BSCOM 480 UP A Research on The Effects of Preventive Care Discussion

BSCOM/480: Applied Communication Capstone
Week 5 Discussion – Quantitative and Qualitative Research
Materials
Textbook
Shires, J. (2021). Applied communication capstone. MyEducator.
Course Tools
MyEducator™
Quantitative and qualitative data can be used in conjunction to support one another. For
example, a partnering strategy may include hosting participant interviews as a follow-up from
an automated multiple-choice survey. The interviews can provide greater insight that otherwise
may not be obvious from the results of the survey.
Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:
•
•
•
•
Share an example of a time in your personal or professional life when both qualitative
and quantitative data were used.
How was qualitative data used to support quantitative data?
How was quantitative data used to support qualitative data?
Did using both methods help strengthen the argument? Explain your answer.
Chapter 11: Measuring the Plan’s Effects
Introduction
Topic 11 Introduction Transcript
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Identify different types of data collection procedures.
2. Define the strengths and weaknesses of each methodology discussed.
3. Identify tests and measures to help measure the effect of objectives, strategies, and tactics.
4. Judge whether the objectives, strategies, and tactics were successful.
Now that the strategic communication plan has been written, it is time to measure how well it is achieving its goals and
objectives. We will need to design measures that we use to capture changes in attitudes and behaviors among our
priority audience or priority audience segment. We will discuss different types of measurements and how to make
comparisons between those measurements to check for change.
11.1Types of Data and Measurement
Topic 11.1 Transcript
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As we discussed in Topic 2, there are two types of data: quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative data allows you to run
descriptive and inferential statistics and to generalize the results. Generally, we are going to be interested in tests of
difference, especially the t-test. A t-test will look at two values and tell if there is a difference, the direction of the
difference, and if the change is significant. A t-test follows a pretest→intervention→posttest pattern. In our case, it will
be baseline→program→result. The t-test will return three values. The first is the t-score (abbreviated t), the second is
the degrees of freedom (df), and the third is the significance. Your result will look like this:
t = -3.11 df = 99 p = .03
The t-score here is negative, indicating that the second value (posttest or result) is less than the first value (pretest or
baseline). If we were using this to judge one of our programs, we would say that the score declined after the program
was implemented. The p is the Greek letter rho. It indicates the statistical significance of the score. A statistical test that
returns a rho (p) less than or equal to .05 is thought to be statistically significant. A statistically significant score shows
that the change that occurred from the pretest or baseline to the posttest or result was caused by a difference between
the two values. A rho (p) that is greater than .05 is not statistically significant and could be caused by chance.
Qualitative data takes the form of focus groups, interviews, and ethnography and does not allow for generalizing to the
population. When you look at qualitative data, you attempt to find patterns that form themes or categories. For example,
if you run a focus group and several people talk about the cost of the product, you can identify cost as a theme. You
would then look at how people talked about cost and try to identify patterns. Let’s say that one of the channels that you
are using for your strategic communication plan is Twitter. One day, you tweet out a question to the account’s followers
and receive 150 responses. You would scan the replies to see the main ideas that were repeated in a number of replies.
Once you have those themes, you then look through the themes to see how each theme is understood, described, or
explained by those who responded. This process will help you find patterns of meaning.
We will look at our goal statement, objectives, and strategies and determine the best way to measure them. We are
going to use our Barrytown example to demonstrate how these elements are measured and to provide explanations for
our measurement choices.
11.2Measuring against Objectives
Measuring the Goal Statement
Let’s look at our goal statement for the strategic communication plan:
To increase visits to physicians by 25% in one year in Barrytown for preventative care for children under 10 years old by
parents who are over thirty, have four or more children, and are uninsured.
We defined “preventative care” as vaccinations and gave the specific vaccination schedule in Topic 3. We also set
benchmarks to make sure the program is on track to meet its goal. Now it is time to set up the pre-, during, and post- plan
measurement. We need to decide what data we are going to use. We know it will deal with children under 10 years old
whose parents are part of our priority audience segment. But what are the best numbers to compare?
•
First is a day-versus-day measurement. We can choose to get data on a specific date in 2020 for the number of
vaccinations for children under 10 years old in families that meet our priority audience segment’s demographics
and data from the same date in 2021 after the strategic communication plan ends. We can compare the two
numbers and see what the percentage difference is between the two numbers. While this may, at first look, seem
to be a valid way to measure, it ignores the benchmarks we have set at three, six, and nine months. Focusing on
a single day will not work.
•
Second is the total number of preventative care visits. This is the best way to make an accurate and valid
comparison. We gather the total number of preventative care visits for children under 10 years old in families that
meet our priority audience segment’s demographics for 2020 and collect the information on the total number of
preventative care visits for children under 10 years old in families that meet our priority audience segment’s
demographics during the time the strategic communication plan is being implemented. We can make an applesto-apples comparison at three months, six months, nine months, and one year.
We need to access the data from local clinics and hospitals. We can ask for the number of vaccinations of children under
10 whose parents match our priority audience segment profile. We can look at weekly or monthly numbers. Remember
the benchmarks we determined in Topic 3:
Table 5.1
Months
Percent Increase
3 months
5% increase above previous year
6 months
15% increase above previous year
9 months
20% increase above previous year
12 months
25% increase above previous year
The following data is the number of preventative care visits for children under 10 years old whose parents belong to our
priority audience segment:
Preventative Care Visits 2020/2021
2020
2021
% Change
0 Days
0
0
–
3 Months
150
170
+13.3
6 Months
312
403
+29.2
9 Months
545
676
+24
2020
12 Months
2021
720
904
% Change
+25.6
As can be clearly seen, we have exceeded the benchmarks we set for every period, especially in the first and second
periods. We met the overall benchmark for the program, exceeding a 25% increase over the course of the year. We do
not need to run any statistical measures since we are looking for percentage change. If we meet that percentage change,
then we have hit the benchmark.
Defining Success
Measure
Success
Increase in vaccinations
Hit benchmarks at 3, 6, and 9 months
Increase in vaccinations
Increase of 25% over one calendar year
Measuring Outcomes of Global Objectives
We developed two global objectives. Let’s cover them one at a time.
Global Objective 1: To provide information concerning state and federal insurance programs for low-income households to 75%
of our priority audience segment within two months of completing intermediate objective 1A.
