Practical
Tips for Media Relations Measurement
Measurement Is Very
Important
On this, everyone can agree. But that doesn't mean measuring media relations
results follows a standard formula or is easy to do well. To truly understand
coverage, start with the basics and build from there.
First, you need to figure out your media relations goals
and objectives. These may include building brand awareness,
generating inquiries or proving the value of your media relations
efforts. Once you've defined those, choose the metrics
that best enable you to determine effectiveness. Consider...
- Key messages – understanding your themes helps
you determine how the media will receive them. How are your key
messages playing in the media? Make sure your messaging complements
your company’s core values and business propositions.
- Tone – All coverage is not created
equal. It is important to understand not only the type
of story in which your company appears, but also if it
casts a positive, negative or neutral light upon your company
or product.
- Prominence – Content and context
influence the way in which your audience receives your
key messages. This includes the position of the story in
the publication or website, exclusivity (only your company
is mentioned), location of initial mention, length of mention,
and overall appearance. Knowing this information proves
useful when comparing your company’s coverage to
that of its competition.
- Spokesperson – Are your key
spokespeople acknowledged as experts? Does the media quote
them by name? Does the media embed your key messages in
their quotes? An analysis will help you determine if the
media considers your spokespeople an expert source, and
if your representatives appropriately convey your organization’s
point of view.
- Marketing Power – Does the story
persuade your audience to act favorably towards your company?
Endorsement of your company or products along with calls
to action all contribute to the selling power of your coverage – allowing
your company to distinguish itself from its competitors,
establish consumer trust, and elicit positive buying power.
Alternatives to AVE
Many in the C-suite are devotees of AVE (Advertising Value Equivalency). As a simple number that is relatively easy to compute and easily compared over time, AVE's popularity is understandable. Given the opportunity, you can try to introduce other, more revealing quantitative measures. One
such formula is the BurrellesLuce Quality Rating System, which merges
crucial story and media factors together, and then assigns a single value to
each story. Story scores are based on factors that you deem valuable such
as editorial tone, delivery of key messages, prominence of mention, type of
story, inclusion of spokes-persons, importance of reporter, and inclusion of
photos or other graphics. Each item also receives a media score determined
by the importance of the outlet in which the story circulates. Multiplying
the two scores produces your quality score.
Burrelles Luce then compiles the data into comprehensive
graphs, illustrating the story score, media score, quality
score, and average quality score. This system provides the
ability to compare using a numerical score from month to month
and year to year.
Use your resources wisely
Even armed with this knowledge, PR measurement still presents a special challenge
to marketers.
- Analytics consume time. When you personally gather today's
media releases, assemble a clip book, and analyze the data,
you have spent valuable time away from your main mission...generating
coverage.
- Measurement requires effort and can be costly, especially
if you monitor and measure the exposure of your competition,
as well as your own.
Apply best practices
Although no fix-all exists for overcoming measurement challenges, you can use
these helpful tips to find a solution that works with your measurement goals:
Consistency
Aim to create measurements that consistently compare coverage over time – whether
through a few of the metrics cited earlier, or through impressions, share of
voice or return on investment (ROI). Regardless of the actual values, you will
be able to track trend lines of the handful of values you choose.
Manageable scale
Pick key publications when measuring your company's share of voice versus
its competition. This will cut down on the volume of stories to examine and provide
you with the most relevant results. Limiting your analysis to a few select competitors
will also keep the scope and cost of measurement to a manageable scale.
Outside expertise
Enlisting the aide of experts, who have developed efficiencies
for coding and reporting, can save both time and money.
Remember...
Media measurement is a process. Start slow and lay a firm foundation by building
a strategy in line with your planning goals. Over time, add measures that
meet your evolving measurement needs.
Insightful measurement starts with effective monitoring
Monitor and measure the effectiveness of your marketing program using BurrellesLuce.
We monitor over 50 million blogs and more than 50,000 web forums and online media,
in addition to all of the traditional media. Media monitoring is where BurrellesLuce started,
but today it is just one of the ways we help you maximize the value of your media
relations efforts.
- First, target your messages to those most likely to write about
your efforts using the industry's most comprehensive online
media directory. Take advantage of free, unlimited e-mail distribution
of all your news releases.
- Next, monitor your coverage from every form of media. We deliver
exactly the news you want to see, complete with all photos and graphics.
- Then, gain insight through our automated and customized media measurement
services.
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