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This is the second in a series of Intrado Digital Media-sponsored articles about measurement. Intrado Digital Media president Ben Chodor discusses the importance of aligning your measurement efforts with business objectives. The first article in the series appeared in the November 2019 edition of PRNEWS.

The average person is overloaded with content. Bombarded with ads, email, text and video, many of us have turned off. We ignore nearly everything. Into this hostile climate comes the communicator. Instead of throwing up your hands, we offer author Jamie Mustard, who provides some basic solutions to this complicated problem.

What’s ahead for social media in 2020? For starters, it appears the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will continue to hound brands and influencers who misrepresent themselves to consumers on social. Fortunately, the FTC has re-issued its guidelines in a plain-language format. There’s even a video.

PRNEWS joined with CS&A, an international crisis and risk firm, to survey the attitudes of PR pros about crisis pain points, levels of preparation and post-crisis education. While firms are doing better with their crisis preparation, there is still a long road ahead, the survey of some 200 executives found. In addition, post-crisis lessons seem way down the list, as does preparation for cybersecurity crises.

Along with Measurement Month, it’s the time of year when PR evaluation and funding questions arise for the coming fiscal year. Executives who invest in PR are becoming more discriminating. Moreover, they insist on data to back up their decisions. Here are 10 questions to help you use measurement to prepare your budget presentation for 2020.

It’s fitting that our traditional monthly roundtable this month centers on measurement. We asked about the state of measurement, issues that continue to exist and what’s ahead. In short, there’s guarded optimism for PR measurement, though there’s still concern that some communicators choose not to measure. In addition, the colleges seem to be doing precious little to encourage students to appreciate the need for measurement.

Charlene Wheeless, incoming chair of the board at Page and a VP for global corporate affairs at Bechtel Corporation, says CCOs must step up in new ways. In addition to their traditional business roles, CCOs need to become stronger leaders who bring additional value to society. She believes Page’s programs can help.

Data is critical to measurement. But what about data privacy? And why do communicators need to know about data privacy? In short, privacy laws are everywhere, argues Stephen Payne, the veteran communicator at Feld Entertainment who now also has responsibility for privacy. PR pros can benefit from at least a basic understanding of how data privacy laws work, he writes.

As we celebrate Measurement Month, there’s much reason to be optimistic about the state of PR and communications measurement. Still, there are a number of hurdles blocking the profession’s path, including some communicators’ choice to avoid measurement. We explore some of the major roadblocks and offer advice about how to overcome them.

Data has given us the ability to put science behind what was once considered an art. It makes communications more customized and targeted, predictive and quantified, FleishmanHillard SVP Brendan Streich argues. He uses the example of higher education to make his point about how to use data to gain business insights.