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prnewsonline.com

Published by PR News Press

VOL. 8

PR MeasurementQuantifying and Communicating the Returns of PR

24012_PRN Measurement Guidebook Vol 8_cover_final.indd 1 6/11/14 3:54 PM

5© PR News PR News Measurement Guidebook Vol. 8

ForewordDear reader,

The public relations industry is changing, as the subjective art of communication has converged with the objective science of accountability. With the digitization of communications has come a flow of traffic that can be analyzed in new ways and in real time. That new ability to measure has brought with it a new demand for insights. Now, more than ever before, the pressure is mounting to assess and quantify the returns on the creative investment in public relations.

But can you ever really measure the editorial quality of a blog post? Can you quantify the passion engendered by a call to action? What, exactly, is a Facebook “like” worth? How does Twitter help or harm sales? These are the types of questions that PR professionals are now being asked to answer. That focus on accountability and measurement is forcing communicators to think more about outcomes and how the functions of public relations can be tracked and aligned with the business priorities of their organizations.

In this new landscape, the audience and the organization are taking on new roles. The audience is no longer reactive and passive, as people proactively dive into the digital environment in search of information. And the organizations, the ones delivering messages to that audience, can listen in on and influence what is being said about them. These new roles are only beginning to be understood, and this edition of PR News’ PR Measurement Guidebook seeks to help master those roles and the new environment that they are shaping.

Our contributing writers to this book run the gamut of this industry sector. Each author brings insight to his or her subject from roles as agency advisors, corporate practitioners, marketing communications executives and academics. I want to thank these contributors who so eloquently shared their ideas, tips and best practices.

I also want to thank you, our readers, for letting us help you as you learn new skills, hone existing ones and grow your businesses. The current measurement environment demands determination and creativity, and we hope this Guidebook will help inspire both.

Sincerely,

Brian Greene Editor, PR News

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Guidebook Editor, Brian Greene, 212.621.4917, [email protected] Designer, Erin Gately, 301.354.1683, [email protected] Editor, Matthew Schwartz, 212.621.4940, [email protected] Director/Events, Steve Goldstein, 212.621.4890, [email protected] Manager, PR Events, Richard Brownell, 212.621.4693, [email protected] Content, Tony Silber, 203.899.8424, tsilber@accessintelSenior Marketing Manager, Laura Snitkovskiy, 301.354.1610, [email protected] Coordinator, Kristina McHale, 301.354.1609,[email protected]/Group Publisher, Diane Schwartz 212.621.4964, [email protected] President, Marketing, Amy Jefferies, 301.354.1699, [email protected] of Marketing & Event Logistics, Kate Schaeffer, 301.354.2303, [email protected] President, Heather FarleyPresident & CEO, Don Pazour

PR News ADVISORY BOARD Paul A. Argenti - Tuck School of BusinessMary Buhay - Gibbs & SoellNed Barnett - Barnett Marketing CommunicationsSteve Cody - PeppercommNeal Cohen - APCO Carol Cone - Edelman Peter Debreceny - Gagen MacDonaldMike Herman - Communication SciencesLaura Kane - AflacKen Makovsky - MakovskyMichael McDougall - McDougall Travers CollinsLarry Parnell - George Washington University Mike Paul - MGP & Associates PR Deborah Radman - Senior PR ConsultantBrenda C. Siler - Best Communication StrategiesStephanie Smirnov - EdelmanHelene Solomon - Solomon McCown & Co.Mark Weiner - PRIME ResearchPR News BOARD OF CONTRIBUTORSDave Armon - Critical MentionAndy Gilman - CommCore Consulting Bruce Jeffries-Fox - Jeffries-Fox Associates Angela Jeffrey - Salience InsightRichard Laermer - RLM Public RelationsRichard Levick - Levick Strategic Comms Ian Lipner - Lewis PR/YoungPRpros Katie Paine - Paine Publishing LLC Rodger Roeser - The Eisen Agency Lou Thompson - Kalorama Partners Reid Walker - Dir. of Communications, United States Senate Tom Martin - College of Charleston

