A couple of weeks ago, I was getting ready to speak at the Ragan PR Measurement Summit here in DC (it was excellent, really, and I’m not just saying that because I was on the roster). My panel – also featuring Sandra Fathi of Affect and Ashley Pettit of Southwest Airlines – was on March 20. So since that week’s #measurePR fell the day before, we though it would be fun to have a preview of the panel, as it were, on the chat.
Ashley, unfortunately, couldn’t join us, since she was literally winging her way to DC at the time. But fortunately Sandra was free, so she joined the chat. I’ve known Sandra for a few years now, and she is one of the smartest – and most modest – executives in our business (you should get her to tell you the story of how and when she started Affect… she’s amazing!), so I was really happy to be able to feature her on the chat as well.
Here are a few excerpts:
On the constraints an agency works under when it comes to measurement:
A1: We are constrained by manpower, technology and $ when it comes to measurement. Also, organizational infrastructure #measurepr…
”” Sandra Fathi (@sandrafathi) March 19, 2013
@standingdog A1: not just budget – sometimes time is the more expensive resource. Techalone can’t solve the measurement issue. #measurePR
”” Sandra Fathi (@sandrafathi) March 19, 2013
On how to undertake research that doesn’t break the bank, whereupon Sandra said something really smart, and important, about metrics in general:
@gleenyc Most important metrics don’t come frm the platforms – it’s not tweets, likes or follows that matter. It’s leads & sales. #measurePR
”” Sandra Fathi (@sandrafathi) March 19, 2013
And on what kinds of metrics clients are asking for these days:
A3: Leads, Revenue, Customer Acquisition, Cust Retention, Market Penetration – the big business indicators. Map to these = gold #MeasurePR
”” Sandra Fathi (@sandrafathi) March 19, 2013
I was able to spend some (more) time with Sandra when I was up in NYC last week, and it was really interesting to chat a little more about PR, life, measurement, and so on. And since I don’t want to be selfish and keep her smarts all to myself, I asked her to come back to #measurePR today.
So if you missed her last time, don’t miss out this time (and yes, you can get the #measurePR transcript for March 19 beforehand, if you’d like to see what else we talked about).
We’ll be convening on Twitter from 12-1 pm ET, using the #measurePR hashtag; I hope to see you there!
Thanks for the recap! Bummed I missed this week’s chat. Also – I REALLY wanted to come to this summit. Hopefully next year!
rachaelseda Well… you also have some pretty major stuff going on with you, so we forgive you!
I really liked the constraints comment by @sondrafathi . It is really true with everything. No org has endless abundance of all 3 areas. Everything has an opportunity cost. Even for a sophisticated large company there are constraints even if you can afford paying for things like Radian 6 or Vocus to give you more data. Do you pay someone(s) 60k to analyze it or 120k? Do you add a person for incremental measurement improvement instead of a sales person who can more likely grow revenues.
But this is public radio we should just focus on how many telethons = what donation level right?
HowieG Getting the spelling of her name & Twitter handle right might be one way to let sandrafathi know we’re talking about her. ;) But yes – constraints are the reality. To me that’s what makes things interesting, especially from a measurement point of view – what are we able to achieve – REAL things – despite those constraints?
I’m thinking of banning your “public radio” phrase, by the way…
BeckyGaylord Thanks! If you have time to join today’s chat (just started) sandrafathi is back with us. #measurePR
Sorry I missed it. Will look over #measurePR later shonali sandrafathi Thanks!
BeckyGaylord NP – thank you again! sandrafathi #measurePR