The Golden Rule of Measuring PR

Measuring PR is a crit­ic­al task in communications.

Today, the wide­spread focus on out­put and res­ults often makes us for­get about our stra­tegic choices in what to measure. 

The golden rule of meas­ur­ing PR is that the choice of met­rics has a more sig­ni­fic­ant impact than whatever actions are taken on the measurement’s output. 

This golden rule sug­gests that by choos­ing the right met­rics, PR pro­fes­sion­als can align their goals and object­ives with the organ­isa­tion and shape their per­cep­tion of what is essential. 

Here we go:

The Golden Rule of Measuring PR

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

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The Golden Rule of Measuring PR

If an organ­isa­tion focuses on the wrong met­rics, it might estab­lish, main­tain, or devel­op the wrong long-term rela­tion­ships. ¹The insight is based on 18+ years of prac­tic­al con­sult­ing exper­i­ence.

The Golden Rule of Measuring PR: Your choice of PR meas­ure­ment meth­od and track­able PR object­ives will impact your organ­isa­tion more than the res­ult­ing meas­ure­ments ever will.

Choosing the meas­ure­ment meth­od and object­ives for pub­lic rela­tions is more crit­ic­al than get­ting the actu­al data from those trackings.

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What Gets Measured Gets Done

The say­ing “what gets meas­ured gets done” is a well-known concept in busi­ness. It implies that an organ­isa­tion must meas­ure its pro­gress toward that goal if it wants to achieve something. 

By meas­ur­ing pro­gress, the organ­isa­tion can identi­fy areas that need improve­ment and take action to address them. This is also true for pub­lic relations. 

If an organ­isa­tion wants to improve its repu­ta­tion or build stronger rela­tion­ships with its stake­hold­ers, influ­en­cers, and pub­lics, it must make more con­scious decisions about what to measure.

The focus on meas­ur­ing out­put is often mis­placed. Many PR pro­fes­sion­als are too focused on the num­ber of media men­tions or social media shares. While these met­rics are essen­tial, they only tell part of the story.

Creating Impact With Designed Intent

Public rela­tions (PR) is all about estab­lish­ing, devel­op­ing, or main­tain­ing stra­tegic­ally essen­tial rela­tion­ships with publics. 

It is the art of com­mu­nic­at­ing with stake­hold­ers, such as cus­tom­ers, employ­ees, investors, media, and the pub­lic, to build and main­tain a good rela­tion­ship. PR pro­fes­sion­als use vari­ous strategies and tac­tics to man­age the flow of inform­a­tion between an organ­isa­tion and its stake­hold­ers, with the ulti­mate goal of cre­at­ing a pos­it­ive per­cep­tion of the organ­isa­tion and its products or services.

However, meas­ur­ing the suc­cess of pub­lic rela­tions is a com­plex task. It is not just about count­ing the num­ber of media men­tions or the amount of traffic gen­er­ated to a web­site. While these met­rics are essen­tial, they only tell part of the story. 

The fun­da­ment­al PR chal­lenge for com­mu­nic­a­tion meas­ure­ment activ­it­ies is to impact the organ­isa­tion with the designed intent.

Choosing What to Measure is a Strategic Choice

Choosing what to meas­ure in pub­lic rela­tions is a highly stra­tegic choice. It informs the organ­isa­tion of what is essen­tial and what should be prioritised. 

For example, if an organ­isa­tion decides to meas­ure the num­ber of media men­tions, it sig­nals that media cov­er­age is cru­cial in build­ing its repu­ta­tion. On the oth­er hand, if an organ­isa­tion decides to meas­ure its social media fol­low­ers’ engage­ment, it sig­nals that social media is an essen­tial chan­nel for com­mu­nic­a­tion with stakeholders.

Choosing what to meas­ure has a more sig­ni­fic­ant impact on the organ­isa­tion than the out­put of the chosen meas­ure­ment. It sets the tone for the entire PR strategy and shapes the organisation’s per­cep­tion of what is essential.

This line of think­ing bears the hall­mark of Marshall McLuhan’s point that “the medi­um is the mes­sage,” mean­ing that a medium’s format will pro­foundly impact the audi­ence more long-term than any single mes­sage. ²The medi­um is the mes­sage. (2023, February 25). In Wikipedia. https://​en​.wiki​pe​dia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​T​h​e​_​m​e​d​i​u​m​_​i​s​_​t​h​e​_​m​e​s​s​age

The Importance of Measuring PR

Instead of react­ing to the out­put of meas­ure­ments, PR pro­fes­sion­als must be pro­act­ive and focus on what hap­pens before actu­al meas­ure­ments occur. This means set­ting clear goals and object­ives for PR activ­it­ies and devel­op­ing a strategy to achieve them.

For example, sup­pose the goal of a PR cam­paign is to increase brand aware­ness. In that case, the PR team may meas­ure the num­ber of media men­tions, social media engage­ment, web­site traffic, and search engine rankings. 

However, if the goal is to improve cus­tom­er sat­is­fac­tion, the team may choose to meas­ure cus­tom­er feed­back, social media sen­ti­ment, and cus­tom­er reten­tion rates.

By being pro­act­ive, PR pro­fes­sion­als can also identi­fy poten­tial issues or risks and devel­op a crisis com­mu­nic­a­tion plan to mit­ig­ate any neg­at­ive impact. This involves mon­it­or­ing and ana­lys­ing con­ver­sa­tions about the organ­isa­tion on social media and oth­er chan­nels, identi­fy­ing poten­tial issues, and devel­op­ing a plan to address them before they escalate.

In con­clu­sion, meas­ur­ing the suc­cess of pub­lic rela­tions is not just about count­ing media men­tions or web­site traffic. It is about choos­ing the right met­rics that align with the organisation’s goals and object­ives and being pro­act­ive in devel­op­ing a strategy to achieve them. 

Choosing what to meas­ure is a highly stra­tegic choice that shapes the organisation’s per­cep­tion of what is essen­tial and sets the tone for the entire PR strategy. By being pro­act­ive, PR pro­fes­sion­als can not only meas­ure the impact of PR on the over­all busi­ness goals and object­ives but also mit­ig­ate any poten­tial issues or risks before they escalate.

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• Public Relations Objectives
• How To Measure Public Relations
• Methods of Measuring Public Relations
• The Golden Rule of Measuring PR
• Public Relations Agency: How To Collaborate
• The Best PR Agency for You: Identify Your PR Engine
• Why ROI and PR Mix Like Oil and Water
• Your CSR is Boring — You Are Picking the Wrong Fights
• Cosmetic Sustainability and Public Relations
• Your PR Campaign is Too Short
• PR is a Stressful Job: Avoid Mental Health Problems

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