Put an to End Meaningless PR Metrics

Ever wonder what PR metrics really mean?

Gone are the days when the success of PR is measured only by outputs: number of articles published about our company; number of people who were reached by the publications, TV programs and radio shows we appeared in; etc. The problem with these metrics is, we’re never really sure exactly how many people we’ve reached and, more importantly, what effect such exposure has had on consumer behavior.

Even Advertising Value Equivalency or AVE (the cost of editorial coverage if you were to pay for it as advertising space) is far from an accurate measure of exactly what results our PR efforts bring. The only thing you find out with this metric is, you probably spent way less for that exposure through PR than if you had paid for it in advertising.

Pretty impressive, but the next question is, so what?

The integration of social media with traditional media in PR has made measurement much easier. We can now trace exactly how many people clicked on a particular link and, upon getting to our landing page, how many took the action we wanted — whether it’s signing up for an email list or placing an order.

Yet social media measurements aren’t perfect, either. We still can’t capture “more favorable attitudes” or “increased awareness” towards our product or service, for example. That’s because knowledge, awareness, and attitudes don’t always translate into behaviors we can observe and measure objectively.

Given that there is yet no perfect way to measure the impact and effectiveness of PR, we can’t lose sight of the fact that we can at least make PR measurement more meaningful.

That is, we can measure and track those metrics that help us get to know our prospects and customers better, determine what works and what doesn’t, and have a reliable basis to make future PR, marketing and business decisions.

Our Approach to Measuring PR

In my own experience with clients at Cross Border Communication, the key is first understanding the business outcomes you need to produce. Pick that outcome apart into its underlying components.

This exercise can turn something as intangible as “building awareness” into a concrete objective with observable benchmarks, such as increase in social discussions, improvement of search engine ranking, number of downloads of a white paper, proliferation in the use of our hash tag, etc.

Therefore, metrics are meaningful because they support our PR/marketing and business goals. It becomes clear why we’re measuring something, and what the metrics mean in relation to the results or outcomes (vs outputs) we want to accomplish.

Developing some discipline around measuring the metrics that describe our benchmarks and tracking the data over time can give us powerful insights and market intelligence we can use to improve future campaigns. Company executives can also better understand and appreciate the results PR has generated.

How Do You Measure PR?

What have you been doing to measure the effectiveness and success of you company’s PR? How do you feel about the metrics you currently track?

I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments below. You can also send me a message via Twitter, or post a comment on our Facebook page.

photo credit: aussiegall

How to Do PR — Visually

Now that PR is increasingly becoming “social,” it’s more important than ever to deliver your PR message with the help of images.

Visuals play an essential role in PR storytelling. They can bring your product or brand to life in a way that words, even when crafted by the most talented writer, can never accomplish.

Visuals are immediately comprehensible. You can impart a message with an image much faster than with words.

Images can also transcend language. Think of how the image of a mother cradling her baby evokes similar feelings in different cultures.

With social media as one of your PR tools, it has also become much easier to create, use, and distribute images.

Consider the following visual tools in your PR work:

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Unlocking Social Media for PR: Part 4

In this post, you’ll find an excerpt of the fourth and final installment of PR Newswire’s ebook, “Unlocking Social Media for PR.” In case you missed them, you’ll find the earlier parts below:

Part 1: Wetting Your Feet in the Pool of Social Media

Part 2: The Evolved Practice of Journalism and Earned Media Landscape

Part 3: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora & ProfNet Connect: A Deeper Dive

In this part of the book, you will read about Maria Perez’s experience in tweeting as a brand. Author Sarah Skerik then summarizes her top tips for using key social media platforms:  Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. You’ll definitely find a few gems you can implement right away.

Here is the table of contents for Part 4 of “Unlocking Social Media for PR”:

Riding the Social Media Journey

The final part (part four) in this eBook series takes a closer look at the social media journey of Maria Perez in her role as the voice of @ProfNet, Maria shares her experiences and lessons learned as she carefully built a brand on Twitter – and mastered the difference between professional and personal tweeting. The eBook concludes with the author’s, Sarah Skerik’s, thoughtful recap and key takeaways from her ongoing journey through social media.

Chapter 11

10 Tips for Tweeting as a Brand……………………………………………………………………………. 4

Closing

Lessons Learned from My Social Network Journey – So Far……………………………. 7

Click here to sign up for this final part of “Unlocking Social Media for PR” — it’s free!

Unlocking Social Media for PR: Part 3

It’s time for Part 3 of PR Newswire’s ebook, “Unlocking Social Media for PR.”

Here are the links to the previous parts of this series:

Part 1:  Wetting Your Feet in the Pool of Social Media

Part 2:  The Evolved Practice of Journalism and Earned Media Landscape

In Part 3, author Sarah Skerik dives into strategies for using specific social networks for PR: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, and discussion groups and forums. These chapters contain the nuts-and-bolts of the ebook.

Here’s the table of contents from Part 3 of “Unlocking Social Media for PR”:

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Unlocking Social Media for PR: Part 2

Today we continue our series on “Unlocking Social Media for PR,” an ebook by PR Newswire.

If you missed the first part of the series, click here to read an excerpt from the ebook: the Introduction and table of contents of the ebook’s first part, “Wetting Your Feet in the Pool of Social Media.”

