The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition

The Measurement Standard Readers’ Survey Results

by Bill Paarlberg, Editor — A couple months ago we invited Measurement Standard readers to take our 2014 Readers’ Survey. If you were one of the 60 readers who completed the survey, thank you very much. If not, well, you’ll get another chance next year. And in the meantime, if you what to let us know what you think, then just write to me, at tmseditor [at sign] salienceinsight.com. And if you’d like to receive an email each month with a summary of our recent articles, just use that form in the upper righthand column of the page.

New AMEC Online Course in Social Media Measurement

AMEC College, the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication’s online training facility, is running a Short Course on Social Media Measurement from June 16 to July 21. Aimed at in-house professionals and consultants who are responsible for social and/or digital strategy and want to improve measurement practice, the six-week course is open to employees and students anywhere in the world.

Want Useful Analytics? Set Goals

This article was first published in the CARMA blog.

By Katie Eickhoff — One of the easiest ways to start your development of a measurement plan is to develop measurement goals. Whether you’re looking to find out whether a particular message reached a particular audience or whether you were perceived favorably over a particular period of time versus your competitors, pick something you’d like to learn from your data and then determine how you can gather it. Goal-setting is a vital means of gathering useful analytics and I’m always glad to see when people tout the benefits of goal-setting and consistently flabbergasted when people overlook targeting their goals.

The Long March to Measurement Standards — Two Vital Next Steps

Long-time Measurement Standard contributor Jim Macnamara calls for more collaboration between industry and academics and points to next steps. He will further outline a new approach and model for PR measurement and evaluation at the upcoming AMEC Summit.

by Jim Macnamara — The ‘march to standards,’ as Tim Marklein and Katie Paine described the international project to develop standards for measurement and evaluation, is no small or brief undertaking. Nor is it an unimportant one. To the contrary, I take my hat off to those who have planned and initiated the ‘march’ and I urge those not yet enjoined in the quest to do so. Your future, and the future of public relations, depends on it.

Eye Contact and Public Relations Measurement’s Empty Head

by Bill Paarlberg — It has long been my opinion that public relations measurement does not adequately take into account the psychology of the consumer (“See Public Relations Measurement’s Empty Head”). We examine articles to count impressions and tally sentiment, but rarely stop to examine how a human being actually thinks about and processes the information presented to them. (A welcome exception is in how the new measurement standards have encouraged the consideration of just what engagement and influence mean.)

Now comes an article by Kate Murphy in today’s New York Times, “Psst. Look Over Here,” about new research on eye contact, and how effective it is in advertising: 

Boost Your Writing Speed and Creativity With the Good Kind of Pressure

Daphne Gray-Grant's Rapid Writing

Maybe it's aging, but I don't usually like the idea of writing under a whole bunch of pressure. (Unless of course it’s the magic pressure of 5 minutes.)

When I was younger, however, pressure was the only thing that could persuade me to write. At university, I did an honours degree in political science and had to produce a thesis. It was a nightmare! I ultimately finished the 50-page monster for only two reasons: (1) my professor refused to give me any more extensions, and (2) I finished it by writing and editing for three days straight, no sleep. Once graduated into the newspaper business I was little better. It always took the threat of an imminent deadline to extract the words from my brain and fingertips.

AMEC 2014 Summit Promises to Up the Game

Top speakers from NATO, UNICEF, HM UK Government, Lenovo, Booz Allen Hamilton, Cleveland Clinic, ING, and Booking.com are participating in the AMEC International 2014 Summit on Measurement, Upping the Game – from Measurement to Insights in Amsterdam, June 11-12.

How to Research and Prioritize Stakeholders for Social Media Measurement

Angela Jeffrey's Salient Insights

This is Part 4 in the series Rescuing Ourselves from Social Media Measurement Dinosaur-dom. In past editions I have shared my journey from social media measurement confusion toward comprehension and beyond! The journey culminated in a social media measurement white paper published by the Institute for Public Relations: “Social Media Measurement: a Step by Step Approach… using the AMEC Valid Metrics Framework.” 

The State of Measurement Standards: David Geddes On Where They Are, Where They Are Going, and What They Mean For You

Today we’re speaking with David Geddes, Managing Director of Geddes Analytics and past Chair of the Commission on Measurement and Evaluation of the Institute for Public Relations. He is Chair of the Coalition, the group of industry leaders that have developed standards for the measurement of public relations.

 

TMS: Hello David, thanks for speaking with us. How would you sum up the current state of measurement standards?

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.

The State of the Measurement Industry Four Years After the Barcelona Principles

Q. and A. with Giselle Bodie – Media measurement has made major advances in the four years since the framing of the Barcelona Principles, says Salience Insight CEO Giselle Bodie, but further education on best practice is key to highlighting its value and relevance to communicators and the wider business community.

> Four years on from the creation of the Barcelona Principles, what do you think is the overall state of PR measurement?

At Salience Insight, we have clear evidence that PR measurement is growing and in good health. However, while it is pleasing for the industry that, slowly but surely, it is establishing a foothold in the wider PR and marketing consciousness, we are still a ‘work in progress.’ Much works remains to be done still on educating the market about best practice in measurement.