The first issue is how to determine the number and location of our priority audience segment. We can use Census data to
identify the number of people in our priority audience or priority audience segment through the use of demographic
categories. This will give us the total number of members in the priority audience segment. We can identify the geographic
location of our priority audience segment by using Census data and third-party databases. Knowing this, we can focus our
distribution area on certain neighborhoods and school districts within Barrytown. We will want to distribute to more than
100% of our estimated population. This way, information is more likely to find our priority audience segment. We will want
to distribute to somewhere between 105% and 110% of our priority audience segment population value.
Let’s say we find out that there are 10,000 households that make up our priority audience segment. We will need to
determine how we are going to divide the distribution between the door-to-door campaign, the teachers, and our social
media.
Distribution of Vaccination Safety Information
Method
Number
Percentage
Door-to-door
7,500
75%
Teachers
2,000
20%
Social Media
1,500 (downloads)
15%
Distribution of Vaccination Safety Information
Totals
11,000
110%
This will put us over the 75% expected by the objective and ensure that some households receive the information through
more than one channel.
The second issue is how to peer review the documents. We could submit the documents to experts and ask for
comments. That would help us to get feedback, but these documents will go through multiple drafts before they are
finalized. We need to be sure that each draft is improved from the last. The best way to do this is to provide a rubric for
the peer reviewers to complete. Our rubric will be a document that develops criteria to rate aspects of the document on a
scale, typically 1–5 with 5 being the best. For example, our rubric may look like this:
Criteria
1. Information
about insurance
is correct and up
to date
Outstanding
5
Document contains
the latest information
and has all of the facts
stated correctly
Superior
4
Fair
3
Document contains
Some of the information
the latest information may be out of date or there
but has one fact wrong are two or three factual
(Please correct on
mistakes (Please correct on
document)
document)
Below Average
2
Poor
1
Most information is
All information
out of date or there are out of date or
several factual
there are
mistakes (Please
numerous
correct on document) factual mistakes
Criteria
Outstanding
5
2. Information is Information would be
written in an easily understood by
someone with less
easy-tothan a high school
understand style diploma
Superior
4
Fair
3
Below Average
2
Poor
1
Information would be
easily understood by
someone with a high
school diploma
Information would be easily
understood by someone
with some college
education
Information would be
easily understood by
someone with a
college degree
Information is
not easily
understood
3. Information is The material is written The material is written The material is written in a
in an engaging manner straightforward manner
written in an in an engaging and
interactive manner
but is not interactive
engaging manner
4. Information
gives clear
instructions on
where to go to
sign up
Instructions are clear
and detailed
5. Information is Document has no
grammatically grammatical errors
correct
Instructions are clear
with some detail
Instructions are clear with
little detail
The material is written The material is
using jargon and
poorly written
technical terms
Instructions are clear
with no detail
Instructions are
not clear
Document has one or Document has three or four Document has multiple Document has
two grammatical
grammatical errors (Please grammatical errors
many
errors (Please mark on mark on document)
grammatical
document)
errors
We should ask two distinct groups to review the documents. The first group would include individuals with knowledge of
the insurance programs and eligibility and people affiliated with our partner organizations in social services. This group
would make sure that the information is correct. The second group would be members of partner organizations and
agencies who could read for clarity. This group would make sure the information was understandable. Ideally, the
members of the second group would have experience working with our priority audience segment. We would set a score
that each rubric needed to achieve to be acceptable, for example, 23, with the stipulation that no criteria would have a
score of less than four. Based on the feedback, we would revise the document and resubmit it to experts for scoring.
We are looking for the rubric to give us raw scores and comments. We can look at the comments to find themes and
patterns. We are bringing together both quantitative (score) and qualitative (written comments) to determine success.
The third issue is the time frame. We must have our documents completed and distributed to 75% of our priority audience
segment by the end of the fourth month of the strategic communication plan’s implementation (intermediate objective 1A
must be completed by the end of the second month and global objective 1 needs to be completed two months after the
completion of 1A). Either we have completed the objective by then or we have not—that is our last measurement.
Defining Success
Measure
Success
Reaching the priority audience segment
Reach at least 75% of the estimated priority audience segment population
Peer Review
Score at least a 23 on the rubric with no score lower than a 4
Defining Success
Distribution
Complete distribution of material in four months after the plan is implemented
Global Objective 2: To implement a program to promote family and clinical doctors to members of the priority audience
segment within two months of the start of the strategic communication plan.
The first issue is the completion of the promotional materials and the peer review. For global objective 2, the peer review
will be a review by public relations experts at other organizations and agencies. This will be a textual review where the
experts offer comments and criticism based on their experience. We will take the feedback we get and make changes to
the promotional materials until we are happy with the feedback. A rubric would not be as useful for this peer review as the
review is more subjective. We are not asking if the information is correct; we are asking about the creativity of the pieces,
the use of persuasive appeals, the consistency of the messaging, and the overall quality of the program. These are things
that are not easily quantified.
The second issue is the response of the priority audience segment. Unfortunately, we do not have baseline data to
compare with as we do in the goal statement measurement. We will have to create our baseline data with the earliest
survey results. We will use a survey, either on Qualtrics, Google Forms, Survey Monkey, or some other survey site. Our
survey should ask the following questions:
1. Sex
2. Age
3. Marital status
4. Household income
5. Number of children
6. Children’s ages
7. Are you a Barrytown Resident?
8. Do you have health insurance?
9. What hospital/clinic did you come to today?
10. What doctor did you see today?
11. The doctor was knowledgeable about my child’s condition. (Strongly Disagree–Strongly Agree)
12. The doctor cared about my child. (Strongly Disagree–Strongly Agree)
13. The doctor carefully explained everything to me and my child. (Strongly Disagree–Strongly Agree)
14. The doctor was friendly. (Strongly Disagree–Strongly Agree)
15. I liked the doctor. (Strongly Disagree–Strongly Agree)
16. How did the appointment go today? (Worse than expected–Better than expected)
17. After the appointment, how confident did you feel in the doctor? (Felt less confident in the doctor–Felt more
confident in the doctor)
18. After the appointment, how comfortable did you feel about the doctor? (Less comfortable–More comfortable)
19. Overall, I feel positive about the doctor. (Strongly Disagree–Strongly Agree)
20. Had you heard or read anything about the doctor prior to your appointment?
The first eight questions give us demographic information that will help us filter out the survey responses that are not from
our priority audience segment. Questions nine and ten will be drop-down questions where the respondent selects the
clinic, medical center, hospital, or none of the above. The “Doctor” drop-down will be populated by the physicians at that
location. Questions 11–15 measure the respondents’ opinions of the physicians. Questions 16–19 ask about their feelings
about the physician. These feelings are important to measure because we can track a trend. Some physicians may start
low and move higher; other physicians may start high and stay high. Some might start high and decline. Looking at this
information will tell us on whom we need to focus. Information can be shared with the physicians and clinics to help them
with continuous improvement. Question 20 asks if the respondent has seen our materials. If the respondent says yes, we
may add a question that asks where the respondent found the information.
