KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

33 years of passion

Yesterday,  when I heard the news of Kennedy’s death,  I was in my garden, and the tears came unwittingly. I had no idea why the tears flowed, just that I was sad. Then I realized that I was not crying for  Ted Kennedy or his family, but for this country, that lost a voice it so badly needed right now. I cried because I fear that with the loss of Ted Kennedy, we have lost any hope of passing health care reform. And then I cried when I remembered just how long it had been that Kennedy and smart people like him, have been fighting for health care reform.

It was probably 1976, and I was a young reporter assigned to cover a community meeting on health care for the Boston Herald. Senator Kennedy was there, I can’t remember if he was the speaker, or just there to listen, but I engaged him in a conversation about the topic of the day. At the time, I was a typical 20-something, and health insurance was one of those things, like financial security and mortgages that was a foreign concept to me. So it took some explaining.

The innovation he was promoting was the concept of an Health Maintenance Organization (HMO),  a new type of insurance company that would pay you to stay healthy – what a concept. Kennedy patiently explained the concept, illustrated it with examples, and continued to explain it until I had my ah ha moment, finally grokking the concept. I wrote what I’m sure Fox news would consider a fawning piece on the event. But what I remember most is both Kennedy’s knowledge of the topic and his passion for the issue.  

So yesterday morning, I started counting the years, ,33,  since I first experienced that passion.  That’s a very long time to hang on to a dream. The tragedy of the Kennedy’s is not that their men die to young. But that they die before they can see their dreams come true.  

The ultimate consequences of measuring the wrong thing

For the past week, Rachel Maddow has been exposing the wave of faux protests as nothing more than "Corporate PR."
Whether its busing in employees to make it look like there's a real protest movement against legislation to stop climate change, stealing letterhead to promote coal, or getting employees to express ersatz anger against health care reform, these efforts are doing irreparable harm to the reputation of our industry. Each one takes another blow at PR's crediblity and corporate trust. Why would anyone believe us after all this? 
More importantly, why do the PR people and corporations behind this fakery think such manipulation and falsehoods work? Because they are using measures of success that are just as false as the tactics they are using. While I don't know for sure, if you believe recent reports, chances are good that the PR people behind these schemes are most likely measuring the wrong thing. As they've done for years, they are counting eyeballs and making some impossible calculation relative to what it would have cost to purchase the space aka Ad Value Equivalent (AVE) . Because people carrying guns to presidential rallys and screaming at town hall meetings make for good cable-TV, these affairs are getting lots of coverage. And, that translates into soaring AVE numbers and lots of eyeballs. So PR people and their bosses that believe these numbers continue to roll out these astroturfing campaigns. Despite the fact that each one is another nail in the coffin of PR's (and their own) crediblity. Whether the efforts will actually have any long-term benefit to the corporations they serve remains to be seen. 

For all those who cling to the "traditional media" model read this and weep

Newspaper Industry Ad Revenue at 1965 Levels
I'm so glad my parents are alive to watch this.. it's ugly

State Declares Air Quality Action Days - Press Releases 2009 - Media Center - NH Department of Environmental Services

State Declares Air Quality Action Days - Press Releases 2009 - Media Center - NH Department of Environmental Services.

I couldn't have said it better myself

Asi Sharabi has done such a good job analyzing the problem(s) with social media monitoring technologies,
that I wouldn't presume to add anything to it, except that the first question you need to ask your vendor is, what is your intercoder reliability score. If its under 80% run in the opposite direction because you'll never be able to adequately defend your data in front of the board or the c-suite. You need human verification to make sure what you're actually reporting on is even relevant to your business.

Mourning The Barn

 

3654 days ago my house died, killed by an overheated exploding  Honda lawnmower at the ripe old age of 269. I know that houses don’t normally “die” – they fall down, or get sold, or burn, but mine truly died. The Barn, for that was its name, was so much more than a house or even a home. It was a concept, a haven, a refuge, a retreat, a party, and a continuous ongoing project. My friend Jerry Short even wrote a song about it. 01 Track 1 Unknown Album (1-16-2005 1-25-28 PM)

 I was in Sturbridge, Mass, about 2 hours away when I got the phone call. Chris O’Neill who was working there at the time called me and said “your house is on fire” and I knew I would never see it again. The Barn was a wood structure, built in 1730 and turned into a home in 1960 that my father filled full of books and antiques. We used books as wallpaper – countless bookshelves everywhere.

My father always said it was a fire trap, and the good news was that no one died in the blaze, and all that burned was just stuff. And it made for some wonderful black humor – as in the list of the “Best Things about having your house burn down” .   My friends/employees Beth Roed and Lisa Binzel drove me home, and I kept threatening to tell the media that I knew would be waiting that I was going to run for congress as “the first homeless representative from New Hampshire.”  Lisa, the PR pro, suggested that perhaps that was an inappropriate message.

We arrived to dozens of fire trucks and friends and chaos. The first thing I noticed was that the peonies that were planted up against the edge of the house had survived. Somehow that gave me enough hope to dry my tears and face the Fire Chief who put his arm around me and held me up as he walked me around the disaster that had been my home. I looked for the granite counter top – and all I could find was gray mush. I found my closet in a twisted mass of Closetmaid smoldering on top of my favorite yellow suit and the remnants of 2 pianos.  I randomly picked up a charred remnant and it turned out to be the masthead of the March 1941 issue of Fortune, the first one with my father’s name on it as Managing Editor.  I recognized it because it matched the sundial  made from the original plate that his staff had given him upon retirement. It survived and still sits in my garden. I call it Time on Time on Thyme.

My cousin called and I apologized to him for burning up the family manse. His response was perfect “You’ve been the curator for too long, go build your own house.”  So I did.

There was lots of magic at work. The builder and architect of my dreams happen to be free,  it was a remarkably snow-free winter, friends came out of the woodwork to help me rebuild and 11 months later I moved into my new house.

So here it is ten years later, and I still get teary writing down these memories. Because, you see, I still mourn what was. Not that I don’t love my new house, but when the old one died, it wasn’t just a lot of historical objects that were lost, but a way of living. The new house has all the modern accoutrements that one could wish for. Bats, squirrels and other wildlife no longer terrorize my house guests. I have modern bathrooms that work, big airy bedrooms and lovely garden views, a basement that is always clean and dry, a greenhouse and a fabulous home office that allows me to sit here on this gorgeous day and feel breezes wafting across my desk.  But for all of that, maybe it’s the times, maybe its my age, but right now I’d give it all up to go back to that simpler time.

How to REALLY Measure the Effectiveness of Social Media

Linda Popky recently interviewed me for her Marketing Thought Leadership series on the subject of how to REALLY measure Social Media .

Welcome Twitterville!

The highly anticipated new Shel Israel book, Twitterville launches on August 23rd. and I'll be there! .

Come out and dance for a cure on Thursday

All of you New Englanders come on out on Thursday and Dance for a Cure -- at Odiorne State Park in Rye.