Executive Summary

PR News Measurement Conference

November 18, 2015— Hyatt Regency Chicago, Chicago

Fear Factor Metrics: A Look at the Metrics Communicators Fear the Most

Sandra Fathi, President, Affect

  • Visuals often tell a story well.
  • Remember that correlation is not causality; it can only help as an indicator or potentially predict probability.
  • Data is still better than your opinion.
  • In measurement, speak the language of the C-Suite.
  • Excel is still the best dashboard for data visualization.
  • Don’t be afraid to learn that you’re wrong and don’t be afraid to change direction.
  • Use the data to gain executive support.
  • Competitive benchmarking: The continuous practice of comparing a company’s practices and performance metrics against the most successful competitors in the industry.
  • Share of voice can be overwhelming if trying to look at too large a segment or industry, Try choosing share of voice among top competitors or in key interest areas.

Chris Scully, Vice President of Analytics, Carma

  • Identify the organizational objectives and goals that your team is supporting.
  • Outline the strategies and tactics that you have implemented to achieve those organizational goals and objectives.
  • Develop the measurement parameters that will enable you to track your media performance relative to you strategies and tactics.
  • Focus your program on your part of the organization; avoid having an omnibus measurement program for the whole organization.
  • If you’re overwhelmed by your results, then you’re measuring too much.
  • If you have too little information about key elements of your media performance, then you are not measuring enough.
  • If you are tracking many similar or overlapping topics and messages, then you are measuring too much.
  • Be skeptical about your online impressions data.
  • Utilize average visitors per day or, if not available, adjust your unique visitors per month figures.
  • Remove press releases that were picked up online from your impressions results.

Case Study 1: PR Measurement at work in the Real World.

Kirstie Foster, Director, Corporate and Brand Communications, General Mills

  • When goals are clear, results are clear. Clearly identify objectives, target audiences, KPIs and goals to track throughout the process.
  • Measuring breakthrough with traditional media look at tone, tier, key messages, type of mention and spokesperson inclusion.
  • Move beyond simple impressions totals with consistent one-page snapshots and goals accountability.
  • Some benefits of consistent measurement: improved campaign effectiveness, case studies for training, building clients into PR advocates and increased PR budgets.

How to Apply Social Insights to Communications Strategy

Andrew Bates, Analytics Advisor, AARP

  • Keep your measurement focused on business outcomes.
  • Play matchmaker between you KPIs and goals.
  • Meaningful engagement is measured in shares, comments and views, not number of followers.
  • Embed your analytics functions with the content teams to be agile and drive impact against goals.
  • Measure soft engagements (likes and followers) and meaningful engagements (shares and comments) separately in your social media strategy.
  • Don’t rely on software alone; invest in people with analytical skills.

Laura Duda, Vice President, Corporate Communications, Exelon

  • You need internal agreement on what constitutes traction in social media to avoid overreaction or distraction. In a world of limited resources, reacting to the wrong thing can be very costly.
  • Running a campaign around an idea is different from promoting a product.
  • Measuring volume from social tells you almost nothing. Potential impressions are much more meaningful.
  • Shifting your focus from volume (number of posts) to reach (number of potential impressions) will give you a much clearer picture of positive/negative/neutral message penetration.
  • Define for your clients what meaningful metrics are. Don’t wait for them to ask.
  • Establish definitions of what negative comments are meaningful and which should not change your direction.

Case Study 2: PR Measurement at Work in the Real World

Brian Ames, Vice President, Boeing Employee Communications

  • Credibility is the single most important aspect of communications.
  • Employees and their buy-in are critical to successfully driving an organization’s mission and brand.
  • Become employee-centric by asking first what company information means to employees, then moving on to other constituents.
  • Place premium on interactivity, inclusion and leverage opinion leaders.
  • Feature, recognize and celebrate employee voice and team accomplishments.