For our strategic communication plan, the focus is on questions 11–19. We can monitor the change by looking at t-test
values as we calculate the data. It is not enough to see that question 16 was a 4.1 on the baseline and a 4.3 on a later
measurement. We need to know if that 0.2 change is significant or if it could be a random increase.
Defining Success
Measure
Success
Peer Review
Collect written feedback and revise until we are comfortable with the comments
Defining Success
Survey
Collect survey results and show increase in personability and trust in doctor over time
Measuring Intermediate Objectives Outcomes
Intermediate Objective 1A: To reach 75% of our priority audience segment with correct, understandable information on
vaccines in two months.
The measurements for intermediate objective 1A would be similar to global objective 1. First, we need to determine the
number of members or households in our priority audience segment. Then we need to determine how to make sure we
reach 75% of those households. Again, over-distribution will be the best way to ensure that we get the necessary
coverage.
Second, we need to submit our information for peer review. This would be a three-part process. The first peer review will
involve submitting our materials to medical experts, physicians, pharmacists, and other medical personnel to make sure
the information is correct. The second peer review will involve submitting our materials to our partner organizations and
agencies to ensure that the information is understandable. The third peer review would involve submitting the material to
current and former clients to ensure the information is compelling. We can use the same rubric that we used for global
objective 1. Again, we will want to set a minimum score and keep adjusting the documents until we reach that score. Like
global objective 1, we are combining the quantitative and qualitative elements to help us make a decision.
Third, we need to monitor the priority audience segment to judge if there is an attitude change. Part of this would be
handled through formal surveys of our priority audience segment. We would include a QR code on the document where
the priority audience segment member can scan and complete a survey. We would need to include the following
questions.
1. Sex
2. Age
3. Marital status
4. Household income
5. Number of children
6. Children’s ages
7. Are you a Barrytown Resident?
8. Do you have health insurance?
9. Where do you get information about vaccinations for your children?
10. With whom do you discuss your children’s health?
11. I believe that I am getting accurate information about vaccinations. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
12. I believe that vaccinations for my children are safe. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
13. Within the last month, I have received information that makes me believe that vaccinations are (more safe–less
safe)
14. I am likely to make sure my children get their vaccinations. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree/NA)
Questions one through eight are getting demographic information to determine if the respondent is part of our priority
audience segment. Questions nine and ten are to determine who are the influencers for the priority audience segment.
Knowing this will help us influence the influencers in an attempt to sway the priority audience segment members.
Questions 11–14 are to get the respondents’ views on the safety of vaccinations, any changes in their beliefs about
vaccination safety, and the intent of the respondents to vaccinate their children. We must be careful here that we are not
creating the priority audience segment members’ opinions on vaccination by the survey. For example, asking if
vaccinations cause autism or if vaccinations are poison may solidify information they may have heard and hurt our
chances to change their beliefs. Questions 11–14 are our focus. We can run t-tests to see if there is a change and if that
change is statistically significant.
Defining Success
Success
Measurement
Reaching the priority audience Reach at least 75% of the estimated priority audience segment population
segment
Peer Review
Collect written feedback and revise until we are comfortable with the comments
Defining Success
Survey
See a shift in attitudes in the priority audience segment toward believing vaccines are safe and toward intent
to get their children vaccinated
Intermediate Objective 1B: To implement an educational program within one month of completing intermediate objective 1A
aimed at convincing members of our priority audience segment of the value of preventative care programs for children under 10
years old.
Once we have completed writing the educational programs, one aimed at children under 10 years old and the other aimed
at the priority audience segment, the first step is peer review. If we could find an already implemented, already tested
curriculum, we would not need to undergo peer review. If we had to form a committee and build the curriculum—one that
would include teachers, curriculum specialists, medical personnel and others—we would need to submit the curriculum to
outside experts in healthcare, curriculum development and assessment, and pedagogy. We would not provide them with
rubrics since the material would be too complex to sum up in one or two scoring rubrics. Instead, we would ask them to
comment on and return the materials. A warning: the process of developing and reviewing the curriculum will take several
months and should be progressing as the strategic communication plan is being built. The peer review has no rubric, so
we are only looking at the written comments. We will qualitatively look for themes and patterns.
The second step will be to gather the data. We will have two main channels for collecting data. The first will be through the
classroom instructor. He or she can report back children’s progress, comprehension, and knowledge on vaccination
safety. The second will be through social media. The adult version of the curriculum plan will be operated through our
social media forums. We will be able to gather information about attitude changes through quizlets, polls, and posts. The
quizlets and polls will provide quantitative data that will allow us to create a benchmark score and then measure
subsequent scores against the benchmark. The t-tests will help us to determine if the change was positive and significant.
Comments will provide qualitative data that we can collect and look for common themes. We can examine if the themes
show a trend toward a more positive or more negative outlook.
The third measurement will be information from surveys. The student education program will involve students having
homework and informational flyers for the children and parents to read together. We could include a QR code on the form,
which would lead to a survey similar to the survey given in intermediate objective 1A with two to three questions added to
differentiate the two surveys. The first scores we get back will be our baseline, and we will measure progress after that,
using t-tests to look for statistically significant change.
The fourth measurement will be information from clinics and doctors. If we are seeing a shift in attitude, are we also
seeing a shift in intent and behavior in our priority audience group? Are the parents visiting the doctors more for
immunizations? We can check with the physicians, hospitals, clinics, and social service agencies to see the numbers.
These numbers should be similar to numbers for the goal statement measurement. However, while we are looking at four
time-period benchmarks for the goal statement, we can use weekly immunization data to look for improvement, checking
t-scores for statistically significant changes.
Measuring Strategy and Tactic Outcomes
Now that we have developed measurements for the goal statement and the objectives, we need to develop
measurements for the strategies and tactics.
