I got 10 media hits this year…but what does it mean?

The imperfect science of measuring PR has plagued organizations and industry professionals for many years. In 2010, under the leadership of the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communications, PRSA professionals and members of the Institute for Public Relations met to discuss industry measurement. What came out of this meeting was a body of work called The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles and contained the following (much abbreviated):

1. Importance of goal setting before you measure

2. Measure media quality and quantity

3. Measure outcomes rather than what you’ve put out

4. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVE’s) are not the best ways to measure

What this means for you, in a practical way:

1. Know what you hope to get out of a PR effort before you measure the results of a PR effort. Goals give you something to measure against.

2. Quality and quantity are important to a PR measurement effort. How frequently are you being mentioned in the media? How do your efforts compare with those of our competitors? A bunch of hits is nice, but be sure to evaluate tone of the hit, length of mention, content, media outlet, and target or industry reach of the hit.

3. Survey your clients to find out how they came to be a client. This provides additional data to quantify your PR results.

4. The cost of media spaces changes all the time—and varies from publication to publication, site to site, etc. That is why measuring PR success based on AVE’s or the equivalent cost of media space is an antiquated practice that will provide you with inaccurate data.

For every PR client that we have, Arco tracks client hits and assigns a numeric value to the hit based on a combination of media outlet reputation, length of mention or content, and outlet reach. At the end of the year, scores are averaged.

Bottom line—measuring PR is an imperfect science and requires diligence on the part of the organization and the agency. A formula that is completely accurate and endorsed by all PR professionals is a lofty goal; instead, make sure you have a sense of how your PR efforts are increasing visibility and credibility in your target market—and how these efforts have helped to support your sales initiatives.