ISSN 1546-0193

24012_PRN Measurement Guidebook Vol 8_Intro.indd 5 6/11/14 3:48:39 PM

6 PR News Measurement Guidebook Vol. 8 © PR News

Table of Contents

Foreword ........................................................................................................................ 5

Index of Companies & Organizations ...................................................................... 224

Board of Contributors ............................................................................................... 227

Chapter 1—State of PR Measurement ...................................................................... 11

Up to Standard: Comparing Results Across Programs, Business Units and Partners– by Frank Ovaitt and David Geddes ..................................................................................................12The Barcelona Principles: Getting PR a Seat at the Adults’ Table– by David B. Rockland ........................................................................................................................16Big Data: The Most Powerful PR Tool That Communicators Are Not Using– by John Roderick ................................................................................................................................19Half Growth, Half Engagement: Impact Equation for Measurement Is New Normal– by Jessica Payne ..................................................................................................................................22PR News/Affect Study: No Consistency in Measurement Efforts Across PR Industry– by PR News Editors ............................................................................................................................24PR Talent Pool Rapidly Changing to Meet Demand for Measurement and Research– by PR News Editors ............................................................................................................................26A Beginner’s Guide to Measuring PR in Corporate and Agency Settings– by John Fitzsimmons ..........................................................................................................................28An Update on the Barcelona Principles: Traction Is Definitely Growing, But Slowly– by PR News Editors ............................................................................................................................31

Chapter 2—Tying PR to Sales .................................................................................... 35

5 Steps PR Professionals Can Take to Generate and Measure Leads for Clients– by Martin Jones ..................................................................................................................................36Selling Metrics Back to Clients: Tracking The Evolution of PR Measurement– by Shawn Paul Wood .........................................................................................................................40PR Pros Need to Harness Growing Links Between Passion, Sharing and ROI– by Bob Pearson ...................................................................................................................................44PR and Marketing Combine to Cook Up Recipe for Revenue Gravy– by Debbie Qaqish ...............................................................................................................................47Communicators Have Key Role to Play In Reinvention of Sales and Marketing– by PR News Editors ............................................................................................................................49



The Sales Connection: Bridging the Gap Between Thought Leadership and Sales– by Ned Ward .......................................................................................................................................52To Become More than a Media Relations Shop, PR Needs to Work with Marketing– by Tara Chiarell ..................................................................................................................................55Prove the Worth of Public Relations by Measuring New Audience Generation– by Christopher S. Penn .......................................................................................................................57

Chapter 3—Reputation Management ........................................................................ 61

5 Tools to Measure (and Manage) Reputation in a Complex Environment– by Kami Huyse ...................................................................................................................................62Social Customer Care: Shifting Brand Support From Passive to Active– by Jean Derespina ...............................................................................................................................65Ohio University’s Researched-Based Journey to Build and Focus Its Brand– by Renea Morris .................................................................................................................................70Managing Reputation Starts with Understanding Behavior, Not Perception– by Dorian Cundick .............................................................................................................................74

Chapter 4—How to Measure Social Media ROI ........................................................ 79

5 Proven Tools to Effectively Measure Engagement and ROI on Social Media– by Ray Larson and Chris Baldock .....................................................................................................80Human Touch Is Most Vital Part of Tracking Social Media Metrics– by Angela Jeffrey .................................................................................................................................86Tools, Content and Amplification: Assessing the Hard Costs of Social Media– by David Patton .................................................................................................................................89The Hype Machine: Social Media Isn’t a Strategy, It’s a Tool– by Douglas Brundage .........................................................................................................................91From Engagement to Measurement: Social Media Data and ROI Accuracy– by Chel Wolverton ..............................................................................................................................93Effectively Measuring Social Media ROI with a Positive Return on Content– by Aljolynn Sperber ............................................................................................................................97

Chapter 5—Presenting Measurement to Senior Leaders ...................................... 101