Objective 1A Strategy: Create an information campaign targeted at our priority audience segment creating stories around
vaccinations. The stories will talk about the different types of vaccinations (Hepatitis-B, DTaP, MMR, and others) with both
cautionary tales of children not receiving vaccinations and positive stories of children receiving vaccinations. We will have a
limited number of stories distributed through several channels for maximum effect.
Tactic: Develop information and distribute to the priority audience segment.
Task: Create the information campaign on the safety of vaccinations
People: Health professionals, writers, editors
Timeline: Two months after the start of the implementation of the strategic communication plan. Time must be allotted for peer
review
Task: Peer review of information
People: Health professionals, social service agencies, community members
Timeline: One week after receipt of materials
The measurement is the peer review process, which we discussed above. Since there will be a tight deadline, we will
need to make sure that we get the document out early enough for peer review and revision.
Task: Door-to-door distribution to members of the priority audience segment
People: Volunteers, partners, organization or agency staff
Channel: Written media and face-to-face communication.
Timeline: Four months after materials are completed
Task: Distribution through teachers to children of the priority audience segment
People: Teachers
Channel: Written media
Timeline: Two months after the materials are completed
The measurement is the identification of where the priority audience segment lives, how many members or households
are in the priority audience segment, and if we reached the threshold for distribution. Door-to-door is one mode of getting
the information out; the children’s teachers and social media are others. We need to keep a running total of how many
documents are distributed to make sure we hit our percentage.
Task: Creation and curation of social media groups on Facebook and Instagram
People: Staff and volunteers at the organization or agency
Channel: Social media
Timeline: As soon as the materials are completed and continuing for nine months
Social media channels will help us distribute the materials and Facebook Ads will help us target our priority audience
segment. We can gauge how the material is being received by comments, likes, polls, and short surveys. We can
repurpose three questions from a previous survey:
1. I believe that vaccinations for my children are safe. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
2. Within the last month, I have received information that makes me believe that vaccinations are (more safe–less
safe)
3. I am likely to make sure my children get their vaccinations. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree/NA)
These questions will give us a baseline to judge the later data. We can track attitudinal change along with the intent of the
parents over time, checking t-scores for statistical significance.
Task: Open houses
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers, social workers
Channel: Public communication
Timeline: After completion of informational material and continuing at regular intervals until the end of the strategic
communication plan
Since we are planning to hold several events such as open houses, we can give the visitors a QR code that links to a
survey. We will want to ask them the following questions:
1. Is this your first _____________ open house?
2. Sex
3. Age
4. Marital status
5. Household income
6. Number of children
7. Children’s ages
8. Are you a Barrytown Resident?
9. Do you have health insurance?
10. When was the last time one of your children visited a doctor for preventative care?
11. With whom do you discuss your children’s health?
12. Where do you get your information about vaccines?
13. I believe that vaccinations are safe for my children. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
14. I always make sure my children get the age-appropriate vaccines. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
15. I trust my doctor’s advice about vaccinations. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
16. My children’s doctor cares about my child’s health. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
17. My children’s doctor explains things clearly. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
18. I like my children’s doctor. (Strongly Agree–Strongly Disagree)
The first question asks if they have attended previous open houses. We can keep track of people who attend multiple
times and compare their answers to those who have not. The next eight questions (two through nine) gather demographic
information so we can determine if the respondent is part of our priority audience segment. Question 10 attempts to
determine if the respondent regularly takes his or her children for preventative treatment. Questions 11 and 12 attempt to
determine what the respondent’s information channels are. Questions 12–14 ask about the respondent’s attitudes toward
vaccinations. Questions 15–18 ask the respondent about his or her relationship with the children’s doctor. As the strategic
communication plan progresses, questions 12–18 should have increases in their scores. We can calculate t-scores to
check for statistical significance in the change.
The survey questions are different between objective 1A as an objective and objective 1A’s tactics since the open house
will present information about both doctors and vaccines. There may be a comingling effect, where learning about
vaccines will increase trust in physicians.
Strategy 1B: Develop or adapt a multilevel educational program aimed at kindergarten through fifth grade and an educational
program aimed at adults in our priority audience segment. The program will be implemented on the heels of the vaccination
campaign to keep pressure on the priority audience segment. Implement the K–5 program in neighborhoods with a high
concentration of children from households of the priority audience segment and the adult program through multiple channels.
Tactic: Develop and implement an educational program on preventative medical care.
Task: Develop a K–5 educational program
People: K–5 teachers, health professionals, curriculum and educational designers, assessment experts
Timeline: One month after the implementation of strategy 1A (leaving time for peer review)
Task: Develop an adult educational program
People: Adult educators, health professionals, curriculum and educational designers, assessment experts
Timeline: One month after the implementation of strategy 1A (leaving time for peer review)
Task: Peer review
People: Health educators, K–5 and adult educators, health professionals
Timeline: One month after receiving material
The measurement is the peer review process, which we discussed above. The difficulty we will run into is that designing
two education curriculums will be a massive undertaking. To make sure we hit the start date with the curriculum, the
curriculum committee should meet while the plan is being developed. This peer review will be in the form of written
comments and not numbers.
Task: Implement K–5 educational program for children in neighborhoods that include our priority audience segment
People: K–5 teachers
Channel: Written media, electronic media, interpersonal communication, public communication
Timeline: Immediately after program is developed and continuing for eight months
Task: Implement adult educational program to priority audience segment
People: Teachers, organization or agency staff
Channel: Social media
Timeline: Immediately after program is developed and continuing for eight months
We will be implementing two different curriculums in radically different ways. The K–5 curriculum will be implemented in
the classroom. We can use assignments and assessments to judge whether or not children are learning the information.
The adult education curriculum will be much more difficult because we will be rolling it out through our social media
channels and website. The information will be mixed in with other posts on Facebook and brought together sequentially
on a dedicated website. Short polls, quizlets, and comments can be mined to look for changes in knowledge and attitude
in the priority audience segment. This data should be treated as anecdotal. We can look at the general direction of the
score change as a weak indicator of change. The adult program is more of a supplement to all the other information our
audience is receiving.
Task: Open houses
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers, social workers
Channel: Public communication
Timeline: After completion of informational material and continuing at regular intervals until the end of the strategic
communication plan
We will use the same survey, discussed above in intermediate objective 1A, for all open houses.
