There is a great article in today’s NYTimes about the business of ideas (“In Pursuit of the Perfect Brainstorm”). It makes the point that good managers used to be the ones with the data, but now are the ones with the ideas.
And that is becoming true of public relations measurement and social media measurement. We used to say that “Whoever has the most data wins.” With the recent deluge of data, that has morphed to “Whoever has the right data wins.” And now that it is easier to have the right data, the new mantra will be ”Whoever has the best ideas will win.”
Ideas are the new data.
And the future of public relations measurement and social media measurement will be found in ideas. Ideas about how to get data, use data, how to make it reveal its secrets, and how to act on that knowledge.
Katie Delahaye Paine is fond of saying, “Research without insight is just trivia.” As data becomes easier and easier to come by, the insight she refers to becomes more and more important.
Public relations research is now an industry built mostly on trafficking in data collection and analysis. But as data collection becomes more and more automated and standardized (witness Google Analytics) PR measurement will more and more become a discipline based on ideas and insight.
The future of public relations measurement and social media measurement is in trafficking in ideas rather than data. Ideas are the new data.
Thank you Eugene Cho for the photo.
--Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard
The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.
“Data will become the new soil in which our ideas will grow, and data whisperers will become the new messiahs.” 
Of course "IDEAS Are the New Data" - The professional consulting industry has known this for years. Thanks for reminding the public relations measurement industry.
Posted by: 1salam1 | December 19, 2010 at 10:30 AM