Friday, December 30, 2005

The heretic and the number cruncher

John Wagner wasn’t too impressed when Katie Paine introduced a new metric she dubbed PR Value Ratio. Wagner, owner and principal of Houston-based Wagner Communications, has posted several subsequent items that elaborate on his position that communication measurement is overrated and will never be a priority. While Wagner finds some measurement valuable, he sums up his dismissal of measurement as a standard PR component on several grounds:

• The tools are no good
• The tools don’t measure the right things
• Clients don’t want to pay for it
• It’s too much work
• Some PR efforts don’t lend themselves to measurement

Wagner summed up his initial salvo with this gem: “When measurement is possible, great. But it will likely always play second fiddle to good old-fashioned intuition.”

Katie responded by suggesting Wagner isn’t the heretic he dubbed himself, but rather a menace and a dinosaur. While Katie echoes the sentiment of a lot of PR pros—measurement is a path to a seat at the management table—Wagner responded:

If public relations professionals are to be credible “at the table,” we have to make sure that the data we provide for our programs can withstand the scrutiny of bottom-line oriented business managers. In my opinion, that’s impossible to do with most measurement tools based on circulation or viewership.

The debate has turned into a he-said she-said exercise (paraphrased below):

He said: The number of eyeballs viewing placed content isn’t adequate because it doesn’t assess whether the communication influenced the target audience.

She said: Well, duh. Have you never heard of opinion research?

He said: Sure, I’ve heard of opinion research. But who’s gonna pay for that?

And so it goes. Ultimately, though, I have to wonder how much investigation Wagner has done into communication research tools. I reported here last month about a tool Procter & Gamble developed to measure the value of its PR efforts, a tool that showed PR generated higher return on investment than other marketing channels in four out of six brands the company’s PR department tested. The instrument, called PREvaluate, “incorporates detailed analysis, including information on cost, scope, audience, geographic markets, and possible synergy with other marketing tactics,” according to Hans Bender, the company’s manager of external relations. A review of Angela Sinickas’ manual on internal communication measurement and Lou Williams’ book on external communication measurement reveals a treasure trove of solid tools. So are the basic PR textbooks, which leads me to my next point:

My biggest objection targets Wagner’s assertion that only some PR efforts lend themselves to measurement. Any PR effort, no matter how large or small, should be based on achieving some kind of outcome. John, are you suggesting that outcomes cannot be measured? Here’s what Cutlip, Center, and Broom write in the widely-used PR 101 textbook, “Effective Public Relations”:

Surely knowledge, outcomes, predisposition changes, and behaviors can be measured. So what excuse justifies not knowing if the action and communication strategies are making progress toward achieving program objectives? What justifies not documenting how the program worked? What justifies not being able to say whether or not the problem has been solved?

The book lists 13 (count ‘em, 13) types of measurement to conduct along three stages of a project:

• Preparation—Adequacy of background information base for designing the program; appropriateness of message and activity content; quality of message and activity presentations
• Implementation—Number of messages delivered to appropriate channels and activities designed; number of messages placed and activities implemented; number who received messages and activities; number who attend to messages and activities
• Impact—Number who learn message content; number who change opinions; number who change attitudes; number who behave as desired; number who repeat behavior; social and cultural change

All of which can be measured; the tools exist. Gut instinct, which Wagner suggests as an appropriate measure, simply won’t cut it in the boardroom. Every other aspect of business—including PR’s cousins in advertising and marketing—is expected to produce measurable results. With attitudes like Wagner’s, it’s no wonder PR gets so little respect! I would point John to a comment posted to this blog in response to an earier item dealing with measurement:

I work at a large R&D driven company and it wasn’t until we started measuring our comms performance (especially internally) that leadership started to take us seriously. Any number of humanistic theories meant little to the leadership, but show them a multivariate analysis and we’re talking! Since then our comms organization has nearly doubled in size, management are aware that they need to do much better in their personal presentations, we are more often on-message, we have better focus on our channel management and finally we can follow long-term trends in the organization.

That’s the power of measurement. As for the notion that clients won’t pay for it, that’s why it needs to be integrated into all programs rather than itemized as an optional service. Perhaps the cost of measurement should be built into hourly billable rates, an assumption that a set percentage of a practitioner’s time will be devoted to assessing the effectiveness of his or her work.

But measure we must. Whether it’s content analysis, opinion surveys, cost avoidance (one of my favorites), eyeballs (if that’s what matters to the client), we need to be able to show that our efforts provide value and we need to be able to show it in a way that’s meaningful to management. Claiming it’s too hard, too expensive, and too much of a challenge to convince clients to undertake measurement are just excuses. Remember what the Holmes Report said about why measurement isn’t happening among the top 100 PR agencies:

In general, (agency) responses suggested that an failure of commitment—rather than the absence of necessary tools and techniques—is behind the industry’s poor (measurement) performance.

Until the industry—including Wagner Communications—makes that commitment, we’ll continue to be viewed as lower-tier, lower-funded alternatives to marketing and advertising.

Pointers (12-30-05)

Chris Anderson over at The Long Tail blog points to a Wired magazine wiki that lists Fortune 500 blogs. Too bad Wired wasn’t aware of The New PR; it would have been no problem to extract the Fortune 500 blogs from Constantin’s lists rather than start from scratch. Who knows? They may have even turned up one or two they didn’t know about. The list doesn’t include anybody using blogs internally, but Jeremy Wright’s list does.

