The PR Professionals

Definitive Guide to Measurement

1
Table of contents

About this Guide 3

Chapter 1 - Measurements rapid rise to acceptance. But are you on board? 4

Chapter 2 - Proving The Value of PR: Why Measurement Is Important 6

Chapter 3 - Getting started! Your measurement options and how we created a

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global system in our consultancy

Chapter 4 - A Step-By-Step Approach to PR Measurement 12

Chapter 5 - Measuring PR performance across borders how a global programme

18
works
Chapter 6 - Whats the big deal about the Barcelona Principles and where do we
22
go from here?

Chapter 7 - You can measure social media 26

Chapter 8 - Insights Critical for Effective PR but Must Go Beyond the Bleeding
30
Obvious

Chapter 9 - The client view of what measurement looks like 34

Chapter 10 - Measurement: Encouraging realistic client expectations 37

Chapter 11 - Getting it right: a ten point evaluation checklist 42

Chapter 12 - What we mean! Definitions and terms 44

Top Measurement Tips 55

Like To Know More? 61

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About This Guide
Our aim is to encourage more PR
professionals, working in consultancy and in-
house, to regard PR measurement as an
everyday part of what they do.

AMEC is the fast-growing global trade body and

professional institute for agencies and
practitioners who provide media evaluation and
communication research.
amecorg.com

PRCA is the professional body that represents UK PR

consultancies, in-house communications teams, PR
freelancers and individuals. The PRCA promotes all
aspects of public relations.
prca.org.uk

ICCO is the voice of public relations consultancies around the

world. The ICCO membership comprises national trade
associations in 28 countries across the globe.
iccopr.com

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Chapter 1
Measurements rapid rise to acceptance
- But are you on board?
Francis Ingham & Jeremy Thompson

As recently as three years ago, this Guide would have attracted only marginal interest.

Not now. The development of the Barcelona Principles was transformational in the way it
challenged PR practitioners and evaluation specialists alike to look at the role of
measurement in a new, different and relevant way. Measurement, at its simplest level, helps
PR professionals to prove the value of their work.

ICCO and PRCA are delighted to join together with AMEC in producing this PR Practitioners
Guide to Measurement.

We have published this online so that it is easy to access wherever you are and on whatever
type of screen you are using - laptop, Smartphone or tablet.

Our aim is to remind practitioners that measurement is not an option: that it is a strategic
discipline for the public relations industry. It is a new initiative at the heart of ICCO and
PRCAs work with AMEC to educate PR practitioners as to why it is important to have a
measurement framework in their in-house team or consultancy.

We have deliberately involved measurement companies, their clients, in-house PR teams

and consultancies in the production of this Guide. Contibutors come from Europe, North
America, Australia and South Africa. The Guide has a truly global reach.

This is only the start.

We plan to update and refresh the Guide at six monthly intervals and we welcome feedback
on this first version and what you would like to see included in the first update. Together, we
will show how PR measurement is helping to improve performance and promote the
industry.

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Francis Ingham & Jeremy Thompson's Top 3 Measurement Tips

Measurement is the best way to demonstrate the value of your work - use it;

Be clear about your goals, measure objectively;

Don't obsess about a number, focus on demonstrating the link between activities and
outcomes.

Francis Ingham

Director General of ICCO & Chief Executive

of PRCA

@PRCAIngham

Jeremy Thompson

Chief Executive, Gorkana Group

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Chapter 2
Proving The Value of PR: Why Measurement
Is Important
David Gallagher

Confession: when it comes to measurement and public relations, I am among the recently
converted.

Not because I didnt believe there were ways to measure the outcomes of our efforts (I did)
or because I thought advertising-value equivalencies were sufficient (I did not) or because I
was not aware of the considerable work and scholarship that had been devoted to the topic
by friends and colleagues like Dr David Rockland (believe me, I was made keenly aware).

No, my doubts stirred from a conviction that clients simply did not care. If they did, theyd
gladly pay for it. They would spend enough money up front to establish a baseline before PR
activity began, and enough money at the end to determine whether the overall effort was
worth it.

And in my experience, which spans more than two decades and more countries than I care
to count, clients did not spend money to measure PR at any point of the activity. They spent
on lots of other things celebrities and football sponsorships and risk-management
consultants and a host of other essentials but rarely, if ever, PR measurement.

And then that all changed.

Well, maybe it didnt all change, but enough clients started to ask about measurement and,
in a few cases, even base their agency selection largely on who presented the best
approach to evaluation, to make me question my assumptions. Not exactly a Damascene
moment, but enough of a wake-up call for me to begin to see measurement as a competitive
differentiator for our businesses in Europe and beyond, and later as a necessity for all of us
in PR.

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So what happened? Looking back, we seemed to have gone through a classic push-pull
pincer of external forces economic uncertainty, an explosion of accessible data and a
proliferation of advertising-weakening content platforms and internal developments
global consensus on measurement approaches like the Barcelona Principles, increasing
sophistication of PR services and a serious commitment to proving everything by market-
leading clients (including our own, Procter & Gamble).

In any case, we now find ourselves in a competitive environment that requires what we at
Ketchum are calling a prove everything or die mind-set. Creative ideas and strategic insight
must be rooted in data. The impact of our work must be measured not in output, but actual
outcomes. And the value of our service must be expressible in the precise terminology of
business, not the vagaries of PR. Is it working? The early evidence percentage of pitches
won, the value of assignments awarded, client retention and satisfaction data, and awards
earned all point to yes.

Well, bully for us, you may well say. Our clients still arent paying for measurement, and our
way of working is more like an art than science, and what about the downside of evaluation,
when the numbers dont prove a positive outcome? Why should we change a good thing?

To which I would reply: carry on as you are, but at your own peril. Yes, you may not need to
change to continue to compete, at least for a while. Yes, you may evade procurement teams
looking for evidence-based return-on-investment expenditures. And yes, you may well be
able to persuade savvy marketers that your ideas stand on their brilliance alone, without
need of substantiation.

But by burying your head in the sand youll also miss the enormous opportunity
measurement presents. All too often, the real value of our work is vastly under-counted. The
effect of our advice, service and content is under-represented in year-end reviews. And
opportunities to assess the impact of PR activity versus other expenditures go under-
recognized as outdated advertising equivalencies or impression counts persist. Accurate
measurement is an important step toward establishing the real and usually under-estimated
value of public relations.

And heres the kicker. While at Ketchum we see a commitment to measurement as a

fundamental competitive advantage over those who do not, we fully embrace a future in
which all of our fiercest competitors share this belief. Why? Because the real power of what
we all do can only be unleashed when were all speaking with conviction the same language
about it and that language is measurement.

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David Gallagher's Top 3 Measurement Tips

The age of measuring outcomes in PR is well and truly upon us.

Avoid measurement at your own peril and with significant opportunity costs.

A commitment to measurement is as much an industry issue as a differentiator for

individual competitors.

David Gallagher

Senior Partner and CEO, Ketchum Europe

& President, ICCO
@TBoneGallagher

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Chapter 3
Getting started! Your measurement options
and how we created a global system in our
consultancy.
Andy West

Measurement was the real bugbear of the

public relations sector for a long time. While
other disciplines were able to attach
concrete ROI figures on the work they were
producing for clients, PR was playing
around with AVE and other supposed
signals of how good your media relations
were. The method was flawed from the start:
it was comparing apples and pears. There
were many in the industry who voiced a
concern over the old way, but there was still
no new methodology that we could all apply.

During the mid-2000s, something began to change. The media landscape looked different
and there was a growing importance of social in PR campaigns. At first, people began to say
that social was hard or impossible to measure, but this soon proved to be incorrect. In fact,
the prominence of social helped re-evaluate all forms of PR measurement. Enter AMEC and
the Barcelona Principles. The industry needed a universal methodology that turned its back
on AVE, and this was it. This was the tipping point in the quest to find an authentic and
credible measurement framework for the industry.

The need for measurement in PR has been there for a long time. Yet as the world has
suffered in economic turmoil, more prominence has been paid to budgeting in corporations
large and small across the world. The value of everything has been under scrutiny and so
now, more than ever the important of attributing a proper value on PR is essential. PR is not
about column inches, it like anything else is about making money.

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When AMEC released the Valid Metrics Framework, Hotwire started looking at how this
would align to our existing methodology and thinking something that we have always
valued even before this framework came along. While the changes were not hugely drastic,
the tweaks we implemented helped align our approach to measurement with this new
industry standard. The framework brings credibility and it presents the opportunity to harness
thinking across the industry into a force for change across the agency.

AMECs Framework acts as a brilliant springboard for adoption within different agencies and
is created with adaptation in mind. The primary focus of the Framework to put business
outcome at the forefront and focus of any PR work is something that can be integrated into
any type of PR work, and is something that we adapted quickly. At every stage of the
process, from taking the brief through to management, measurement should be involved.

