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Measuring the Impact of Your Media Relations Programs

Rebecca B. Anderson

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Five Good Reasons Not to Measure PR

1. It’s imprecise 2. It’s difficult to isolate the impact of PR from other marketing

and communication channels3. There’s no silver bullet metric that can tell the whole story4. It takes time and resources 5. It may shine a light on poor results

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Five Better Reasons To Do It Anyway

1. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be useful2. How else will you know what works?3. You’ll gain credibility by being transparent4. You’ll be in a stronger position to ask for more resources5. That which gets measured, improves

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It Starts with Strategic Planning

“Strategic thinking involves predicting or establishing a desired future state; determining what forces will help or hinder

movement toward that goal state; and formulating a strategy for achieving the desired state.”

--Cutlip, Center & Broom

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Or Put Another Way…

Fire—Ready—Aim!

or

Ready—Aim—Fire!

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Four-Step PR Planning Process

• Research

• Planning

• Execution

• Evaluation

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The Final Step: Evaluation

Measuring outputs vs. outcomes Outputs are useful as a launch pad: the number of press clips, total impressions,

etc. Outcomes are more meaningful but it’s harder to isolate channels Competitive measurements can provide great directional feedback Setting annual benchmarks enables us to see if we’re improving year over year

Devising a measurement equation A + B + C+ D = understanding progress No single tool will tell us all we need to know Every measurement tool is squishy Identify metrics that correspond to your specific program of work

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Media Metrics to Consider

Total number of clips/stories Relatively fast and easy to calculate, but doesn’t consider the issue of quality over

quantity A decent foundation upon with to grow, but relatively meaningless in and of itself

Audience impressions Looks at total circulation, viewership, listening audience and/or online eyeballs Assumes all recipients actually read, see or hear a particular story Doesn’t account for the reputation or influence of the media outlet

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Media Metrics to Consider

Cost per impression Calculated by dividing total impressions with the cost of your PR initiatives Helpful for understanding the efficiency of your program. Are you delivering more

impressions for the same dollars?

Tonality A basic three-tiered designation of positive, neutral and negative can get you

started More sophisticated and expensive tools use sliding scales to give weight to

elements such as headline, story length, etc. Insight comes from the patterns that emerge over time; the goal is to increase the

positive and decrease the negative

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Media Metrics to Consider

Stature media penetration and frequency Many organizations have core media lists that represent the most critical media

targets Tracking year-over-year penetration of your “short list” can help determine the

effectiveness of your pitches and the strength of your relationships with these key media

Message pull-through Particularly useful during periods of crisis or issue management Helps you understand if your key messages are surviving the media funnel

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Media Metrics to Consider

Share of voice vs. competitors One of the more meaningful tools, but requires more rigorous approach to media

content analysis One way to approach is to benchmark against just one competitor rather than a

set Compare total volume of your brand references to those of your competitor(s) When tracked over time, demonstrates your share of voice with key media

Spokesperson penetration vs. competitors If expert spokespeople are part of your strategy, this is a way to see if you’ve

gained status as a “go to” source for the media Evaluates how often your experts provide commentary vs. other sources

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Media Metrics to Consider

Inquiry/application spikes Some PR has the power to drive immediate action. Tracking key press coverage

against corresponding spikes in inquiry or application activity can help reveal the types of stories that “move the admissions dial.”

The insight is in understanding what press creates that kind of impact, then duplicating

Brand tracker Positive brand recall impacts your organization. Tacking a few questions to an

existing brand tracker study can be an easy and cost-effective way to measure how well your brand is known.

