Posts filed under ‘PR evaluation’
Guide to evaluating communication products
I’ve written before about the challenges of evaluating communication products, i.e. brochures, videos, magazines and websites. Little systematic follow-up is done on these products that can often form key parts of larger communication programmes. Here is a very interesting guide from the health sector in this area: “Guide to Monitoring and Evaluating Health Information Products and Services” (pdf). Although focused on the health area, the guide provides some insights on evaluating different levels concerning communication products, from reach to use and impact on an organisation.
Thanks to Jeff Knezovich writing on the On Think Tanks blog that brought this to my attention.
Standardization in Public Relations Measurement and Evaluation
David Michaelson and Don W. Stacks have published a new article on the need for standardization in PR measurement and evaluation, here is a summary:
As the public relations profession continues to focus more and more on outcomes associated with campaigns or public relations initiatives the question of standards has shifted to the forefront of discussions among and between professionals, academics, and research providers. Making this shift even more important to establishing impact on business goals and objectives is the fact that standardized measures for public relations activities have never been recognized. Unlike other marketing communications disciplinesi, public relations practitioners have consistently failed to achieve consensus on what the basic evaluative measures are or how to conduct the underlying research for evaluating and measuring public relations performance.
North American Summit on Measurement, September 18-20, 2011
The annual North American Summit on communication/PR measurement is coming up in September 2011:
Since it began in 2003, the North American Summit on Public Relations Measurement has enjoyed an international reputation for being one of the world’s leading annual conferences about research, measurement and evaluation in communications and public relations.
Each year this event features a number of unique, hands-on pre-conference workshops along with a day and a half of superb program sessions focusing on how measurement is being used effectively throughout the communications industry. This measurement summit is also noted for having several superb networking events where attendees have opportunities to exchange insights with international experts.
Through lectures, case studies and interactive discussions led by some of the world’s most noted measurement experts, the North American Summit on Public Relations Measurement annually exposes conference delegates to innovations, methodologies and best practices from some of the world’s most successful public relations measurement programs.
Measurement Matters – internal communications: A one-day workshop with Angela Sinickas in London
Angela Sinickas, a US-based communications evaluation expert is conducting a one day workshop on measuring communications (with a focus on internal communications) in London.
I’ve had the good fortune to participate in a workshop with Angela and she does have an immense knowledge and experience in communications evaluation.
date: 30 November 2010
cost: 545-595 £
location: Broadway House, London.
For more information and registration>>
This event is organised by Melcrum Publishing.
(This blog has no commercial connections to Melcrum or Angela – it just looks like an excellent workshop!).
New book on PR measurement
I’m just reading my copy of the new publication “A Practitioner’s Guide to Public Relations Research, Measurement and Evaluation“. The book, by Drs. Stacks and Michaelson is a no-nonsense guide to PR measurement and evaluation that’s well worth a read. I like how they stress the importance of “measurable” objectives and endeavour to move the focus from measuring “outputs” to “outcomes”. They recommend three steps essential for evaluating PR and communication programmes, that I summarise as follows:
– Set clear and well defined research objectives
– Apply rigorous research design that enables reliable research results
– Provide detailed documentation with full transparency
I couldn’t agree more…
You can learn more about the book here>>
Please note, this blog has no commercial interest in this publication, we just believe it’s a good read!
Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles – Final Version
The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles for communication evaluation, which I wrote about previously, have now been finalised, here they are:
Seven Principles
1.Importance of Goal Setting and Measurement
2.Measuring the Effect on Outcomes is Preferred to Measuring Outputs
3.The Effect on Business Results Can and Should Be Measured Where Possible
4.Media Measurement Requires Quantity and Quality
5.AVEs are not the Value of Public Relations
6.Social Media Can and Should be Measured
7.Transparency and Replicability are Paramount to Sound Measurement
The explanatory text (pdf) is well worth a read as it explains the thinking behind the above principles. As I pointed out before, two out of seven principles focus on media measurement, indicating our sector’s focus in this area – what I consider a distraction from real “outcome” evaluation which communications needs.
The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) has set up taskforces to find the answers to two questions related to principles 5 & 6, notably:
1) What are the “validated metrics” to replace AVEs?
2) How do you get started in measuring social media, and what are the definitions of relevant metrics?
I look forward to learning more about their work.
More on the Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles
Further to my earlier post, you can read more about the Barcelona Declaration on a special page of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) website.
The next step is that the principles will be refined based on feedback received during the Summit in Spain and additional input being gathered – you too can give an input, leave a comment here on the IPR page>>
First global standard of PR measurement
Yesterday, here at the AMEC summit, the first global standard of PR measurement, the “Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles” were adopted, as listed here:
Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles
1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programmes.
2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality – clip cuts are generally meaningless.
3. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space.
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.
Interesting to note that three of the principles mentions media measurement – reflecting the inbalance in the industry towards measuring media coverage. Hopeful ly this obsession with counting clips can be overcome and a move towards measuring outcomes is seen.
At the AMEC summit, the PR Society of America, presented its latest work on PR measurement, as you can see in the slides below. It’s well worth a look as it focuses on metrics for communications outcomes:
Web analytics and communications evaluation
When evaluating a communications project, I often consider the web metrics aspect of the project, if a website played an important part in the project. Web metrics are statistics generated by tools that measure website traffic, such as how many people visited a web page, where did they come from, etc.
Seth Duncan has recently produced for the US-based Institute for PR a very interesting paper on this subject:
The paper focuses on the aspect of referral (e.g. which is the most “efficient” source of traffic for a website) but also contains some intruiging descriptions of advanced statistical methods for web analytics.
intelligent measurement 