But how to bring this alive through our business? Being a global agency, we carefully
considered how we would roll out measurement across the international offices for all of our
consultants.

After many in-depth conversations on the

topic between different team members, a
white paper was drawn up based on the
AMEC Framework. This white paper was
released internally, with training and then
catch-up sessions used to help inform staff
of the changes. The framework was
introduced across all levels of the agency
from new joiners through to senior
management because it needs to be
something your team lives and breathes.

International training was rolled out with video and audio conference around our 11 global
offices, and then subsequently with the affiliate network. At the same time, we had been
road-testing the Framework in some client work. With the account leads selling in
measurement to the client, and then leading teams with the new way of thinking in mind,
uptake was quick. It was through the early examples of implementing the measurement
approach that made international adoption easier.

Following the internal launch, Hotwire released its adaptation of the white paper publicly.
With an event and digital white paper, we brought in speakers to reinforce the importance of
measurement within the PR industry and also to offer examples from our own experience.
Now, AMECs Framework is part of all the work that we do.

PR has been looking for a solid approach to measurement for a long time and there is no
doubt that this goes a long way to meeting that requirement.

As an industry we have to adapt our approach speak to the language of the CMO and not
just the PR Manager. Having measurable business outcomes lying at the heart of
communication strategy is an important first step in embedding the philosophy of true
measurement into PR.

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Continued education at all levels will be required to steer clients away from legacy attitudes
in areas such as AVEs but then equally, agencies must play their part in continuing to
develop and innovate in all areas of measurement.

Together, the PR industry can and will become fully accountable for its actions and for the
investment business makes in it. And as an agency, we have taken the first small steps to
becoming part of this shift.

Hotwires Top 3 Measurement Tips

Do the groundwork and engage people at all levels across the agency in the development
of the approach before launching internally.

Identify suitable clients with which to roll out the approach, using the success of the
deployment to facilitate sell in to other clients across the network.

Dont assume universal success immediately; it takes time and sometimes baby steps are
needed

Andy West
Group Chief Development Officer, Hotwire
Communications
@westofcenter @hotwirepr
hotwirepr.com

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Chapter 4
A Step-By-Step Approach to PR
Measurement
Giselle Bodie

Public relations professionals today must measure their work if they hope to be taken
seriously. Measurement has never been more productive and innovative. With the increasing
prominence given to measurement through industry associations, academics and analysis
vendors, it is easier to stay tuned to important media channels, keep tabs on competitors
and anticipate unwelcome surprises than ever before. But to maximize the value and
benefits of a measurement program, its critical to set goals and identify key stakeholders for
the data. How do you get the process started without spending a fortune or risking
repercussions from an unsuccessful program? The tips below are a step-by-step routemap
to get you going in the right direction!

FIRST: CLARIFY YOUR

ORGANISATIONAL GOALS

An organisational goal is a
broad idea of what you would
like to achieve, stated in clear,
simple terms. Typically, these
over-arching goals cluster
around the following:

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 Increase revenue and/or lower costs
Increase customer engagement and satisfaction
Strengthen brand preference and loyalty
Enhance reputation

SECOND: DETERMINE
KEY STAKEHOLDERS
AND PRIORITISE

Who are your key

stakeholders internally
and externally, and
which are most
important to reaching
your goals? Practical
budgeting
considerations may
make it impossible to
address them all, so
start prioritising
through some smart
initial research:

Talk with key internal stakeholders to see what would spell success in
communications
Discover where your most important stakeholders are involved in the social and
digital space
Listen to what they are saying through online and offline surveys and media content
analysis

THIRD: SET SPECIFIC

OBJECTIVES FOR
PRIORITISED
STAKEHOLDER
GROUPS

At the conclusion of this

research, meet again with
key internal managers to
help decide which goals
and stakeholders will take
priority for the PR and/or
social media
measurement. Then, set
specific objectives for
each goal that specify:

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 1. An action statement
2. A timeline
3. A target audience
4. A measurement outcome (usually expressed as a % change).

For example, if a business goal is to sell more homes, an objective might be to increase the
number of home tours among first-time buyers aged 25-54 by 50% in the following year.
Simply focusing efforts in this way will increase your likelihood of success and enable you to
modify the objective as you gain history and move forward.

FOURTH: SET "KEY

PERFORMANCE
INDICATORS"
AGAINST EACH
OBJECTIVE

Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs) are
quantifiable (numeric)
measures that enable
you to show progress
over time for each
objective. For example,
if your objective is to get
first-time buyers into
your show homes, some
KPIs might be:

1. An increase in the number of visitors who sign-up for your homebuilder newsletter
2. The ratio of posts to comments on your homebuilder website
3. The increase in home builder profile pages downloaded and attendees to an open
house events

FIFTH: CHOOSE TOOLS

AND BENCHMARK

At this point, youll need

to decide who to measure
against. Is it just your own
organisation over time or
would it be important to
measure performance
against competitors?

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Choosing appropriate tools and metrics for measurement is vital to the success of the
programme - e.g. the AMEC Valid Metrics Framework would enable you to identify the tools
and metrics needed to measure your campaign in terms of:

Public Relations Activity what did you DO? For example, how much content did
you create? How many journalist briefings? White papers? YouTube videos? Twitter
posts?
Intermediary Effects how did the media and key influencers (third parties)
RESPOND to your activities across the Communications Phases - Awareness,
Knowledge, Interest and Support? Are they communicating the right messages, in
a positive manner and in a greater volume than competitive messages? Have they
endorsed or recommended? You can measure this level by charting progress in both:
Owned Media sites - websites, Facebook and Twitter pages, for example.
Non-owned sites or earned media - everything else
Target Audience Effects finally, what ACTION was taken by your target
audience? Actions can be hard or soft, ranging from leads or sales increases and
efficiency savings to brand awareness, customer loyalty and customer satisfaction
improvements. Techniques might include:
Surveys
Correlations and Market Mix Models
Web Analytics
Comparing Earned, Owned, Shared and Paid Channels

SIXTH: ANALYSE THE

RESULTS AND COMPARE
TO COSTS

Data by itself does not equal

intelligence. It must be
analysed and interpreted to
generate actionable insights
and recommendations for
strategy and planning. It
should also provide a means
to compare programme costs
against identified results.
Return on Investment is a
very ill understood term, and
some claim that it cannot be
accurately calculated for non-financial programs. However, cost-efficiency metrics such as
cost-per-targeted impression, cost-per-lead or cost-per-unique visitor can be useful. If
you DO want to calculate ROI, you should use a true financial formula expressed as a
percentage or ratio, as follows:

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SEVENTH:
PRESENTING TO THE
CEO AND SENIOR
MANAGEMENT

A dashboard or scorecard
with headlines, bullets
and metrics that show
performance trends can
be highly compelling to
the C-suite. Survey
results, correlations to
outcomes, or solid
tracking data from web
analytics, will all resonate
strongly with a CEO and senior management.

EIGHTH: MEASURE
CONTINUOUSLY AND
IMPROVE PERFORMANCE

Stay vigilant by keeping your

programme growing and robust.

Giselle Bodie's Top 3 Measurement Tips

Always start with asking yourself what you want your evaluation to achieve (sounds pretty
basic, but youd be amazed how many organisations forget this vital step).

Be realistic on budget, on timing, on scope. You tend to get what you pay for

Invest time up front with your evaluation provider time invested now in defining
expectations, scope, budget etc will pay dividends down the line.

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Giselle Bodie
Chief Executive, Salience Insight

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Chapter 5
Measuring PR performance across borders
how a global programme works.
By ICCO members Laura Skelley & Michael
Ziviani (PRIA)

When working with global or regional

clients, it is very rare that yours will
be the country setting the guidelines
for measurement and evaluation
(M&E) of PR's success. Usually the
M&E framework will be developed in
another country and you will be
asked to comply with the established
regime. While the system of
measurement may be determined
outside of your boarders, PR
agencies in all countries should
provide input to ensure that best This is a draft model PRIA will be evolving in the coming
practice M&E is being employed. months in line with international standards.

There are five key elements that make up best practice measurement and are relevant
regardless of the country in which the PR is conducted.

1. ALL PR programs should be measured and evaluated. Measurement & Evaluation

boosts the credibility of PR and helps improve performance of future campaigns
2. In order to measure and evaluate PR, it is essential that SPECIFIC,
MEASUREABLE OBJECTIVES are set in ADVANCE of the start of the program
3. These measures must be both TRANSPARENT and REPLICABLE both across
programs and across regions and countries. Examples include quantity, quality and
reach

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 4. Communications creates business value in several steps: Activity, Output, Outcome,
and Business ROI. Depending on the sophistication of the programs and countries in
which the activities are being executed will determine which segments you choose to
measure. As long as all countries are MEASURING THE SAME ROI the evaluation
program will add value
5. Communications can and should be MEASURED ACROSS ALL DISCIPLINES
PR, Social, Events etc. The more complete the picture the more valuable the insight.

