Tim Marklein does not need to be reminded about the importance of measurement. As the executive vice president and general manager for the Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Northern California business (which includes the 40-person San Francisco and Silicon Valley offices), Marklein is a stickler for maintaining uber-accurate measurement metrics for
clients including Cisco, Clorox and Hitachi.
In a presentation during the recent PR News Webinar "Introduction to PR Measurement: The Essential Workshop for Covering Measurement from A to Z," Marklein offered
succinct tips for PR professionals who are either new to measurement practices or who allowed the practice to slip out of their duty list. To get started or to start up anew,
Marklein suggests following these eight steps:
Commit to measurement as a discipline. If you are starting out, stick with it. And if you are returning to the practice, this time make it stick for real!
Build a simple "dashboard" for your company or client. Even if you do it yourself, in a spreadsheet or by hand, track your progress every month or every week.
(Quarterly tracking is an afterthought, and usually it is too late to anything about it.)
Start with mind share, media share, market share and market cap. Other indicators vary by company, but these are relevant and trackable for almost every business.
Don't get hung up on what you can "own." You're not just measuring your work or your agency's work - you're measuring the entire organization.
Create a few charts and share them regularly with your executives. They might not understand them at first, but it'll definitely change the conversation.
Work the Net. Read up on the measurement information available via the Internet - you'll be surprised at the PR measurement foundations that already exist. The
Institute for Public Relations is a good place to start: http://www.instituteforpr.com/measurement_and_evaluation.phtml.
Scope out the competition. Get your hands on other function's measurement reports and study them for clues.
Don't start any new program without defining a target outcome. Even if the idea starts with "get coverage," take the time to flesh out the "why."
(To order the full Webinar proceedings, go to http://www.prnewsonline.com or call 888.707.5814.)
Contact: Tim Marklein, [email protected].