Engineering Inc. - January/February 2004 - 28

 At the end of the day, you've done your job if you've helped the firm grow
its business and expand its mind share in the market place. RANDLE POLLOCK,
Analyzing Results Rather than blitzing the b e particularly effective for
WALTER P. MOORE m e d i a with dozens of press small- to mid-size
engineering Of course, the most convincing releases each month, Johnston
firms with little or no advertis- a r g u m e n t for ongoing public s e n
d s out just a few targeted i n g budgets. Many of these relations
activities comes in the r e l e a s e s each year. In these firms rely on
story placements form of tangible results. Be sure cases, she shares only
her firm's a n d other media coverage to to measure the impact of cur- m o
s t compelling news and e s t a b l i s h them as trusted rent initiatives
and build meas- only with those media outlets resources for engineering
serv- u r e m e n t systems into future that can improve her company's
ices and information. public relations programs. visibility. But firms of
any size can ben- Here are some key questions: T h i s methodical effort
has efit from this marketing advan- Does traffic to your Web site g e n e
r a t e d media coverage of to get and sustain the sup- tage. Indeed,
through legitimate increase on the days you issue KCI in several important
archi- port of top management, says n e w s coverage often influ- press
releases? tecture and engineering publica- Pollock. e n c e d by public
relations How much press did your tions, notes Johnston. engineering firms
can gain cred- Changing Attitudes Still, management shouldn't i b i l i t y
that paid advertising expect immediate results from a If management has
other priori- simply can't buy. public relations initiative. Dur- t i e s
, there are several ways to ing the first year of any media s t r a t e g
y, it's important to latest customer-engagement put public relations on
the cor- generate? develop achievable goals, a pub- porate agenda. How
often does the media l i c relations budget and an For instance, consider
doing a call to interview your key execu- The biggest single
implementation plan. Then, it's reputation audit, which com- tives about
engineering issues? challenge facing public t i m e to execute, evaluate
and pares your company's business These and other metrics can relations
pros ... is r e f i n e the plan over the 12- standing to that of its
competi- help evaluate the effectiveness of increasing the public month
period. t o r s . Outside public relations your public relations
activities. understanding of what According to the industry f i r m s ,
such as Reputations C o n c l u d e s Pollock: At the engineers do and the
experts we interviewed, engineer- C o r p . of Vancouver, British e n d of
the day, you've done role that they play in i n g companies typically make
Columbia, perform such audits y o u r job if you've helped the society. f o
u r mistakes while planning regularly for their clients. f i r m grow its
business and RANDY ATKINS, NATIONAL their public relations strategy: If
the audit reveals that rivals e x p a n d its mind share in the
Engineering Inc. - January/February 2004

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Engineering Inc. - January/February 2004
