The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

Measure the Media that Are Most Important to Your Customers

The Paine of Measurement

 

 

Make Good Choices
No one says you have to measure every medium on the planet.

When my cousin Caleb was into his "terrible twos" and heading for trouble, his father, who stands an imposing 6 feet 3 inches tall, would look down at him and say in his deep baritone: "CALEB, MAKE GOOD CHOICES." Invariably, Caleb would stop what he was doing, sit down and think for a minute, and then modify his behavior accordingly.

The lesson seems to have taken. Caleb is now taller than his father, and a true teenage heartthrob. With very few exceptions, he makes great choices.

Oh, that PR people had such good survival skills. Sadly, they tend to keep doing the bad stuff rather than embracing the good. Four years ago, a member of the audience at a conference on new media raised his hand and said, "l don't have time to deal with all this on-line stuff, I'm too busy as it is."

I wonder how many PR people in the 30's and 40's said the same thing about radio and television. "Woe is me, one more thing I have to learn how to do." Rather than embrace the new, PR people tend to look at new media as yet another burden to be borne. And once they start measuring and tracking one media, they find it extraordinarily hard to embrace a new one. In the last month, at conference after conference, people have whined about how hard it is to deal with social media, and why they don't have the time or resources to measure it.

My answer is: Make Good Choices. No one says you have to measure every medium on the planet. Just because it's new, it doesn't mean you have to monitor it. You can and should choose to concentrate on, and measure, the media that are most important to your customers. If they're on Facebook and YouTube, you better be monitoring them. If they're sharing ideas on Twitter and photos on Flickr, it would behoove you to sign up and listen in. On the other hand, if they're still reading hard copies of trade magazines, then that may be all you need to monitor.

Better still, measure the impact on the customer directly. As Jim Macnamara writes, the average person sees, consumes and creates dozens of different media every day. If you have an unlimited budget, you measure all of those different media. But it's so much simpler to just measure the behavior of the consumer instead. Ask them how they perceive their relationship with your organization. Follow their behavior on your website. Watch and see how engaged they are with your blog. That's all the measure you need.

As long as PR people obsess about tracking column inches and "hits," of course they are going to be overwhelmed with the possibilities and the burden of measuring them all. But if they focus on the outcome – the actual customer behavior – chances are they'll survive and thrive in this new hyper-media world.

Can Ellen DeGeneres' Reputation Be Saved?

Is Ellen DeGeneres Still in the Doghouse?

It all started so simply. Who'd a thunk that adopting a cute puppy from a local shelter could potentially destroy a career? But naturally, it's a bit more complicated. When Ellen DeGenere's significant other Portia de Rossi adopted a Brussels Griffon mix terrier from Mutts and Moms, a nonprofit rescue organization, she signed all the standard paperwork. She should have read it a bit more closely.

When, after ten days, the dog "didn't work out," she gave it to her hairdresser, in violation of the contract. But, according to Mutts and Moms' rules, if an adoption doesn't stick, you're supposed to bring the animal back to the shelter from which you adopted it. Not pass it on to someone else. So the shelter repo'ed the dog from the hairdresser, and then the fur really began to fly.

Ms. DeGeneres didn't feel like obeying the rules. She had her publicist threaten the shelter and then ultimately took the story to the airwaves, sobbing. Using her show as a platform, she generated outrage and ultimately death threats against the owners of the shelter, painting them as cruel and heartless.

The only trouble is that, in this ever-more-transparent world, it only took a few days for the Smoking Gun to post emails showing the real story.

And so what about Ms. DeGeneres' reputation? As always, for die-hard fans, nothing will lesson their love of Ellen or her show. But in the eyes of many, particularly those who followed it in the blogosphere, the episode was at best embarrassing, and at worse did serious damage to her credibility. Will it blow over? We think, eventually, yes. Although it might take a dog's age. -KDP

Measuring Customer Engagement

Three Approaches to
Measuring Customer Engagement
Whether it's engagement with your blog, your brand, or as the result of a relationship, there are ways to measure it.

by Katie Delahaye Paine

(For more on engagement, see Jenny Schade's article in this issue, "Seven Steps to Ignite Employee Engagement: How to overcome data doom and gloom.")

There's been a lot of talk of late about measuring customer engagement, most of which is music to my ears. The less we focus on HITS (How Idiots Track Success) and the more we focus on the customer, the better we can all do our jobs.

