KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

Two more Measures of Twitter Influence

Not that we need another "grade" in our lives, but this will make some people feel important Twitter Grader - Measure Your Twitter Mojo.

And then I found this one as well:

From Measurement to Menus

Just to prove their IS life after (or more accurately in addition to) measurement-- my former COO, Jill Ury and her husband are featured in this great piece about their new restaurant, Gracie's Diner, now open on Deer Street in Portsmouth

More on measuring conversations and Twitter

This is a great piece eon how to measure your share of conversation on Twitterc using Tweetrush and Twist. The only problem is that most topics don't get enough "chatter" going to actually register on Twist. But if you're responsible for a major brand, this works.

Where I spent my summer vacation

I'll admit, I've never been a huge fan of New Jersey. I know nice people who come from there, but it's always been a place of too many people, too many stores and too many cars for my taste. And then I discovered  Sedge Island.
In one of those meant-to-be-moments, I was the only bidder on a weekend on Sedge Island being offered up as a raffle item at a conference I was speaking at 2 years ago. Having no idea what to expect, I checked out their website and blog, and decided to invite two friends to come with me. My friend Lisa I've known since 3rd grade and Sedge is not the sort of place I'd expect her to love, but she loves her husband and he feels about fishing  the way I feel about sailing, so I figured I'd be able to persuade her to come. If nothing else Barnagat Bay is fisherman's heaven. So we arrived via the pontoon boat on Friday morning and settled into this turn-of-the-century rustic cabin, (you can see how unhappy they were :) here we're eating the crabs we caught!

We settled into bunk beds with a promise of a glorious view of the sunrise. We were not disappointed. This was our first sunrise on Sedge:

We proceeded to spend 3 days kayaking, clamming, crabbing, fishing and reading in what has to be one of the most beautiful peaceful spots on the planet. We got so friendly with the local wildlife, I arranged a special photo shoot with my friend Segrit the Egret who was kind enough to pose for me as the sun set behind her:

And, while I managed to avoid the subject of PR and Social Media Measurement for almost the entire three days, there is, nonetheless, a reason I'm writing about this in a PR measurement blog.

It all got me to thinking about reputation measurement and how, when I mentioned I was going to NJ, the most frequent response was that NJ and vacation in the same sentence constituted an oxymoron. Yet tourism is the second biggest industry in the state. And with places like this, (that's a link to all 200+ pictures I took while I was there ) it's not surprising.

But my point is in this YouTube and Flickr dominated era, we are all well aware of how reputations can be destroyed in a flash (and frequently without a flash). But they can also be changed by the same technology. Simply by showing them surprising photos of a place that you always associated with refineries and turnpikes, I've changed people's opinions.  So next time you're looking at your most recent image survey, trying to figure out what to do about it, don't spend hours trying to refine the message. Just remember that a few photos and/or one YouTube video is worth far more than a thousand words.

UGA Connects Social Media experts

Once again the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications is putting on UGA Connect, which if it is anything like last year's conference, will be a very fun and fascinating discussion about social media. This year's measurement track will feature some of my favorite Measurement Mavens including Jim Fetig and Kathi Wallace of Georgia Tech and Kami Huyse.

Why you still need human being to measure stuff

This could be the silliest survey ever. I recently lost my stylus for my HP iPAQ and ordered a replacement from their on-line store, since you can't buy them in a store any more apparently. So today I received what has to be the silliest  email ever: 

Dear Customer,

Approximately 1 month ago, you purchased or registered the following HP product(s): HP iPAQ Universal Stylus Kit

As part of HP's continuous improvement program, we are interested in receiving your feedback getting these HP products up and running for the first time. It will take about 10 minutes and also provides an opportunity for you to instantly alert HP to any issues or concerns you are currently having. Your feedback will help us to continually improve the experience we deliver to our customers.

To participate in the survey, simply follow this link

Take the survey

Thank you for your participation!

Best Regards,

HP Total Customer Experience & QualityWeb Survey.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate Mark Hurd's obsessions with metrics and HP's desire to measure everything but do you really need to know how long it took me to take a small plastic object out of a package and start using it? It's a stylus for pete's sake!I figured out how to use them while I was still in diapers, but back then they were called sticks.

Don't get me wrong,I'm all for customer satisfaction surveys, but this is a classic example of how a survey can actually result in a less satisfied customer, simply because they left everything up to an automated system.

Seems like an ordinary human might be able to go thru the list of products purchased and at least eliminate those things that have no moving parts and that replace parts that came with the product and presumably  people have known how to use since they first turned the product on.

More importantly, rather than spending the money on surveys like this, HP could improve satisfaction far faster by hiring better support personnel.

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Can social media replace phone surveys?

Blame it on Do Not Call lists and the rising dominance of cell phones, but the cost of conducting market research via phone surveys has tripled in recent years. As a result, as much as our clients may want to listen to their audiences, fewer can afford to do so. So we decided we'd try using  social media instead. We're calling it "MarketFramer" because it's designed to help you better frame your messages for the marketplace.  What do you think?

Oh man, do we need this survey!

Nary a day goes by without me looking at  list of messages we're tracking for one of our clients that I don't wonder how they can possibly expect reporters and/or bloggers to remember HALF of what they're trying to put out there.. Most of the time, our data shows that only one or two messages ever break thru the clutter, anyway. So thank GOD, Metrica has started this survey to find out:  What is the optimum number of messages to clearly communicate for an organisation?  Please give us your thoughts.

Oh man, do we need this survey!

Nary a day goes by without me looking at  list of messages we're tracking for one of our clients that I don't wonder how they can possibly expect reporters and/or bloggers to remember HALF of what they're trying to put out there.. Most of the time, our data shows that only one or two messages ever break thru the clutter, anyway. So thank GOD, Metrica has started this survey to find out:  What is the optimum number of messages to clearly communicate for an organisation?  Please give us your thoughts.