Luncheon and Keynote Presentation: The Future of PR Measurement, and What It Means for Your Career

Allyson Hugley, President, Measurement and Analytics, Weber Shandwick

  • Social is the new TV. It has similar reach, targeting and pay to play tactics.
  • Evolve from using data to measure success to using data as a catalyst for success.
  • Today measurement in PR is descriptive, the next stage is prescriptive and then eventually measurement will be predictive.
  • Be a change agent and a champion of a culture of intent.
  • Using data responsibly and not just collecting more information will bring value to PR plans.
  • Real analytics is the actionable use of data.
  • Embracing the data and understanding the technology behind is gives you a leg up over other PR and marketing professionals.
  • Don’t only focus on data aggregation. Take time to analyze it and put it to use.
  • The future of PR is converting data into insights, into narratives that matter to real people.

How to Create Measurement Dashboards That Communicate PR’s Business Value

Katie Paine, Publisher & CEO, Paine Publishing

  • There shouldn’t be anything on your dashboard that doesn’t tell a story.
  • Be data informed, not data driven.
  • Companies that engage both their employees and their customers gain a 240% boost in performance related business outcomes.
  • There is no external and internal, it’s all communications.
  • There is no barrier between social and traditional.
  • Get a consensus on the definitions of success.
  • Measure what matters—how you contribute to the business.
  • Make your metrics tell a story.
  • Make sure your data is valid and accurate.
  • Test any indexes or algorithms with real data before presenting them.

Justin Greeves, Senior Vice President, Research, Porter Novelli

Jana Thomas, EVP, Strategic Planning, Analytics and Research, Health and Social Impact, Porter Novelli

  • Don’t report what you don’t influence.
  • Don’t hide bad data, it’s a learning opportunity.
  • Watch the shift form research as measurement to research as content.
  • Listen and measure.
  • Dashboards aren’t infographics.
  • Answer these questions: How will the brand use this information? Who will be receiving this information? What are the 3 to 5 clear metrics tied to the strategy? How can/will this report evolve?
  • Good dashboards have multiple sources of information that can be used to draw conclusions.
  • Know what you’re going to do with the data before you’ve captured it to ensure it’s worthwhile.
  • Make sure you’re putting the work in to interpret results. Language can change faster than the monitoring tools.
  • Your dashboards will evolve as you figure out what you need to be monitoring and tracking.
  • If you need information hourly you may not need a dashboard, you might need something more real-time.
  • Don’t use automated sentiment analysis. Code it by hand if you want your reports to be meaningful.

Case Studies 3: PR Measurement at Work in the Real World

Fernando Vivanco, Senior Director, Corporate Communications, Medtronic

  • Gather measurable internal data with employee surveys, email, town hall meetings and internal social listening.
  • Gather external data from media monitoring, social monitoring, issue polling and influencers in policy space.
  • Synthesize data gathered across stakeholders. Move from data collection to data processing to producing reports to delivering summaries to leadership and back again.

How to Measure Media Coverage and Tie it to Organizational Goals

Serena Ehrlich, Director of Social Media, Business Wire

Therese Van Ryne, Head of Global PR and Analyst Relations, Zebra Technologies

  • Set goals that are measureable and achievable.
  • Understand and agree on what PR can and cannot do.
  • Get senior management buy-in early in your program.
  • Extend the reach of your content to maximize results.
  • Measure the right things at the right time with the right tools.
  • Maximize the reach of your measurement reports.
  • Establish specific measurements for each aspect of your campaign.
  • Develop quantitative, desired outcomes that you can actually reach.
  • Understand what PR can and cannot do. Public relations is not sales, but it drives the sales process through awareness, comprehension, action, advocacy and loyalty.
  • Solely text-based communications are gone. PR must use multimedia.

Case Study 4: PR Measurement at Work in the Real World

Bernhard Mors, VP, Corporate & Digital Communications, MasterCard

  • Aspire to move from data to insights, from listening to engagement.
  • Bring data and insights into the open.
  • Start and end every communications initiative with data and insights.
  • Demonstrate value to the business.
  • Never stop evolving.
  • Data is news and should be used as the bedrock of PR.
  • Ultimately, the goal of good PR is to drive advocacy.