June 6 & June 7 from 9.00am - 12.00pm (2 x morning sessions)
Overview
Does your research inform your strategic planning? Do your measurement and evaluation practices demonstrate the true value of your public relations and communication efforts?
This course is for you, if you – are unsure about where to start and how to research, need more confidence to measure efficiently across the various communication channels and activities, need support with linking and interpreting the data, want to improve your current evaluation and reporting practices, and/or simply need to update your knowledge about latest global standards.
Key content
- Latest models and frameworks of research, planning, measurement, and evaluation.
- Methods of gathering useful research insights.
- Linking communication goals to organisational KPIs.
- Setting SMART objectives that link to outputs, outcomes, and impact.
- Picking the right metrics for measuring communication across all channels (paid, earned, owned, and shared).
- Monitoring progress and building dashboards.
- Interpreting results to evaluate effectiveness of planning.
- Reporting and demonstrating the value of public relations and communication.
- Turning measurement and evaluation data into research insights for future planning.
Along with understanding the above content, you will learn through practical workshops including:
- In a group: Analysis of a real-life case study on research, measurement, and evaluation.
- In a group: Simulation of research, measurement, and evaluation for a mock communication project.
- Individual: Application of the concepts to your own organisational work/project/plan.
Learning Outcomes
- Understand the current and globally accepted standards of research, measurement and evaluation for public relations and communication management.
- Know the tools and techniques that can aid in your research, measurement, evaluation and reporting process.
- Create a measurement and evaluation framework that suits your own public relations context.
Your presenter is..
Deepti Bhargava (APR, FPRINZ), Lecturer & Academic Advisor, Public Relations, Auckland University of Technology
Deepti Bhargava is a Public Relations Lecturer & Academic Advisor at AUT University, teaching across various courses including the student led PR consultancy – Outside the Square. In this course, students work with real-life clients and she and her colleagues guide them to use research, planning, evaluation, and reflection as critical tools of PR success.
Deepti is passionate about the impact good public relations practice can have on organisations and communities and hopes to inspire the same in those she works with.
She is an Accredited Member and Fellow of PRINZ and has previously served as the Chief Examiner for the Accreditation Programme (2021 – 2023). Prior to joining AUT, Deepti worked across corporate communications, advertising, and feature writing.
Her research interests include culture, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), digital communication, Artificial Intelligence (AI), work-integrated learning (WIL), and public relations research, measurement, evaluation, and reflection.
This course content aligns with the Global Capability Framework with particular emphasis on this summary:
Communication Capabilities
- To align communication strategies with organisational purpose and values
- To conduct formative and evaluative research to underpin communication strategies and tactics
Organisational Capabilities
- To provide contextual intelligence
