Katie Delahaye Paine's Measurement Blog

Stupidest survey of the year award

So the friendly folks at Bacons decided that they needed to know more about bloggers... so they decided to do some primary research -- a move we would normally applaud. But rather than engage me in a conversation, or at the very least, use the medium we're talking about to get the information, they send out a poorly worded document in WORD, no less, that didn't even make it clear how to respond. If we ever needed a perfect example of why Mainstream Media  corporate types DON"T GET IT..  here it is..  Whoever is behind this survey needs to take Cluetrain 101.

How to measure blogs

That seems to be the question of the hour.  So we've spent the better part of the past week reading the best of the web on the topic. And there's a lot of good info out there. One post from Mark Rogers of Market Sentinel has developed a "net promoters index" that takes the number of bloggers that would recommend your brand, subtracts the number that would NOT recommend your brand, and comes up with an index number. It's a simple approach, and we're always big fans of simplicity. We particularly like his recommendation that you look at the index competitively.  Rogers claims that there is a direct correlation between the index and sales, and we can see his point. If the number of detractors outnumbers the number of promoters, chances are your reputation is being trashed and sales will be impacted. Just ask Dell.

For those of you looking to answer that ever-present question "do blogs matter" you might want to check out the Blog Relations PR Survey that asked 50 PR professionals their opinions on blogs. 80% said that they felt that blogs could be useful to your business and 60% said that they thought that blogs could do damage. While the sample was limited, they have no axe to grind, unlike the recently released data from Intelliseek that tell us that consumers 50% more likely to be influenced by word-of-mouth behavior than radio/TV ads.  Of course Intelliseek makes its money by measuring word-0f-mouth, so what do you expect them to say.

Finally, for those of you trying to measure links, there's this excellent review from the Blog Herald of the top five services to measure links.

Other good sources of information on blog measurement include this from Forrester's Charlene Li.

Another thing I learned in Canada

If you haven’t had a chance to catch Shel Holtz speaking on blogs, wikis, RSS and other 21st century tools is really missing out. He turns all those latest buzzwords into meaningful communications tools in a way that makes them seem comprehensible as well as compelling. Knowing his schedule, I’m sure he’ll be coming to a hotel room near you sometime soon, but in the mean time check out his podcast.. 

What happens when there are to many choices?

True leaders do need measurement because sometimes there are just too many "right things to do."  You do occasionally need research to help you figure out which ones are the best ones. At any given time, I could ask my friends in Corporate America to sponsor our Concert for a Cure (we raised $23,000 for breast cancer survivors with the first one), public radio (I'm on the board of NHPR, the Political Library (THE First in the Nation Primary organization) or the creating a local library in Durham, NH.  Obviously a company like Delta Dental or Anthem benefits more directly by being involved with  a health-related event like Concert for a Cure, than they would from building a library in Durham. So with apologies to Ed, with the tugs at our heartstrings and purse strings multiplying daily, sometimes you do need research to figure out which ones resonate best with your mission and your audience.

The Canadians do things right

For all of us folks who keep threatening to emigrate to Canada after our candidates lose elsections, I’ve found my furutre home. Halifax, Nova Scotia is a lot like Maine and New Hampshire except the beaches are more pristine, there are no golden arches and the people are incredibly friendly. And, boy do they know how to put on a conference. I’m up here at the  IABC Canada conference and I have to say it is one of the best organized and managed conferences at which I’ve had the pleasure of speaking. The first night they fed us lobster, corn on the cob and chocolates, the next night featured great local fare and an hilarious pub crawl through all the best local establishments led by a guy on bag pipes. The speakers gifts are all home-made and include a generous donation in the speakers name to a local charity. Questions from the audience were really good, and of course I always appreciate how many people show up to learn more about measurement.

On a totally different tack, I wish Portsmouth, NH  would  learn a thing or two from this very big, and very successful port city.  The city of  Halifax has really done development right. There’s a wonderful boardwalk, a marvelous restored pier building that tells the stories of the millions of immigrants who first set foot on Canadian soil in Pier 21. Best of all there are no ugly condos blocking the view, and the fast food chains like Starbucks are relegated to the malls outside of town.

Give this person a raise.

