The Top 10 Most Popular Articles from The Measurement Standard in 2011

 

Every January we present our readers with the opportunity to experience the best of a year’s worth of The Measurement Standard's excellent and eclectic coverage of public relations measurement and social media measurement -- without having to wade through all those emails and blog posts. Based on the highly dubious concept that if everybody else liked them, then you might too, we present these most popular articles for your reading pleasure. Or maybe just because you'd like to know what other people are reading.

So, here is our annual roundup of the top 10 most popular articles from The Measurement Standard. Don't miss the three bonus lists down at the bottom: Longest-Time-on-Page Articles, Humor Articles, and Top Five Mobile Devices. 

Top 10 Most Read Articles:

1. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Writers 
   Thanks to being picked up by Stumbleupon -- and author Daphne Gray-Grant's catchy title -- this piece on writing better got huge -- and we mean huge -- pageviews. Too bad most of those readers didn't stick around the site to read the other articles, probably not our target audience. But, hey, some of them did, so we got some new readers out of it.
2. Katie Delahaye Paine's New Social Media Measurement Checklist
   Your step-by-step guide to demonstrating solid results from social media.
3. The Grunig Two-Way Symmetrical Model of Public Relations: A Bibliography
   The two-way symmetrical model is part of the Grunig four-model theory of public relations practice.
4. The Public Relations Excellence Theory of Grunig, Grunig, and Dozier: A bibliography.
   The Excellence Theory is the result of a 15-year comprehensive study to determine the characteristics of excellent communications and of the companies that do excellent public relations.
5. How To Evaluate Events and Sponsorships
   Six basic steps, five final lessons, and four additional resources. This is now almost five years old and people still love it.
6. 10 Questions Every Communications Professional Must Be Able to Answer Before Beginning a Measurement Program
   This is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of “Measure What Matters,” the book by Katie Delahaye Paine from Wiley Publishers.
7. The Barcelona Principles Checklist
   A practical program-improvement checklist based on the Barcelona principles.
8. Six Defining Characteristics of the Successful Public Relations Professional of the Next Decade
   The public relations environment of a decade from now will require talents and personality traits somewhat different from today.
9. Fascinating Correlation Research on SAT Scores vs. GPA in Predicting College Performance
   About a NYTimes article on how the impacts of SAT scores and high school GPAs were separated to determine their ability to predict college success at SUNY.
10. 2011 Facebook Statistics
    Everybody likes Facebook stats.

Bonus List! Top 5 Longest-Average-Time-on-Page Articles:
(And what does longest average time on page mean? Maybe these articles were really, really interesting. Maybe they caused the reader to click on a link to other really interesting articles, leaving these article pages still open but ignored. Maybe these are the articles most likely to cause the reader to fall asleep.) 

1. Barbie vs. Hello Kitty Social Media Showdown!
2. Guy Kawasaki’s New Book Will Enchant You
3. How Can We Take Office Politics Into Account When Doing Public Relations Measurement?
4. 3 Reasons Why VMS Failed, and 3 Lessons for Survival
5. Measurement During Tough Economic Times

Another Bonus List! Measurement Humor:

1. Social Media (Humorously) Explained
2. Research Presentation Chart of the Day: Popular Colors of Residential Submarines
3. Humorous Measurement: Top-12 Declining Actors of 2011 
4. Notecard Sentiments in Humorous Chart Form from Quiplip
5. 5 Questions to Ask a Measurement Vendor (Humor)

Yet Another Bonus List! The Top 5 Mobile Devices Used to Read The Measurement Standard: 

1. Apple iPhone
2. Apple iPad
3. (not set)
4. Apple iPod Touch
5. HTC EVO 4G

--WTP

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 --Bill Paarlberg is editor of  The Measurement Standard blog and newsletter, and of Katie Paine's book “Measure What Matters.” He is also editor of the book “Measuring the Networked Nonprofit,” by Beth Kanter and Katie Paine, which will be published this year by Wiley. The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.
 Follow Bill Paarlberg on Twitter.

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