Five Steps You Can Take Now to Apply the New Measurement Standards In Your Organization

At the Dublin Summit last week, new industry standards were announced for traditional media analysis (Proposed Interim Standards for Metrics in Traditional Media Analysis) and for social media measurement (read more here). Here's how to bring these new measurement standards into your organization.

Step 1: Retire AVEs.

Are you currently using Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)? If so, stop doing it and implement valid measurement alternatives.

Step 2: Hire to the new standards.

If you are considering hiring a social media measurement or monitoring firm, include the new Transparency Table in your RFP. If you are considering hiring a traditional media monitoring or analysis firm, consider only those that are in compliance with the Proposed Interim Standards for Metrics in Traditional Media Analysis. Inform any firm that is not in compliance of your reasons for rejecting them.

Step 3. Review the standards with your vendors.

If you are already using one or more measurement or monitoring firms, check in with them and review both sets of standards with them.

Step 4. Use the Transparency Table to determine just what you are measuring.

For your social media monitoring or measurement vendors, ask them to fill out the Transparency Table, then compare them. If they can not or will not complete the whole table, or their entries vary too much to be acceptable, indicate that before any contract is renewed they must be in compliance with the standards.

Step 5. Promote the standards.

Go to the next meeting of PRSA, IABC, or other industry group to learn and spread the word about the new standards.

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