The Thoughtful Thud Revisited

Volunteer State of Mind - Salute the People who Make Non-Profits tick

I was delighted, honored and humbled to be Inducted into the PR Measurement Hall of Fame in Washington D.C. today. It's important for me to share on a wider stage what I said.

Any success I have been thought to have achieved is because of the support of my amazing wife and my equally amazing family; and the amazing team I have access to throughout the world. You will see that the word "amazing" is important here and let me explain why,

As CEO of a Non-Profit organisation - as others in the room who work for Non-Profits will testify - volunteer expertise is essential to the way we run.

My volunteers, often very senior people in their own organisation, do not ask for anything; or ask, what's in it for them. They serve on working groups and committees because they want to be part of the collective that takes us forward, that helps further the practice of communications research and measurement. 

I thank you. Each and every amazing one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye to The Independent in print - but not the end of the print story!

 

The 15-year-old would be journalist yelling “Evening Extra – Read All About It (yes, really)from his evening newspaper pitch outside his hometown station, could not have envisaged a life without printed newspapers.

The newspaper I sold back then was one of the first to be swallowed up as three London evening newspapers gave us the Evening Standard, the sole survivor.

Today The Independent is on sale with a print edition for the last time before going digital-only. Its first edition was published during the Cold War.

It gave us thinking and campaigning journalism worthy of its name. It was not aligned to any political party or faction being genuinely independent both of proprietorial interference and party allegiance.

It won a reputation for the front page photograph that rivals wondered why they had missed, or not treated the photograph with the same reverence.

The Independent once sold 400,000 copies a day, dropping to 40,000 which of course meant a need for the publisher to act.

Going digital is just as brave as that original decision by the founders to start up The Independent as it means it will go head to head with The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and others which were designed to operate digitally.

The digital space is increasingly scrappy right now, witness the decision of The Sun to make a U-turn in October and scrap its paywall to offer most of its website content for free in order to better compete with Mail Online and BBC online.

Times change. But as a former newsman, I instinctively want print editions to continue.

I have always felt that publishers needed to do more with a younger audience to educate them in the daily habit of buying a daily paper instead of turning on their digital device.

 

 

The death of The Independent print version will be studied carefully by the great newspapers of the world which remain in print.

This reader, at least, is rooting for you to succeed!

AVES - we moved on years ago!

 

 
AMEC has worked closely with the PR industry on an international basis to educate PR and communications professionals about the business value of communications measurement – and that AVEs have no part in modern PR practice.

We will not stand idly by and see this work undermined.

Robert Wynne has the formidable platform of Forbes for his thinking. He is of course entitled to his views. However his White Paper for Meltwater is at risk of setting the industry back in making the surprising argument for the validity of AVEs. I am baffled that such a knowledgeable professional takes such exception to a fundamental principle of the Barcelona Principles that AVEs do not measure the value of public relations.

The Meltwater White Paper is is as surprising as it is unwelcome. It makes me wonder “Meltwater – where have you been?” Are you not aware of the industry debate led by AMEC; have you not heard prominent industry leaders from PR and from leading trade associations; have you not noticed that the major Awards schemes clearly state that they will give zero marks to entries using AVEs as the only source of measurement.

AMEC has moved on. We do not acknowledge AVEs. We do not discuss AVEs any more. There is nothing to debate.

Our mission is to educate about measurement best practice. To make sure no one thinks of PR measurement as a ‘nice to have’ rather than a critical business activity. We believe that more accurate measurement of PR value tied to business results will help our clients plan and manage their campaigns better. At the same time, it will also support in-house communications professionals in their need to show the value and role of communications in driving profitable business growth in front of their top managers.

AMEC is realistic. Barcelona Principles 2.0 is not the complete solution but it is a valued piece of work endorsed by The Global Alliance; Public Relations Society of America; Institute for Public Relations; The International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO); Public Relations Consultants Association and the AMEC membership community.

What is clear is that with the help of PR professionals internationally we have now seen measurement minus AVES established at the heart of public relations.

As Andy West, of AMEC member, Hotwire, said in his blog “The longer we push outdated views around AVEs, the longer we’ll be having conversations with clients about this discredited and ultimately ineffective method of measurement.”

Barry Leggetter is a Fellow of the PRCA and CIPR, who following an extensive consultancy career in global PR consultancy is now CEO of the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), the global trade body for the measurement of communications.

Preposterous tosh and why you should believe in what you believe in!

What's important? A Standard? Guidelines or to know that what you do meets internationally recognised Best Practice? Easy to get confused with terminology.

There is a lot of work going on within the media community on standards at the moment by internationally regarded researchers and that is always to be welcomed. 

To find a way forward I went back. I remembered how in the 90's I developed a company-wide best practice framework which conformed to and was approved by, an international standards body (the British Standards Institute). Best practice, a mandatory framework and conforming to an International Standard all in one. See how confusing it can get.  

The initiative was conceived it as a way of laying down best practice to be followed by all professionals in our fast developing PR Group so we knew we delivered great work across the business. It didn't stifle the creatives but what it did was give us a consistency in our work and in our client service.

I was working through a new concept for AMEC's European Summit last night and headed my draft, "Game Changer." It's not - that would be preposterios tosh on my part.

What I came to realise instead is that the way forward is likely to require a boldness in what you already believe in to help educate the global marketplace. To achieve that it is likely that you must seek the balance between best practice and a blend with company proprietary creativity.

But above all, to believe in what you believe in and make it happen!

Either way the Dublin European Summit will be interesting.

When simply being there is a major commitment....

