Talk to Me - PR Measurement as part of the language of business

A practical reminder of what company managers want from communications measurement comes in a fascinating e-book from Dow Jones Insight. On its own, the nuggets found in “Talk to me - 10 tips for translating the PR results into the language of business“would help any PR consultancy run a lunch-time brown bag 101 on PR programme measurement.

The e-book was written by Diane Thieke, Executive Director, Public Relations & Strategic Communications for Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group Dow Jones Insight, who issues a challenge that today’s public relations measurement practices need to change.

 

Diane makes a case for change, stating: “The metrics we share with business executives must demonstrate PR’s strategic contribution to the organization. To do this, PR metrics must tie to company objectives, link to the bottom line, and perhaps most importantly, be forward-looking.” These are some of Diane’s e-Book tips:

·                Take control of the measurement process without waiting for a directive from management: it means you are seizing the initiative without being asked.

·                Learn to speak the “language of business” by putting your measurement metrics in line with the language used by senior managers. Remember that the terms commonly used in PR measurement, such as share of voice, are likely to be conspicu­ously absent from discussions with executives who use terms like market share, key performance indicator, leading indicator, customer retention, risk management and competitive benchmark.

·                Don’t be a one-trick pony and measure just one form of PR activity, such as print media mentions because it undermines your understanding of PR strategy. Instead use a combination of data to provide a complete picture.

·                Executives want to know how the company’s results compare to other companies in their industry and putting this kind of benchmarking in place enables you to tell management how their company is really performing.

·                Understand what your management wants from you. My blog (The Thoughtful Thud) speaks to the reality that less is more (than the heavy thud like book of a pile of cuttings that were once the norm).Diane believes how you present your measurement report is crucial. Too much – and they won’t read it. Too little – and you have lost a major opportunity to demonstrate your strategic value to the organisation.

Comments

[Mark Westaby]

There is a key metric that all business people understand, or at any rate those whose companies are listed. It's the share price, which also equates to market value. This isn't a sales pitch but we do want as many people as possible to know about our new service, Fin-buzz™ (see link), which offers real-time online sentiment analysis for all FTSE 100 companies.

The key words here are 'real' and 'time' because real-time analysis of news stories enables them to be tracked against share price simultaneously. This allows much greater accuracy, first, by removing any time lag during which the news content can change; and, second, by removing the possibility of ‘contamination’ from feedback that a change in share price, which could itself be newsworthy, might otherwise create.

We believe this is the first time such a service has been made available on a practical, affordable level. We also believe it is a major breakthrough for evaluation because by translating directly to share price and market value it speaks the same language as senior management. Indeed, we think it will help to kill the dreaded 'AVE' by demonstrating the true value of PR and IR.

Incidentally, talking of IR, isn't it time this function was properly measured against the shareholder value it creates? We certainly believe so!