Question

Applications of Public relations planning and race process
1.1.
Write about the race process. Analyse what race process is and describe each step of the process .

1.2How you would put the Race process into practice in creating a professional communication plan.

try to give answer as long as you can.

Answer 1

Answer 1.1 –

Race Process

The RACE Process can be used to help you develop a strategic PR plan. RACE is an acronym standing for Research, Action planning, Communication, and Evaluation.

Steps Involved

· RESEARCH

Both formal and informal research with internal and external stakeholders is required to define the problem or opportunity.

You should be able to answer the “Who?” “What?” and “Why?” for your organization’s situation. A good starting point in gathering research is noting what other organizations have done in the past given similar circumstances. How can you ensure your findings are reliable? Make sure you are gathering your information methodically. It is important to mention that in this phase you should search for any possible assumptions and consequences the public might make.

  

· ACTION AND PLANNING

This step is essentially strategizing and creating the plan. Researcher advices using S.M.A.R.T. objectives to set goals for a program based on research and analysis.

v Specific (purpose)

v Measurable (outcomes)

v Attainable (objective)

v Realistic (goal)

v Time (available and necessary)

  

· COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Relying on that two-way symmetrical communication, build mutually beneficial relationships with your publics. Full disclosure, honesty, and transparency are vital to building consumer trust. It’s not enough to just send messages anymore; there should be an ongoing conversation. Maintaining focus on social responsibility should be a high priority in creating positive relationships.

Communication is the foundation of PR and where you go to relay your information determines how people will receive your news. Knowing your target audience plays a huge role in the success of your PR plan. Zero in on demographic information, find where you target audience goes to for their source of information, and what they like to see. Understanding who you're talking to is just as important as how you're talking to them. Depending on your audience your channel of communication can vary (ex. television, magazines, social media, etc.)

· EVALUATION

The evaluation phase should focus on your campaign results, be aligned with your primary objectives, and guide you in preparing any additional steps for the future. It should be an ongoing process that is measured against your previously set goals to analyze overall effectiveness. Determine your ROI. Monitor any press generated from your campaign, give a rough estimate for the value of that press, and compare it to any expenses affiliated with producing that PR.

Some additional ways

· Secondary Data

· Case Studies – Best practices, methods of crisis communication

· Press Clippings – How much coverage was generated

· Advertising Value Equivalent – Editorial coverage value (Column length/air time x Ad rate)

· Media Content Analysis – Tracking past and future success and failure

· Readability Test – Years of education required to understand campaign

· Audience and reader surveys

· Focus groups and interviews

All four steps of the R.A.C.E. process should be continuously monitored. The best results come from persistent data collection. If the RACE model doesn't particularly interest you, remember it is just one version of the PR process, but most share a similar concept.

Ans 1.2 -

Professional Communication Plan

1. IDENTIFYing YOUR PURPOSE

It depends on what you’re trying to accomplish with your communication strategy. You might be concerned with one or a combination of the following:

• Becoming known, or better known, in the community
• Educating the public about the issue your organization addresses
• Recruiting program participants or beneficiaries
• Recruiting volunteers to help with your work
• Rallying supporters or the general public to action for your cause
• Announcing events
• Celebrating honors or victories
• Raising money to fund your work
• Countering the arguments, mistakes, or, occasionally, the lies or misrepresentations of those opposed to your work.
• Dealing with an organizational crisis that’s public knowledge – a staff member who commits a crime, for example, or a lawsuit aimed at the organization.

2. IDENTIFYing YOUR AUDIENCE

Knowing your audience makes it possible to plan your communication logically. You'll need different messages for different groups, and you'll need different channels and methods to reach each of those groups.

There are many different ways to think about your audience and the best ways to contact them. First, there’s the question of what groups you’ll focus on. You can group people according to several characteristics:

4. RESOURCES

Your plan should include careful determinations of how much you can spend and how much staff and volunteer time it’s reasonable to use. You may also be able to share materials, air time, and other goods and services with individuals, businesses, other organizations, and institutions.

5. ANTICIPATE OBSTACLES AND EMERGENCIES

Any number of things can happen in the course of a communication effort. Someone can forget to e-mail a press release or forget to include a phone number or e-mail address. A crucial word on your posters or in your brochure can be misspelled, or a reporter might get important information wrong. Worse, you might have to deal with a real disaster involving the organization that has the potential to discredit everything you do.

It’s important to try to anticipate these kinds of problems, and to create a plan to deal with them. Crisis planning should be part of any communication plan, so you’ll know what to do when a problem or crisis occurs. Crisis plans should include who takes responsibility for what – dealing with the media, correcting errors, deciding when something has to be redone rather than fixed, etc. It should cover as many situations, and as many aspects of each situation, as possible.

6. STRATEGIZE HOW YOU’LL CONNECT WITH THE MEDIA AND OTHERS TO SPREAD YOUR MESSAGE

Establishing relationships with individual media representatives and media outlets is an essential part of a communication plan, as is establishing relationships with influential individuals and institutions in the community and the population you’re trying to reach. You have to make personal contacts, give the media and others reasons to want to help you, and follow through to sustain those relationships to keep communication channels open.

7. CREATE AN ACTION PLAN

Now the task is to put it all together into a plan that you can act on. By the time you reach this point, your plan is already done, for the most part. You know what your purpose is and whom you need to reach to accomplish it, what your message should contain and look like, what you can afford, what problems you might face, what channels can best be used to reach your intended audience, and how to gain access to those channels. Now it’s just a matter of putting the details together – composing and designing your message (or messages, if using multiple channels), making contact with the people who can help you, and getting everything in place to start your communication effort. And finally, you'll evaluate your effort so that you can continue to make it better.

8. EVALUATION of plan

If you evaluate your communication plan in terms of both how well you carry it out and how well it works, you’ll be able to make changes to improve it. It will keep getting more effective each time you implement it.