KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

Great summary of Measurement of Social Media ROI

Anuncie na internet: How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business.

Is measurement a 10lb. zucchini?

Todd Defren thinks so.. now you be the judge... PR Squared: Nobody Buys A 10lb. Zucchini.

Data can ease the pain

The folks at TruthyPR: ease the pain for brand Motrin.

The value of transparency

We've spent a great deal of time talking about transparency and its role in building trust. The most recent AIG debacle is yet another example of how to put a value on transparency, as my friend  Shel Holtz so clearly points out.
Now in the interest of my own transparency, I know Nick Ashooh, and sit on a board with his brother Richard, and I have the greatest respect for both of them. And I can't imagine what Nick's life must have been like for the past few months. My heart goes out to him and his family, because he probably has one of the worst jobs in America these days. I know, because I also know what it's like in corporate America. I'm intimately familiar with the antiquated logic that tends to prevail in board rooms.

Because he's my friend, and I have a dim view of many old-fashioned corproate executives, I'm assuming Nick gave them his best advice, and they ignored it.
But the point here is that PR's role is increasingly one of getting people to stop doing stupid sh_t. Every day we read thousands of blog postings, articles, and comments to learn how people react to stupid things  that organizations are doing. (We also get to read the positive stuff, when people applaud organizations, and thank them, so its not all that depressing a job.)  This isn't rocket science, we literally sit around and read this stuff.
When the ire reaches a high enough level of intensity, we send off an alert to our clients saying they should pay attention to it. Sometimes we even suggest what they can do to solve the problem. In reality, they probably can't do much. Senior management is still stuck in the dark ages when people thought you could spin your way out of anything, that they just can't bear to open their eyes to the bright sunshine of this new era in which customers, clients, and in this case legislators, can get behind your "firewall" in a nanosecond.
The role of PR is to build relationships, and nothing damages a relationship faster than lies and obfuscations. And in today's world it happens even faster and has far greater financial consequences.
In reality, companies ultimately have no choice but to be more transparent if they have a prayer of restoring the public's trust in their institutions. It's not just that AIG was idiotic in trying to cover up its role in the conference, its that in doing so, AIG further compromised whatever trust the public, and its elected officials, may have had in the organization.
I haven't done a formal measurement of their trust level, but I'm guessing from the comments I'm reading that its dropped even faster than AIG's stock price.So my question is: When will the C-suite wake up and realize that people will only regain trust in these institutions if they are utterly open and transparent. (I know, only when they fire all the lawyers) But seriously, do the math. The cost in reputation, failed relationships, lower trust, and now, government support, far outweighs whatever perceived cost that transparency may entail.

YES, of course WE CAN

I am so sick of marketers, brand managers and product managers saying that you can't measure PR. If that's the case, what have I been doing for the last 22 years?
For those of you who agree with me, feel free to download these buttons and wear them proudly.

Amazing what you can do with statistics and graphical software

These Election maps are an amazing demonstration of what technology can add to the presentation of data and statistics.

A tale of two very different candidates

This doesn't surprise me in the least, we've been saying this for a year, but it's amazing to see the extent of the digital divide between the grumpy old man and the new kid on the block. Snapshot of Presidential Candidate Social Networking Stats: Nov 3, 2008.

For all those people out there trying to define influence: read this

Global Neighbourhoods: Measuring Influence vs. Popularity.

Measure this...

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I love it when people measure results in terms of changing the world. It makes the idiots who still cling to measuring via Ad Value Equivalency look so silly.
Shel Israel's interview with Jawad Boulos  is a great example of how you can measure the impact of social media in terms of fundamental societal change.

Satire meets statistics

It's no secret that I have a crush on Canada. It's mostly driven by "As it Happens" one of my all time favorite radio programs that has me laughing out loud more often than not. But they have some of the best measurement mavens up there, the scenery is gorgeous, its a great place to run, and they can be very funny -- as witnessed by this wonderful use of media analysis done by my buddies at Cormex:-- Who are using statistical analysis to figure out who's being made fun of the most.