There’s a growing shift in the perception of PR among senior leadership. A decade ago, a handful of enlightened CEOs grokked the notion that PR is about building relationships and protecting reputation, but they were decidedly in the minority. Most CEOs and CMOs see PR as “ the folks you call when 60 Minutes is at your doorstep.”
The reality is that, thanks to social media, innumerable corporate scandals and public embarrassments, a robust corporate communications team is increasingly seen by leadership and, more importantly by investors, as a key ingredient in risk prevention.
Now, none of this is news to most highly-regulated industries, including energy, transportation, and public health. For those industries it is the federal or local government, not the CEO, that dictates the extent to which they need to make sure their affected publics are informed of the risks posed by their products or services. And corporate comms pros in those industries have had to measure the effectiveness of their communications for decades.
Which is a good thing, because it means there’s now a sizable body of research on risk communication measurement. Not many of our readers have time to read through dozens of dissertations to learn about the topic, so that’s why we’re turning this issue of The Measurement Advisor into a primer on the subject.
Here is a guide to our issue on risk and crisis communications measurement:
- For some clarity around terminology, read: How Risk Communications Is Different from Public Awareness and Crisis Communications.
- Just getting started? These are for you: 5 Quick Beginner’s Tips to Improve Risk Communication Measurement.
- The 6 steps of measurement applied to risk comms: The Definitive Instruction Manual for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Risk Communications and Public Awareness Programs.
- It’s been our most popular crisis article for two years: 8 Questions About Crisis Communications Answered by the Experts at IPRRC.