Changing the Conversation: Involve CEOs in the Process to Match Goals to Metrics– by Annakate Tefft Ross .....................................................................................................................102Reporting Back to the C-Suite: Know Your Audience, Get Educated, Be Transparent– by Debby Iacunato and Lacey Trejo ................................................................................................104



How to Create an Annual Report That Resonates with Your Senior Leaders– by Kim Menard ................................................................................................................................1083 Things Campaign Partners Want To See When It Comes to Measurement– by Emily Yu.......................................................................................................................................111A Lesson from Philips: Why Measurement Is Business-Critical for Communications– by Andre Manning and Ben Levine ................................................................................................115Create Meaning: Analytical Storytelling in Communications with Senior Leaders– by Jake Finkelstein ............................................................................................................................120

Chapter 6—Dashboards and Tools .......................................................................... 125

As PR Becomes Equal Parts Art and Science, Get to Know Your IT Colleagues– by Howard Sholkin ...........................................................................................................................126Dashboards that Do the Job: Look Smart, Know More and Have Fun Doing It– by Catherine Schum .........................................................................................................................128Actionable Data Analysis: Harnessing the Full Potential of Your Data to Gain Insight– by Justin Gilbert ...............................................................................................................................132Content, Data and You: A Primer on PR Portals, Command Centers and Dashboards– by Mark Weiner................................................................................................................................137Lessons from MasterCard in Creating and Implementing a Measurement Dashboard – by Andrew Bowins ...........................................................................................................................141

Chapter 7—Measurement Resources ..................................................................... 147

Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research, Third Edition– Edited by Don W. Stacks and Shannon A. Bowen ..........................................................................148The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles– by International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication ..............181Interim Standards– by Coalition for Public Relations Research Standards ....................................................................183



Chapter 1: State of PR Measurement

Up to Standard: Comparing Results Across Programs, Business Units and PartnersBy Frank Ovaitt and David Geddes

The history of public relations measurement standards may be shorter—or perhaps longer—than you realize. Today, true standards are beginning to

define the state (and the state of the art) of measurement.

Many of today’s practitioners will not remember predominant measurement tech-niques used through the late 1990s. Most prevalent were measures at the basic output level of media relations. Clips and potential audience could be counted. Many senior

executives measured progress by the thud fac-tor: how much noise a package of clips made when dropped on the desk. Advertising value equivalency (AVE), based on the misguided notion that the cost of space or broadcast time might be a reasonable measure of PR value, was relatively easy to produce.

Standards will allow the measurement community to focus more energy on using research to generate insights.

Sources & Methods Transparency Table #SMMStandards – Sources & Methods Transparency Table www.smmstandards.org Timeframe Analyzed

Research Lead(s)

Channels Analyzed

Data/Content Sources

Analysis Depth Automated Manual Hybrid All Content Reviewed Rep. Sample

Source Languages

Search Languages

Sentiment Coding Automated Manual Hybrid Manual Sampling: _____________________ 3-pt scale 5-pt scale Other scale At entity level Paragraph/doc level

Spam/Bot Filtering Automated Manual Hybrid Includes news releases Excludes releases

Metrics Calculation and Sources

-- Reach

-- Conversation

-- Engagement

-- Opinion/Advocacy

Proprietary Methods

Search Parameters See full search string list on page ___ of this report

PR research standards sometimes specify means of disclosing how the data was developed. This table is used for disclosing development of social media measurement.

Sources & Methods Transparency Table

24012_PRN Measurement Guidebook Vol 8_Ch-1.indd 12 6/11/14 3:49:08 PM



But, about this time, several forces came together to expand measurement science and practice, including advances in technology, new professional organizations and research techniques. Today there are more measure-ment conferences, panels, articles and guide-books than most practitioners can imagine let alone subscribe to or attend. You can pick and choose.