There is no silver bullet, one size fits all way to successfully measure PR performance
across borders, but there are key guidelines that help ensure consistent measurement
regardless of country.

The first step in developing a robust international measurement framework is to determine

what you will be measuring and ensure that this is constant across all countries.

Currently, the most common form of measurement is to measure program outputs. Be it

volume of coverage, tone and favorability or size and reach, measuring outputs is the most
basic way to ensure you are conducting a like for like measurement of program success,
regardless of what country you are reviewing.

It is important that each country select a similar number and type of media to track, and
utilize the same measurement criteria to rank tone & favorability. What can be seen as a
positive story in Australia may be seen as a negative story in China or the UK. A sentiment
calibration standard is an important step towards consistent and replicable results.

Regardless of the outputs you decide to measure, Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs)
should never be included. AVEs have been widely discredited in most countries and
regardless of where the M&E program is designed, all countries should ensure they push
back if asked to include these measurements.

There is an option to go deeper into content analysis to provide greater insights into PR's
impact. The ability of countries to report on deeper content analysis will vary based on skill
level, resources and program sophistication. All countries should be able to measure the
delivery of key messages, spokesperson impact, depth of discussion around key topics and
competitor analysis/share of voice. In order to gain insight across borders, it is again
important to ensure that each country is measuring the same things the same competitors,
key messages etc. If one country is focused on competitor A while another country is
focused on competitor B the insights across countries will be skewed.

Therefore, in order to get an edge when measuring the success of your PR across multiple
countries it is important to:

1. Work to a model to keep each country on track and give structure to their reporting. It
is important to ensure that this model is customised for your content and resources.
For example, if you are working with countries of vastly different levels of experience
and resources, ensure that your model is developed so it can be utilised by the least
practised country. Where possible, allow subtleties to be considered, rated and
captured.

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 2. Allow for actions from insights. A solid rationale coupled with good analysis creates a
firm base for action. Analysis alone will not create value, it simply provides advice to
help re-shape strategies to better effect. The action taken from those new strategies
is where the value should build from. Often in regional or global measurement, the
analysis is not filtered back to the countries in order for them to utilise the insights
gained. Ensue you are feeding this valuable insight back to the countries where you
are measuring to allow them to take action and refine their programs.
3. Resource properly. A robust measurement and evaluation program takes resources
both time and budget. Provide each country with the time and budget to properly
gather and collate the information and measure against your model.

Universal adoption of a consistent measurement and evaluation methodology is the key. The
term universal suggests a standardised approach. To an extent this is now possible with
emerging International agreement on the core measures of volume, tone and reach.

Measuring the success across boarders becomes practical once a model is developed with
a clear, transparent and replicable method. Ensure your focus is on consistent measurement
criteria, robust evaluation and analysis which seeks to provide actionable insights.

Whilst your country may not be setting the approach you should seek out the opportunity to
input/be proactive and confident in providing inputas this will return benefit in the long run.

Laura and Michaels 3 Top Measurement Tips

Set specific and measurable objectives in advance

Communications creates business value in several steps: Activity, Output, Outcome,

Business ROI

Valid measures of communications results are transparent and replicable metrics of:
Quantity, Quality, Size.

Laura Skelley
Group Managing Director, Max Australia and
Spectrum Communications

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Michael Ziviani
CEO, Precise Value

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Chapter 6
Whats the big deal about the Barcelona
Principles and where do we go from here?
David Rockland

Whats the Big Deal About the Barcelona

Principles?

Was there an earthquake in Barcelona in

June 2010? Well, if you live in the small
world of PR measurement, yes. At the
second annual European Summit of PR
measurement, representatives of around
150 companies from over 30 countries voted
on seven specific principles that finally set a
baseline for how to measure PR whats
good, whats better, whats best, and whats
bad.

The Barcelona Principles say some pretty obvious things set goals before you do a PR
program, media measurement needs quantity and quality, measuring target audience
change and business results are better than measuring media results, social and traditional
media can be measured with the same basic ideas, and transparency is critical. And the
principle that probably has most PR practitioners excited is that the use of Advertising Value
Equivalents (AVEs) was abolished as a legitimate approach.

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 For most of the fifty of so years PR has been
around as a defined marketing and
communications practice, measurement was
basically around number of clips, number of
impressions and AVEs. The latter placed the
value of PR as the cost of purchasing the
equivalent amount of advertising space.
Often, PR practitioners would then multiply
that cost by anywhere from 2 to 7 claiming
that earned media was that much more
valuable than paid media. What was wrong
with this picture?

Clips and impressions alone are meaningless what if all the clips say that the
particular product is terrible, or that the company is run by criminals? Quality has to
be a consideration as does whether or not the articles are reaching the right
audience. If you are selling lipstick, an article in a hunting magazine probably has
little value to you. Or, at the least the guys I go deer hunting with here in the States
dont seem to wear much lipstick that I know of.
It may seem silly to say set goals first, but often PR practitioners have done some
exciting program that has little to actually do with the driving the business of the client
or organization. You may have had a great party with lots of celebrities, but if it didnt
drive sales, it was just a good party.
As for AVEs, why would the cost of advertising be equal to the value of PR? The cost
of advertising isnt equal to the value of advertising. And, if the articles are negative,
why would they be given a positive value. In advertising, you get to say what you
want, where you want, and when you want. With PR, you are subject to the vagaries
of the editorial process sometimes you win, and sometimes you dont. On the other
hand, it is often much less expensive than a multi-million dollar ad buy, and with an
editorial endorsement can have a much larger impact on sales.
And, is earned media always more valuable than advertising? While I would like this
to be true since I work for a firm that produces earned media for clients, the reality is
that such multipliers have been proven over and over to not exist generally.

So, the PR measurement world is maturing.

One reason this has come about is that
getting data around press coverage is way
cheaper than it has ever been. When I went
to work at Ketchum, we had lots of people
clipping articles by hand, pasting them in a
book, and delivering that book as proof of
value at the end of the quarter or year. Now,
with digital aggregators, getting the
coverage is simple and relatively much less
expensive. And, with social media, you can
get lots of data very quickly.

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Part of that maturation is also a shift from counting earned media, to counting what is much
more important target audience change and business results. Now, you can add a few
questions to a brand or advertising tracking survey and know if PR is creating awareness,
favorability, purchase and recommendation.

And, with earned media data now much easier and cheaper to get, you can add it into
market mix and other statistical models to show the effects of earned media on sales and
brand equity. In other words, you can do with PR what has been done for advertising, direct
mail and other marketing channels for a long time. The playing field has been levelled.

Part of that levelling is also the understanding of how different channels affect one another.
When we do market mix modelling for clients, what we often find is that each channel not
only has its own effects on sales, but also tends to affect the other channels. In other words,
advertising and PR, for example, benefit one another. One plus one becomes three.

Is the maturation of PR measurement

complete? No, far from it. But, the Barcelona
Principles started the process. From it is
emerging a set of measurement standards
for PR practitioners that really bring the
Principles into daily practice. And, we will
increasingly see certification programs in PR
measurement that define what a PR
professional needs to know before he/she
can really call themselves a PR
professional.

Whos driving this? Well, certainly, AMEC and ICCO have got the ball rolling and are
continuing to make progress.

However, what is also heartening to see it lots of others have jumped on board and adopted
the Barcelona Principles including large corporations such as FedEx and Philips, and PR
member organizations around the world. Many companies like my own have been leading
this charge with our clients and the associations we belong to. We see that our business is
really driven by the edict prove everything or die.

If we dont switch from silly metrics such as

AVEs to sales and ROI measurement, we
will no longer be relevant to our clients. The
Barcelona Principles established the floor of
PR measurement. It will be up to the PR
practitioner of the future to define how high
the ceiling can be.

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David Rockland's Top 3 Measurement Tips

Read and understand the Barcelona Principles. Available at amecorg.com

When you report results, place them in the context of the business objectives of the
organization as well as against the goals of the communications program you are measuring

Ask yourself how you can move your measurement program to the next level, whether it
be to add a quality dimension to media measurement if you are only counting clips, or from a
change in consumer perception to its impact on business performance

David Rockland
Partner and Managing Director of Ketchum
Global Research & Analytics and CEO of
Ketchum Change and Global Chairman of
AMEC

25
Chapter 7
You can measure social media.
Richard Bagnall

Why is it that the mere thought of measuring

the effectiveness of our PR campaigns fills
us with such dread? Why does it always
seem so confusing and overly complex?

