KDPaine's Measurement Standard newsletter, the newsletter of public relations research and measurement
The newsletter of public relations measurement from KD Paine & Partners
public relations measurement for as little as $300 a month.

Vol. 7, No. 8, October 2008 | To The Editor | Subscribe | Back Issues | MeasuresOfSuccess.com | Masthead | Advisory Board | Reprint Information |
A free subscription is required to receive new issues by email and to read some back issues. Get your no cost subscription now!
Visit The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition!

Oct 28
SOCIAL MEDIA MEASUREMENT
Does Your University Make the Grade in Social Media?
Benchmarks you can use from KDPaine & Partners' study of social media usage at five academic institutions.

To better understand its social media presence and options, Georgia Tech asked KDPaine & Partners to undertake a major study of social media use at academic institutions. Presented here are the major results of that study, as well as benchmarks for blogs, YouTube, Facebook and social bookmarking sites that institutions of higher education can use to compare with their own use...

Nov 8
JENNY SCHADE'S MAKING IT COUNT
Captain Measurement
to the Rescue!

It's time to put on your cape and be a superhero.

Let's face it. In this economic climate there's no room for wasted expenditures. Companies are much less likely to want to move ahead out of fear that they won't be successful and they'll have wasted their limited funds. However, out of this trepidation comes the opportunity for research professionals to help organizations make smart decisions up-front. Research conducted as part of program or product design can immunize employers and clients from the difficulties of the economy and increase the likelihood of their success. In other words, effective research conducted as part of the planning process reduces the margin of error. And that's most definitely superhero material...

Oct 16 - 17
MEASUREMENT CONFERENCES
The 2008 IPR Summit On Measurement
Blog interviews and reports from measurement's premier conference:

Sept 27
LETTER FROM WARSAW, PART 1
The State of PR, Measurement, and Social Media in Poland
Katie Delahaye Paine's observations at the 4th Warsaw Congress on Public Relations.

I've just returned from a week in Poland, most of which was at the 4th Congress on Public Relations in Warsaw, and most of which was also spent listening to the trials and tribulations of my counterparts across the pond. You'd think I'd have some earth-shattering conclusions about the differences between "us" and "them." "Us" being those wild and crazy Yanks who are all over Twitter, Second Life, Utterli, etc. "Them" being those conservative Old Europe types that are supposed to be way behind us...

Sept 27
LETTER FROM WARSAW, PART 2
Colin Farrington's Eight Trends in European Public Relations
Colin Farrington, Director General of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, kicked off the 4th Warsaw Congress on Public Relations by reviewing a few current trends in European PR. Most of these sound very familiar to those of us in the States...

Sept 27
LETTER FROM WARSAW, PART 3
Philip Dewhurst and GazProm
The New European PR Environment

At the 4th Warsaw Congress on Public Relations, Philip Dewhurst, VP of Communications for GazProm's Marketing and Trading Group, provided the corporate perspective on the new European PR environment. Three years ago, when the kerfuffle erupted between Gazprom and the Ukraine over gas supplies, Gazprom was shocked to discover how quickly the world media turned on it. As a result, Gazprom today has new leadership and a new direction that places a far greater emphasis on conversations and communications...

Sept 24
THE MEASUREMENT MAVEN AND MENACE OF THE MONTH AWARDS
The Mavens of the Month:
The Brits
Doing a jolly good job of measurement.
While I don't agree with everything that researchers in the UK subscribe to, I have to admit that I am more and more impressed by the thought that goes into measurement in the UK. From Metrica's Consumer Pulse study (see here, too) and Measurement Matters blog, to the rigorous methodology that they use to determine public opinion, you can't help but be impressed by these guys...

The Menaces of the Month:
The Media Outlets and Polling Outfits That Knowingly Produce Faulty Polls
Relying on lawed polls conducted by biased media is not the way to run a democracy.

If one accepts the premise that polling is a necessary requirement of democracy, then it is imperative that polls accurately reflect the opinion of the people. In England this is such a fundamental foundation of democracy that all polling is done door-to-door. Sadly, in America we have sacrificed accuracy for the speed of phone and Internet polls. We increasingly find the results seriously flawed, as David Moore has shown so well in The Opinion Makers. (Read
our review of this excellent and recommended book here.)...

Sept 24
CAN THIS REPUTATION BE SAVED?
Alaska
Alaska is such a beautiful place and full of so much amazing goodness. But now, the vast majority of the world only knows it as the home of the US Republican Vice Presidential candidate. Anyone who didn't know Alaska before now thinks that it all looks like Wasilla, that most people there shoot wolves from airplanes, that everyone is anti-choice, and that they only care about oil and hockey...