Points in TimeIn 1996, the Institute for Public Relations

(IPR) launched its Measurement Commis-sion to develop standards and best practices for research, measurement and evaluation that could contribute to more eff ective public relations. Th e concept of measuring outputs, outtakes and outcomes was formalized and gained traction. Topics such as how to create measurable objectives, the fallacy of multipli-ers and more were explored in white papers (freely available then and now on the IPR website).

In 2002, the fi rst edition of Dr. Don Stacks’ Dictionary of Public Relations Measurement and Research was published. Now in its third edition with co-editor Dr. Shannon Bowen, this reference continues to provide a founda-tion for measuring and evaluating what we do for a living. (View the dictionary on p. 148)

Th e International Association for Mea-surement and Evaluation of Communica-tion (AMEC), originally formed in 1996, broadened its scope in 2006 and 2007 to provide a vibrant global trade and profession-al institute for communication measurement and evaluation services.

Good timing, since the fi rst decade of the 21st century was springtime for public rela-tions research and measurement services. Unfortunately, the rapid bloom produced many proprietary practices and defi nitions. If clients were confused by all of this, they were right to question the validity of some of these

off erings. Without universally accepted mea-sures and processes to gauge communications performance, results oft en couldn’t be com-pared across public relations programs, time periods, business units and product lines—not to mention across a stable of agencies and research providers that the client might hire.

In 2010, culminating several years of international collaboration, AMEC, IPR, the Public Relations Society of America, the Global Alliance and the International Communications Consultancy Organisa-tion produced the Barcelona Principles (see sidebar). Th ese seven fundamental measure-ment principles were debated and adopted by delegates at the 2nd European Summit on Measurement. Everyone recognized that this was just a framework on which more specifi c standards and defi nitions would be built, but it at least gave us a shared foundation.

The Barcelona PrinciplesThe importance of goal setting and measure-1. mentMedia measurement requires quantity and 2. qualityAVEs are not the value of public relations 3. Social media can and should be measured4. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measur-5. ing media resultsBusiness (read: organizational) results can 6. and should be measured where possibleTransparency and replicability are paramount 7. to sound measurement

“What we’re doing here is setting a baseline to build on,” said David Rockland, Partner and Managing Director, Ketchum Global Research & Analytics; CEO, Ketchum Change (and now AMEC chair) in moderating the discussion in Barcelona. “This is the basic philosophy behind a set of standard practices.”

The principles were to be re� ned and supported by more speci� c standards—an effort now being carried out by the Coalition for Public Rela-tions Research Standards.




One principle, asserting that AVEs are not the value of public relations, has not killed that practice. Oft en enough, it’s a well inten-tioned but ill-informed client who demands AVEs. Yet, even if we can’t declare victory, it’s refreshing that professionals exhibit more and more embarrassment over using AVEs in their work.

Enter the Coalition for Public Relations Research Standards

Following the Barcelona Principles, a group of industry organizations, agencies, re-search providers, clients and thought leaders came together to agree upon defi nitions, stan-dards and best practices for public relations

research and measurement. Th is Coalition for Public Relations Research Standards promised a broad platform of such standards applicable to many areas of practice including traditional media relations, corporate com-munications and social media. Such stan-dards are not intended to hinder innovation by research providers. To the contrary, every-one wants more innovation but at a higher level and built upon a shared foundation. Standards will not just allow ready compari-son of results across programs, business units and research partners. Standards will allow the measurement community to focus more energy on using research to generate insights.

Th e International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is the world’s central force in standards across an amazing range of technologies and industries. On any given day, the most downloaded standards on their home page may include quality control, envi-ronmental management and food safety. ISO says that standards must be market-driven and voluntary, based on global expert opin-ion, developed through a multi-stakeholder process designed to bring in a wide range of viewpoints, and based on consensus.

