Aug 20
MEASUREMENT BOOKS
Blogging Book Gets Mixed Review:
Some good things, some not-so-good things about John Cass' Strategies and Tools for Corporate Blogging.
I really like John Cass. I've hung out with him at numerous conferences and have been delighted to be part of the SNCR advisory board with him. Criticizing the work of a friend does not come easily, but I have to give his book a decidedly mixed review. Partly that comes from high expectations; John's a very smart guy and I expected something over the top from him. But while Strategies... is a useful book, it has definite limitations...

Aug 20
THE PAINE OF MEASUREMENT
Optimum Content Score: An Index Number to Love?
Here's a quick and easy way to design your customized article content score.
For years I've ranted about why a standard PR metric won't work (see "The Problem of PR Indexes: Magic Number or Big Headache?"). My argument has been that each PR program is different, so how can you possibly compare them all with one number? However, I am beginning to believe that there might be a solution to this problem, and that is to embrace the differences: build the differences into the measure. Here at KDPaine & Partners we now offer our clients a measure that is tailored to match their individual program goals...

Aug 16
MEASUREMENT TACTICS
How To Measure Success by the Gram Rather Than by the Ton
Five simple measurement steps for smaller organizations.
Here at KDPaine & Partners, we've recently seen more and more non-profits and very small businesses seeking ways to measure their marketing success. For these smaller organizations, it's not a matter of counting or analyzing thousands of media clips--getting 10 media clips would be a huge victory. So how do you measure success by the gram rather than the ton? It's actually a lot simpler than you think. You just need to think differently. Here are five simple steps for smaller organizations to get started in measurement...

July 31
MEASUREMENT BOOKS
2.0 Good Books on Marketing 2.0

There might be a thousand people on the planet that fully grok the implications of social media on the world of marketing. Then there are another ten thousand or so who think they understand it. And then there's the rest of the marketers on the planet who are clueless about what is about to hit them. For any of the millions in that third category, here are two new books that should really help...

July 20
JENNY SCHADE'S MAKING IT COUNT
Strange But True Tales
"The Personal Massager" and seven other bizarre adventures from the consulting frontline.
Colleagues often tease me that I have more than my share of Strange But True adventures. I'm not sure if I actually attract more of these situations than other people, but I do acknowledge that I'm more open to finding the humor in unusual workplace events. I think you'll enjoy the following seven bizarrely humorous real-life adventures...

July 6
MEASUREMENT MISTAKES
How To Really Mess Up Your PR Measurement Program
Ten fatal PR research mistakes and how to avoid them.
Despite the best laid plans, public relations measurement programs can sometimes go awry. Unforeseen problems and errors can creep in and part of your job is to figure out how to get the job done anyway. But there are certain errors your program just won't survive. Some mistakes will leave you with no options but to learn an expensive lesson and to start over. Here's ten fatal research errors that now you won't have to learn about the hard way (and, yes, these will be on the exam)...

July 5
THE MEASUREMENT MAVEN AND MENACE OF THE MONTH AWARDS
The Maven:
Michael Hakkert
Senior Director of Corporate Communications, Juniper Networks, Inc.
Michael Hakkert has been using PR measurement to make better decisions for more than a decade now. First at Cisco and now at Juniper Networks, Hakkert has always demanded the highest quality objective research...

The Menace:
Companies That Do Fake Social Media Measurement
This month our Menace Award goes out to all the upstart wannabes who have jumped on the social media measurement bandwagon, but who have little insight or experience to offer. I'm not going to name names, but there are a host of new players claiming to measure social media, when in fact all they are really doing is monitoring and categorizing the news and producing some sexy charts. Measurement means more than just data, it means applying insight and experience to the right data...

July 1
MEASUREMENT TIP OF THE MONTH
Using Ad Data To Estimate PR's Contribution to Sales
If your consumer company or organization has an ongoing ad budget, you can probably figure out how much media exposure is necessary to generate a certain number of sales or responses. Use that ad-related information on your PR impressions and you'll get a crude estimate of PR's contribution to sales...

June 30
MEASUREMENT STRATEGY
How To Measure PR's Impact on Travel and Tourism
Your six-step passport to success.
The good news about travel and tourism PR is that it is highly measurable. The bad news is that almost everyone does it wrong....

June 29
JIM MACNAMARA'S "MEASURING UP"
Two Keys to Better Sponsorship Measurement
Be clear on your objectives, and measure outputs, outtakes and outcomes.
Sponsorships are deserving of particular measurement attention as many involve large budgets, often in the millions of dollars. Added to cash contributions is expenditure on support materials and often large amounts of staff time. In fact, some sponsorship experts recommend multiplying the cash outlay for sponsorships by two to calculate the total cost to a sponsor. So how should we measure sponsorships? Like other corporate and marketing communications, the number one measurement rule applies: Set clear objectives and measure against them...

© 2007 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.

Great Minds on Measurement
"All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."
---Galileo Galilei

KDPaine & Partners News
-- KDPaine & Partners are finalists in PR News' Platinum PR Awards 2007, Research & Measurement category. more here
-- Second annual DIY Dashboard User Group meeting to be held in Durham, NH, 10/2/07. more here

Measurement Tip of the Month
Measuring blogs? Interested in blogs and government? Here's a free publication: The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0, by David C. Wyld. Our Ms. Paine says: There's lots of interesting data about who blogs about what among our elected representatives-- also a very good glossary-- but you have to wade thru a lot of stuff to get to the nuggets. Print out only pages 14-66 (because all 120 are a bear to carry around and read). There's lots of blather in the beginning about the start of blogging, but the real message is that, "People simply no longer need to leave their houses to participate in a revolution."

From Our Blog Edition:

Aug 13:
Sex, Surveys and Faulty PR Measurement!
Sex, surveys and faulty PR measurement: Can an article about public relations research get any more exciting than that? PR measurement depends an awful lot on surveys for its raw data, and "The Myth, the Math, the Sex" (in yesterday's New York Times) shows we can't trust that data. I'm as wicked keen about about this article as I was about Freakonomics... Read more on this in The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition.

July 11:
Is Anyone Measuring Wikipedia?
The other day I was reading The New York Times about Wikipedia, and was astounded to learn -- among other cool things -- about how much traffic the site gets: one out of every 200 page views on the Internet. It's got to be the biggest social media site, right? And so I was wondering if anybody was measuring it, maybe keeping an eye on it for their clients or themselves... Read more on this in The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition.

June 23:
Jeremiah Owyang on How To Measure Your Social Media Program
Our Measurement Standard articles and blog posts on social media measurement have been some of our most popular, so it's obvious that readers are eager to learn more. If you are one of those readers, then don't miss Jeremiah Owyang's bang-up little piece on the topic.

June 8:
The Blog Divide:
Just how far away is the blogosphere from everywhere else? And how could we measure the distance?
This morning, Katie Paine wrote me that she's noticed a Blog Divide between people who read blogs and people who don't. She's not the first to come up with this idea: Matthew Stibbe mentioned it over a year ago (in a slightly different context, but close enough). And probably there have been others who wrote about this, but that Google couldn't find. There, see what I mean? If the mention had been in print, Google wouldn't know about it. Separate worlds, I'm telling you... Read more on this in The Measurement Standard: Blog Edition.

Measurement Blog Action To Check In On:
To find recent blog mentions of "PR measurement," go to technorati.com. Hey, we've done it for you already, just click here!

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You know you need to measure your results, but chances are there's never been enough money in your budget for evaluation. Until now.
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