC) is a global
partnership organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, that is affiliated
with the United Nations. Partners include NGOs, private companies and
government agencies. In its mission statement, WSSCC lays out its
vision “of a world where everybody has sustained water supply,
sanitation and hygiene.”9 From that mission and vision, the organization
has adopted a broad strategy to contribute “substantially to global efforts
to improve sanitation and hygiene for vulnerable sections of society,
with a special focus on communities in Africa and Asia.”
UNICEF, a key partner with WSSCC in sponsoring Global
Handwashing Day, has published a toolkit for handwashing campaign
planners, which outlines major goals for handwashing campaigns. These
goals are derived from the larger missions of WSSCC and UNICEF and
provide the strategic rationale for objectives that determine appropriate
tactics. Program planners want to see behavior change. They want more
people to wash their hands and to sustain that behavior. This, in turn,
leads to the “ultimate goal” of public health impact, including reducing
diseases such as respiratory infections and diarrhea.10

NGOs, private companies and government agencies all partner to make Global
Handwashing Day happen.
How do private companies benefit from participating?
Video 6.2: Global Handwashing Day—Handwashing Steps Video

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Planning
This fun tactic from India serves as part of a larger strategy to achieve the
goals of Global Handwashing Day.

Specifically, the UNICEF toolkit presents the following goal:

“Increase, improve and/or sustain good hand washing behaviour and
form good handwashing habits.”11 This is a great goal. We should all
wash our hands more. And it clearly serves the missions of WSSCC,
UNICEF, government health ministries, soap companies and any other
organization affiliated with Global Handwashing Day. However,
campaign planners need more than a well-stated and well-intentioned
goal. Success in strategic public relations means being able to
demonstrate the results of your work. A goal like this can be achieved
by identifying and accomplishing objectives as steps along the way.

SMART OBJECTIVES
Well-designed objectives are SMART objectives. SMART stands for
specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

Specific

Well-written objectives state exactly what the strategic communicator

plans to accomplish in a way that makes the outcome clear to all who
see it. A goal to improve handwashing behavior is general. It is also
debatable. My elementary-school-aged son and I have very different
opinions about what counts as good handwashing, and a trained public
health worker might have advice for us both. An objective serving the
goal of improving handwashing would need to be more specific about
what is meant by improvement. Does improved handwashing mean
people will wash their hands more often? At specific times? Using more
soap? Perhaps all three of these are important outcomes needed to
achieve the larger goal. In that case, each would be the basis for a
separate specific objective. Multiple objectives may serve each goal.

Measurable

Can the results be observed and measured in a way that shows actual
change? A clear objective sets a standard that will define success. This
could be the number of times people report washing their hands in a day,
the percentage of people who are observed washing their hands before
meals or the pounds of soap used in a community center in a month.

Attainable

Although you want to be ambitious in setting objectives, it’s important

to be realistic. Research and past experience may guide planners in
finding that balance between ambitious and attainable. In a hospital
staffed by professional healthcare workers, it might be realistic to aim
for 100 percent participation in an effort to get doctors and nurses to
wash their hands thoroughly before contact with patients, but would it
be realistic to try to get 100 percent of children in a remote village to
wash their hands three times a day?

Relevant

Do the objectives relate clearly to the goal and mission? An objective to

generate a certain number of social media posts hashtagged
#HandwashingHeroes may be specific, measurable and attainable.12 But
if your goal is to increase handwashing in specific communities in
Africa, you would need to be able to explain how those social media
posts are relevant where it matters.

Time-Bound
Timing is a critical part of strategy. Setting a deadline for accomplishing
an objective adds accountability. It also aids planning, as deadlines for
specific objectives become milestones for achieving larger goals in the
broader campaign timeline. A goal for a certain percentage of children to
wash hands in school in October may be preceded by an objective to
guarantee donations of soap to the schools by the start of the school
year.

Example objectives in the UNICEF toolkit include the following.

Do you think they are SMART?