Global Strategy 1: Develop informational material about the different state and federal insurance programs, eligibility
requirements, and instructions on how to sign up for the programs. The material will be distributed two months after the
implementation of the vaccination program and at the same time as the preventative care program. As our priority audience
segment’s attitudes about preventative care change, the insurance informational material will influence members of the priority
audience segment to investigate and sign up for state and federal insurance programs. We know one of the main barriers,
beyond attitudes and beliefs, of the priority audience segment is the perceived cost of the preventative care program. The
informational campaign is meant to give our priority audience segment options on paying for care.
Tactic: Develop and distribute information about state and federal insurance programs, program eligibility, and sign-up
information
Task: Develop informational material
People: Social service workers, professional writers and editors
Timeline: Two months after strategy 1A is implemented (leaving time for peer review)
Task: Peer review for correctness
People: Partner organizations and agencies, social service agencies
Timeline: One week after receiving information
Task: Peer review for clarity
People: Partner organizations and agencies, social service agencies, volunteers
Timeline: One week after receiving materials
We will use the rubric designed for evaluating the document. The document will need to achieve a score of 23 with no
individual score lower than 4. Since this document will need to go through several drafts, it is imperative that the early
draft be completed soon after the implementation of the strategic communication plan.
Task: Set up social media groups to distribute information to the priority audience segment
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers
Channel: Social media
Timeline: After completion of informational material and continuing for eight months
Task: Social media paid posting targeting the priority audience segment
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers
Channel: Social media
Timeline: After completion of informational material and continuing for eight months
Task: Dedicated website
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers, consultants
Channel: Electronic media
Timeline: After completion of informational material and continuing for eight months
We can use polls, quizlets, and comments to judge the priority audience segment’s knowledge about state and federal
insurance programs, checking t-scores for statistical significance. We can look for intent to investigate the state and
federal insurance programs by looking at the comments, identifying themes and patterns. We can also count the clickthrough rate on advertisements that will link to both our dedicated website containing information and links to state and
federal insurance programs. We can also count the number of unique users and registered users of our website.
Task: Radio and television public service announcements
People: Writers, editors, production house
Channel: Electronic media
Timeline: Two months after completion of informational material and continuing for four months
As stated above, we can send our videos to the local television stations to run as PSAs. However, we cannot predict how
many times our video will air or when it airs. It is possible that the PSA misses the priority audience segment entirely.
Since we are using television media to augment our social media campaigns, any views by our priority audience segment
will be seen as a bonus.
Task: Door-to-door distribution in neighborhoods with high concentrations of priority audience segment members
People: Volunteers, organization or agency staff
Channel: Written, interpersonal
Timeline: After completion of informational material and continuing for four months
Task: Distribution of materials through schools attended by children of the priority audience segment
People: Teachers
Channel: Written, interpersonal communication
Timeline: Two months after completion of informational material
The measurement is the identification of where the priority audience segment lives, how many members or households
are in the priority audience segment, and if we reached the threshold for distribution. Door-to-door is one mode of getting
the information out. The children’s teachers and social media are others. We need to keep a running total of how many
documents are distributed to make sure we hit our percentage.
Task: Open houses
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers, social workers
Channel: Public communication
Timeline: After completion of program material and continuing at regular intervals until the end of the strategic communication
plan.
We will use the same survey, discussed above in intermediate objective 1A, for all open houses.
Global Strategy 2: Develop an informational campaign about family and clinical doctors in the same geographic area as our
priority audience segment. Tell the doctors’ stories to help the priority audience segment see the doctors as individuals from
diverse backgrounds who care deeply about their patients. Focus on primary care physicians and pediatricians because these
are the physicians that will be treating the priority audience segment’s children.
Tactic: Develop an informational campaign focusing on the pediatricians’ and family practitioners’ life stories, commitment to
patients, and most rewarding moments as physicians.
Task: Develop the doctors’ narratives
People: Doctors; hospitals’ and clinics’ offices for marketing, communication, and public relations; professional writers and
editors.
Timeline: Two months after implementation of the strategic communication plan
Task: Peer review
People: Partner organizations and agencies, general public
Timeline: One week after receiving materials
The measurement is the peer review process, which we discussed in intermediate objective 1A. Since we have a tight
deadline for completion, we will need to make sure that we get the document out early enough for peer review and
revision.
Task: Targeted social media campaign aimed at priority audience segment
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers
Channel: Social media
Timeline: Starting at the completion of the materials and running for 10 months
Task: Dedicated website
People: Organization or agency staff, consultant
Channel: Electronic media
Timeline: Starting at the completion of the materials and running for 10 months
We can use polls, quizlets, and comments to judge the priority audience segment’s attitudes about the physicians. The
comments will give us more detail on why the priority audience segment holds those views of the physicians, looking for
themes and patterns. We can also count the click-through rate on advertisements that will link to both our dedicated
website containing information and links to state and federal insurance programs. We can also count the number of
unique users and registered users of our website.
Task: Posting materials in doctor’s offices, hospital lobbies, schools, churches, social service agencies, and stores in
neighborhoods with a high population of our priority audience segment
People: Organization or agency staff, volunteers
Channel: Written media
Timeline: Starting at the completion of the materials and running for 10 months
Much like the PSAs, these materials are placed to reinforce messages that the priority audience members should be
getting through other channels. There is no good way to measure the effects of flyers other than asking priority audience
segment members if they have seen them.
Task: Television and newspaper coverage of the doctors’ stories
People: Organization or agency staff, doctors, television reporters, newspaper reporters
Channels: Electronic media, written media
Timeline: Two months after the completion of the materials and running for six months
We discussed issues with PSAs above. Press releases to local newspapers may or may not be run. However, the
chances that the newspapers will print a well-written press release is much greater and much less random than a
television station running the PSA. We can count the number of press releases printed as an indicator of community
interest and involvement; how many of these will be seen by the priority audience segment will be unknown. The question
in our survey that asks if the respondent has seen anything about the physicians elsewhere will have to serve as our
measure.
Task: Open houses and meet-and-greets
People: Organization and agency staff, volunteers, doctors
Channels: Public communication, interpersonal communication
Timeline: Starting at the completion of the materials and repeating intermittently for eight months
We will use the same survey, discussed above in intermediate objective 1A, for all open houses.
Measuring and Measurement
We have primarily described and used two measures—t-tests and identifying themes and patterns. The first is a
quantitative measure and the second a qualitative measure. There are many other quantitative and qualitative measures
you might use in the process of measuring your results.
