MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION RESEARCHIN CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Paula NobreAna Raposo
Escola Superior de Comunicação Social19 de Maio 2011
Analyze some methodologies of measurement andevaluation that have recently been proposed specially inacademic and research sets.
PURPOSE
Public Relations = Corporate Communication
↓
Strategic Management Function
Relationship Management between organisation - publics
Research and Evaluation are essential to PR activity
PUBLIC RELATIONS
• Until the end of last century evaluation was not a main concern both for profissionals and academics
• This is not true any more!
• The last 10 years have been proficuous in evaluation on PR metrics
PUBLIC RELATIONS AND EVALUATION
• Importance of Goal Setting and Measurement
• Measuring the Effect on Outcomes is Preferred to Measuring Outputs
• The Effect on Business Results Can and Should Be Measured Where Possible
• Media Measurement Requires Quantity and Quality
• AVEs are not the Value of Public Relations
• Social Media Can and Should be Measured
• Transparency and Replicability are Paramount to Sound Measurement
BARCELONA PRINCIPLES
Program levelIndividual communication programs
Functional level Evaluation of the overall PR function of a organization
Organizacional level The contribution that RP makes to the overall efectiveness
Societal levelEvaluations of the contrubution that organization make to the
overall welfare of a society
PR MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION
Setting Specific Measurable PR Goals and Objectives
• Measuring PR Outputs • Measuring PR Outtakes• Measuring PR Outcomes• Measuring Business and/or Organizational Outcomes
WHAT WE MEASURE
• Measure the economic value of media coverage
• Comparing messages with completly different contents
• Not possible to measure the value of a negative new
• Not possible to measure the value of the non-coverage
• Focus on outpus instead of outcomes
MEDIAL RELATIONS AND AVE
• Measuring only outputs on PR Programs is simplistic and inadequate
• We are not measuring the ability of PR to create value for the organization
WHAT’S BEYOND AVE?
PR makes an organization more effective, when:
• Identifies the most strategic publics as part of strategic management processes
• Conducts communication programs to develop and maintain effective long-term relationships between management and those publics.
RELATIONSHIPS
• Long-term relationships can be measured using six indicators :
– Control Mutuality– Trust– Satisfaction– Commitment– Exchange Relationship– Communal Relationships
HOW TO MEASURE RELATIONSHIPS
• Positive relationships result in strong reputations
REPUTATION
Corporate reputation is a perceptual representation of acompany’s past actions and future prospects thatdescribes the firm’s overall appeal to all of its keyconstituents when compared with other leading rivals.
(Fombrun, 1996, pp.57)
• Reputations can be measured by assessing the degree of Admiration, Trust, Good Feeling and Overall Esteem for companies (Reputation Institute)
• Reputation Quotient –standardized instrument criated in 1998 by Reputation Institute and Harris Interactive to measure perceptions of companies across industries and with multiple stakeholder segments
HOW TO MEASURE REPUTATION
• Online survey to measure the reputation of the world's largest 2,500+ companies in 40 countries
GLOBAL RepTrak – PULSE REPORTS
• The RepTrak™ model not only measures the health of a company's reputation across stakeholders, countries and industries, but also examines which of 7 key driver dimensions most influences the company's reputation:
– Products / Services– Innovation– Workplace– Governance– Citizenship– Leadrship– Performance
GLOBAL RepTrak – PULSE REPORTS
• Other tools to measure specific items that improve reputation process
– Media – Risk – Reputation Manual – Alignment – Workplace – Country
TOOLS
• Are radically altering the marketplace and the nature of stakeholder relationships
• Democratization of content
• Shift in the role people play in the process of reading and disseminating information
• Two way symmetric dialogue – organisation/public
• Interactive nature
SOCIAL MEDIA
• What the cyber media is writing about you and what your constituencies are seeing about you (and your competition)
• What is the size of the impact you are having
• What your constituencies are saying about you
• What your constituencies think about you
• What action, if any, your constituencies are taking
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW IN CYBERSPACE?
• Conversation Index• Conversations or Threads by Keywords• Traffic • Leads or Sales• Calls to Action • Engagement• Autorithy• Education and Participation• Registrations, Membership, and Community
Activity
NEW METRICS FOR PR 2.0
• Google • Radian6 • BuzzLogic• Neilsen BuzzMetrics• Social Networks and microcommunities• Blogpulse Conversation by Neilsen BuzzMetrics • Web & Social Analytics
TOOL EXEMPLES
Identification and evaluation of PR value to society↓
Communication is a key element to overall evaluation of the organisation performance
↓ Sustentability e CSR
- Certification SA 8000- Sustainability Reports (Guidelines GRI)
EVALUATION AT SOCIETAL LEVEL
FINAL CONSIDERATIONS
“Public Relations is about building relationships. In buildingrelationships we maintain connections betweenorganizations and the people they need to deal with inorder to function.
Working relationships which have a continuous dialogueso they can be sustained, observed, nurtured andadapted depending on the impact each party has onthe other.”
Catherine Arrow, in What is Public Relations,www.prconversations.com
Recommended