• “Increase knowledge about the benefits of handwashing with soap

among primary school-aged children in 100 primary schools within
one year.”
• “Increase the number of primary school-aged children that wash
hands with soap before eating in 100 primary schools within one
year.”13

OUTPUTS, OUTCOMES AND IMPACTS

In writing goals and objectives it is important to think beyond what you
plan to do and to think about what you plan to accomplish. While it
makes sense that a strategic plan outlines outputs—tasks completed—a
plan without goals and objectives that specify the results of those efforts
will fall short on strategy. Output objectives focus on the tangible efforts
of public relations such as the number of tweets posted, news releases
sent, events sponsored or schools visited by experts. As Professor
Ronald Smith put it in his text Strategic Planning for Public Relations,
“Measure outputs if you wish. They can provide useful assessment of
what has been done. But don’t stop there.”14
Beyond outputs, outcomes identify the results of public relations
work. How many people retweeted your tweet? How many news
organizations covered the story in your news release? How many
schools reported participating in Global Handwashing Day as a result of
invitations from health experts? How many students were observed
 washing their hands?
In the big picture of public relations campaigns and programs,
planners may want to account for impact. Impacts are the broadest and
furthest-reaching results of public relations efforts. They also are the
hardest results to attribute to the specific efforts of a particular program.
You may never know if your recycling program affects global climate
change, but you may be able to at least estimate the amount of energy
conserved or landfill space saved. These would be impacts beyond the
outcomes of the number of people who report recycling, which may
follow the output of distributing recycle bins. Here are samples from the
UNICEF handwashing program:

• Output: Number of door-to-door visits by hygiene promoters to

discuss with caregivers the role of handwashing in nurturing
children.
• Outcome: Proportion of primary caregivers who report washing
hands with soap and water at two critical times during the day.
• Impact: Reduced prevalence of illness among children younger than
5 years old living in the household observed.

Quiz 6.2
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Planning
Timelines
As outlined in the RPIE (research, planning, implementation and evaluation)
model, research leads to goals and objectives, which lead to strategies and
tactics, which are monitored, adapted and evaluated with further research.
The process is cyclical, but it also happens in a logical order, and a timeline
for that order puts each step in chronological context. At the most basic level
of management, a good timeline determines when to spend resources (such as
time and money) on what. Key steps in a public relations plan timeline
include formative research, client/management meetings, implementation of
management and communication tactics, production of media and
communication materials, events and evaluation.

A good timeline determines when to spend

resources (such as time and money) on
what.
Formative Research
Once you have a general idea of your goals and how they fit into the
organization’s larger mission or vision, you’ll want to start thinking about
two types of formative research. The first is benchmarking. Benchmarking
research defines your starting points for accomplishing goals and objectives.
In an annual fundraising campaign, planners often start by reviewing the
prior year’s donations as a benchmark that can be used in setting new goals.
In a handwashing campaign like the one in the UNICEF example, you would
want to do research in the early stages of planning to determine the
proportion of primary school-aged children who wash hands with soap prior
to eating before you start so that you can later determine your program’s
success in “moving the needle,” so to speak. If 75 percent of children are
found to wash hands before eating in the 100 schools under observation, then
that would be your benchmark, and 95 percent or even 100 percent might be
a reasonable goal. If, however, you learn that only 5 percent of children
currently wash hands before eating, then that would be your benchmark, and
a goal of 50 percent (a 10-fold increase) might be more realistic.

The goal thermometer is a common tactic for tracking and communicating success over
time in fundraising campaigns.
What type of research is needed to set appropriate benchmarks?

In management by objectives (MBO), planners consult with their

organizations and clients to determine appropriate objectives for which they
will be accountable. For both social and scientific reasons, a 50 percent
success rate in a handwashing campaign may or may not be a desirable
outcome. Benchmarks can be used for broad program goals or at the level of
any specific objective. Any of the steps in McGuire’s model can work as a
place to gather benchmark data for later comparison to determine the
effectiveness of strategic communication.
McGuire’s steps also work in formative evaluation. The purpose of
formative evaluation is to monitor program efforts to enable corrections
based on feedback; it may be used at any time in a campaign and may be
built into a timeline as a periodic or ongoing effort. For example, social
media analytics allow communicators to monitor real-time feedback in
response to any post. Review of annual, weekly, daily or even hourly reports
of social media activity can be built into program timelines. Which Instagram
stories are getting the most views (tuning in)? Which Facebook posts are
getting the most thumbs up (liking)? Which tweets are retweeted the most
(proselytizing)? You can check if certain times of day, sources of information
or types of content such as replies to others, humor, personal narrative or
rational argument are working or not working well and adjust your social
media strategy based on that diagnosis. Formative evaluation works for any
form of communication strategy and not just social media.

Social media analytics allow

communicators to monitor real-time
feedback in response to any post.
Client/Management Meetings
Public relations campaigns and programs are often initiated in a meeting with
a client or with management in your own organization. After that initial
meeting, public relations planners forecast the timeline for their proposed
project. In cases in which an agency is trying to win new business, the agency
will then develop a competitive campaign proposal to try to win the business.
If you’ve ever watched Mad Men or other portrayals of a client pitch, you can
imagine the amount of preparation that goes into the proposal. Winning new
business or management approval requires a clear articulation of strategy and
mutual agreement about how that strategy will be implemented. Beyond the
initial meeting and pitch, plans should include an outline of how often those
implementing the campaign will meet with clients or management.

