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High definition
PR evaluation
A refreshing approach to measuring and
evaluating PR performance from Firefly
Communications.
Executive Summary
PR has always had an issue proving its worth. For years it has relied on the much-maligned
Advertising Value Equivalence (AVE) methodology, comparing the volume area of media
coverage to the equivalent value in paid-for advertising space.
Thankfully, with the advent of digital channels and the availability of free analytics tools such
as Google Analytics, we can say goodbye to AVE.
PR is no longer just about reputation management. It has a real business role to play. This
can be anything from contributing to sales or securing charity donations, to reducing the
strain on a call centre.
With this maturity comes a demand to move away from purely output-based metrics, such
as coverage volume, to looking at measuring business outcomes and impact.
Firefly advocates an evaluation model based on AMECs 7 Barcelona principles which puts an
emphasis on clearly defined goals that are business focused and take social media into
account.
Recognising that every organisations strategic goals are different, this method for
measuring and evaluating PR performance can also be fine-tuned to individual
organisational requirements.
With this in mind, Firefly has created an evaluation toolkit that can be scaled according to
scope and budget. It is based on four high definition streams of activity:
Each part of Fireflys evaluation offering has foundation and advanced settings and is
suitable for business-to-business or consumer campaigns; SMEs and large corporates; as
well as business, charities and public sector organisations alike.
Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................... 1
Why counting cuttings needs to be retired............................................................................... 3
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Media impact................................................................................................................. 8
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Search Contribution..................................................................................................... 10
1. The attribution problem - how can the direct and indirect impact of PR be singled
out as a contributing factor, particularly when compared to call to action activities
such as advertising?
2. A requirement for PR to move beyond just creating potential reach and visibility, but
having an observable impact on business outcomes such as sales.
3. The rise of social media organisations reputations need to be managed outside of
traditional media. Understanding where traditional media and social media intersect
and the relative dynamics is still a work in progress for the industry.
4. Can PR influence online visibility, particularly via search engines? If so, can it be
proved?
There are a number of factors for PRs to consider when evaluating the impact on reputation.
These include the posts, tweets and shares on social networks themselves. How many are
there? Whos posting them? Are they influential? Where are their posts appearing? How
many people are seeing them? Whats the sentiment? What is the short, medium and long
term impact on reputation?
Then there is the impact and comparison with mainstream media. So, is the media coverage
driving social media conversation, or is it the other way around? Or a combination of the
two? What is more damaging, a negative tweet from an influential Twitter user or a negative
mention in a newspaper?
Until recently, the recording, measurement and evaluation of media and social media
coverage has happened in isolation. This has been partly a technical issue (service providers
simply havent been able to integrate these two) and partly an issue of measuring
readership and circulation in different ways.
6.
7.
Source: AMEC
Setting objectives
In line with the first Barcelona principle, the objective setting exercise is key. We understand
that communications objectives are inherently impossible to evaluate, but that doesnt
mean to say we cant work on meaningful metrics. These need to be discussed openly
between agency and client neither party is best placed to set them alone. We advocate
using the SMART model and define objectives that are measurable, achievable, relevant and
time-sensitive.
1. Business Goals
The Holy Grail for PRs has always been to answer the question, what effect does PR have
on my business? Its a false assumption to say that PR cannot contribute to business goals
(why bother otherwise?) Previously PR has arguably been more about visibility and
awareness and concentrated on measuring the volume of coverage, but ignored what
happens next. If a customer or prospect ventures on to an organisations website, PRs
havent been able to prove whether this was due to what they had been doing - either
directly or indirectly.
One way of evaluating the impact of PR on an organisations business goals is by looking at
the effect on website performance. This assumes, of course, that a website is vital to an
organisations business goals (which isnt true 100% of the time).
Google Analytics, the ubiquitous web analytics package, provides the ability to track much
more than traffic volume. In fact, to use Google Analytics just to monitor the number of hits
a site gets is, at best, just a small fraction of the picture and, at worst, can be extremely
misleading. Indeed, Google Analytics can track much more including offline data in diverse
areas from retail sales to interaction with exhibition stands.
Rather than just look at web traffic, Firefly works with organisations to set Goals that are
relevant to the business objectives. For example, this could mean sign-ups to a new service
or getting prospective customers to download a white paper. Or a combination of Goals.
Google Analytics becomes more powerful still when you start to create Campaigns that
enable web traffic to be attributed to particular activities and audiences for example, a
blog post announcing a new product, or distribution of an e-newsletter about the same
announcement. This is achieved through creating bespoke trackable URLs that can be tied to
individual activities.
One of the limitations of basic Google Analytics usage is looking at the time on a particular
page. How do you know if someone has read something? They may have simply had the
page open and been doing something else. This is where Event Tracking helps.
Lets consider some events that might be useful for marketers and PRs to track:
Who scrolled to the bottom of the page (suggesting that it has been read)?
Which pictures are being downloaded from the media centre and is this after seeing
the press release?
