Public Relations firms strive to research an organization fully to have a true understanding of the client and their needs. The organizational analysis allows Public Relations practitioners to anticipate and evaluate the client's goals, details regarding the organization, and important concerns. To gather a factual understanding of the organization, strategists must have information from the internal environment, public perception, and external environment. A public relations audit focused on providing information from these three resources will allow for a well-developed audit detailed with information to best reach all of your client's goals and wishes.
According to Strategic Planning for Public Relations by Ronald D. Smith, a public relations audit is "an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the public relations concerns of an organization or client." This is the first initial step before developing a campaign. Audits should be produced after a crisis or every few years to re-evaluate the organization. They allow a client to see the overall big picture, how the bussiness can measure success, and tangible insight into situations within the organization. It is vital to thoroughly analyze the three categories so public relations practitioners can intentionally analyze the situation.
Don't Leave Us in the Dark: Internal Environments
Within an organization, internally, employees voice their desire to be in the loop and understand any situations going on within the organization. This steady flow of communication creates an environment with full transparency. When it comes to evaluating internally, you can see the organization's performance and structure as well as things that might hinder success within the company. As described by Ronald D. Smith in Strategic Planning for Public Relations, "The most important aspect of the internal environment is performance, the aspect of an organization's internal environment focusing on the quality of the goods and services provided by the organization, as well as the viability of the causes and ideas it espouses." This part of the audit dives deep into the current and the past regarding performance and how the company has grown. This can allow for employee engagement to see their feedback and best practices for achieving high-performance rates.
How to Look Good: Public Perception
Public relations has a direct correlation with brand image and influencing the public and their perception of information. The audience and public are crucial to the development of a successful PR campaign. Not only knowing your audience but authentically listening to what the public feels and believes. A pr professional who is well versed in their understanding of visibility sees the opportunity to gather information about who knows the client and who knows their mission and their services. The conversation around the organization/company can be defined as a reputation. Public relations works to help alleviate any negative reputation issues as well as build on maintaining a positive public image.
The Lay of the Land: External Environments
Developing an understanding of the features and characteristics of an area is like learning the external environment for your client. This last stage of the three main factors allows for insight into competitors, impediments, or any resource that may be beneficial to the growth of the client. When a PR professional is looking into the external environment, they search for opponents who have some sort of hatred towards the existence of the organization as a whole. These are important to keep in mind within a PR campaign because their words have the chance to damage the company whether it's their reputation or harm to their goals, opponents have their agenda and strategy. When the audit contains information about the external environment, we can develop a strategic plan for the client which results in a full understanding of the organization.
Diving deep into the internal environment, public perception, and external environment sets a campaign up for success by obtaining key information for a well-developed audit. This process allows a campaign to flourish and highlight the components of a successful PR strategy.
Sources
McKeever, M. (2021, August 11). The Importance of a PR Audit. 1st Degree. https://www.1stdegree.com/post/the-importance-of-a-pr-audit
Schreiber, E. S. (2015, June 18). Reputation | Institute for Public Relations. Institute for Public Relations. https://instituteforpr.org/reputation/
Smith, R. D. (2020). Strategic Planning for Public Relations (6th ed.). Taylor & Francis. https://online.vitalsource.com/books/9781000201468
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