In answer to the question, "Why measure engagement?" I've been quoting my father (Ralph Delahaye Paine) a lot of late. In the 1960's he told a group of advertising executives:

If we can put a man in orbit, why can't we determine the effectiveness of our communications? The reason is simple and perhaps, therefore, a little old-fashioned: People, human beings with a wide range of choice. Unpredictable, cantankerous, capricious, motivated by innumerable conflicting interests, and conflicting desires.

And, while we've come up with lots of good ways to measure what human beings read, we're not so good at tracking their innumerable conflicting interests and conflicting desires. To me, if we can measure engagement, we will have (pardon me for stretching this analogy too far) gone far beyond sending a man into "orbit," and taken a giant leap for marketing man- (and woman-) kind.

Measuring engagement necessitates following the actions and desires of the customer. It doesn't matter what media he or she consumes, it matters what they do with the information once they've gotten it.

Measuring Engagement on the Web

If it's a blog you are measuring, determine first what it is that visitors do that is important. Do they come back to it again and again? Do they comment, do they link to it? Do they come to it of their own accord, by typing in the URL directly? Or are they searching for something and happen to find you? Do they read it on a regular basis? Do they subscribe? Do they tell their friends about it? All of these are measures of their level of engagement.

If you want specific metrics for blogs or websites, here the ones that Eric Peterson recommended at his presentation at eMetrics. Note that he uses a sum of measures similar to these to derive an engagement score. (See also his blog on this.)

1. Percent increase or decrease in unique visits

2. Change in page rank, i.e., a list of the top ten most popular areas and how it has changed in the last week

3. How many sessions represent more than five page views?

4. In the past month, what percent of all sessions represent more than five page views?

5. Percent of sessions that are greater than five minutes in duration

6. Percent of visitors that come back for more than five sessions

7. Percent of sessions that arrive at your site from a Google search, or a direct link from your website or other site that is related to your brand

8. Percent of visitors that become subscribers

9. Percent of visitors that download something from the site

10. Percent of visitors that provide an email address

Measuring Engagement with Your Brand

If what you're trying to measure is engagement with your brand in social media as a whole, it's a bit more complex, but not all that difficult. The folks at Forrester just produced a white paper that outlines their definition of engagement. Their definition of engagement:

Engagement is the level of involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence an individual has with a brand over time.

They distinguish four components of engagement:

Involvement—Includes web analytics like site traffic, page views, time spent, etc. This is the component that measures if a person is present.

Interaction—This component addresses the more robust actions people take, such as buying a product, requesting a catalog, signing up for an email, posting a comment on a blog, uploading a photo or video, etc. These metrics come from e-commerce or social media platforms.

Intimacy—The sentiment or affinity that a person exhibits in the things they say or the actions they take, such as the meaning behind a blog post or comment, a product review, etc. Services such as brand monitoring help track these types of conversations.

Influence—Addresses the likelihood that a person will recommend your product or service to someone else. It can manifest itself through brand loyalty or through recommendations to friends, family, or acquaintances. These metrics mostly come from surveys (both qualitative and quantitative).

I think the key element of their approach is their willingness to mix the quantitative data, like web analytics, with the human element, such as sentiment and intimacy.

Engagement is the Result of a Relationship

But I would add a fifth level of engagement measurement and that would be based on relationships. At some point, you just need to come right out and ask your audience:

• Do they trust you?
• Are they committed?
• Do they believe you are committed to them?
• Do they interact with you only out of necessity or a sense of reciprocity? Or are you working together to see the other succeed?

In short, ask them to answer the questions in the Grunig Relationship Instrument. Whether you ask them in person, by phone or in an email doesn't matter. The point is that at some point, if you really want to get a sense of health of your relationship with them, you are going to need to ask them what they think.

Because, while you can track their behavior with increasing accuracy, all the web metrics in the world may not answer the fundamental question of why they do what they do? Why did they stop coming to your site? Why are they spending less time there? Why are they buying less?.

Without a true understanding of the nature of the relationship, you won't be able to do anything to improve the level of engagement. (For more on measuring relationships, see my soon-to-be-published book Measuring Public Relationships, available now as a free download.)

Jim Macnamara's 'Measuring Up'

 

Media Analysis Shows Companies Need to Set
and Achieve Measurable
Climate Change Goals
Environmental performance will be a key driver of reputation.

