Measurement

When measuring social media and website efforts, few metrics can be taken at face value. Every major platform has some form of native analytic tool, and Google Analytics provides a wealth of information on the factors that affect a website’s performance. But by accepting the numbers you’re given and not digging any deeper, metrics can mislead. Here are three common mistakes communicators can make by looking only at the tip of the metrics iceberg.

Communications pros recently logging into Google Analytics (GA) may have noticed a new feature in the upper right-hand corner of the interface, simply called Intelligence. The feature allows users to ask a question in plain English to get analytics answers to a variety of queries. That’s no small feat given the amount of metrics and dimensions available in GA, a prolific sea of data which can sometimes intimidate communications pros as they set out to build reports.

With Measurement Month drawing to a close, we asked AMEC CEO Barry Leggetter to assess the state of measurement and provide tips on what brands can do quickly to foster a measurement mindset.

Four of the people who’ve helped engineer the momentum toward research- and insights-based PR joined PR News on Thursday, Sept. 21, for a Twitter chat as part of AMEC’s annual Measurement Month. This was the fourth consecutive year PR News and AMEC have organized a Twitter chat featuring members of PR News’ Measurement Hall of Fame.

Growing up, most of us were encouraged by our parents and teachers to play well in the sandbox, to share our toys and pay attention in class. Fast forward to now, and imagine your boss… Continued

Reality checked in with me recently when a few parents on my son’s rowing team, knowing my affiliation with PR News, asked me to write the press releases for the club. Sure, it’ll be easy,… Continued

Measuring reach on Facebook has become far more complex than simply using one metric to count how many people witnessed a piece of content. A mix of different KPIs must be considered in tandem to determine where, how and why users are seeing (or not seeing) your brand’s Facebook content, according to Karen Vega, senior director of social media activations and earned media at Viacom Velocity.

When I ask my friends in PR what they’d do with a bigger budget, their first instinct is to smile that “yeah, right!” smile. It’s hard enough to keep the budget they have much less… Continued

Many social media teams lament that they don’t have enough budget, headcount or support to have a real impact on the business. Yet it’s often these same teams that fail to connect the dots. Your senior leaders don’t care about likes and retweets, they care about impact on business results. Here’s a four-step process on how to frame the discussion and speak their language to get more headcount and budget for social.

Communicators and marketers know the elephant in the room with Snapchat is that you can’t measure it. Wrong, argues Carmen Collins of Cisco, who not only has launched an extensive Snapchat effort at the company but also measures it. In this article she provides step-by-step directions so you, too, can measure Snapchat.