PR News Measurement Hall of Fame inductees will tell you, when asked, that Southwest Airlines is among the brands at the head of the pack in using metrics to connect PR to organizational goals. The Southwest communications team has for years embodied the spirit of the Barcelona Principles, which emphasizes goal setting and the need for outcomes, instead of outputs-based measurement of PR campaigns. And it's not just Southwest's Linda Rutherford (Measurement Hall of Fame, class of 2012) who feels this way.
At PR News' April 21 Measurement Conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Cindy Villafranca, senior specialist, communication & outreach, Southwest Airlines, will discuss the trial and error process she used to arrive at her measurement dashboard strategy. In particular, Villafranca will discuss "socializing" dashboards, which has nothing to do with embedding social media icons in your dashboards.
"Socializing your dashboard is a way to build awareness of its existence, garner buy-in from colleagues and highlight the hard work of your department/teams," Villafranca says.
Villafranca offers five ways to socialize your communications measurement dashboard:
- Think outside the silo. When creating a dashboard, meet with your colleagues and internal stakeholders for input.
- Keep thinking outside the silo! Set up recurring meetings with the appropriate stakeholders to go over the findings/data, highlighting any interesting facts or takeaways that amplify success or shift focus.
- Don’t assume people understand the metrics on the dashboard. Hold educational lunch and learns or other fun activities to educate your audience about the key performance indicators on the dashboard and what they mean.
- Repeat yourself. Repetition is king. Talk about your dashboard often. Refer to it in meetings, or leverage the key findings where appropriate.
- Know your dashboard inside and out. Be as knowledgeable as possible about the dashboard data because you will be asked questions.
Learn more about measurement dashboards from Southwest's Cindy Villafranca at PR News' April 21 Measurement Conference, which will be held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
Follow Cindy Villafranca: @CinDLew
Follow Steve Goldstein: @SGoldsteinAI