Influence: From BS to Best Practice

I “met” Philip Sheldrake a few weeks ago when he started participating in #measurePR.

Who’s Philip Sheldrake?

According to David Meerman Scott, he’s “the independent expert on [social media analytics] tools.”

You’ll have to scroll down to the comments to see that, but David’s post is an excellent read too, so I think it’s well worth your time.

He is founder and partner of Influence Crowd, LLP, (photo used with Philip’s permission) and “works with organizations to improve their sensitivity to their publics and become more effective and efficient in their proactive and reactive interaction.

“He helps organizations sustain this advantage by identifying appropriate performance measures facilitated by the new marketing technologies, and integrating these into the organization’s business performance management scorecard.

“Philip founded and leads the Influence Scorecard™ initiative, attracting the involvement of US thought leaders such as Katie Paine and Ted Shelton, established the PR industry’s first foray into Web 3.0 with the foundation of the work on the PR Ontology For Feelings About Things.”

Ethics in measurement

One of the discussion points that rears its head frequently during the chat is the efficacy of several of the social media monitoring tools out there.

It usually starts off with someone mentioning or questioning AVE (ad value equivalency) which most of us recoil from like the Energizer bunny on steroids.

That usually leads to someone debating how good (or bad) the latest social media “measurement” tool is.

And, frankly, most of them are ridiculously bad, but they’re couched in pretty graphics and some form of endorsement from social media “gurus,” so they get breathlessly circulated around the Interwebs.

Pretty and easy? Maybe.

But is it ethical

for companies to come up with these tools to make a buck, regardless of whether they’re sound or not?

I don’t think so, and that was one of the points I raised when I talked about measuring social media value the WIIFM way.

I think it was during one such discussion, that Philip sent me the following tweet:

I thought this would be a great topic for the chat, so that’s what we’ll be focusing on tomorrow.

If you can, do go through this excellent presentation from Philip on influence. It won’t take long and it will help set the stage for tomorrow’s discussion.

And I’d also recommend you read his post on browser history and unethical social media metrics.

See you then!

What Roosters, Forks and Bad Measurement Have In Common

Bad measurement, meet rooster (and fork).

Ah, measuring communication success.

It can be like…

Locating a needle in a haystack.

(Wouldn’t you think they’d stop hiding the ruddy needles in the ruddy haystacks by now?)

Smuggling daybreak past a rooster. I wish I’d come up with that one.

Image: keepps, Creative Commons

Catching water with a fork, as Alan Chumley of Carma mused.

You see what they all have in common, don’t you?

It is practically impossible to be successful, that’s what.

So, during last week’s #measurePR chat, we talked about how to get to that point of success, including:

Whether or not there’s more pressure on us to measure our work

Whether we should be focusing on something other than “ROI”

Bemoaned SNOS (shiny new object syndrome)

And even Shel Israel chimed in on how sometimes the obvious targets aren’t really what we should be focusing on

Hmm. I think a #measurePR chat with Shel on the ROI of pants might be in order, don’t you?

I found it neat that the discussion moved from beating up on AVEs (which, don’t get me wrong, I’m always happy to do) to really starting to look at the value that PR (and in my book, that includes social media) can bring to a business.

All in all, we had a grand time, party favors were handed out, wars were won and the rooster lived to crow another day.

And because I’m so devoted to keeping you posted on the ins and outs of our little chat community, I saved the entire transcript of #measurePR – the Alan Chumley edition for you to read, download and salivate over.

WTHashtag’s been doing a fairly decent job of capturing most, if not all the tweets, recently, so I’m going to keep my fingers crossed and hope that becomes a WTTrend.

I hope we’ll see you next week, when Philip Sheldrake will be joining us from across the pond (and if you don’t already, you can follow Philip on Twitter to get ready).

Remember: August 17, 12-1-pm ET.

And thank you, as always, for participating in the conversation.

The Carma of MeasurePR

I’m pretty stoked that Alan Chumley of Carma International will be our guest on #measurePR this coming week.

Alan’s a frequent participant in the chat, contributes great information, and perhaps featuring Carma will result in good karma for all of us.

Heh, I couldn’t resist.

We’ll be chatting on August 3, 12-1 pm ET; just use #measurepr as your hashtag on Twitter to follow/participate.

And if you have questions you’d like Alan to weave his grey cells around, please do email or DM them to me ahead of time (ahead of time really helps).

To get your grey cells in shape, here’s a measurement Q&A with Alan for your reading pleasure. All emphasis, etc., is mine, not his:

What has shaped your philosophy on measurement?

Before starting in the industry, I completed an undergrad degree in urban planning.  (Long story).

