In journalism, there is the "buried lead," in which the essence of the news story being written is buried somewhere on the jump page rather than the first or second paragraphs.
For PR managers, the online equivalent to the buried lead is the "buried press center." But unlike the buried lead, which can bruise a reporter's ego, the costs of hiding a press
center online can be much higher.
"It sounds banal, but it's amazing how many [corporate] Web sites don't have" a dedicated press center, says Philippa Gamse, president of Total 'Net Value Inc. (Santa Cruz,
Calif.), which specializes in Web-site strategy and on measuring return-on-investment (ROI). Her clients include Harley-Davidson Motor Co., Prudential Real Estate Affiliates and
Reed Exhibitions. "So if journalists are coming to your site looking for information they may not know if they're in the right place. You need a clear link to a page for the
media."
Too many "clicks" on your Web site by reporters (or by J.Q. Public), and you are probably going to lose them, thus missing an opportunity to measure how well your company's
messages are getting out.
Although more and more media reps increasingly rely on the Web to find news and information, PR reps are failing to capitalize on the trend. Rather, too many of them still
fall into the trap of thinking the Web is an extension of print (and they tend to simply pour a written press release online without taking advantage of the technology). With that
kind of approach to online communications, the ongoing debate about achieving true PR measurement will continue to be just lip motion. As Gamse puts it, "You're not allowing press
releases to work for you. You have to embed links to products and services, and to make it easy for people to get the information they're looking for."
Gamse spoke at a PR News-sponsored Webinar last week titled "Advanced PR Measurement Workshop: Strategies To Boost Market Share and Mind Share." The Webinar, featuring
three measurement gurus, tackled many of the issues revolving around measurement: the growing importance of so-called "share of discussion," which entails measuring media coverage
against that of your top competitors as opposed to just measuring your own company's coverage; how blogs are impacting PR pros' ability to measure their messages; and Web
measurement (see charts).
Angela Jeffrey, VP of PRtrak (Dallas) and a member of the IPR Commission on PR Measurement & Evaluation, issued a final deathblow to any effectiveness in comparing PR
measurement to Ad-Value Equivalency (AVE), which has hampered PR pros' ability to develop adequate measurement techniques because of the misguided belief that a positive mention
of a company in a news article can provide the same return as a paid advertisement. "There is no direct correlation between advertising and PR as a metric or as an outcome,"
Jeffrey says, adding that stacking up media coverage up vis-a-vis the competition is the route to meaningful measurement.
How does she know? She says PRtrak has conducted 160 studies on share of discussion using more than 10 million articles. Its conclusion? Measuring your own firm's coverage
does not always reveal meaningful correlations, but comparing your coverage with Brand X does.
Frank Ovaitt, President-CEO of the Institute for Public Relations (Miami), says blogs quickly are becoming yet another tool PR executives can use to analyze coverage of their
own brands - and those of their competitors. There currently are about 11 million blogs in the United States, according to Technorati.com. While a shakeout is inevitable, blogs
aren't going anywhere, and those that float to the top likely will get even stronger in their ability to persuade the public about products and services -- and people.
"Blogs are turning the measurement world upside down," Ovaitt says. However, when PR pros do find nasty material about their companies in the blogosphere, they must make sure
to stave off any knee-jerk reaction by senior managers who may want to take the blogger to task. "You have to assess what's being said and determine whether the information is
really damaging," Ovaitt adds. But if you try to "control" bloggers, he warns, it's likely to backfire on the company's reputation.
(Transcripts of the entire Webinar can be downloaded at http://www.prnewsonline.com.)
Contacts: Philippa Gamse, 831.465.0317, [email protected]; Angela Jeffrey, 800.846.5831, [email protected]; Frank Ovaitt, 703.568.5611, [email protected]
You Need To Correlate Share Of Discussion To Outtakes Or Outcomes...
- Plot SOD measures by month, quarter or year on graph paper, or in spreadsheet program.
- Plot Sales or other Outtake or Outcome measuresat same time intervals on same.
- They should trend together, with some time-lag consideration.
- For statistically minded, put data into any stat program for actual correlations. Track over time.
...Then Use Share Of Discussion To Define PR Plan...
- Add all costs of PR operation, or of campaign.
- Determine how many Net Positive Message Points were included in each article, and total.
- Divide cost by the number of Net Positive Message Points delivered = CPM.
- Compare CPM for this campaign with those of other campaigns, of last year's campaigns and refine goals as need be.
...And Calculate The Cost-Per-Message
- Add all costs of PR operation, or of campaign.
- Total up number of Net Positive Audience Impressions for each story.
- Divide cost by Net Positive Total Audience Impressions to get CPI.
- Compare result with CPI's achieved for other campaigns, for last year's campaigns, and refine goals as needed.
There are several ways to measure your PR campaigns...
- If Headline, photo or "sole source" -- take full story for credit.
- If one of several sources, take a percentage.
- If just a mention - take one column inch.
- If a negative story - subtract it.
- Use audited metrics from third-party source.
- Negotiated costs for broadcast, Internet (SQAD Inc.).
- Open rates for print (all that's available).
...As share of discussion is the best bet to determine the ROI
- Capture coverage of company and competitors.
- Obtain audited media values or impressions, and apply to all coverage.
- Measure tonality of each mention; subtract negative stories to get netfavorable value or impressions.
- Divide each company's net favorable media value or impressions by the total of all competitors to obtain Share of Discussion.