Action and Communication Tactics

Communication should be planned around organizational action. Sometimes
the communication must precede action, as when an electric company
consults with communities via town hall meetings prior to installing new
power lines. Communication also is planned concurrently with action, as
when commuters and customers are notified in real time about construction
that may interfere with traffic or electric service. Communication also may
follow the project to promote the improved service or to explain increases (or
decreases) in electric bills that occur as a result. Two-way communication
that results in mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and
publics happens throughout the process. In your timeline, that communication
may be labeled as research in early stages and evaluation in later stages as
you gather feedback.

Production of Media and Communication Materials

Print tactics require lead time for copywriting, design, printing and
distribution. Audio, video and multimedia communications need time for
scripting, production and editing. Interpersonal and social media channels
need to be established and relationships need to be developed as part of an
ongoing process of relationship building and maintenance. Program timelines
should take all of this prep time into account.

Events
Some programs are planned around a single major event such as an election
or a grand opening. In planning these programs, the event date becomes the
focal point around which all other tasks are scheduled. How far in advance do
announcements need to be made? How much time should be allotted to the
production and placement of those announcements? Who will live-tweet the
event as it happens? How soon after the event will results of the program be
evaluated?
Other programs include multiple events. Event types include holiday
celebrations, speeches and panels, press conferences, celebrity appearances,
carnivals, contests, building dedications and so on. Events can be
geographically dispersed (broadcasts, webcasts, virtual conferences). They
can be dictated by tradition or law (homecoming, the U.S. Census). They can
even be participant-driven, such as unconferences—conferences organized
for active peer-to-peer exchange of ideas and information—meet-ups and
grassroots rallies. But if events are to be part of a larger public relations plan
or program, their place on the calendar must be considered carefully in
planning.
Special events, like the Las Vegas Color Run (also billed as “The Happiest 5K on the
Planet”) are focal points in public relations calendars and timelines.
What types of organizations would be involved in planning such an event? What types of
organizational goals would be served?

Evaluation
Strategic communicators who write SMART objectives realize they’ve done
themselves a favor when it’s time for evaluation. If objectives are specific
and measurable, it will be clear what needs to be measured (e.g., number of
primary caregivers who report washing hands or pounds of recyclable
material collected). If objectives are attainable, relevant and time-bound, the
right time to measure results also will be readily apparent. Furthermore, if
benchmark research is designed well, conducting evaluation research will
largely be a matter of repeating earlier research and comparing results.
Planners have several options for timeline formats. Gantt charts are types
of bar charts that show project timelines including the start and duration
times of tasks. Looking at each task (normally presented in horizontal rows),
a planner can consider how long a task will take or how often it needs to be
repeated. Looking at any particular time (normally presented in vertical
columns), a planner can consider which tasks will occur at the same time and
which resources will be needed. Gantt charts can be relatively simple, like the
sample presented in Figure 6.4 that was created with standard spreadsheet
software. Planners can design more advanced interactive Gantt charts using
relatively inexpensive project management software available online.

SMART objectives make it clear when, what

and how evaluation should be conducted.
Figure 6.4 Gantt chart for a 14-week plan with primary event in week 9.

Video 6.3: Online Project Management Software—GanttPRO (2018)

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Planning
Project management products like those offered by GanttPRO can be used
to assist with planning, including budgets and Gantt chart timelines.

Other options for timelines are to use a standard calendar or to develop a

bulleted list that is organized based on times relative to a focal event. For
example, the list may start with what should be done 6–11 months before the
event, include monthly and weekly tasks leading up to the event, and end
with what needs to be done in the days and weeks after the event has passed
(Figure 6.5). Simple checklists of tasks with due dates also are helpful in
planning.
Figure 6.5 List of tasks for a one-year plan culminating in an event at the end with follow-
up.
Source: www.fresharts.org; Adapted from Spacetaker|Artist Resource Center.