For 20 years or more, PR measurement has

largely been a reasonably simple process
that was dressed up as a bit of a black art.
Media analysis companies focused on using
content analysis to measure press clippings
and focusing 99% of the time on purely
output metrics. What do we mean by that? Well simply put, it's the easy things to capture
from the editorial content - metrics like volume of articles, column inches, tone, messaging,
company, brand and name mentions, journalists, publications and spokespeople etc.

To differentiate themselves from their competitors, most of the media analysis companies
then created their own proprietary scoring systems and indices which took these different
metrics, weighted them and then presented them as a single number. They then tried to tell
their clients that this number and the other output metrics represented the success of their pr
campaigns.

Which of course it didn't.

26
Measuring outputs alone is never going to tell a PR professional how successful their PR
campaign has been. The analysis industry was answering the wrong questions. PRs were
being asked by their bosses to demonstrate the value that their work was creating for their
organisation. As an answer they were being provided with a proprietary score based on an
output metric of which no one else in their organisation would have heard. And to cap it all
off, most of these scores were largely meaningless, and all were flawed. It was no wonder
therefore that PR measurement tended to confuse and disengage most of the industry, and
consequently that PR has always struggled to prove it's value successfully.

Recognising this challenge, AMEC took a leadership position back in 2010 when it drove
through the Barcelona Principles (http://bit.ly/YqJAB3). In a nutshell, these 7 statements
encouraged the PR and its associated measurement industry to think more credibly about
how to measure communications success by talking the language of business.

In addition to confirming that AVE's were a meaningless metric, the Principles also state that
to measure success properly, we need to move on from measuring outputs to focusing
instead on measuring outcomes. Put simply, this means that instead of leaving the
measurement just at what we have generated (outputs), we need to focus on what this work
has actually achieved (out-takes / outcomes) for our organisation. The Barcelona Principles
also state of course that social media can and should be measured.

Since 2010 a lot of further work has been done to help the industry think about the correct
way to measure social media. AMEC has again taken a leadership position with its social
media group working in partnership with other trade bodies around the world in PR and the
wider marketing community to set best practice and standards for measuring social media.

At first glance, the massive changes that have occurred in the PR and media industries over
the last 5-10 years make it seem that measuring our success must be even more confusing
than ever. Many in the industry understandably are desperate for AMEC to come up with a
single number that could let everyone know how successful their work has been.

This is not going to happen however. In the same way that a single number was always
flawed in the more simplified world of traditional media analysis, a single number will not
work when measuring social media. The search for a magic bullet can be called off now as
it simply does not and will never exist.

The reassuring news however is that the more things have changed, the more they have
actually stayed the same. The right approach to measuring social media is to focus
relentlessly on your objectives and then to measure in a manner that reflects them. Think
clearly at the outset what it is that you are looking to achieve with your social media
campaign. What conversations do you want to join? What thoughts are you looking to
influence? What outcomes are you looking to drive?

Don't be tempted to make the same mistakes as were made in the old days. Frustratingly,
this is the number one problem that I have found PRs are experiencing with social media
measurement. Specifically don't rely on the new SAAS (Software as a Service) platforms
alone to monitor and measure your work, they are very unlikely to be able to get you to the
tailored measurement and out-take / outcome metrics that you need.

27
Instead, think about the different objectives of each part of your social campaign and then
how you might measure each in a credible manner.

So for example, if looking to measure the exposure that you are getting with your core
audience you should consider measuring the following:

Organisation / brand mentions

Share of conversation
Search rank
Click-throughs
Web analytics etc

If looking to measure the engagement that you are having with your core audience then you
might want to consider these:

Comments/posts ratio
Number of links
'@' mentions / Retweets / Retweets as a percentage of the total
Number of bookmarks / likes / votes / 'pins'
Shares & Likes
Subscriber numbers
URL visits
Awareness
Resolution rate

And of course if looking to measure the action that has happened as a result of the social
media campaign then you should consider 'out-take / outcome' metrics such as:

Footfall
Purchase / donations
Website visits & downloads
Coupon redemption, endorsement
Awareness etc

Clearly not all of these metric suggestions will be relevant to each campaign, and conversely
these are just a few suggestions and not an exhaustive list. As is always the case, the
metrics will need to be tailored to what it is that you are trying to achieve.

What you will also see is that not all of these metrics are available from content analysis of
the online conversations alone. Instead they necessitate market research, others will
involve working with web analytics, and others will need you to work with your marketing or
sales team to gather the date required.

By following this approach however you will be able to focus clearly on what success looks
like to your organisation and report back in a language that everyone understands.

28
AMEC is soon to launch a revised Valid Metrics Framework which will develop this approach
into a grid that you can use as a template for each campaign. This will be launched at the
European Summit in Madrid in June 2013 and will then be available for download from
AMEC's website at amecorg.com/social-media-measurement.

In the meantime, you can follow the conversation on twitter with the hashtag #smmstandards
and the march towards standards at smmstandards.org.

Social media measurement must not be allowed to make the same mistakes of the past.
Don't just count what is easy to count and report using meaningless charts hoping that
somehow you are providing effective analysis. Instead as an industry we must seize this
opportunity to prove the value of our work with credible metrics, that reflect our objectives
and really demonstrate our success. The PR industry deserves nothing less.

Richard Bagnall's Top 3 Measurement Tips

Begin with the end in mind Measure against your objectives, align your social objectives
to those of your organisation

Measure appropriately - Be wary of automation, and counting basic metrics that are easy
to count but basically meaningless

A few charts and numbers are not measurement successful social media measurement
needs relevancy, context and insight

And a bonus tip:

Dont fear measurement, embrace it, its there to help guide you not criticise you!

Richard Bagnall
Chairman of AMEC Social Media
Measurement Committee.
Richard@bagnall.net
@richardbagnall

29
Chapter 8
Insights Critical for Effective PR but Must Go
Beyond the Bleeding Obvious
Marion McDonald

The best-in-class best public relations campaigns those that deliver beyond stakeholder
engagement and media coverage to create lasting behavior change - are grounded in a
strong underlying insight into target stakeholder attitudes. A well-researched and clearly
expressed insight is a far greater driver of success than a brilliant PR-able idea.

Often considered the domain of advertising creative development, insights are equally the
backbone of a successful creative PR idea as they provide a fresh understanding of a
situation or trend that moves our thinking from what it is to what it means. This is essential to
crack a current stuck behaviour or attitude with a provocative new way of framing a
situation that sparks reconsideration and support for change.

Let me clarify what I mean by a great insight though. Insights are not merely facts or
observations from research, or reading a few online posts. New mums are under pressure
and time poor or Hong Kong consumers trust recommendations from celebrities are
examples of messages from the Ministry of the Bleeding Obvious; not any kind of insight!
Every competitor in a category can access the same information. Great insights come from
research, judgment and experience:

Research helps us define what it is

Insights help us define interpret why it is and what it means
The Creative idea is how we connect it together to engage stakeholders at points relevant
to their work, leisure or family moments where the topic becomes relevant.

30
If you understand how to play join the dots then you have the basic skills to build an insight.
Once youre given the numbers, and you start to connect them, the picture becomes
obvious. Digging for insights is essentially searching for the data, numbers and opinions then
applying non-linear thinking to spot connections and surprises.

If you understand how to play join the dots

then you have the basic skills to build an
insight. Once youre given the numbers, and
you start to connect them, the picture
becomes obvious. Digging for insights is
essentially searching for the data, numbers
and opinions then applying non-linear
thinking to spot connections and surprises.

So where do you get the numbers from? We

start by reviewing all existing knowledge and
consumer research our client/brand may
already have. Often public relations
professionals dont see the relevance of
their consumer research to PR messaging, so they may not think to review or share the
research with their agency. Start by seeking out existing knowledge.

Then we immerse ourselves in consumer behavior their likes and frustrations about the
category, their true behavior in the category. We try to experience the category as they
do.

Social media listening is a great first step. Start with a conversation audit to understand how
the category or brand is described. Use social media tools for instant online research.
Cadbury UK is very clever at using its Google+ page and Hangout groups with trusted
customers for new insights.

Then get out from behind a computer to gather the dots. Go on home visits to see how the
category/brand is used in situ. For example, in-home visits for the room air freshener
category uncovered that plug-in air fresheners are often concealed behind sofas so
consumers dont notice when they run out.

31
 Work in your brands store for a day as a
sales trainee, or in your clients office to
observe what they discuss about the
category? My favourite technique is
accompanying a sales rep for a day,
especially in B2B and pharmaceuticals
where experiencing the category directly
may not be an option.

