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)
Page 4
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
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?
20
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.
21
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)
23
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
25
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.
Page 29
cx
30. Share of conversation vs share of engagement
Page 30
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.
Page 31
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
37