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The public relations industry has a big PR problem when it comes to communicating how it directly impacts the bottom-line.
Consider this: Companies that are serious about PR typically spend no less than $5,000 per month on media relations programs. This isn’t chump change.
Yet, people -- either on the agency-side or brand-side -- talk about ROI in terms of media impressions, number of placements, and message pull-through. And while quantifiable, these metrics mean absolutely nothing if they don’t meet the goals of the business. Repeat, nothing.
Let’s first break down why each one of these metrics are ineffective:...
PR professionals often search for a magic solution to the value dilemma, but the answer is a lot simpler than they think.
At her “Money Well Spent: Tips for Showcasing PR’s Value” webinar, Shonali Burke explored how to design and develop a PR campaign center piece, avoid the seven sins of bad measurement and refocus your efforts when something doesn’t go according to plan....
...According to the results of the first annual Goo Online Advertising Survey, from Goo Technologies, 82% of Americans ignore online ads, ahead of television ads at 37%. 92% of Americans ignore at least one type of ad seen every day across six different types of media.
The online ads Americans are most likely to ignore included: online banner ads (73%), followed by social media ads (62%), and search engine ads (59%). The highest wage earners, those with a household income of $100k+ per year, were statistically more likely than those households making less than $50k per year (86% vs. 78%, respectively) to say they ignore online ads....
In this series, we’re going to look critically at the ways PR has traditionally been measured and the ways we’re measuring PR today. Measuring PR and earned media has always been something of a challenge in the past, but thanks to digital marketing and metrics tools, it’s easier today to find the impact of PR, even with businesses that have significant offline components. - Sales/business goals - Marketing metrics - Social media - Search marketing - Paid advertising - Primary research - Standard media metrics In this post, we’re going to look at social media as a proxy for measuring public relations. Social media itself can be measured in three broad categories, from audience growth to engagement to conversion....
Web analytics and general knowledge of digital marketing key performance indicators (KPIs) have come a long way since the days when people were measuring “hits” on a site. Tools like Google Analytics, Omniture, and proprietary systems within companies have made digital marketing reporting more simple and accessible for the average marketing professional. These days, you’re nowhere in marketing if you don’t understand your basic web KPIs, including customer engagement and conversion rates.
However, as content marketing takes the forefront in digital marketing tactics — especially for B2B and SEO marketing — marketers are still stuck in the stone age as it relates to measuring the effectiveness and impact of various forms of content. For example, consider white papers (or any page turn publication) — they are a common lead generation tactic within content marketing, yet most marketers fail to measure anything beyond “downloads.” The question remains: What can a marketer do to better understand the effectiveness of this type of content?...
Customer Research: Learn how to conduct research on social media to find out more about your customers. With the right social media tools, you can learn what questions your customers have and which types of content they’re sharing. This information will help you answer their questions, solve their problems and define your social media and content strategies. In this post, you’ll learn how to quickly conduct research on social media and put it into action. [Practical tips you can use on the most popular social media platforms -JD]
In PR, we often encourage our clients to conduct research as a way to contribute to the industry news cycle when there is no news coming out of the company. March‘s clients have seen a lot of success with this strategy and, across every industry, many companies will dedicate large portions of their annual marketing budgets to this type of content development. However, while companies typically want this research to come out in their favor – for example, framing their core competency as a must-have to remain competitive – research will fall flat if it isn’t conducted in a vendor-neutral manner and presented fairly. Last month, Facebook released some research findings in a report titled, “The Power of Like 2: How Social Marketing Works,” which claims that Facebook advertising works! This was released just weeks after investors expressed anxiety that advertising revenue won’t keep up with Facebook’s user base, and seems to be a direct counter argument to investors in an attempt to dissolve these doubts and keep stock prices high. However, there are some major holes in the logic of this report, casting doubts on whether Facebook advertising actually is effective after all.... [For Facebook, a case of lies, damn lies, bad PR - JD]
...The principles are a simple but effective guideline for measuring PR’s value. Rather than measuring stacks of press clips, PR firms should look at how people interpret and respond to messages. “These suggestions aren’t difficult to implement and are relevant to the communications professional, irrespective of whether they are on the client or agency side. It’s about putting a system in place that doesn’t cost too much and only measures what matters,” said Andre Manning and David B. Rockland, in their article Understanding the Barcelona Principles....
