Measurement

Recently I got a phone call from Marion McDonald, chief strategy officer of Ogilvy PR Asia Pacific. She was preparing her presentation for the AMEC Summit in Bangkok, May 17-18 (www.amecorg.com). Now, Marion’s a great presenter, and I always will try to see one of her talks. In fact, at the AMEC Summit in Amsterdam a few years ago, she used the famous scene from the movie When Harry Met Sally as part of a discussion on how advertisers and PR people might work together.

The way some PR pros avoid social media measurement you’d think it was the plague or worse. Yet even those who have little time and budget to devote to measurement can reap benefits, says Danielle Brigida of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One of the benefits, she says, is that social listening can lead to more informed content creation. Brigida discusses how she measures, what she measures and why.

Each April, PR News inducts into its Measurement Hall of Fame communications professionals who have played longtime leadership roles in helping to define and expand industry measurement strategies, programs and standards. This year’s inductees—Elizabeth Rector, John Gilfeather, Richard Bagnall and Mike Daniels—will be honored during a special ceremony April 21 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. during PR News’ Measurement Conference.

Most of us are familiar with the core KPIs of Google Analytics such as users, sessions, page views, bounce rate, average time on page, search and CTR. These metrics are important to The Coca-Cola Company too. But do they provide the holistic view the company needs? The answer is, no, because they alone do not capture engagement. So, the company created its own KPI.

Social media exposes many ironies, including the possibility that we are less social because of social media. Remember the days when we used our phone for talking, not typing? And when a friend was someone… Continued

If economics is the dismal science, then measurement surely must make a compelling argument for being PR’s grim discipline. Similar to regular exercise and eating a balanced diet, measurement is something communicators know they should… Continued

Trying to separate the signal from the noise when it comes to PR measurement can be a daunting task. There is so much data at your disposal that it’s tempting to try and embrace it all. But one of the most common traps companies fall into when starting a measurement program is in taking too wide of a view of what should be measured, says Jessica Onick, corporate public relations program manager at B2B software firm Citrix. “The biggest mistake that we as PR people make is the tendency to want to measure the universe,” she said.

As PR pros know, measuring the effectiveness of social media posts can be tricky. Many measurement strategies emphasize vanity metrics such as reach, impressions, shares or retweets, but those KPIs can be misleading. Just because a tweet is re-tweeted multiple times doesn’t mean users actually are clicking on the link found within. So communicators must separate quantitative and qualitative metrics—volume vs. quality—for a more complete picture, says Danielle Brigida, national social media manager at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Measuring the impact of social media posts can be tricky. Many social media measurement strategies revolve around “vanity” metrics like reach, impressions, shares or retweets, but those KPIs can be misleading. Just because a tweet is retweeted multiple times doesn’t mean users are actually clicking on the link found within. So, communicators must separate quantitative and qualitative metrics—volume vs. quality—to get a more complete picture of how social media posts are faring, says Danielle Brigida, national social media manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Shopping for a 2017 wall calendar for my office over the holiday break, I had a hard time deciding between the zoo animals in yoga poses, all things Tuscany, or an adult coloring calendar.  My… Continued