Me: clearly we’ll have to wait for Alan to give us that story…

So while the content of that degree is now useless, the rigor and process of planning isn’t. I took a post-grad certificate program in PR and set off to work for big blue chips.

The recovering planner in me became increasingly uncomfortable with the gap between a brilliant communications plan and the flaccid metrics gauging success.

It felt a bit like trying to catch water with a fork.

Image: Segle’s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

So, back to school again.  This time to do a master’s in communication and cultural theory:

where I developed a healthy skepticism for overly simplistic and very dated theories of PR. That a person reached is a person influenced, for example.

And that the audience (if there is such a thing) receive, process, react to, repurpose or even subvert just about everything that comes their way in a far more complex way than practitioners expect.

What is your philosophy on measurement?

I’m a big believer in both the practical and ideal role that research and measurement can and should play in communications and a big rejector of the notion that research and measurement stifles creativity.

Me: thundering applause!

There’s plenty of room for both right and left brain, artist and scientist in our profession. Practitioners that can comfortably and capably use both sides are the ones you want working in your company or on your account.

Alan goes on to describe the “10 pillars to his philosophy on measurement”:

1. Research IS measurement and measurement IS research. Co-enablers and co-dependent. Good pre-campaign formative research puts you in a more measurement-friendly position for the post-campaign evaluative stuff.

2. Communications objectives have got to:

a. exist;

b. be measurable; and

c. be closely linked to overall organization/business objectives.

3. As an industry we’ve got to move well past measuring simple outputs. That goes for all of us, not strictly the measurementerati who preach as such.

4. There is no singular standard for measurement just as there isn’t a singular standard objective for all communications plans.

Launching a new chocolate bar and lobbying for legislation are very different animals.

Singular set of standard best practices and guiding principles, sure. We have those. Have for moons.

The Barcelona Summit drove that forward in a formal, visible and vocal way just recently. Now this industry has got to adopt them.

5. Approaches to measurement have got to be flexible and evolutionary.

6. We need to be looking at the total measurement picture in a way that considers all tactics, all audiences. From plain old media content analysis up to stakeholder relationship measurement and all points in between.

7. Measurement has got to be based on sound research methods.

8. Measurement is a long-term commitment. We need to look at trends over time not strictly snapshots in time.

9. Measurement must be budgeted for.

10. Common barriers and objections (excuses, really) are surmountable.

So… now that you’ve peeked into Alan’s mind, why not hear it from him directly next Tuesday?

If you’d like to, you can RSVP for the Alan Chumley edition of #measurePR right here. If you prefer not to, that’s fine too. Either way, do show up.

MeasurePR: The Thud Heard Around The Interwebs

A thud for chucks and chicklets

This week’s #measurePR chat was a riot.

The day started (for me, in Alaska), with finding that the oh-so-awesome Lee Odden mentioned the chat as one of the top (in his opinion) Twitter chat for marketing and PR chucks and chicklets.

OK, he didn’t say C&C. That’s all me.

I thought it would be more fun than saying “marketing/PR/SM professionals of all shapes, sizes, hues and gastronomic proclivities.”

Though now that I read that last bit back, that seems pretty cool too.

I know. Whatever.

So anyway. Here I am, looking at the gorgeous mountains I can see from my hotel room in Anchorage, catching up with everyone on Twitter, when I notice a spurt of tweets hashtagged #measurePR.

“What just happened?” I says to myself.

“I don’t know. I suppose I’ll have a look.” says Me to I.

“You better make sure they’re not giving away the farm,” says Myself, not to be outdone.

So Me, Myself and I looked at what was going on, and found Lee’s post with 5 tips on Twitter chats plus 8 marketing & PR chats to follow.

Wow! Cool!

And then the pressure started building.

What if today’s chat was a bust?

What if there was a surge of new attendees and they all wanted their money back?

What if everyone forgot the Barcelona Principles were adopted before they’ve even had a chance to go from toddler status to teenage angst?

Fortunately

the day continued uneventfully.

And the chat was great; thanks in no small part to Johna Burke of BurrellesLuce who graciously sat in as the featured guest.

Johna is a powerhouse of a practitioner, who has a knack of framing issues in an easy-to-understand way.

And since I started #measurePR, I’ve been trying to ensure that a range of voices belonging to movers and shakers in the field are heard.

This week’s chat didn’t disappoint. Here are a few nuggets from it:

There were many new participants this week, which I was thrilled about. You can read and download the entire transcript of the MeasurePR chat with Johna, if you like.

Go on, don’t be shy.

And do mark your calendars for our next chat, which will be on August 3, 12-1 pm ET.

