KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

How to measure social media podcast

In one of the all time moments of modern technology, I did this podcast on How to measure social media success while on my cell phone heading up to Berlin. I was a mile or two from Franconia Notch, NH, looking at the snow capped mountains, Paul Gillin was in Framingham and David Strom was in the midwest.  Now that's technology at work!

More good thoughts on blog measurement

Six Recommendations For Measuring Your Success » Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik > Web Analytics Blog.

The Long Lost Jeremiah Podcast

I met up with Jeremiah Owyang at a conference in Silicon Valley last summer, and the resulting podcast just got posted here.

Late but still thankful.

Susan Getgood tagged me in Kami's Thanksgiving meme 
and since these two women have inspired ME tremendously over the past year, how could I not chime in here. The question was: Who had a big influence on you and how did that affect the direction of your life or career?"
At first, given the date, I thought of whom I was grateful for -- and reluctantly my parents came to mind. My mother had in 1965, according to Life Magazine, the best job for women in America -- she was editor of Harpers Bazaar. She was a pretty lousy mom, but a very good editor and surrounded herself with smart, savvy and very professional women, so all my role models growing up were high-powered editors so it never occurred to me that women didn't belong at the top of whatever mast head or organization I chose to work at. While she failed miserably at making me into the perfectly coiffed and dressed daughter she always wanted, she did a damn good job in instilling in me a great love of the written word and a ridiculous work ethic.
Then of course there was my father to whom I am grateful for my brains, my perspective on the world, my intellectual curiosity and my skill on a bulldozer and tractor, which he taught me to drive at age 5. I also curse him daily because he didn't teach me timing.. My motto still is "never wrong, just early..."

But then I reread the question and realized it wasn't really about gratitude but  about influence. And for that there is no question. The first big influence was an editor named Geoffrey Precourt, at the Boston Herald, who truly taught me how to write in a way that made people want to read my copy. He'd tear every column and story I wrote apart word by word and make me write again and again until it was really good. He'd probably be appalled by my blog.
Geoffrey was followed by Charlie O'Brien who was an even better at turning me into a real reporter and understanding what made news news. Charlie gets extra points because he introduced me to Shel Israel who continues to inspire me on a daily basis.
But then there's Mike Austin, who was running his own agency in Silicon Valley back in 1982. I was the newly minted MarCom manager at Fujitsu in search of an agency. When the nice Southern receptionist asked him for his badge back at the end of our very first meeting, without missing a beat he said "Badges, badges, we don't need no stinkin badges."  I figured anyone with that much irreverence was the agency for me. I was one of his first clients and we created award-winning campaigns together for years. He was part of the team that launched a little product called the LaserJet back in 1984. The marketing plan he wrote for us back in 1983 was so good and so comprehensive, I still use elements of it today. In a few short years he taught me everything I needed to know about high tech marketing. When I started Delahaye some 20 years ago, he was the first person I called. I asked him why he'd gone out on his own. He explained that he was genetically unemployable" and that to him, anything was preferable to working for someone else. After 10 years in Corporate America, I knew exactly what he meant. So I added "genetically unemployable serial entrepreneur" to my resume and the rest is history...

So thanks Kami and Susan for doing this, and now I'm tagging Shel, Josh Hallett, Dawn Prince, Avinash  Kaushik  and Paul Gillin.

Most fun post of the day from Salon's Roadies

Now the truth is, I've always secretly wanted to be a campaign reporter, and Michael Scherer's partner in crime, Walter Shapiro is one of my all time heroes, so when I saw this
You, too, can be a campaign reporter!  quiz, my life was nearly complete -- of course until I found out that all I did was qualify for DesMoines and a drink at Centro.

A great example of how a few people can destroy the reputation of the whole

When I went to Colombia and was running in the morning and enjoying the sites, friends at home would email me about how dangerous it was. As my hosts so eloquently pointed out, there were only 4000 insurgents in a country of 4 million people. And yes, in the US media all you hear about is the drug lords, but reality is not necessarily onveyed by the American media. BBC NEWS correspondent Hugh Sykes gives another great example.
As someone who spent last Thanksgiving in Islamabad at one of the best Thanksgiving Dinner of my life, I couldn't agree with him more.