From Dinosaur to Measurement Hall of Fame

by Angela Jeffrey

A few weeks ago I was honored to be inaugurated into the 2014 PRNews Measurement Hall of Fame in Washington, DC. It was an ironic award for me given that my entrée into the measurement world was a by-product of a little software program my family developed in the late nineties called PRtrak. PRtrak provided AVE and audience impressions data for print, broadcast, and online media “a la carte,” and was (and remains) the only software to do this. PRtrak was acquired in 2002 by SDI, a Philadelphia-based analytics firm; was spun to VMS in 2005; and today resides with BurrellesLuce! 

Why Ethical Standards are Needed for PR Research, Measurement, and Evaluation

Michelle Unfiltered—Measurement and Other Things That Make Me Go Hmmmm.

by Michelle Hinson

Ethics has been on my mind a great deal lately.

A client recently asked me to publicize a primary care physician hired to expand their beauty and wellness clinic to include primary care. During a brief Google check of the doc’s background, I discovered he was on probation for inappropriate sexual contact with two female patients. He admitted guilt. A psychiatric evaluation concluded he should not be allowed contact with female patients. The client was well aware of the situation yet didn’t tell me. They were actually a bit shocked that I uncovered the information.

Salience Insight Scoops Global Industry in AMEC Awards 2014 Shortlist

The AMEC Summit is in June in Amsterdam

Congrats to Salience Insight, which has achieved more shortlisted entries for the AMEC Awards 2014, generally regarded as the industry’s ‘Oscars’, than any other global media measurement company. The winners will be announced at a Gala Evening Summit and Awards Dinner during the AMEC (International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication) European Summit in Amsterdam on Thursday, June 12.

Salience Insight has been shortlisted for no fewer than eight categories:

Step Up and Take the IPR Measurement Standards Pledge

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.

The Value of a Consumer's Social Media Engagement to General Mills? $8.5 Million.

A year ago, a Facebook fan was worth $174.17. Today it's up to $8.5 million. The New York Times'  Stephanie Strom reports this morning that General Mills has included language on its website  "...to alert consumers that they give up their right to sue the company if they download coupons, “join” it in online communities like Facebook, enter a company-sponsored sweepstakes or contest or interact with it in a variety of other ways." Considering that last year GM paid $8.5 million to settle a single consumer complaint over product packaging, this new social media engagement tactic dramatically raises the potential value of a like.

No longer equated to what a consumer might spend, a Facebook like is now worth what a consumer might sue for. Henceforth, in considering the value of social media engagement to organizations, public relations measurement may find that expenses avoided are far more important than such trifles as promoting sales. -- Bill Paarlberg, editor, The Measurement Standard

Update 4/18/14: The NYTimes ran an update today, quoting a not-quite-eloquent General Mills spokesman: “No one is precluded from suing us merely by purchasing our products at the store or liking one of our brand Facebook pages. For example, should an individual subscribe to one of our publications or download coupons, these terms would apply. But even then, the policy would not and does not preclude a consumer from pursuing a claim. It merely determines a forum for pursuing a claim. And arbitration is a straightforward and efficient way to resolve such disputes.” 

3 Lessons From Tax Time to Benefit Your Writing

Daphne Gray-Grant's Rapid Writing

It's April. And in many parts of the world that means only one thing: Tax season. (Cue scary music.) This means I've been busy flattening out crumpled bits of paper, desperately trying to locate missing receipts, and wondering, why, exactly, I spent $169.95 at Office Depot on August 19, 2013. But finally, after more than a week of alternating between despair ("this is awful; I'll never get it done") and giddiness ("hey, my columns actually balanced!"), I finally had everything in shipshape for my patient accountant.

As I couriered the big envelope to his office, it occurred to me that preparing for the taxman (or woman) actually offers three important lessons in how to approach writing.

Your Practical Guide to Media Analysis Measurement Standards: The Geddes, O’Neil, and Eisenmann Sample Media Codebook

Julie O’Neil, David Geddes, and Marianne Eisenmann

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.

Angie Jeffrey's Measurement Ah-ha Moment

Salience Insight's own Angela Jeffrey (Managing Director, U.S.) was inducted into PR News’ Measurement Hall of Fame yesterday. Congrats to Angie and all the other new Measurement Hall of Famers. Here she is talking about her Measurement Ah-ha Moment.

Great Brand Blunders: Hard and Humorous Lessons from Campaigns Gone Wrong

Author Rob Gray answers questions on his new book about marketing and social media disasters, Great Brand Blunders.

Q: Why did you write Great Brand Blunders?

A: That's summed up by the very last line of the book: “Shame lies not in failing, but in failing to learn from failure.”

Outstanding creative work should be celebrated, and best practice case studies should be shared wherever possible. But my feeling is that, as a learning opportunity, nothing comes close to a crash-and-burn. We all learn from mistakes. Surely it’s better to learn from the mistakes of others rather than having to go through the pain of messing up ourselves. That’s the insight at the heart of the book.

Salience Insight Acquires U.S. Operations of Carma International

Salience Insight, the global media evaluation specialist (and owner of The Measurement Standard), is acquiring the U.S. operations of CARMA International, the first company to commercialize media content analysis in the United States.

The acquisition brings together two of the recognized leaders in the global media evaluation industry, which sources estimate is worth in excess of U.S. $100 million¹.