Digital Influence is one of the hottest trends in social media, yet is largely misunderstood. A“how-to”guide for businesses to spark desirable effects and outcomes through social media influence...
If you haven't performed a content analysis of your website in the last six months, chances are high that there are content issues that need fixing. Here are the essentials on the need for analysis and tips that will help make the job easier.
We take a backseat to no one when it comes to spewing forth venom at the public relations industry. But we feel compelled to stand up and make this point: PR people doing research on what reporters have written and making a file on that topic is not a scandal. It is the same thing that reporters do, okay?...
Quality news, views and information are hallmarks of a great website, which is why carrying out a content audit is such a worthwhile task. ...By conducting a content audit you can see exactly what you are offering online consumers, making sure that each page is a positive step in your long-term brand enhancement strategy....
Do PR Firms have the leg up in terms of their ability to manage the measurement of social media?
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The influential blogger you’ve been pitching name dropped your product with a link back to your website — high five! The WSJ business and technology article mentioning your company just published, cheers! Your company just made the top 10 list of best companies to work for, party on! The blog post interviewing your CEO as one of the industry’s leading innovators just went viral thanks to his inspiring quotes, company happy hour!
How do you measure all that digital ink?
With today’s access to advanced technology, the public relations industry must keep up with the data pace. Although dealing with numbers and statistics is a relatively new practice for PR specialists, it’s now part of the requirement to access and analyze public relations ROI. In the past, it was acceptable for PR to be a bit fuzzy when it came to measurement. For instance, an article about your business may be published in multiple publications, and may even result in an overall successful campaign, but how you do know which publication brought in the most traffic? Was it all of them or just one or two? This is where Google Analytics comes in.
Google Analytics 101 Webinar hosted by Sally Falkow, Digital PR Strategists, and Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Website Promotion Specialists, gives us an overview of this valuable — and free — tool....
Earlier this week, Jason Falls – IABC conference head honcho, whiskey lover, and all-around fun Louisville host – wrote a blog post called, “The Death of Public Relations.”
I like Jason, but I saw that and got ready for a fight.
Then I actually read the post…and I agreed with him.
No, I don’t think PR is dead, but his point is the industry is at a cross-roads because, as a whole, we’re not so good at measuring our worth.
He says advertising equivalency and media impressions mean nothing and that we have to stop counting words and start making business sense for the CEO. Amen. That said, I have a quick story to tell you....
Plenty of people have said it before, but Coca-Cola had invested hard dollars to prove it. Online buzz is not enough to have a measurable impact on short-term sales. Online display advertising works better. While the concept seems to contradict what social media enthusiasts tend to tout, it's one of several studies that not only raise questions about the growing interest in online influence but also refute it. After all, if buzz doesn't drive short-term sales where display advertisements might, then what about influence? Smart companies don't make decisions based on single studies. Of course, according to the Adweek article, Coca-Cola isn't ready to toss out the baby with the bath water. Its digital media team points out that the findings were based on one study with one segment of one company that appeals to a particular customer. In this case, one with 61.5 million Facebook fans. Instead, Coca-Cola will continue to look for ways to measure online buzz and other popular social media counts such as video views and social sharing. The company, one of the early entrants into digital media, wants to find a predictive measure that can pinpoint financial outcomes — at least so marketers may better understand the tradeoffs among media types....
Although lack of a unified standard is the biggest measurement problem, most PR pros said that's "impossible" to achieve. And those Barcelona Principles? Most never heard of them. ...Some 66 percent of respondents hadn't heard of the Barcelona Principles, and another 17 percent had heard of them but didn't know how they apply to PR metrics. While some called on PR pros to spread the word about the principles, others felt they were too vague....
With so much data swimming around, knowing which metrics to pay attention to can be difficult. Knowing which ones matter to your company and which ones are simply vanity metrics is important if you are to improve your social media efforts... No matter what industry you’re in, data will always play a key part. Data provides certainly and cold, hard facts that can help businesses thrive. It’s no surprise that by their very nature, the Web and social media have sped up the progress of analytic tools, becoming faster and more accurate. It’s why the majority of social media sites offer up their own analytics tools and why there are many so many are looking for real stats to work from.