That Southern Hopsitality is for real

Just now getting back into the swing of things after a week in Houston, Atlanta and Virginia. But I"m here to tell you, Southern Hospitality is for real. The folks in Houston were so friendly I didn't want to leave -- never mind eating so much at dinner that I couldn't move. I've never seen (or consumed) a larger or more delicious piece of dead animal in my life.
But from the moment  you land in Atlanta, the Southern thing is palpable. I took Marta in from the airport and they actually greet you and help you find your way. Compare that to New York that essentially leaves you on your own to figure your way thru the hostile crowd with no signage, no luggage ramps or escalators and when you get on an subway with  a suitcase you're looked at as if you are either crazy, or at best, taking up too much space.  When I emerged from Marta and headed off in the wrong directions with a confused look on my face, a kind gentleman asked me where I was going and got me straightened right out. When I left, it was blowing like stink and quite chilly, so the nice bellman at the Wyndham hotel gave me a lift to the nearest Marta station.
And all of that is just the kindness of strangers.
Never mind the wonderful hospitality of the folks at CocaCola that hosted the Executing Social Media Conference, my clients at Georgia Tech who treated me to a wonderful dinner and the memorable breakfast with Mike Neumieir from Arketi Group at the famous Silver Skillet. But the real highlight was hooking up with my childhood friend Sissy Steinbreder. Last time I saw her, I think she still had pigtails and a million freckles.Now she's advertising director at The New York Times in Atlanta and we both look just like our mothers. But she's just as funny, and warm and wonderful as the girl I remembered from 20 years ago. I'll never forget just how strong those bonds of childhood can be. 
Then it was off to Virginia where Charleen Wheeless at Raytheon provided me one of the most intellectually stimulating couple of hours I've ever spent. Charleen is what we call a Sashet -- a true goddess of metrics and measurment. She actually knows how to program in SAS! She loves data and makes decisions based on it and totally understands how to combine and learn from the data she collects. The conversation ranged from tying PR to sales to her role as a "risk mitigator" which may be the most insightful description ever of the real job of a  corporate communicator. 
I came home to a very cold house, a cat who wasn't sure who I was, and an empty refrigerator  (what do you expect when you've been traveling nearly continuously for 6 weeks) -- but oh do I miss that Southern Hospitality.

This is a great set of questions that everyone should answer

Marketing Profs Knowledge Exchange is asking How do you Measure Success?

What we learned in Atlanta

Sally Falkow has written a great summary of the highlights of the Executing Social Media Conference in Atlanta.

And Josh Hallett has of course documented it beautifully

A new wrinkle on the old AVE debate

I was asked to respond to this query from the PRMindshare Group Yahoo group. Never mind that this is a perfect illustration of why social networking is such a great way to exchange information.. it was such a sad comment on our industry, I had to post about it

Here was the question in its entirety:

 

As I've discussed before when the topic of ad equivalency has been brought up, I have to track ad equivalency. My adminstration understands dollars therefore any attempts to do away with ad equivalency in the past four years have been met with a resounding NO.

I'm fortunate that in my job I rarely have to deal with negative coverage, but for the second time in the past four years I'm now forced to deal with it. We've had a situation occur that has brought negative attention to the organization. The situation has been covered by some newspapers. I feel that ethically I must include the coverage, even if it is negative in my quarterly report. I also feel that I must assign it the ad equivalency because every other clip is assigned the ad equivalency.
What I'm faced with is knowing that when my associate v.p. is handedthe report he will demand that I erase this coverage from my report.I know I will be asked to do this because he asked me to do it in myfirst six months on the job when a negative story came out. When I refused that first time I was told I may leave the clips in the report but must subtract out the dollar amounts. For example, if my total for the quarter was $200,000 in ad equivalency and this one particular negative story was worth $2,000 in ad equivalency, my report had to reflect $198,000 in ad equivalency. Is subtracting out the dollar amount of the negative coverage really the answer? Your guidance in this matter is appreciated.

SO many issues here it's hard to know where to begin. First of all, if the CFO of your organization went into the Director or the Board or the Executive Director or anyone else in charge, with an accounting system based on bad data or worse bad theory, they'd be fired in five minutes. So how does your VP get away with with presenting fraudulent data? Yours is a government organization, and as such, paid for by voters and subject to sunshine laws. I'm not sure about the laws of Arkansas, but in most places knowingly presenting falsified data is illegal.

Secondly, Ad equivalency is based on the assumption that advertising and PR are equivalent, when we know they are not. PR is about building relationships and reputation and earning media. Advertising is when you pay to get your messages in front of a desired set of eyeballs. It's the equivalent of redoing your bathroom and when its all done calling up a landscaper and asking them for a quote to do the same thing.

Finally, even if you could somehow prove, and no one ever has, that an editorial and an ad have identical impact on a readers opinion, how in anyone's mind could a negative story be worth $2000. Would you PAY to place a negative story in a paper? This makes no sense.

If you must compare advertising and PR, look at the cost per message communicated. Look at your coverage and determine what, if any of the coverage contains your key messages. Then add up the circulation figures of ONLY THOSE ARTICLES that contain your key messages and leave the reader more likely to support your position or do business with the company. Divide your PR budget by the total number of opportunities to see your key message and you get a Cost per Opportunity to see a Key Message. You can then take your ad budget, look at how many opportunities to see that you've paid for. Comparing the two numbers gets you to the relative value of PR.

Then, print out those results and take them with you on your next job interview, which I strongly recommend you schedule tomorrow. Working for someone that unethical is not doing your career any good.