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. 

Comments on Blogs

This week I commented on Vanessa’s blog. Her blog focuses on Public Relations in France. This week specifically the blog discussed a place in Paris where focus groups can be held. This blog was very interesting because like Vanessa, I did not know that there were buildings designated just for focus groups. I visited the website that discusses the facility and noticed that the building looked very nice and would be a wonderful place to conduct a focus group. Vanessa’s blog also got me wondering if there are focus group facilities in the United States.

I also chose to comment on Jame's blog. His blog this week focused on qualitative research. He summarized a focus group that he saw on YouTube about Nike shin guards for soccer players. When describing the focus group it seemed that the moderator followed many of the proper procedures. He tried to elicit discussion between the participants and also asked questions to get the people speaking. James did a good job of providing an example of a focus group. He also clearly explained how the focus group was conducted and what he believed the outcome was.  Overall James blog helped me to gain a better understanding of what occurs during a focus group.

Qualitative Research

Research is very important in any field of public relations but especially in nonprofit public relations.  This is because nonprofits rely on research to help them see who is donating and why people are donating. In addition research is helpful in assessing what groups of people need the most amounts of help from the nonprofit, in what areas help is needed and the reasons for the help. The importance of research in nonprofits is essential in maintaining that the nonprofit is helping the community and their target audience. It was shocking to find an article that discussed that although nonprofits do research that they do not use their research. In addition the article stated that nonprofits are not collecting data that is helpful to the community. This stems from the fact that many people in nonprofit public relations do not know how to properly conduct research. One of the areas of research that can be helpful in nonprofits and that nonprofit employees need to work on is qualitative research.

Qualitative research involves collecting data on people and finding common themes and relationships between small groups of people. An example of qualitative research is a focus group. A focus group would be extremely helpful for nonprofits. They could for example organize a group of about eight to ten people (the normal size of a focus group) discussing donating to nonprofits. The focus group would be led by a moderator and later his or her notes would be transcribed and themes and relationships would hopefully emerge from the data. This research could be very helpful in finding who donates and why. It would aid nonprofits when they need help finding donors.

Thus research, especially qualitative is extremely helpful to nonprofits. It is very important that non profits learn how to research correctly and use their data to benefit their community.

Comments on Blogs

 This week I chose to comment on Kevin Mahoney’s blog. His blog focuses on social media. This week his blog discussed an upcoming event at Quinnipiac. The event is a media breakfast, which will feature speakers discussing the important role of social media in public relations. The blog was very interesting to read and clearly expressed the importance of social media and the details of the media breakfast.  It listed explicitly when the event would be held and where it would be.  It made me see the value of social media and helped me to see how I could learn more about social media.  I also commented on Kayla’s blog. Kayla’s blog is about fashion public relations. The blogs main focus this week was on how fashion experts determine what styles are in for the fall and winter season. It was fascinating to learn that fashion experts use unobtrusive research to find out the season’s trends. Kayla’s article was very informative in providing a real life example of how unobtrusive research is used. It was also clearly written and showed the value of unobtrusive research in everyday matters such as choosing what to wear to class.

Unobtrusive Research

A main component of nonprofit public relations is looking at who is donating and how much they are donating. Nonprofits need to make sure they know who are their donors and make sure that they become annual donors. In order to see who is donating or why people are not donating, a nonprofit could perform unobtrusive research. Unobtrusive research is a form of secondary research, which involves no interference with the subject being studied. By analyzing past records of people and corporations who donated over a period of years, researchers could see who stable donors are. If the same people have donated the past 5 years it is likely that they will continue to donate.  It is very important to see who is an annual donor because it saves 20% of money that it would cost to find new members. An article on donators explains the importance of donators, how to increase donors and the importance of keeping existing members. By using the unobtrusive methods it will be easier to come up with an estimate of who donates annually. It is less bothersome, then calling up past donors and seeing if they will donate again. Phoning people may be seen as hassling which could lead to fewer donations. By looking at the tables of donors, one would also be able to see how much they usually donate without actually speaking to people. Once again this could be more accurate than say surveying people and seeing how much they usually donate. This is because people may not remember how much they donated or they may feel pressured to put a higher number than they actually donated. This could then lead to skewed results. Unobtrusive research could then be helpful in estimating who is consistent donors and how much they are likely to donate.