Yet sometimes having a lot of data at your fingertips can be a hindrance. Our analytics can be filled with so much data that it can be difficult to determine what data is useful. It can be dangerous to take one metric on its own at face value so a combination of different metrics can help paint a picture of how well your social media activity is going.
Type of Metrics
There are a number of different engagement types out there, but here are the ones you should keep in mind when you’re devising a strategy....
[Simply Zesty provides an excellent overview of social media measurement metrics. If you're serious about measuring ROI, this is a must-read. ~ Jeff]
The last two weeks we’ve been discussing the standard business funnel of Awareness, Acquisition, Engagement, Conversion and Retention. We started with the Search News Central article, Measuring Metrics for Success, and now here we are at last, wrapping up the whole kit n’ caboodle. We have a lot to go through today, so let’s get started! The Standard Business Funnel and KPIs
“What gets measured gets managed” is a popular Peter Drucker quote. It’s been reused and modified to include such wonderful wisdom as:
You can’t manage what you don’t measure
What can be measured can be managed
If it isn’t measured, it can’t be managed
(sigh) Yes, Originality ‘R Us… As soon as you start looking at metrics and the massive amount of data that pours in from a well monitored site, you start to realize something is missing in the measure = manage equation. Just because you can measure something, doesn’t mean you should. More specifically, just because you’re getting data back doesn’t mean all the data is important at that particular moment.... [Excellent overview of key social media measurement and KPIs -JD]
...Despite the amount of time devoted to listening and coding sentiment, accuracy
is still an issue. Speakers from Attensity, Toluna, Lexalytics, and the American Red
Cross explained the complexities of properly coding sentiment using automated and manual methods. So whether you’re monitoring social media in-house or using a specialized vendor to track your clients’ brands, below are ten issues to pay particular attention to....
Some words are hard to love, and I have to concede that “data” is one of them. It doesn’t have any magic that makes the heart of a strategic communicator beat faster. But really, it’s so important that we should all learn to love it a little. ...Let’s face it — as a communicator you barely have the time, let alone the budget, to measure your communications activities. Yet, your senior management team is constantly asking for data on return on investment and the evidence that communications has demonstrated a meaningful result. So what’s a communicator who’s committed to measurement and evaluation to do?...
Whether you like it not, Klout, Kred, PeerIndex, and Radian6 are measuring your social capital -- not your influence but your potential for it. Altimeter Group’s principal analyst Brian Solis today releases a free report that explains why influence is largely misunderstood, and breaks down what 14 of the top measurement services are really good for. It eradicates consumer myths about one of social media’s hottest trends, and gives brands an action plan for making money with these tools....
Monitoring social data can be complex.Here are 5 tips on where to focus the analysis of social media for business insight... There are lots of great posts and articles on Big Data and and the impact of social media. Many discuss the value to be had from social media whilst others provide commentary on how difficult it can be to get true social business intelligence. But how do you actually wade through masses and masses of conversations to produce insight that is actionable and moves the social strategy further towards business goal attainment?...
One of the first resources we created when starting Rabbit in early 2010 was a list of 20 free social media evaluation tools. Not measurement, evaluation. Tools that will give you some form of meaningful data that you can use in reports. And ones that don’t cost anything. Fast forward almost two years and a lot of that list is out of date, with many of the originals no longer being around or having ‘upgraded’ to full paid for services. As a result, it’s time for a refresh. This is by no means an extensive list, there are other tools around in addition to these, but even a few of them together will provide you with meaningful intelligence. The 20 are as follows... [Thanks to Dirk Singer for this excellent resource - JD]
Ever wonder just how much a front page story actually does for your bottom line? Most likely a great deal, according to a recent MediaMiser report that studies potential correlations between media coverage and sales outcomes. According to the report – featuring an analysis of Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. media coverage from January to May of 2011 – the overall number of Toyota-related articles and media mentions showed a direct correlation with that company’s sales figures....
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Katie Bouwkamp shows how to track and report on the value of PR activities.