Quiz 6.3
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Planning
Budgets
Achievable goals and objectives depend on the budget, and the budget
depends on the resources needed to achieve the goals and objectives. In some
cases, the budget is set in advance, and the planner works to develop a
program within that budget. In other cases, the planner develops a proposal
and then requests or negotiates a budget to carry out the plan. Either way,
gaining budget approval and then achieving the goals and objectives within
that budget indicate professionalism in public relations. Both processes entail
reaching agreement with clients or management on the value of your work
and having them invest valuable resources in getting the work done.
Three key resources to consider in any public relations budget are
personnel, administrative costs and supplies, and media. These three
categories overlap. For example, if you hire an influencer to use Instagram to
promote your product at a music festival, that could be considered either a
personnel expense or a media expense. If you buy paper and color toner to
produce posters or fliers, that could be categorized as administrative or as
media in the budget. And if you hire translators for an international
conference, that could be considered either an administrative expense or a
personnel expense. The key is to organize your budget in a way that makes
sense to the person or people funding it and to make sure that you carefully
think through the categories so you don’t leave out any major expenses (see
Figure 6.6).
Figure 6.6 This budget template from HubSpot.com opens as an Excel file and can be
customized for any public relations program.
How are the categories of personnel, administrative costs and supplies, and media
included in the template?

Organize budgets in a way that makes sense

to the people funding it.
Personnel
Even in programs with no budget, people invest time and depend on others to
do so as well to achieve public relations goals. Class projects and pro bono
work for nonprofit organizations often are planned and conducted with
almost no financial resources, but this doesn’t mean that people aren’t
investing. In such cases it is important to note the time required. Although the
hours worked by volunteers, students or employees with salaries paid for by
other sources may not show up as dollar figures, those hours should be
acknowledged in the plan as required resources.
On the other end of the accounting spectrum for personnel costs, agencies
often apply very specific billing formulas to account for their employees’
time working on client accounts. I’ll always remember the first time I saw a
billing sheet. I was working in an unpaid summer internship during weekdays
and operating a driving range golf ball picker on nights and weekends for
$6.50 an hour. My supervisor at the internship was just a few years older than
me. He asked me to review a project budget, and I just about fell out of my
chair when I saw that he was getting $150 an hour for his work. I did the
math and figured he must be making more than $300,000 a year! How could
this be? Why wasn’t he driving a Ferrari?
When agencies bill clients for their work, they often include billable hourly
rates as a major part of the budget, but the amount billed is considerably
larger than the amount the employee gets paid. Author, consultant and PRSA
Fellow James Lukaszewski offered the following example on his website.15
Suppose an account supervisor at a public relations agency earns a salary of
$65,000 a year. Assuming the employee is paid for 40 hours a week over the
course of 52 weeks, her hourly pay comes out to $31.25. However, the
agency also pays for her benefits including costs such as health insurance and
retirement contributions. These fringe benefits can cost the firm up to 30
percent or more of her base pay. With 30 percent fringe added, her hourly
cost to the agency is $40.63 per hour. Of course, agencies wouldn’t make any
money if they only charged their clients their actual costs, and they have
many other expenses to cover besides those payroll costs, so they bill clients
at a rate of three or even four times the cost of paying the account executive.
Using a multiple of three, the billable rate for the account supervisor would
be $121.89 per hour. Using a multiple of four, the billable rate would be
$162.52 per hour, even though she is earning an annual salary of $65,000 and
not $338,000. Now I understand why my internship supervisor was driving a
nice Toyota but not splurging on an Italian sports car.
We can see how important it is to factor in the amount of time people will
spend on particular projects when developing budgets. While an agency’s HR
and accounting departments may handle all the specifics of salaries, fringe
and billing, planners must still provide an estimate of how many people will
work on which projects and for how long. Other personnel costs to consider
include hiring freelance writers and editors, photographers, artists,
spokespeople, social media influencers or any type of temporary workers
such as event security staff for a concert or drivers to take nurses to remote
communities in an international healthcare campaign.

Administrative Costs and Supplies

In agencies or established businesses, regular and ongoing administrative
costs such as electricity, paper and internet services are often considered
overhead expenses, meaning public relations planners normally wouldn’t
need to account for them specifically in developing a campaign strategy or
program budget (though clients pay for them indirectly with marked-up
prices for services). Beyond those costs, or if you are working independently,
you have to think about budgeting for any stuff that you will need for your
campaign that you don’t plan on having donated or paying for out of your
own personal funds. These costs may include anything from specialty items
like coffee mugs or T-shirts, to nametags, pizza and drinks, soap for
handwashing, bins for recycling, computers and tablets—you name it. If you
are organizing an event as part of a larger program, you may estimate the
total cost of the event in your initial program proposal rather than getting too
specific with each line item. Other major non-media expense categories
include travel, facility rentals, speaker fees and research costs.
OK, who ordered pizza? Even smaller expenses like food and snacks for events add up
when you are working independently.
Where might you find pizza in a public relations budget?

