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Chapter 7- Research and Evaluation September 16, 2008

• Although research and evaluation are often overlooked in the process of effective public relations, they are arguably the most important. Failed execution of these two steps throughout the process negatively impacts planning and communication, ultimately causing ineffective relationships.
• Research strategy is based on two main questions: What do I want to know? How will I gather that information? There exists client, stakeholder, problem-opportunity, and evaluation research.
• When gathering the information to develop a research strategy, five methods exists: secondary/library research, feedback research, communication audits, focus groups, and survey research
• Even though survey research is generally draining on resources, it provides public relations professionals with significant and accurate information about a certain public. Surveys gauge a public’s opinions and feelings at a certain point in time and allow results to be measured accordingly during the evaluation stage, making it relatively easy to report results.