Interview customers / consumers - always

have your 10 questions ready. If its a brand
with a consumer call centre, ask to listen in on their call centre line for a few hours to
understand brand frustrations

Then, as David Ogilvy said, stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your
rational thought process.

Information needs time to percolate. I like using a war room a dedicated room where I can
post up all my dots and visually and seek out connections. I talk team members through the
data we have gathered and listen for their questions and comments to see what they reveal.

I read campaign case studies on databases

such as warc.com to learn how similar
marketing challenges were tackled in other
countries or categories. And I sleep on it for
a couple of days to see what emerges.

An insight should immediately make sense

when it arrives and spark an Aha!
emotional response. It should help
consumers/customers make connections
which they may not have previously.

Express insights simply and brilliantly. This

is, in effect, a copywriting exercise and often benefits from working with a professional
copywriter. My tips:

1. Short, sharp sentences

2. Be category specific get to the point versus vague general issues like
feeling time poor
3. Avoid hard sell its an insight, not a selling line
4. Use emotion

Get an edge to the insight in a way that makes consumers respond with yes, thats so true,
and if Im honest Ive never thought of it like that myself.

The time invested in insight development speeds up the idea generation stage considerably,
giving you time savings normally spent on generating many more ideas.

32
The most critical step is getting out of the office to find the dots. Then invest the time to
connect them to build a strong insight that underpins our ideas and creates behaviour
change that will positively impact business. This is personally far more satisfying to work on
than unfocused brainstorming of ideas with little chance of changing deeply ingrained
behavior.

Marion McDonalds Top 3 Measurement Tips

Be PROVOCATIVE! Abandon all goals for broad coverage. Aim for the right impact only.
Become obsessive about "how did this change behaviour?" not how much coverage it got.
Design communications programs from the outset to drive behaviour change, not clippings.

Speak the language of the boardroom! Always strive to link public relations to results that
can be banked (ie. not clippings or AVE). This may be a longer term outcome (eg. new
leads to closing deals 12 months later) or corporate reputation gains that open up access to
new resources or cost savings from deeper employee engagement and reduced staff
turnover.

Reserve program budget for quality impact & outcome measurement to prove business
impact. (Especially at the expense of meaningless clipping reports.)

Marion McDonald
Managing Director, Strategy & Measurement,
Asia Pacific Region, Ogilvy Public Relations,
Hong Kong

33
 Chapter 9
The client view of what measurement looks
like.
Ben Matthews

During the early part of my career, I

remember once walking into the public
relations office of a large company to talk to
a Communications Director.

The fact that there was an actual walled-off

office will give you an indication of how long
ago this was. The conversation flowed back
and forth until it turned to the subject of how
he judged success. He simply gestured,
sweeping his arm around the room to
indicate the vast collage of press cuttings
stuck to every vertical surface. Their success was apparently judged in how well they could
redecorate their office.

Theres nothing intrinsically wrong with measuring volume. But its a little like a football team
judging their success only on their ability to get 11 players onto the pitch.

Thankfully, it really feels the industry has largely moved on from there, driven in no small
part by key moments like the Barcelona principles. There is a genuine enthusiasm and
desire from communicators to both demonstrate real value, and derive competitive
advantage through PR analysis.

34
Shooting into an open goal?

I believe the single biggest driver in the success of measurement is how it links back to both
the overall PR goals, and the wider business goals. Yet its an area thats often
underdeveloped in any measurement approach.

Far too infrequently we ask ourselves questions like, why are we here? or what is our
purpose?. One of the single biggest areas agencies can add value is by challenging their
clients on these questions - because theyre fundamental to driving value from
measurement. Good PR teams want their agencies to push them and challenge them on
goals that are woolly, ill-defined or from time to time, plain bonkers.

I speak from experience here, having worked with Metrica to define our approach - they
pushed, prodded and made us validate what we outcomes we really need from our
measurement. They helped us separate out the noise from the meaningful insights around
our core purpose.

Changing the conversation

For eBay, this core communications

purpose revolves around perception
change. Last year, 70% of the items sold on
eBay were brand new, while auctions only
generated around 10% of the $3.75 billion
revenue generated in the first quarter of
2013. eBay has moved from an auction
house of second hand goods to a global
online marketplace.

Yet the media perception of eBay lags the

reality and delivering this evolution message represents the key challenge. Two years ago,
only 19% of coverage reflected the evolution messaging. By monitoring it and specifically
targeting media and geographies, the team has driven that metric to more than 50%.

Measurement is a conversation

eBay is a business run on conversations, its driven as much by informal networks as it is by

formal structure. So, weve designed our measurement to reflect and promote these
conversations. Our scorecards reflect the audiences theyre designed for. We realised that
many of the things we measured lacked context, and an explicit link to the goals we wanted
to achieve.

To paraphrase Warren Buffet, the danger is that you study what is measurable, rather than
what is meaningful. We now have single page reports designed individually for different
audiences. As PR professionals, we dont measure for us, we measure for our stakeholders.

35
Sorting out social

Social media measurement is the current focus of much attention, but it still feels like the
Wild West of evaluation very exciting but a bit of a free for all. The social media Valid
Metrics Framework introduced at the AMEC conference in Dublin last year was a big step
forward, but its clear that with debates on fundamentals like where the line between
traditional and social media lie, we are still a way from consensus.

There is an opportunity for practitioners to help guide companies through this social
minefield.

eBay receives around 1.5 million pieces of English language social media content per
month. The challenge is to turn that volume into consistent and accurate business
intelligence as social has the opportunity to act as early warning system, engager and
perception changer. Its clear were only scraping the surface of its potential as a
measurement and intelligence tool.

Ben Matthews' Top 3 Measurement Tips

To derive value from measurement it must be linked to both PR and the wider business
goals

The best agencies challenge goals that are woolly or badly defined

Tailor your measurement for different audiences for maximum impact

Ben Matthews
Head of Strategic Communications at eBay

36
Chapter 10
Measurement: Encouraging realistic client
expectations
By ICCO member Bridget von Holdt
(PRISA), ICCO Board Member for South
Africa.

Campaign introduction:

Nelson Mandela International Day 2012

reached millions of people across the
world with the key message: Make the
change, Become a Mandela Day Change
Maker inspired people from all walks of
life to make contribute 67 minutes in
changing the world for the better.

Working closely with the Nelson Mandela

Foundation, Inzalo Communication, a
member of the Public Relations Institute of South Africa (PRISA), developed a PR campaign
which achieved its overarching objective of increasing the reach globally. The campaigns
success is that it has guaranteed that Nelson Mandela International Day is entrenched on
the annual calendar, thereby almost making it a part of life in South African and continuing
the global growth.

Statement of Problem/ Opportunity:

Opportunity

The aim for Nelson Mandela International Day was get the buy-in of the media beforehand
so that they can be more involved in the campaign. Because Nelson Mandela is a global
icon, this meant that Inzalo would also have to rally support from the international media.

37
Criticism/ Problem

The problems/concerns which were identified were mainly related to how people can show
support and get involved. It is not about giving money, but about contributing your personal
skills and talents to those that are in need. Media across the world need to understand that
there are certain themes and they should follow these rather than do what they like.

Inzalo needed to find ways which would safeguard from inappropriate support from the
media such as:

Incorrect message and branding

Running competitions that are aimed at raising funds
Running paid for features in the media
Promising their audiences an audience with Nelson Mandela

PR Objectives

Build an effective network of media contacts that continuously support the initiative,
not just the key dates
Managing the various news and wire networks to ensure that the correct message
was filtered down to both local and international audiences.

Research

Because the main target audience was the youth, Inzalo needed to identify methods in
reaching them and understanding how are they communicate with each other and on which
social media platforms.

Focus groups were set-up with schools (government and private), universities, student-body
organisations and youth media such as Soul City, and Community Team. This was seen as
an important part of the campaigns research and measurement approach.

From these meetings we needed to find out the following:

What are their views about Mandela Day

How they can contribute towards the day
How would we be able to reach the youth

The research was based on feedback received from media clippings; websites and social
media responses and input from e-mails and personal interaction with Centre of memory.

Research shows that the awareness levels grew by over 40% over the previous year.

Planning

Planning for Nelson Mandela International Day started in November of the previous year.
Inzalo compiled a detailed database of media who could assist us in achieving our set
objectives.

38
In the planning phase, key projects were identified:

School Pupil Panel

Launch of Mandela Mondays
University Students Panel
Public Figure Panel
Nelson Mandela International Day Biker send-off

From this, execution dates were set to meet media deadline. Working closely with the
Nelson Mandela Foundation, Inzalo convinced the media to kick start the campaign in and
on their different platforms and continue to publicise all planned events as well as guarantee
coverage for July.