Media and Communication Expenses

Advertising and promotion are important costs to consider in most public
relations programs. For traditional media, price quotes can be attained to get
an accurate estimate of how much to budget for advertising. As discussed in
Chapter 3, newspaper ads can range from less than $20 per column inch in a
student newspaper to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a full-page ad in a
national or international publication. As with print media, advertising sales
representatives from radio and TV stations can give you quotes for media
space (e.g., a 30-second spot during prime time). Someone budgeting for a
national branding campaign may have to choose between, say, spending
$327,000 for a full-page color ad in The Wall Street Journal, and spending
$400,000 for a 30-second TV spot during a top-rated prime-time network
sitcom. Of course, many factors go into such decisions, and when the stakes
are high, professional media planners are part of the process. Media
planning entails considering factors such as strategy and audience
demographics to make sure that advertising budgets are spent wisely and in
line with SMART objectives. Reach (the percentage or number of people
exposed to a message) and frequency (the average number of times people in
an audience are exposed to a particular message in a given period) are two of
the most important variables. Media planning is a career path in and of itself.
Advertising in digital and interactive media has evolved into new models
of buying and selling media. Programmatic media buying, for example,
involves automated real-time bidding (RTB) that is preprogrammed by
marketers and automated to buy space when certain criteria are met. In
programmatic media sales, publishers use software called supply-side
platforms (SSPs) and buyers use demand-side platforms (DSPs). Former
Instagram and Twitter executive Ameet Ranadive explains the process with
an example:

Based on its knowledge about this user (e.g., the user recently searched
for flights to Hawaii on a travel website), a DSP will bid on the right to
serve an ad to this user. The RTB exchange will then run an auction for
the ad impression generated by this user. The winning DSP will serve a
creative — potentially a dynamic display ad with personalized content,
perhaps including the recently browsed flight details, price, and image
of the destination—to the user.16

Programmatic media buying can be used for everything from basic ads on
news websites to promoted tweets to Google search returns to sponsored
posts in Facebook. Again, this type of media planning requires specialized
expertise, but understanding the basics will help public relations planners
work with media planners in buying space in digital and interactive media.
At this point, you may be thinking, what about “free” media? You can
write your own newsletter, distribute your own fliers or set up your own
Instagram account, Facebook group or Pinterest board for free, right? It’s true
that these communication tactics don’t incur advertising costs, but you will
have other costs to consider. An effective social media presence requires time
and effort—in other words, personnel costs. If you are including fliers in your
budget, you should include the cost of designing and printing.

A social media presence may be “free” of

advertising costs, but it still requires
personnel costs.
For professionalism with just about any communication tactic, public
relations planners must also consider the costs of production. Production
costs for national TV ads can range from tens of thousands of dollars to
millions of dollars. For a basic event flier, you might design it yourself or buy
lunch for a talented friend to design it. Even so, you’ll want to check with a
local printer on printing prices if you don’t have access to a good copy
machine with a full supply of paper and toner. For example, to print in full
color on premium paper, FedEx Office charges $29.99 for 50 copies and
$149.99 for 250 copies. These numbers undoubtedly vary (and the FedEx
quote probably won’t apply any more by the time you read this), but it goes
to show how important it is to think about production costs and to build them
into your budget.
Social media command center war rooms like this one allow for 24/7 monitoring of client
mentions and trends.
Setting up social media accounts may be free at first, but what other expenses need to be
considered in budgeting for continued operation?

Voices from the Field

Natalie Asorey

NATALIE ASOREY is a lecturer in public relations at the University of Florida. She

