David Geddes: Glad to be here. The short answer is that the standards process has come along very well; we now have basic standards in place and are encouraging people to pledge to support them.
Now that the new public relations and social media measurement standards are in place, the next step is to encourage more companies and organizations to use them. The Institute for Public Relations keeps a running tab of the two-dozen-and-growing list of organizations that have pledged to use the standards. There's a form there that your organization can use to join them. Step up.
Public relations and social media measurement standards have received a huge amount of coverage and discussion of late (at least 20 articles here in TMS alone). But never has there been a more practical explanation and example than the sample Media Codebook for media analysis included as part of Geddes, O’Neil & Eisenmann, 2014. (See the detail below.) If you do media analysis, this example codebook is a standards primer, cheatsheet, and guide all rolled into one. If you have any confusion or doubt as to why standards are necessary, or how the heck they are actually applicable to traditional media analysis, here's your handbook.
Last week at The Conclave, two dozen wise and experienced measurement experts worked on polishing up the social media measurement standards posted at smmstandards.com. They pondered the future: "Now that we have the basic standards in place, do we need to continue to meet?"
The answer, arriving this morning thanks to Business Insider, is Yes: "'People Don't Use Words Any More': A Teenager Tells Us How To Use Emojis Properly." Apparently, emojis are all the rage for texting among the younger set. And the very high-brow set as well, see Fred Benenson's Emoji Dick, a translation of Moby Dick into emojis using Amazon's Mechanical Turk.
Here's a leg up for the Conclave in developing measurement standards for emojis: iTunes sells a translator.
-- Bill Paarlberg, editor (Thanks to So Says Miss Brightside for the emoji sample.)
New research implies that a researcher's opinons will bias their analysis of public relations measurement data. Does measurement need stantards for data analysis?
One of the fundamental tenets of public relations measurement is that data-informed decisions are more valuable than gut feelings. But what if people cannot be relied upon to correctly analyze the data?
New research shows that a person's ability to analyse data is strongly affected by their politics, even for those people who have demonstrated ability in data analysis. (See "Science Confirms: Politics Wrecks Your Ability to Do Math" in Mother Jones. Or download Kahan et al.'s original research right here.) The implication for public relations and social media research is that those who analyse data may bias their results based on their opinions or preferences for the outcome.
Continue reading "Public Relations Measurement Must Guard Against Biased Data Analysis" »
Amidst the recent well-deserved hoopla over progress on setting public relations measurement standards, it's proper to recall that early headway in that direction was made by Don Stacks and the IPR with the Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research, originally published in 2002. Don Stacks and Shannon Bowen have now updated the Dictionary. You can download the Third Edition at the IPR website, which says:
The Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research has become one of the most popular papers the Institute for Public Relations has ever published. This third edition covers an expanded number of terms, addition of social media terms and processes, and adds ethics as a category.
Congrats to Drs. Stacks and Bowen for a job well done. I had a fun and informative time browsing through this new edition. Try it, I bet you'll learn something. -- Bill Paarlberg, editor (thanks for the image to The Dictionary of Regional American English)
In today's New York Times is an article by Katie Thomas called "Breaking the Seal on Drug Research," concerning recent efforts of academic researchers and activists working to make clinical drug trial data public. "More researchers are insisting on seeing all the data behind all clinical trials for drugs, not just the rosy reports that companies choose to release."
Remind you of anything on going on in the world of public relations and social media measurement?
Continue reading "Transparency Activists, in Drug Research and Social Media Measurement" »
Read our other coverage of the new measurement standards: So What If We Have Standards?, Cocktail Party Measurement Standards Talking Points, and 7 Reasons Why You Should Implement the New Measurement Standards Now!
OK, so you know there have been new standards developed for public relations and social media measurement. What should you do with and about them? Below is your checklist. #1 will bring you up to speed on just what the standards are, the rest are how you can start using them.
1.
Read the standards at www.smmstandards.org and at IPR's Standards Center.
Extra credit: Read WOMMA’s Influencer Guidebook and AMEC’s PR Professional's Definitive Guide to Measurement.
Extra extra credit: Post your comments, critiques, and encouragement on these efforts.
Continue reading "6 Ways For You To Use The New Measurement Standards: Here's Your Checklist" »
Read our other coverage of the new measurement standards: So What If We Have Standards?, 6 Ways For You To Use The New Measurement Standards: Here's Your Checklist, and 7 Reasons Why You Should Implement the New Measurement Standards Now!
The exciting new progress in public relations and social media measurement standards will be the hot topic of conversation at business-related cocktail parties in the near future. No worries about keeping up your end, though. Just review the talking points below, and you'll sound like an expert. Bonus: If you're going to have any chance at all at getting that cute new account manager to notice you, you're going to need to know enough about standards to get some positive exposure. So pay attention:
Continue reading "Your Cocktail Party Measurement Standards Talking Points" »
The Paine of Measurement
About six months ago in these pages I wrote a piece about the state of measurement standards called “It’s a Bridge, It’s a Bridge!” I made an analogy with the long-anticipated bridge being built across the Piscataqua River between Portsmouth, NH, and Kittery, ME.
I’m thrilled to now be able to tell you that, in terms of social media measurement, we now have the equivalent of a shiny new bridge. (And, as it happens, the actual bridge over the Piscataqua is almost finished.)
by Katie Delahaye Paine
New standards for social media measurement have recently been developed by a diverse group of organizations, and largely as a result of the Barcelona Principles. Read the standards and about the process of their development at www.smmstandards.org. And please post your comments there; the official comment period is open through July.
Here are seven reasons why you should start using these new measurement standards in your work right away:
Continue reading "7 Reasons Why You Should Implement the New Measurement Standards Now!" »
Definition of a Menace:
Any vendor or agency claiming to have a “universal measure” of anything having to do with social media.
The latest examples of this type of villain are Starcom MediaVest Group and ShareThis, who earlier this week announced that they've used the magic of algorithms to blend two proprietary indices into a “universal measure of social activity on the web.”
When Research and Standards Collide
There were two papers at IPRRC 2013—one by Marianne Eisenmann and Julie O'Neal, and one by Sean Williams—that have significant impact on the Conclave's pursuit of public relations and social media measurement standards.
This webinar from Carma International presents Dr. Jim Macnamara, Professor and Deputy Dean at University of Technology, Sydney. He identifies and explores several key concepts of public relations measurement, including engagement, relevant influence, and impact/value. It's really a broad review of what public relations does and how it can be evaluated. It also includes an overview of current standards efforts, and a model of how PR efforts link to business outcomes. --WTP
The Digital Analytics Association, in conjunction with SMMStandards, has proposed definitions for the terms "item," "mention," "reach," and "impressions." You can view and post your comments on these definitions at the #SMMStandards site. Here's a quick summary:
-- ITEM: An ITEM of content is a post, micro-post, article, or other instance appearing for the first time in a digital media.
Comments: This definition of ITEM replaces “clip” “post” and other unclear terminology. ITEMs of content refer to the content vehicle in its entirety, which means that a single ITEM can contain multiple MENTIONs and derivatives. Derivatives of ITEMs such as comments, likes, etc., should not be counted as additional ITEMs.
“I cannot stress often enough that what science is all about is not proving things to be true but proving them to be false.” --Lawrence M. Krauss