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1. Measuring What Matters In PR A presentation to the Applied Public Relations and Public Affairs Research CourseGeorge Washington University September 17, 2009Katie Delahaye [email protected]:/kdpaine.blogs.comMember, IPR Measurement Commissionwww.instituteforpr.org

2. Why Measure?
The main reason to measure objectives is not so much to reward or punish
individual communications manager for success or failure as it is to learn from the
research whether a program should be continued as is, revised, or dropped in favor of another approach
James E. Grunig, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland
If we can put a man in orbit, why cant we determine the effectiveness of our communications? The reason is simple and perhaps, therefore, a little old-fashioned: people, human beings with a wide range of choice. Unpredictable, cantankerous,
capricious, motivated by innumerable conflicting interests, and conflicting desires.
Ralph Delahaye Paine, Publisher, Fortune Magazine , 1960 speech to the Ad Club of St. Louis

3. What Matters?
To P&G: Engagement
To the Humane Society: Donations
To ComCast: Happier customers
To Best Buy: Better informed employees
To WMUR: Faster, more complete, more relevant stories
To Dell: Sales
To Molson: Better messaging

4. What Doesnt Matter?
AVEs
Eyeballs
HITS (How Idiots Track Success)
Couch Potatoes
# of Twitter Followers (unless youre a celebrity)
# of Facebook Friends/Fans (unless they donate money)
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5. A measurement timeline

6. Page 6
You are a party planner, not a communicator
21st Century
Old School

7. Page 7
Social Media renders everything you know about measurement obsolete
Old School PR
21st Century Role of PR
The definition of timely has changed
The definition of reach has changed
GRPs & Impressions are impossible to count (an irrevelvant) in social media
The definition of success has changed
The answer isnt how many youve reached, but how those youve reached have responded

8. Signs that its the end of measurement as we know it
Procter & Gamble is now paying for engagement, not eyeballs
Sodexo cut $300K out of its recruitment budget using Twitter
Facebook USERS translated the site from English to Spanish via a Wiki in less than 4 weeks and cost Facebook $0
BMC Software measures communications effectiveness based on contribution to EPS
HSUS generated $650,000 in new donations from an on-line photo contest on Flickr
The Red Cross measures the effectiveness of Twitter via lives saved and harm avoided
IBM 1000+ people tweeting & receives more leads, sales and exposure from a $500 podcast than it does from an ad
11 Moms turned around Walmarts image and delivered measureable increases in sales.

9. The New Rules of Communications
You arent in control and never have been
There is no market for your message
You become what you measure
She/he with the most data wins
Behind every Tweet or Post is a person
Empower employees, rely on customers
Enable the conversationsits going on, with or without you
Spin is dead, long live transparency you cant fake it so be who you are and see who is pleased
Crowdsourcing will beat outsourcing every time

10. The Engagement Decision Tree

11. The measurement forks in the road
Marketing/leads/sales/
mission
Reputation/relationships
To fix this
Or get to this

12. Goals drive metrics, metrics drive results
12
Goal
Metrics

13. Change the conversation, improve your reputation
Improve your reputation
Listen first, then respond
Stop doing stupid things

14. Negative coverage over time

15. Correlation exists between traffic to the ASPCA web site and the organizations overall media exposure

16. Tying activity to development/marketing goals
16

17. What do you need to measure?
Outputs?
Did you get the coverage you wanted?
Did you produce the promised materials on time and on budget?
Outtakes?
Did your target audience see the messages?
Did they believe the messages?
Outcomes?
Did audience behavior change?
Did the right people show up?
Did your relationship change?
Did sales increase?

18. Goals, Actions and Metrics

19. The 7 steps to Social Media ROI
Define the R Define the expected results?
Define the I -- Whats the investment?
Understand your audiences and what motivates them
Define the metrics (what you want to become)
Determine what you are benchmarking against
Pick a tool and undertake research
Analyze results and glean insight, take action, measure again

20. Step 1: Define the R
What return is expected?
What were you hired to do?
If you are celebrating complete 100% success a year from now, what is different about the organization?
If your department was eliminated, what would be different?
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21. Step 2: Define the I
What is the investment?
Personnel
Agency compensation
Senior Staff time
Opportunity cost
Raw costs/hr costs vs material costs.
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22. Step 3: Define your audiences and how you impact them
There is no audience. There are multiple constituencies
Should you blog or Twitter? Dont ask me, ask your customers
List every stakeholder
Where do they go for information?
Whats important to them?
What is the benefit of having a good relationship with that stakeholder group?
Whats important to them?
Where do they go for information?
What do you want them to know?
Understand your role in getting the audience to do what you want it to do
Raise awareness
Increase preference
Increase engagement
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23. Step 4: Define your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
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The Perfect KPI
Gets you where you want to go (achieves corporate goals)
Is actionable
Continuously improves your processes
Is there when you need it
KPIs should be developed for:
Your own properties
Different tactics
Other influential sites