most recently was head of social media at BODEN, a leading cross-cultural
communication agency based in Miami, where she oversaw the McDonald’s USA scope
of work as Hispanic agency of record. She led the account team and collaborated with
McDonald’s communication, marketing and digital teams to develop communication
and social media strategies to reach the Hispanic consumer market. Asorey also led the
agency’s award-winning social listening practice, Escucha, to build brand advocacy
through influencer and consumer engagement and real-time content.
You’ve taught and supervised many entry-level communicators and interns. How
much do entry-level practitioners need to be concerned with strategic planning,
and to what degree can they get by early in their careers by just being good with
tactics?
The entry-level practitioners who have a strong grasp of strategic planning are the ones
who will propel quickly in their careers. But even in developing tactics, you have a
chance to show your strategic thinking. Consider one of the most common entry-level
public relations tasks: creating a media list (a list of potential outlets and journalists to
pitch a news story). Identifying the right journalists who will care about your
organization’s story requires research and strategy. Every task, no matter how small or
tedious, is an opportunity to show you go above and beyond.
McDonald’s has been recognized for successfully experimenting with innovative
forms of social media engagement. What kinds of metrics have you used to track
engagement objectives and goals?
To track objectives and goals on social media, we’d measure both quantitative and
qualitative metrics. We’d analyze metrics like engagement rate, click-through rates (to
websites) and conversions (how many people signed up, provided contact information,
completed a transaction, etc.), among others. These allowed us to understand not just
how many people were seeing the brand’s content, but how they were interacting with it.
We’d also analyze tweets and comments for sentiment, giving us a better sense of how
people perceived the brand and helping us manage its online reputation. When analyzed
together, this gave us a more holistic, accurate view of how we were tracking against
our objectives.
How have budgets for public relations programs and campaigns changed with the
rise of social media?
Many organizations now have dedicated budgets for social media, which can include
 everything from agency fees for content production to out-of-pocket expenses for
influencer partnerships and social media promotion. Sometimes, though, these are part
of larger public relations budgets, and it’s up to the client or agency to determine how
much will be allocated to social media. Regardless of how small or large the budget, the
key is to manage it strategically and effectively and demonstrate how you’re using the
resources to meet goals and objectives.
Are there times when it makes more sense just to wing it and go with instinct?
Simply “winging it” is a recipe for disaster. Say it works once … great. That doesn’t
guarantee it will work every time, and you don’t want to risk failure because you didn’t
take the time to plan. Sometimes you have a strong gut feeling that something will or
will not work—but you can’t quite pinpoint why. Always speak up when that happens,
but also back up that instinct with research. Clients are more inclined to take a chance
on a big idea if you have data to support it.
What’s the coolest campaign outcome you’ve achieved?
When BODEN planned the “¡Síganme los Buenos!” campaign for McDonald’s, the
brand challenged the agency to not only deliver on traditional public relations outcomes
(like impressions and engagement), but to also drive traffic to the restaurants and boost
sales. The campaign centered on a partnership with a legendary Hispanic character, El
Chapulín Colorado (like the Mickey Mouse of Latino culture), to show the brand’s
commitment to Hispanic consumers and launch its new dollar menu. Consumers had
such a powerful cultural connection that the line wrapped around the restaurant on the
day of the event. Families even dressed up as the character! It was such a rewarding
experience—and the proof was in the numbers, which showed an increase in guest count
and sales.

Quiz 6.4
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Planning
Ethics: Beware of Zombies; Enhance
the Profession
When public relations strategy includes a social media platform like
Instagram, a common element of SMART objectives relates to the number of
followers or likes or comments the account receives. As you know if you
have ever started a social media account, the first batch of friends and
followers comes relatively easily.
That first batch of friends and followers may be all you need if you’re
keeping your account for personal reasons. Your network may grow slowly
and organically from there as you discover new friends and others discover
you. That’s how most of us expect social media to work. So when we see that
@selenagomez has more than 150 million followers on Instagram but follows
only 59 others, we know a different pattern of influence is in process. The
communication is one-way. However, in between small interpersonal
accounts and pure mass-communication-by-Instagram, there are many ways
that strategic communicators build social media influence into their plans.
One way to harness influence in social media is to work long and hard to
build a large and lasting base of friends and followers. Over time, working to
provide content that people enjoy and find useful enough to like and share
will earn you or your organization followers and clout. Consistent and regular
interaction (i.e., two-way communication and relationship building) with
others online is also a big part of what it takes to be successful in building
online social networks.
As noted in the budget section, social media aren’t really free. Success
with social media requires an investment over time in providing valuable
content and building relationships. The return on that investment in public
relations comes when it’s time to get the word out about your recycling drive,
to introduce your company’s new product, or to remind voters to go to the
polls in support of your cause on Election Day. From tuning in to going viral,
a large and well-maintained social media network can support each and every
one of the steps in McGuire’s model of strategic communication.
Now, what if I were to offer you a shortcut? A site called Buzzoid offers
500 followers for $6.99 or 5,000 followers for $39.99. Another site,
iDigic.net, has similar prices—500 followers for $7.95 up to 5,000 followers
for $39.95. According to iDigic, when you buy followers, “you add more
visibility and credibility to your Instagram account and get more engagement
numbers without breaking a sweat.”17 It is widely acknowledged that these
followers are not the same as the real people who would otherwise follow
your account out of real interest in you or your organization. What these
services offer are “zombie” followers. The companies operate thousands of
fake accounts that exist for no other purpose than to follow other accounts.
More sophisticated services offer packages that include automated “like” and
commenting functions. One Dutch blogger who paid for a service told how
real commenters called out an automated comment that said “Nice pic” when
the actual post was a video. I think it’s safe to say that zombie followers are
not high on anyone’s list of primary publics.
These services could be seen as an effective and budget-friendly tactic for
eventually increasing real followers. A longer-term goal to increase
communication via social media may be helped along by a shorter-term
objective to get social media accounts up and running with a respectable
number of followers. Is there really any harm buying followers to meet your
social media objectives? A quick run through Kathy Fitzpatrick’s guide for
ethical decision-making (see Chapter 1) will help answer that.
It’s possible to pay for fake followers on social media accounts.
What are the pitfalls of buying zombie followers?

