Atomic is the guest blogger on PR Week Insider this week
Tuesday, 06 October 2009
On a technicality, they listed Andy as the sole blogger from Atomic - but actually, we both wrote the post from today about measurement, and also the one about traditional vs. social media to come. Sean Mulholland, Atomic's director of digital operations wrote the one on the greater power of search to run later in the week. Liz Haas contributed a related link from Silicon Valley Watcher - http://tinyurl.com/ybt5cnv. Here's the Insider post from today.
PR measurement: don't CYA - drive strategy instead: http://insider.prweekblogs.com/2009/10/05/on-measurement-don%E2%80%99t-cya-%E2%80%93-drive-strategy-instead/.
PR firms know that measurement is a good thing. And clients want it. But both often get the why wrong. Here's an excerpt from a recent email selling a webinar on PR measurement: "You'll learn how to communicate PR's value, help drive PR funding and gain insight to create the right evaluation system for your organization and your budget." Justifying your existence and driving higher budgets are OK I suppose, but they leave the far greater power of metrics and analysis sitting on the sidelines.
The very best use of measurement and analytics is to help PR people more professionally and reliably build, shape and protect their clients' brands. With the sheer volume and velocity of content careening around our culture today, PR strategies based on personal opinion and past experience are no match for the more deeply informed strategies engineered by PR pros armed with sophisticated analytics tools, in terms of growing and shaping media coverage, online dialog, WOM, sales and brand value. So flip the proposition -- use measurement for building strategy. When you achieve and surpass goals on a regular basis, CYA gives way to more productive forward-looking collaboration, and program funding usually takes care of itself.