Source for all charts: Angela Jeffrey, Prtrak
Internal Measurement: Moving Beyond Time Sheets And Line Items
It's not a stretch to say the constant chatter about PR measurement has a Samuel Beckett-esque quality, but that's not necessarily a good thing. In the case of measurement,
it's as if PR professionals are the embodiment of Vladmir and Estragon, Beckett's doomed duo waiting for someone named Godot who, although talked about endlessly, never appears.
Remind you of something? But while PR execs are tripping over themselves to measure their media campaigns, they seldom stop to apply strategic measurement tools to internal
operations. Striving to make measurement more robust on the inside can perhaps lead to bigger PR budgets to generate more measurement on the outside. Schwartz Communications VP
Mark McClennan takes a closer look at internal PR measurement.
While PR professionals focus a good deal of time and effort measuring the results of their campaigns, they typically spend relatively little time examining internal
operations and measurement unless something goes wrong. If an agency stays within its billable hours, a department stays within its line item budget, and objectives are reached--
they often declare success, and the team moves on to the next project.
But that is a limited view, and it assumes that the current way of doing things at your organization cannot improve. Internal measurement, when done correctly, can
significantly improve operations and program results. It is just as important to apply rigorous measurement standards and best practices to internal processes and operations as it
is to scrutinize PR campaigns. This is especially important for agencies looking to justify and maximize their time spent on accounts and to get the most out of employees without
requiring them to work extra hours.
For many companies, just measuring campaign activities is not enough for senior management. Reporting that the PR team called 20 reporters, held a special event or secured
five articles does not meet management's needs. They want to understand what business objectives those activities accomplished. We need to apply that same measurement rigor to
internal operations. We need to go beyond timesheets and making the budget numbers or press release quota to measuring the true impact and not internal activities.
It is relatively easy to measure activity and output. Unfortunately, that does not give a complete or accurate view. Many internal areas are ripe for quantitative
measurement, including:
- Reporting
- Media Outreach
- Internal Meetings
- Employee Communications
There are many different schools of thought about measurement and, in my experience, none of them provide a complete solution. But for internal processes, a hybrid Six Sigma
approach can help provide the answer.
Six Sigma is a widely used, rigorous and disciplined methodology that utilizes data and statistical analysis to measure and improve a company's operational performance,
practices and systems.
In a nutshell, it involves looking at your internal processes and finding ways to improve them that will have a direct impact on the bottom line. It's not quality for
quality's sake. It's not improving the monthly report, but rather identifying the essential elements of the report that will resonate with the C-level executives. It also involves
how to do them faster, with fewer errors, so professionals can spend time on other key activities that contribute to the bottom line.
A full Six Sigma approach is even better, but beyond the scope of many organizations.
The Six Sigma process is simple in concept--DMAIC: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control. There are Six Sigma books you can pick up to learn more, but it is more important
to look at it in practice. The following examples show where a hybrid Six Sigma quality approach has been applied to internal processes and measurement to improve operations,
satisfaction and results.
Reporting--Regular reporting is essential, both for C-level executives and for agencies to their clients. But too often, reporting is done a certain way because that is
the standard style or the way it has been done in the past. By breaking down the components of reporting (creating the report, the form, editing it, etc.) and looking at the parts
that are actually read, PR professionals can better understand where their time is spent and how to streamline the process. Then they can quantify how much each step costs and the
impact streamlining may have.
Result--By applying Six Sigma methodology to the reporting process, one agency reduced the size of a report by 45%; increased the amount of the report read; and saved
more than 10 hours each month, which translates into budget that can be assigned elsewhere. When you approach a client with those figures, it is hard for them to argue.
Outreach--It's not about pitching better or making the time for more focus groups. It's about improving your pitching processes. Conventional wisdom may steer you wrong
when quantifying the most effective times to communicate with reporters by phone and e-mail.
Result--At Schwartz Communications, we just completed this analysis. We found that by applying Six Sigma methodology to media outreach to help determine the best times
for media outreach--without changing the number of phone calls/e-mails we make or the amount of time the staff spends on this activity--we will have 18,240 more interactions with
reporters in the course of a year. This will have a significant impact on client happiness and retention, and it will help generate more coverage.
Measuring internal processes once, or even annually, is not enough. It is essential to look at all recurring activities regularly and to find some way to quantify them that
will relate to the top and bottom lines; this can help improve overall performance. It's not always easy and you may encounter differences of opinion, but by establishing a
quantitative framework, you have the methodology in place to help structure the discussion.
PR practitioners not only need to justify what they do, but they must look at how they do it and provide quantitative ways to measure best practices. It's a challenge, but by
creating a framework for measuring internal processes and determining a quantitative figure for making decisions, you put yourself in a strong position and give yourself more time
to do what you love.
Contact: Mark W. McClennan is a vice president at Waltham, Mass.-based Schwartz Communications (http://www.schwartz-PR.com). He can be reached at 781.684.0770, [email protected].
PR Pulse
Yet another wrinkle in the debate about Video News Releases (VNRs) and the wisdom of disclosing third-party sources: An independent survey by Ipsos for VNR producer D S Simon
Productions (New York City) discovered news audiences are more likely to watch a news program that always discloses the source of any third-party video it uses (see pie
chart). The survey, conducted late last month, sampled 1,006 Americans regarding their views on VNRs.
Source: Ipsos/D S Simon Productions