All you have to do is log on to Twitter shortly before that time and follow/participate in the conversation using the #measurePR hashtag.

And if you have PR measurement-related questions (“What shoes are you wearing today?” doesn’t count), please send them to me via email or a DM.

See ya.

Now I have to go put Myself in her place.

Image: Brajeshwar Oinam, Creative Commons

North to Alaska

In a couple of days, I’ll be heading to what I’ve always thought of one of the most fascinating places on earth: Alaska.

Image: Travis S.’ Flickrstream, Creative Commons

“Alaska?!” you ask.

“Why?!” you sputter, flavoring your morning coffee with a healthy dose of envy, I imagine.

It all began when I met Mary Barber at the 2009 PRSA International Conference. Mary and I had corresponded on Twitter (is it weird to use that word in conjunction with Twitter? I don’t care.) and made a breakfast date to finally meet IRL.

You know what it’s like when you really like someone online and then you meet them in person and you go, “Oh, no…”

Nothing like that.

Mary’s a wonderful person and seasoned PR professional. Since then, we’ve become good friends, chatting often not just on Twitter, but the phone, email and Skype.

Since I love traveling, I’d mentioned to Mary I’d love to come to Alaska… perhaps even to do a presentation to PRSA Alaska on measurement which, you hopefully know by now, is an area of PR I’m committed to.

Next thing I know, I’m booked to speak to PRSA Alaska.

Being energetic, erstwhile and entrepreneurial, Mary did a Skype interview with me on what I plan to share.

In a nutshell: strategy rules, measurement rocks and … um. Oh well, it’s in the video, if you care to take a gander.

Give me a break. I’m 40. I’m allowed a junior moment now and again.

So I head out on Monday for a week, to let Anchorage and Fairbanks take me by storm, which I’m quite looking forward to.

Being supremely organized, Mary and her cohorts have put together quite an itinerary that includes:

• The World Eskimo Indian Olympics opening ceremony, for which I’m told the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company donated tickets
• An Alaska Goldpanners v. Mat Su Miners baseball game, courtesy Flint Hill Resources
• A trip to Santa Claus House in the North Pole (OMG, I’m so excited!)
• A train ride from Fairbanks to Anchorage on the Alaska Railroad, which takes about 12 hours and is supposed to provide breathtakingly beautiful views, courtesy the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation and the self-same Alaska Railroad
• Salmon. Lots of salmon.
• Hopefully, moose. No, not to eat, to see. Seriously, what are you thinking?!

It’s ok. I’d be envious too, if I were you.

I promise to take as many photographs as I can to share, if I’m not overwhelmed by just how gorgeous everything and everyone is.

I can’t thank Mary and everyone at PRSA Alaska and the companies who pitched in to make this a trip of a lifetime enough for this incredible opportunity to meet new people and see a part of the world most of us never will.

(Yes, I know that sounds a little like “it’s an honor to be nominated.” Whatever.)

And I hope those who attend my session see that strategy trumps all when it comes to PR, that measurement really isn’t that difficult and AVE is evil, and, er… oh well, whatever the video said the third thing is.

Hey, I said I’m 40.

I’d love to come to your neck of the woods, if you think you’ll get something out of it. Will you let me know?

Looking At Social Media Value The WIIFM Way

I came across an interesting post on the value of a Facebook fan today, via Todd van Hoosear and Dave Fleet (h/t to both of you).

Augie Ray, who posited this on Forrester’s blog, said:

It is a question I hear several times a week:  What is the value of a Facebook Fan?  I’ve seen answers ranging from $136.38 to $3.60.  I can’t blame vendors, agencies and consultants for trying to answer the question – the hunger from clients is so great that anyone promising a simple answer is likely to get attention.  The problem is that there is no simple answer to such a complex question. In fact, it may be best if marketers approached this question as if the answer is zero — unless and until the brand does something to create value with Facebook Fans.

Augie goes into great detail, so I urge you to read the entire post. Equally interesting are the comments, ranging from “heck yea” to “hell no.”

As I read through the comments, my thoughts kept coming back to this: how do we define value?

Dictionary.com has 19 – count ‘em – definitions of the word “value” as a noun. These include:

- relative worth, merit, or importance: the value of a college education; the value of a queen in chess.

- monetary or material worth, as in commerce or trade: This piece of land has greatly increased in value.

- the worth of something in terms of the amount of other things for which it can be exchanged or in terms of some medium of exchange.

- equivalent worth or return in money, material, services, etc.: to give value for value received.

There are several more, including definitions for music, sociology, etc. For those of us who work in PR, they’re probably not as relevant as the others (but maybe that’s just me).