Execution

After conducting all the research it was confirmed that the best way to reach the youth was
through:

1. Social media; such as Facebook and Twitter

2. Learning Institution communication; such as posters on campus and schools, online
student portals; etc.
3. Campus media; such as newspapers, radio and websites
4. National media; such as broadcast, online and print

To implement the campaign strategy, Inzalo and the Foundation agreed that there will be
several media activations leading up to the 18th July, ensuring that we had continuous
activities that will serve as reminders to the media and the public. This also meant that there
will be regular news from South Africa to the rest of the world about Nelson Mandela
International Day.

A number of events were organized:

School pupil panel March

Student Launch May
Mandela Mondays

Public Figures panel

The third official event was championed by the Foundation Trustee and Housing Minister,
Tokyo Sexwale who give a keynote address. This launch was held to provide the public with
the context about Nelson Mandela International Day and remind them about Mandela's
contribution to a democratic South Africa.

Local and international journalists and editors were invited to all the events as well as
provided with the necessary information on the campaign and its planned events. Presenters
and producers from radio and television stations were also contacted to encourage them to
create awareness around Nelson Mandela International Day events and to cover activities
that were happening leading up to and on the day.

39
Evaluation

We began the campaign with research in order to establish a robust planning discipline for
the campaign. We ended the campaign with an evaluation of its success based on media
clippings, website statistics and social media metrics, as well as input from e-mail and
personal interaction with the Centre of Memory at the Nelson Mandela Foundation.

This final analysis research showed that awareness levels grew by more than 40% over the
previous year.

Without any doubt, Inzalo Communication can say that all the objectives for the Nelson
Mandela International Day were met.

Street banners, online banners and radio headlines lead with Mandela Day was a
great achievement.
The media list grew to over 2100 journalists from around the world.
The mentions of Mandela Day were proactive and encouraged public participation.
The post publicity demonstrated people of all walks of life in action government,
politicians, actors, celebrities, personalities, and the citizen. Coverage monitoring
was managed by the Foundation
Website posts of activities increased traffic to the dedicated site increase by 70%
over last year.
Social media responses grew
Letters of response poured into the Foundation

According to the data, the social media country share of voice was:

United States 34%

South Africa 29%
United Kingdom 6%
Canada 5%
India, Italy and Brazil 2%
Indonesia, Canada, Germany and Venezuela 1% (Each)
All Others 16%

Top Domains

Twitter 88%
Facebook 8%
All Others 4%

40
Bridget von Holdt's Top 3 Measurement Tips

Agree on measureable objectives (to say increase awareness is not an objective)

Agree on measuring criteria and methodology (budget does not always allow for a
research company to research a campaign and the impact). And remember to measure all
platforms.

ROI the impact of on the target audience vs the spend on the campaign. (ROI is not
about the sales or the impact on the bottom line it is about the reputation, the target
audience perceptions / media perception changes and influences)

Bridget von Holdt

Director, Inzalo Communications, on behalf
of Public Relations Institute of South Africa

41
Chapter 11
Getting it right: a ten point evaluation
checklist.
Rob Ettridge & Philip Lynch

1. Set SMART objectives:

Set and agree clear and measurable campaign goals up front. If you put rubbish in,
youll get rubbish out.
2. Define success criteria:
Define and agree the campaign success criteria and the base or benchmark you are
measuring from.
3. Agree on methodology:
Define and agree the methodology for evaluation. Is it easy to use, clear, repeatable
and consistent?
4. Agree the focus:
Agree what you are evaluating (quantitative and qualitative) and across which
platforms (broadcast, radio, print, online, social media).
5. Agree frequency:
Agree on the frequency of evaluation and how and when to report back.
6. Agree budgets:
Agree on the available budgets for evaluation. Will it be integrated into the campaign
retainer or charged separately?
7. Measure quality and quantity:
Measure the quality as well as the quantity of coverage. Sentiment, share of voice,
engagement and message are crucial indicators, especially in todays digital
landscape.
8. Focus on commercial outcomes:
Measure the effect on outcomes rather than outputs. Have you answered the
question: What are the proven business benefits to the organisation?

42
9. Integrate:
Align and integrate your evaluation methodology with the organisations wider
business and marketing metrics?
10. Inform and improve:
Analyse and use the data to assess the effectiveness and inform your next
campaign. If necessary re-set the campaign objectives.

Rob Ettridge
Partner, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry

Philip Lynch
Co-author - Director of Media Evaluation at
Kantar Media Intelligence

43
Chapter 12
What we mean! Definitions and terms
Neil Wholey

Glossary

(based on AMEC Glossary available here: amecorg.com/2012/06/glossary_plain_speaking)

Every fast changing industry has its jargon. The lexicon emerges to aid efficient
communication, but that efficiency is only achieved when everyone knows what the words
and phrases really mean, and uses them consistently. This glossary aims to help secure that
consistency sooner than otherwise.

Feedback is welcome of course via the comments section at the end, and well update the
glossary monthly based on relevant feedback.

All hyperlinks are cross-references. Links to external webpages are indicated by an arrow at
the end of the respective entry.

0-9

+1 allows users of the Google+ social network to recommend websites and other things
online; similar in use to Facebooks Like button.

Advocacy An individual or organisation that is engaged with an agenda, an individual or

an organisation and speaks highly of it to others. The act of seeking third-party support
through persuasion

Algorithm a step-by-step problem solving procedure; an established, recursive

computational procedure for solving a problem in a finite number of steps.

AMEC The International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication is

the global trade body and professional institute for agencies and practitioners who provide
mediameasurement, evaluation and communication research.

Audience / target audience a specified group within a defined public targeted for
influence.

44
AVE Advertising Value Equivalents; a discredited approach to gauging the value of public
relations(or media relations more precisely). See Barcelona Principles.

Barcelona Principles A series of statements to guide best practice in PR measurement

that were endorsed after a vote of global delegates at the AMEC European Measurement
Summit in 2010:

Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programmes.

Media measurement requires quantity and quality cuttings in themselves are not
enough.
Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of PR and do not
inform future activity.
Social media can and should be measured. Measuring outcomes is preferred to
measuring media results.
Business results can and should be measured where possible.
Transparency and Replicability are paramount to sound measurement

Blog a series of content, typically text or image, published on a web page in sequential
date order focused on a subject or issue and encouraging interaction. Also see vlog.

Bot a software application that runs automated tasks over the Internet. Typically, bots
perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than
would be possible for a human alone.

Bounce rate A bounce is when a visitor to a website only views a single page before
leaving. Bounce rate is the percentage of visits to a webpage where this occurs. A high
bounce rate indicates a lack of engagement.

BPM Business Performance Management; the disciplined approach to management

encompassing metric selection, measurement and organizational learning. The Balanced
Scorecard is reportedly the dominant BPM framework amongst the Global 2000.

Click each instance when a visitor follows a hyperlink from one page to another, or
expects some other action.

Cutting: the piece of written material containing messages about the client or its products or
an extract from a paper or magazine regarding a particular account. Also commonly referred
to as clipping

Communication: the credible, honest and timely two-way flow of information that fosters
common understanding and trust.

Copy: the text produced by a consultancy for a press release or article. Journalists also refer
to their news stories or features as copy.

CPRF Council of Public Relations Firms, the trade association for public relations firms in
the US.

45
CPRS Canadian Public Relations Society.

Download a copy of a document or other digital file is pulled from a web server to the
users Internet connected device. When a user accesses a web page, its actually
downloaded from a web server to the users browser, but this isnt usually whats meant
when the word is invoked.

Earned media third-party media coverage secured through a relationship or news worthy
event, rather than paid-for advertising or other means of securing media. Includes on- and
off-line media. Often used synonymously with public relations, but public relations is not
defined by media.

Engage occupy or attract someones interest or attention; involve someone in a

conversation or discussion.

Evaluation the assessing of the impact and value of a series of actions in achieving
desired outcomes from start to finish. The recording of the actions themselves, such as the
amount, potential value and frequency is only part of the evaluation process.

Eyeballs the aggregated published or acknowledged readership numbers for all content in
which a brand or organisation receive published content. (See impressions, and
opportunities to see.)

Forum an online site hosted by a community to discuss and interact about its area of
interest.

Frequency the amount of times that an event occurs. Often used in conjunction with reach
(seeReach and Frequency).

Hits the logged request for a file on a webpage and images and other digital assets on that
page made by a browser, a search engine or a webcrawler. Commonly confused as a count
of the number of times that the page has been viewed in its entirety. Also, see media hits.

46
I

ICCO International Communications Consultancy Association.

Impact commonly used when analysing how much visual presence and wow factor a
piece of content carries. Is often measured in a number of different ways by different
companies and commonly results in the use of a scoring system. Component impact
measures might include size of headline, font, article, presence of imagery, position in
publication etc.