Th e Coalition established its own six-step process based on ISO guidelines. Th e six steps are:

Proposal stage.1. Identify areas where stan-dards are needed.Development stage.2. A technical working group draft s proposed interim standards, which are posted for review and comment. When the group believes it has developed the best technical solution, the draft is submitted to the customer panel for review and approval.Customer approval.3. Clients are the fi nal arbiters of when a proposed standard is ready for adoption. Th e Coalition has iden-tifi ed a customer panel of corporations that are major purchasers of public relations

One principle, asserting that AVEs are not

The International Organization for Standard-ization (ISO) has a broad concept of standards. “A standard…provides requirements, speci� -cations, guidelines or characteristics that can be used consistently to ensure that materials, products, processes and services are � t for their purpose.” Standards can be de� nitions, metrics, processes, protocols or guidelines that establish a common language and allow comparisons. Standards can take many forms: de� nitions, metrics, processes, protocols or guidelines.

According to the ISO, “International standards ensure that products and services are safe, reli-able and of good quality. For business, they are strategic tools that reduce costs by minimizing waste and errors and increasing productivity. They help companies access new markets, level the playing � eld for developing countries and facilitate free and fair global trade.”

ISO standards exist in related disciplines such as market, opinion and social research (ISO 20252 and 26362) and in corporate social re-sponsibility (ISO 26000)

For public relations research and measurement, fundamental values of standards are ensuring quality of data and comparability of measure-ments. This will facilitate organizational learning, boost ef� ciency, lower costs, spark innovation, spur competition based on insights, and raise the credibility of public relations as a data-driven function.




research and measurement services.Publication.4. Once the customer panel has adopted draft standards, they are published as interim standards, meaning they are ready for application.Validation.5. Most interim standards re-quire validation to prove that they actu-ally measure what they say they do. When eff ectiveness of the standards has been confi rmed, they are published.

Review and revision.6. Public relations research and measurement standards will be reviewed and expanded on an annual basis.By now, we have reached stage four and

published interim standards are ready for application in these areas: traditional media measurement, social media measurement, communications life cycle and return on investment. (View the interim standards on p.183) We have even begun validation of the traditional media measurement standards.

What else is the Coalition working on? A fi rst statement on ethical standards is already available, though it will need further specifi c-ity. Research and measurement standards for employee communications and investor rela-tions are also on the short list. But the choice of what to work on next really belongs to the public relations industry—clients, agencies, research providers, educators and more—and such thoughts are always welcome on the Coalition’s website. PRN

Frank Ovaitt, APR, is president and CEO of the Institute for Public Relations.

David Geddes, Ph.D., is member and past chair of the Institute for Public Relations Measurement Commission and principal of Geddes Analytics.

research and measurement services.

Standards Ready for ApplicationCommunications Lifecycle■■

Awareness (aided and unaided), knowledge, interest and relevance, relationship, intent and advocacy can all be measured using the customer-adopted standards.Social Media Measurement■■

Provides standard de� nitions and best prac-tices along with disclosure tools for transpar-ency on sources and methods. Traditional Media Measurement■■

Establishes de� nitions and best practices including such basics as media analysis, circulation, reach and impressions.Return on Investment (ROI) ■■

and Related MetricsReturn on investment (ROI) is a � nancial measure used only when both investment and money earned or saved can be reliably quanti� ed. The term should not be used for non-� nancial results, which are nevertheless important elements of public relations value.


PR News Measurement Guidebook Vol. 8 © PR News80

Chapter 4: How to Measure Social Media ROI

5 Proven Tools to Effectively Measure Engagement and ROI on Social MediaBy Ray Larson and Chris Baldock

Are you using social media in your marketing and public re-lations campaigns? These days, the answer for most is certainly a resounding yes. Social me-

dia—including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest—is entwined in the fabric of any effective modern-day messaging and communications plan.

So you’re a believer. You’re dutifully try-ing to create posts, promote content, manage messaging and encourage interaction. But do you really know what kind of return you’re generating on the time, effort and money you’re investing in social media? When upper management or a client asks you what kind of payback is being generated, do you have real answers with data to support?

Fortunately, you don’t have to be evasive when explaining what kind of bang is being generated for your social media buck. Follow-ing are five proven tools that anyone can use to measure the return on social media activi-ties, along with hands-on tips for how to get the most out of each.