If we strip through the different definitions – many of which assess value in transactional terms – it seems to me “value” is basically another word for WIIFM.

For example:

“What’s the value of my IABC membership?”

Translates to: why should I spend $300+ a year to basically pay the salaries of a small staff of an otherwise volunteer-run (i.e. non-paid) organization, if I’m not going to get something out of it? Learnings I can apply in my work? Business leads? Speaking engagements? Greater visibility within a community that matters to me… and how is that going to help me professionally?

“What value do I get from spending two-three hours a day on Twitter?”

Translates to: am I getting cheap thrills out of gaining more followers (let’s admit it, no one wants to LOSE followers)? Am I making new connections that add value (there’s that word again) to my life? Am I finding new business opportunities? Partnership opportunities? Media who’d be interested in my clients? Learning from people I ordinarily wouldn’t come into contact with?

“What’s the value of giving up an entire wall in my office to my husband’s 5′x4′ framed poster of David Bowie in The Man Who Fell To Earth?”

Translates to: was it worth giving up that much potential bookshelf space to make my husband happy? (Answer: yes, and it helps me to look at it periodically through the day to remind myself there’s life outside of work).

Here are some of the answers I got from a quick Twtpoll:

Whichever way you look at it, we get value from something because it does something for us. WIIFM.

As Augie says in his post, we can’t really blame companies for asking that question when they embark on a Facebook fan page or, really, any activities. They’re watching the dollars; the business has to do well, or else they’re history.

And we can’t really blame companies that come up with these “calculators” any more than we can blame spiritualists for producing ectoplasm, as they did in droves at the turn of the century; there’s a demand for an easy fix, and they’re fast to capitalize on it by catering to that demand.

That doesn’t mean it’s ok. Even though I plugged it a couple of days ago, you should read Sean Williams’ post on the theater of the absurd in social media metrics.

This is a graphic I use in my classes at Johns Hopkins (you’re welcome to use it if you like, just attribute it to me, please). It’s a very simplified way of looking at non-profit communications, certainly, but I’ve found it gets the point across:

If we look at social media efforts with the same lens, isn’t that what businesses are trying to do?

Yes, they’ve accepted that they can’t engage in one-way communication any more, but the whole point of adopting social media is to build relationships using these new tools and networks (and that word again connotes relationships) that result in outcomes that are beneficial to their businesses.

Those outcomes are business’ WIIFM. For fans/followers, it’s the value they get from interacting with these businesses. That’s their WIIFM.

So it means diddly-squat if your Facebook fans are worth $3 or $136, unless you’re planning to sell them, and I think that would be pretty dastardly.

If you haven’t engaged enough with them to motivate them into doing something, what’s the point of that “media value”? How is that adding to your bottom line?

If you can provide value to  your fans – answer their WIIFM – they will help you put your money where your mouth is – and that’ll be your WIIFM.

At the end of the day, isn’t that what’s most important?

More fodder on measurement:

• Don Bartholomew provides relief from your social media ROI angst
• An IPR paper on guidelines for measuring the effectiveness of PR programs and activities
• My presentation at PRSA’s 2009 International Conference on practical solutions to measurement conundrums

Image: Sam Agnew, Creative Commons

MeasurePR: The Barcelona Edition

We had a great #measurePR chat today. Katie Paine, who helped me kick off this series, came back after a while, and it was great to have her talk about the Barcelona Principles, social media ROI “calculators” and the like.

If you’re wondering what the Barcelona Principles are, here’s what Don Bartholomew has to say about them:

“…The Second European Summit on Measurement held last week in Barcelona has come and gone, but its impact may be felt for some time to come.  The Summit was organized by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) and the Institute for Public Relations.

The most notable outcome of the Summit was the creation of the ‘Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles’.  The Principles were debated and voted upon by about 200 delegates representing 33 countries and five global PR and measurement organizations (AMEC, IPR, PRSA, ICCO, The Global Alliance).  David Rockland, Ph.D. chaired the debate.

Here are the ‘Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles’:

1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programs.
2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality – cuttings in themselves are not enough.
3. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity.
4. Social media can and should be measured.
5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results.
6. Business results can and should be measured where possible.
7. Transparency and Replicability are paramount to sound measurement.”

If you believe in good PR measurement, then the concept of focusing on outcomes is not new to you; nor is the acknowledgment that AVE is a pretty cruddy substitute for good measurement.

What’s really impressive about this is that 200 delegates representing 33 countries and five global organizations came to this conclusion (IABC seems to have been noticeably lacking).

Wow.

That’s a pretty impressive start; now we have to see if everyone is going to walk the talk and implement them.

