PR and Street Corners

The audience is a central part of every PR campaign. One must consider who they are taking to before they can decide what to say. So someone must get into the minds of every potential audience. Surveys are a great way to find out what people think and feel about topics. As an undergrad, surveys mean working the street corners.

The first step is finding a place that allows any form of solicitation. My group searched many places, but only one store allowed us to perform the surveys. Our only other option was downtown street corners. Thank god for public forums!

Next we had to stand outside and try to convince people to actually take the survey. The proved extremely challenging. My favorite response was when those strolling along would suddenly start running saying, "I am in a hurry!" Downtown a group sitting on a bench staring into space, was also in a hurry. One lady stopped and took the time to look at the survey, but she misread the top. It said community survey, but she read it as community service. She handed it back saying she did not do community service.

After many hours on the corner, we completed enough surveys for our project. After we compile the information we hope to have a glimpse of how the community thinks, because speeching is always more effective if you know your audience.