Define the Specific Issue/Conflict

Buying followers is a quick, inexpensive, legal and effective way to boost
quantitative results (followers, likes, comments, etc.) for social media
objectives. However, the followers aren’t real people. The benefit of buying
followers is one of perception—accounts with more followers appear to be
more credible, reliable and popular.

Identify Internal/External Factors

Major internal factors include program budget, goals and objectives. An
important strategic question is whether or not purchased followers will
actually contribute to the larger goals of a campaign. External factors include
the perceptions of external publics who may be impressed with large numbers
but feel deceived and lose trust if they were to learn that the account holder
had paid for zombie followers. Could you report to a client with confidence
and good faith that thousands of purchased followers would help you achieve
a goal to get more people to buy a product, make a donation or volunteer
time?

A big part of what makes social media

social is that people are motivated to
engage other real people.
Identify Key Values
Authenticity, transparency and expertise are key values. A big part of what
makes social media social is that people are motivated to engage other real
people. Authenticity matters in any social context (not just online media).
Touting fake friends or followers is not an authentic approach to self-
presentation in any type of communication. Most people keep the practice
hush-hush and would feel “busted” if the word were to get out that they had
paid for followers. If you were to buy followers as part of a public relations
strategy, would you want people to know? Probably not, and wanting to keep
something a secret indicates a lack of transparency. Building a base of
followers for an organization by creating engaging content and maintaining
mutually beneficial relationships requires expertise. That expertise is what
employers and clients pay public relations people for. Employers and clients
might feel duped if they knew you “earned” your money with cheap
shortcuts.

Identify the Parties Involved

Again, one party is the employer or client. The practitioner himself or herself
is another. I don’t think I’d count the zombie followers as a party, but people
in real publics who see the social media account and make decisions based on
perceptions of that account would be another party. At the broadest level,
anyone working in public relations whose reputation may be damaged by
unethical practices in this area is also a party.

Select Ethical Principles

In Chapter 1, we applied deontological (duty-based) principles to decide
whether ghost tweeting was ethically defensible for a public relations
practitioner. In Chapter 5, we applied the principle of utilitarianism to
evaluate how public relations research is presented. Utilitarianism focuses on
the results of one’s actions. For this case, let’s consider consequentialism—a
results-based system of ethics that holds that the best ethical decision is the
one leading to the best outcomes or impacts.
What are the consequences of buying followers? A very narrow view
would be that buying followers results in short-term success in meeting
objectives. One might even expand this into an ethical argument by saying
that buying followers is ethical if it leads to larger, more important
consequences. For example, if you bought followers for an NGO account,
and those followers led to more real followers, and those real followers
donated money, and that money was used to produce vaccines against Ebola,
preventing disease would be the result. Fighting deadly viruses would
certainly be an end that one could use to justify the means of buying
followers. But come on. You could drive a truck through the logic of that
strategy. The following consequences are more likely:

1. Nothing happens. You spend part of your budget buying followers

and no one even notices.
2. It kind of works. You buy followers and it somehow makes your
account look more legit. A few real followers ensue, but they are
deceived in the process because they assume you are producing
content and communicating in a way that others have found
worthwhile.
3. It backfires, and you get called out on it. This happens. Services like
 IG Audit and Socialbakers’ fake followers app make it easy to check
your own or others’ social media accounts for fake followers. Your
client may get mocked online for doing this because the lack of
authenticity and transparency runs directly counter to the values listed
earlier. This hurts your client’s reputation and your own credibility as
a professional. It also drags down the reputation of public relations as
a profession in general.

Make a Decision and Justify It

Although buying followers may offer a quick and inexpensive way to meet
short-term social media objectives, there are plenty of ways to justify the
decision not to do so. In all likelihood, the consequences will not be positive
or productive. Real expertise and professionalism in public relations means
being willing and able to put in the time and effort required to build
relationships. PRSA lists “Enhancing the Profession” as a key provision of
conduct: “Professionals work constantly to strengthen the public’s trust in the
profession … to build respect and credibility with the public for the
profession of public relations … to improve, adapt and expand professional
practices.”18

Professionalism in public relations means

being willing and able to put in the time
and effort required to build relationships.