Katie talked about how PR professionals can start living by the Principles (I feel like going down on my knees every time I type that) in their day-to-day practice of our profession, and much more.

She also gave us a link to a nifty spreadsheet she uses to calculate the ROI of conferences and speaking engagements, so check it out (remember, one size doesn’t fit all; if you like the concept, adapt it for your own needs).

And we had some laughs as well, though we managed to keep Sean Williams from burning a hole in his laptop at the mention of the “theater of the absurd in social media metrics.”

Check out the entire transcript of MeasurePR: the Barcelona Edition here, and don’t forget to join me in a couple of weeks when Johna Burke will be the guest on #measurePR – and yes, I will be bringing it to you all the way from Alaska.

So please do save the date: July 20, 12-1 pm ET, join on Twitter using #measurePR. If you like, you can RSVP here.

Posts you should read, bookmark and save in your time capsule:

• Katie’s Barcelona Principles checklist
• Neil Malcolm on why AVE’s the “dodo” of PR measurement
• The above-referenced posts by Sean Williams on social media metrics and Don Bartholomew on the Barcelona Principles, respectively.

Image: Wolfgang Staudt, Creative Commons

Catching Up With #measurePR

The last couple of #measurePR chats have been interesting. A few weeks ago, we resumed our chat via a “community” edition, i.e. where we literally just chatted about measuring our favorite subject, PR. There weren’t any guests, or any set agenda – just… us.

Image: Proctor Archives, Creative Commons

You can get the June #measurePR community chat transcript here.

Then, last week, we were extremely fortunate that Lee Odden was able to join us, to talk about the confluence between SEO and PR measurement.

I can’t imagine you don’t know who Lee is. He’s an all-round brilliant (and nice) guy, CEO of TopRank Online Marketing, and one of the people who doesn’t just get PR and SEO, but the measurement aspect as well. So it was really great that Lee was able to take time out of his busy schedule to join us.

Here are a sampling of tweets from the chat:

And perhaps my favorite:

Check out this great resource (among many) that Lee gave us: top 10 SEO tips for PR professionals; you can download the full transcript of #measurePR: the Lee Odden edition here.

And I hope you’ll join us next Tuesday, July 6, (12 – 1 pm ET) when Katie Paine, the undisputed queen of measurement, will return for an encore performance at #measurePR.

See you then!

Working Through Time and Space When Measuring PR

Yesterday’s #measurePR chat with Jen Zingsheim was terrific. It might not have had the velocity of last night’s #pr20chat (more on that later), but we had a lot of new folks on the chat and quite a bit of fun too.

Jen “reported for duty” exactly on time (that’s what a military upbringing will do for you) and we had a great conversation on making the time to measure, prioritizing and how to kill AVE.

Yes, that old beast reared its ugly head again. Try as we might, we don’t seem to be able to get away from it.

If you’re getting up to speed on #measurePR, you can catch recaps and transcripts here. Here are some of the tweets from yesterday’s chat that:

Inserted clarity into the discussion

Gave practical advice on tracking

Can you see the butter dripping from my mouth?

Reminded us we need to keep the proverbial big picture in sight

More smart advice

And more hilarity

You can grab the complete transcript of our chat with Jen here. Will you add to the discussion by leaving a comment below?

#measurePR will take a break in May and be back on June 8 with (drum roll, please) the fabulous Lee Odden! That’s definitely one you don’t want to miss, so do mark your calendars: June 8, 12-1 pm ET.

See you then!

Resources for you:

Marshall Sponder aka the Web Metrics Guru

An IPR Gold Standard paper, by Dr. Jim Grunig & Linda Childers Hon, on measuring public relationships you should treat like gold

You can learn more from Jen at the CustomScoop blog, Media Bullseye , or on Twitter

Image: Steve Collins, Creative Commons

Measuring PR With Jen Zingsheim

Tomorrow Jen Zingsheim of CustomScoop will be gracing #measurePR to chat about all things PR measurement (disclosure, I’m a happy CustomScoop client).

Jen isn’t being featured on the chat because I’m a client; if you’ve been following the chat, either live or through the transcripts, you’ll see this is the first time she’s the featured guest.

I asked if she’d be interested in talking about measurement because I think she’s really smart about it. And because she loves animals and was one of my “let’s find Darby a home through social media” cohorts. And because she plays really good April Fool’s jokes. Yup, I fell hard for that one.

So here are the three questions Jen will be answering on Tuesday:

How do you carve out time to measure, and what gets priority when you’re busy?

How often do you step back and ask what your data means?

How do you wean people off of “old media” metrics like eyeballs & AVE?