Reuters is offering a free streaming video news utility to anybody who wants to stream Reuters video news from their site. Robin Good has details and the player for your viewing pleasure.

Over at WebProNews, Chris Collison has some good advice for anybody wanting to set up—or improve—an intranet-based employee phone directory.

I’m not the biggest fan of the way some organizations use stock photos. On the other hand, I’ve needed stock photos on plenty of occasions. Trouble is, they’re not cheap. Unless, that is, you go to Totally Photos, where they’re all royalty-free.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

The Hobson & Holtz Report - Podcast #98: December 29, 2005

Content summary: Say goodbye to ‘Intel inside’; Swicki search; businessman wins spam email lawsuit; PR Value Ratio measurement concept; Podzinger out of beta; listeners’ comments discussion; pithy online communications; CEO tagging; PR issues for Alaska Airlines; the music.

Show notes for December 29, 2005

Welcome to For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report, a 60-minute conversation recorded live from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Concord, California, USA.

Download the file here (MP3, 24MB), or sign up for the RSS feed to get it and future shows automatically. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as the free Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

In this Edition:

Intro:

• 00:27 Neville introduces the show, what the show’s about, where to send your comments
• 01:28 Relaxing during the Christmas/Hannuka holiday: blogging, movies and Broadway

News Briefs:

• 04:01 Say goodbye to ‘Intel Inside’ as Intel prepares for a new corporate identity
• 10:09 Shel’s experimenting with Swicki search
• 15:13 Businessman wins first-of-its-kind spam email lawsuit
• 17:20 Katie Paine’s PR Value Ratio communication measurement concept - an effective measure? Shel’s keen but Neville’s cynical (and John Wagner says PR shouldn’t waste its time on measurement)
• 25:34 Search podcasts with Podzinger, now out of beta
• 27:39 A shoutout from Katie Paine (coincidentally)

Listeners’ Comments Discussion:

• 27:52 Tom Raftery enjoys listening to FIR in his car but has one complaint

Features:

• 31:10 Do communications online need to be more pithy?
• 34:33 Tagging into the mind of the CEO - Neville’s keen but Shel’s cynical
• 41:44 Blogging Alaska Airlines’ flight emergency - looks like big PR issues for the airline

Outro:

• 52:44 Shel wraps the show; a week from today is show #100; how and where to send your comments; where to find the show notes
• 55:07 Outro podsafe music via the Podsafe Music Network - Sparkle Star by Bubble

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are now posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute - see the home page for info.

If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at fircomments@gmail.com, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Monday January 2…

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Will iTunes begin charging for podcasts?

A MacWorld UK report suggests that Apple is considering using its iTunes service to charge for some podcasts. Currently, all podcasts through iTunes—and virtually everywhere else except for a few taking advantage of Audible‘s service—are free. But the report suggests that a new company called What I Want Podcasting plans to sell subscriptions to podcasts featuring live performances of artists performing at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival. “In the very near future,” the press release from the company stated, “we are going to offer podcasts for sale on iTunes, which feature clips of the concert this January 26-28.”

Pew out with latest Internet demographics

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released its latest Internet demographic findings today. Men still use the Internet more actively than women, according to the report, but women are catching up. Some of the findings:

• Men still continue to try new technologies first
• Men log on to the Net more frequently, spend more time online, and are more likely to have high-speed access
• Women are more enthuiastic online communicators, using email more as a vehicle for staying in touch with friends and family
• Men are more likely to use email to communicate with companies and other organizations
• Men search for and use more kinds of information online than women do

Despite these differences, the study points out…

Men and women are more similar than different in their online lives, starting with their common appreciation of the internet’s strongest suit: efficiency. Both men and women approach with gusto online transactions that simplify their lives by saving time on such mundane tasks as buying tickets or paying bills. Men and women also value the internet for a second strength, as a gateway to limitless vaults of information.

Next iteration of Outlook will include RSS

Adoption of RSS feeds by those unfamiliar with it should get a boost when Microsoft unveils its latest iteration of Outlook, its email/calendar/contact application that is a staple in most businesses. Outlook 12 will include the built-in ability to monitor feeds. Due out as part of Office 12 in mid-2006, Outlook 12 will include functionality that had to be added using products from third-party vendors such as NewsGator. Further, Exchange users will be able to have their feeds follow them from computer to computer.

Writing in his blog, search.subscribe.share, Outlook product manager Michael Affronti says Outlook will address the complexities of RSS with a simple interface.

Interacting with RSS feeds will be extremely similar to managing your mail items now.  Since we will have RSS live within the mail module we will keep the standard look and feel of folders, hierarchies, and the drag-and-drop support that users have come to depend and rely on.

All of which should mean that a lot of people who have never heard of RSS will start subscribing to feeds, even if they’ve never heard of RSS.

Beer, sports, podcasts

C|Net reports on a survey from Podtrac that shows 78% of those who have ever listened to a podcast are men. That’s consistent with the idea that men are earlier adopters of technology, according to Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac, a company that connects podcasters and advertisers: “With podcasting just over a year old, the current maleness of the podcast audience at the aggregate level is consistent with gender usage trends of the early Web.”

But the shift toward a more balanced mix of listeners is happening faster with podcasting than it has with earlier technologies, the study revealed. Fifty-one percent of those who said they had listened to a podcast in the prior week were women. Other study findings:

• A third of survey respondents knew the term “podcasting”
• A third of those who knew what podcasting is have listened to a podcast
• 40% of those who have ever listened had done so in the week preceding the survey