•
Mean and median—As described in Topic 2, mean is the average and median is the middle value. Most survey
data, including questions written as Likert scales, will be reported as means.
•
Correlation—As described in Topic 2, correlation is how two variables move together. If we are looking for the
connection between the increase in knowledge of the health problems related to smoking and a behavioral
change of people quitting smoking, we might run a correlation.
•
Standard deviation and variance—If you are measuring opinions, sometimes you need to know the spread of the
answers in a given dataset. The concept of variance shows how closely individual scores are grouped together.
For example, let’s say that we have a seven-point Likert scale statement: “I like ice cream.” A score of 1 is
strongly disagree and a score of 7 is strongly agree. The data shows an average score of 4—right in the middle.
We might be tempted to interpret this as the respondents being neutral on the subject. But not everyone
necessarily responded with a neutral score. We need to look at variance. If our variance or standard deviation
scores are high, it means that there may have been people who selected 1 and people who selected 7. This
means that a large number of respondents strongly dislike ice cream while another large number of respondents
strongly like ice cream. The 1s and 7s average out to a score of 4. If my variance or standard deviation is low,
however, it means that everyone chose a score around 4 and the results are strongly neutral. The amount of
variance helps you to understand the data.
•
Field notes—If you participate in observations or interviews, your field notes will help you understand the
reasons behind participants’ answers. The notes can help you understand the reasons why someone holds an
attitude or behaves in a particular way. These notes can help you to offer explanations in your reports and give
you insights on how to adapt your messages.
Chapter 12: Correcting Course
Introduction
Topic 12 Introduction Transcript
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LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Interpret data from measures.
2. Anticipate changes based upon data from measures.
3. Adjust objectives, strategies, and tactics based upon those measures.
Your strategic communication plan has been written and has been implemented for two months. Programs and
campaigns have started and the data has started to arrive. You look at the data and . . . it’s not good. In fact, your
priority audience segment is now less trusting of vaccines. The members have stronger negative views of physicians
than they did before the plan began. Membership in the Facebook accounts and groups has lagged badly. What are you
going to do?
12.1Planning for Adapting the Plan
Topic 12.1 Transcript
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No one creates a strategic communication plan designed to fail. Failure, however, does happen. If caught early enough,
the plan can be adapted and updated. This topic will discuss how to anticipate the future and how to be ready for it before
it occurs.
Anticipating Failure
Imagine this: You come into the meeting room where your team has been assembled. You look at them and say, “We are
in deep trouble. The strategic communication plan is a complete failure. We are not meeting benchmarks, our programs
have no buy-in from our partners or our priority audience segment, and we are burning through the budget quickly. None
of our objectives are being met and the strategies and tactics are ineffective. We are back at square one. Now what do we
do?”
The staff is confused. You had a meeting about the strategic communication plan yesterday, but it was still in a draft
form—it hasn’t even been completed yet. Does your staff think you have gone insane?
Not if you are going through an exercise known as a pre-mortem. A pre-mortem is similar to a post-mortem, except a premortem (1) takes place before the strategic communication plan is implemented and (2) assumes that the strategic
communication plan has been a total failure. The purpose of a pre-mortem is to have the team go through the plan, find
every place where something could go wrong, and explain why it could go wrong. Starting with the most senior person in
the room, everyone lists one item, which is recorded on a whiteboard or large sheet of paper, until all of the problems
have been listed. The team then prioritizes the list from the most serious problem to the least serious problem. The team
then attempts to solve the problems so that the team members are ready if something does go wrong with the plan during
implementation. This process helps you to anticipate what might go wrong and to develop solutions. It is easier to solve
problems when you know what might happen so that you can look out for warning signs.
Meeting Objective Shortfalls
When you have an underperforming objective, you need to determine if the problem is with the objective, the strategies, or
the tactics. If you have written the objective correctly—it is a SMART objective—the most likely problem area is the
tactics.
Let’s look at our intermediate objective 1A.
To reach 75% of our priority audience segment with correct, understandable information on vaccines in two months.
As we showed in Topic 6, this objective does follow the SMART criteria. From this objective, we developed a strategy:
Create an information campaign targeted at our priority audience segment creating stories around vaccinations. The stories will
talk about the different types of vaccinations (Hepatitis-B, DTaP, MMR, and others) with both cautionary tales of children not
receiving vaccinations and positive stories of children receiving vaccinations. We will have a limited number of stories
distributed through several channels for maximum effect.
The strategy itself is connected back to the intermediate objective (distributing information), the goal statement (providing
individuals with the correct information about vaccinations should make them more willing to have their children get
preventative vaccinations), and to the theory (the Narrative Paradigm, which states people make up their minds based on
good reasons and not rational behaviors). Since these connections are sound, we need to look at the tactics and tasks.
We developed several tactics and tasks:
Develop information and distribute to the priority audience segment.
•
Create the information campaign on the safety of vaccinations
•
Peer review of information
•
Door-to-door distribution to members of the priority audience segment
•
Creation and curation of social media groups on Facebook and Instagram
•
Distribution through teachers to children of the priority audience segment
•
Open houses
Let’s use the following data for the percentage of households contacted through the three main channels:
Weekly Report of % of Households reached (running totals)
Door-to-Door
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
8
9
12
14
18
21
26
28
33
Weekly Report of % of Households reached (running totals)
Teachers
1
2
4
8
8
8
8
11
11
Social Media
0
1
2
2
3
5
7
11
11
Total
9
12
18
24
29
34
41
50
55
Remember, in Topic 10 we said we should oversaturate the area with the information. Once we find out how many
households/people are in our priority audience segment, we should plan on distributing to 105%–110% of that population.
If we are at 55%, we are significantly behind in distribution.
We need to revisit the tactics to see which ones are tied to the distribution of information. There are three identified:
•
Door-to-door distribution to members of the priority audience segment
•
Distribution through teachers to children of the priority audience segment
•
Creation and curation of social media groups on Facebook and Instagram
Where might these tasks be experiencing problems? We need to look at the tactics individually and create or modify the
tasks. Door-to-door distribution to members of the priority audience segment might be lagging for the following reasons:
1. We have misidentified the areas where our priority audience segment lives.
o
We might revisit the Census data to make sure we are using the correct demographic categories. If we
have entered in bad information, the program will return bad data. Start entering demographics
parameters from the most general categories (age) to the narrowest categories (number of children).