The second part of the ebook is entitled, “The Evolved Practice of Journalism and Earned Media Landscape.” In this installment, you’ll gain insight on how journalists use social media. You’ll also learn about “evolved media,” and why all businesses should strive for that ideal combination.

Below is the table of contents from Part 2 of the ebook:

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Unlocking Social Media for PR

PR Newswire recently released an ebook, “Unlocking Social Media for PR,” which I highly recommend you download, read, study, and implement.

Written for PR professionals who want to better understand and make the most of social media and how social media has impacted PR, it’s also useful for DIY business owners.

Below, you’ll find an excerpt from Part 1 of the ebook. To access the entire document, click here and register.

Introduction

by Jason Keller, Senior Vice President, Products, PR Newswire

So social media is changing the art and science of public relations so fast your head is spinning. It all may be second nature to kids with freshly minted degrees and new agency or corporate jobs. But if you’re a PR professional just a few years older than that, you may be dizzy.

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The Gift of Happiness Contest

With US Thanksgiving having just passed and Christmas around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I have to be grateful for. And when I think about all the things that I’ve been blessed to have (the best of which is my wonderful family), I feel quite happy with my life.

This is probably one of the reasons that I was drawn to Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project. I’m not sure about you, but being happy is something that I continually work at to achieve. I find that happiness is the ultimate paradox: it can be found in the simplest things, but at the same time it can be incredibly hard to find.

In her book, Rubin tests out different happiness theories to see which ones really work and which don’t. It is definitely an amazing read. Rubin has even created a fantastic website that helps you discover your own happiness project and ways to implement it.

One of my clients, Matilda Jane Clothing, believes that happiness is best kept by being given away, so when they decided to do a contest that gives “The Gift of Happiness” you can only imagine how thrilled I was to help spread the love! Read more

14 Ways to Get Liked on Facebook

By now there is no doubting the power of Facebook. With over 800 million users and over 50% of those users logging onto Facebook on any given day, it is absolutely necessary for you to have a presence on this social network if you own a business. A Facebook Fan Page is, to simply put it, your business’ website in Facebook form.

There are tons of ways to customize your page to fit your needs (there is a Facebook App for nearly everything), contain all your business information, and target your ideal customer.

Of course, the real challenge will be in trying to get even just 1% of those 800 million possible customers to come across your Facebook page and “Like” you. Once they’ve liked you, you will have a better chance of gaining their interest in your business as your updates will regularly show up on their newsfeed, you’ll be able to message them when you launch new products, engage with them better, and so forth. Read more

How Your Blog Can Get You More PR

You’ve probably heard by now that having a blog is a great way to boost your company’s online visibility and drive traffic to your website. When you blog regularly and post about something other than what you had for lunch, you build a community of fans and followers who will happily return again and again to learn from you and your business.

But do you know how to leverage your blog posts to get your company more media attention?

When you don’t have anything newsworthy to say about your company, your blog may be all you need to get your business some buzz or at the very least, keep you on a journalist’s top of mind. Read more

How to Write an SEO Press Release

In these Internet fueled times, nearly everyone has to evolve. The good ol’ press release is no exception. On the web, writing a stagnant press release just doesn’t cut the mustard. Instead, the SEO press release is much more dynamic. Not only does it get the word out, it can also call to action and even help your business in unexpected ways, such as boosting your website’s SEO.

If you’d like to tackle one of these press releases, there are a few ways that an SEO press release differs from a traditional press release:

Research

While most suggest starting with the body of the press release first, I actually think that’s jumping the gun a bit. Why? Because SEO press releases rely heavily on keywords. If you write the press release and then try to “squeeze” the keywords into the body somewhere, it will come off looking deliberate and possibly ridiculous.

Coherence is key. Just because you’re wanting to get your website to rank higher on Google doesn’t mean you can write mediocre copy and expect it to fly. Mainly, because you’re better than that, but secondly because search engines like Google take this into account now. Google wants its users to have a good experience and great copy is the way to achieve that!

So do proper research. Find out what keywords will work best for your company. These words may not be the most popular words, either; a more niche phrase (i.e. a long-tail keyword) could yield better results. But you won’t know until you do the proper research. The Google Keyword Tool is a great resource for such research.

Format

Because the SEO press release is an evolution from the press release, you’re going to have basically the same format. I say basically, though, because there is much you can play with. A press release is usually a set number of words, as low as humanly possible. This is due to the fact that a press release is used by editors to develop stories … and busy editors respond to concision.

But on the Internet, you don’t have to worry about space. You’re only bound by the limits of your imagination. Of course, don’t make it too long, as most web users don’t want to read some epic tome.

Another major difference between a traditional press release and SEO press release is you’re not limited to text – you have access to video, links, pictures, and anything else the Internet provides! So if you don’t want to just have a few boring paragraphs to describe your big news, you don’t have to.

When actually writing the press release, it’s best to keep the keywords you want to use in the back of your mind (and on a handy sheet nearby). This way, you can organically include them in the press release, so as to not appear, well, like a vehicle structured solely to influence search engines. The goal of all SEO is to get your content seen by actual eyeballs, so you want to pique your readers’ interest first and improve Google searches second.

 

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This guest post is by Mickie Kennedy, the founder of eReleases – home of affordable, next generation press release distribution. Mickie also publishes PR Fuel, a PR-centric blog that showcases advice and articles on all things social media, PR publicity, and online marketing.

 

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