PR MEASUREMENT:8 INSPIRATIONALQUOTES & LESSONS

Data are just summaries of thousands of stories ----tell a few of those stories to help make the data meaningful.

Chip and Dan HeathAuthors of Made to Stick

Data is important, and it’s not going away. Just be sure that yourdata tells a story – the story of your customers, your brand or yourproduct – in a meaningful way that inspires a desired action orbehavior. Data without context = just numbers.

Lesson #1

Not everything that can be counted counts,and not everything that counts can be counted.

William Bruce CameronSociologist

Data is everywhere, and so are the salespeople and pitches forproducts and tools to help you analyze it and wow your boss.However, keep in mind what does and does not need to bemeasured for your business goals so that you end up with a cleansnapshot of performance, rather than more dashboards than youknow what to do with and a bunch of diluted metrics.

Lesson #2

Can we all agree that the "impressions" statistics at the end of every case studyvideo mean very little? Basically we’re celebrating that, maybe, perhaps, someonesomewhere might possibly have had an opportunity to see the thing that we made.

Kofi Amoo-GottfriedChief Strategy Officer at FCB Garfinkel

Oh this one is good. Beware the impressions trap. Much likeadvertising value equivalents (AVEs), impressions are a loosemetric at best – based on hypotheticals like “if this earned storywas an ad” and “if every single website visitor clicked on ourarticle.” It's nice to think about those big numbers, but they don’tmeasure outcomes effectively.

Lesson #3

Perhaps it has happened to you. You discuss a campaign with your marketing partners, andsomeone says, “We need to get one billion media impressions for this campaign!” And we all have

to keep in mind: There are only 300 million people in the United States.

Molly McKenna-JandrainDirector of Public Relations at McDonald's USA

Another witty reminder about impressions. Think about ways toredirect similar conversations with your business partners to amore concrete discussion about how you're going to measurewhat matters.

Lesson #4

Running analytics on less than the whole pie erodesmarketing credibility.

UnknownAdvertising Research Foundation West Event

I really wish I knew who said this! Speak up if you’re out there.This is a great lesson. As marketers and PR pros, in-house oragency, sometimes you don’t have all the information in front ofyou. But try, try, try to get ahold of it. Drawing on metrics frommarketing, PR and sales, you’ll be able to draw connections muchmore easily and show how PR is growing your brand audienceand impacting the bottom line.

Lesson #5

Because every client has different priorities, the targets you’re going after will vary case by case. When you build yourmedia list, take an extra 30 minutes and score every target based on these factors: Direct influence on customer, reach

or circulation, and ability to drive leads. When there’s a result, you’ll add a score for length of the story and tonality.

Aly SaxeFounder and CEO of Iris PR Management

This one is so easy to put into action for all PR professionals.Thinking strategically about how you build your media lists andhow you’ll report on earned media successes from the verybeginning will save you loads of time when pullingtogether monthly or quarterly reports.

Lesson #6

PR can influence [business outcome] metrics, unquestionably. Getting the right audience is absolutelyour job. We see PR's impact on search, social and media. But ultimately, at the end of the day we do notcontrol those downfunnel functions, and I would no more hold PR accountable to a potentially bad sales

team than I would hold advertising's performance to customer service metrics.

Christopher Penn Vice President of Marketing Technology at Shift Communications

While PR has the power to influence many business outcomes,professionals should be cautious of tying their efforts to outcomesthey cannot ultimately control. Focus on what you can control andhow you can grow the audience for your brand or product, andyou’ll be more successful.

Lesson #7

The price of light is less than the cost of darkness.

Arthur C. NielsenMarket Analyst and Founder of ACNielsen

I love this quote because it applies to both time andmoney. Spending the time to analyze data and report on thingsthat you’ve done to impact ROI is well worth it – it can improveyour business, team morale, luck when department budgets arebeing determined and personal success. Spending the money isalso worth it. Think about measurement as an investment.

Lesson #8

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