Success begins with SMART Objectives

You may have many plans and ideas to achieve a targeted goal, but the real question you should be asking yourself is - what is the main objective I aim to achieve through this?

It is vital for one to have specific goals and objectives for a strategic PR campaign. This is because a successful PR campaign ensures that the organisation’s goals and objectives are reached in alignment with the organisation’s beliefs. It also contributes to the long run of the organisation as it helps to build a strong and mutually beneficial relationship with its public.

Setting goals requires a lot of time and brainstorming as it is the ultimate destination the organisation plans on reaching. There are many PR framework approaches on how an organisation reaches their goals. Just like how a chef identifies the right and quality ingredients needed to make a delicious dish, PR practitioners as well, have to identify and have realistic goals for a campaign to succeed.

The SMART goal setting concept is one of the most effective way to bring structure into achieving its goals and objectives. SMART goal setting generates a very realistic picture for an organisation to see clear milestones in the journey of obtaining its goals. It as well works in an objective manner where it is able to allow effective evaluation by clarifying FIVE standards in developing measurable objectives.

Image Credits : Ohio Health Blog

Specific

A specific objective answers the questions: “what is to be done?”, “what needs to be achieved?” and “how will you know it is done?”. The description of the objective should be described in such a way that anyone who reads it will most likely interpret it the same way as you do.

Measurable

A measurable objective answers the question “how will you know it meets expectations?” and meets the accessibility to be evaluated against a given standard (quantity, quality, deadlines etc.).

Attainable

An objective should be made achievable and answers the question “can the measurable objective be achieved?” and “can it be done with the given time frame?”. Time, costs and efforts must be considered otherwise it may be impossible to meet the expectations.

Relevant

A relevant objective reflects on one’s qualities in doing so and answers the question “what will be the impact of this objective?” and “should it be done?”

Time-Oriented

A time-based objective answers the question “when will it be done?”. It ensures that the objective has checkpoints built on it to allow corrections and modifications made to make sure the end results meet expectations.

There are THREE terms that plays a huge part in the SMART Objective, here is a brief summary of the differences between them.

Defining Objective, Strategy & Tactic.

In last week’s blog post, we touched on Corporate Social Responsibility and Shangri-La’s approach on their annual charity Christmas CSR project titled, “The Glittering Baubles of Life”. To briefly summarise this CSR activity, the campaign was done annually since 1985 with the aim to aid children suffering from severe heart ailments and other serious medical conditions. This project has till date, managed to raise RM4 million to help disadvantaged children to undergo surgery.

Personally, I believe that more could have been achieved through this project instead of only selling the baubles. In this week’s blog post, I’ll be sharing my personal suggestions of a brief PR plan for Shangri-La’s annual Christmas project using the SMART framework which includes measurable objectives, practical strategies and achievable tactics.

My PR Plan of Shangri-La's Christmas Charity Project.

The objectives, along with their respective strategies and tactics could possibly help make Shangri-La’s annual Christmas charity project into a more impactful outcome. This being said as it will not only help to ease the children operation costs, but it as well will increase the knowledge of heart diseases and the importance of a healthy lifestyle amongst the public.

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References:

Belicove, M. (2013) Understanding Goals, Strategy, Objectives And Tactics In The Age Of Social. Forbes. [online] Available at : https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikalbelicove/2013/09/27/understanding-goals-strategies-objectives-and-tactics-in-the-age-of-social/#3a27e894c796 [Accessed on 23rd October 2018]

The Malaysian Times (2015) IJN organises ‘Incredible heart’ campaign. [online] Available at : http://www.themalaysiantimes.com.my/ijn-organises-month-long-incredible-heart-campaign-beginning-today/ [Accessed on 23rd October 2018]

Wayne State University (N.A.) S.M.A.R.T. Objectives. [online] Available at : https://hr.wayne.edu/leads/phase1/smart-objectives [Accessed on 23rd October 2018]