Google Analytics / Webmaster ToolsOne of the best tools for measuring social

media activity is right in front of you, and it’s free. When paired with Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics is a great way to monitor your social media success. If you don’t have either of these set up to monitor your website, you’re missing out on extensive and easy-to-catch data that can help you opti-

mize your social marketing campaigns. These are rather easy tools to implement,

so start here as soon as possible. This is the low-hanging fruit, so to speak.

Once you have these tools set up for your website, there is deep knowledge to be gained from the data. The best places to start are in your Acquisition tab and your Behavior tab. These two tabs are set up to display data de-scribing where your visitors came from and what activity they engage in on your site. You will also want to look at Behavior Flow.

In your Acquisition tab, there is actually a social drop down menu that will allow you to see what type of impact your social message cre-ated. And in the Overview sec-tion you’ll see a table of social networks that drove traffic to your website.

Google Analytics’ Acquisition tab.




To drill down on where visitors entered your site, you can choose the Landing Pages option. This is a good area to look at to un-derstand which social posts drove the most traffic. Using different landing pages for every campaign will allow you to specifically track those visitors and then see a return on your social effort.

The Behavior tab explores exactly what its name suggests. It maps the behavior of all your visitors—what they do and where they go on your site. In the Overview option, you’ll see the landing pages on which your visitors came into the site. Once again, this is a great place to measure your social reach. If the landing page you used in your social campaign is showing up on the list, it means people are clicking the link in your social posts.

Another great option for monitoring the success of a social media campaign is within the Behavior Flow section. Here you’ll be able to narrow the visitors to just the medium they came to the site from. You’ll then be able to understand what those visitors from your social platforms are doing once on your site.

Look at the following factors. How many interactions do these visitors perform? How

many leave after the first page? These are important questions to ask. If these ques-tions don’t have good answers, you need to optimize your pages by asking yourself these questions:

How do we keep them on site longer?■■

How can we get them to offer us their ■■

information?Keeping an eye on your social media

campaigns through Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools can help you optimize your campaigns and learn the type of return you’re getting on your social media investment.

HootSuiteIf you have a social media campaign that

involves more than one platform, then it’s time to get a social media management tool.

One of those tools is HootSuite, which allows you to connect all your social plat-forms to one “hub.” You can then manage and monitor your social campaigns without hav-ing to login to different platforms every time you want to check something out or review performance.

HootSuite lets you create streams for every social platform (located in the tabs at the top of the page). Here you can have your feed,

An example of a HootSuite dashboard.




mentions, direct messages and scheduled posts all in one place.

Another column to utilize is the option to follow keywords or topics within the social platform. If your company has keyword phrases of interest or product names that you want to monitor, you can add that stream to the platform. Every time that word shows up in a social post, anywhere, it will show up in your stream. It’s a great way to follow and monitor conversations on your company, product or service. You’ll know what’s being talked about, so you can manage ongoing messaging.

Another tool you can use in HootSuite is the analytics that are provided for your account. Here you can dig down into indi-vidual posts and see what type of interaction you had with your followers: how much a post was shared, how many clicks your URL received, how many likes and so forth.

With these analytics you can understand what type of comments or posts work best for your company. For example, if you see there is a day of the week or a time during the day that you get the most interactions, you can start to post more during those times. This

should help you generate more traction for your posts.

Another smart idea is to test the layout of your posts. Does a link work better for you, or does a photo? Play around with your posts to get a better return on your social campaign. Don’t just do what you’ve always done.

If you’re on a budget and want to access social media information with one login, HootSuite is a great way to do it.

RavenFor social media, Raven is another tool

that you can use to bring your Twitter, Face-book, YouTube and LinkedIn profiles into one spot to monitor them and make posts.

Raven isn’t limited to social monitoring. If you have an in-house SEO team or even a marketing department that wants to optimize its website and content marketing campaigns, this is highly recommend tool.

The metrics provided are the keys to op-timizing your campaigns in Raven. This lets you monitor returns. These metrics allow you to pull directly from the four platforms so you can see the data pertinent to the account. Shares, likes and comments will all show up.

