Measurement Techniques 101
Easy
Strategies To Get Started Measuring
Quick and simple techniques to start
measuring your programs and impress your boss.
by Katie
Delahaye Paine and Bill Paarlberg
If you're
reading this and you're not actually measuring your PR yet, then
the only New Year's resolution that really counts
is for
you to get started measuring. Which, as it turns out, is going
to be a whole lot easier than those other resolutions you made
a couple weeks ago and probably
flunked
out of already.
Measurement
doesn't have to be
a big deal. We've rounded up plenty of ways you can get
started without spending much time or money at all. In fact,
for several of our tips below, the service is free and the data gets
delivered right to your in-box. Of course, if you want to get beyond
the newbie stuff you might have to click around the Web
some, do some reading, maybe break a sweat thinking about what your
data means.
(Relax -- that's a different article.)
Here
is a baker's dozen of quick and painless techniques to get something
started.
1.
Get with Google:
- Sign
up for Google
Alerts for your organization or brand, and for at
least three of your competitors or peers. Then tell your boss you have
installed a crisis alert monitoring system.
- Put Google
Analytics on every website that
you control.
(Yeah, the instructions need a serious usability makeover, but once you
get the code, you just paste it into all your pages. Cake.)
Then tell your boss you don't need no stinking WebTrends.
(Actually,
you probably
do need WebTrends if you have to do advanced analyses
-- it's much more robust and customizable -- but we're
talking quick and easy here.)
2.
Time for Twitter:
- Go
ahead and get yourself on Twitter.
See what it's all about, in 140 characters or less.
- And
even if you don't want to start Tweeting yourself, you can still
set up an
RSS feed for a Twitter Search on your brand/s, your
competition, and anything else you want to keep track of. Tell
your boss you've implemented a Twitter monitoring system.
- And
for you heavy Twitter users, see how influential you -- or your
boss -- is on Twitter: Go to www.twinfluence.com.
3.
Educate
yourself:
4.
New media meets old school:
- Set
up a free Survey Monkey account and start surveying
your constituencies.
- Back
to basics:
Use Survey Monkey to measure your relationships.
Send
out a survey to assess the level of trust, commitment and satisfaction
they feel about your brand.
5.
More easy online stats:
6.
All together now:
- Now
put together your own dashboard. Whatever metrics
from above you actually have, put them in an
Excel spread sheet and
set up Key Performance Indicators. Repeat
monthly. Progress confidently toward success.
|
 |
 Click
here for the current issue's contents page.
Click
here for the contents page of the issue that this article
appeared in.
Comments
Please!
Send
us your thoughts.
Click
here to visit The Measurement Standard Blog Edition.
Click
here to visit KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog,
for news, techniques and developments in the world of PR research
and
evaluation.
 Search
The Measurement Standard here
3 Reasons To Subscribe to The
Measurement Standard: 1. You’ll learn
how to use hard numbers to prove the results
of your PR efforts. (Plus,
it's free.)
2. You’ll
learn which are the right vendors
for your measurement projects. (Yes, it's free.)
3. You’ll learn
how to design your program right from the start to be easily measureable.
(Plus, yes, it's free.)
 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.
|
|
