In past years, a public relations practitioner would have a set of media channels that they would control. Nowadays, that’s been expanded from just solely press releasing and clippings to managing the entirety of all media channels that are available. Gone are the days where practitioners needed to work with traditional media, media relations, press clippings, and journalists. Nowadays, PR practitioners are focused on social media, digital media, bloggers, influencers, and mobile markets. No longer do companies have control over what message is distributed and who distributes it.

There is an abundance of resources available to the practitioners that have made their jobs a lot more complex than it used to be. PR practitioners are now more visible and accountable for all that they put out into the market. With that said, it’s also now become more difficult to measure and analyze your PR strategy’s effectiveness. Without PR measurement, companies are unable to learn and improve their strategies to best suit the needs of their customers. They are unable to provide value to their clients, managers, and their board.

Older methods of PR measurement didn’t give companies any aspects to compare, nor did they have any consistency. Thus, it caused a lot of confusion for all the parties and an absence of tangible value. Companies are now having to rebuild their public relation strategies to keep up with the changing markets. In order to do that, they need to go right back to the basics and start building their strategy back from there.

Tips for PR Measurement

1. Monitor and Listen

There are several programs and softwares that allow companies to see what’s said about them in the industry. If companies are able to listen to what their customers are saying about them, they can easily and quickly have a list of improvements that they can make. Monitoring their presence can also tell companies what they’re right in the eyes of their customers.

2. Use Your Website

Chances are that your business has its own website and/or a social media presence. So, what better way to see how your audience interacts with your content, then to analyze your own analytics. Google Analytics has become a top tool for all companies, that have websites, to use.

It allows them to view…

• Their visitor data
• Their audiences’ engagement data
• The outcome data
• And much more.

Facebook Insights have also been a great asset for those companies that have Facebook Pages

3. Align Stakeholders with Company Aspirations

Your company’s PR measurement will only work as well as your company does. If your company has a unified outlook on the future, then it will be a relatively smooth process. Stakeholders should be aligned with the company’s goal, result metrics, and purpose.

Choosing the right measurement methods can be troublesome for businesses. Each company is different, thus making the method of measuring PR different for each of them. So, a one size all fits all approach wouldn’t be quite so effective as a customized PR strategy. The best tip that anyone can give companies, regarding their PR measurement techniques, is to really listen. Companies need to listen to their audiences, their clients, their employees to really gather a sense of understanding of what’s needed to move forward. Eliminate the noise and focus on what your company was created to do.