When you organise an event in Asia Pacific you are immediately struck by the sheer vastness of the region. In other words, if people come to your event, it has come at a sizeable time and monetary cost, aka, by coming they have made a statement that they want to hear what you have to say.

Or to network. Or to soak up new techniques and best practice to take back to their own company. and push the speed of change. 

AMEC's 1st Asia Pacific Summit in Hong Kong at the end of last week had speakers and delegates from a dozen countries. In a city which operates at a pace which makes Manhattan seem slow, the restless energy of Hong Kong seemed to rub off on the delegates too.

The opportunity to provide guidance on best practice for the communications professional to grow "the practice of communications measurement" in China and India alone is significant. That we had speakers and representatives from these countries is encouraging for the future.

It was our first Summit in Asia. The mental planning has already begun for Number Two!  In the meantime, our thanks go to the long distance pioneers of this first Summit, both our speakers and delegates.

The only handshake should be Sebb Blatter saying goodbye

If you are a CEO and make inappropriate remarks on a consistent basis for which you are forced to apologise, your Board and your shareholders would take a view on your suitability to continue.

Mr Blatter...time to recognise that your inappropriate remarks that racial discrimination can be settled by an end of match handshake undermine great work in stamping racism out of the game.

Here's my hand. Goodbye.

Client education the key to moving measurement forward

A new and unseen stakeholder group was identified at a London conference today as being pivotal to better measurement practices being adopted by clients and their PR agencies.

Two speakers, Pete Devery, Senior PR Manager for Microsoft EMEA and Stephen Waddington, Managing Director, Speed Communications, told the AMEC "Big Ask" conference of examples where AVEs were being specified in a PR brief. For Pete it was because Brand Managers had written a product PR brief. In Stephen’s case, where the author of an RFP had specifically referenced the use of AVEs as a measure.

It seems we need one final push to bury AVEs when everyone believed this would happen as a result of the Barcelona Principles. More and more it seems clear that the route forward – the only way forward – is for the industry and sister trade associations worldwide, is to join together in an education campaign.

It’s only November but as Christmas decorations/cards/special coffee brews are already in the shops (and depressingly I saw my first Christmas tree complete with lights today), let’s go a step further.

Professional New Year’s Resolution #1: Make Measurement Matter – Educating the Client.

The other side of the world but totally connected

What makes dealing with Asia Pacific comms professionals so refreshing is their acceptance they are disconnected from other major time zones – but just get on with it!

It’s not a problem if you ask a senior executive to join a conference call at night in order to connect with US, European or Middle East times. They expect it.

We used to associate only the US with a “can do” attitude. In my Asian dealings nothing is too much trouble. My Asia Pacific Summit event organiser, for example, is available until midnight every day.

It’s a contagious spirit that makes the region so exciting to the rest of the world.

Please mark the date if you have not done so already: AMEC’s first Asia Pacific Summit on Measurement in Hong Kong, Wednesday 29^th February and Thursday 1^st March. Programme details coming soon!

Software houses not the answer to smm challenge

Richard Bagnall, Director of Gorkana, is Chair of AMEC's Social Media Measurement Group, who is representing AMEC at a conference in the US as part of the mission to cut through client confusion. Read his blog.

The dawn of a new era in social media measurement

by Richard Bagnall on October 25th, 2011.

I’m excited to be writing this post from  Portsmouth. Not Portsmouth in England, but Portsmouth in New Hampshire, USA. New Hampshire is world-renown for its beauty during Fall when the leaves of the great forests all turn a million shades of reds and brown. So what brings me to such a glorious part of the world in its prime season?  Well, potentially nothing short of a brave new dawn in the era of social media measurement. Read on and I shall explain.

Sun rises at Dawn in New Hampshire, October 24th 2011

As many of you will know, Metrica has been helping our clients manage and measure social media since the mid 2000s – 2005 specifically when we were working with Dell during the infamous Jeff Jarvis / Dell Hell crisis.  We have watched as social media has changed from being an oft-derided form of content, commonly slated as just the ramblings of people with no friends publicising their diaries online, through to a communication channel that is revolutionising the media and marketing industries.  Indeed, revolutionising business itself.

During this time many new companies have come to the market offering social media monitoring, social media planning, and social media measurement services.  Most of these companies are basically software houses building platforms based on a one sized fits all approach that attempt to be all things to all people.  They try to capture all social media conversations and bring meaning to them with basic analytics.  These companies have been attempting to reinvent the measurement wheel and trying to come up with indices and scoring systems to interpret engagement, tone and influence for example. They all lack tailored measurement built around client organisations ‘ actual objectives of course. So it’s no wonder that so many clients are confused by social media, scared of entering the arena, bewildered by how to monitor it, and bamboozled by how to measure it.

The Blackberry – Crumble, a PS

A compelling blog analysis today concludes RIM’s strategy to “do an Apple” and control the Blackberry Blackout from the centre failed badly.

Rory Cellan-Jones, the BBC’s Technology correspondent points out that it took 36 hours for RIM to give the world any explanation of what had happened. He was told PR executives argued for more openness from the start but were overruled in favour of a communications strategy to - say as little as possible and control the message from the centre in Canada.

Blackberry's founder Mike Lazaridis is on record as saying services are "fully restored" following a three-day global blackout and would now begin a full investigation. He said: "We know we've let many of you down. You expect more from us. I expect more from us," he said.

 

 

 

 

 

Happier Days! The Queen is presented with a new Blackberry

I am staying with the Blackberry brand. For me it still has no serious competitior. It is not too late for Blackberry to recover its trust with its customers - if it is faster and more open about any future problem.

For RIM, however, it is already too late to stop the Blackberry Crumble being developed as a crisis management case study to be studied and debate by PR professionals and academics worldwide.