The Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) Council has asked Simon Francis, Founder Member of social enterprise Campaign Collective to lead its drive to improve the social impact of public relations.
Francis will chair a group of PRCA Council members to define the social impact of PR, collate examples of good practice, and build understanding and measurement of social impact alongside traditional organisational and marketing objectives.
The outputs from the group’s work will be discussed at the PRCA National Conference in London on 21st September.
Simon Francis commented: “PR and communications has a huge impact on society. It is the responsibility of all practitioners to understand the social impact of PR and be aware of the actions they are taking – in line with the Helsinki Declaration on the ethics of PR.
“At Campaign Collective, we measure social impact in two ways – the positive impact of our marketing work on society and what we can achieve through investment in our social purpose fund.”
Jon Chandler, Chair of the PR Council and CEO of Quiller Consultants, said: “The social impact of PR is hugely important, but hardly talked about. From the impact of campaigns on target audiences and helping to deliver genuine corporate social responsibility programmes to encouraging workforce diversity and ‘buying social’ and using social enterprises in the supply chain, the communications industry can have a hugely positive role to play in the world.
“This part of the PRCA Council’s work in 2018 will aim to make social impact as talked about wider marketing measurement and evaluation.”
For more information about the PRCA National Conference, click here.