The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

Relationships, Radian 6, and Community Love

The Radian 6 blog has a nice post on relationships, "10 Ways to Show Your Community Love," that talks about the importance of relationships between brands and their communities.

Relationships are far more important in PR than most people realize. See the Hon and Grunig paper "Guidelines for Measuring Relationships in Public Relations."  Or, for that research applied to social media, see "Measuring Naked Relationships" in The Measurement Standard newsletter. And if you'd like to read an entire book on the topic of measuring relationships in public relations, pick up Katie Paine's "Measuring Public Relationships." --Bill Paarlberg

How to Measure Trust and Mistrust

Chapter 6 of Measuring Public Relationships:
The Data-Driven Communicator's Guide to Success

Trust is in the news of late, so we thought we'd exerpt the chapter on measuring trust from Katie Delahaye Paine's book Measuring Public Relationships. The introduction is below. Click here to download the whole chapter as a pdf. (Click here to buy the book.)

Trust, or lack thereof, has a measurable effect on the financial health of an organization. The accounting firm Arthur Anderson was destroyed after the Enron scandal because its clients lost their trust in its results. Whenever news of tainted beef hits the airwaves consumers lose trust in the safety of their favorite burger, and fast food sales take a dive. Conversely, a key to FedEx’s success is that customers trust the company’s pledge to deliver “When it absolutely, positively has to be there” overnight.

When trust helps an organization build relationships with key constituencies, it saves that organization money by reducing the costs of litigation, regulation, legislation, pressure campaigns, boycotts, or lost revenue that result from bad relationships. A high level of trust helps cultivate relationships with donors, consumers, investors, and legislators who are needed to support organizational goals. When employees trust their employer they are more likely to support the mission of the organization and be satisfied with their jobs. Lower employee turnover has a direct impact on the bottom line. Trust from the financial community is critical to an organization’s access to capital and therefore its ability to grow. Good relationships with the media can often avert a crisis...

Click here to download the whole chapter as a pdf.

Thanks to Shel Holtz for a Glowing Review of "Measuring Public Relationships"

A big thanks to Shel Holtz for his glowing podcast review of Katie Delahaye Paine's indispensible new book "Measuring Public Relationships!" (Yep, I edited the thing, so it makes me quite happy to report this breaking news.) Read more about the book -- and place your orders -- here. Or just call Sheila at the office and tell her you want to buy a few copies and she will send them right out: 603-319-1047. --Bill Paarlberg

KDPaine & Partners Releases New Book on Measuring PR and Corporate Communications

Your Measurement Reading List

Measuring Public Relationships Makes Measurement Simple

Measuring Public Relationships, The Data-Driven Communicator's Guide to Success by Katie Delahaye Paine, 228 pages, paperback. ISBN 978-0-9789899-0-3. Order online or by phone: 603-319-1047.

BERLIN, NH, Dec 12, 2007-- The first how-to book on measuring relationships for public relations professionals was released today by KDPaine & Partners, the Berlin, NH-based leader in social media and public relations measurement. Measuring Public Relationships, The Data-Driven Communicator's Guide to Success was written by KDPaine & Partners' CEO, Katie Delahaye Paine.

Paine takes a "cookbook" approach, providing specific steps to measure all forms of public relationships, from social media measurement to tracking relationships with local communities, industry analysts and social networks. It relies heavily on the relationship theories of James and Laurie Grunig and Linda Hon but translates the theory into an easy to read practical guidebook. The book has been well received by academics and professionals alike who have called it "the must-have practical guide to hands-on PR measurement." Emphasizing the role and evaluation of relationships, this book provides every public relations professional with step-by-step research procedures for measuring programs, improving results, and managing relationships.

"It really is an excellent book," said Professor James Grunig, calling it "lively, engaging, accessible, wise, and candid... a remarkable compendium..."

"Katie Paine is the most practical consultant and educator on public relations research that I know. She is brave enough to link PR to return on investment demands and smart enough to provide marketers and PR professionals with a wide range of useful research tools. If there is cost effective way to do research, Katie Paine will tell you about it," said Clark Caywood of the Department of Integrated Marketing Communications at the Medill School at Northwestern University.

"By force of prose and experience, Katie Paine level-sets the practical and now critical disciplines of media and communication measurement. A student of Grunig theory and a champion of the almighty relationship, Paine plops on every communicator's desk the best new reference for measuring the intangible. Read it, and you'll count your successes," said Alan Kelly, CEO & Founder, The Playmaker's Standard, LLC and author of The Elements of Influence. Adding that it's "...the best new reference for measuring the intangible."

Measuring Public Relationships is available at a 25% discount until January 31st, 2008 when ordered directly online or by calling the KDPaine & Partners' office at 603-319-1047.

New Book on How to Measure Relationships is Now in Final Proofing and Available for Download at No Charge

The new book "Measuring Public Relationships" by Katie Delahaye Paine is a practical guide to hands-on public relations measurement. As public relations professionals realize, PR measurement is a multi-disciplinary combination of communications, research and statistical methods, social psychology, and office politics. Katie Paine's new book adds the study of human relationships to the mix—a theme that’s always been present, but that is now far more accessible thanks to the recent development of practical survey techniques for measuring relationships. Katie's book is now almost ready to be printed, and interested readers can download it as a pdf file here.