Measuring PR Success: Still elusive or on the tip of our tongue?
Could not post yesterday, was down in Conshohocken, PA meeting with our client RippleTech. I won’t bore you with more horror stories concerning USAir, but as I was sitting in the airport I did start this post. The main theme of our meeting was something we have all talked about in the past, and something that is changing rapidly due to Social Media…measuring the success of PR.
Rightfully so, we all want the ability to measure the success of PR programs and have used traditional means thus far: coverage, interviews, share of voice, etc. However, and I realize I’m not the first person to say this, I want to see the direct impact PR is having on the business goals.
Measuring PR success directly in terms of sales is difficult, but we can measure it in terms of a few other areas that either lead to or are directly involved with making a sale:
1) SEO Ranking for our list of Keywords
–Obviously this means people are then finding your clients when they are searching, but it also lends a huge does of creditability when a prospect does a search after having heard from a company by some other vehicle. If you are creating awareness for a company, you should be also doing it in a way that aids their SEO.
2) General Web site traffic
–The ability to increase web site traffic, particularly to specific pages should be something that we are measured by. We want to know who came from where, for example did they come directly from a site which had written a story or a blog that had trackbacked to our site, or a news release? If you can then determine the percentage of unique visitors that traveled to the site from a PR-led activity you have a terrific measuring point.
3) Campaign-specific Web site traffic
–Here is where you can really use Social Media to measure results. For a product launch, create a landing page with demos, screen shots, white papers, and more. Put out a SMNR. Measure like above. Let cool for 15 minutes.
4) Leads, Leads, Leads
–Integration into Salesforce.com is a great way to measure actual leads created through PR activities. They could be a registration page as part of the landing site we discussed above or a specific campaign that leads people to the product itself. Being able to track those leads directly from campaigns is invaluable.
5) Community Prowess Index
–OK, this one isn’t fully baked, but it is something I’ve been thinking about since we discussed Todd And’s Power 150. Can we create a formula that could measure a company’s overall impact within social media…a reflection of how well they have built and are received within a community. Technorati ranking + blog subscribers + SEO ranking + ???.