I am definitely a sick puppy. There I was at midnight last night, watching WomenRock, the amazing Melissa Etheridge breast cancer special on Lifetime --  truly one of the most moving things I've ever seen on television -- and, with tears streaming down my face, wondering briefly at how many people were watching the show, then speculating on  how they measure their success and finally thinking that whoever the sponsorship manager is at Target deserves a raise.

I've been a Target fan for awhile, in part because of their "Pink" page on their web site, and in part because they make good stuff with great style, and in part because they are the anti-Walmart. Walmart woke up way to late to realize that they really do need society to give them permission to operate and that they can't just bully their way into our wallets or buy their way to good PR. Target, on the other hand, supports causes that appeal to their main target audience, women shoppers. And they do it in a way that is tasteful, focused, and brilliant. The ads last night were understated, while their support of the cause was strongly stated.

A few weeks ago, every ad in the New Yorker featured a Target logo. Many were New Yorker style cartoons. They were funny, elegant and again, right on target (sorry) for the audience.

Last night's show was a classic example of why traditional measures of success don't work any more. Sure someone can count the eyeballs,  but how do you measure the passion that the show evoked and the spillover respect  that I now feel for Target and the other sponsors. How do you measure the fact that I will drive 50 minutes to shop at Target and won't ever step foot in a Walmart again despite the fact that there are three within 15 minutes of my house. How do you measure the fact that some number of people will read this blog and others and spread the word further? (well, actually, you can in fact count the links and the TrackBacks which is a measure of the social networking that's going on. Check out Shel Holtz's presentation at IABC Canada.)

And actually, if Target were to survey their customers (which they do on a regular basis) they would find out all these things. Come to think of it, they probably do measure all the above, and that's probably why they're so good at communications. 

Third Annual Measurement Summit Report

The leftover lobsters, clams and corn on the cob have all been turned into chowder; my house looks a little more like a residence than an restaurant, and the 100 + attendees of the Third Annual Measurement Summit are now presumably back at their respective desks implementing all the wonderful ideas they picked up. Well, maybe not so much. But the Institute for PR ran one heck of a fun summit last week in Durham. The talks were, as usual, very high level and there was much more of a focus on marketing and branding than on media relations. Among the more thought provoking was Jonathan Low's predictive modeling of the contribution of communications and PR to the bottom line. His company, Predictiv.net, specializes in measuring intangibles for corporations and his work reflects a holistic attitude towards summing up the impact of what we do. Look for a review of his book, Invisible Advantage, in the upcoming issue of The Measurement Standard.

The networking opportunities provided by the Fall Foliage Cruise (even though the New Hampshire trees refused to cooperate and were still quite green) and the Clambake, were as always the best part of the conference. It's always great to see people with highly sophisticated measurement programs sharing their war stories with people just getting the fever. And of course, there was all the usual gossip and deal making among the various assorted PR measurement providers, almost all of whom attended, with the notable absence of Bacons/Observer Group.

Look for more details on the presentations and what we learned in the upcoming www.themeasurementstandard.com

Finally, maybe, a solution to the on-line readership numbers

The Newspaper Association of America has come out with a new database, NADbase, that goes a long way towards settling the ongoing debate over how to count eyeballs. We call them Opportunities to See (OTS) others call them impressions. Either way, ever since the rise of the Internet, there's been a debate over how to account for the people you reach with stories online. Now the NAA has aggregated the data for readership, Web usage and demographic data for the largest 100-plus newspapers, by readership, in the top 75 U.S. markets. It also includes data for three national newspapers.100 print and on-line newspapers. Even more useful, it translates it into reach numbers.

According to their press release: "Each publication’s print readership data—all of which already is available through third-party syndicated services—will be broken down by gender, age group, household income level and total reach within their designated market areas. NADbase will further include average weekday readership, cumulative weekday readership, Sunday readership and readership over four consecutive Sundays.

Newspapers’ on-line usage numbers, covering a 30-day period as tracked by Nielsen//NetRatings in New York City, also will be included in the report. Approximately 95 percent of the print data comes from Scarborough Research in New York City, whose data-collection processes are accredited by the Media Ratings Council.

In total, NADbase represents the first industry-wide effort in the history of U.S. newspapers to package uniformly measured total audience reach data into a single report, NAA says. Future versions of NADbase could include additional newspapers and metrics, and even possibly a listing of each company’s ancillary products, such as Spanish-language papers, Total Market Coverage publications, youth tabloids and lifestyle supplements.