The measurement and evaluation of PR and social media

I attended AMEC's European Measurement Summit last week. For those that are not aware, AMEC is the trade association for measurement and evaluation companies. Here is a vox pop video with Ketchum Pleon Change’s David Rockland on what was achieved at the conference, it also features Richard Bagnal who heads up AMEC's Standards in Social Media Measurement Group and Colin Wheeler, Senior Manager, Insight and Analytics at Waggener Edstrom. http://vimeo.com/44304477 How PR professionals evaluate and measure the impact of what they do has always been important. It’s also an area that requires focus, greater understanding and investment. The problem, for me, was brought into sharp focus when Richard Houghton, the Chairman of ICCO, estimated that 50 to 60 per cent of PR campaigns use no method of evaluation. The measurement of PR can be made very complex, or it can be pretty simple. In essence, the measurement of any campaign, be it PR, advertising or direct mail, requires you to set an objective and then see if you hit that objective. I point this out because for many PROs I think there is a danger that you get dragged down by complex arguments about which metrics you use, and then there is always the chance that you get side-tracked/lose the will! At our recent PR is Changing conference, Helen Dickinson, Comms Director for John Lewis, was asked how she has increased the importance of PR to the John Lewis board, thereby increasing her comms budget. Her answer was simple, by showing the business that PR sold products. It's pretty obvious that if your PR objective is to sell stuff, if you show a link between your PR and sales, then the board is going to pay more attention to that than any reach figure, tonality or allegorised score. Jackie Brock-Doyle, Director of Communications and Public Affairs of LOCOG, presented at the AMEC conference. She was asked how LOCOG measured the success of the 2012 bidding campaign. Her answer was also simple - by winning it! I'm not saying all PR measurement should be this simple - I'm just saying that all businesses have a choice. For example, Microsoft has invested a lot in their PRIME media evaluation system. This monitors, scores and evaluates media and social media coverage of Microsoft across the world. Microsoft’s Rebecca Duffy outlined the system at the conference and it was clear that it is an important and highly valued complex business tool. AMEC researched delegates at their recent conference, asking them a couple of important questions. What are the main challenges to PR measurement?: How important is measurement to PR professionals?: If you are a PRO and want to read more practical advice about how you improve your PR evaluation, I still bang on about AMECs PR measurement toolkit, which, for me, is an excellent document.  I believe for most PROs, in most organisations, if you read and implement the relevant parts of this document, you are highly likely to have significantly moved your evaluation forward. If you haven’t, the reality is that you are probably already doing a pretty good evaluation job. There is an ongoing debate about the desire for there to be a single universal measurement metric for PR. Included in this is the reason why (in my opinion) the majority of FSTE 100 companies still use AVEs. I’m firmly in the "there is no silver bullet for PR evaluation" camp. Because PR is such a varied profession, operating in so many different markets, I don't see that one metric can do it. That said, there is no doubt that the market does want that single metric. (As I say, the reason that most companies still use AVEs is because of this desire). AMEC and The PRSA are continuing research into a universal PR measurement metric, but for now, AMEC's toolkit remains the best you’ve got. Social Media Measurement On top of that there is a requirement for PROs to use more value-focused metrics for your social media objectives. With that in mind, AMEC has produced the following documents to help PR professionals in their social media evaluation: Social media measurement methodology grid AMEC's plain-speaking guide to social media measurement Updated social media valid metrics framework