Sept 24
WEBSITE MEASUREMENT
Measuring the Transparency of Environmental Sustainability Reporting
The websites of Fortune 50 companies are evaluated to determine the depth and detail of sustainability information.
This paper by Brad Rawlins, Katie Paine, and Peter Kowalski was posted on the TMS Blog earlier this month and has attracted a lot of interest. So we're posting it here, too.

Sept 20
MEASUREMENT BOOK REVIEW
Don't Believe the Hype
David Moore's The Opinion Makers will make you think twice before you believe the latest polls.
The Opinion Makers is one of those books that changes your entire view of the world. Seriously. Once you read it, you'll define your life in BTOM (Before The Opinion Makers) and ATOM (After The Opinion Makers):

  • BTOM, you probably are worried or thrilled to see McCain's numbers go up while Obama's are going down. ATOM, you won't know what to think.
  • BTOM, you probably believe what the newscasters are saying about the general public's perceptions of Sara Palin. ATOM, you'll realize you haven't a clue what people think.
  • BTOM, you probably believe that most people want offshore drilling in the US. ATOM you'll believe it's all campaign hype.

David Moore -- author, pollster and former Gallup insider -- lays out an incredibly compelling case as to why you shouldn't believe any of the polls you read about in the media...

Sept 1
MEASUREMENT STRATEGY
Taking Measurement to the Next Step
Examine the events, actions, strategies and tactics that drive coverage and conversations.
It's not enough to just look at a trend chart and say, "There's a big spike in June." You need to look at the variables that caused that big spike, or that big slump. The variable might be the activities that a PR department or agency has undertaken, or it might be the actions or strategies of the competition, or it might be external news events that take over the news hole or the conversation. The point is that for true measurement to occur, you need to be taking these things into account..

Sept 1
CAN THIS REPUTATION BE SAVED?
Not Your Normal PR Nightmare
United pilots request the resignation or removal of CEO Glenn Tilton, and United sticks its head in the sand.
This isn't your normal airline PR nightmare: Not just customers, but pilots are listing all the boneheaded things you've done on a website with the CEO's name on it. That's exactly what the pilots of United Airlines did last week when they launched www.glenntilton.com to point out to the world their grievances with United CEO Glenn Tilton: "This website bears the name GlennTilton.com as a daily reminder to everyone invested in a positive future for United Airlines exactly where the source of our problems lies."


© 2008 KDPaine & Partners LLC,
all rights reserved.

Read the Masthead
.

Meet
our Advisory Board.
Look here for reprint information.
The Measurement Standard publishes articles on public relations measurement, public relations research, public relations effectiveness and related topics.

 

Search six years and 700 archived pages of The Measurement Standard here.


Subscribe to The Measurement Standard!
Get your no-cost subscription now. Just add your email address to our list and once a month you'll get The Measurement Standard right in your In box. Click here to subscribe.


Measuring Public Relationships
The Indispensable How-To Guide, Just $29.95
This 228-page paperback is the must-have practical guide to hands-on PR measurement. Emphasizing the role and evaluation of relationships, measurement guru Katie Delahaye Paine provides every public relations professional with step-by-step research procedures for measuring programs, improving results, and managing relationships. Listen to a podcast review by Shel Holtz. To place your order, call Sheila at the KDPaine & Partners office: 603.319.1047. More information here.


Great Minds on Measurement
"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."
--Richard Feynman, physicist, Nobel laureate (1918-1988) (Thanks to A.Word.A.Day for the quote)


 


From Our Blog Edition:

Oct 16-17: Reports from IPR's 2008 Summit on Measurement:
- Part 1: Shel Israel,
- Part 2: Jim Macnamara,
- Part 2.5: John Gilfeather,
- Part 3: Michelle Hinson and Don Wright,
- Part 4: Don Stacks and The Loneliness of the Measurement Mathematician.

Oct 14: Counting Words (Hey, isn't that what PR measurement does?)

Sept 30: Prayer as a PR Tactic?

Sept 7: Research Bias: Another example of why you must consider the source of research

Sept 5: Measuring the Transparency of Environmental Sustainability Reporting

Sept 5: The NYTimes Measures the Words They Used at the Conventions

Sept 2: Bulldog Reporter announces the release of audio CD recordings from Media Relations Summit 2008


KDPaine's Speaking Schedule
(see this page for details and the most up-to-date list):

Conference 2008, Detriot, MI
11/03: Marketing Magazine, Toronto, Ontario


Search the Blogs:
It's easy to use Technorati to search for recent blog posts on topics that interest you. We've done it with the links below (but you can enter any search string you like when you are there):
--
PR Measurement
-- Public Relations Measurement
-- Social Media Measurement



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.