A major new study of public debate and discussion on energy completed by my company, Media Monitors – CARMA Asia Pacific, presents some important warnings and advice for companies, organizations and governments and concludes that environmental performance is likely to increasingly be a key driver of reputation. We used content analysis to examine statements and commentary by organizations, spokespersons and consumers in leading mainstream media and blogs in Australia and major Asian countries including China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The analysis covered discussions of nuclear, coal, wind, solar and other alternative sources appearing in more than 1,500 print news articles, radio and TV program segments and 170 blogs appearing between May and July 2007. It focused on Asia Pacific because China is fast becoming the world's leading polluter. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and uranium, and 16 of 29 nuclear power plants under construction or proposed worldwide are due to come into operation in Asia in the next 10-15 years.

Overall Results:
Companies must achieve measurable targets on the environment or their reputations will suffer.

The report found mild optimism that solutions will be found to balance environmental and economic interests, although serious fears and concerns also abound in relation to safety, the environment and consumer protection.

Specifically of interest to companies and organizations is a finding that they face widespread criticism if they do not implement meaningful measures to reduce carbon emissions. Environmental performance is likely to increasingly be a key driver of reputation, the report says.

The report concluded that companies adopting policies and planning measures to address climate change need to set and achieve significant measurable targets. "Broad unspecific policies and 'aspirational goals' are not going to cut it and may backfire leading to public criticism. There are signs of this already happening," the report warns.

Also:

• Positive messages outweighed negative messages about energy production and use – albeit the margin was narrow. (The analysis examined discussion and comment from the perspective of a balanced position between protecting the environment and maintaining economic development and standards of living.)
• Nuclear energy is the most discussed form of energy and is mired in controversy and near evenly divided opinion for and against, the analysis found. Most opposition and concerns in relation to nuclear power are about safety.
• Solar and wind power are being actively promoted by environmentalists, but are described in most discussions as not being able to make a substantial contribution to energy needs.

Carbon Trading:
Despite a number of initiatives, governments are generally not seen to be doing enough.

Carbon trading is one initiative that is being welcomed by a majority of spokespersons and commentators and is set to become a multi-billion dollar industry over the next few years. However, some are warning that it is still uncertain whether carbon trading will stimulate a net reduction in carbon emissions. Some energy producers and consumer groups have pointed to lessons in Europe where too many permits were issued, resulting in a price collapse below levels necessary to stimulate investment in carbon reducing initiatives.

Also, concerns are being expressed that carbon trading is insufficiently regulated and could lead to scams and fraudulent schemes. One leading environment group has warned that some companies are selling trees without accreditation and that their claims of carbon credits or neutrality are not substantiated. Consumer groups are also expressing concern that consumers may be paying levies and surcharges with no guarantee that their money will be used to address climate change.

The report says:

"While the efforts of some companies to reduce their carbon footprint may be commendable and genuine, there is considerable concern over a lack of safeguards for consumers on how extra charges will be used and whether they will reduce carbon emissions... With carbon trading set to become the next big thing in the financial world, strict regulation of the carbon trading industry, including accreditation and monitoring of carbon offset providers, is seen as necessary to avoid scams and corruption... and to ensure that offsets are real and effective."

Clean coal technology (CCT) is also creating some optimism that a balance can be achieved between reducing greenhouse gases and continuing to exploit vast coal reserves. However, environmental groups and some commentators are cynical, pointing out that the technology is still unproven.

Blog Analysis

Blogs were found to be more unfavorable than mainstream media coverage (48% unfavorable compared with 30% of mainstream media content unfavorable). However, 30% of blog discussion was favorable. While much of this was supportive of renewable forms of energy, some bloggers support clean coal technology and carbon trading – albeit with the same concerns as mainstream media commentators and spokespersons.

Analysis also showed that bloggers often include scientists and technical experts and, therefore, blogs need to be recognized as an increasingly important medium, reflecting the viewpoints of influencers and thought-leaders.

Dr. Jim Macnamara BA, MA, PhD is Group Research Director with Media Monitors – CARMA Asia Pacific which conducts media monitoring, media analysis, e-surveys, reputation research and sponsorship analysis. He has a 30-year career in the media and PR in Asia Pacific and is the author of 11 books on media and communication. In August 2007 he was appointed Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology, Sydney.

