|
Articles
in this column do not require a subscription.
Can This Reputation
Be Saved?
 FEMA
In
the wake of Hurricane Katrina, numerous reputations will be made, saved
and savaged. Wal-Mart, for instance, cut off pay to workers who had no
jobs or stores to go to after just three days, then turned around and
became the largest corporate contributor to the Katrina Relief fund. Was
that enough to save their already spotty reputation? Probably not. How
about FEMA? Can the Federal Emergency Management Authority recover from
the missteps and misstatements of the past few weeks?...
(Read the rest here, no subscription required.)
Proceedings of the 8th Annual International Public Relations Conference,
3/10-13, 2005 are now available.
Just click here to download this 591 page .pdf file that includes all
77 papers. Yep, it's really big.
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, but you
can sign up for one month for just
$19.95!
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:
Don't Bother Measuring Blogs!
#2: The
Problem of PR Indexes: Magic Number or Big Headache?
#3:
Media
Measurement Plays Well With Others
#4:
The Design-A-Dashboard Checklist
#5:
An
Almost Perfect Primer for Measuring Media Performance
Local News:
Up here in northern New England it's not all high tech PR measurement:
Portsmouth
man guilty of assault with bagel
Rte.
95 bridge to get suicide cameras
Drive-thru
flasher suspects identified
Trivia: True or False?
The
liquid inside young coconuts can be used as substitute for blood plasma.
(true)
Two actors
who portrayed the Marlboro Man in cigarette advertisements died of lung
cancer. (true)
Pearls dissolve
in vinegar. (true)
Walt Disney
was afraid of mice. (true)
sources: Rumor
Mill
|
|
The
articles below require a subscription.
In
this issue:
FEMA, Karen Hughes, PRtrak, VMS, Charlotte Beers, Wal-Mart, Delahaye,
Kaplow Communications, Google blog search, Margaret Tutwiler, Roper Reports,
IBM, Cymfony, IABC, IPR, Greyhound Bus, Carma and Thomas Paine.
ASK DR. PAINE
 Uncle
Sam's Measurement Makeover
How measurement can improve
the Bush Administration's new PR program.
Karen
Hughes, new US Under-Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, has recently
identified specific strategic goals for improving the US's image. She's
looking at a PR program as big as, well, the whole world. How is she going
to know if she's getting the job done? And, considering that her predecessors
Charlotte Beers and Margaret Tutwiler have already gone down in flames
trying to do this job, how is she going to to convince her bosses that
she is making progress? We put the problem to longtime measurement advice
columnist Katie Delahaye Paine: Suppose you were advising Karen Hughes
on her new program. How would you recommend she set up measurable goals
and a system to evaluate them?...
(Want
to read more?
A single
issue subscription is only $19.95!)
CRISIS MANAGEMENT
 Seven
Critical Crisis Advantages
of a Measurement System
Manage your next crisis right now:
Start measuring.
The
recent hurricane crises provide more good reasons why it is important
to measure the effectiveness of your communications. Here are seven examples
of how detailed knowledge of your audiences and programs is invaluable
preparation for next time the levees break...
(Want to read more?
A single
issue subscription is only $19.95!)
MEASUREMENT TOOLS
 Indexes
Revisited
Vendors respond to last month's
review of their products.
In
last month's issue The Measurement Standard ran an
article entitled "The Problem of PR Indexes: Magic Number or Big
Headache?" Two of the vendors we wrote about, PRtrak and Carma,
replied with corrections and clarifications which help to further explain
the merits and difficulties of indexes...
(Want to read more?
A single
issue subscription is only $19.95!)
JIM MACNAMARA'S MEASURING UP
 Impact
and Effects Are The Holy Grail
The PR industry's measurement quest is
heading
in the wrong direction: Back to the past.
Public
relations practitioners continue to argue about how they should measure
their work, and researchers trot out various metrics such as Reputation
Quotients, Media Prominence Indices, Favourability Ratings, IQ scores
and (dare I mention the term?) Advertising Value Equivalents. What is
a busy, hard-working communicator to make of all the myriad options available?
As John Pavlik said way back in 1987, "Measuring the effectiveness
of PR has proved almost as elusive as finding the Holy Grail." The
answer to our quest lies first and foremost not in some proprietary metric
or complex algorithm, but in going back to basics and identifying what
it is that public relations exists to do... (Want
to read more?
A single
issue subscription is only $19.95!)
BRUCE AUBE'S MEASUREMENT TOOLBOX
How
To Get The Most From
Your Next Survey Research Project
Start
by defining your research and resource objectives.
