The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

Why Public Relations Measurement is Important: Experts Don't Know $#!&!

Any who doubt the importance of hard data in public relations measurement should read Nicholas D. Kristof's op-ed piece in today's NYTimes, "Learning How to Think." He writes, "...studies have confirmed the general sense that expertise is overrated." 

And that's putting it mildly. Turns out, in some cases, expert opinion and prediction is only slightly better than random guesses. (Those of us who own stock and who watch CNBC know this only too well.) 

So, next time you need to make a decision about your PR program, don't listen to someone who claims they know what's what. Look at the data. 

-- Bill Paarlberg, Editor, The Measurement Standard 

PR, Measurement and the Truth

BILL PAARLBERG'S EDITORIAL IMPERATIVE
PR, Measurement and the Truth
"Holy epistemology, Batman! Is measurement the truth?"
PRWEEK has been advertising an upcoming debate on the subject "PR Has A Duty To Tell The Truth." (Gosh,you mean PR sometimes doesn't tell the truth? And here we've been wondering why PR has such a bad public image.) Our position here at The Measurement Standard is that measurement is either done correctly or not. We are not having -- or ever going to have -- the "Should measurement tell the truth?" debate. In the measurement niche of the PR profession, we take it as axiomatic that correct measurement is the truth.