Impressions the aggregated published or acknowledged readership numbers for all

content in which a brand or organisation receives earned content (see eyeballs and
opportunities to see). For web content, an impression is counted as each time some content
is loaded into a browser.

Influence you have been influenced when you think in a way you wouldnt otherwise have
thought or do something you wouldnt otherwise have done. There is currently no scalable
facility to ascertain or infer who or what caused someone to change their mind or behaviour.
Metrics often presented as measuring influence (eg. Klout) do not measure influence, rather
the propensity for an individuals social media contributions to be shared, and the reach of
that sharing, and this idea is increasingly being rechristened social capital. However, the
degree of influence can be measured on a case by case basis through scientific research
techniques such as statistical analysis and randomised controlled trials. These can help
develop our understanding of how people are influenced and fine tune generalised
approaches.

IPR the Institute for Public Relations, a US based independent non-profit foundation
dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations.

Issue a matter, typically in dispute, between two or more interested parties.

Klout a well-known service that purports to measure influence but doesnt

KPIs Key performance indicator(s); define a set of values against which to measure
success. KPIs must be defined to reflect objectives and strategy, and will be sufficiently
robust for the measurement to be repeatable. Quantitative KPIs can be presented as a
number, ratio or percentage. KPIs tend to be:

Quantitative indicators which can be presented as a number

Practical indicators that interface with existing company processes
Directional indicators specifying whether organisational performance is improving or
not
Actionable indicators sufficiently in an organisations control to effect change
Financial indicators used in performance measurement and when looking at an
operating index.

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L

Like allows users of the Facebook social network to recommend websites and other things
online; similar in use to Google+s +1 facility.

Lurker someone who reads social media content but doesnt actively participate in debate
and communication.

Machined media content that is automatically discovered, presented and published by

machines for humans. May be considered alongside paid, owned and earned media.

Market Research a collection of disciplines designed to understand the attitudes and

behaviours of individuals and organisations towards other individuals and organisations.
These disciplines are often categorised as either primarily qualitative or quantitative
research. The topic areas can include both market orientated commercial research to more
societal social research.

Measurement the action of measuring something; ascertaining the size, amount, or

degree of something by using an instrument or device; assessing the importance, effect, or
value of something.

Media hits an item or piece of content to be counted or measured. Not to be confused with
hits.

Media relations a component of public relations focused on journalists and bloggers as

intermediaries to the audience you wish to reach.

Message board a script on a website with a submission form that allows visitors to post
messages (called threads or posts) on your website for others to read. These messages
are usually sorted within discussion categories, or topics, chosen by the host, or possibly the
visitor. A messageboard is also called a web board or a forum.

Metric a system or standard of measurement; (in business) a set of figures or statistics

that measure results.

Microblogs online short form communication services that facilitate the public exchange of
text, video and image links. Popular microblogs include Plurk, Twitter, Tumblr, Posterous,
identi.ca, Yammer, and Jaiku. China tends to have its own popular microblogging sites that
include Sina Weibo and Tencent Wiebo.

Mission a statement of why an organisation exists; often described alongside the

organisationsvision and values.

Motivation reason(s) for acting or behaving in a particular way.

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MRC The Media Rating Council is a USA based industry-funded organisation established
in the early 1960s at the behest of the US Congress after the Harris Hearings on Broadcast
Ratings with the remit to review and accredit audience rating services. It exists to improve
the quality of audience measurement by rating services and to provide a better
undertstanding of the applications and limitations of rating information. It does this through
three main activities:

to establish and administer minimum standards for rating operations

to accredit ratings services on the basis of information submitted by such services
to audit the activities of the rating services.

MT Modified tweet (see RT); when a Twitter user lightly edits or appends another Twitter
users tweet before forwarding it to their network.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) an approach to quantifying customer loyalty and advocacy
based on customers answers to the question: Would you feel comfortable recommending
us to others?

Objective a specific aim of an organisation.

OTS opportunities to see. The aggregated published or acknowledged readership

numbers for all content in which a brand or organisation receives earned content. See also
eyeballs andimpressions.)

Outcome Something that has happened as the result of a campaign. In public relations
this would typically be defined as a measurable change in awareness, knowledge, attitude,
opinion, behaviour or reputation metrics.

Output in PR terms, the material and activity that the PR professional generates such as a
press release, email, events etc. as well as the ensuing media coverage that is generated.
Outputs will also include proactive communication by an organisation on its owned media
channels and properties.

Out-take what an audience now understands having been exposed to content about an
organisation or a brand. Out-take occurs before an outcome, although some pundits ignore
out-take and just discuss outputs and outcomes.

Owned media media channels that are owned by or in the control of an organisation or a
brand. Typically these will include websites, company blogs, newsletters and brand accounts
in social media.

Page views A request for a file from a webserver whose type has been defined as a page
in the log analysis of the web server. One page view may account for many web hits.

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PageRank According to Google: PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web
pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we
believe are important receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of
the search results.

Paid media content that has been generated as a result of a purchase such as an advert
or an advertorial.

Podcast an audio or video clip that is available for download online to listen to or watch at
a time of the recipients choosing. Originally used to describe a series of content, the term is
often now used to describe a single piece of content.

PRCA The Public Relations Consultants Association is the professional body that
represents UK PR consultancies, in-house communications teams, PR freelancers and
individuals. The PRCA promotes all aspects of public relations and internal communications
work, helping teams and individuals maximise the value they deliver to clients and
organisations.

PRSA The Public Relations Society of America is the worlds largest organisation of public
relations professionals with more than 21,000 members across the United States.

PRSSA The Public Relations Student Society of America has 10,000 members at colleges
and universities internationally.

Public relations a management function that focuses on two-way communication and

fostering of mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and its publics. Public
relations is often defined in terms of earned media, but all approaches to media are valid.

Quantitative Data that can be quantified and summarised with a numerical figure. Often
used to describe quantitative research techniques such as public opinion surveys.

Qualitative Data that is descriptive and non-numerical. Often used to desckjribe qualitative
research techniques such as focus groups. To confuse matters qualitatively gathered
information can be quantified in some cases. Similarly in a quantitative survey there may be
a box for verbatim qualitative comments. These in turn may be quantified by coding answers
and counting how many comments occurred within each code. Finally some data techniques
which require significant interpretation, such as identifying customer
groups/segments/clusters, might be classed by some as qualitative techniques.

Randomised Controlled Trials Selecting two random samples with similar characteristics
and only carrying out an intervention in one; thus enabling any change that occurs to be
attributed to the intervention.

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Reach a dis-aggregated number of people (or percentage of an audience) that have been
exposed to content. Reach differs from impressions, opportunities to see and eyeballs in
that it counts the actual number of people exposed to coverage rather than the number of
opportunities to see the coverage. It is a widely mis-used term in the industry and should
only be used when readership data has been dis-aggregated to take account of cross
readership patterns.

Reach and Frequency a common metric quantifying campaign success predominantly

used and accepted in advertising. It couples the reach metric with frequency which is the
average number of times that each person has been reached, or exposed, to the content.

Reblog when a bloger effectively endorses another bloggers post by posting it facsimile to
their own.

Relationship the way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of
being connected.

Relevance closely connected or appropriate to the matter in hand.

Representative random sample a randomly selected subset of the total data pool
(universe) that accurately reflects the profile of the whole data pool. Defined mathematically
but often not as pure in practice as can be impacted on by not all the data pool being
accessible. For example, a random sample could be drawn of news clippings publically
available online but would necessarily exclude those on paid sites (such as the Times in the
UK). This could be misrepresented as a sample of all newspapers. In market research not all
those randomly selected to take part in a survey do take part and initially representative
samples can be skewed to those more likely to take part.

Reputation the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something.

Research the process of investigating to answer a question.

Resonance the power to evoke enduring images, memories, and emotions.

Return on investment (ROI) a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an

investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate
ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result
is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no such thing
as non-financial ROI. If this phrase is invoked it may be to convey the importance of non-
financial metrics and their vital role inbusiness performance management.

RT retweet; when a Twitter user endorses another Twitter users tweet by forwarding it to
their network.

Semantic analysis computationally trying to determine the meaning of language, of a

corpus.

Sentiment often used interchangeably with tone, but more precisely refers to the feelings
the author is trying to convey.

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Sentiment analysis a subtopic of semantic analysis; computationally trying to determine
the authors emotional regard for or attitude towards something from the text alone; usually
expressed on a 3- or 5-point ordinal scale (eg, very unfavourable, unfavourable, neutral,
favourable, very favourable).

SEO search engine optimization; the process of editing a webpage to help maximize its
PageRankand similar quantifications of its relevance to particular search terms.

Significance the quality of being worthy of attention; importance.

