Editor's Note: Mike Spataro will conduct a "High-Tech 101" interactive lab at the PR NEWS Strategic Online Communications Seminar, June 15 in Boston. For the complete agenda,
visit http://www.PRandMarketing.com.
Online communication has many virtues, not the least of which is its measurability. Mike Spataro, EVP with Weber Shandwick Interactive in Boston, remains optimistic that
industry practitioners will soon find easier ways to qualify and quantify site traffic at a corporate URL stemming directly from online PR programs. From there, he says, companies
will be able to correlate PR-driven site visits to e-commerce sales and other types of on-site "conversions."
In the digital world, many of the same tools used to measure advertising can be applied to PR. "If, right now, you can measure the amount of site traffic stemming from a banner
ad on another site, you should also be able to measure clicks coming through an MSNBC.com story the same way," says Spataro, whose firm is currently beta-testing online PR
measurement methodologies.
In fact, the raw tracking technology needed to measure users' digital breadcrumb trails already exists in Web analysis software and hosted services from vendors such as
WebTrends, NetGenesis, Accrue, KeyLime and WebSideStory. These platforms allow businesses to monitor common entry points to their sites (e.g., click-throughs stemming from
specific banner ads, Web pages or e-promotions) and then follow users' on-site behavior to determine which leads result in direct actions such as online purchases, registrations
or information downloads.
The only disconnect is that software-makers and ASPs have yet to customize their data-mining platforms with add-on modules for the PR crowd (their targets are currently hard-
core marketers and IT staff). "The data is actually sitting there in Web server logs," but the PR mining capabilities haven't yet been automated, says Spataro. "Name a PR person
who wants to go home after a long day and comb through those log files [to extrapolate proof of PR's effectiveness]."
We're still waiting for something to click.
(Contact: Mike Spataro, Weber Shandwick, 617/536-0470)