I know this isn’t a “bricks-and-mortar” event, but if you think you can join (12-1 pm EDT on Tuesday, May 11), please do “RSVP” here (and thanks, Justin Goldsborough and Heather Whaling for giving me the idea of creating a Facebook event for the chat).

Then just sign on to Twitter shortly before 12 noon ET tomorrow, and follow along and/or participate in the chat using the #measurePR hashtag. You can certainly use Twitter Search, but I find it easier to follow along in Tweetgrid, Tweetchat or by simply opening a dedicated search column in whatever Twitter desktop application you like to use).

Do you have other questions you’d like to ask Jen? Please leave them in the comments below, or email/DM them to me.

See you tomorrow!

Photo © Jen Zingsheim, used with permission.

MeasurePR: WTTranscript?!*&!

WTTranscript?!

It’s been over a week since the last #measurePR chat, and you’ve probably been looking for the transcript.

Well, thanks to WTHashtag, I haven’t been able to post the transcript, because it missed a significant portion of the tweets.

I know. That’s the price of free, right?

I did manage to capture screen shots of the chat via TwitterSearch, but they’re not in chronological order… well, they’re in reverse chronological order, which means you’ll have to read them down → up, instead of up → down… and you’ll have to read them page by page. Believe me, it’s the only way you won’t go crazy.

But then again, that’s the price of free.

I even asked Matt LaCasse how he managed to oh-so-beautifully post the #cookchat transcript to his blog, and apparently he C&P’d from WTHashtag… which missed most of our #measurePR tweets.

I know. I KNOW.

The price of free.

For what it’s worth, here you have ‘em. A recap of last week’s #measurePR where we talked about whether or not PRWeek cares about business outcomes (thanks, @MediaMiser, for that terrific question), welcomed @frugalista, @JohnFriedman and @prTini to our ranks, and shared our favorite PR measurement resources with each other.

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Remember, down → up, not up → down. Just pretend you’re reading Japanese (or Hanunó’o – thanks, Lorne Pike) … without the pretty characters.

Image: Okinawa Soba, Creative Commons

What’s next?

Next week, Jen Zingsheim of CustomScoop (of which I’m a happy client) will be chatting with us. I, for one, can’t wait. Whaddya want to ask her? Leave a comment below or tweet me!

Measuring PR: Data Is Just Data Without Actionable Intelligence

We had a great discussion at #measurePR last week, when Chuck Hemann (the “oldest 30-year-old” Sean Williams knows) was our featured guest. It’s tough to recap all the nuggets shared, not just by Chuck, but very briefly, we focused on measuring social media.

These were the three questions we (primarily) discussed:

1. How do we use monitoring and analytics tools to inform benchmarks for social media campaigns?

2. Is there a “right” suite of tools to utilize?

3. Is there a new model of measurement/research in PR because of the explosion of social media?

Here are a few of the tweets:

As Chuck pointed out, the “right” suite of tools depends on what you want to measure – everything’s relative. There was quite a bit of discussion around SAS’ new measurement offering, but getting back to the chat at hand:

… and this gem:

“Data is just data without actionable intelligence informed by that data.”

Image: Kaptain Kobold‘s Flickrstream, Creative Commons

That, to me, sums up why smart measurement is so important, and how I hope this Twitterchat helps you.

I was really happy that Roxanne Papagiannopou, Alan Chumley, Richard Bagnall, Kristin Wadge, Kellye Crane, Pritesh Patel and Mary Barber all joined in; they’re not just friends but folks who add great value to pretty much any discussion on PR issues. But it was also great to see some new “faces” there, and I hope that will continue to grow; so do spread the word, won’t you?

Here’s the complete transcript for last week’s chat or, as I like to call it, #MeasurePR: the Chuck Hemann Edition. And if you have questions for next week or an upcoming chat, please let me know – you can tweet me, email me or leave a comment below.

And if you work in PR measurement and think you’d make a good guest, let me know that too (except if you’re going to pitch AVE, ‘cos then, don’t bother)… but seriously. I’d love to have you, just let me know.

Internal Doesn’t Mean Unseen: Sean Williams on #measurePR

How’s this for going back in time in the age of now?

My second guest on #measurePR (all the way back in February) was the inimitable Sean Williams.

If you’re a measurement geek and don’t know him… you should. Not only does he have one of the brightest minds in our field, he has one of the brightest minds, period. I was lucky that Sean was willing to take some time out of his day to sit in on the chat when it was just a couple of weeks old, and he shared his thoughts on measurement, PR and ROI.

