Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

For years, PR was the intangible service questioned by so many CFOs. When I think back on the earlier years of my career, we were always happy to have the visionary CEO in the boardroom for a pitch meeting. But, somehow, the climate changed when the CFO walked into the room. Having the CFO join the meeting is a huge opportunity to get closer to the person that controls the purse strings. But, you have to know how to use the opportunity to your advantage....

Public relations and business growth go together like peanut butter and jelly. The last new restaurant I tried? It was because of a good review I read in a local magazine. The last lip-gloss I purchased was the darling of Allure beauty editors. The last business software I evaluated wasn't because of some advertisement. It was through word of mouth. And as we often say at my company, PR is the ultimate word of mouth....

So, to help you better advocate for a slice of the marketing pie, I have asked five experts to provide their best practices on PR measurement....

As public relations professionals, we know that PR measurement is essential to the success of our campaigns, budgets and client relationships. We attend webinars, dabble with Google Analytics and follow the latest blogs to learn how to move from traditional to relevant measurement. Yet, we still receive feedback from clients that, although our media coverage secured looks great, it doesn’t appear to have a tangible impact on the bottom line  So, where’s the disconnect?

If you still secretly dread questions about how to measure PR or if you feel in over your head at times, don’t lose hope. PR measurement is not only a science — it’s an art. This post will review a number of tangible opportunities to measure PR beyond traditional media impressions and advertising equivalencies (AVEs) with the goal of empowering you to feel confident and creative the next time you’re asked about measurement....