Try entering the demographics categories in different orders to see if it makes a difference.
o
We might take existing maps of the neighborhoods we have targeted and expand their boundaries by
one block in each direction. This will create a bit of a geographic pad to make sure we are reaching
everyone. One block in each direction will help us reach more without overextending the staff and
volunteers.
2. No one has answered the door when we have knocked.
o
No one is home. It is better if we can physically hand the document to the person. We can mark the
house on the map and return at a different time. If a second visit still gets no response, then we can
leave the material by the front door.
o
The homeowner or tenant may not wish to open a door for a stranger. Depending on the
neighborhood, people may be afraid to open the door for someone they do not know. If there is
someone in the community who is willing and able to help, such as a former client or a staff member,
bring him or her with you. The familiar face of a neighbor may help to open doors for you.
o
We may not have enough people distributing documents.
i.
There may be too few people to completely canvas the area in the time given. Ask staff
and volunteers from partner organizations or agencies to help.
Distribution through teachers may be lagging for the following reasons:
1. The teachers may not understand what you are asking them to do.
o
The instructions they were given about what they need to do may be unclear. Contact the teachers to
determine what they have been told or what written directions they were given. The instructions may
need standardization and clarification.
o
The teachers may be getting mixed messages from the school staff and the organization or agency
staff. Make sure there is one person assigned to interact will all the schools and all the teachers so that
everyone is getting the same message.
2. The teachers have given the document to students, but the documents “disappear” somewhere between school and
home.
o
The students could be losing them or throwing them away on the way home. Make an incentive for the
students to deliver the document. Put a detachable “ticket” for the parent to sign at the bottom of the
document. The ticket, when returned to the school and signed by a parent, can be either worth points
or entered into a drawing.
3. The parents may be getting documents but throwing them away.
o
The document may not be engaging enough. Revise the document in consultation with members of
the priority audience segment. Have priority audience segment members critique the document for
clarity, readability, and interest, then make changes accordingly.
Social media engagement may be lagging for the following reasons:
1. The organization or agency may be doing a poor job advertising the account and groups.
o
The social media manager may be misidentifying the demographic variables in Facebook Ads. The
manager should examine what demographic parameters are used and ensure that they are the correct
parameters to use. The manager could add more interests to the parameters to open up the
advertisement’s target audience. The organization or agency may be able to afford to increase the
advertisement’s budget in order to place the advertisement in more people’s timeline.
o
There may be a lack of offline advertising of the Facebook account and group. Make sure all
documents are branded with the Facebook account and include a QR code. Ask the staff members
and volunteers to promote the Facebook site on their social media accounts.
2. There may be a lack of interest in the Facebook account and groups.
o
The material posted on the account may not be interesting to the priority audience segment. Get
members of the priority audience segment to help by reading and commenting on the material before it
is posted. All materials posted should tell a story consistent with the Narrative Paradigm.
o
New material is not being posted consistently or in a timely manner. Outdated material may not be
taken down in a timely manner. We might assign two managers to moderate the Facebook account,
one to update the page with new material and one to review and remove old material. We may want to
set a minimum number of posts per day to be added. There should be a greater number for each day
Monday–Friday with a lesser number added on Saturday and Sunday.
o
We may need to increase interaction with the priority audience segment members that comment or
post on our Facebook account. We might set up a schedule to review comments at specific times of
the day (for example, all even hours from 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.). We should attempt to reply and
react to every comment posted.
Please note that none of these situations may be causing the problems. We are trying to find the pinch points in the plan
and determine ways that we can work around them. It might be that we need to do more research, shift resources and
personnel, seek information, and determine which of the above are the problems.
Adjusting the Plan
Any adjustments to the plan may have an effect on other objectives, strategies, and tactics. First, we must check on how
this change affects deadlines later in the program. Check your map of the deadlines and see if other deadlines need to be
moved and, if they do, how this will affect the overall timeline of the strategic communication plan.
For the Barrytown strategic communication plan, intermediate objective 1A is the first objective that needs to be
completed. If we are having shortfalls here and need to extend the deadline, it may necessitate adjusting the schedule
and deadlines in the rest of the plan. First, we will need to determine how much more time we will need to reach 75% of
the priority audience segment. The estimate needs to be realistic. If we are overly optimistic about the time needed to
increase distribution, we may find ourselves continuing to have a shortfall at the end of that period. If we look at the
running totals, door-to-door has seen steady increases and social media started slowly but has picked up steam in
reaching households. Teachers have been slow but steady in increasing distribution. If we plan to take an extra month for
distribution, we can project the weekly increases we will need to meet our goal:
Planned % increases to meet goal (running total)
Week 9
Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Door-to-door
33
45
58
67
75
Teachers
11
12
13
18
20
Social media
11
13
14
15
15
Total
55
70
85
100
110
Remember, our benchmark is 75% but we decided that we need to overdistribute to make sure we reach the 75%. Some
people will be reached twice. The major jump occurs in door-to-door distribution between week 9 and week 11, and then
distribution drops back to lesser increases for each subsequent week. Overall, the weekly gains seem to be achievable
and realistic and not overly optimistic. We will extend intermediate objective 1A’s timeline by one month.
Second, we need to prioritize and reassign resources to the correct channel so that we can reach our benchmark. The
door-to-door campaign needs to improve from 33% of households to 75% of households. Teachers need to increase from
11% of households to 20% of households. Social media needs to increase from 11% to 15%. The majority of reallocated
resources should go to the door-to-door campaign. The teacher channel will best be served by implementing the new
ideas we listed above rather than by increasing personnel. The social media community has kept steady growth
throughout the campaign. We should add another social media position to help keep up with posting and curating the
different social media channels to ensure it continues.
Third, we need to determine if we need to adjust the rest of the strategic communication plan’s deadlines. The other three
objectives, one intermediate and two global, are distinct enough that changes in intermediate objective 1A should not
directly affect the other deadlines.
Reviewing the Data
During the course of the strategic communication plan’s implementation, we will be receiving a steady stream of data from
surveys, interviews, comments, and the priority audience or priority audience segment members served. It is important
that we understand how to read that data.
Let’s look at some of the data we might get from global objective 2.
Global Objective 2: To implement a program to promote family and clinical doctors to members of the priority audience
segment within two months of the start of the strategic communication plan.