Social aggregation sites websites that collect content from multiple sources and re-
presents it in one location.

Social analytics the application of search, indexing, semantic analysis and business
intelligence technologies to the task of identifying, tracking, listening to and participating in
the distributed conversations about a particular brand, product or issue, with emphasis on
quantifying the trend in each conversations sentiment and influence.

Social bookmarking sites websites and services that allow users to store, manage,
organise and share links of content from across the web. Examples include Delicious,
Reddit, Stumbleupon, Digg, Pinterest.

Social capital a phrase growing in use to substitute for the inappropriate use of the word
influencewhen it comes to services such as Klout, PeerIndex, PeopleBrowsr and Traackr.
Social capital is often taken to mean the frequency with which a sources social media
contributions are shared, and the reach of that sharing. Not every social share is accretive to
social capital. Social capital is destroyed when stuff is shared in disagreement, disgust or
mockery for example.

Social media media that isnt traditional / industrial / mass media; media that is
interactive.

Social media spam can be either content or user accounts (for example on Twitter and
Facebook). The content is often auto-generated and designed solely to promote a sale, a
fraud or often to promote porn. The content is mass distributed and has no element of a
conversation to it.

Social Web consists of social media, applications, services and the network of devices.

Splog a spam blog is a blog used to promote affiliate websites with the intention of
increasing search engine ranking or to sell products or adverts.

Stakeholder a person or organisation with an interest or concern in our organisation or

something our organisation is involved in. (Whilst this definition includes competitors, theyre
not normally classified as stakeholders.)

Strategy Michael Porter defines strategy to be about selecting the set of activities in which
an organisation will excel to create a sustainable difference in the marketplace, and thereby
creating sustained value for its shareholders (or sustainable value in the case of non-profits).

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T

The Coalition a group of PR trade bodies working together to lead the profession towards
measuring social media in a meaningful and credible manner. The coalition includes AMEC,
CPRF and the IPR.

The Conclave a loose body of interested parties looking to extend the work of The
Coalition to include other marketing disciplines which social media also touches.

Tone often used interchangeably with sentiment, but more accurately refers to the general
character and attitude the words convey.

Transparency open to public scrutiny.

Troll a person that lurks on message boards and social media properties making
inflammatory comments.

Trust firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone or something.

Values describes whats important to an organisation; often described alongside the

organisations mission and vision.

Viral Campaign - a communications campaign which is designed to exploit the potential of

the internet to spread messages rapidly. The audience is encouraged to pass a message on
to all their email contacts.

Vision describes what an organisation wants to be; often described alongside the
organisationsmission and values.

Visits per session a series of web page requests from the same uniquely identified client
(eg, laptop or smartphone) with a time limit of 30 minutes between each page request.

Vlog a blog created using video content, typically focussed on a cause or special interest.

Wiki a website facilitating collaborative editing. The best known wiki is Wikipedia.

WOMMA the Word of Mouth Marketing Association is a non-profit organisation dedicated

to advancing and advocating the discipline of credible word of mouth marketing.

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Neil Wholey
Head of Research and Customer Insight at
Westminster City Council

54
Top Measurement
Tips
We asked all our international authors for
their top 3 measurement tips. Here is a
summary of what they said.

Francis Ingham & Jeremy Thompson's

Top 3 Measurement Tips

Measurement is the best way to

demonstrate the value of your work - use it;

Be clear about your goals, measure

objectively;

Don't obsess about a number, focus on

demonstrating the link between activities and
outcomes.

Read Francis and Jeremy's Chapter

55
David Gallagher's Top 3 Measurement Tips

The age of measuring outcomes in PR is

well and truly upon us.

Avoid measurement at your own peril and

with significant opportunity costs.

A commitment to measurement is as much

an industry issue as a differentiator for
individual competitors.

Read David's Chapter

Andy Wests Top 3 Measurement Tips

Do the groundwork and engage people at

all levels across the agency in the
development of the approach before
launching internally.

Identify suitable clients with which to roll

out the approach, using the success of the
deployment to facilitate sell in to other
clients across the network.

Dont assume universal success

immediately; it takes time and sometimes
baby steps are needed.

Read Andy's Chapter

56
Giselle Bodie's Top 3 Measurement Tips

Always start with asking yourself what you

want your evaluation to achieve (sounds
pretty basic, but youd be amazed how many
organisations forget this vital step).

Be realistic on budget, on timing, on

scope. You tend to get what you pay for

Invest time up front with your evaluation

provider time invested now in defining
expectations, scope, budget etc will pay
dividends down the line.

Read Giselle's Chapter

Laura Skelley and Michael Zivianis 3 Top

Measurement Tips

Set specific and measurable objectives in

advance.

Communications creates business value

in several steps: Activity, Output, Outcome,
Business ROI.

Valid measures of communications

results are transparent and replicable
metrics of: Quantity, Quality, Size.

Read Laura and Michael's Chapter

57
David Rockland's Top 3
Measurement Tips

Read and understand the Barcelona

Principles. Available at amecorg.com.

When you report results, place them in

the context of the business objectives of
the organization as well as against the
goals of the communications program you
are measuring.

Ask yourself how you can move your

measurement program to the next level,
whether it be to add a quality dimension to
media measurement if you are only
counting clips, or from a change in
consumer perception to its impact on
business performance.

Read David's Chapter

Richard Bagnall's Top 3 Measurement

Tips

Begin with the end in mind Measure

against your objectives, align your social
objectives to those of your organisation

Measure appropriately - Be wary of

automation, and counting basic metrics that
are easy to count but basically
meaningless

A few charts and numbers are not

measurement successful social media
measurement needs relevancy, context
and insight

And a bonus tip:

Dont fear measurement, embrace it, its there to help guide you not criticise you!

Read Richard's Chapter

58
Marion McDonalds Top 3
Measurement Tips

Be PROVOCATIVE! Abandon all goals for

broad coverage. Aim for the right impact
only. Become obsessive about "how did this
change behaviour?" not how much coverage
it got. Design communications programs
from the outset to drive behaviour change,
not clippings.

Speak the language of the boardroom!

Always strive to link public relations to results
that can be banked (ie. not clippings or
AVE). This may be a longer term outcome
(eg. new leads to closing deals 12 months
later) or corporate reputation gains that open up access to new resources or cost savings
from deeper employee engagement and reduced staff turnover.

Reserve program budget for quality impact & outcome measurement to prove business
impact. (Especially at the expense of meaningless clipping reports.)

Read Marion's Chapter

Ben Matthews' Top 3 Measurement Tips

To derive value from measurement it

must be linked to both PR and the wider
business goals

The best agencies challenge goals that

are woolly or badly defined

Tailor your measurement for different

audiences for maximum impact

Read Ben's Chapter

59
Bridget von Holdt's Top 3 Measurement
Tips

Agree on measureable objectives (to say

increase awareness is not an objective)

Agree on measuring criteria and

methodology (budget does not always allow
for a research company to research a
campaign and the impact). And remember
to measure all platforms.

ROI the impact of on the target

audience vs the spend on the campaign.
(ROI is not about the sales or the impact on
the bottom line it is about the reputation, the
target audience perceptions / media
perception changes and influences)

Read Bridget's Chapter

Neil Wholey's Top 3 Measurement Tips

Ensure all project briefs are clear

Avoid jargon but if you must check what

the word means and challenge people who
use it in the wrong way.

Dont invent new words deliberately

unless they truly represent a new idea.

Read Neil's Chapter

60
Like To Know
More?
Thank you for your interest in visiting the PR
Professionals Guide. We intend to update
this at regular intervals to bring PR
professionals the best thinking from around
the world.

For information on the organisations who

collaborated to produce the Guide please
contact:

AMEC

International Association for Measurement and

Evaluation of Communication (AMEC)

Barry Leggetter, FCIPR, FPRCA

Executive Director
barryleggetter@amecorg.com
T +44 1268 412414
M +44 7748 677 504
www.amecorg.com

ICCO

International Communications Consultancy

Organisation

Anastasia Demidova
General Manager
info@iccopr.com
T +44 20 7233 6026
www.iccopr.com
www.twitter.com/ICCOpr
www.facebook.com/ICCOpr

61
Francis Ingham, MPRCA
Executive Director, ICCO
francis.ingham@prca.org.uk

PRCA

Public Relations Consultants Association

1st Floor, 17-23 Willow Place
London, SW1P 1JH

Francis Ingham, MPRCA

Director General, PRCA & Executive Director,
ICCO
T + 44 20 7233 6026
Fax + 44 20 7828 479
francis.ingham@prca.org.uk
www.prca.org.uk

Matt Cartmell
Communications Director
T + 44 20 7233 6026
F + 44 20 7828 4797
Matt.Cartmell@prca.org.uk
www.prca.org.uk

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