Educating the Measurement Mavens
of Tomorrow

 

KDPaine & Partners' DIY Dashboard Gift Helps Students Learn Measurement
Research program moves undergrad public relations students from the classroom to the field.

by Peter Kowalski

Between lessons about the history of public relations, the secrets to a winning press release, and how to design a strong community relations program, students at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication are learning about public relations measurement in a new program that is one of the first of its kind at the undergraduate level.

Led by newly-appointed assistant professor Craig Carroll, almost 100 introductory PR students have been tasked with the design and execution of measurement programs for eighteen non-profit organizations. The projects use media measurement technology provided by research firms CustomScoop and KDPaine & Partners in a $500,000 gift in kind to the school that help students collect, analyze and report on press coverage.

"Public relations is increasingly a research-based profession. Hopefully this will help demystify a lot of the research these students will see in their professional lives," said Carroll, who specializes in the relationship between corporate reputation and the news media. "By having this program in an introductory course, we are emphasizing that research is not a nice-to-have in public relations—it's a must-have."

Students are working in groups of five to analyze the online press of organizations that include Susan G. Komen For The Cure, the American Cancer Society and the Special Olympics. Each student is responsible for rating fifty articles about their non-profit organization, based on a methodology designed by KDPaine & Partners, CustomScoop and Carroll. "Today’s students are so computer and Internet savvy that it makes sense to give them the leading technology tools as part of their educational curriculum," said Chip Griffin, CEO of CustomScoop.

Teams worked with Griffin's firm and KDPaine & Partners to tailor their projects to the needs of their non-profits after analyzing web sites and press releases to detect key messaging strategies and better understand issues that their organizations may be advocating. Groups built research questions, constructed measurable communications objectives, and discussed the role of public relations in achieving organizational goals.

Understanding the importance of goals, objectives and messages in public relations is a core part of the course curriculum, and the program has allowed students to see the impact of well-designed strategies on media outcomes.

"Seeing how these students have risen to the occasion has been beyond my wildest expectations," said Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO of KDPaine & Partners. "They've been able to leverage their classroom knowledge, CustomScoop's collection tools and our Dashboard technology to create world-class programs that are smart, targeted and efficient. With a little help from us, they've really been able to do it themselves."

The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication is regularly ranked among the top five journalism schools in the nation.

Students have praised the program, but noted the amount of work involved in executing a research program for actual organizations. "Before hand, I was definitely oblivious to the research that went on," said junior Josephine Butler, an advertising major in the course, whose research project has focused on Trout Unlimited. "I wouldn't say the project has been easy, but in terms of real-life experiences it's been very important. Now I'm interested in strategic planning and research with public relations and advertising."

Butler's team is analyzing media coverage of Trout Unlimited, America's leading trout and salmon conservation organization, and two other animal conservation organizations to better understand the public relations tactics the non-profits were able to employ to advocate their causes.

Her sentiments were echoed by Stephanie Nobles, a junior journalism and public relations student whose project examines the media coverage of Girls, Inc. "It amazes me how much we can learn about the public relations of their organization just by taking a look at their coverage in the media. I feel honored helping a non-profit organization, and privileged to learn about these advanced research techniques."

To date, students have analyzed more than 4,000 articles, and are preparing to report their results and make recommendations to their organizations. The studies have also served as a test for a new measure of message integrity developed by Carroll that examines whether a desired message became garbled after undergoing the editorial process.

The final results of this semester's work will be used to support further research into non-profit organizations and the media by future students. This semester's teams did offer some advice to students and professionals considering a measurement program. Sarah Schweppe, a sophomore studying public relations, suggested that green researchers "know what you're looking for before you go into it, but at the same time be open to other things, and willing to change your angle."

Which, by another name, can be considered support for mixed a priori and emergent designs in content analysis.

Peter Kowalski is a Project Manager at KDPaine & Partners. He holds a B.A. in Public Relations and Russian from the University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Journalism. While there, he worked closely with Dr. Craig Carroll on projects involving computer-based text analysis for campaign measurement, Weblog taxonomy and editorial-page content analysis.

Public Relations Measurement Technique Sheds Light on Companies' Environmental Reputations

Jim Macnamara's 'Measuring Up'

 

Media Analysis Shows Companies Need to Set
and Achieve Measurable
Climate Change Goals
Environmental performance will be a key driver of reputation.