Google Analytics also provides powerful insight into who has visited and interacted with
your site. If you are targeting 18 - 24 year old men with an interest in sport, then getting one
million visits from 55+ women interested in tapestry is a Pyrrhic victory!
Google Analytics can also be used to work towards assessing business results. For example,
by using campaign URLs, you can see which activities generated sales. And to avoid the
attribution problem, Google Analytics has some attribution modelling tools to ensure that
its not the last click that gets all the credit.
Fireflys Foundation Analytics involves setting up and monitoring Google Analytics Goals and
Campaign URLs, all available on a bespoke dashboard, which can be shared via PDF. Well
run weekly reports to give you a good topline summary against pre-agreed performance
criteria.
Advanced Analytics provide a more in-depth analysis of website performance, tied closely
to business goals. In addition to the Foundation Analytics activities, it involves up-front site
analysis and, where appropriate, Event Tracking, Attribution Analysis and on-going support.
One-off reports can also be run to investigate areas of interest for example, looking at the
geography and demographics of users that responded to a particular campaign.
2. Media impact
There are two main reasons to evaluate media impact: firstly, to get a benchmark for share
of voice in the market; and secondly, to identify whether messages are getting through and
out to market. Insights into these two areas should be used to govern the next campaign,
rather than a basis for fee negotiation!
Firefly starts by working with clients to understand the audience(s) in detail, then to build a
highly targeted media list. Only media coverage in these publications should be evaluated.
Fireflys Foundation Media Analytics service meets the basic needs to record and analyse
coverage in key publications, setting benchmarks based on best industry practice. Here we
analyse performance against the media hit list, looking at areas such as readership, type and
sentiment. Coverage is shared via hyperlink or PDF, via our cuttings agency.
With Advanced Media Analytics Firefly offers a more comprehensive service, recording key
messages, sentiment, prominence (e.g. whether the company is featured in the headline or
there is a photo) and spokesperson performance.
A bespoke Advanced Media Performance service is also available to suit an organisations
individual requirements (e.g. tracking individual product lines or reputational drivers).
These services are available either on a single company basis or for competitor tracking.
With multi-company competitor tracking, Firefly only evaluates the coverage (rather than
capturing and sharing it), to keep costs down. Typically, companies will evaluate between
one and five competitors. Reports can be broken down by country or region (e.g. APAC,
Europe).
Measure the impact of your social media activity and how it relates to other PR and
marketing activities
Measure impressions, engagement and engagement rates for tweets and Facebook
updates
Fireflys Foundation Social Analytics service use simple tools such as Klout (as a broad
indicator), Twitter Analytics and Hootsuite to establish social media impact in relation to PR
activities. View/Like scoring can also be added in, if relevant to the communications goals.
Advanced Social Analytics service uses industry-leading tools such as Precise, Radian6 and
Brandwatch to monitor social media activity across multiple channels, including sentiment
analysis and message penetration, identifying opportunities for engagement and issues
resolution.
We never advocate the wholesale use of automated sentiment checking computer
algorithms simply cannot understand all of the nuances of human language so advocate
human-based interpretation and analysis.
As part of Social Analytics, we are also able to integrate Social Media Effect with Media
Impact to provide the full picture.
Clearly, volumes vary between B2B and B2C communications and within industries, so this is
very much a case of picking the right tools for the job.
4. Search Contribution
PR and digital communications make a clear contribution to a brands online visibility,
whether this is through a search engine or via social media activities. Through Google
Analytics we are able to track the effect of campaigns as part of our Business Goals offering,
but knowing what effect activities have had on search results is also important.
To make the most of evaluating the search contribution of PR, we recommend fully
integrating public relations and search campaigns. This will ensure that the PR strategy is
working towards the same goals as the search strategy - for example, by targeting the same
audiences and having consistent keywords.
Fireflys Foundation Search Analytics looks at the number of inbound links that can be
attributed to PR. It provides a simple snapshot of how PR may be helping improve an
organisations search results against keywords.
Advanced Search Analytics is deployed when PR and search is fully integrated. Our search
partners at The Search Agency provide a complete diagnostics package, which includes an
on-site architectural report to identify key issues to resolve any on-going performance
problems. Like the other advanced evaluation toolkits here, we aim to tie the metrics to
business outcomes, rather than outputs.
Firefly is also able to monitor and evaluate performance against search results, working with
pre-defined keywords (also compared to a competitor shortlist). Search Analytics is always
best when combined with Google Analytics.
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What next?
There is no silver bullet to solve the measurement and evaluation issues that have plagued
the PR industry for decades. However, with the advent of digital communications and
powerful and freely available analytics packages, we can get far more clarity about the
effectiveness of PR than in the past. Like all marketing disciplines, the attribution issue
hasnt been completely solved, but thankfully the evidence is growing about how PR can
contribute to a business bottom line, or a charity or government bodys organisational
goals.
If you like what youve heard from us, then why not get in touch for a free consultation to
understand how Firefly can help measure the impact of your PR and marketing
communications activities and how they may help you reach your strategic goals.
Email - hello@fireflycomms.com
Twitter - @Firefly_comms
Phone - +44 (0)203 861 3600
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