Mentioned this month: Major League Baseball, Engadget, SurveyMonkey, VMS, CyberAlert, The Boston Red Sox, Zogby International, Nielsen, Arbitron, Henry G. Frankfurt's "On Bullsh*t," comScore, PRtrak, Structural Equation Modeling, and Roper Corporate Reputation Scorecard

Articles in this column do not require a subscription.

Can This Reputation
Be Saved?

The World Series
The recent World Baseball Classic has made the World Series look a little bush league. Could this be the beginning of the end for MLB and the World Series? First off, let's remember that the World Series was named in 1903, a good 15 years before the U.S.A. was considered a true world power. We were a more closed-off country then, so the rest of the world didn't really matter as much to us. And, of course, at that time there wasn't all that much baseball being played anywhere else. So, we figured, who's gonna be offended by our little hyperbole? "World" Series, why not?... (Read the rest here, no subscription required.)

Your Free Seminar of the Month: Measurement on a
(Very) Small Budget
The Measurement Standard brings you this series of self-guided seminars to enable you to educate yourself on special measurement topics. This month we list eight articles or papers that will show you how to do get your research done with a minimal budget. All the resources are available on the Web and free of charge. (Read the rest here, no subscription required.)

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: Your Free Seminar of the Month: Employee/Internal Communications Measurement
#2: Measuring Relationships With Voters
#3: How Far We've Come, and How Far We Have to Go
#4: ROI Rules Three-Day Blog Love Fest
#5: Big Changes in Four Years

How to Stay Current on Measurement Blogs:
Check these recent measurement-related postings:
- David Jones: CPRS-endorsed measurement system launching April 20th
- Angela Sinickas: Connecting inputs to outcomes
- Shel Holtz and Mark Weiner: PR: Most bang for the marketing buck
- The blog of The Society for New Communications Research
- Katie Paine's postings from the IPRRC
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!
Related references:
- A PR measurement wiki
- Our Special Issue primer on blogs and blog measurement
Subscribe to KDPaine's PR Measurement blog feed

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.

The articles below require a subscription.
(But subscriptions are free until 4/15!)

MEASUREMENT CONFERENCE
What We Learned at
the 9th Annual IPRRC Conference
The dominance of new media, how the fundamental theories of PR are changing, and the importance of "truthiness." The International Public Relations Research Conference in Miami is the annual event for measurement. There are more ideas, more papers, more very smart people and more socializing than at any other gathering in the world of PR research... (You must be a subscriber to read further: sign up for your free subscription now!)

THE MEASUREMENT STANDARD READERSHIP SURVEY
Survey Results Show
Subscribers Read Newsletter
Most readers claim they use newsletter ideas "a couple times a day." Last month we asked you, our Measurement Standard readers, to tell us a little about who you are and what you think about this publication. Three hundred readers went to SurveyMonkey and responded to the survey. More than a few of you made the effort to respond with specific comments on how we can improve. Thank you all very much for participating... (You must be a subscriber to read further: sign up for your free subscription now!)

RESEARCH RESULTS
Familiarity Breeds Content
Tina Carroll's groundbreaking research demonstrates a connection between familiarity and the bottom line. "There may, in fact, be no such thing as bad publicity... The more familiar respondents are with an organization, the more this will predict their perception of the company to be a responsible citizen, have a trustworthy personality and have a positive reputation. These variables will then affect the respondents' willingness to recommend products, services and stocks to others, therefore contributing to the bottom line of the organization." (You must be a subscriber to read further: sign up for your free subscription now!)

JIM MACNAMARA'S "MEASURING UP"
PR's Problem with Flawed Research
How to avoid bias, do better research and improve your credibility. It is clear that some PR practitioners, who suffer from a lack of research training and are often squeezed by low budgets, are using biased and even invalid measurement methods. But even when using sound research techniques, validity and reliability – fundamental requirements of all proper research – can be eroded or lost through bias, skewed samples, lack of statistical rigor and a number of other flaws which emerging measurement mavens need to note... (You must be a subscriber to read further: sign up for your free subscription now!)

ALICE BRINK'S OBJECTIVE MEASURES
Hire Returns On Investment
The true story of how one article plus a trade show saved six-figure recruiting costs. I was called in by a client to do last-minute media pitching for her company's participation in a major industry trade show. While she hadn't put hard numbers in the planning, one major objective was to use the event to recruit new senior-level technical experts. So my strategy was to place a major feature on the company's workforce strategies. With a little skill and a lot of luck (catch me over a glass of wine sometime for the whole story), I snagged a front page story... (You must be a subscriber to read further. A one month subscription is only $19.95!)

THE MEASUREMENT MAVEN AND MENACE
The Maven:
Dr. Tina Carroll
There were so many measurement mavens at the IPRRC conference in Miami last month it hardly seems fair to pick just one, but Tina Carroll’s work on the relationship between familiarity, reputation and the bottom line really stood out... (You must be a subscriber to read further: sign up for your free subscription now!)

The Menace:
Zogby's Biased Poll Questions
We don't normally take on major polling firms, but we do have to question the way the questions were worded in Zogby International's recent survey of troops in Iraq. Granted, there is a lot of bias swirling around this issue; the poll results seem to lean to the left, and the guy who has made a big stink about them (Tim Kane of the Philadelphia Inquirer) leans to the right. But our interest here is more with the methodology than the results, so we had to at least raise a red flag... (You must be a subscriber to read further: sign up for your free subscription now!)

CARTOONS DRAWN ON THE BACK OF BUSINESS CARDS
by hugh macleod
gapingvoid.com

© 2006 KDPaine & Partners LLC, all rights reserved. Read the Masthead. Meet our Advisory Board. Look here for reprint information.

Articles in this column do not require a subscription.

The Paine of Measurement
Mirror, Mirror, On the Wall: Sometimes the hardest part of measurement is learning from my own data.
In this business we are really good at presenting data for others to digest, but how often do we actually learn from it ourselves? Take this eye-opening example from our recent readership survey: Only 4% of you actually prefer to get information from blogs. And most of you read blogs only once a month or less. So while I sit around navel-gazing investing time and effort in my measurement blog, you folks are telling us you prefer to get information from websites and trade publications. (Now there's something to blog about.) (Read the rest here, no subscription required.)

Katie Paine Speaks:
- May 25th, IABC Newfoundland & Labrador Conference
-June 29th, 3rd Annual Communications College, Toronto

Measurement Tip
of the Month, Classic
Consistency counts, so resist the urge to constantly tweak your methodology. Some adjustments in the beginning of a measurement program are often necessary, but in order to truly identify trends, measure performance gains or slips, and compare results against competitors, you must use consistent metrics over time. You can't report that message communication increased if you added twelve new messages. (A complementary KDPaine & Partners sweatshirt goes out to his month's Tip Of The Month contributor Michelle Vangel.)

Measurement Tip
of the Month, Extreme
All Eyeballs Are Not Equal
How to deal with the tricky problem of comparing OTS for print vs. online. Increasingly, organizations are including online sources in their media analyses, and the practice is causing havoc with those of us trying to calculate Opportunities to See (OTS). The problem comes when you try to put website numbers on the same chart as print media. It just doesn't work... (Read the rest here, no subscription required.)

Measurement Quote
of the Month
"It's never a good idea to ask a coyote to investigate why the chickens are missing."
-Mike Daily

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.