Since Sean teaches on Tuesdays and was  held up joining the chat, we chatted among ourselves for a bit, and shared our pet measurement peeves. Not surprisingly, the continued use of AVE, lack of benchmarking and “quantity v. quality” were common causes of angst.

Because it’s been a while since this specific chat took place and I didn’t grab screen-shots of the tweets immediately after, I can’t show them to you (if you know, and can show me, how to do that, I’ll be indebted to you forever). But here are some of the interesting/noteworthy points raised during the chat:

1. Lindsay Allen, on the value of proprietary formulas such as Cision’s “publicity value: “… they… wouldn’t/couldn’t tell us much about how it’s calculated since the formula is proprietary.” To which Sean replied that it needed academic review (which, IMHO, all formulas – btw, does anyone use ‘formulae‘ any more? – should be).

Sean went a step further to say his biggest pet peeve was proprietary methods, of which he wants one, so he can make money (don’t we all?!), but he’d want it independently reviewed for accuracy and value.

Rebecca Denison, whom I’ve profiled before, perceptively pondered whether folks sign on for a proprietary formula because it’s better than nothing and they’re under pressure to do so.

2. I asked Sean for his take on the difference between AVE and “weighted media cost,” to which he posited an extremely diplomatic answer. For what it’s worth, I think highly of the folks who authored this paper, but am still making my mind up about the measure.

To learn more about WMC, I suggest you read this paper on the Institute of Public Relations’ site, Katie Paine’s opinion (y’all know she’s my guru, right?), and Sean’s own musings on the subject.

3. Sean reminded everyone to do something so simple it’s unbelievable that most don’t: Set Measurable Objectives.

The second #measurePR chat transcript is yours for the asking.

Do have a read through when you’re at a loose end (or, as I like to say, in your copious free time). I think you’ll enjoy it.

What I can share, though, is a video of Sean talking about measuring internal communication, which I grabbed when I was in Cleveland a few weeks ago speaking to IABC/Cleveland (which rocks and you should join, if you’re in the area, btw).

And if you’re interested in internal communication, you should follow #icchat, which Sean hosts along with Susan Cellura. How’s that for a bonus?

Enjoy! And do join us from 12-1 pm ET tomorrow when we’ll be chatting with Chuck Hemann on measuring social media.

Image: Adam Groffman, Creative Commons

Riding the Social Media Measurement Waterfall

Image: Hamed Saber, Creative Commons

I’m tickled pink (and not just because that’s the color of the Elvis hoodie I’m sporting today, a little like this one) that Chuck Hemann will be our featured guest on the next #measurePR Twitterchat (have you marked your calendars? April 13, 12-1 pm ET, follow/participate on Twitter using the #measurePR hashtag).

Chuck Hemann, a 2010 Society for New Communications Research Fellow, is currently a social media associate for WCG, a global media services company focused on the corporate and product marketing and communications needs of leading healthcare companies. If you don’t already, you should follow and engage with him on Twitter.

When I was in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, Sean Williams (another research and measurement rock star, who was featured on the second #measurePR chat), said Chuck was the “oldest 30-year-old” he knows. Now, I don’t know if that’s how old (or young) Chuck really is, but you can see where Sean was going with this remark.

Much like Rebecca Denison, I was curious about how and why this young man with an old soul developed this passion for PR measurement. Here’s what he had to say:

“About 5 years ago, a colleague of mine at Dix & Eaton gave me a copy of Katie Paine’s “Measuring Public Relationships.” At that point I was just starting at D&E and was brand new to public relations research. Sure, I had conducted research while in graduate school, but primarily my background was in political science/political research.

“After reading through the book I knew that this was the right career move for me. I, like Katie (and so many others), share a love for research and analytics. Determining the starting point for our campaigns, and then whether or not we executed against those goals gets me excited to come into work every day.

Now, with the explosion of social media my focus has shifted from traditional PR research to social media research. This includes a heavy dose of monitoring, but also use of Web site analytics and search platforms (both free and paid).”

So what are we hoping to talk about that will get Chuck’s juices flowing? Well, a few things:

First, and probably foremost, how do we use monitoring and analytics tools to inform benchmarks for social media campaigns?

Second, is there a “right” suite of tools to utilize?

Third, is there a new model of measurement/research in PR because of the explosion of social media?

Chuck is hoping for an interactive discussion so let’s get it rolling! Do join us: Tuesday, April 13, 12-1 pm ET. And don’t forget: #measurePR is the magic hashtag!

The Terrible Twos: Keeping Up With #measurePR

When I started the bi-weekly #measurePR chat on Twitter last month, I had no idea how it would do.

