In the previous two parts of this three-part series we talked about how a number of companies have navigated the journey from bad communications metrics to standardized metrics that are in compliance with the Barcelona Principles. We started with setting measurable goals that tie PR and communications to an organization’s bottom line or mission. In part two we detailed the challenges of getting good, clean, valid data for those metrics. In this, the final part of the series, we see the light at the end of the tunnel: How people are actually using their metrics and how standards-compliance changes an organization.
Doing Measurement at Last
After months of meetings, frustration, and repetitive efforts, one might worry that these organizations would just give up on the entire process. But the good news is that organizations that have chosen to implement outcome metrics are willing to invest a lot of time and effort into the process. Better yet, because they’ve committed to the process they really use the data to make better decisions. The common theme of all these organizations is that, once senior leadership bought into the metrics and the process, the metrics became part of the internal culture, and behaviors changed.
Here’s where our companies are today:
- Atlantic City Alliance’s new data collection system proved its worth during the summer of 2014, a period of overwhelmingly bad news for Atlantic City. ACA used the data almost weekly to make decisions about how to allocate resources to mitigate the damage most efficiently. The organization has been threatened repeatedly with elimination, but thanks to the value of the insights gleaned from their data, its social media and PR efforts are ongoing.
- Similarly, at the large pharma company, measurement helped guide them through a very rough patch. There were several senior management changes during the roll out, together with a period of unusually heavy and unwanted media attention. As leadership shifted, different priorities emerged and metrics were adjusted in the process. However, the consistency of the data and standard reporting styles proved to be an enormous asset, not just in terms of measuring of the coverage, but also in determining what themes and messages helped mitigate the undesirable messages.
- For one high-end retailer, the metrics that were agreed to in a day-long consensus building session have been rolled out worldwide, and a social media phase is being introduced in 2015. All offices, including foreign operations, now have a common definition of PR success.
- The non-profits that have adopted standardized measurement systems are using their data to make resource allocation decisions and are able to show their boards that they are better stewards of their donor’s contributions.
- In a large government organization that implemented standard metrics, new projects are no longer instantly responded to. Instead, the communications teams check the data first, and then say “Yea!” or “Nay!” to any new request.
What We Learned:
- Expect the unexpected.
Throughout all these processes, the most frequent comment my clients and I would share was “Who knew…?”- Who knew how complex some of these platforms would be to implement?
- Who knew what kind of push-back we would get from people who had a large personal stake in the old reports, which were full of activity metrics and zero insight? We had people advocating for old reports even though they admitted they were bogus, just because change was harder to swallow than bad data!
- Who knew how hard it would be to create an apples-to-apples comparison between vendors? The media analysis vendors were bad, but the social analytics vendors were worse.
- Who knew how hard it would be to get any of these systems to work together?
- Forewarned is forearmed when it comes to vendors.
- Don’t start a vendor search until you have defined and agreed upon criteria for success.
- Don’t believe any technology will do what it promises until you’ve gotten it to do what you want it to do.
- Don’t assume anything is accurate or consistent unless you have tested it.
- Keep it simple.
- Make sure you can explain everything, even to the dumbest person in the room.
- Don’t finalize any standards or metrics until you’ve done the math and tested your theories.
- Know when to push and when to give in.
- Be patient.
- Change takes time, and sadly measurement is too frequently at the bottom of a busy executive’s to-do list.
- Put on your therapist hat.
- All organizations are made up of human beings. Most humans fear change; therefore, they feel threatened by measurement, get defensive when presented with data that changes their beliefs, and may fear for their jobs.
- Measurement needs to be seen as a healing balm, not a malevolent force.
- Many people think they know measurement and measurement vendors (especially digital media teams) and love to show off their knowledge. Let them. Then educate them on the challenges of attribution and good research.
- Speed is of the essence. Once an organization gets accustomed to good metrics and knows they are available, they want them right now! So set expectations for what is realistic and what can accurately delivered in the 3 hours they’ve given you.
The biggest lesson here is that striving for good metrics based on goals and outcomes is a worthy endeavor—regardless of how many dragons you need to slay, AVEs you have to vanquish, or Klout scores you must kill. Ultimately, you’ll leave the PR world in a better place than you found it. ∞
Thanks to John Mayer on flickr for part of the image.