The Monitor tab on Raventools.




Raven makes monitoring your social media interactions a breeze.

The other thing that makes Raven ideal is the Monitor tab. You can choose most any-thing you want to monitor—competitors, keywords, products, your brand—and Raven will search the web and pull in all the infor-mation for you. Raven will also give a rating to the mention of what you’re monitoring. If it’s a good, neutral or bad comment, Raven will tell you. From there you can be sure that the comments that need the most attention will get it.

Monitoring your social brand is impor-tant, and controlling the message is only part of the job. Raven allows you to put your top platforms in one area and then monitor those platforms for comments or shares. But it’s also a great tool for more than social. That may help you “make the case” to invest in Raven. It’s something that every marketing depart-ment should have.

Facebook InsightsFacebook might have the easiest dashboard

of all the social media platforms to measure

the efficacy of your campaigns. But not ev-eryone leverages Facebook’s tools to their full extent. The key is to understand the vernacu-lar of the Insights dashboard. Here’s a quick primer on the most important terms:

Organic reach:■■ the number of unique people (does not include multiple views by the same persons) who saw your post in their news feed or on your post including the people who saw it from a story shared by a friend when they liked it or interacted with itPaid reach:■■ the number of uniques who saw your post through an adImpressions:■■ the number of times a post from your page is displayed, including multiple impressions by the same uniqueEngagement:■■ the number of uniques who clicked on, liked, commented or shared your posts during a 7 day periodDemographics of your page’s audience

are merely a click away, as is data on where exactly your fans come from by city, country and language as well.

The Insights dashboard is a virtual data mine. However, the most important informa-

Facebook Insights allows you to learn when your fans are online.




tion for day-to-day monitoring of the health of your Facebook page and campaigns lies on the Overview tab. From here you can visually discern whether or not your Likes are increas-ing, the reach of your posts and how engaged your audience is.

A simple click to the arrow at the top of each of the three metrics yields in-depth dive into each.

Once you understand Facebook’s terminol-ogy, understanding how your page is per-forming is quite simple with the easy-to-use Insights dashboard.

SumAllHere’s the best kept secret in the measur-

ing/analytics world: SumAll. SumAll is a

“data visualization service,” still free, that allows users to better understand their data across multiple platforms. SumAll lets you in-tegrate social media data from many sources, see it visually, and make better sense of your business. SumAll empowers users to “mash” data from different streams to look for cor-relations.

SumAll pulls data from these platforms and more to produce eye-catching visuals of the data your various analytics programs capture.

The real deliverable SumAll brings to the table is the ability to connect all of your data streams in one place and then visually deter-mine whether or not your social activity, for example, is converting. Most importantly, the

An in-depth look at Likes, Post Reach and Engagement on Facebook.

A SumAll visualization of thought leaders on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.




data can be aggregated into easy to see and understand visuals for your C-suite to digest.

If you’re a social media marketer, deploy SumAll to determine whether or not a Fa-cebook or Twitter interaction produces a positive ROI. This tool allows channel cor-relation to visually determine how activity on Facebook affected website traffic. This could be accomplished, for example, by overlaying data from Facebook (like advocacy) to refer-ral traffic from Facebook from your Google Analytics on the same graph. This allows you to compare related metrics and look for cor-relation.

ConclusionQuit guessing at what kind of ROI you’re

getting on your social media investment. There are plenty of tools out there to help you get a real handle on how well your social cam-paigns are doing to generate conversations, engage prospects and distribute your mes-sage. Google Analtics and Webmaster Tools, Facebook, RavenTools, HootSuite and SumAll represent five great tools for measuring the effects of your social media efforts and invest-ment. PRN

Ray Larson and Chris Baldock are content strategists at Brandpoint.

A SumAll visual comparison of advocacy activity and Facebook visits.


cal- cu- pr measurement · aging ongoing pr • deﬁ ning success • sales & marketing...

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