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The Paine
of Measurement

Walk Before You Run
Shape up your measurement program.

There are times when I wish our industry would learn to walk before it starts running triathlons. Here at KDPaine & Partners, we've gotten more requests lately to measure blogs and consumer generated media than I ever thought possible. (Which is a good thing.) The problem is, these requests are coming in from organizations that frequently haven't gotten around to implementing even a media measurement program, never mind any sort of solid competitive benchmarking.

CGM is fine, and you do need to know what the blogerati are saying about your brand, but you can't do that in a vacuum. You need to hear what they're saying about your competitors as well. You need to understand the nature of what's being said in the industry, not just in your own cubicle block. And, most important of all, you need understand the driving forces behind those conversations. Which means at some point you need to engage in a dialog -- questions and answers -- with the people you're trying to sell to.

You might need a competitive media analysis of a limited number of key publications, or maybe a short relationship survey. Whatever it is, you need to get the basics in place. You wouldn't just decide to run up Mount Washington without trying out a few laps around the block first. Right? So why do you think you should start collecting data you may not even know how to use? (See this article for a reminder of the Seven Steps of any measurement project.)

Here's how to get started.

To get a decent benchmark, select a few key publications and track everything they say about anyone in your industry. Whether you're competing for share of thirst, share of market or share of wallet (for non-profits), pick an underdog nipping at your heals, a stretch goal, and whatever "other guy" drives your executive management team nuts. Then collect data from the most important publications in your industry – it doesn't have to be more than 5 or ten, although the more publications, the better the data. Now start studying what they're doing to generate their coverage or their conversations. (For more detail on how to set up a competitive benchmarking program, see the article "Move Uo To Competitive Benchmarking" elsewhere in this issue.)

Another key element that gets left out of Measurement 101 training is integrating website statistics with your media analysis reports. This is simple to do and can yield huge amounts of insight as to what is or is not driving traffic.

Finally, make sure you're tracking key influentials: your spokespeople, your analysts, your customers, anyone who might influence the purchase.

Okay, now that you are warmed up, you can really get started measuring. Ready, get set, GO!

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.

1. You’ll learn how to use hard numbers to prove the results of your PR efforts.

2. You’ll learn which are the right vendors for your measurement projects.

3. You’ll learn how to design your program right from the start to be easily measureable.

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