We will be receiving survey information about individual doctors (see the proposed survey to measure the priority
audience segment’s opinions above). Let’s look at the first month’s data on Dr. Kevin Black:
Global Objective 2 First month’s survey responses of priority audience segment
1=Strongly disagree 7=Strongly agree
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4
Number of responses
20
18
21
21
The doctor was knowledgeable about my child’s condition
3.4
3.3
3.6
3.9
The doctor cared about my child
5.4
5.4
5.7
5.5
The doctor carefully explained everything to me and my child
4.3
4.4
4.6
4.4
The doctor was friendly
3.9
4.1
5.0
4.3
I liked the doctor
3.7
3.9
4.5
4.1
How did the appointment go today? (Not well–well)
5.1
5.9
6.3
6.0
After the appointment, how did you feel about the doctor (Less confident–more confident)
6.0
6.1
6.4
6.1
After the appointment, how did you feel about the doctor? (Less comfortable–more comfortable)
6.0
6.1
6.4
6.1
Global Objective 2 First month’s survey responses of priority audience segment
Overall, I feel positive about the doctor
Had you heard or read anything about the doctor prior to your appointment?
5.5
5.7
6.1
5.8
Y=0
N=20
Y=2
N=16
Y=11
N=10
Y=9
N=12
What conclusion can we draw from this information?
•
The program to inform people about the physicians is gaining traction. The first two weeks, there were very few
individuals who had seen our campaign. In weeks 1 and 2, only 2 out of 38 people had seen any information
about the doctor. By weeks 3 and 4 that had increased to 20 out of 42.
•
Week 3 saw an uptick in the priority audience segment’s opinions on Dr. Black. This matched the uptick in the
number of the priority audience segment that had seen information about Dr. Black. We must be careful here.
There may be a connection between the campaign and the priority audience segment’s opinion, or there might
not be. The two sets of numbers increased together—they correlated with each other—but that does not prove
that having more information led to a better opinion about Dr. Black. As we discussed earlier, correlation does
not mean causation. Dr. Black may have had a good week. The patients may not have been as ill or the parents
as worried. We cannot rule these things out as leading to Dr. Black’s good week. We should be happy that we
can see a connection between information and opinion, but we should not read too much into it.
•
Week 4 saw a downtick in the priority audience segment’s opinion of Dr. Black, but it did not fall back to the level
of weeks 1 and 2. We should start wondering if the information is somehow affecting the priority audience
segment’s opinions. We are getting enough anecdotal evidence that we can start building an argument for the
campaign’s effectiveness.
•
The first month’s data should be considered the baseline levels. Weeks 1 and 2 had a low response rate, so the
numbers are not conclusive. Adding weeks 3 and 4 will give us a good response rate that we can use as a
baseline.
Adjusting the Channels
Let’s consider another set of data. Here is the data from the surveys given at the first four months of open houses:
Table 5.4
Open House Data from Priority Audience Segment
Month 1
Month 2
Month 3
Month 4
I believe that vaccinations are safe for my children.
3.8
3.9
3.7
3.8
I always make sure my children get the age-appropriate vaccines.
3.2
3.0
3.1
3.1
I trust my doctor’s advice about vaccinations.
2.5
2.4
2.4
2.7
Open House Data from Priority Audience Segment
My children’s doctor cares about my child’s health.
6.1
6.2
6.2
6.3
My children’s doctor explains things clearly.
5.7
5.7
5.8
5.9
I like my children’s doctor.
6.0
5.9
5.9
5.7
Open house attendance
79
84
73
65
Number of responses
8
7
9
11
The first thing to notice is that the number of responses is very low compared to the attendance for the events. These are
questions that we need the priority audience segment members to answer since the questions help give us an overall
view of their opinions. We cannot draw conclusions from these few responses. We need to get these questions to a wider
audience. We may need to offer some small incentive for people to complete the survey. Brainstorm with your partners
and members of your priority audience segment to find some small token of appreciation that can be given to people who
complete the survey.
We need to change the channel of communication through which we are reaching out to our priority audience segment.
The most viable channel we have to distribute this survey is through social media. The best reach we will get is through
the use of Facebook Ads. Facebook Ads will allow us to target the priority audience segment we want to reach. If we tried
to use either our Facebook account or groups, Twitter, or Instagram, we would be reaching into a pool of people who are
already interested and invested in the topic. Reaching out to the wider priority audience segment will give us a better
cross-section of views.
12.2Anticipating Success
You should have a plan for success as much as you have one for failure. There is no pre-mortem equivalent exercise for
anticipating everything going well. But you should be ready to expand those areas that are achieving results better than
you expected. Part of anticipating success is budgeting resources; always reserve some funding and personnel. You
should be ready to commit to an area that is promising and should not be afraid to cull funding and personnel from an
area that is underperforming. The strategic communication plan should give you the flexibility to adapt as need be.
Monitor the data and the progress of the plan and react accordingly.
Reporting Success
It is important to report and celebrate success, especially early successes. Doing so will help to maintain organization or
agency morale and partner buy-in. Keep in constant communication with staff, volunteers, partners, sponsors, and donors
so that they know how the program is progressing. Don’t keep the news of the successes to yourself—bring everyone
together as you hit milestones.
Part of your strategic communication plan is creating press releases to distribute to local media. Make sure that you issue
press releases for the successes your plan is experiencing. For example, one of your key partners for the Barrytown
project will be the local department of health. As you increase the number of children immunized, work cooperatively with
the department of health to announce the increase in a press release. If the perception of all of the physicians in a clinic
becomes more positive, partner with the clinic to announce that information in a press release. This will help to keep the
momentum going both internally and externally.
12.3Planning for Ongoing Follow-Up Evaluation
You have implemented your strategic communication plan, and it has been a success! Does that mean evaluation should
end?
There will be pressures to move to the next project, but the current strategic communication plan should not necessarily
be forgotten after it has ended. There are still lessons to be learned about the effects of the plan after the campaign ends.
For example, how long did the increase in the priority audience segment’s opinion of physicians last after the advertising
and social media campaigns stopped? What were the most effective aspects of the efforts to get the priority audience
segment to trust vaccinations? Were there long-term effects of the educational programs about vaccinations in the priority
audience segment or the larger community? The messages and campaigns are obvious and can be seen by the data
collected during the plan’s implementation. But what worked? And why did it work?
You should always try to get funding for follow-up research to judge the effectiveness and the long-term effects of the
plan. This information could be helpful not only to your organization or agency but also, in the case of Barrytown, to the
medical providers and social service agencies. Make a proposal to follow up with research so you can learn from the best
practices of the campaign.