KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

" » Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms issues Media Monitoring RFP" from Pro PR

The Canadian Council of Public Relations Firms has taken a step that we think is an industry first. The CCPRF has issued a  Request for Proposals (RFP) on behalf of our members inviting suppliers to provide Canada`s PR firms with a new approach to monitoring traditional and online media.

via propr.ca

Interesting how Canada always does these things first. Are they smarter or just want to be more measurable?

Christmas Confessions, or how to have a happier, greener Christmas

I have many relatives who may be horrified by my confessions about my Christmas shopping habits, but here goes. 

First of all, these confessions come from  a reformed shopaholic. I used to be deep into retail therapy and loved browsing in every shop I could fine.  Christmas was an orgy of presents and chic wrapping paper. But of late I've come to dread the whole thing, in fact,  in these recessionary times, love has turned to hate.  I hate the thought of sending jobs and dollars overseas, I hate the service that you get in most stores, I hate the crowds and parking hassles, i hate feeling guilty about the gas I'm using and the money I shouldn't be spending. So I've decided to give in to my better instincts and make Al Gore proud. . 

I start all my shopping at the Swap shop -- aka the Durham Solid Waste Recycling center which epitomizes the notion that one woman's junk is another woman's treasure. It  is always filled with treasures like old decanters and interesting containers for herb vinegars, spiced nuts and all the other things I produce in my kitchen, as well as picture frames that can get painted to match my friend's decor.

Next stop is Goodwill, where I get to feel good not just because I've found a wonderful bargain, but I've kept something out of a landfill, AND helped put a fellow American back to work. (Did you know that once every 42 seconds, Goodwill puts someone back to work? and yes, in full transparency, they are a client, but I was shopping there long before they decided to benchmark  their social media success)

This year I got  a gorgeous set of wine glasses ($.99 each)  some really interesting decanters (1.99 each)  and on my way out found a to-die-for pair of black heels ($5.99)  that I put right on my feet and wore to the next speech. 

Next I spent 2 hours trying to find LED lights for my tree, until I realized I was spending more in fossil fuel than they'd ever save.. so I returned home to finish my shopping. I still need to put in a few hours on line, but essentially the rest of my "shopping"  I'll do from my shelves of home made jams, jellies, pickles etc.

I'm feeling better already.

This is a very big deal for measurement

Google announced yesterday that it will soon be showing real-time results of public content from many sources, including Facebook fan pages. As reported by InsideFacebook and Mashable, this is a big deal.

via blog.thekbuzz.com

Facebook has been one of the bigger challenges in measurement, so leave it to Google to come up with a solution

This falls into the category of "something I wish I'd written but ran out of time. As always Don is brilliant: http://metricsman.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/twitter-influence-tools-beware-of-shiny-objects/#

Another good way to measure success -- stop it

That's right, stop what you're doing. In down times we're always under pressure to cut budgets, but that is in fact a great way to measure the effectiveness of your tactics. For example, a year ago, we were spending over $1200 a month on Google adwords but had no idea whether it was really helping us bring in qualified leads. Sure, we could tell it was driving traffic, but was there any real ROI in it?

Yes, there are lots of variables, like the key words, style and content of the specific ads, that can influence effectiveness. But across the board we saw no drop in traffic whatsoever, and, more importantly, no reduction in leads. In fact, by  blogging and tweeting more often, we've doubled traffic across all of our sites and according to Leadlander  the leads we are getting are actually more qualify.

Now obviously if I had to pay someone to spend an hour or so a day blogging or tweeting the ROI calculation would be different, and obviously my time isn't exactly "free," but as a way to test the effectiveness of one of our marketing efforts, it's pretty clear that the ROI isn't there.

Another good measure if your objectives is sales leads

My friends at PARC introduced me to LeadLander a very cool tool that tells you not just how many people are visiting your site each day, but where they are coming from. Every morning I get a list of the companies that have visited my site, which tells me a great deal about who I'm attracting. it also gives you the search terms that they are using to find me. The daily report looks like this:

LeadLander Daily Report

TODAY'S TIP: View contact info by clicking on the link to Jigsaw in LeadLander.

 

	Pageviews		Company		Most Recent Visit		Search Terms
	12		NORTHWAY FINANCIAL AND ITS AFFILIATES Berlin, NH, United States		11/19/2009 9:02:07 AM
	5		COMCEL GUATEMALA S.A. Guatemala City, Guatemala		11/19/2009 11:16:21 AM		transparency measurement
	4		KDPAINE-&-PARTNERS,-LLC Berlin, NH, United States		11/19/2009 9:01:24 AM
	2		Canandaigua Wine Company Constellation Brands Rochester, NY, United States		11/19/2009 4:47:20 PM
	1		Risk Management Services T2 Secondaries Louisville, KY, United States		11/19/2009 9:55:46 AM
	1		Keller Williams Realty Intl Austin, TX, United States		11/19/2009 6:52:18 AM
	1		General Electric Company Fairfield, CT, United States		11/19/2009 8:03:23 AM

Prices start at $1900 a year and if you develop a system to follow up on these visits, it's well worth it.