Yes, I could tell there was a need for it (conversations in several chats I sat in on turned in the measurement direction), and yes, I’ve done a little work in the area – but even if you hope and plan till the cows come home, you never really know if they’ll deliver the milk, do you?

OK, that’s my terrible analogy for the day.

Taken off it has. From some terrific guests, to being adopted as “the” hashtag for conversations related to measurement, #measurePR is almost like an infant running towards toddlerhood – “terrible twos,” anyone? – before it realizes it can’t actually run (image: Tomás Fano, Creative Commons), it’s still crawling.

Part of this running/crawling thing means that I’m left with so many thoughts swirling around in my head at the end of each chat – or when I listen in on related conversations outside of our regular chat window – that I’ve done a terrible job of capturing them. So I need to do better there.

But it also means that you can find a wealth of PR measurement-related resources, thinkers, and sharers, indexed by the hashtag.

I’m going to recap some of our past chats in greater detail (promise!), but in the meantime, here are downloadable transcripts for the previous chats to date:

• The first #measurePR Twitterchat on Feb. 2 featured Katie Paine (of which I managed to do a recap, which you can read here) who, I’m sure you know, is @kdpaine on Twitter;
• The second #measurePR chat featured research and measurement powerhouse Sean Williams, who tweets as @commAMMO;
• Richard Bagnall and Kristin Wadge were a “twofer” in the third #measurePR chat; can I just say how lucky the folks at Metrica are to work with them? They’re @richardbagnall and @kristinwadge on Twitter, by the way; and
• #measurePR #4 was the “community chat,” where the community led – and answered – the questions.

Today we have a terrific guest who’s taking time out of what I know is a very busy day to chat with all of us, Kami Watson Huyse (@kamichat) of Zoetica Media. Kami’s bio and credentials are so prolific I wouldn’t be able to do them justice here, but suffice it to say she rocks PR, social media, measurement and pretty much everything in that area.

Please join us from 12-1 pm ET on Twitter today (remember, the chat is bi-weekly, not weekly); use #measurePR with Tweetgrid, Tweetchat or your search method of choice to listen or participate in the conversation. See you there!

Of Cabbages and Kings and Measuring PR

We kicked off our first Twitterchat on measuring public relations yesterday, with the “queen of measurement” herself, Katie Paine. From 12-1 pm EST, we had an incredibly lively and vibrant discussion that surprised even me, the organizer – and I should know not to be surprised by anything on Twitter by now!

You might wonder why I borrowed from “The Walrus and the Carpenter” in titling this post. The thing is, Mr. Carroll’s poem is so full of beautiful whimsy, I can’t help but think it reflects some of the chaos we are still dealing with when it comes to measuring PR.

I write and speak often on this but really… why are we still going round and round in circles about something like AVE (ad value equivalency) which is essentially a measure of output when we know what’s really important to the C-suite is focusing on outcomes? Fortuitously, I stumbled across Pritesh Patel’s post on the subject of AVE as I was pulling this recap together, so do give it a read.

If I have one mantra when it comes to measurement – that’s it. Outcomes outcomes outcomes. Repeat after me: OUTCOMES.

But this recap isn’t (just) about me. So in that vein, here’s Sean Williams’ recap, which also looks at the AVE debate (or paroxysm, as he calls it). Below are some of the highlights of the chat, and you can find the entire transcript here.

The four questions posed were:

• What are the most common mistakes in measuring PR?
• How does a newbie get started in “smart” measurement?
• How has the PR measurement landscape changed over the years, or has it?
• Can you recommend some educational resources?

Here are just a few of the gems, and not just from Katie:

And those are just a few. I do hope you’ll read the transcript and share your thoughts via a comment below, or on Twitter using the #measurepr hashtag.

Katie – thank you so much for kicking off the inaugural #measurepr chat; I hope you’ll be back often as the featured guest!

A quick note on how we’ll proceed: these chats will take place every two weeks for now; if we see a great urge to increase (or decrease the frequency), we’ll do so, but for now, if you’re interested in PR measurement, do mark your calendars for the next one (February 16) from 12-1 pm ET, and every other Tuesday following.

And remember – we want to get your questions answered – so if you have questions you’d like to have discussed at a future chat, please email them to me at sburke (a) shonaliburke (dot) com – or, of course, you can always tweet me.

Until the next time – keep chatting and keep measuring!

More resources:

• The Institute for Public Relations has great resources on measurement
• I created a Twitter list of folks I think are leaders in measurement, so you might want to check them out
• As our featured guest, I think it’s only right to point you to Katie’s website and blog
• A presentation I made at PRSA09 on measurement, which may particularly help those of you at non-profits/with low or no budget

Image: Quinn Dombrowski, Creative Commons