Evaluating Public Relations: A Best Practice Guide to Public Relations Planning Research and Evaluation

. Principles of public relations practice -- The role of theory -- The evolution of public relations -- Practice paradigm -- Defining public relations -- Public relations theory -- Crunig's primacy -- European perspectives -- 2. Evaluation and communication psychology -- Number one practitioner topic -- Objectives of evaluation -- Complexity of evaluation -- Methodology problems -- Effects-based planning -- Defining evaluation -- Principles of evaluation -- 3. Practitioner culture - why we do what we do -- Holy Grail or reinventing the wheel -- 'Bean counters' V creativity -- Large-scale studies -- Lindenmann's research -- Watson's studies -- Australian studies -- Small sample research -- CEO's attitudes -- Multiple metrics -- The barriers to evaluation -- Pressures to evaluate -- CIPR policy statement -- Conclusions -- 4. Gathering and interpreting information -- The scope of research -- Research methods -- Desk research -- Action research -- Case studies -- Experiments -- Surveys -- Interviews -- Questionnaires -- Sampling methods -- Questionnaire design -- Analysing information -- 5. Evaluation structures and processes -- Preparation, Implementation, Impact -- Macnamara's Pyramid Model -- Public Relations Effectiveness Yardstick -- The PRE process -- The Unified model -- Practitioner-derived models -- Short Term and Continuing programmes -- Universality of application -- Dashboards and scorecards -- 6. Developing a media evaluation system -- Setting up a simple media monitoring system -- A dimensional model of media evaluation -- Case study: in-house media evaluation system -- 7. Evaluation in practice - case studies -- PricewaterhouseCoopers -- Airbus -- Comalco -- Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore -- LIFT06 Conference -- Southwest Airlines -- Surrey Police -- Toyota Australia -- Westminster City Council, London -- Volvo XC90 -- 8. Objectives and objective setting -- Objectives in context -- Aims, goals and objectives -- Management by objectives (MBa) -- Hierarchy of objectives -- Specifying objectives -- The nature of objectives -- Process objectives -- 9. Relationship and crisis communication measurement -- Measuring relationships -- Evaluating communications effectiveness in a crisis -- 10. The challenge of the online environment -- Public relations online -- Evaluating websites and online press offices -- Media evaluation and the net -- A cyberspace toolbox -- 11. Future developments -- Developing good practice -- Return on Investment (ROI) -- Econometrics -- Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) -- Payment by results -- Management overview -- Moving evaluation forward -- Top tips for evaluating public relations.