Brand awareness is built by multiple marketing and communication channels, not just PR, so isolating earned media in this mix is difficult

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Queens’ PR Case Study

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Queens At A Glance

2,600+ students

7 colleges/schools

38 undergraduate majors/9 graduate programs

NCAA Division II athletics

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Five NC Professors of the Year

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Growing Enrollment

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#2 for International Study

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Prior to 2008

Distracted communication director without time to focus on media relations

Lacked organized or pro-active PR program

Very re-active, operated more of a news release factory

Lots of briefs (events, weddings/obits, new hires)

Not nearly enough “brand building” coverage

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Introducing a New Mentality

Re-focused position on earned media and eliminated the distractions

Developed and executed a strategic PR plan each year

Measured the effectiveness of the plan annually

Communicated about the results of our work

Nurtured a culture around “earned media”

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Goals

Raise our profile as a means to…

• Drive enrollment

• Generate momentum for capital giving

• Attract quality faculty, administrators and trustees

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Strategies

Focus on Charlotte exclusively in first years

Saturate a small, targeted list of key media

Take time each week to shake the trees

Pitch 1:1—no more news release blankets

Train key faculty to serve as media experts and celebrate the heck out of them

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Queens’ Measurement Equation Clip count

Blurbs vs. feature stories

Frequency in/on the most influential media

Increased use of Queens’ faculty as experts

Share of voice in Charlotte Observer

Cost per impression

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Results Since 2008

By the numbers Increases in both quantity and quality 400% increase in TV coverage in year one 200% increase in feature stories in year one Nine appearances on Charlotte Talks in year two Six front-page Observer stories in year two

Connecting it back to goals Anecdotal buzz about our momentum Largest freshman class in history Prestigious incoming class of trustees Best two fundraising years in Queens’ history

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Other Positive Outcomes

Invited to present to the Board of Trustees, alumni groups, campus community

Campus values earned media and partners with us to make it happen

Deans don’t want to be “beaten” by their colleagues

Respected for our “chutzpah” for transparent reporting

Increased budget for PR program, including measurement tools

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Q & A

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Media TrackingJanuary 2011

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Media Hits Over Time

165

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Jan. 2010 Jan. 2011

Thrive.Media Hits by Category

Jan. 2011

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Share of voice in Observer

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Queens vs. UNCC in The ObserverJan. 2010- Jan. 2011

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Athletics coverage in The Observer

January 2011

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Analysis

Jan. 2010 vs. Jan. 2011• Total hits rose from 109 to 165.

• The quality and reach of our coverage continues to increase. A few examples:

Dr. Mohammed el-Nawawy of the Knight School was a featured expert in coverage about protests in his native Egypt by PBS NewsHour, CNN and the New York Times, in addition to

local media. The NYT story was picked up by more than a dozen other newspapers across the country including the San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune and Miami Herald.

Our front page centerpiece in The Charlotte Observer was a huge win, sharing our vision for Queens’ future and lauding the university’s contributions and reach.

Dr. Dorothy “Deje” McGavran of CAS wrote a thoughtful column for The Charlotte Observer defending the importance of the liberal arts.

Karen Geiger of the McColl School spoke about race relations and women on WFAE’s “Charlotte Talks.”

A painting by Dr. Jayne Johnson, also of CAS, was featured on the cover of SouthPark Magazine.

Finally, our Martin Luther King Jr. Fun Day events earned coverage by News 14, WBTV, Fox Charlotte, WCNC and The Observer.

-MORE-

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Analysis continued

• In The Observer, total mentions went from 40 to 68. In addition to the aforementioned hits, our coverage included two stories about our BusinessWoman of the Year Award, our

partnership with Crossroads Charlotte, upcoming MFA anniversary events and David Singer becoming chairman of the McColl School’s Board of Visitors.

• UNCC’s Observer coverage rose from 79 to 113 hits. Their best coverage included stories about a proposed CATS light rail expansion onto their campus, an early literacy study by

their school of education, the quarterly economic forecast, their new chamber music festival and an $8.8 million gift from Duke and Siemens for their new energy center.

-MORE-

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Selected links:

Charlotte Observer:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/21/1996250/queens-expands-goals-in-quest.html (1A story)

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/20/1995909/queens-university-of-charlotte.html (slideshow)

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/01/28/2015149/liberal-arts-not-tiger-professor.html

CNN:

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/01/28/egypt.protest.dissent/

NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/technology/internet/29cutoff.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=el-nawawy&st=cse

PBS NewsHour:

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/video/share.html?s=news01s47bbq1049

WFAE

http://www.wfae.org/wfae/18_93_0.cfm?do=detail&id=12809

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