A major new study of public debate and discussion on energy completed by my company, Media Monitors – CARMA Asia Pacific, presents some important warnings and advice for companies, organizations and governments and concludes that environmental performance is likely to increasingly be a key driver of reputation. We used content analysis to examine statements and commentary by organizations, spokespersons and consumers in leading mainstream media and blogs in Australia and major Asian countries including China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The analysis covered discussions of nuclear, coal, wind, solar and other alternative sources appearing in more than 1,500 print news articles, radio and TV program segments and 170 blogs appearing between May and July 2007. It focused on Asia Pacific because China is fast becoming the world's leading polluter. Australia is the world's largest exporter of coal and uranium, and 16 of 29 nuclear power plants under construction or proposed worldwide are due to come into operation in Asia in the next 10-15 years.

Overall Results:
Companies must achieve measurable targets on the environment or their reputations will suffer.

The report found mild optimism that solutions will be found to balance environmental and economic interests, although serious fears and concerns also abound in relation to safety, the environment and consumer protection.

Specifically of interest to companies and organizations is a finding that they face widespread criticism if they do not implement meaningful measures to reduce carbon emissions. Environmental performance is likely to increasingly be a key driver of reputation, the report says.

The report concluded that companies adopting policies and planning measures to address climate change need to set and achieve significant measurable targets. "Broad unspecific policies and 'aspirational goals' are not going to cut it and may backfire leading to public criticism. There are signs of this already happening," the report warns.

Also:

• Positive messages outweighed negative messages about energy production and use – albeit the margin was narrow. (The analysis examined discussion and comment from the perspective of a balanced position between protecting the environment and maintaining economic development and standards of living.)
• Nuclear energy is the most discussed form of energy and is mired in controversy and near evenly divided opinion for and against, the analysis found. Most opposition and concerns in relation to nuclear power are about safety.
• Solar and wind power are being actively promoted by environmentalists, but are described in most discussions as not being able to make a substantial contribution to energy needs.

Carbon Trading:
Despite a number of initiatives, governments are generally not seen to be doing enough.

Carbon trading is one initiative that is being welcomed by a majority of spokespersons and commentators and is set to become a multi-billion dollar industry over the next few years. However, some are warning that it is still uncertain whether carbon trading will stimulate a net reduction in carbon emissions. Some energy producers and consumer groups have pointed to lessons in Europe where too many permits were issued, resulting in a price collapse below levels necessary to stimulate investment in carbon reducing initiatives.

Also, concerns are being expressed that carbon trading is insufficiently regulated and could lead to scams and fraudulent schemes. One leading environment group has warned that some companies are selling trees without accreditation and that their claims of carbon credits or neutrality are not substantiated. Consumer groups are also expressing concern that consumers may be paying levies and surcharges with no guarantee that their money will be used to address climate change.

The report says:

"While the efforts of some companies to reduce their carbon footprint may be commendable and genuine, there is considerable concern over a lack of safeguards for consumers on how extra charges will be used and whether they will reduce carbon emissions... With carbon trading set to become the next big thing in the financial world, strict regulation of the carbon trading industry, including accreditation and monitoring of carbon offset providers, is seen as necessary to avoid scams and corruption... and to ensure that offsets are real and effective."

Clean coal technology (CCT) is also creating some optimism that a balance can be achieved between reducing greenhouse gases and continuing to exploit vast coal reserves. However, environmental groups and some commentators are cynical, pointing out that the technology is still unproven.

Blog Analysis

Blogs were found to be more unfavorable than mainstream media coverage (48% unfavorable compared with 30% of mainstream media content unfavorable). However, 30% of blog discussion was favorable. While much of this was supportive of renewable forms of energy, some bloggers support clean coal technology and carbon trading – albeit with the same concerns as mainstream media commentators and spokespersons.

Analysis also showed that bloggers often include scientists and technical experts and, therefore, blogs need to be recognized as an increasingly important medium, reflecting the viewpoints of influencers and thought-leaders.

Dr. Jim Macnamara BA, MA, PhD is Group Research Director with Media Monitors – CARMA Asia Pacific which conducts media monitoring, media analysis, e-surveys, reputation research and sponsorship analysis. He has a 30-year career in the media and PR in Asia Pacific and is the author of 11 books on media and communication. In August 2007 he was appointed Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology, Sydney.