Communications
professionals in all areas, whether their focus is internal or external
communications, need to have a good understanding as to how to best serve
their constituents. Conducting survey research with these constituents
is an excellent way to achieve this understanding. When looking to carry
out a survey research project, particularly when working with an outside
research vendor, one should have both resource and research objectives
well thought out and defined. Taking these steps prior to implementing
will make your project move more quickly and smoothly, as well as ensure
that it will meet your needs...
(Want to read more? A
single issue subscription is only $19.95!)
BOOK REVIEW
 A
Corker of a PR Handbook
From Australia's Measurement Guru
Jim
Macnamara's Public Relations Handbook, 5th Edition,
300 pps., Archipelago
Press, 2005.
Jim
Macnamara has written a wonderful how-to book that covers every possible
facet of public relations, from how to write for the media, to how to
put together a measurement program. (He is also a regular columnist for
this newsletter, see above.) Macnamara starts with a great overview of
what PR entails, and goes on to tell you how to write for the media, how
to talk to the media, how to do presentations, how to do public affairs
and lobbying and how to talk to your employees. It has chapters on reputation,
stakeholder relations, Internet communications and, of course, measurement.
All are clearly written, cover the basics from a very well-informed point
of view and establish a really great foundation for a communicator's professional
career... (Want
to read more? A
single issue subscription is only $19.95!)
THE MEASUREMENT MAVEN AND MENACE
The
Mavens:
Most
agencies use measurement as a one-off demonstration of their success.
Only a few have ongoing competitive data gathering systems and just a
handful have consistent measurement programs in place for all their clients.
So KDPaine& Partners was thrilled when Kaplow Communications came
to us to design a program that could be easily implemented across all
of their 40-plus clients. The result is a customized dashboard system
that combines existing clipping, reading and analysis systems to provide
a standard set of metrics, charts and graphs for all programs...
(Want to read more?
A single
issue subscription is only $19.95!)
The
Menaces:
People
Who Release Only the Good Numbers
According
to Newsweek, "Bush likes 'metrics,' so the bureaucrats gave
him reassuring statistics… 400 trucks transporting 5.4 meals and
13.4 million liters of water along with 3.4 million pounds of ice."
But those metrics only told part of the story. They didn't mention the
number of people displaced, or dead, or homeless. Or the number of guns
in the Superdome, or the number of buses that couldn't get in to evacuate
those who were stranded. In this case, the suppression of a full set of
metrics had huge and horrible consequences. Granted, in most PR departments
hiding bad news doesn't have nearly the down side, but ultimately the
effects can be truly damaging. Too many PR people, particularly in the
agency world, are so afraid of bad news that they bury it at the bottom
of a report, or omit it altogether. The problem is that what you don't
know can hurt you, and you'll never learn from your mistakes...
(Want to read more?
A single
issue subscription is only $19.95!)
MEASUREMENT INDUSTRY NEWS
Benchmarks
VMS buys PRtrak, Google begins testing blog search service,
IBM to open-source UMIA technology, Cymfony announces special rates for
IABC members...
(Want to read more?
A
single issue subscription is only $19.95!)
CARTOONS DRAWN ON THE BACK OF BUSINESS CARDS
by hugh macleod
 gapingvoid.com
|
|
Articles
in this column do not require a subscription.
The Paine of Measurement
 Influential
Reasons To Measure Blogs
I
stand corrected. Just
days after hitting "send" on the last issue of The Measurement
Standard, Roper was kind
enough to send me their latest Public Pulse, "Reasons to Pay
Attention to Bloggers." Faced with the solid data in this report,
I can only reply: "Pay no attention to what
I said last month!" As it turns out, according to a 2005 Roper
Reports Worldwide Study of Bloggers, they are far more influential than
one would think. The interesting twist is that blogs themselves aren't
necessarily influential, but the people who blog are indeed influential...
(Read the rest here, no subscription
required.)
Measurement Tip of the Month
Good
News First:
When you're presenting results, start with the best news you've got, follow
it up with the worst news you've got. and then put all the boring stuff
at the end.
Measurement Quote
of the Month
 "It
is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry."
--Thomas
Paine, philosopher and writer (1737-1809)
Research Tidbits from PR Newswire
Customers
who act altruistically are more likely to splurge on luxury goods.
Explosion
of employee bloggers is creating both opportunities and headaches for
companies
Pharmaceutical
market research teams increase 50% or more prior to launch
American
women want great sex... and more of it
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.
The Measurement Mall
Just
can't get enough measurement? The
Measurement Mall
is the place to shop for all the books, Buyers' Guides, Complete Handbooks
and reference material you can use right now to improve your
effectiveness.
|
