Efficient interaction with the media is one of the most important criteria for a company’s success. This is why PR expertise evaluation is crucial. Timely identification of problems in the PR department’s work will protect the company from being covered by the media in a wrong way and will help make necessary adjustments at minimum cost.

There are two main methods of PR performance evaluation. The first of them is an audit of PR performance for a certain period of time based on the following criteria:

• scope of work done;
• quantity of press releases;
• contacts with the media (limited by interaction options);
• quantity and quality of news;
• quality of press releases and other information fed to the media;
• quality of media pool;
• quality of media archive and PR reporting.

The second method is based on the feedback from the PR department’s primary audience, that of journalists and other representatives of the media such as editors, top bloggers, etc. A well-done and accurate poll of journalists can help detect a problem and prevent adverse effects.

The two methods combined can achieve a maximum accurate and unbiased evaluation of PR performance. The evaluation is based on the following criteria:

• quality and time of response to news and threats;
• availability of the information provided by the PR department;
• speed of information provision;
• professionalism of the PR department in general and its members in particular;
• openness, friendliness, communicativeness;
• creativity in information delivery and information handling in general.

Following an audit and a journalist poll we offer recommendations for improving PR performance in addition to a PR performance evaluation report.