Guest Post by Jen Zingsheim Phillips

The February 3 #MeasurePR chat was rollicking! (This is a fun word and should be used more often, IMHO). It was the FIFTH anniversary of the chat, which merited some special fanfare.

Guests were Katie Paine (who was a guest on the very first chat!), Johna Burke of BurrellesLuce, and Shonali. Hosting duties were shared by guest hosts Deanna Boss and me.

The February #measurePR recap

Here are some highlights from the discussion:

Deanna kicked off the chat by asking Shonali a great question for an anniversary show: why did she start the #MeasurePR chat?

Shonali said that she enjoyed participating in PR chats, particularly when measurement issues were discussed””but noted that there was little being done to curate them. This was back in 2008-2009, so Shonali did what most of us do when we think about PR measurement. She called Katie Paine. And lo, unto Twitter, a PR chat was born…

A1 (cont) @queenofmetrics agreed to help me kick off the chat, and that’s what we did. 5 yrs later, we’re still going strong! #measurepr

And the follow up question, naturally, was:

Why is the chat still going strong?

There were several responses to this, including from the Queen of Metrics herself, Katie Paine, and Johna Burke of BurrellesLuce:

A2 Main reason is…@shonali gr8 job getting guests & timely topics. Also, Industry appetite has kept pace:) #measurepr

A2: #measurepr is still going strong because if anyting measurement has gotten more complicated in the last few years w/ the addition of SM #measurepr

Additionally, Shonali pointed out that there’s an ongoing need for education on PR measurement, and Twitter is still a great forum for that discussion.

Jason Keller pointed out that a Twitter chat helps “localize” the internationally dispersed PR community.

Which led us to question 3, which came from Jason, who asked: what do you do when you get asked for campaign benchmarks? Aren’t benchmarks mostly educated guesses?

This question resulted in a wide range of answers from the #MeasurePR community. Sally Falkow pointed out that benchmarks are needed so that you know where you are now, and where you want to be to measure progress. Diane Gomez noted that one might need a multi-step process to get there. SeeDepth Inc. answered that this is exactly why we need measurement tools, to take us from “hunches” to data.

Shonali, showing her true PR Measurement colors, added:

A3 (cont) this is why I love doing #PR audits, & discovery for new clients, it’s like a treasure hunt. #measurepr

We then moved on to discussion what the best way is to get people to start using measurement standards, a great question from Kami Huyse.

Johna Burke answered succinctly:

A4 Demonstrated results. Success breads interest/desire to succeed. Individually learn from failure, but Industry responds 2 WIN #measurepr

She’s right, of course. The industry as a whole responds best to visible, public, results.

Sticking with our theme of “five,” the fifth and final question of the hour was:

So many questions so little time! Q5: As pros our roles changed over last 5 yrs. What is most important skill for msmt job? #measurepr

Shonali feels that the most important skill is “getting to grips with analytics.” Kristie Aylett says “patience,” (always a virtue, in my book!); and Martin Waxman said that there are two things: the ability to set the right goals and knowing how to gain insights by analyzing the results.

Johna Burke submitted what I think is my favorite answer:

A5 Most important Skill…THINKING..use tools & resources & critically think about what UR ‘seeing’ when U think UC look harder #measurepr

And that, I think, is the note on which to finish the summary.

It was a tremendous chat, and a thrill to guest-co-host with the very talented Deanna Boss.

Congratulations to Shonali, and the whole #MeasurePR community, for five years of smart content!

The chat transcript is now available, so please grab the full #measurePR transcript for February 3.

A new edition of #measurePR will be headed your wayon Tuesday, March 3, 12-1pm ET. Our featured guests will be Christine Perkett, founder and CEO of SeeDepth Inc., and Geoff Livingston, founder of Tenacity5 Media . We hope to see you there!

Jen Zingsheim Phillips is a writer and strategic consultant based in New Hampshire. She most recently served as Vice President of Content Marketing and Media Analysis for eOutreach/CustomScoop, analyzing media, digital content, and trends for Fortune 500 clients. Earlier in her career, Jen worked at Fleishman-Hillard’s St. Louis headquarters, and the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Image: Droid Gingerbread via Flickr, CC 2.0