In the world of Public Relations, researching is vital. You need to research to gain knowledge, set objectives, plan campaigns and succeed. Research today gives public relations room to grow. I interned with Baylor Sustainability this past semester and before I got the job, I had to do research on what Baylor Sustainability is and its purpose on the Baylor campus. Since my internship was strictly about going green and sustainability, I didn’t have to do too much research.
Public relations has been proven to be one of the most stressful jobs in America, which shows it’s tough. There are demanding clients who want more results; therefore, research is something that is definitely needed. To have results that the client wants, it requires research on the public relations executive’s part.
Research in public relations gives the base for almost everything communicators do, such as identifying and understanding key publics, framing important issues, expanding public relations and organizational strategy, measuring the results, and gaining publicity. The main ways of public relations research are qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative being thorough insights and understanding of a situation or a target public and quantitative is more expensive and complicated, and has the greater ability to generalize to large populations.
There are many other reasons why public relations research is important. It provides unbiased information, organizational strengths and weaknesses, provides valuable information about how the organization should craft its messaging, and gaining feedback. The “needs” for conducting public relations research are, to collect information that public relations professionals need to have and to know to do their jobs more effectively, to obtain benchmark data, to plan, develop or refine a public relations activity, to track or monitor programs, to evaluate the overall effectiveness, and providing appropriate support in promoting a specific program.
Research in public relations is absolutely essential. Without it, I don’t know how public relations executives would be successful.
I like your article, Sydney. (Especially the photo, haha)
ReplyDeleteI really agree with your thoughts about Public Relations being one of the most stressful jobs, and how that makes research even more important. I must admit, sometimes I wonder why I'm studying to enter one of the top-five most stressful job environments, but I think that being efficient in every aspect of the job will help with the stress load. One very good way to reduce the stress and business, is to be prepared, in general of course, but also specifically by having your research completed, making the rest of the project or communication process easier.
Research clearly has many other benefits, but reduced stress in the end, is definitely a motivating factor for me.
Great post! I don't think most people realize what a difficult and demanding job public relations can be. To do our jobs well, research is absolutely the starting point. In my internship I have to do a lot of research to find out who's reading our articles and how we can better reach them. My supervisor's usually ask me to do the research before they do anything else. I think that shows that without research, it's impossible to know where to begin! It gives us a foundation and helps us come up with a clear plan of how to begin. Without solid research, no PR plan can be successful.
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