How To Measure Public Relations

How to meas­ure pub­lic relations?

During a sem­in­ar on meas­ur­ing PR activ­it­ies in social media, an audi­ence mem­ber asked:

Is it pos­sible to meas­ure relationships?

Here, we get into a chal­len­ging ter­rit­ory, and I will demon­strate why atti­tude meas­ure­ments are super­i­or to oth­er types of meas­ure­ments in PR.

Here we go:

Measure Public Relations: Three Methodologies

There are three basic approaches to meas­ur­ing pub­lic rela­tions:

The Traditional Methodology

The tra­di­tion­al meas­ure­ment meth­od­o­logy is based on mar­ket­ing logic. Marketing meth­ods focus on media chan­nels, demo­graph­ic reach, and ad costs.

Examples of PR measurements:

Primary strength: Easy to cal­cu­late.
Primary weak­ness: Low qual­ity for decision-making.

The Business Methodology

The busi­ness meas­ure­ment meth­od­o­logy is based on cor­por­ate pro­cesses. Corporate meth­ods are focused on man­age­ment the­ory and rev­en­ue. (Closely related to the Excellence PR Approach.)

Examples of PR measurements:

Primary strength: Fits well into cor­por­ate hier­arch­ies.
Primary weak­ness: Misrepresents the value of PR.

The Behavioural Methodology

The beha­vi­our­al meas­ure­ment meth­od­o­logy is based on psy­cho­logy. Behavioural meth­ods are focused on atti­tudes and behaviours.

Examples of PR measurements:

Primary strength: High use­ful­ness for PR.
Primary weak­ness: Not precise.

Why I Prefer the Behavioural Methodology

Here’s what I think about meas­ur­ing PR:

Long-time read­ers of this blog will know that I favour the rhet­or­ic­al approach to PR:

Fundamental Approaches To PR

There are three schol­arly approaches to PR:

• The Excellence Approach
• The Rhetorical Approach
• The Critical Approach

The Excellence Approach. A busi­ness-ori­ented approach focused on object­ives and cor­por­ate value cre­ation. The under­ly­ing motiv­a­tion behind the the­ory was that PR was mostly a vari­ety of tac­tic­al tools that des­per­ately needed a man­age­ment the­ory to work well in a soph­ist­ic­ated organisation.

Notable men­tions: James E. Grunig, Larissa A. Grunig

The Rhetorical Approach. A clas­sic­al approach that stems from ideas dat­ing back to ancient Greece. It’s a psy­cho­lo­gic­al the­ory of how com­mu­nic­a­tion struc­tures human cul­ture by shap­ing human minds. An absence of mor­al judge­ment char­ac­ter­ises the rhet­or­ic­al approach and is utilitarian.

Notable men­tions: The Toronto School of Communication Theory, Robert Heath

The Critical Approach. A crit­ic­al approach deeply rooted in the­or­ies around soci­et­al power dynam­ics. Power is seen as a means to exert dom­in­ance, manip­u­la­tion, and oppres­sion. The crit­ic­al approach bor­rows many ideas from the rhet­or­ic­al approach by pla­cing them in mor­al frameworks.

Notable men­tions: Walter Lippmann, Noam Chomsky

Read also: 3 PR Approaches: Excellence, Rhetorical, and Critical

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When it comes to PR in gen­er­al, I will typ­ic­ally “sac­ri­fice” cor­por­ate use­ful­ness (the excel­lence approach) to gain real-world use­ful­ness the rhet­or­ic­al approach).

On how to meas­ure pub­lic rela­tions, my think­ing is no different:

I prefer beha­vi­our­al meth­od­o­lo­gies because they’re most help­ful in pro­du­cing tan­gible PR res­ults. They are less com­par­able with­in cor­por­ate struc­tures, but no meth­od is perfect.

The Close Relationship Argument

“Not everything that counts can be coun­ted. And not everything that can be coun­ted, counts.”
— Albert Einstein

In the rhet­or­ic­al approach, PR is all about rela­tion­ships. And I tend to agree whole­heartedly with that sentiment.

And in life, some rela­tion­ships are more import­ant than oth­ers. My most import­ant and closest rela­tion­ships are those with my wife and son. Those are my most valu­able relationships.

What if I wanted to meas­ure those relationships?

I could meas­ure vari­ous met­rics, from my wife’s salary to my son’s grades. But my wife could make good money, and my son could do well in school des­pite hav­ing an awful rela­tion­ship with me.

What’s the best way for me to gauge my closest rela­tion­ships? For res­ults that mat­ter and are help­ful, by enga­ging in open and con­tinu­ous con­ver­sa­tion and codi­fy­ing out­comes. So, in my view, com­mu­nic­a­tion is the best way to meas­ure relationships.

Most rela­tion­ships aren’t that close, but they’re still rela­tion­ships that shape atti­tudes and behaviours.

Money, Money, Money

Most com­pan­ies are man­aged via one single prin­ciple—money.

Money defines their suc­cess.
Money dic­tates their gov­ernance.
Money func­tions as their prime motivator. 

We all care about money, busi­nesses and people alike, but that’s not how we form trust and deep relationships.

Money is a great cent­ral value for nearly everything except for one thing: rela­tion­ships with oth­er humans.

Only meas­ur­ing pub­lic rela­tions by how to squeeze more money out of every rela­tion­ship means treat­ing your pub­lics like wal­lets with legs. And that would be a shame because human beings have so much more to give oth­er than just their money.

Some argue that money is how everything in an organ­isa­tion gets meas­ured, so the PR func­tion must con­form. I take the oppos­ite view: If so, at least one func­tion should focus on the human aspect.

“What gets meas­ured, gets done.”
— Peter Drucker

Read also: Why ROI and PR Mix Like Oil and Water

How To Measure Attitudes and Behaviours

Read also: Public Relations Objectives for Organisations

PR Resource: The Golden Rule of Measuring Communications

PR Resource: Barcelona Principles 3.0