The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

KDPaine & Partners and USO are finalists for PR News Platinum Award

NEWS ALERT

Contact: Katie Delahaye Paine

Phone: 603.682.0735 

kdpaine@kdpaine.com 

July 29, 2009 --BERLIN, NH — KD Paine & Partners, a leading public relations and social media measurement firm, and USO (The United Service Organizations) a non-profit dedicated to serving the needs of those serving in America’s military, are finalists in the annual PRNews Plantinum Award competiton in the Research and Measurement Category. PR News, a major trade publication among communicators, will announce the winner at the award ceremony in New York City on October 21, 2009.

The Platinum Awards are a highly competitive program that honors the best PR campaigns of the year.

 

The research project, aptly named, “Creating the Perfect Measurement System,” includes evaluation of messaging, exposure, favorability, positioning, and most importantly, the impact of PR activity on the organization’s revenue and awareness goals. 

The research program gathered news from more than 475 media outlets to determine the extent to which the media was helping communicate USO’s core messages and values – and the extent to which the presence of those messages contributed to increase web traffic and donations.  

“The USO’s program is truly a perfect measurement program,” said CEO Katie Delahaye Paine, who founded her company in 2005 with non-profits in mind. “It doesn’t only track activities or outputs; it actually measures the impact and outcome on the organizations mission.”

The awards were judged by a blue-chip panel of PR executives from corporations, agencies, nonprofits and associations, leading educators and industry consultants. The full list of finalists is available at www.prnewsonline.com.

This is actually the second time that KD Paine & Partners has won accolades in the PRNews Plantinum competition. In 2007, the firm won top honors in the Research & Measurement category based on its work for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons: “Using Content Analysis to Demonstrate Efficacy and Formulate PR Objectives.” 

About the USO

The USO (United Service Organizations) lifts the spirits of America’s troops and their families.  The USO is a nonprofit, charitable organization, relying on the generosity of the American people to support its programs and services.  The USO is supported by Worldwide Strategic Partners AT&T Inc., BAE Systems, The Boeing Company, Clear Channel Communications, The Coca-Cola Company, Gallery Furniture, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, S & K Sales Co. and TriWest Healthcare Alliance.  Other corporate donors, including the United Way and Combined Federal Campaign (CFC-11381), have joined millions of individual donors to support the USO.  For more information, please visit our Web site at www.uso.org.

About KDPaine & Partners

KDPaine & Partners is a New Hampshire-based consultancy that provides plans, products, and services that help PR, public affairs, and marketing professionals measure their success and make better, more informed decisions for their organizations. In addition, it is the publisher of the industry's first measurement blog (http://kdpaine.blogs.com) and the world's only international newsletter entirely devoted metrics and evaluation, KD Paine's Measurement Standard at: http://www.themeasurementstandard.com.  For more information about KDPaine & Partners, go to http://www.measuresofsuccess.com.

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The Very Best of The Measurement Standard

Measurement of a Measurement Publication

 

The top 10 most popular articles.

Here is your chance to catch up on the most popular writing about public relations measurement, but without having to wade through months of publications. Below are links to the top five most widely read articles for The Measurement Standard web newsletter, and The Measurement Standard Blog Edition (as ranked by Google Analytics' pageviews since Jan 1, 2009).

(The Measurement Standard web newsletter is posted on a website, with monthly email updates to subscribers (subscribe now at no cost, just click here). The Blog Edition includes the same articles as the newsletter, as well as a few extemporaneous odds and ends.)

Notice that only one article appears on both lists. Although the content of the two publications is almost identical, reader response to articles has always been somewhat different between the two platforms. The different platforms seem to reach different audiences.

The Measurement Standard Web Newsletter Top 5

1. The Measurement Standard's Social Media Compendium:
   A listing of all Measurement Standard articles about social media.
2. Measuring Community on Social Networking Sites:
   A detailed how-to guide for measuring MySpace and Facebook.
3. Easy Strategies To Get Started Measuring:
   Quick and simple techniques to start measuring your programs and impress your boss.
4. The All-Purpose, One-Size-Fits-All Public Relations Measurement Program Checklist:
   Everything you need to know before you start any public relations measurement program. Don't leave home without it.
5. 10 Social Media Metrics:
   How to make social media more measurable than traditional media.

The Measurement Standard Blog Edition Top 5

1. 15 Ideas for Low-Cost Social Media:
   KDPaine & Partners advises MADD on starting conversations without breaking the bank.
2. The All-Purpose, One-Size-Fits-All Public Relations Measurement Program Checklist:
   Everything you need to know before you start any public relations measurement program. Don't leave home without it.
3. The Geography of Buzz:
   Mapping Cultural Excitement
4. The Measurement Maven of the Month Awards:
   The Participants in the Non-Profit ROI Poetry Slam at SXS
5. How To Evaluate Events and Sponsorships:
   Six basic steps, five final lessons and four additional resources.

KDPaine & Partners Will Solve Your Measurement Problems

A Little Sales Music, Please...

 

We've designed hundreds of measurement programs. And we'll design one for you, too.

KDPaine & Partners' research has helped hundreds of communicators build successful PR, communications and social media programs. But KDPaine & Partners doesn't just do public relations research -- we design public relations research. Research that will measure and evaluate any sort of program. Social media, ROI, reputation -- you name it, and we've probably designed research to measure it.

All our research is custom, designed specifically to meet a client's needs. We don't push a particular methodology or a particular number or index. Whatever the best data or stats or techniques for your research, that's what we use. We answer your questions and solve your problems with the techniques that make sense for your situation.

Big projects, little projects. Challenging projects, straightforward projects. We love to do them all. Because what's really important is solving a client's problems. Whatever your questions about your program, we'll design a way to answer them. And we'll provide you with results you can use.

Katie Delahaye Paine is Your Measurement Guru

Katie Delahaye Paine claims that only three times in 23 years of doing measurement has she been unable to design research to measure a client's program. She's a well-known speaker and author and innovator of new measurement techniques. In fact, she's developed some of the measurement techniques now standard in the industry.

Katie is not just a measurement guru, she is your measurement guru. She'll sit down with you and discuss your situation. And she'll design a way to use measurement to get answers you can really use.

From Facebook to Fortune 500, It's All Relationships

The big picture is that it's all relationships. From Facebook to Fortune 100, the goal of PR and communications is to develop and maintain valuable relationships. And KDPaine & Partners prides itself on measuring relationships. Not just PR, but the relationships that result from PR. In fact, Katie Paine wrote the book on measuring relationships. (There's an ad for it over in the right hand column of this page.)

Most importantly, it's about your relationships. Your relationships with your customers and stakeholders are what's behind your business and your brand. And that's where KDPaine & Partners can help you. Is your PR working? Easy. What's your image in the media? No sweat. What's your relationship with your stakeholders and how does your PR affect it? Now that's a good question. And one that KDPaine & Partners can answer.

So, call us (603.319.1055) or email Katie Paine. Let's talk social media measurement. Or trust measurement. Or media monitoring. We love to talk about measurement, and we love to solve your measurement problems.

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.