24. Revenue KPIs
Cost savings
Cost per click thru, downloads, engagement vs other marketing channels
Cost per message communicated vs other channels
Lifetime value of engagement
Cost per customer acquisition

25. Measuring the impact of messaging
Percent of impressions containing messages by product
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26. Metric: Cost per message communicated
The press tour was clearly the most efficient for communicating key messages and the big party was least efficient.
Measuring which tactic was most efficient
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27. Engagement metrics
% increase or decrease in unique visits
In the past month, what % of all sessions represent more than 5 page views
% of sessions that are greater than 5 minutes in duration
% of visitors that come back for more than 5 sessions
% of sessions that arrive at your site from a Google search, or a direct link from your web site or other site that is related to your brand
% of visitors that become a subscriber
% of visitors that download something from the site
% of visitors that provide an email address
Ratio of posts to comments
Courtesy of Eric Peterson

28. KPIs for External blogs and other Consumer Generated Media
Share of positioning
Share of rants vs. raves
Share of positives/negatives
Share of visibility
Share of quotes
Share of brand benefits mentioned
Types of conversations
Engagement ratio of posts to comments
Optimal content score

29. For all institutions, most postings were simply making an observation or distributing media.
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cx

30. Share of conversation vs share of engagement
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Share of Engagement by Subject
-
,External Blogs
Share of Subject
Students
23.6%
33.2%
22.1%
21.1%
Staff
100.0%
Research, Social Sciences
1
4
1
Research, Social Sciences
4.4%
95.6%
Campus Life
Research, Physical Sciences
1
38.3%
2.3%
31.0%
28.4%
Research, Other
Institution, Overall
2
1
3
Research, Life Sciences
13.0%
20.8%
13.0%
53.2%
Policies
2
Research, Earth Sciences
86.8%
13.2%
Research, Agriculture
4
Research, Agriculture
100.0%
Projects, Non
-
Research
Other
28.6%
28.6%
28.6%
14.2%
1
Policies
100.0%
Legal News
Peer 1
1
2
Partnerships
Michigan State
Admissions
1
1
Peer 1
Other
Peer 2
Staff
Michigan State
1
Legal News
43.3%
56.7%
Peer 3
Inventions
Peer 2
Research, Life Sciences
1
1
2
1
3
Peer 4
Institution, Overall
5.8%
94.2%
Peer 3
Alumni Topics
1
1
Financials
68.7%
12.5%
18.8%
Peer 4
Financials
2
1
2
Faculty
15.3%
34.9%
6.3%
43.5%
Projects, Non
-
Research
Events
1
1
1
2
Courses
28.6%
71.4%
Research, Earth Sciences
1
2
2
Community Relations
Courses
1
2
Campus Life
Research, Physical Sciences
3
2
4
6
Alumni Topics
96.8%
3.2%
Admissions
Students
33.3%
66.7%
5
2
1
7
Faculty
2
6
2
2
6
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
20

31. The vast majority of discussion in external blogs is neutral.
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32. Emerging benchmarks
Past Performance
Think 3
Peer
Underdog nipping at your heels
Stretch goal
Whatever keeps the C-suite up at night
Step 5: Define your benchmarks
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33. First: find out what already exists
Web analytics
Customer Satisfaction data
Customer loyalty data
Second: Decide what research is needed to give you the information you need
Step 5: Conduct research (if necessary)

34. Step 6: Selecting a measurement tool
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35. Your tool box needs:
A content source:
Google News/Google Blogs, RSS feeds
Technorati, Social Mention, Twazzup,
Cyberalert, CustomScoop, e-Watch
Radian 6, Techrigy, Visible Technologies, Scout Labs
Survey Monkey/Zoomerang
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36. Your tool box also needs to include:
2. A way to analyze that content
Automated vs. Manual
Census vs random sample
The 80/20 rule Measure what matters because 20% of the content influences 80% of the decisions
Dashboards to aggregate data
Tools:

Woopra

37. Net promoter score

38. Hubspot Grader

39. Xinureturns

40. Twinfluence

41. SPSS

42. Excel

43. Crimson Hexagon

44. www.tealium.com

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45. Why an Optimal Content Score?
You decide whats important:
Benchmark against peers and/or competitors
Track activities against OCS over time
Positive:
Mentions of the brand
Key messages
Positioning
Visibility
Negative
Omitted
Negative tone
No key message
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46. How to calculate Optimal Content

47. Standard classifications of discussion

Responding to criticism

48. Giving a shout-out

49. Making a joke

50. Making a suggestion

51. Making an observation

52. Offering a greeting

53. Offering an opinion

54. Putting out a wanted ad

55. Rallying support

56. Recruiting people

57. Showing dismay

58. Soliciting comments

59. Soliciting help

60. Starting a poll

61. Validating a position

62. Acknowledging receipt of information

63. Advertising something

64. Answering a question

65. Asking a question

66. Augmenting a previous post

67. Calling for action

68. Disclosing personal information

69. Distributing media

70. Expressing agreement

71. Expressing criticism

72. Expressing support

73. Expressing surprise

74. Giving a heads up