| Dec
7
THE
PAINE OF MEASUREMENT
 How
Not To Lie With Statistics
It's
time to turn the black box into lucite.
For far too long communications professionals -- who know
a great deal about writing, pitching and the politics of business,
but know little about research -- have been manipulating
numbers to make themselves look good. It's time to move beyond "any
measurement is good measurement" and
demand that measurement be accurate and that the methodology be
transparent. The days of the "black box" are over.
Dec
8
LETTERS,
SUGGESTIONS, COMMENTS AND HATE MAIL
Comments
on "How Not To Lie With Statistics"
Andrew
Laing and Wilma Mathews chime in.
Dec
7
MEASUREMENT
IN ACADEMIA
 BMOC
Stands for
"Big Measurement on Campus"
How to measure in the academic environment.
More and more educational institutions are realizing
that managing their reputations is critical to their survival.
You can have the best faculty in the world, but if no one knows
it, you're not going to attract students. Academics
are learning that in order to manage they need to measure. So PR
measurement is making it onto to-do lists of communications and public affairs
officers in colleges and universities of all shapes and sizes. (This
article includes
Six Golden Rules, Seven Steps to Success, and How to Budget.)
Dec
7
ACADEMIC
MEASUREMENT CASE STUDY
 The
Case of the Ignorant University
How
one New England university learned a $6 million lesson on the value
of measurement.
Having
the right data on which to base decisions is worth every penny of
its cost.
The cost of not measuring is almost always higher than the
cost of measurement. One New
England university learned this lesson the hard way. Several years
ago, both the University and the town were in desperate need of soccer
fields. A
University
alumnus, a successful local entrepreneur, offered to donate $6 million
to build them. A site was selected, town officials were notified, and
the University assumed it would soon be hosting soccer tournaments.
Dec
7
JENNY
SCHADE'S MAKING IT COUNT
 Facts
vs. Feelings
How
to measure what is really important.
Some
of the most frequent questions we receive from companies
interested in learning more about their customers and employees are
about methodology: Should we do a survey? What about focus groups?
Is qualitative research
really valid? And
the answer is: "That depends... on what you're trying to do with the research,
on the
nature of your target audience and on the type of insight you are seeking..."
Dec
7
MEASUREMENT
STRATEGY
 To
Monitor
or Evaluate
or Both?
Glenn
O'Neil describes how measurement
during the course of a project can guide your actions and make a final
evaluation easier.
Many
communication professionals approach PR measurement
with an end game attitude -- as something that's done once a
programme or project is concluded. But this is an error; PR measurement
also needs to take place before and during a project.
Nov
22
BILL PAARLBERG'S EDITORIAL IMPERATIVE
 Measurement's
Empty Head
Measurement
ignores the most complex part of PR.
PR
measurement treats the mind of the media consumer like it's an empty box
to be filled: The media dumps in impressions
and we measure the outtakes and outcomes. But it's time to face up to the
fact that human beings aren't just empty heads, and they don't consume media
in a simple and rational fashion.
Nov
22
JIM MACNAMARA'S "MEASURING UP"
 The
Fork in the Road
How PR measurement has lost its way on the path to professionalism.
PR
practitioners just don't seem to want to or be able to measure. How do we get
past the apparent roadblock that is preventing practitioners doing what 10-15
years of professional and academic advice has urged them to do? This article
advances a theory on the real underlying reasons for the industry's research-phobia
and suggests a route to negotiating this obstacle. Nov
22
ALICE BRINK'S OBJECTIVE MEASURES
 Advertising
vs. PR
It's time to shake hands
and play nice.
It is time to lose the turf battle
between advertising and public relations. I could see this thread running
through nearly every presentation of the Summit on Measurement.
Let's drop the holier
than thou attitude some of us in PR have held toward advertising.
That's the first step toward building effective collaborative relationships.
Nov
22
THE
MEASUREMENT MAVEN OF THE MONTH
William
Ryerson
Founder, Population Media Center
The
Population Media Center uses media
radio and television dramas to change attitudes around the world regarding
HIV/Aids, birth control and family health. These "entertainment-education" melodramas
teach viewers new attitudes and behaviors by including characters that
evolve into role models. What makes PMC unique from most other nonprofits
is their emphasis on measurement. And they're not just measuring
attitudes, they're measuring changes in behavior.
Nov
22
THE
MEASUREMENT MENACE OF
THE MONTH
BurrellesLuce
BurrellesLuce
wins the prize for either sheer stupidity or sheer chutzpah or possibly
both. Their recent marketing
newsletter offered the "7 'Must Have' Metrics for Media Measurement," and
topping the list was advertising value equivalency. To
make matters worse, the other six "'Must Have' Metrics" have
nothing to do with proper research but rather are simply elements that
are offered as part of BurrellesLuce's standard service.
Dec
7
CARTOONS DRAWN ON THE BACK OF BUSINESS CARDS
by hugh macleod
 gapingvoid.com
The Measurement
Standard publishes articles on public relations measurement, public relations
research, public relations effectiveness and related topics.
|
|
 Great
Minds on Measurement
 "The
cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."
- Dorothy Parker
Dec
7
Measurement Tip
of the Moment
We rather doubt
there is much authority behind this rough measure of a blog's
influence, but it's fun to try out. Inspired by Dave Sifry’s
State of the Blogosphere, kineda.com's
Technorati-Powered widget computes a blog's "bloglebrity
status." Just type in the blog URL and start ducking the paparazzi.
Dec
7
Keep
Up With the Measurement Blogs:
 Recent
posts:
- At Intelligent
Measurement
you'll find a recent post on measuiring relationships
Go
to technorati.com and search 33 million sites for mentions
of "PR measurement" during
the past 20 days. Hey, we've done it for you already, just
click here!
Blog
references:
- A
PR measurement wiki
Dec
7
Reprint
of the Month
 An
Exclusive Interview
With Santa Claus: Inside measurement
at the North Pole.
Seminar
of the Month:
 Educate
Yourself
Boost
your measurement knowledge and find solutions to your research problems
with this list
of online resources, books and conferences. With
A Bullet:
Last Month's Top Five Most Popular Articles:
(If
these articles were subscriber-only in last month's issue, you will still need
a subscription to read them.)
 #1: What
Is New Media?
#2: Katie
Paine's All-Time Biggest Measurement Mistakes
#3: Top
Ten Agencies'
Blog Reputations Revealed
#4: The
Compleat Guide to
Media Content Providers
#5: Walk
Before You Run
Our
Back Issues are now
organized by subject matter, take a look at this list:
You
will need a subscription to read most
of them.
You know you need to measure your results,
but chances are there's never been enough money in your budget for evaluation. Until
now.
KDPaine & Partners' new Do-It-Yourself Dashboard system combines a Web-based
application with professional consulting to enable PR professionals to customize
their own PR dashboards. Look
here for more information.
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