KDPaine & Partners' DIY Dashboard Gift Helps Students Learn Public Relations Measurement

Educating the Measurement Mavens
of Tomorrow

 

KDPaine & Partners' DIY Dashboard Gift Helps Students Learn Measurement
Research program moves undergrad public relations students from the classroom to the field.

by Peter Kowalski

Between lessons about the history of public relations, the secrets to a winning press release, and how to design a strong community relations program, students at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication are learning about public relations measurement in a new program that is one of the first of its kind at the undergraduate level.

Led by newly-appointed assistant professor Craig Carroll, almost 100 introductory PR students have been tasked with the design and execution of measurement programs for eighteen non-profit organizations. The projects use media measurement technology provided by research firms CustomScoop and KDPaine & Partners in a $500,000 gift in kind to the school that help students collect, analyze and report on press coverage.

"Public relations is increasingly a research-based profession. Hopefully this will help demystify a lot of the research these students will see in their professional lives," said Carroll, who specializes in the relationship between corporate reputation and the news media. "By having this program in an introductory course, we are emphasizing that research is not a nice-to-have in public relations—it's a must-have."

Students are working in groups of five to analyze the online press of organizations that include Susan G. Komen For The Cure, the American Cancer Society and the Special Olympics. Each student is responsible for rating fifty articles about their non-profit organization, based on a methodology designed by KDPaine & Partners, CustomScoop and Carroll. "Today’s students are so computer and Internet savvy that it makes sense to give them the leading technology tools as part of their educational curriculum," said Chip Griffin, CEO of CustomScoop.

Teams worked with Griffin's firm and KDPaine & Partners to tailor their projects to the needs of their non-profits after analyzing web sites and press releases to detect key messaging strategies and better understand issues that their organizations may be advocating. Groups built research questions, constructed measurable communications objectives, and discussed the role of public relations in achieving organizational goals.

Understanding the importance of goals, objectives and messages in public relations is a core part of the course curriculum, and the program has allowed students to see the impact of well-designed strategies on media outcomes.

"Seeing how these students have risen to the occasion has been beyond my wildest expectations," said Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO of KDPaine & Partners. "They've been able to leverage their classroom knowledge, CustomScoop's collection tools and our Dashboard technology to create world-class programs that are smart, targeted and efficient. With a little help from us, they've really been able to do it themselves."

The UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication is regularly ranked among the top five journalism schools in the nation.

Students have praised the program, but noted the amount of work involved in executing a research program for actual organizations. "Before hand, I was definitely oblivious to the research that went on," said junior Josephine Butler, an advertising major in the course, whose research project has focused on Trout Unlimited. "I wouldn't say the project has been easy, but in terms of real-life experiences it's been very important. Now I'm interested in strategic planning and research with public relations and advertising."

Butler's team is analyzing media coverage of Trout Unlimited, America's leading trout and salmon conservation organization, and two other animal conservation organizations to better understand the public relations tactics the non-profits were able to employ to advocate their causes.

Her sentiments were echoed by Stephanie Nobles, a junior journalism and public relations student whose project examines the media coverage of Girls, Inc. "It amazes me how much we can learn about the public relations of their organization just by taking a look at their coverage in the media. I feel honored helping a non-profit organization, and privileged to learn about these advanced research techniques."

To date, students have analyzed more than 4,000 articles, and are preparing to report their results and make recommendations to their organizations. The studies have also served as a test for a new measure of message integrity developed by Carroll that examines whether a desired message became garbled after undergoing the editorial process.

The final results of this semester's work will be used to support further research into non-profit organizations and the media by future students. This semester's teams did offer some advice to students and professionals considering a measurement program. Sarah Schweppe, a sophomore studying public relations, suggested that green researchers "know what you're looking for before you go into it, but at the same time be open to other things, and willing to change your angle."

Which, by another name, can be considered support for mixed a priori and emergent designs in content analysis.

Peter Kowalski is a Project Manager at KDPaine & Partners. He holds a B.A. in Public Relations and Russian from the University of Southern California, Annenberg School of Journalism. While there, he worked closely with Dr. Craig Carroll on projects involving computer-based text analysis for campaign measurement, Weblog taxonomy and editorial-page content analysis.