I know. It’s been way too long since you’ve had a dose of #measurePR, be it the chat or a recap. I have no excuse other than to tell you I’ve been dealing with a whole lot of S.T.U.F.F. So even though Karelyn saved the transcript of the last chat we had, I’ve only just been able to get around to posting it here for you.
I’m really sorry. I will try to do a better job next time.
Since it’s been a while, let me take you back through the #measurePR time machine.
The day was May 28, a Tuesday. The weather was calm, sunny, with not a hint of the storm to come. The wind… OK, I don’t really remember what the weather was like, but it was rather a crappy day, for reasons we won’t go into here. A bright spot was that we were due to talk with my friend John Friedman, who recently moved into the role of Corporate Citizenship Communications Director for Sodexo (for whom he’s worked for years).
John’s long been a proponent of measurable communications, and in addition to his pretty hectic day job (the man gets to fly between DC & Paris, France, so I don’t feel that bad for him), he’s cofounder of the Sustainable Business Network of Washington, and the Huffington Post’s CSR and sustainability blogger. Since anything green, CSR-related, or in the sustainability area is really hot right now, I was curious as to how John – who has worked in this field for literally decades – marries corporate citzenship and measurement.
Here are a few excerpts from the chat:
On what constitutes “results” in his book:
A3: Results must be things ldrship values – not ”˜column inches’, minutes airtime, tweets, likes, etc. but did you enhance brand. #measurePR
”” John Friedman (@JohnFriedman) May 28, 2013
On the different kinds of assets a company has:
A3: Tangible assets less than half company value, rest= goodwill, intellectual capital, customer loyalty, consumer support, etc. #measurePR ”” John Friedman (@JohnFriedman) May 28, 2013
Huh. How many of us actually think of these when we’re considering “assets”? And of course we should!
On how Sodexo specifically measures its Corporate Citizenship efforts:
A3: #Sodexo uses 3 year survey of stakeholders. I am accountable to enhance strengths, and address opportunities. % gain in each #measurePR ”” John Friedman (@JohnFriedman) May 28, 2013
A3a: In between surveys, we’ll measure engagement (hits, time on site, feedback, customer/client feedback) but moving needle key #measurePR ”” John Friedman (@JohnFriedman) May 28, 2013
And one of many nuggets he shared on social media:
A4: companies fear social media because of potential to go ‘viral’ If u worry abt twitter, problem is not twitter! It’s reality #measurePR
”” John Friedman (@JohnFriedman) May 28, 2013
I love that last one!
You can download and read the transcript of our #measurePR chat with John Friedman, and I hope you will, because it will help you get a fresh perspective on measurement. Which is the point of doing these chats.
But wait, there’s more
Now, I have some news for those of you who are #measurePR fans. I really, really appreciate you joining, lurking, talking, listening, etc. And I am very sorry the chat has been so hit-and-miss the last few months. I’m not making excuses, but when you’re one person trying to build a business, set certain infrastructural elements up, figure out the marketing, secure clients, work for said clients, and also keep “life” going, sometimes some things have to give. And that’s what happened.
I am really proud of what we have achieved with the hashtag and chat over the last four years. So there is no way I’m letting it go, but I’ve decided that in order to maintain a quality chat as well as my sanity, I need to scale it back.
So starting from July, we’ll hold the chat on the first Tuesday of every month, instead of holding it biweekly (and canceling it at the last minute). That will be an easier schedule for you to remember as well, and my hope is that it will prevent last-minute cancellations because I have too much going on.
Please do mark your calendars for our July chat, which will take place on Tuesday, July 2, from 12 – 1 pm ET. We’ll have a community chat, and get back to some fabulous guests from August.
And thank you for sticking with #measurePR, and the measurement of PR – it means a lot to me!
I have been thinking about this stuff since ginidietrich blogged about the 4 types of media. Everything is measurable if you can 1] Identify what you are measuring 2] valuing it which will always be subjective. This is why so many fail because they want a formula with numbers they get from data vs coming u with a value.
16 national media placements with X impressions is worth how much to us? Every company would be different.
This year because Shonali trained all management to not do something dumb on Twitter or Social media we had only 5 fires to put out vs 10 last year. Those 10 cost us $X’s in resources, lost revenue so we saved half that. Again different for each company.
While it isn’t exact it can be defended. And we all know this Public Radio stuff is tough to measure of your Chat would be done 8)
Howie Goldfarb Sorry to be so late on this, Howie! But that’s the thing – those kinds of measures can be extremely valid. They just have to be thought out correctly. Not everything is always about sales, but revenue and all the ways you manage, protect and increase that. And reputation is a huge part of it as well.