Quiz 6.5
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content.]
 Planning

In Case You Missed It

Public relations professionals are some of the busiest
people in business, but mere busyness is a waste of time
without planning. These tips from the chapter will help
you see day-to-day activities as ways to serve the
broader missions of organizations in society:

• Awareness of a cause, new product or app is only one step in leading

people to donate, purchase or download.
• When campaign goals include helping publics acquire relevant skills,
public relations basically becomes an act of teaching.
• Avoid setting goals at one level (e.g., liking) when what you and your
client really want is effectiveness at a greater level (e.g., acting).
• A good timeline determines when to spend resources (such as time and
money) on what.
• Social media analytics allow communicators to monitor real-time
feedback in response to any post.
• SMART objectives make it clear when, what and how evaluation
should be conducted.
• Organize budgets in a way that makes sense to the people funding
 them.
• A social media presence may be “free” of advertising costs, but it still
requires personnel costs.
• A big part of what makes social media social is that people are
motivated to engage other real people.
• Professionalism in public relations means being willing and able to put
in the time and effort required to build relationships.

SUMMARY

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6.1 Analyze strategic communication outcomes.

Planning for public relations means considering a number of levels
of outcomes. McGuire developed a hierarchy-of-effects model that
outlines key steps in public communication campaigns: tuning in,
attending, liking, comprehending, learning, agreeing, remembering,
acting and proselytizing. Beyond exposure and attention/awareness,
strategists must think about steps leading to behavior change and
proselytizing when communication goes viral. Minding these
outcomes helps planners set goals, identify appropriate objectives
 and tactics, and be realistic about expected outcomes.
6.2 Define key terms of strategic communication planning.
Strategic decision-making means that daily action and
communication tactics can be tied with specific objectives, which
help achieve broader goals, which serve an organization’s vision and
mission. When public relations action and communication are
implemented without this context, decision-making is more tactical
than strategic. Outputs describe the tangible efforts of public
relations practitioners—what people do. Outcomes describe the
results of that work—what people accomplish. Impacts are the
broadest and furthest-reaching results of public relations.
6.3 Develop basic timelines to organize tasks in a strategic public
relations program.
Timelines foster accountability in the management of strategic
programs and campaigns. Key steps to consider include formative
research, client/management meetings, implementation of tactics,
production of communication materials, events and evaluation.
6.4 Identify key categories of public relations budget items.
Three key resources to consider in any public relations budget are
personnel, administrative costs and supplies, and media. These three
categories overlap.
6.5 Apply consequentialism to make ethical decisions about setting
and achieving public relations objectives while enhancing the
profession.
Consequentialism entails thinking through the outcomes of one’s
actions in making ethical decisions. The case of whether or not to
buy followers on Twitter or Instagram raises questions about
consequences such as misspent budget or ineffective strategy. More
important, ethical decision-making in this case means considering
broader consequences such as deception of publics and damaging
(rather than enhancing) the profession.
 SELF-ASSESSMENT

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Please note that this exercise is for self-study, and your instructor will not be
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. When was the last time you changed your behavior as a result of an
organization’s strategic communication? Which of McGuire’s steps
did you go through?
2. Search for an organization that (a) has its vision or mission statement
posted online, and (b) has conducted a public relations tactic that you
think was effective. Describe how the tactic might help achieve an
objective, which helps with a goal, which supports the vision or
mission. What’s the strategy?
3. CASE STUDY Take UNICEF’s general handwashing goal and apply
it to your own school or workplace: “Increase, improve and/or sustain
good hand washing behaviour and form good handwashing habits.”
Write at least two SMART objectives, one key output, one key
outcome, and one impact for a proposed campaign.
4. Set an academic or professional goal for yourself for some time in the
next year. Draw or chart a timeline such as the Gantt chart in Figure
6.4 that shows how your activities will lead toward your goal over
time.
5. Suppose you are the leader of a student or community organization
that is given a budget of $1,000 to compete with other similar groups
to recycle the largest number of plastic bottles in your community.
How would you allocate your budget between personnel,
administrative costs and supplies, and media?
6. Not all fake followers on social media are bought. Almost every
account is susceptible to at least a small percentage of unwanted fake
followers (in the same way that we get spam via email). Should
public relations people be responsible for removing these fake
followers for clients? Why or why not?

KEY TERMS
Benchmarking
Billable rate
Consequentialism
Frequency
Funnel
Goals
Impacts
Impressions
Media planning
Mission
Objectives
Outcomes
Outputs
Overhead expenses
Planning
Pop-up
Pro bono
 Programmatic media buying
Proselytizing
Reach
Strategic decision-making
Strategy
Tactical decision-making
Tactics
Unconferences

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