Comments on Classmates Blogs

This week I chose to comment on Katie Warner’s blog. Her blog focus is non-profit public relations. This is also my blog focus and I thought it would be interesting to compare. Katie’s blog focused on how non-profits do not use social media as much as other for profit companies do. This is a major disadvantage because they are missing out on an array of new potential donors who use social media. Social media is very prevalent in today’s society and it is important that non-profits jump on the bandwagon in order to ensure that they are reaching a wide range of potential donors. I did not realize this when I was doing my blog on non-profits and thus it was interesting to learn.

I also chose to comment on Alexis’s blog on fashion public relations. Her blog focused on the importance of surveys in determining the newest fashion trends. In fashion surveys they tend to use words such as love and hate. This is acceptable because the designers want to know if people love a design so much that they would buy it. In most surveys however researchers are taught to stay away from strong words such as love and hate.

I found it interesting that survey research is literally used in every aspect of public relations. Whether it is using a survey in non-profits or surveying people about the latest fashion trends. Surveys are very helpful because they can reach a large demographic of people and the results are easy to analyze and can usually be projected onto the larger population.

 

Experimental Research

Experiments are very important in public relations research because they determine causation. Non-profits especially can use experiments to help them in their cause. A recent article focused on a new non-profit that used an experiment to test their idea for a non-profit Panera restaurant.  The non-profit tested whether people would take food for free if there were only suggested prices for food at Panera. The experiment showed however that people paid what they could and did not take food for free. This demonstrated that people were generally honest when it came to how much they could or could not actually spend. People who had more money were willing to pay more for a cup of coffee because it was going to a good cause. People who normally could not afford to go out to dinner were able to pay what they could and enjoy a nice meal out.

The experiment showed Panera that their non-profit would work. People would not be over ordering and then paying less but rather would pay what they could. This shows the effectiveness of the experiment. It also demonstrates an example of how non-profits can use experiments to test their campaigns or research plans.

This article was very fascinating because it showed that a corporation could use its national name for good use. Panera is coming out to help people who could not normally afford a meal out. It shows that corporations can be philanthropic and use their money for good use.

Surveying Non-profits

Non-profits are essential in making the world go round. This is because they help people in the community who without their help would be lost. Some non-profits are more successful than others and some programs are more beneficial to the community at large. How can non-profits then who are not as successful improve their skills so they can better help the community?  A survey was done to answer this very question.

Blackbaud is a company that for the past six years has conducted surveys across North America on the non-profit Industry. The survey asks questions regarding general operations, fundraisings, and technology in non-profits. The main purpose is to see nonprofits managerial strategizes and what changes they anticipate for next year. The survey is very helpful to non- profits in that it provides them with reports on how other non-profits are run, in order to compare their company with others.

Non-profits from Canada and the U.S were asked to participate in the survey online during the month of June and July. A total of two hundred and forty five individuals completed the survey. The results thus provide a basis for analyzing how non-profits are run. The results however may not be projected onto the entire non-profit community as a whole in North America.

The survey allowed Blackbaud to reach a substantial amount of people for a relatively low cost and gain fast responses. The survey itself was useful to the non-profit community in determining what they need to improve, how to improve and how they fair compared to other non-profits.